Last week was a shocker, but I feel I gained a lot more understanding about myself and I hope I can improve my situation in the future.
This week, I'm excited!! Because, I've decided to travel back to my home Australia in just over 2 months time - yeah!! So, I'm motivated to reach my first goal (lose 5 kg) before travelling home to see my family. I looked at my timeframe and I think it's realistic. I've already achieved (1.5kg loss) so I only have another 3.5kg to go. My goal is to achieve 0.5kg loss each week and I've got a few weeks spare for those weeks where you don't seem to lose a thing. I've also allowed myself to just maintain my weight loss while in Australia so I can have fun eating some foods but in moderation. I'll also be keen to go back and do some dancing classes to keep up some level of exercise while I'm in Australia.
My reward will be: a mini shopping spree in Australia. I should be a size smaller so will be excited to be buying some nice clothes for winter (great boots and awesome colourful coat for starters, ha,ha).
So that being said, this week I've set a few goals:
* Lose 0.5 kg (68kg)
* Plan to do at least 30mins exercise 5 x this week.
* Plan some healthy meals for dinners
* Work on portion sizes and eating slower
Eating slower is really hard for me, but if I can try harder on this one, I think it will prevent me from over-eating and feeling more satisfied with my meal and not looking for so many snacks.
So I want to try the following things this week:
* Drink 1 glass of water before my meal (while preparing the meal)
* Look at my plate and think about and serve myself reasonable portions for the meal (remember I can eat more if I need to)
* Sit down somewhere quiet and peaceful.
* Remind myself of my goals and talk through the steps I will follow for eating this meal
* Look at my meal and decide where I will stop (1/2 way through the meal)
* Take smaller portions of the meal on my fork/spoon/chopstick and eat the food slowly (chew at least 10 times).
* Put the utensils down between eat mouthful.
* Try to engage some conversation with a friend/partner if sharing a meal
* 1/2 way through the meal, stop eating. Take a drink, go to the bathroom, make some conversation. Try to stop eating for around 5mins.
* After 5 mins, assess how hungry I am and decide how much more of the meal I think I want to eat.
* As I continue to eat, assess how satisfied I am feeling. Try to stop when I feel satisfied, realising that 5 mins later I will probably feel full.
* Drink some water to fill in any more gaps I may feel.
* As soon as I've decided to finish, put my meal away (to avoid picking at it) and engage in conversation if the other person is still eating (this shouldn't be the case as you'll likely be eating much slower than the other person and they'll be waiting for you).
** Finally think about the way you look when you eat your meal fast. Imagine a pig scoffing down food versus a petite princess, slowly and beautifully and politely eating a meal. Which one would you prefer to be, the pig scoffing down the food and making other people around you feel disgusted watching you scoff your food or the beautiful, graceful princess who takes her time and looks beautiful while eating her meal.
On a more positive note: it's always a compliment to the chef and just a good thing for yourself if you take the time to really taste, feel and smell the foods. Enjoy food, enjoy your meals and enjoy life!!
OK, it's a bit to remember, so I'll print it off and keep it in my dairy or even on my wall at home where I eat so I can remember the steps. I hope this one will become a habit.
Cheers
Kirsty
Saturday, 2 June 2007
I week of chaos and craziness!!
Well let's just start with the truth!! Last week sucked big time in regards to me taking any real control over my eating and exercise. I can and did put most of the blame on that I was very busy last week....but, in reality, I think I may have used this as a bit of a cop out of really taking a little time to take responsibility for my eating and exercise.
Funny enough, i just looked up the word for busyness....take a look at this:
lively but meaningless activity.
something cluttered with detail to the point of being distracting.
My personality is somewhat detailed!! and perfectionistic. And one tell tale sign is when I get busy or have a lot going on, suddenly my life becomes clutttered with detail, and meaningless activity which often distracts me from my real goals and focus in life. I seem to get caught up in this wirlwind of lively but meaningless actvity. All my energy and emotion is focused on these details and I get distracted from the things that really matter to me.
Last week, I had a number of projects to complete in a reasonably short time-frame. Ideally, I should have listed the things that were a "must do" and prioritise them by most important and urgent. Then I should have given myself a time limit to get the tasks done, remembering that perfection may not be possible in the time-frames given. Also, I should remember that there are more important things in life such as getting enough sleep, rest, eating well and exercise that will help me function well and complete my deadlines better.
Actually, I did attempt to do these things and I even encouraged myself to try and not be so perfect about the tasks and to just get them done. Ah, alas but my personality in detail and perfectionism have been ingrained into my thinking and actions for so long, they didn't really take my advice seriously and low and behold, I found myself getting quite cluttered with detail and frazzled from overwork (that I gave myself - not from anyone else!!!).
