Hold the Fries!What a concept! As a society we have been sucked into purchasing the combo meals at the drive thru. I am guilty of this on a regular basis. I drive through and order a combo without thinking. Then I eat the fries with the idea of not wanting to waste food. The other day I had this amazing idea that if I did not order the fries I would not eat them. OMG! What an epiphany! In doing this I also discovered I did not need the fries in order for my hunger to be satisfied. Food in excess has always been the answer for me. Eating until I am miserable. One of the reasons I tried the protein experiment was to see if it the the carbohydrates and sugar that was contributing to my uncomfortable bloated feeling. This week I concentrated on eating only what I needed during meals. I let my hunger be my guide. My brain talks to me telling me to “eat more” and before I know it I am miserable. So I was conscious of how my body was feeling and not what my brain was telling me. I was able to get through the week avoiding the uncomfortable feeling (most of the time).

Food is a source of comfort for a lot of people. Sometime I find myself eating food like I used to drink alcohol, in excess. I love food and if it tastes good I eat until I am miserable. I am starting to think my view on food is unhealthy and contributes to my inability to reach the point where I feel good about how I look. Food is a source of nutrition that helps the body function the way it’s supposed to. Too much or too little food makes us miserable both physically and mentally. There is a scale on how people view food at one extreme food is a source of comfort where we tend to overeat and on the other extreme food is only for nutrition and there would be a tendency to not eat enough and deprive the body of necessary nutrients. Neither extreme is healthy! So where is the happy medium? My view on food has been at the extreme of comfort and I take that to the extreme.I want to start concentrating on food more as a source of nutrition keeping in mind what my body needs and not so much what my brain wants.

Do you find yourself eating food when you’re not even hungry? I’ve noticed that others, myself included, often eat food without even stopping to assess whether we’re hungry or not. I encourage you to get in touch with your body and eat only when you need to. This means being in touch with your body’s needs and not eating food when you’re not hungry.

Eat to Live, Not Live to Eat

So I’ve spent the better part of the last 5 days on a high protein low fat eating plan. I made the decision to start eating this way so I could give my body a kick start, kind of like a cleansing. Not sure if it worked to cleanse but I did discover a few things about my body that will be helpful in moving in a positive direction towards a healthier me.

In the many years of my yo-yo dieting I have tried Atkins, South Beech and many other crazy diets. This weeks plan was not meant to be a life lifestyle change just  an exploration of how my body reacts to this particular food group. The first day was a easy, I did not experience headaches or any other adverse side effects. Towards the end of the second day I was craving something more substantial, not sugar or anything unhealthy just something more.  A positive thing was that I did not experience hunger which in the past would lead me to the salty, sugary fattty foods. I thought I would experience a lack of energy, which would not be good with how much I like to exercise, but this did not happen.  Carbohydrates are necessary for me to achieve my goals at the gym, therefore a diet with protein only will not work for me. When I eat large amounts of the wrong carbohydrates I feel bloated, uncomfortable, fat and frustrated. What I also discovered that I feel much better as a whole with higher amounts of protein, I feel thinner and that’s important to me in moving forward.  Now it’s a matter of picking the RIGHT carbohydrates. This was an enlightening experiment!

My previous post Half Measures… I asked what people thought about cheat days and rewards. The consensus was cheat days are not recommended and I have to agree especially for me. In the past when I have implemented a cheat day, it usually turns into 2 days then 3 and so on and then I am back to starting over. I can’t count how many times I have started over. So cheat days are out! The comments on rewards was interesting and got me thinking. The idea of feeling better as a reward has never crossed my mind but it makes so much sense because it encompasses so much more than feeling better. Feeling better can include the opportunity to buy a new wardrobe or having the ability to exercise longer and stronger.

Feeling good and being healthy is becoming my new focus and skinny will follow.

What discoveries have you made about food and exercise during your journey?

