For as long as I can remember I've been giving up some type of food for my Lenten sacrifice. I was raised Catholic so I always gave up a favorite food. This season I am giving up coffee and adding something. Funny thing is I can't decide what to add and here it is now the day after Ash Wednesday. I am giving myself until Friday since I fell asleep yesterday without committing to a new good habit. The two I'm considering are adding 1) those morning push ups and sit ups I've been planning to add to my exercise routine for months now or 2) random acts of kindness from treating a stranger when in line to surprising my kids with something new. Of course I could do both so in 24 hours I will decide and go for it. Easter is March 31st. The contest at the gym ends April 6th, yes I entered another 2-Month challenge.
It's mid-February and time is moving with or without me. I also don't want April 15th to get here and I'm looking back regretfully for not making the most of each day. Set backs, hiccups, mistakes, stumbling blocks don't take days off, so why should I?
Just decided I will do BOTH!
Lynnell
“Who are you to judge the life I live?
I know I'm not perfect
-and I don't live to be-
but before you start pointing fingers...
make sure you hands are clean!”
― Bob Marley
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
My new eating plan!
After seeing this posted on Pinterest, I had a eureka moment. I've been trying to follow a new eating plan since yesterday and am already struggling with barely 24 hours in. So I've been eating less because I've not fully embraced the new change. One thing I didn't do was prepare for it well by shopping for a weeks worth of groceries. I did remove items from my pantry that I wouldn't eat but didn't replenish the shelves so that I could make this week a lot easier on myself. I decided to try the Paleo eating style for 30 days having found a site that said to do just that, try it for 30 days and see what effects it has on your body. I printed out a list of do and don't eat foods and even put it on the frig but without the second piece of preparing for the week, I'm off to a rocky start. But after stumbling across the Pinterest post above, "The key to eating healthy? Avoid any food that has a TV commercial", it was like a light bulb went off letting me know it's okay, just make the best food choices you can until you get the hang of Paleo (and/or frig/pantry stocked up). I've never seen a commercial for lettuce, kale, strawberries or many other fruits and vegetables. Today will be a good eating day, just have to remember to make the best eating choices under the circumstances I'm in at all times.
It's lunch time and I am hungry,
Lynnell
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Knowing What Works For You and Staying True To It
It's five days into February and I'm feeling pretty good about the start of the month but I am already making adjustments to make sure I end the month stronger + fitter + healthier = sexier. I need a change in my eating plan as much as I needed a change in my exercise routine. I had been eating a vegan diet for about 8 months, but not because I had adopted a vegan lifestyle. It started as a 21-Day detox and I played around with it off and on after that until I found myself saying "I eat vegan" at every offer of fried meats and homemade macaroni and cheese. So as a result, I don't really miss meat and dairy but find that I need something else because I'm making a lifestyle change and I'm not sure I've bought into the idea that I will eat vegan for life.
