Medicine Wheel Health -Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Emotional

Hi there!

I like how positive you continue to be despite the obstacles that you experienced. I wish when something like that happened to me, it doesn't take me WEEKS to get back on track. Will definitely be stopping by here to check your progress!
 
First day actually meeting a food goal.

Today was rough, but I made it.
I actually managed to keep my calories to 1500 but it was a serious battle. I had to eat all day and popcorn was the only thing that saved me from bingeing because it made me bloated so I felt like I was almost full. Let me tell you, it is HARD to eat less than 2000 a day. My average is usually between 2100-3000 calories a day.
I am keeping track of my food on FitDay, but just so's people have an idea, I'll write a typical day versus today.

Typical Day
Granola with a Pear sliced in it swimming in soy milk
A smoothie made of fruit and ice (papaya, strawberries, bananas, grapes)
Ham sandwich, on whole wheat, with mayo, mustard, tomato, lettuce and avocado
An apple
Bagel and cream cheese
Yogurt and berries
Peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole wheat.
Sliced veggies and dip
A couple beer


Today
One whole green pepper
A quarter of the granola I usually eat, double the strawberries, and soy milk
A clear beef stock soup with barley, celery, green onion, broccoli, corn, and mushrooms (I ate like 6 cups of this stuff)
A thinly sliced whole wheat ham sandwich with mustard, and half an avocado. No mayo - out of tomatoes :(
One slice of bread with thinly spread peanut butter and jam
5 cups of air-popped popcorn
An apple

I also went for a short bike ride today. Good news is that it's easy on my ankle. Bad news is that I showed up somewhere I don't have to be until tomorrow. Duhhh. I'll be doing the rinse and repeat.

It was hard, but I hope I will adjust to eating this little. I don't see how I'm going to lose weight if I don't cut the calories though, and according to my BMR, all I need is 1425 or something to maintain. So by picking 1500 as my max, I should technically be gaining weight unless I am getting exercise, which I am still sucking at doing.

I meditated today, and attempted some social relations, which I generally don't when I am not at school or work, so that was out of my box. Yay for me.

Here's hoping tomorrow is successful too.
 
Great effort meeting your calorie goal today :)

if you try to include some lean protein in your diet it will help you stay full for longer.
 
Amazing job with sticking to your calorie goal! I'm curious about meditation though. How do you do it? Do you just sit with your eyes closed and work on breathing techniques? Just thought it might be useful for relaxing in between my study time! =)
 
Well, had an interesting couple days. Did tonnes of walking yesterday, and hardly ate anything, then went to my cousin's for home-cooked Indian food. I have no idea what the calories are, but I had dahl, chappati's, chicken, yogurt, and aloo gobi. Yummmmmm. :drooling:
And I had about 10 drinks over the course of the night, up til 5 am and I danced WAY past the break of dawn. :party:
So even though I overdid the calories, I think the exercise mighta cancelled at least some of it out.

Then today I woke up at 10 for a rehearsal. (Why did I schedule a morning rehearsal when I knew I was going to be up late the night before!?!?):nopity: I scarfed down two ginormous PB and banana sandwiches, and then ate nothing till tonight when I cooked a gigantic trout in the oven and made potato/dill/cucumber salad, delicious, and shared everything with my friend before we went to the Canada Day fireworks.

All in all, a rough day because of the stupid hangover. I hate that after a few drinks I just forget that I don't need any more alcohol. I am social enough without it. I think I'll try setting myself a limit pre-drinking and stick pretty close to it.
But I feel good now, just in time for bed. ;)
Tomorrow is another day.

Zephyr, I think if you want to meditate, the easiest way to start is to get a relaxation tape at Chapters or something. Of course, there's lots of books and stuff about meditation, but it can be dry reading. What I do is get comfy, whether I am lying down or sitting up, and start by focusing on my breath going in and out. Whenever my mind wanders, I just bring it back to that. Sometimes I just do that the whole time. Other times, I imagine a wheel, like a ferris wheel just slowly spinning and I watch one point on it go around and around and around... More often than not, I go to sleep after meditating. When my mind is racing at night, I meditate and it always puts me to sleep. Or do progressive relaxation while you are lying there in bed - focus your attention on one part of your body at a time, trying to feel how it feels, and then relax it. I usually go from my forehead to my neck, then arms, stomach, legs, toes, etc. Other people like to start at the toes. For me though, I scrunch my face up when I am thinking so I feel awesome when I just start by getting the wrinkles out of my forehead! Hope this helps...
 
Off the wagon...