As a result, my energy and focus was so engrossed in my meaningless detail that it did become a distraction to everything else in my life. I felt I had no energy or time for bothering with preparing healthy meals or doing exercise (apart from Salsa dancing) and I was constantly looking toward coffee, caffinated products and sugary foods to get an extra boost. Even though I knew these weren't healthy choices, I rationalised my decision by saying that I just needed some more energy to finish the task or get the next task done or that it was only temporary and I'd get back on track next week. Lucky for me, I really do want to get back on track and I do want to find a better way, thus the reason I'm writing my story down now!!
Actually, I've found this experience to be a good lesson to learn. I definitely have discovered over the past couple of weeks that a couple of environmental things have had a strong and negative effect on my sense of control or ability to control my eating and exercise. It is good to see what environmental/mental/emotional factors seem to trigger me to relapsing into unhealthy eating and lack of exercise. I've noticed the 4 following things that have been problem areas for me:
1. Boredom (as seen in the last blog....I can't seem to stop munching).
2. Busyness (my experience last week, I get so caught up in details that I neglect the basic things in life which keep me fit and healthy).
3. Tiredness / Lethargy (tiredness is the result of busyness and lethargy is the result of boredom)
4. Sickness (results of busyness, tiredness, unhealthy eating and lack of exercise. All these factors combined usually result in my body crying out for me to stop treating it so badly)
I'm so thankful to myself for starting this blog because writing this stuff down is really helping me to understand what is happening in my life. I can see the way I'm reacting to different events, and the way I'm thinking and the actions I'm choosing. I am able to see more clearly the results my thoughts and decisions are having and how their affecting my life (for the better or worse).
Anyway, that's enough for today. Last week was a tough one, a wake-up call and a lesson to be learned. I'm back on track and ready for the next challenge.
cheers
Kirsty
Funny enough, i just looked up the word for busyness....take a look at this:
lively but meaningless activity.
something cluttered with detail to the point of being distracting.
My personality is somewhat detailed!! and perfectionistic. And one tell tale sign is when I get busy or have a lot going on, suddenly my life becomes clutttered with detail, and meaningless activity which often distracts me from my real goals and focus in life. I seem to get caught up in this wirlwind of lively but meaningless actvity. All my energy and emotion is focused on these details and I get distracted from the things that really matter to me.
Last week, I had a number of projects to complete in a reasonably short time-frame. Ideally, I should have listed the things that were a "must do" and prioritise them by most important and urgent. Then I should have given myself a time limit to get the tasks done, remembering that perfection may not be possible in the time-frames given. Also, I should remember that there are more important things in life such as getting enough sleep, rest, eating well and exercise that will help me function well and complete my deadlines better.
Actually, I did attempt to do these things and I even encouraged myself to try and not be so perfect about the tasks and to just get them done. Ah, alas but my personality in detail and perfectionism have been ingrained into my thinking and actions for so long, they didn't really take my advice seriously and low and behold, I found myself getting quite cluttered with detail and frazzled from overwork (that I gave myself - not from anyone else!!!).
As a result, my energy and focus was so engrossed in my meaningless detail that it did become a distraction to everything else in my life. I felt I had no energy or time for bothering with preparing healthy meals or doing exercise (apart from Salsa dancing) and I was constantly looking toward coffee, caffinated products and sugary foods to get an extra boost. Even though I knew these weren't healthy choices, I rationalised my decision by saying that I just needed some more energy to finish the task or get the next task done or that it was only temporary and I'd get back on track next week. Lucky for me, I really do want to get back on track and I do want to find a better way, thus the reason I'm writing my story down now!!
Actually, I've found this experience to be a good lesson to learn. I definitely have discovered over the past couple of weeks that a couple of environmental things have had a strong and negative effect on my sense of control or ability to control my eating and exercise. It is good to see what environmental/mental/emotional factors seem to trigger me to relapsing into unhealthy eating and lack of exercise. I've noticed the 4 following things that have been problem areas for me:
1. Boredom (as seen in the last blog....I can't seem to stop munching).
2. Busyness (my experience last week, I get so caught up in details that I neglect the basic things in life which keep me fit and healthy).
3. Tiredness / Lethargy (tiredness is the result of busyness and lethargy is the result of boredom)
4. Sickness (results of busyness, tiredness, unhealthy eating and lack of exercise. All these factors combined usually result in my body crying out for me to stop treating it so badly)
I'm so thankful to myself for starting this blog because writing this stuff down is really helping me to understand what is happening in my life. I can see the way I'm reacting to different events, and the way I'm thinking and the actions I'm choosing. I am able to see more clearly the results my thoughts and decisions are having and how their affecting my life (for the better or worse).
Anyway, that's enough for today. Last week was a tough one, a wake-up call and a lesson to be learned. I'm back on track and ready for the next challenge.
cheers
Kirsty
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