I decided to start the year off with a January Whole30 challenge. Not sure what that is? Check it out here: http://whole9life.com/2011/10/whole-30-v5/ I know I’m a little early for a new year’s start but I didn’t want to wait for January 1 since I felt the urge to be healthier and happier NOW. A few extra days of fighting crappy food and cravings just did not appeal to me so I jumped right in.
I’ve completed the Whole30 before with great success. I’ve given up grains, excess sugars, processed foods, diary, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, nuts, fruits, and PUFAs. But one thing I’ve never conquered is the scale. And I’m NOT talking about reaching an arbitrary goal weight. What I mean is, I’ve never fully surrendered my scale. I truly believe that while big changes on the scale can tell you where you’ve gone wrong, once you’ve achieved some level of success it does very little to tell you what you’re doing right. Body composition changes are not about the number, they’re about replacing the lard with lean, hard, healthy muscle. True health is about maintaining low levels of inflammation and avoiding illness and medication as much as possible for as long as possible. And yet, even with my understanding of health and body comp and my desire to look like this: http://www.crossfit818.com/uploads/5/8/5/9/5859464/6893298.jpg?568 rather than this: http://girlstalkinsmack.com/14-celebrities-looking-too-thin and I still find myself stepping on that scale at least once a week, if not more.
I’m a scaleaholic. I’ve come to accept that deep down the scale is the last bastion of resistance from my old ways. If the numbers “improve”, even over just a few days, somehow I take that as an indication that I can be looser in my diet, even though my diet is now a lifestyle that revolves around nutrition, health and longevity rather than calories.
So I weighed in at the start of the challenge, took note of how my pants were fitting, and I will not step foot on that scale until February 1. I urge you all to make the same resolution. It’s not about the scale. It’s about living your life as clean and healthy as you possibly can for as long as you possibly can. Good health is a gift, gone in an instant, difficult to recover, and its absence will affect your every waking moment. Cherish it, nurture it, take control over it, and realize that it’s not about the scale!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Passion, Get some!
I see dull people! Everywhere I look lately, I see people passing by opportunities, not living up to their potential, living unexamined and unhappy lives (I freely admit every now and then one of those people I see is in the mirror, but I’m working on it!) I’ve lived an unexamined life at times. You know what you get at the end of the day when you’ve done nothing productive? You get depressed, miserable and lazy.
Lately there is a fire lit under me and it feels GREAT. Maybe it’s a sense of competency and accomplishment at work. Maybe it’s having mostly full use of both my legs again now that my knee is healed. Maybe it’s the Christmas spirit doing the whoolaboola in my soul. Whatever it is, it has me focused, and seeing the doldrums around me makes me want to shake everyone and snap them out of it.
What is life without passion? Who wants to be a bare-minimum person? Life is short, opportunities don’t just land in your lap, and you’re not going to become something amazing sitting on your rear eating potato chips and watching your DVR. I once heard there is no such thing as a missed opportunity, someone else will always come along and pick it up.
So who is living YOUR dream life at the moment, and why isn't it you? What are you afraid of? You think you’re going to fail? If you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying! Ever admire someone with a lot of “experience?” Oscar Wilde said “experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes”. You think your heroes never screwed up? Of course they did. They just kept learning from their mistakes! Or are you afraid you might actually succeed? What will you do when you have to put in the hard work that comes along with success? What will your life be like if you actually make yourself into what you always dreamed? You’d rather hide under a blanket and live like a maintained pet than have control over your own destiny and make a mark on this world in the short time we have on this planet?
Shake it off people, catch the fever, and get moving! Don’t be the bare-minimum flare wearer. Live your life to the fullest, take chances, make changes, grow, risk, LIVE! Let your light shine and show others the way. You’re worth the risk, and you deserve the reward. Now go get some!
Lately there is a fire lit under me and it feels GREAT. Maybe it’s a sense of competency and accomplishment at work. Maybe it’s having mostly full use of both my legs again now that my knee is healed. Maybe it’s the Christmas spirit doing the whoolaboola in my soul. Whatever it is, it has me focused, and seeing the doldrums around me makes me want to shake everyone and snap them out of it.
What is life without passion? Who wants to be a bare-minimum person? Life is short, opportunities don’t just land in your lap, and you’re not going to become something amazing sitting on your rear eating potato chips and watching your DVR. I once heard there is no such thing as a missed opportunity, someone else will always come along and pick it up.
So who is living YOUR dream life at the moment, and why isn't it you? What are you afraid of? You think you’re going to fail? If you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying! Ever admire someone with a lot of “experience?” Oscar Wilde said “experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes”. You think your heroes never screwed up? Of course they did. They just kept learning from their mistakes! Or are you afraid you might actually succeed? What will you do when you have to put in the hard work that comes along with success? What will your life be like if you actually make yourself into what you always dreamed? You’d rather hide under a blanket and live like a maintained pet than have control over your own destiny and make a mark on this world in the short time we have on this planet?
