Post: #1

This is Day 7 of Live a Healthier Life in 21 Days Challenge. Subscribe to the free newsletter for lifetime access of personal development articles and future challenge announcements like this one.



Hello guys! It's been 7 days since we embarked on our 21-day challenge to live our healthiest life ever. How's everyone doing in the past 6 days? Have you been drinking lots of water? Have you created your calorie list? Have you worked out your ideal meal plan? Have you sent your ideal meal plan on a test drive? Have you gone grocery shopping? And last but not least, have you had at least 5 servings of fruits/vegetables yesterday?

The past 6 days has been very fun-filled and healthy for me. I haven't felt this healthy in a while - clearing out junk food/low nutritional carbs out of my diet, and ushering in a diet that's full of raw and fresh fruits and vegetables. Here's sharing some of my journal pictures in the past 6 days:



Out grocery shopping - Lots of fruits



Food items I purchased on Day 1 for my 21DHL



A typical day preparing my dinner! (a huge salad of fruits and veg!)


Nuts for the salad - Walnuts/cashews on the left, organic sunflower seeds + pumpkin seeds on the right. I usually take about table spoon of each for my salads.


Dressing ♥ Also my mini-weighing scale I bought years ago to take measurements of food. With this, I have clarity of the quantities I'm eating, vs. just making assumptions. It's good to weigh once to get a sense of the right proportions.



Ingredients: Buttergreen lettuce, button mushrooms, beansprouts, oranges, grapes, walnuts, cashew, organic sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, advocado+garlic dressing and light mayo dressing. I LOVE this. I can go for 4-5 days eating this just fine! Hmm ok, looking at this picture is making me feel hungry...


Eating and checking out all your posts at the forums at the same time ^^



Fruit smoothie - Orange, mango and ginger. I never thought of putting ginger in a fruit smoothie before! After I bought this at the stall, I went to purchase ginger during my grocery trip and included it in my smoothies too. Nice and spicy!



One of my regular snack items - Button mushroom, oranges and grapes. Very nice ♥



Another of my daily salads ♥ Very delicious.

As I had written in my 21DHL journal, after almost a week of having absolute joy eating my raw foods, I find my palate now looking for a different taste. Not cooked food, but different types of raw foods. I realize that's my pattern of behavior with eating - I like to stick to one type of meal arrangement for ~1 week, then the next week I want to change it out for some variety.

So one of the key things I'm going to work on today is to create a variety of different meal plans for different weeks, so I can rotate around them each week. I'm also going to do my aerobics and go swimming later, followed by grocery shopping after that. Will share pictures of my purchases in my journal at the end of the day!

With that, let's now get to Day 7's task!

21DHL Day 7 - 21DHL Day 7 - Review & Plan for Week 2!

While our challenge is set for 21 days, healthy living is for life. It's about creating this healthy lifestyle that will sustain itself in the long term, no matter what happens. 21DHL is meant as a trigger to help you jumpstart your healthy living goals, via a combined platform where different individuals all around the world get together to achieve a healthier lifestyle.



Some people might face the problem where they face success with a renewed lifestyle for 1-2 days, then revert back to their old habits and behaviors after that. That's because they see it as a short-term goal rather than a lifelong journey.

It's normal to have disruptions in our diet, exercise and lifestyle goals. If you feel you have "fallen" off the wagon in the past few days, I want to let you know that it doesn't matter. If you haven't been able to catch up on some of the tasks, I want to let you know that it doesn't matter either. Beating yourself up isn't going to help you live a healthier life. The question isn't about whether you met the target for the day or not. The question is whether you have learned from what happened so that you'll get better at doing it. The question is whether you know what are the key actions to take to succeed in your plan moving forward.

So today, we're going to review our past week of 21DHL and plan for week 2 ahead!

Step 1 - Fall in line with the 21DHL Tasks

Review our first 6 tasks for 21DHL. If there are any tasks you haven't done yet, today's the best time to catch up on them!