Half measures availed us nothing we stood at the turning point…..This is where I am at, the turning point. I can feel a change coming on and am willing. So what will it take to get me off this fence. I am afraid I am going to have to face my fear of the evil scale. It is a method of measurement that at this point might just be my motivating factor. I have been avoiding it for some time now convincing myself that the scale was the root of my failure. When in reality I was avoiding looking at the real root of the problem which is ME. DAMN I hate it when I am the problem (which is usually the case )

I have written about self sabotage in the past and I am coming to realize that I have mastered this. Of all the things I could master why this? I want to to change my mastery and remove self sabotage from my life. In recovery they say to find someone who has what you want and do what they do. I read a lot of blogs looking for people who spark my interest as well as influence and inspire me through their writing. There are several women who inspire me but the two that seem to be on my mind lately are  Jody and Sheri. They have been on the journey to health and fitness for some time now and between them they have faced just about every obstacle I can think of and they have managed jumped through, over or found their way around each obstacle. both of these women made a decision to get healthy and have made a lifestyle change that is livable and long term.  I want what they have and am willing to do what I need to do to get there.

So what is my starting point? Since my half measures are not working for me I feel I need to do something drastic. In order for something to change I need to spend a couple of weeks, maybe longer,  in an all or nothing frame of mind. I have been a believer of not depriving myself of the foods I enjoy. Unfortunately I have noticed I take this to an extreme and am not able to do this in moderation. In other words this is not working for me. I need to set certain milestones where I can reward myself. I think the most frustrating aspect of all this is that I know exactly what to do so why am I having such a hard time implementing it into my lifestyle?

This week I am going to do an experiment where will be focusing on high protein in order to kick my body into a fat burning mode. No jelly beans , no sugar and no complex carbohydrates. I will also face the scale this week. I am hoping this will be the push I need to get my sh*t together and get back on track.

Say bye bye to half measures!

Has anyone tried the Body for Life program where you have one day per week of free eating and no exercise?

Did you use milestones and rewards in your journey?

I want to thank Bobbi for giving me the Versatile Blogger Award. This is my first blogger award and I am very excited to have received it. Bobbi awarded me this over the weekend and it has taken me a bit to respond and for that I apologize. Please check out her blog and you will be amazed at the progress she has made and see the visible drive she has to make a difference through her blog .

The tradition that goes along with this award is the person awarded must list some things that people may not know about you. I have done a post in the past titled “who am I” but I have decided to list some additional items I choose to call “Useless information you never wanted or needed to know about me”.

• I hate raw onions. The texture of them make my skin crawl
• I live in Utah. I love the snow but I hate skiing. Can’t stand being somewhere cold without a blanket and coffee
• My favorite artist is Nickelback
• I sneak alone time and watch One Life to Live (don’t tell anyone)
• I still don’t know what I want to be when/if I grow up
• I sleep with a huggy pillow and can’t spend the night anywhere without it

That’s all I can think of at the moment but I am sure there is all kinds of useless information about me. LOL!!

I now get the honor of passing this on to other amazing bloggers who have inspired me. If you have previously received this it just shows that you have inspired many people through your thoughts and experiences.

I would like to present the Versatile Blogger Award to:

Amy from Here’s the thing….

Roz from Weighting for 50′s

Andrew from Andrew’s Blog

Tara from dietmaven

Darla from My winning year 2011

Sheri from Motivation for Health and Fitness

Every one of these blogs has given me motivation and support in my journey to health and fitness.

Limbo is defined by Webster as an imaginary place for lost or neglected things. I think I am stuck here. HELP!!! The weird thing is my goals are still front and center. I want to lose weight, tone my body up, eat healthier and exercise on a regular basis.  The idea that I am stuck here doesn’t come from eating crappy and not exercising but from my lack of awareness in what I am doing. I am not planning like I should would like to. I am conscious about what I am eating when I am eating it and I will admit that my eating habits are not perfect. As with recovery I believe that success is achieved through progress not perfection. A good friend once told me this is a marathon not a sprint.