Shake it off people, catch the fever, and get moving! Don’t be the bare-minimum flare wearer. Live your life to the fullest, take chances, make changes, grow, risk, LIVE! Let your light shine and show others the way. You’re worth the risk, and you deserve the reward. Now go get some!
Friday, December 9, 2011
It's Friday, time to give yourself some love!
Happy love-yourself Friday everyone!
For a while I’ve been feeling like today should be about facing and embracing change, and apparently this is a universal meme of the day, because I came across this from Bellatrix Nutrition: "Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced."
And this from Chris Kresser: “Making dietary changes isn't always easy. That's because our choice about what to eat is influenced by a number of different factors, ranging from the people we spend time with, our cultural heritage, our emotional health, our financial situation and our beliefs.”
Usually we know what the healthy answer is, but why is it so damn hard? And how do we stop living a life of vicious cycles of intense obedience, tortured temptation and miserable guilt? The first step is to change the paradigm (see my prior post below for some suggestions on that) and the second is to truly embrace the change. In order to get yourself out of the same old rut and routine, you need to face your challenges head on, and then you need to embrace the change. Having a problem with sugar cravings? You no longer eat sweets other than a few special occasions a year. Having trouble with getting up for early morning workouts? You become the person that NEVER misses a workout, no matter how cold it is, no matter how crappy you feel or how late you went to bed.
In order to flip your paradigm, you need to face your demons and be prepared to make changes that will banish them for good, not just keep them temporarily at bay. You’ll never know how great your potential truly is until you can let go of all those shackles you’ve been clinging to. Get rid of those bad influences, and give yourself permission to change. You’re worth it, you deserve it, and you’ll love what you become.
For a while I’ve been feeling like today should be about facing and embracing change, and apparently this is a universal meme of the day, because I came across this from Bellatrix Nutrition: "Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced."
And this from Chris Kresser: “Making dietary changes isn't always easy. That's because our choice about what to eat is influenced by a number of different factors, ranging from the people we spend time with, our cultural heritage, our emotional health, our financial situation and our beliefs.”
Usually we know what the healthy answer is, but why is it so damn hard? And how do we stop living a life of vicious cycles of intense obedience, tortured temptation and miserable guilt? The first step is to change the paradigm (see my prior post below for some suggestions on that) and the second is to truly embrace the change. In order to get yourself out of the same old rut and routine, you need to face your challenges head on, and then you need to embrace the change. Having a problem with sugar cravings? You no longer eat sweets other than a few special occasions a year. Having trouble with getting up for early morning workouts? You become the person that NEVER misses a workout, no matter how cold it is, no matter how crappy you feel or how late you went to bed.
In order to flip your paradigm, you need to face your demons and be prepared to make changes that will banish them for good, not just keep them temporarily at bay. You’ll never know how great your potential truly is until you can let go of all those shackles you’ve been clinging to. Get rid of those bad influences, and give yourself permission to change. You’re worth it, you deserve it, and you’ll love what you become.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Promise yourself
Would you break a promise to your mother? Your spouse? Your most-trusted friend? Then why do you continually promise yourself that you’ll do better, work harder, make the right decisions, and then go right back to your old ways? We are our own worst critics, and we’re also our own worst friends.
We often know exactly what the right answer is, be it for diet, fitness, or overall happiness, and yet we constantly let ourselves go astray, breaking promise after promise with the most important person in our lives. Is it because we feel we aren’t worthy of the promise? That we’re afraid of who we might be able to become and what we might achieve if we reach our full potential? Is it that we’ve given up on ourselves?
I’m here to tell you that you ARE worthy, you will LOVE who you become when you reach that potential, and there’s so much more to you than what you give yourself credit for that it would be a damn shame if you let that slip away. So look yourself in the mirror, realize that the person staring back at you is an amazing, strong, capable human being, and promise yourself that you’re going to treat yourself the way you DESERVE. And then, most importantly, KEEP your promise!
We often know exactly what the right answer is, be it for diet, fitness, or overall happiness, and yet we constantly let ourselves go astray, breaking promise after promise with the most important person in our lives. Is it because we feel we aren’t worthy of the promise? That we’re afraid of who we might be able to become and what we might achieve if we reach our full potential? Is it that we’ve given up on ourselves?
I’m here to tell you that you ARE worthy, you will LOVE who you become when you reach that potential, and there’s so much more to you than what you give yourself credit for that it would be a damn shame if you let that slip away. So look yourself in the mirror, realize that the person staring back at you is an amazing, strong, capable human being, and promise yourself that you’re going to treat yourself the way you DESERVE. And then, most importantly, KEEP your promise!
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