• Day 0 - Pre-Work
• Day 1 - Drink 8 Glasses of Water
• Day 2 - Create a Calorie List
• Day 3 - Your Ideal Meal Plan
• Day 4 - Follow Your Ideal Meal Plan
• Day 5 - Go Grocery Shopping!
• Day 6 - Eat 5 Servings of Fruits/Vegetables
  

Step 2 - Review Your Past Week

Review your past week with the 21DHL challenge. Think about your experiences with your 21-day action plan, your intentions when you embarked on 21DHL and your status right now.

1. On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your health and fitness for the past week (including your diet, fitness and lifestyle goals)? Why?
2. Were there any times where you fell off track in your healthy lifestyle goals?
   
   1. Diet
   2. Fitness
   3. Lifestyle (Waking/Sleeping times, Other habits like meditation)
      
3. If so, what happened during those times that took you off track? What can you learn from the incidences?
4. What can you do differently moving forward in living an even healthier life?
   

Step 3 - Set Your Week 2 Action Plan for 21DHL!

As we move into Week 2 of 21DHL (of 3 weeks), what are your key goals for the next week? Review your 21-Day Action Plan and add on/revise your tasks/goals for week 2 where needed. If your goals are the same, you can stick with what you've written.

Then, write down your key action steps that will enable you to accomplish all your week 2 targets. What are you going to do in preparation for Week 2 ahead? How can you make Week 2 even better than Week 1?

Here are some of my action steps to create a successful Week 2 ahead:

• Research on raw recipes
• Work out a range of ideal meal plans for different weeks, so I can pick out whichever meal plan I want for the week
• Go grocery shopping and expand my vegetables/fruit selection so I have even more variety
• Stick to my exercise timings - Finish work on time so they don't overrun into my exercise sessions.
  

Day 7 of Your 21-Day Action Plan

What are your 21DHL tasks listed for today? Do them with excellence and report them in your 21DHL Journal! Also, read your group mates' 21DHL journals and cheer them along! Pick a few members' journals and make it a point to post meaningful replies there.

Remember, if you feel a particular member is doing a great job in helping others/you, give him/her a reputation point! Click to his/her profile page, look under reputation, and click "Rate". Then, select +1 and type the reason you're giving this rating to him/her.

Share Your Progress on Day 7!

How's your progress on following your ideal meal plan today? Share with everyone! Let's all kick Day 7 into high gear guys!

In the meanwhile, stay tuned for Day 8's task!

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #2

I am on my 5th day since started Monday, 1/3, but completed the 7 actions so far (need better grcoery run still). Feel great. Miss diet soda and wine but sleeping much better! Walking a 45-60 mins daily too. Plan to add 15 mins of daily calisthenics or yoga and more veggies for the next week. The weekends will be harder.

Post: #3

Day 7 - Review & Plan for Week 2

1. On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your health and fitness for the past week (including your diet, fitness and lifestyle goals)? Why?
   
   I’d say 6 because I had to nap instead of doing my strength training on Monday. Also, I have only been engaging in the daily movement task on a minor level. Not in the way they were intended.
2. Were there any times where you fell off track in your healthy lifestyle goals?
   
   1. Diet
      No – this was fantastic!
   2. Fitness
      -This was my problem. I had to skip one strength training session because I had to nap to make up for a horrible night’s sleep.
      -Also, I was very lazy about engaging in my daily movement sessions of just 15 minutes. This is definitely my weak point, and having lots of January snowstorms make it hard to engage in walking or other sports. I use the weather as an excuse (one of many) to rationalize being lazy.
   3. Lifestyle (Waking/Sleeping times, Other habits like meditation)
      Almost perfect. A few lapses, but 90-95% success.
   4. If so, what happened during those times that took you off track? What can you learn from the incidences?
      • Lack of sleep – probably stems from some worries about work.
      • Lots of snow – need to plan indoor fitness activities even though I prefer being outdoors.
      • Laziness/reluctance – I hate getting changed into my fitness clothes when it’s so cold. Also, I hate leaving off my work in the middle of the day. Need to get into the habit.
        
