Monthly Archives: December 2010

photo © 2010 Calgary Review | more info (via: Wylio)

Being healthy has been a goal of mine as long as I can remember … but too often, that desire has been buried under not-enough-willpower and too many sweets.

My parents owned a grocery store, so all food was free and limitless. We had fairly strict rules about how much junk food we could have when I was young. But when I worked at the store as a teen, I made my own choices.

Of course, I didn’t gravitate to the carrots or apples (unless they were covered in caramel) I went for the candy, soda, cookies, ice cream and even cigarettes. (sorry mom) Though I tried cigarettes (how could I not, when I didn’t have to pay for them?) I never liked them, so I haven’t had that habit to break.

Thankfully I’ve always been active, so I didn’t balloon as much as I could have, but I fed and grew an aggressive sweet tooth. I’ve been trying to kill that monster every since!

I’ve never been obese, but most of the time, I’ve had about 10 to 15 lbs I wanted to lose. After the accident, with all my meds and puking, I lost about 20 lbs (gives a new meaning to the term crash diet) and I thought I would never regain it.

Yea right ... especially when I tried to solve my post-accident depression with food.

After dealing with my depression (counseling and outdoor exercise worked for me) the extra weight didn’t magically disappear, so for the past few years, I’ve been losing and regaining the same 10 lbs to try and stay at the healthiest weight  for my body. I’ve tried to live by the advice the kind hospital dietitian in California gave me when she visited my room (almost daily) to encourage me to eat more. She often said that what I eat will determine how well I heal.

Duh … it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if food affects my body when it’s injured … food affects my body everyday.

Thankfully over the past few years, I’ve finally tamed my  monstrous sweet tooth (yes!) I rarely eat things that are loaded with sugar (in any form) and if I do (which may happen during a moment of PMS weakness) I feel lousy.

Last January, after reading No Meat Athlete, I went meatless for a month to see how I would feel. I felt great and have eaten an almost-vegetarian diet (I do eat some fish) ever since.

So as a general rule, I eat healthier now than I ever have. But much to my dismay, I discovered even healthy foods cause weight gain if I eat too much. (who knew?) Things like nuts, yogurt, granola, cheese (major weakness!) and artisan breads dipped in oil (major weakness #2!) have a lot of calories.

So for the past month or two, I’ve experimented with eating mostly gluten-free and dairy-free. I don’t think I have an allergy to either, but I wanted to see if I felt a difference not eating them. I focused on eating more whole foods … vegetables, fruits, beans, etc.

The best thing I’ve noticed was that never-quite-satisfied-feeling of wanting to eat something decreased. And I felt stronger when running (a few times a week) or when working out (Jillian Michael workouts twice a week) now her workouts only half-kill me, instead of totally killing me.

Last week over Christmas, I allowed myself to eat cookies, sugar and junk again … and I felt totally sluggish and grumpy. During my Monday morning workout, I was weak and couldn’t even do all the reps I normally did. Talk about great motivation to stick with a healthy eating plan.

So as another new year starts, I’m going to think about eating healthy again … even if I’ve done it every year since I can remember and I’m still not where I want to be. Because I know I’m at a much better place than I’ve ever been.

So as I look at 2011 …

I refuse to give up …

On this body of mine …

It’s the only one I have …

2011 will be another year of focusing on a healthy me.

This is a plate of all raw food. The ‘pasta’ is zucchini and the chips are vegetable chips. I had this for lunch yesterday at Raw Can Roll Cafe and it was excellent. I don’t plan to eat raw all the time, but I do want to make wise food choices.

Compare the top and bottom pictures of this post … which one would make you feel better after you ate it?

January to June Recap here

July

August

September

October

November

December

It’s the time of year when I get reflective … looking back through my posts, I decided to select a few as a recap of 2010.

January

February

photo © 2008 Bart Hiddink | more info (via: Wylio)

I love New Years!

For a few years when I was grieving about the unwanted things life forced on me, I wasn’t sure I liked New Years (actually I didn’t like anything during that time) … but as a general rule, I always love the start of a new year.

I’m an optimist (or as my hubs says at times, too much of an idealist) … but I know a new year could bring many exciting and wonderful things!

For the past five years, I’ve written something about the new year … a year or two all I could muster up was question or a quote from someone else.  2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

This year as I think about a new year starting I thought of this saying …

“I don’t know whether this is the best of times or the worst of times, but I assure you it’s the only time you’ve got.” – Art Buchwald

Depending if you’re an optimist or a pessimist … or who you listen to or what you read … you might have a strong opinion about whether this is the best of or worst of times.

You could be right … or you could be wrong. (yes, you … you could be wrong)

But one thing we can all be right about is the last thought in that saying … “it’s the only time you’ve got.”

So whether the world at large is going through a good or bad time … dream, plan, set goals and do your best to make 2011 a good year for yourself … and the people around you.

