Well, I had planned to write a few more blogs this weeks. I have a lot of random thoughts regarding food, eating right, being healthy, exercising and so forth. But, Matt's iTunes went down this week and he was spending a lot of time on the computer trying to fix it. Also, the time I would normally have during the day to blog is now being spent exercising with y sister-in-law. I'm still trying a adjust my schedule to exercising at a different time of day. It's working well, I just haven't rearranged my schedule to fit all the other stuff in elsewhere. It's one of my eternal struggles.
So, back to the program. I step on the scale tomorrow to see how week 2 went. The good news is that I lost 2 pounds during week 1. The bad news is that it was the same 2 pounds that I gained the week before I started this program trying to rid my kitchen of Christmas treats... by eating them. Hopefully this week I will drop below my Christmas treat binge weight. The other good news is that I feel good about what I am doing, and whether I'm imagining it because I feel like I'm accomplishing something, or it's real, my pants seem to be fitting looser. Yay! I really think that when I eat a lot of sugary foods and white breads it just makes me pudgier. When I eat more nutrient dense foods, I am more slim. No matter what my weight is.
This week we focused on eating mindfully. It's something that I need to work on. A lot of times I eat because it's time to eat and we need to get our meal done to get all the other things done we need to. I especially eat this way with treats. I sit in front of the TV and munch without paying attention to what I'm eating or how it tastes. I think some of my dissatisfaction with food could be solved if I ate more mindfully and actually tasted my food. Then I would enjoy it more and realize that I have eaten so I don't feel like I need a treat 10 minutes after dinner ends. I've also been paying attention to how full I am. And, realizing that I don't feel good when I stuff myself. So, if I am pleasantly full after I eat, to pay attention to that and not put more into my body that I won't really enjoy.
I realized that if I eat well-balanced meals, I can regulate my hunger more easily. If I'm snacking or eating small meals, it takes a lot more thought and planning to make sure I get enough of the right foods. I've noticed it's really easy to snack on a grain or protein, or fruit. Most of my snacks fit into the same area. Vegetables are definitely my hardest thing to get extras of.
One thing I worked on this week is trying to work in neutral foods and snacks. I know that I will go through times when I just want to eat to eat something, or want a snack. So, to think of a life without snacks or treats, is hard for me imagine. I know that to make this a lifestyle change, I will have to get over the thoughts that, "When I'm done with this program I can do that again...". So, I need to figure out how to have an occasional treat or to eat because I feel like it. This week I have tried to allow myself to do that. With the stipulation that I first choose healthy foods, then neutral foods. I try to tune into what my body really wants so that when I finish eating, I feel satisfied. I think it has gone well. I learned that I don't have to have a treat and I can still be satisfied.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Challenge: Week 1
On this program, I don't have to count calories, which I love. I have a list of foods to enjoy, neutral foods and foods to limit. I like that I'm not told that things are good and bad. I need to eat a certain amount of foods from the foods to enjoy category each day. I earn points for eating these foods. I can eat foods from the foods to limit list if I want, but they are minus points. I can eat foods from the neutral foods list, they don't earn me points or loose me points. I also have to drink enough water. I have free calories each day. I can use those to indulge in treats without loosing points. I can save them up or use them each day.
I also gets points for the physical activity I do. The longer I exercise, the more points I get.
That's pretty much what you would expect out of a weight loss program. Diet and Exercise.
Then, there is the Live category. For this, I have to get enough sleep each night, Spend some time in meditation or prayer each day, read inspiring words, do an act of kindness, and keep a gratitude journal. Then, there are focus activities each week that help us learn about ourselves and our eating habits, to be more mindful and thankful as we eat and to encourage us to find ways to live life by being active.
I really like this aspect of the program. It takes some of the focus off of food and eating the right or wrong things. Sometimes I think that my biggest problem is that I obsess too much about food. Then, if I eat something I have termed as bad for me, I just feel bad about myself. When I'm not just obsessing about food, but focusing on others and positives in my life, it helps me stay positive and carry on with more hope of success.
Last time I did this program, I remember feeling really good. I felt like I had more energy and was more productive. This made me happy. And, bonus, I lost weight!
I have finished my first week of this challenge. Right now, it doesn't feel too challenging. Earlier this week, I felt differently. I really didn't feel like doing this. It felt too hard to ignore all the treats still in the kitchen from Christmas, and it was just seeming like something that would take more energy than I could muster. But, points can be motivating to me. So, I took to eating just foods to enjoy. It's not so bad. I try really hard to listen to my body and give it things that sound really good. I've started to realize that when I eat things that don't satisfy me, I keep eating to try to find something satisfying. Usually those items would fall into the foods to limit category. But, I have gotten into bad habits of eating when I'm not hungry. I will eat out of habit, boredom or to avoid doing housework. But, at any of those times, I'm not reaching for healthy foods. That's my biggest problem. The first couple of days it was hard not to eat, when habit told me I should be eating something. And there were a couple of times early on, when I thought maybe I would just give up, because I didn't know if I was strong enough to keep this up for 6 weeks. But, sometimes I listened to my body and didn't eat because I knew I wasn't hungry. Sometimes I comprised and gave in and ate something, but made sure that it was from the food to enjoy category. So, at least I was trying to make healthier choices. But, on Friday, I realized that I didn't do any snacking. And, I didn't even think about it. I felt good when I realized that I didn't have to fight all day to try not to snack on junk food.