   5. What can you do differently moving forward in living an even healthier life?
      
      I want to get into the habit of walking to the gym and riding my bike when I go to other places. Never mind the hills.
      
3. Here are some of my action steps to create a successful Week 2 ahead:
   
   Figure out a way to get exercise when the show is heavy. I don’t have to shovel, but it takes hours to walk anywhere, and it’s impossible to ride my bike. Maybe hooking up my Dad’s old Richard Simmons “Sweating to the Oldies” VCR tapes in the basement.
   

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

~The Summer Day, Mary Oliver

Post: #4

Thanks a lot for sharing Maji!

Maji Wrote:Figure out a way to get exercise when the show is heavy. I don’t have to shovel, but it takes hours to walk anywhere, and it’s impossible to ride my bike. Maybe hooking up my Dad’s old Richard Simmons “Sweating to the Oldies” VCR tapes in the basement.

I face the same problem as you too - it often rains here in Singapore and when that happens I can't get out to exercise. I've found a solution to tackle that though. Check out Day 8's task - you'll find a video there that might help with your situation!

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #5

I just noticed that the forum looks very well designed on your laptop...
this is how it looks like on my pc (I have a windows XP and using internet explorer) I just thought you should know about this

Post: #6

Day 7 - Review

1. On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your health and fitness for the past week (including your diet, fitness and lifestyle goals)? Why?
I’d say 6 – Diet and lifestyle was great, but I had problems with exercise . I’ve not been to the gym as planned. I did, however, go for 30min walks twice during the week.

2. Were there any times where you fell off track in your healthy lifestyle goals?
(1) Diet was fine. I've been taking water, fruits and vegetables according to plan every day. However, I would like to improve next week as I would like to choose lower calories fruits – e.g. instead of bananas, and lychees – take more fruits like apples, oranges, and papaya .

(2) Fitness – Big problem here. We’ve had rain and thunder in the afternoons so that I did not really feel like going to the gym. I did go for 30min walks twice. Like Maji, I’m also using the weather as excuse – except instead of snow, it’s very very hot and humid - it was around 35 degC today.

(3) Lifestyle – on track. I’ve been getting enough sleep,and meditated around 10mins. I have also reduced the time spent on idle browsing and facebook games. Work has been smooth and not too stressful as many people at management level were still on leave.
Things will be more hectic as from next week as school resumes and work is also full blow. Traffic will be a nightmare - as comparison, this past week, it took me around 15 mins to drive to work, as from Monday it will probably take me more than one hour

Things that were off track were mostly caused by lack of planning, procrastination about exercise or rather about going to the gym. Walking is ok, but the weather has been terrible.

4.What can you do differently moving forward in living an even healthier life?
Diet: I will now follow a plan with which I had lost a lot of weight previously – it’s called Weighless – similar to Weightwatchers. It will be easier than counting calories for individual items. Will give more details after I dig out my old files

Fitness: I will take my clothes for the gym with me in the morning so that I can go there directly after work – it’s much harder to come back home then go out again.

Post: #7

Bilal Wrote:I just noticed that the forum looks very well designed on your laptop...
this is how it looks like on my pc (I have a windows XP and using internet explorer) I just thought you should know about this

Hey Bilal! Thanks for letting me know. It looks like it's to do with your screen size. If you pick a bigger screen size (1024x768 and above), it should appear fine

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #8

Yes Thankyou Celes, not only did I fall off the wagon but I smashed it up as well. Lost focus momentarily, and very happy to realise the error of my ways ... patch up my wagon and get right back on. It was great to find out for myself just how much I was overeating. Real big eye opener for me and am very grateful. Was busting to jump on my scales, but after Saturdays debarkle of falling off the wagon ... I can last until the end of our challenge.