I’m curious … do you like New Years? And are you an optimist or pessimist?

Also … do you think you have a choice in what 2011 looks like for you? (this topic will be a blog post in the next week or so)

Greetings from my family to you …

Hope your celebrations are meaningful and fun.

Photo© 2006 Marko Milošević (Мilosevic) | more info …. (via: Wylio)

As we head into a week, when many of us will get together with people … some we see regularly and others could be with family we only see once or twice a year. I like this advice from a post about dealing with others.

“You can’t do anything to change what your difficult relatives are going to do; you can only change yourself.”

“Before you walk into the situation, spend a few minutes thinking about how you want to behave. If you’ve had unpleasant experiences in the past, think about why they were unpleasant and what you could do to change the dynamics of the situation.”

Read the rest of this great article by Gretchen Rubin posted on Maria Shriver’s blog

photo © 2009 Amanda Hirsch | more info (via: Wylio)

Over the years, I’ve heard different advice about resisting urges and/or impulses … but none ever solidly registered with me until this one:

Resist urges and they will past.

Yea, I know … it’s earth shattering, isn’t it?

Not exactly, but for some reason, it registered with me.

When I watched this online panel discussion about life management, one of the speakers talked about urges and what to do with them. Whether the urge is to buy something, eat something or say something.

Resist urges and they will past.

Resisting doesn’t mean stubbornly refusing to feel the urge and pretending you don’t have it. Instead it means stopping, thinking about the urge (yes, I want to eat that cookie) and allowing yourself to feel the urge.

What does it feel like?

Can you live with the feeling for a minute? An hour? A day? A lifetime?

Just because you have the urge to do something … like buy something that you don’t have the money for, doesn’t mean you need to do it. This resonates with the less is more attitude I try to live with.

Breathe deep … feel … think … then make a choice. Make the best long term choice … not what your urge wants you to do at any particular moment.

If you try this and it works … I’d love to hear about it.

Yes, I did!

It didn’t rain as much as predicted, but enough to be soaked when finished … but it was worth it. I felt great and had my best 5K time since I returned to running 2 1/2 years ago.

Ready to Jingle!

Trying to smile before the start. Ran it as part of the BFit Team

There was a monkey chasing a banana

Green Man and Purple Lady

Finished!

The Sharons, two friends who ran their first race! And they smiled the entire 3.1 miles and for hours afterwards.

Home, finished with the hat and jingling. (Thanks to Nike for the reflective swooshes on my skort ... they add flare to pictures)

When I say it was my best time since returning to running, I’m sure you are imaging a time fast enough for awards, trophies and prize money … and you were probably scrolling down looking for that picture.

I hate to disappoint you, but here’s the stats. The fastest woman in my age group (age 40 to 49) finished in 22:01 minutes. She received a snazzy medal for her time … I received high-fives and a cup of coffee when I finished in 36:21 minutes.

So it’s a good thing I don’t run for impressive times … instead I run for health, fun and friends and all that happened yesterday, so it was a great day!

Met Barb, a Facebook friend, IRL for the first time

So don’t be scared to do something outside your comfort zone … who cares if you are hot, cold, wet or not … it all adds to the thrilling story of your life.

And if you just chuckled or cried thinking that your life is anything but thrilling, then stretch yourself … do something different, something that is tough/challenging/etc.  You can do it! (whatever “it” is for you) As I mentioned yesterday, I think you’ll be surprised at the meaning that can add to your life.

Today is the Jingle Bell Run … a 5k that draws a lot of people. It’s a fund raiser for arthritis and so people can sign up individually or form a team. I signed up with about 10 running friends on a team that expected 50 people and now it has 138. So it’s a fun community event.
photo © 2010 Jo Naylor | more info (via: Wylio)

I was looking forward to it … the last race of 2010.

But was is the key word … now at 8AM, I am not so excited anymore.

It is raining. Heavy. Pouring. Straight. Down. Miserable.

The race is at 1PM. I’m almost ready to bail …

Then I remember something I’ve learned over the past few years. It’s the idea that when our five senses are fully engaged in an experience it is more meaningful to us.

Donald Miller wrote about this idea in A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. He says when we stretch ourselves to live a better story, by doing things outside our comfort zone, the details of the experience engrain themselves in our psyche. Those are often the events that make our life more meaningful and provide the memories we talk about for years.

Don Miller talks about hiking an endless number of miles on the Inca Trail in Peru … the training for it was endless and the hike was torturous at times, but he is thrilled that he did it.

So will running a 5K (3.1 miles) in the rain today be a good memory even if the experience is cold, wet and miserable or should I stay home and curl up with a good book? I have a stack of books waiting for me.
I could live vicariously through others …

Tune in tomorrow to see what happens … because now at 8:15AM I am no closer to figuring out what I will do. The rain is still heavy and it’s not supposed to quit until tonight sometime.