I really want to loose a little (or a lot) of weight through this challenge. Last time I did this challenge, it took me a while before I realized that I could eat foods from the neutral category. So, I only ate foods from the foods to enjoy category. This time, I was scared to eat foods from the neutral category. I felt that if I slid into that category to find things that would satisfy my cravings, that I would keep eating things from that category. Then, I would have a little stock of treats that aren't really treats that I could turn to when I just want to eat. I felt like if I took that step now, I would continue to eat the way I have in the past and I wouldn't loose weight. I also worried about the weekend. We usually make some treats to enjoy on Sunday evening. So, I have saved my free calories all week, so that I could indulge with my family. But, I worried that if I ate all those calories and dipped into the neutral category on the weekend, that I would undo all that I worked on during the week. I was starting to worry that when I got on the scale on Monday morning, I wouldn't see results. I'm feeling a little more confident now, and I've pinpointed some of the things that cause me to obsess about food, and what bad habits I've had, and some of the things I need to watch out for, if I want to really adopt more healthy habits.
My struggle will be to remember that I want to make lifestyle changes. I still find myself saying, "in 6 weeks I'll be able to...". But, I want to end this cycle, so I don't want to start over in 6 weeks. I'm trying to change my thinking so that I will continue doing this even after this challenge is over. And, learn how to deal with special occasions or treats without it breaking all of the good habits I've created.
I also gets points for the physical activity I do. The longer I exercise, the more points I get.
That's pretty much what you would expect out of a weight loss program. Diet and Exercise.
Then, there is the Live category. For this, I have to get enough sleep each night, Spend some time in meditation or prayer each day, read inspiring words, do an act of kindness, and keep a gratitude journal. Then, there are focus activities each week that help us learn about ourselves and our eating habits, to be more mindful and thankful as we eat and to encourage us to find ways to live life by being active.
I really like this aspect of the program. It takes some of the focus off of food and eating the right or wrong things. Sometimes I think that my biggest problem is that I obsess too much about food. Then, if I eat something I have termed as bad for me, I just feel bad about myself. When I'm not just obsessing about food, but focusing on others and positives in my life, it helps me stay positive and carry on with more hope of success.
Last time I did this program, I remember feeling really good. I felt like I had more energy and was more productive. This made me happy. And, bonus, I lost weight!
I have finished my first week of this challenge. Right now, it doesn't feel too challenging. Earlier this week, I felt differently. I really didn't feel like doing this. It felt too hard to ignore all the treats still in the kitchen from Christmas, and it was just seeming like something that would take more energy than I could muster. But, points can be motivating to me. So, I took to eating just foods to enjoy. It's not so bad. I try really hard to listen to my body and give it things that sound really good. I've started to realize that when I eat things that don't satisfy me, I keep eating to try to find something satisfying. Usually those items would fall into the foods to limit category. But, I have gotten into bad habits of eating when I'm not hungry. I will eat out of habit, boredom or to avoid doing housework. But, at any of those times, I'm not reaching for healthy foods. That's my biggest problem. The first couple of days it was hard not to eat, when habit told me I should be eating something. And there were a couple of times early on, when I thought maybe I would just give up, because I didn't know if I was strong enough to keep this up for 6 weeks. But, sometimes I listened to my body and didn't eat because I knew I wasn't hungry. Sometimes I comprised and gave in and ate something, but made sure that it was from the food to enjoy category. So, at least I was trying to make healthier choices. But, on Friday, I realized that I didn't do any snacking. And, I didn't even think about it. I felt good when I realized that I didn't have to fight all day to try not to snack on junk food.
I really want to loose a little (or a lot) of weight through this challenge. Last time I did this challenge, it took me a while before I realized that I could eat foods from the neutral category. So, I only ate foods from the foods to enjoy category. This time, I was scared to eat foods from the neutral category. I felt that if I slid into that category to find things that would satisfy my cravings, that I would keep eating things from that category. Then, I would have a little stock of treats that aren't really treats that I could turn to when I just want to eat. I felt like if I took that step now, I would continue to eat the way I have in the past and I wouldn't loose weight. I also worried about the weekend. We usually make some treats to enjoy on Sunday evening. So, I have saved my free calories all week, so that I could indulge with my family. But, I worried that if I ate all those calories and dipped into the neutral category on the weekend, that I would undo all that I worked on during the week. I was starting to worry that when I got on the scale on Monday morning, I wouldn't see results. I'm feeling a little more confident now, and I've pinpointed some of the things that cause me to obsess about food, and what bad habits I've had, and some of the things I need to watch out for, if I want to really adopt more healthy habits.