With Great Warmth and Possibilities To All

TeRina
http://www.LifeDzine.com

Post: #9

(01-09-2011 02:13 AM)Celes Wrote:  Hey Bilal! Thanks for letting me know. It looks like it's to do with your screen size. If you pick a bigger screen size (1024x768 and above), it should appear fine

Nope I don't think that's the problem; my screen size is indeed 1024x768
I think we should ask more windows and internet explorer users to see what they get

Post: #10

Hey Celes! we have the same notebook, I just noticed looking at the pictures....

Post: #11

It looks as though I'm in the same boat with several others--diet is great, but fitness, um, not so much LOL. I'm SO glad there was a reflect-and-catch-up day in here--perfect timing, Celes, since I "lost" a day going over the int'l dateline--I'm exhausted, confused, and trying to figure out what day it is Until this, I was keeping up quite well with the daily tasks, for which I am grateful to you,and commenting on some blogs...am not going to beat myself up--I'm not in charge of the sun's rising and setting!

The past week with the 21DHL challenge has been lots of fun and eye-opening...my portion size was all out of control, I found out when I started weighing and measuring. I loved having a meal plan because, even when I deviated from it, I was never far off and I liked having a go-to meal so that I didn't just open the fridge and eat everything in sight. I have penciled in three pretzel rods every evening--it's 120 calories of BLISS for me and keeps me from mindlessly munching. I need to figure out what will work for me in terms of movement; I am doing well with the yoga and strength, but not at all well with the cardio...what to do, what to do...I will have to either bite the bullet, quit whining, and just do it or come up with some treat for myself for completing that (is that pathetic that I need a gold star of some sort?!). My lifestyle goals are going perfectly, so I'm going to give myself an 8 for the week, thanks to everyones's help

My key goals for the next nine (I think--or eight?) days are to survive and to thrive. I need to survive all the travel ahead, and I'd like to thrive, maintaining the progress on food and lifestyle challenges, and adding cardio to my routine. I'm thinking that all the walking through airports should get me in the habit of walking, so I will figure out how I can translate that into daily life when I am NOT in an airport I have my meal plan all done and shopping completed. I will be eating out a lot, so I will practice healthy eating from a menu. Sleeping is under control despite being 12 hours away from my normal pattern (I guess I really AM a night owl!!)

I think I'm rambling and I still have another day (or two) to catch up on, so I'll close this out and head over to day 8. Thanks for listening!

PS, Celes--I like your idea of having a number of ideal meal plans for different weeks--I prefer to eat the same foods for a period of time and then, suddenly, tire of them...it would be great to just pull out a different week and keep on keeping on instead of losing a couple of days of focus like I usually do...thanks much for that--I will make it a goal for week 3.

Post: #12

The only task I have trouble with is doing my ideal meal plan. Even on weekends, I'm not home often enough to manage the super cool meals I envisioned. Never mind, I do feel I'm adding more and more veggies to my diet, which rocks! I guess having a kitchen in my new place (moved 10 days ago) does help a lot

On scale 1-10, I would rate myself 6.5, because I still somehow feel too tired & my mind is still too cluttered. Plus I wish I could have run more often (only twice...) & eaten more fruits. But I'm really happy with the water intake, morning work-out & the 2 hikes I've done (especially the one on Saturday morning, 4 hours in the Kuala Lumpur hills in the suburbs).


Credits to Michael Thessel who was hiking with me


Failures of the week (not at many as it could be, but still too many for perfectionist-me )

- Woke up late 2 days out of 7
- Didn't meditate 4 days out of 7. Need to wake up on time so that I have more time at the end of the afternoon...
- Didn't eat an apple 2 days, need to get more appealing ones
- Still need to improve the 5 servings of fruits / veggies...


Goals for Week 2!

- Keep on good tracks for the 2L-drinking, the morning workout and the overall higher number of veggies
- Improve my breakfast (feel hungry again at 9.30am...)
- Get down to meditation
- Go to bed earlier when I'm planning to run / parkour the next day
- Go grocery shopping twice (I'm starting to love that haha)

An eye for an eye only ends up making the world blind. (Gandhi)
http://matsallehrempit.wordpress.com