March Wish Challenge Let it Go or some of us are sick of snow

Woohoo it's Wednesday! Celebrating 2 things today -- 1) I had a real good pep talk/come to Jesus meeting last night with myself about some of my bad eating habits and the nonsense they stem from ("I should over eat this pizza because it won't taste as good reheated tomorrow" -- I'm ridiculous!) and I am super inspired to stay on track the rest of the month. And 2) I am about to head out of the door to see a shoulder specialist to see what's been going on with it. It's been bothering me for years and I used to excuse it off thinking it was because I wasn't fit and didn't exercise. Well, I can't use that excuse anymore! I'm a little nervous, but mainly excited (a little too strong a word, but it kind of works) to finally start to figure out what is wrong.

Have a wonderful Wednesday all!
 
Tuesday
1) Did I count all my calories - yes
2) Did I do work towards 100 000 weekly steps? yes
3) Did I remain in energy balance/deficit? Yes
4) What did I do great yesterday - it was great day
5) What can I do better today - n/a

Wednesday

1) Did I count all my calories yes
2) Did I do work towards 100 000 weekly steps? yes
3) Did I remain in energy balance/deficit? yes, but just about
4) What did I do great yesterday I managed to remain in balance
5) What can I do better today Had dinner too early and too much snacking again, push my dinner little later

Flossybolna intermittent fasting is popular and I know few people that do it long term and are successful maintainers. It really suits some. Some women experience hormonal issues on it, but this depends on how many hours is their fasting window and i have few friends that do it for many years without having any issues.

90 days to our trip to WDW I want to eat in deficit for awhile but I feel hesitant to confess it for some reason. I am not sure why! I have gain few winter kg, and would like them gone. I think deep inside I thought that there will be point when I will be done with it and saying - well, no it's not like that feels emotional. But here I said it - I want to lose some weight again before our summer vacation.
 
Flossybolna intermittent fasting is popular and I know few people that do it long term and are successful maintainers. It really suits some. Some women experience hormonal issues on it, but this depends on how many hours is their fasting window and i have few friends that do it for many years without having any issues.

Interesting observation about the hormonal issues! Will keep that in mind. I feel great with it at the moment. The last weekend was rough as well as the start of the week. It is just so much easier to not eat anything when you are in the office with no direct access to food than at home with a full kitchen! I might have to plan being out of the house during the weekend mornings the next few weekends. But the last few days it feels like it has become more of a habit. I started sitting in my living room on the sofa with a cup of coffee each morning and that actually was nice morning ritual. Felt much more relaxed than eating cereal in the kitchen.

90 days to our trip to WDW I want to eat in deficit for awhile but I feel hesitant to confess it for some reason. I am not sure why! I have gain few winter kg, and would like them gone. I think deep inside I thought that there will be point when I will be done with it and saying - well, no it's not like that feels emotional. But here I said it - I want to lose some weight again before our summer vacation.

I have a friend who always was slim and never had a weight problem. She once mentioned to me in the spring time that it was about time to shed the winter kilos. I had never thought of her as someone who would think about weight at all. She was a natural maintainer. But the truth was that she put on a little during winter, but then lost it again every spring. For her it was not something that she thought much about, it just came natural. So, just because you want to lose weight before your vacation does not mean that you are a failure. It is maybe just part of a typical rythm your body goes through: accumulat some extra storage and insulation for the hard times ahead during the cold part of the year, shed some of it during the warm months.
 


Thursday QOTD

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A blog I follow had a recent entry on the power of daily practice, saying in essence that we can change our own health and well-being by developing daily practices,
and that gratitude, empathy, mindfulness and meditation can also improve our well-being.
It's a crafting blog, so she went on to talk about the power of a daily "making" practice, and how healthful it is to create with your hands.
And that one of the benefits to a regular making practice is that it can bring you face-to-face with your own destructive stories...
"I'm not creative enough", "I'm not good enough, so what I create isn't good enough", "I never finish things", "She's so talented compared to me".