The last couple/three days have not been good food or exercise wise for me. Nor did I record it, so I have no hard evidence of how bad I was. All I did that was good was not drink alcohol.
I think I accidentally went on a date too? One of those things. I thought we were just hanging out going to a concert, and we met up with another friend and hung out, but then at the end, the vibe got all funny and awkward when we were by ourselves again.

At any rate, the concert was awesome. Kenny Werner, one of the best jazz pianist's in the world, and the best I've ever heard live, for sure! It's inspiring. One of those concerts where you just want to go straight home and practice.

Okay, to the point.
I went for a walk the day after I last posted, which was good. But I ate crap all day, lots of PB and banana sandwiches, and potato salad and trout.
The concert day, I ate a couple more PB&B's and then had a freak out and had four pieces of toast and butter and honey. Spread THICK. It was a mini binge. Then after the concert I ate a BLT with cheese and some fries. Then came home and had late-night cottage cheese and banana.

Then yesterday, I was trying to be good, but failed miserably again. Started with a monster serving of granola and soy milk. I was STARVING when I woke up, I don't know why. I think because I ate too much the previous day. Luckily, my friend called long distance, which forced me to stop eating while I talked to her, and then I just snacked on some cherries til I went to a BBQ. At the BBQ, I had two hot dogs on white buns (I hate white bread, btw. It tastes awful.) Potato salad, a crepe with cream and strawberries, some stirfried veggies, a chicken kebab, and some coleslaw. Along with two big glasses of gingerale mixed with apple juice, stuff I normally never drink. Water or alcohol, that's me!

Oy. That was a painful confession for me.
Now tonight I have a wedding. So I'll again be eating god-knows-what, and having a couple drinks most likely, although I am the pianist, so I have to stay mostly sober! (thank goodness for my diet ;) ) I am not hungry at all this morning, but I will make a lunch for myself before I get hungry and stick to it when the time comes. No cheating.
And I'll walk to the church. There. Exercise built in.

Fingers crossed today. Not much hope that I'll be good, but you never know.
 
Hello kaiser,

Well just try to be mindful of eating well. You don't have to do EVERYTHING all at once, that is discouraging. Maybe try to weigh out your options.

When I first started to change what I ate....if I'd go out to Wendy's it was a salad, and pop. Or a hamburger, and Milk.

Hope you have a great time at the Wedding!! A pianist, pretty cool! :D

Lata
 
Thanks, RunningGirl. You're right. It is not good to be too perfectionist right off the bat. I'll try and cool it a bit on the negativity for blips.
 
What is UP with me?!?! ;)

I am just crashing and burning this week. I have no conscious idea why, and I am feeling bad for not making any progress. I think I am going backwards, honestly. I've been bingeing at night and skipping the fruits and veggies mostly. I do think part of it had to do with having a week's holiday where my schedule was mostly night owl.
Starting this morning though, I now work at 530am every day, so there should be less opportunity for late night snacking because I'll be asleep! And I am riding my bike to work all over the city, so there is some built-in exercise that I am hoping will motivate me to do some more.
My biggest problem is bread. I think I will allow myself 2 slices a day, and then the rest of the time I'll have to find something else.
Today so far, had coffee, two eggs, two pieces of toast and marg, and a tomato with pepper. (I love tomatoes!):drool5:

I've received lots of good advice here in the forum about how to get back on track. I guess I'll start trying to take some of it!
 
So, I have finally had a couple of good days, relatively. Still low on fruit and veg, but at least I haven't binged in two days, and I'm drinking lots of water.
You know what my secret is these last two days?
The piano.

I've been practicing as I've rarely practiced before, even though it was my life for 28 years. I think that the fact that I don't have to do it anymore, after a year of not playing at all is inspiring because I don't have to play for anyone. I am loving just playing for myself and working on technique that I never properly learned because I was too stressed about learning repertoire. Now I am practicing whatever I want, and I have extreme concentration, which feels like a form of meditation. I think it is, honestly. It is mindfulness.

And when I am practicing, all I want is to drink water. It makes me really thirsty. And I don't want my stomach or brain to feel heavy because it impedes my progress, so I am not bingeing. And I am in a generally better headspace because I feel like my life is meaningful at the moment. It is much easier to eat better because life is fun!
 
I EXERCISED!

It has been awhile. My bum ankle became a bum excuse, but now it is pretty much okay, so I have no excuse anymore.
I did a killer Jillian Michaels workout, you know, the trainer from The Biggest Loser? I didn't even finish it. 30 minutes finished me. I thought I was going to fall over. But I know that this will give me the motivation to do it again. Tomorrow here I come.

AND
I cooked a real dinner. I am not one for cooking for myself. It just doesn't feel fun to cook something I will eat alone. I want to torture others with my cooking ;)
But I made a mushroom/onion/carrot/shrimp/noodle soup and it was delicious and nutritious. Score one for me.

