As a self-proclaimed foodie on a budget, trying to lose weight & make healthier lifestyle choices, I started this blog to help keep myself accountable. I am also a psychologist who personally understands some of the challenges of changing behavior. I hope you find this site informative, motivating, &/or at least entertaining. This blog is for personal use & is not intended to substitute any professional medical, psychiatric or psychological advice. Thanks for reading & sharing!
This was the beautiful sunrise scene out my front door this morning!
The morning sky makes me think about how beautiful the day is. Any day that we wake up and experience the gift of life, we need to be grateful! Think about it,... We have a chance to make a difference today. Despite our lives to this point, today we have options. We can make choices to honor the gift we have, and honor our bodies. Today we can make the choice to do something good for ourselves, such as deciding to nourish our bodies by the food we eat, rather than abuse food. We can make choices to limit the processed junk that we take in. We don't have to enjoy the choices in the moment, but we can start making decisions to change the way we think about our options. We can start to embrace a healthier lifestyle (and yes, actually start to enjoy it, in fact crave it, especially when we begin to see positive changes in our bodies).
Today is a new day! Embrace it! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Don't forget to join this site! Click on the "Join This Site" link on the right hand side, under the heading "Followers".
This is one of my favorite youtube videos. You really have to watch the entire song to experience the goose bumps!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Here's a few Irish quotes to start the day:
"I often take exercise. Only yesterday I had breakfast in bed." (Oscar Wilde)
"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine; something Brussels Sprouts never do."(P. J. O'Rourke).
"Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much." (Oscar Wilde)
"I can resist anything but temptation." (Oscar Wilde)
I've had a busy week but a good one. Being too busy can sometimes equate to stress, so I was careful to find time to unwind and destress. I was out of town on business for two days and paid very little attention to following my healthy goals. Sigh,... I guess, in the words of Oscar Wilde, "the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it". All things are good in moderation, I am told. In general, however, I had a fairly good week. Having an exercise friend has helped me be a little more consistent with my workouts. Yesterday I went to the roller rink with several friends. I didn't think my 40-something year old body would be up for it, but it was a great workout, a lot of fun, and surprisingly, I didn't fall once! (I came close a few times.) There were a few people in our group who didn't know how to skate very well and others who were quite seasoned skaters. Regardless, everyone put forth good effort and worked up a sweat. Everyone's skating abilities improved before the end of the night. I did learn that I will probably never play Red Light/Green Light with elementary-aged children on skates ever again. (How do those little tikes move so fast on wheels?)
I was reading some articles about managing stress through food and other techniques. People who are conscientious about health and dieting sometimes get in a habit of punishing themselves emotionally for resorting to food as a source of comfort or relief from stress. Again, the word moderation comes to mind. Finding balance is so important. We cannot stop living, after all. We need to find time to savor & enjoy life. The following quotes sum it up nicely: "The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind." (G.K. Chesterton) "There's lots of people in this world who spend so much time watching their health that they haven't the time to enjoy it." (Josh Billings)
Green Mountain at Fox on the Run published the following stress management strategies:
Use food. While this isn't the best strategy for managing stress, we've listed it first because it's the one thing that weight-struggling women use often, yet believe they shouldn't use at all! But denying ourselves comfort food when we really want it can be just as stressful as the stress we're trying to manage in the first place. The key is to make sure it's not our only tool for managing stress - using food too often also adds the unwanted stress of weight gain. If you're out of balance in this regard, expand your stress 'toolbox' with strategies such as those below. For more about using food, read Stress and Eating.
Get active. Physical activity immediately makes us feel better and more energetic. But part of our stress is that we're already short on time and long on things to do. But are we really too busy to take a walk? Generally, saying we're too busy indicates resistance to the idea of physical activity in the first place.
Why do we resist such a feel-good strategy? Often because we're doing it to burn calories, believing we have to hit target heart rates and walk a certain length of time for it to really 'count.' But that attitude again creates more stress than the physical activity resolves.
Think instead of moving for pleasure. What's more relaxing than pleasure...walking on a sunny day, enjoying the sweet smell of spring, what a delight! If you can manage 30 minutes, or just 10 minutes here and there, whether you walk with a friend or alone in a beautiful scenic area -- it all counts!
Other fun ideas:
Dance. Put on a favorite CD and dance around the house, or join a ballroom,
jazz, tap, salsa, country line dance class!
Join a women-only fitness club. [Of course, this does not include the guys, lol.. Sorry.] Extra motivation: Join with a friend.
Grow tomatoes or flowers. Gardening works like a charm at relieving tension.
Pamper yourself-and give up the guilt. You deserve it!
Glory in a bubble bath.
Relax to calming music.
Bury yourself in a good book--or at least a chapter or two.
Time for me to get off the computer and enjoy the rest of the day! Hope you do the same!
Erin go Braugh!
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Did you remember to set your clocks ahead? Nobody likes losing an hour of sleep. The good news, hopefully for me, is that it will be lighter out when I leave work tonight. Hopefully the same goes for you!
So my weekend went well. It was busy, but I managed to get in a good workout at the gym with a friend. I found that by having a "buddy" to work out with, I am less likely to find an excuse to delay going to the gym. It helps to motivate each other! Went to a dance on Saturday. That was a fun way to burn calories. And let me tell you, I was sweating buckets by the time the dance was over! Tonight I meet with my trainer after work.
My time on the computer is short this morning. With that being said, I want to start the day with a message I received from Green Mountain: "You can't hate your body to a healthy weight." "You must establish a loving relationship with your body and yourself." We need to start feeling good about ourselves now. Not when we reach a certain weight. More on that at another time!
Have a wonderful spring day!
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"Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues"
(Shakespeare, Love's Labours Lost, 1588).
Beauty comes in all forms, shapes, and sizes. Corny, huh? But it's so true. I watched a segment on Dr. Oz the other day about anorexia and how some young women try so desperately hard to fit the unrealistic beauty "mold" personified in the media. Their bodies transformed into frail, unhealthy looking skeletons. It's a sad situation. They are dying trying to be like somebody else. If only these young ladies (and men) could have embraced the differences they embodied and learned to love who they are. Personalities and those little idiosyncrasies are what makes us unique and beautiful. So embrace those freckles, or gap between the teeth, or quirky smile; embrace that unique body shape and bone structure; embrace everything about you that makes you who you are. You are, beautiful. But if you don't recognize it, how are others going to?
I worked out for an hour yesterday; 30 minutes of which was with my trainer. Okay, he's not so bad after all. I am getting used to his style. He really pushes me. At the same time, he listens to me if I am starting to feel too much strain. I am always a little worried working my back, as I have had a slipped disk in the past and don't want to re-injure it and be out of commission for a while. My trainer reminded me, as has my doctor, that I still need to work on the back. I can't be so fearful that I neglect it. Those muscles need to be strengthened so that it helps prevent further injury. So I'm going about it with a different mindset.
Okay, time to head to work. Have a great Thursday!
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