What about a daily food/eating practice? Do you have such a practice in your life?
Do you take the time to feel gratitude for your food: do you practice mindful food prep and/or eating?
Do you play destructive food/eating story tapes in your mind over and over again?
If you were to develop a personal food practice, what might it look/feel like?

 


Big question

What about a daily food/eating practice? Do you have such a practice in your life? - need to think about it. I think I have negative practice to snack too much at night

Do you take the time to feel gratitude for your food: do you practice mindful food prep and/or eating? - I am very grateful that I can afford to eat well and feed my family well and we live near shops with plenty of healthy food choice. I am very grateful for sure. I appreciate being able to go to the shop and by myself mangos grown far away in the middle of the cold winter.

Do you play destructive food/eating story tapes in your mind over and over again? Probably. Not again and again anymore but at times.

If you were to develop a personal food practice, what might it look/feel like? Happily choosing half or at least 1/3rd of my meal being vegetables or fruit and vegetables. Eating until comfortable full, even if available food feels delicious
 
QOTD:

Establishing any sort of intentional daily practice is a challenge for me. I don't have a problem maintaining daily routines, like getting up and getting to work, but I always struggle when the desired action is optional.

Like @HappyGrape I am also grateful that I have access to such varied choices, and that I can afford good healthy food. But I think if I am more intentional about it, less food will go to waste. Maybe I should be expressing my gratitude every time I pick something up at the grocery store (silently, in my head, tee hee), and that'll increase the perceived value so I'll be more likely to make sure it gets used.

I am not mindful about my food or my eating - I use food to numb (particularly sugar) and part of that is being numb while chosing. The closest I've come recently to being mindful is that I've been having a bowl of fresh fruit in the evening and have made a point to really pay attention while I am cutting the fruit up. I'm starting to explore dot or bullet journaling, and last evening when I flipped thru the guide book, I saw a section on setting up a food journal which I think would be a very good thing for me to do, and would help me to wake up and be more mindful.

I do have negative food/health tapes that I play repeatedly. I need to stop the tape and re-frame the story every time one kicks in... like telling myself "Congratulations! You just ate!" and not beating myself up for it.

If I did establish a daily food/eating practice what would it look like?
Choosing to feed my body, not my addiction.
Planning and prepping on the weekend: scheduling an actual time where I do the prep and making it a ritual.
Keeping a food journal.
Slowing down and smelling, looking at, tasting/savoring my food while I'm eating.
Sitting at the dinner table to eat, and not eating on the couch watching TV.
 
Do you listen to any health and fitness podcasts?

Thanks to @lovesmurfs, I've been listening to Phit n Phat too. And I love it for a little pep up to quit with my nonsense bad habits!


What about a daily food/eating practice? Do you have such a practice in your life?
Do you take the time to feel gratitude for your food: do you practice mindful food prep and/or eating?
Do you play destructive food/eating story tapes in your mind over and over again?
If you were to develop a personal food practice, what might it look/feel like?


Great and thoughtful question!

Daily food practice: Not really. I have a weekly practice that happens most weeks -- planning out my week on Sundays. It seems like after that, I just go on autopilot for the rest of the week.

Gratitude: Rarely is this something I practice while prepping and eating. And I know I should. One thing that does come to mind at least is that I didn't grow up in the best financial situation, and sometimes (maybe 65% of the time) when I go grocery shopping, I do remember to feel grateful for the fact that we are able to eat what we want and choose the healthier (and often more expensive!) options. For that I would say I could do better, but am better at remembering to be grateful for that that a lot of other things I should remember to be grateful for.

Destructive stories: Funny enough, I have more and more of this the closer and closer I get to my goal weight.... Mostly, my tape is "why are you eating this? Just a little bite of the joy food... wait! Why did you have that? You're ruining all your hard work! You'll never get to goal without any self-control...blah, blah, blah....." I can't say I have any insight on working through this 100% yet, but I think it's all about balance. "Sometimes foods" are fine in moderation... I guess the crux of the issue is I don't think I trust myself not to binge or not to fall completely off the rails and gain all the weight back. I guess that's where I need to focus my energy to overcome that pesky little demon.