So what part of me is stuck in limbo? My desire is still strong. I don’t have any feelings of giving up. So what is my problem? I started my blog so I could hold myself accountable. I was posting 3-4 days per week and lately I have been making one excuse after another of why I won’t blog today. Excuses that include “I don’t have time” and “I don’t have anything to write about”. WFW!!! Quit whining Rachael and get off your ass and do something!! I think this is what they call avoidance. Right???

I am writing this post to test the waters and see if this will give me the kick start I need to get my head back into the game instead of just going through the day going through the motions. I know the first step is just showing up. I don’t have a problem showing up or following through. It is the quality of what I am doing that comes into question.

I have the tools and the knowledge now I just need to put them into actions.

Have you ever been in limbo?

What did you do move past it?

We experience stress on a daily basis, whether it be another driver cutting you off on the freeway, loss of relationship or death of a loved one. This stress can have both physical and mental effects on ones body. As humans we have a strong desire to get as far away from this stress as we can, we escape! A lot of the forms of escape and coping are unhealthy which include; overeating, not eating enough, drugs, alcohol and other destructive behaviors. It seems our natural response to stress is to do things to excess but there are many healthy ways to cope with stress some of which include massage, reading self help books, exercise, writing and talking with people we care about and who care about us.

Recently my stress is stemming from fear of the unknown. For me this is the worst kind of fear because as I have written about before this falls in the area of things I cannot control. There are 2 sayings that I really hate hearing; “everything happens for a reason” and “this too shall pass”.  I don’t like these sayings because it is a confirmation that I have no control. UGH!!!! A friend recently told me “fear is an emotion and not a REALITY”.  I am very good at avoiding emotions I don’t want to feel and for some reason I am having trouble avoiding this feeling. So my other choice is to walk through it and keep in mind the universe has something good in store for me.

I am choosing to walk through this with gratitude. I am making a conscious effort to be grateful for small things in life that bring us joy. Each day I go through my life doing what I do and taking for granted the small stuff.

This is my gratitude list today

Soft pillow in the morning and when I go to bed

Radio in the car

Laughter of my kids

Ibuprofen

Hot water

Sunshine

Girls night in

Good friends

As you walk through your day today look around and find what bring you joy. Is it something you overlook or take for granted? If so write it down so when you have days of fear and stress you can go back to this list and get some feeling of relief. I know for me when I look at what I am grateful for it makes my stresses and fears so much smaller. In essence the fear will lose it’s power because remember “fear is an emotion not a REALITY”.

WE HAVE THE POWER TO CREATE OUR OWN REALITY!

What are you grateful for today?

Patience has never been a virtue of mine. I ask myself why can’t I have this yesterday? Losing weight and getting healthy is not something that happens overnight. WHY NOT? This is a lot of work and it takes planning. UGH!

How do we grow if we don’t work for it? This applies to just about every aspect of life. I read this the other day: The essence of all growth is a willingness to make a change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails. This made so much sense to me. We are taught to do this by our parents when they sent us to school as a child. Those ideals and responsibilities carried into our adult lives through college, career, marriage and raising children. Why should getting healthy take a back seat to any of this?

We take our bodies for granted. We abuse them by not feeding them enough, feeding them too much, not enough activity or too much activity. Getting healthy is a simple process but it is not always an easy process. We have such high expectations of ourselves that our bodies don’t have a chance!

I have heard a lot of frustration with people trying to get healthy because they are either on a plateau or they have made these high expectations and can’t live up to them. Stop! Step back! Look at the progress you have made thus far. Give yourself credit for the progress you have made. No where is it written that we can’t change our plan. We are constantly tweaking how we do things so why can’t this apply to decisions we have made when it comes to losing weight and getting healthy? I am not talking about quitting or changing what your final goal is. I am saying we can change the path to getting there.

Ask yourself these questions:

Am I doing everything I said I would do when I started this journey? If not Why?

Is what I am doing today working for me?

What changes can I make that will allow me to still reach my goals?

Have I made progress?

Am I willing to make some changes if necessary?

Think about your answers. Look behind the answers. Is there something else going on?