So I started looking into other ways of changing my "eating style". I considered trying the Shred diet, I've been doing research on the Paleo diet, then there is also Clean Eating and the Belly Fat Cure. Now that by no means is the list of all the things I've tried in the past. For example, Weight Watcher's Online is missing, MyFitnessPal, SparkPeople and LoseIt are the free online food journal/calorie counters I've tried too. Well I say all this to say, I know what works for me and I need to stay true to it. See I do much better with eating styles that include rules of what you eat verses ones that have you journal every bite you eat. Food journalling diets are very successful BUT FOR ME, I was thinking about food more and also I tended to eat "bad" foods more because they were allowed. Meaning, I ate empty calories because I could because I could "budget" them in. Verses with rules, it was easier to decline the foods if I they aren't on my "list" of acceptable foods. Now the diets where you are given specific meals to eat each day don't work for me only because I'm not good at planning well enough in advance to have all the foods on hand. I much prefer to have foods I eat in the frig and make a "game time decision" about what I'm eating at that moment. I guess it makes me feel spontaneous, LOL. Maybe that makes me an "ad lib dieter" or a "spontaneous eater". I don't know, but having a catchy phrase for it doesn't matter, what matters is that I know what works for me and I need to stay true to it. ;-)
Time for dinner so let me go check the frig (LOL),
Lynnell
"Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it." - Hardy D. Jackson
"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song" - Maya Angelou
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do and damned if you don't." - Eleanor Roosevelt
So I started looking into other ways of changing my "eating style". I considered trying the Shred diet, I've been doing research on the Paleo diet, then there is also Clean Eating and the Belly Fat Cure. Now that by no means is the list of all the things I've tried in the past. For example, Weight Watcher's Online is missing, MyFitnessPal, SparkPeople and LoseIt are the free online food journal/calorie counters I've tried too. Well I say all this to say, I know what works for me and I need to stay true to it. See I do much better with eating styles that include rules of what you eat verses ones that have you journal every bite you eat. Food journalling diets are very successful BUT FOR ME, I was thinking about food more and also I tended to eat "bad" foods more because they were allowed. Meaning, I ate empty calories because I could because I could "budget" them in. Verses with rules, it was easier to decline the foods if I they aren't on my "list" of acceptable foods. Now the diets where you are given specific meals to eat each day don't work for me only because I'm not good at planning well enough in advance to have all the foods on hand. I much prefer to have foods I eat in the frig and make a "game time decision" about what I'm eating at that moment. I guess it makes me feel spontaneous, LOL. Maybe that makes me an "ad lib dieter" or a "spontaneous eater". I don't know, but having a catchy phrase for it doesn't matter, what matters is that I know what works for me and I need to stay true to it. ;-)
Time for dinner so let me go check the frig (LOL),
Lynnell
"Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it." - Hardy D. Jackson
"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song" - Maya Angelou
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do and damned if you don't." - Eleanor Roosevelt
Friday, February 1, 2013
Beginning of the month
It's the first, February 1st in particular (Happy Birthday to my sister Bernita). A lot of things transpire at the first of the month. You may think of mortgage/rent payments like I do or some other monthly obligation that is expected to be removed from your bank account. But let's consider for a moment, that the first of each month is a new beginning, a new opportunity to get it done what you didn't last month. Or a perfect time to start a new hobby, new career, new relationship OR in my case a new workout regimen. How about try a new food (vegetable, maybe Okra), try a new lipstick color, try a new cologne fragrance, try a new hair cut. What about purging things that you haven't touched in over a month, let alone the things you haven't for over a year or even the last ten years. First of the month, spend a moment to reflect, ponder then plan your attack!
Yes it's the first of the month and my plan for February is to live it on purpose, I've pulled out my calendar written my workout goals and my eating plan first before the work deadlines, kids activities, birthdays or social plans.
I have started my countdown to April 15th! Yes we all know what's due on April 15th, but this April 15th 2013 is the date my best friend and I set last year to reach our fitness goals. This year we both turn 45 or as we call it Forty Fine, she already has and I'm headed there so April 15th is the date that's in the middle of our 45th birthdays this year.
No more excuses, it's the first of the month, no better time to take things up a notch than NOW,
Lynnell
"What a caterpillar calls the end the rest of the world calls a butterfly." - Lao Tzu
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." - Goethe
Yes it's the first of the month and my plan for February is to live it on purpose, I've pulled out my calendar written my workout goals and my eating plan first before the work deadlines, kids activities, birthdays or social plans.
I have started my countdown to April 15th! Yes we all know what's due on April 15th, but this April 15th 2013 is the date my best friend and I set last year to reach our fitness goals. This year we both turn 45 or as we call it Forty Fine, she already has and I'm headed there so April 15th is the date that's in the middle of our 45th birthdays this year.
No more excuses, it's the first of the month, no better time to take things up a notch than NOW,
Lynnell
"What a caterpillar calls the end the rest of the world calls a butterfly." - Lao Tzu
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." - Goethe
"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."
- Maria Robinson
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