You know the feeling........you just reached your goal weight. Or saved enough for a deposit on your first home. Maybe you wrote your first book (I'm envious if you did that's on my goals list!). Or it's your birthday, it's Christmas, Hanukkah or any other special occasion. All of these in my book call for a celebration! Which society has trained us to believe equals champagne (or another drink of your choice). There is nothing wrong with this of course. I mean it's a celebration, of course you should drink booze.
Dealing with addictive behavior (Soul Food week three!)
Addiction comes in all shapes and forms. While drugs and alcohol are the most widely treated types, they are certainly not the most wide spread. In looking back over a post from last week I noticed I reference my 'addiction' to my devices. The Whole30 is aimed at breaking sugar addiction in particular. Thinking about it, it seems to me that we all struggle with addiction in one form or another. Often times, perhaps the behavior is more of a compulsion perse, but the fact is, even a compulsion is hard to break.
Fat is your friend
For much of my life I followed the commonly held belief that a low fat diet is both good for you and supports a healthy BMI. Regularly consumed 'foods' included diet coke, skim milk, egg white omlette's, low fat dressings, diet yoghurt, cheese, sugar free gum and more. If you are still consuming these less healthy (yes less healthy) staples listen up. Stop right now. I guess you are wondering why?
Soul Food week two challenge
Firstly quick update on week one. Did you manage to go to turn your electronics of 30 minutes before bed time? I did....just not every night. While I believe in this concept to promote good sleep, seems for me at least the cancer fighting medication I take has other ideas. Sure I was able to fall to sleep quickly, but my wide awake night sweat 10 minutes later meant overall no improvement. I believe in a mere 6 months time when I am finally off said drugs my sleep will go back to normal.
How to see obstacles as opportunities
There are a lot of parallels when I think about training for a marathon (or any distance) and the journey of life. You start out with a dream or vision of what you want to achieve (be that just finishing, enjoying the event or a specific time). You set a course of action to get you there that is not just physical but emotional, strategic and that requires continual course correction along the way. And then you move forward, sideways, sometimes backwards, gaining experience and growing along the way.
Soul Food, week one challenge
Somehow I seem to have decided to start a weekly challenge and commence the Whole30 on the same day. I mean as if the Whole30 isn't a big enough challenge on its own? That being said, I've decided that the key was to choose a non food task this week that ultimately is true to Whole30 but possibly something I wouldn't stick to otherwise.
As you have probably guessed by now, I'm going to focus on getting quality sleep. I'm honestly not the best sleeper. I'm on hormone blocking medication with the lovely side effect of hot flushes, which tend to run amok when I first get into bed each night. I often lay awake for over an hour before dozing off. But I will confess to regularly getting into bed not long after eating and directly from TV viewing.
The official challenge is: All electronics off by 30 minutes before bed time (yes even the phone). This is causing me angst just to think about. So that means it's a good challenge. Play along and let me know how you go.
How to get your happy on
We all have those days, weeks and sometimes even months. Whether you’ve recently been through something traumatic, it’s a hormone issue or you are just in a funk. I’m talking about times in your life when bounding out of bed with a smile on your face feels as achievable as walking on the moon. (Note - if you are possibly clinically depressed don’t read this, go to the Doctor).
To Whole30 or not?!
Earlier this year I bought the book 'It Starts with Food' amongst others while I was working my way through health coaching studies. Most of these books are actually still sitting on my book shelf unread. It turned out that between working full time and studying, adding load to related content was more than I could manage. Then there was the fact that I was not eating meat or chicken given the this approach to food is quite paleo like (meat, chicken, eggs, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds).