Food Practice: I would like to get to a place where I carve out time in the morning to prepare and have a bigger healthy breakfast (not just grab and go oatmeal or protein bars). Lunch is usually prepped the night before, but I think I could enhance the experience of eating it if I took time away from my desk to eat it (which I rarely do). And then dinner I would like eat at the table more often than we do. A few nights a week DH and I's schedule don't mesh up so he will eat while I'm out or vice versa so that's not at the table. Instead, I would like to cultivate eating dinner together 5/7 nights a week at the table-- no TV! Haha! Of course, I would want to keep up my weekly meal planning as well!
 
Yes. I listen to 2: Losing 100 Pounds with Phit-n-Phat; and Half-Size Me.

I do also subscribe and listen to Brooke Castillo's The Life Coach School (some health/fitness related topics) and the Dave Ramsey Show.

i am fan of half size me too. I had a listen to the life coach on my way to work - she is great! Thanks for the recommendations
 
Thank you for all the podcast recommendations! I think I will try some of them to widen my podcast listening. I usually listen to Disney stuff...

@lovesmurfs Congratulations! What an acchievement!!:rainbow:

Yesterday's QOTD:

What about a daily food/eating practice? Do you have such a practice in your life?
I am not sure, I used to have a breakfast practice of cereal with fruit and yoghurt and a cup of tea. But I got rid of that recently. I think one thing that I have is to have at least one cup of coffee that I really enjoy. I am not someone who drinks lots of coffee. For me coffee is about something that I take care to make (or buy at a good coffee place) and I enjoy it on my sofa or with friends/colleagues. It is more a treat than a drink.

Do you take the time to feel gratitude for your food: do you practice mindful food prep and/or eating?
Most likely not. If at all it would be mostly during shopping. I am able to not have to think about grocery prices and I do take care to look out as to what I buy. I try to buy a lot of sustainable food (either produced locally or organically, less packaging, less processed food). For me shopping for groceries often is an event that I enjoy and I take care in selecting my food. Once it is in the fridge, it goes a bit downhill.
When my husband is here (for anyone new here: he splits his time between our home in Germany and the US), we usually make sure to sit down for dinner on a nicely set table.

Do you play destructive food/eating story tapes in your mind over and over again?
Yes: "I don't have any self-control"

If you were to develop a personal food practice, what might it look/feel like?
Have a healthy and filling afternoon snack at work. I am actually currently working on this and this week has been good in this regard!
 
way to go lovesmurfs!!!

I am so happy to be on vacation. And might I just say how much I despise 12 hour days?!! I am so thankful that they are very rare and not just a part of my typical work schedule.

I suppose my wahoo would be that DS made it home safe and sound. I don't have a daily food practice--unless you count I always have the same breakfast a practice. And while I am grateful for food, and stores, and transportation to and from them, and the ability to pay for food, I don't usually think about it at all. Just in terms of drudgery...what on earth am I making for dinner, are we out of milk, why does DH drink so much of it anyway, is anybody going to eat those bananas or will I have to make bread that will just go in the freezer?! The destructive tapes don't play so much lately, which is good. I am intentionally trying to be aware of all food I put in my mouth--after all I will be logging it later. I am hoping the month will get better now that DS is home and I won't be so stressed. I'm on vacation the rest of the month which means I don't have a routine once the morning work outs are over. This could be bad or this could be good!

So I played pickleball this morning at the gym and then met a girlfriend for a three mile walk in the wind and rain. It was wonderful! I've just drank a pot of tea which is a weekend pleasure for me. I'd say the day is off to a good start! I will go to yoga tonight and since it is restorative practice night I will be a blob at the end. Can't wait!!
 
Hello Friday!