Today is a success, unqualified!
 
those binges sure are a bitch. and why on earth does alcohol have so many calories? lol. props to you for getting back at it though. sometimes it's tough to recover.
 
Thanks Y-chick,
I didn't really recover, but I like that you think I did.
Yesterday I went nuts again and had 3 beer and pizza...
Duh.
One day on. One day off.
Hopefully today is on again lol
 
Small Steps

I am having philosophical thoughts about my impulsivity. I saw this video on TED.com (An awesome site to see very good and short talks about multiple subjects from leading authorities/researchers/performers, etc.)


It's about how you focus on life oriented in the past, the present, or the future, and how it affects you and your impulsivity. The guy recommends getting a balance of the three time perspectives or at the very least examining which one you think you live the most in.

I live nearly always in the present. Which means I am hedonistic and very impulsive. I do whatever I feel like doing at the moment. Which is NOT a very effective way to lose weight because I don't stick to the things that I know will help me. I just do what I feel like.

I'm going to try to examine my impulses more often and think whether they'll hurt me in the future, not just do what I want to do now, like eat a dozen donuts or stop for a couple beer after work...


Today was mostly on.
I ate a healthy, protein filled breakfast, which held me til 3pm when I had a chicken and veggie wrap. For supper I had a PB &Banana sandwich and some shrimp/veggie soup.
So food wise, fine, although I did eat past 7pm. I finished dinner at 830pm.

No exercise except for running around helping seniors get ready for the day for 4 hours this morning. I am pretty sure it counts for something, but it is impossible to quantify exactly how much exercise it is. I run up and down 3 flights of stairs for those four hours and squat to bathe, dress, make beds etcetera multiple times. But I just don't know how much real exercise it is.

I came home from work after going straight from 0530 to 1500 and took a nap. I know I should have exercised, but these 530 mornings are taking a toll.

Good thing though, I'm going hiking this weekend in Waterton. I'm going to do Crypt Lake with my mum and stepdad. I think it's about 9 km each way.

Yay weekend!
 
Hello Kaiser,

Are you originally from AB?

Your Shrimp & Veggie Soup sounds delish! :)

I would definitely say playing & practicing at the Piano is a great form of meditation & being Mindful. ;)

I find doing some sort of craft, or coloring to be very mindful. Calms me down, helps me do one thing in the moment.

I hope you're well. TTYL
 
Prodigal Return?

I guess I've really only been absent a few days. It feels longer.

I went hiking in Waterton over the weekend. It was BEAUTIFUL! We saw a bear far below us, fishing in the creek.

I have not kept up with good eating habits at all. And I only feel like posting when I am good, so that is why I am here again. I suppose I should try to be more consistent. Anyways, last two days were good, week before that was sh$#.

However, got a new iPod, so the tunes are helping motivate me to walk and get out. I went for two walks yesterday, and I am heading out for another one after this post.

I think I might be on the verge of dating someone. I have no desire to date in general, but I have to admit I find this guy very interesting. I think if he makes a move on me, I'll have 'the conversation' that I am not looking for a relationship right now, just friends. Is that too cliché? I just want to be upfront before I get into trouble. Normally I get into trouble first, so I'm trying to switch it up, lol.

Anyways, this state of not dating/hanging out with the guy as a friend is still making me not want to be fat around him. Which is what has motivated me the last couple days to get off my butt again. I know that I should be trying to be healthy for myself, but right now I'll take whatever motivation I can get.

RunningGirl, Yup, I'm from AB. I used to live in Lethbridge, then I moved to Edmonton for school. I see you're from Calgary. Have you always been there?
I like your colouring idea. I wouldn't have thought of it, but it is the same thing isn't it, mindfulness/mindlessness to calm yourself. I'm still practicing, and I'm getting better too, so that at least is moving in the right direction!

Ciao for niao, all.
Rachel
 
GREAT JOB!!! You Go Girl!!!!!!

I bet that felt awesome!?!?


Well I wouldn't really peg any mindfulness activity as being mindless....it's actually quite the opposite. Being mindful is about slowing things down, and focusing on one thing in the moment. Whether it be your breathing, or how something is perceived, or taking the time to do a thorough job with something. Such as staying in the lines, and making certain strokes whilst coloring. :) Or concentrating on your breath whilst meditating, bringing your mind back to square one.

I am a born and raised Calgarian. I've lived all over Calgary, I moved to Vancouver Island when I was 18, only for a few months though. I'd like to move to either Cali, or Spain, or some other place, but always come back to Calgary. I love it here, it's so beautiful! :)
 
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