Blossoming

Each moment has the gift of being a new beginning. Let yourself blossom into a new you, a new thought or a new action.  Enjoy this moment.

Painting by Tracey Weems

Vacation

I like to get away from work and get re-energized but recently I have been in a rut and have been taking too many “stay-cation”. This is mostly because I just don’t have the extra money to get hotels, airfare and eat out etc. Yes I have lots of projects around the house that can keep me busy but it’s just not doing the trick. I end up feeling no different than before I went on vacation. Actually I even end up feeling guilty because I wasted a week of vacation time and for what reason? So this week I had a more successful vacation. Here are the pieces that made the difference for me.

First I went out of town. Not far mind you but about 100 miles out of town. I stayed with family so I could keep some cost down. Next I did a couple of new things. For example I am not a fan of water but I went kayaking on a lake.  I made a point to talk to many people, yes this means strangers. Getting new ideas and fresh perspectives from others can be refreshing. I made sure to relax; I didn’t plan every minute instead taking each opportunity as they came up. I just let the week develop organically.  I only planned a couple of things. I was able to be flexible if things had to change. I choose to enjoy each moment as it was happening instead of trying to rush on to the next thing. I took time for an art project, playing games and started reading a good book.

I feel more energized and I am in a better mood than I have been in past vacation attempts. Yes this is why you take vacations, to feel better and re energized.  Now I feel more motivated to plan something a little bigger for next time.

Tracey Weems 2018

 

 

 

Finding balance in my everyday life

 

I am feeling out of balance. On one side are the things I do every day and on the other side are the things I should be doing. How is it that I have this ongoing dialog with myself about how to better myself, be healthier, save money or eat better including what steps I need to do and yet these things just don’t get done? I will be on top of things for a period of time and then they slowly start to drift off and I end up out of balance again. I find that for most of the time I am running on auto pilot. Just going from one thing to the next without really stopping to ask myself, what am I doing and what should I be doing instead? For example eating lunch and not really making a conscious effort to think about what I’m eating today until after the fact, usually when I say to myself that I probably shouldn’t have eaten that!

Auto pilot mode just makes the days, weeks and months go by without making any new progress. It’s a great way to stay in the same place but I want to move forward and make changes so I need to put out more action.  Currently am full of excuses of why I am not completing these activities because either I am busy or I am too tired or I have immersed myself in some mindless activity that has wasted endless hours of my day. I need something big and in my face to make me stop, wake up and look at what I have to do today.

Here it is, September, a new month, so it’s the perfect time to get re-focused again.  I decided to make myself an activity board.  I think I will use a chalk board or white board, something that I can easily update. I will list the items I want to complete on a daily basis and plot my week. Some items might be related to food choices, exercise, budgeting money, doing an unfinished project or journaling.  I think it needs to be those items that I know I should be doing but for whatever reason keep ignoring.  The crazy part is that some of these items are so simple. For instance I need to drink more water. It takes a couple of minutes, it’s easy to do and it’s free! It makes no sense to me why I don’t drink enough water every day! It is obvious that it is not part of my auto pilot. So I need to figure out how to make it automatic or be able to stop and make a conscious decision to do it several times a day.

Maybe I need one of those exercise wrist bands things that actually gives you a little vibration that says, “Hey get up, you have been sitting too long!” So that is what my board is going to be, a visual reminder to stop and think and take me out of auto pilot for a moment.

I know that even a little bit of attention directed at what you want can move the momentum into the right direction so my plan is to hit it hard for 2 weeks and then reevaluate. See how things are going and then make adjustments and do another 2 weeks. I would say that journaling any changes and noticing how I am feeling will help to see any progress.  Another important thing is to set short attainable goals for each item. It’s a new day, don’t wait. Today is a great day to make a change!

This scale must be broken!

I finally understand what most women who have gone through menopause are saying. It’s nearly impossible to lose weight.  I just think of cake and I gain weight.  I could be wrong but I weighted myself before going to bed and again in the morning and I weighed more in the morning. Is that even possible? I am not sure but it felt real as I kept creeping ever so slowly up the scale.   In my mind I had a number that was my line in the sand. I am okay as long as I don’t get to that number. If I reached that particular number then that meant that I could just as easily keep marching up the scale to infinity and beyond! I also was not feeling good. I had aches and pains and I sure was not feeling very happy with my appearance. Just feeling blob like, not at all how I wanted to feel.  Now in reality I wasn’t really putting 100 percent effort into this battle of weight loss. I was not exercising, in fact I have a job where I sit all day and then I go home and sit all night. I do eat pretty healthy, I don’t drink soda, I pretty much stay away from junk food, I drink wheatgrass and eat tofu  but I will say I am not opposed to a little chocolate cake once in a while, so what gives?

I was talking to a good friend of mine and we were exchanging our frustrations with this battle of weight loss and she told me about something that was working for her. Now at this point I suppose I need to say that I am not a doctor and I do not give medical advice. Go see your doctor before starting any newfangled dieting idea. I am only sharing what I did and what happened to me.  My friend and her co-workers were doing a program called the Whole30. She explained it to me and I decided to give it a try.

To put it simply, for 30 day you do not eat any sugar, grains, or dairy products, no processed foods, so put down your latte and go to straight black coffee. What! Are you kidding me? I put cream and sugar in my coffee every morning. This sounds like crazy talk. The main goal here is to clean out your body. To get rid of all the things that are difficult to digest or that may be making you feel bad or may be allergic to but because you eat the same stuff all the time it makes it hard to identify what is bad for you.  At the end of the 30 days you can start adding back different foods and see how they make you feel.

I was skeptical at first. I truly didn’t think I would make it a week, but I kept telling myself that it is only 30 days not a decade so just do it. Also, my friend did it with me and we encouraged each other and passed along tips to try.  Having support is very helpful. You can do this because you are not alone.  So after about 10 day I started to feel better.  My tight waist band was not feeling quite so snug. Gradually over the month I could tell things were improving. Oh I forgot to tell you that during this month you are not supposed to weigh yourself. You are concentrating on how you are feeling and changing your habits, weight loss is not the main goal. I honestly broke this rule but I could see the weight was dropping but more importantly I could feel it.  My skin was clearing up and my aches and pains were less.  Getting up and down out of my chair was easier. My clothes were getting baggy. Yea for baggy clothes!

At the end of the month I was so happy I had lost 18 lbs and was feeling very good. So I decided to keep going on a modified version of the diet. I added a few things back into my diet and I have noticed that when eating certain foods I get a headache or feel bloated so I don’t eat those things. In total I have lost about 28 lbs. to this point.  I even had some test done recently and my cholesterol improved which is totally awesome since my family has a history of really horrible cholesterol numbers.  I feel so much healthier now and when I look in the mirror I see a person that I once was. Hey you look familiar!

It has been over a year since I went on this journey.  I have gone up and down the scale about 5 pounds but have maintained my weight for the entire year. Staying away from processed food, sugar and flour has been the key for me.  I do treat myself on occasions but that means once in a while not once every day.  I am very happy I did this. I made a plan and stuck to it.

So keep the faith Ladies! Don’t let that menopause stop you. It is possible to improve your health but mostly you have to commit to the plan whatever your plan is. Occasionally working a plan never works.  For me I decide to give it 30 days, commit to it without cheating and give it a chance to work.  Don’t give up on your plan and don’t give up on yourself!

My question for you – What tips do you have to be healthy?