My struggle will be to remember that I want to make lifestyle changes. I still find myself saying, "in 6 weeks I'll be able to...". But, I want to end this cycle, so I don't want to start over in 6 weeks. I'm trying to change my thinking so that I will continue doing this even after this challenge is over. And, learn how to deal with special occasions or treats without it breaking all of the good habits I've created.
Eat 2 Liv Challenge
So, I've been unhappy with myself lately. I spend time telling myself that I want to be healthy and live an active lifestyle, but then I don't quite live up to it. Then I get into this horrible cycle, where I try to be perfect, but then I have a hard time, then I eat to try to make myself feel better, then I feel bad about failing and I eat more and so on and so forth. I keep saying we need to make changes, but when it comes down to it, I feel too tired or busy or whatever to actually make those changes happen for very long. Then, my cycle starts again.
So, when I had the opportunity to join the eat 2 liv challenge I decided that it might give me the motivation I needed to make some positive changes.
I have an awesome friend that had helped me loose weight before. We seem to have a lot of the same struggles. I had heard her talk about a program she did that focused on health, body and mind. From what I heard about it, it sounded like a good idea and a well rounded approach to weight loss, without focusing and obsessing just on weight loss. A little over a year ago, I got an email from her. She told me how a friend of hers, who is a dietician, was starting a weigh loss program and wondered if I wanted to join the pilot program. I felt like could loose some weight and wanted to try to make some healthier habits, so I joined up. (Hey, I already told you, I cycle. Yeah I've done this before. I'm just trying to not to have to do it again.)
Well, I liked the program, and success. And it was easy and didn't take a lot of thought. So, while I was trying to break my cycle this time, and having a really hard time doing it, I got an email from eat 2 liv saying they were starting up a new round. I really wasn't motivated to put forth the energy I needed to make big changes. So, I joined. (It's amazing how much motivation I can get from a friendly little challenge.)
I decided that I would try to blog about my experience on the program. For myself. As I've tried to figure out how to truly be healthy, I've had a lot of different thoughts about what healthy is, why it's so hard sometimes, what gets in our way and how to figure out which of all the health tips you hear are accurate. I figure, maybe if I blog about it, and get the thoughts out of my head I can make better sense of them. Also, I want to be more honest with myself. Maybe in my wonderings I can find out what I'm being honest about and what I'm trying to cover up. If anyone else ends up reading this, maybe they will figure out that they're not the only ones that struggle with this. And, If anyone does struggle with the same things as me, you can look into this program. I believe in it. I really don't think it's that hard. And I love that it isn't just about food and loosing weight. The motto of the the program is "Eat with attention and thankfulness, Live with intention and vitality". It sounds like just what I would like out of life. And it makes it not just about food.
So, we'll see what happens.
So, when I had the opportunity to join the eat 2 liv challenge I decided that it might give me the motivation I needed to make some positive changes.
I have an awesome friend that had helped me loose weight before. We seem to have a lot of the same struggles. I had heard her talk about a program she did that focused on health, body and mind. From what I heard about it, it sounded like a good idea and a well rounded approach to weight loss, without focusing and obsessing just on weight loss. A little over a year ago, I got an email from her. She told me how a friend of hers, who is a dietician, was starting a weigh loss program and wondered if I wanted to join the pilot program. I felt like could loose some weight and wanted to try to make some healthier habits, so I joined up. (Hey, I already told you, I cycle. Yeah I've done this before. I'm just trying to not to have to do it again.)
Well, I liked the program, and success. And it was easy and didn't take a lot of thought. So, while I was trying to break my cycle this time, and having a really hard time doing it, I got an email from eat 2 liv saying they were starting up a new round. I really wasn't motivated to put forth the energy I needed to make big changes. So, I joined. (It's amazing how much motivation I can get from a friendly little challenge.)
I decided that I would try to blog about my experience on the program. For myself. As I've tried to figure out how to truly be healthy, I've had a lot of different thoughts about what healthy is, why it's so hard sometimes, what gets in our way and how to figure out which of all the health tips you hear are accurate. I figure, maybe if I blog about it, and get the thoughts out of my head I can make better sense of them. Also, I want to be more honest with myself. Maybe in my wonderings I can find out what I'm being honest about and what I'm trying to cover up. If anyone else ends up reading this, maybe they will figure out that they're not the only ones that struggle with this. And, If anyone does struggle with the same things as me, you can look into this program. I believe in it. I really don't think it's that hard. And I love that it isn't just about food and loosing weight. The motto of the the program is "Eat with attention and thankfulness, Live with intention and vitality". It sounds like just what I would like out of life. And it makes it not just about food.
So, we'll see what happens.
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