Over all this wasn't a good food week - once again. But other good stuff has been happening, so there's that. I'm under for my step goal for the week, so I'm going to have to pull something out of the proverbial hat over the weekend: I'm at 62 miles towards my 100 mile goal, and really do want to make goal.

Yesterday I booked air and hotel for my June trip to Alaska, so I've started thinking about a fall trip. There's a retreat in November at The Prairie in Round Top Texas, put on by the folks I'm taking the current clearing/shifting course from. I looooove The Prairie, seriously, it's the stuff my dreams are made out of. It's a compound that Rachel Ashwell of Shabby Chic fame rehabbed in to a B&B, but she sold it late last year. When I did my 'Drive all of Texas' tour in 2016, I went there and just sat in the car and stared... I was too overwhelmed and geeked out to get out of the car and walk around. She put out a book featuring it, which I of course own... total eye candy and makes my heart sing just to look at. The retreat is super expensive but would be a dream come true, so I am thinking I'll do it. But, I made a promise to myself that I would finish the clearing/shifting course and do some of the on-line version of the retreat course (restoration) before committing. Last night I finally finished week one of the clearing/shifting course and lo and behold, week two is about restoration and uses one of the actual exercises from the restoration on-line course, so bingo! Guess what I'll be doing this weekend, in addition to walking!

This is Faith Cottage at The Prairie... my favorite. If I had a Tiny House, this is what it would look like. And below that is a picture of the main barn... a piece of Texas heaven.


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I am off work for 12 days! This includes weekends and Ester, but still will try to make most of the time. Do daily walk on the beach, meet few friends, daily yoga, eat healthy and restore, have a spa day

I was thinking about the negative thought patterns. Last week I tracked for full week, I walked and I did yoga. I cooked and ate well. I stayed in balance all day but one - Friday. There is Italian team in my work and they had bake sale. I bough piece of cake and some for the team and for my family - it was really good and I enjoyed it. I had it about 11 am, before lunch time. I found myself battle with should I shouldn't I eat it all day. I guess if I have to be honest easy maintenance happen to me only if I don't eat high sugar desserts. My lunch was bigger, my dinner was bigger. I didn't have second piece of cake. I walked a lot to have high burn. My hunger increases when I eat dessert and 11 am is not my time for cake! I spend the day unsatisfied and between 300 and 600 calories over my burn - depending on estimating the piece of cake.

I guess there is conflict going on. I feel i should be able to enjoy just one. Yet I want it to be easy for me, and trying to enjoy just one makes it harder. I guess there is element that I perhaps don't want to commit really long term, or feel uncertain that I can.

:(
And I love summer food, and summers are easier for me.
 
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Looks like everyone is on Easter break already!! I am really happy that this week and next week are both four day weeks for me with a four day weekend in the middle. Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays here. I really need that mini break!

The weekend was amazing, we finally had temperatures in the 50s (12 degrees for the other European!) and it was brilliant sunshine. It felt so wonderfully! On Sunday morning I went for a nice long run and feel that I am finally getting back into running with three runs in a row. I lost quite a bit of speed and stamina, but that's ok. The most important thing right now is to get back into the routine.

On Saturday I had a nasty fall while walking through town. I was walking down a cobble stone hill and suddenly slipped. My left foot had landed on a piece of plastic that started to move downhill as soon as I had stepped on it. So I ended up doing a very involuntary lunge. Of course my right knee hit the pavement and now has a nasty bruise. And I pulled the thigh muscle in my left leg. But I think my general base fitness helped me prevent worse things. As soon as my foot started slipping, my knee locked and I was even able to prevent the worst impact with the knee by holding the left leg to control the downward movement. My sister said that when she watched me go down, she thought they would have to call an ambulance as it did not look like I was able to walk afterwards. But I was able to get up and walk more around town afterwards without issues (well, some minor pain was around, but only slightly!). This was a good reminder how important general fitness is for preventing injuries! If your body knows how to move, it is far better suited to react correctly in bad situations!
 

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