I am having some life issues right now and it is definitely effecting my body and how I am taking care of myself. I am not doing everything I said I would do when I began this journey. The reason is because I am not making the right choices on how to deal with my issues. When we have stress in our lives it is critical that we take care of  our bodies both mentally and physically. I have some changes to make in my plan so I can continue to make progress. I am willing to make these changes to continue moving forward.

Are you stuck?

Have you made progress thus far?

What are you doing now that works? (this is more of a selfish question for me….I need some ideas)

We are powerless over people places and things. Power means having control and influence over something or someone, powerless means being without control, without influence, zip. In my recovery from addiction the first thing I learned was that I was powerless over alcohol and drugs and then came to realize that I am powerless over so much more. One example is this post, I had it all written and I have to say it was pretty great LOL!. Something happened to my computer and I lost my entire post so here I am rewriting it . IRONIC!!!! Something happened to me this last weekend that at this point I have no control over. All I can do is turn it over and hope for the best outcome. This event is my motivations for writing this post. I choose to stay positive and away from self defeat. I will accept what ever happens as a result of what happened. I know if I choose to think the worst I will find myself defeated which is hard to come back from.I think powerlessness is a form of fear of the unknown. Just like my image of rock, paper scissor game. We never know what the outcome will be, smothered, cut or smashed. The unknown SUCKS but it is real life! We have a choice on how we deal with it.

A friend of mine once explained to me a system called the circle of influence and the circle of control. To me this means in order to control we need to influence. We are not powerless over our attitudes, our own behavior, our own self-image, our own determination or our commitment to our goals. If we exercise the power/influence we have daily the results will be exhilarating. I know if I am keeping my side of the street clean then I don’t have to feel or respond in any way that is unhealthy for me.

We have choices and theses choices can dictate the outcome of any situation.  We have the choice of how we react to other people if they are hurtful or negative. These choices are what give us power or take it away!

What choices will you make today to help you feel the power you deserve?

Darla from My winning year is hosting a giveaway and she has 2 copies of The Art of Extreme Self-Care – Transform Your Life One Month at a Time by Cheryl Richardson. The following is from her post

Here are the chapter titles:

Chapter 1 – End the Legacy of Deprivation
Chapter 2 – Mirror, Mirror on the Wall – (the I love me experiment)
Chapter 3 – Let Me Disappoint You (This is a great chapter for people pleasers).
Chapter 4 – The Power of Rhythm and Routine
Chapter 5 – Take your Hands off the Wheel
Chapter 6 – The Absolute No List (love this one)
Chapter 7 – Soul-Loving Space
Chapter 8 – You’re So Sensitive (who’s ever heard this one before?)
Chapter 9 – Tune-up Time
Chapter 10 – Does That Anger Taste Good? (I’m curious now)
Chapter 11 – Wake Up!
Chapter 12 – Your Extreme Self-Care First-Aid Kit (I can’t wait to get to this chapter)

I have blogged about this book Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. This is an amazing book and if you don’t win it in her give away I would recommend buying it.

Go check out her blog and enter to win a copy of this amazing book.

I was at the gym today on the arc trainer doing my cardio workout and realized I wasn’t thinking to myself “will this ever end”.  That is a huge change for my. I am usually looking at the time counting down the time so I can be done with this “dreadful workout”. The workout was definitely hard but all that didn’t matter today. I wasn’t thinking about how much time I had left. I was having thought of being thin and healthy and how summer was coming and it would soon be time to wear a swim suit. Somewhere in the last couple of days some sort of shift in my brain and my body happened and I am liking it. It could be that all this hard work is paying. It is easier to enjoy what we are doing when we see results.

What I am wondering if it is a result of my previous posts; Get Over the Wall of Self Sabotage, Taking Action, Positive Self Talk, DO IT TODAY!!! and How Much Power Does Your Scale Have? were the steps I needed to take to get to the point I am at today and realize that exercise and healthy eating is part of my life on a permanent basis. This is called ACCEPTANCE in my book.

I am feeling so good today.

I want to shout it out to the world

Any major shifts in your thoughts and actions?

Tell us what happened and how it effected you?