Post: #21

Yesterday my internet wouldn't let me on PE and now my computer cannot even access the internet so I'll be posting two days worth of stuff (but I think writing less for each than usual because I quite dislike my brother's mac and its keyboard)

I eventually did get to the grocery store yesterday, but I only had $15 (equivalent in USD) with me. I bought 2 or 3 packets of almonds, 2 packets of peanuts (for my brother), a water bottle, 4 or 5 fuji apples (my favourite kind of apples) and a bunch of grapes for snacks before.

Day 7 - Review and Plan For Week 2

For me and what I'm trying to get out of this challenge, almost half of the tasks this week have not been very relevant. The calorie-related tasks didn't really bear much significance to me at this point in my life; though if this runs next year, I'm sure it would be moreso. The water-drinking has been going well, I've been eating much healthier than I had been and I've been holding myself accountable for what I eat. I think it's been successful thusfar and I don't think it would have been as effective if there weren't so many other people doing this too and everyone's been so wonderful about supporting each other.

This next week, I plan on continuing as I have been, eating healthier, drinking water and doing the tasks. School starts on Monday for me so I will definitely be waking up early and therefore I'll have to go to bed earlier so that'll be a new goal (I often just get very little sleep). Another goal for the new week is to not sleep on Monday afternoons and to put more effort into my schoolwork.

Day 8 - Get a Great Workout

As far as exercises that I think I am capable of, here are those which I think I can do regularly, perhaps a few times per week:

• I could try home aerobics, as Celes suggested
• I could get an exercise video off the internet
• I could try walking more briskly between locations
• I could swim more often
• I could use a stationary bike (my dad has one)
• I could get a skipping rope
  

I'm sure there are plenty of other alternatives to get this lazy half-cripple off her arse and exercise ; and once I try out these, I can work out a routine.

Other

Water

I haven't been keeping such specific track of the amount I've been drinking in the past two days but I think I've been getting enough. Yesterday I bought a new see-through, 500mL water bottle so I can more easily measure my water intake at school. I will have to fill it 5 times in the course of a day.

Food Intake

Friday

• Scrambled eggs
• Porridge
• Nature Valley granola bar (peanut butter)
• Grapes
• Lasagne
• Caesar salad
• Garlic bread
• More grapes
  

Saturday

• Fuji apple
• Beans on toast
• Almonds
• Left-over lasagne
• Half a slice of toast with peanut butter
  

Post: #22

Hello all, I haven't posted in a couple days because I've not had internet access. I'm borrowing my brother's old computer to update this.

Day 8 - Get a Great Workout (after doing... anything)

I've not done spectacularly but that night I tried out an exercise video (well, a series of short ones) and my muscles hurt now. I'll probably do that video again next week (I wouldn't do that too often until I'm used to exercising my muscles in groups at a time). In the meantime, I'll try one of the other things I mentioned in my previous post.

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Day 9 - Eat 5 Servings of Fruits and Vegetables

I'm going to do this one tomorrow since I just got online this evening. I don't know how difficult this'll be. On a normal day, at minimum I will get 3 and I would normally get between 4 and 6 servings. I think that I can do better. With applied effort, I can ensure that I don't go a day with fewer than 5 servings.
Here are some things I can do to improve:

• I could bring an apple/fruit to school with me in addition to the one I eat for breakfast
• I could eat a banana with some milk when I get home
• I would cook pumpkin more often (because it's beautiful)
• I would still drink orange juice
• I could try making smoothies (everyone's photos I've seen look delicious!!!)
• I could buy snow peas/broccoli/carrots to eat as snacks
  

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Day 10 - Have a Caffeine-Free Day

Conveniently, I am already on track with this one. I stopped drinking caffeine on the 24th of November (even stopped drinking my beloved sugary iced tea!). I will still have the occasional cup of tea with my brother (bonding ) but I don't drink soda, never have liked coffee and I don't drink more than 500mL of tea on any given day.

A month or three ago, there was an article on Yahoo Canada about how apples are better than caffeine for waking up. This is why I eat an apple every morning for breakfast and so far it's been working rather well; for example, last night I slept terribly, less than 3 hours of sleep. Ate an apple and a little while later I was decently energetic and managed to get through the school day (and then I went to sleep when I got home. I probably could have just eaten another apple but I wanted to sleep)
I've been trying to find the article but have been unsuccessful today. I might edit this post and insert it for future reference once I get internet on my computer.

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Other

Water
Haven't had enough today yet, though I've had enough on the days I didn't update. Turns out my water bottle leaks, thus making me a bit hesitant to fill it up during the school day (I didn't want it to get my boyfriend's Christmas gift wet). Also I had to go to the bathroom a lot. I don't notice as much when I'm at home but at school I never use the school bathrooms generally.

Food Intake

Today I'm not going to list all the food I've eaten for the past two-three days because that would be boring to write out and this computer is roasting my lap. Instead I'll just write the interesting thing: since I simply intend to make healthier decisions with my eating, I made a decision yesterday. I really wanted some chocolate. My desire is rather understandable since my room is filled with candy and chocolate (I got a LOT for Christmas). Instead of m&ms or Skittles or the likes, I chose to have the less sugary bar of dark Belgian chocolate with chunks of crystallized ginger in it. It was beautiful; I could not regret cheating with something as beautiful as that was (sorry if this is tempting you in any way but it made me so happy). It wasn't healthy, but it was healthIER than other candy/chocolate

Post: #23

(01-09-2012 10:40 PM)kfenato Wrote:  Also I had to go to the bathroom a lot. I don't notice as much when I'm at home but at school I never use the school bathrooms generally.[...]
Instead of m&ms or Skittles or the likes, I chose to have the less sugary bar of dark Belgian chocolate with chunks of crystallized ginger in it.

Ohh, I'm not the only one who noticed the more frequent bathroom breaks It's kinda annoying, it being downstairs from my room >.<

And dark chocolate is yummy. I remember the first time I tried the 99% Lindt one. It said one should gradually go through 70% and 80% before that, but nevermind - I got used quite fast and loved it
Right now, I drink cocoa made with 100% cocoa powder. I don't add sugar myself either - it's good enough! I tried cocoa with weird flavours before - never again!
Chocolate, especially dark and cocoa, does seem to have health benefits, as far as studies show http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...051159.htm

"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable."

Post: #24

I think that I'm going to be posting every second day but still doing the tasks. I still don't have internet on my computer at home so right now I'm in the computer lab in the art building (I have a free period). I'm 3 days behind in my updates so I think I'm going to write a huge post today.

Day 11 - Identify Your Healthy Living Pitfalls

Currently here are the pitfalls I've been having (the most significant that I've noticed at the moment):

1. Since I've been back at school, I've been having difficulty getting enough water during the day because the water bottle that I bought last Saturday leaks so I've not been filling it (and I lost it a day or two ago because it wasn't in my bag)
I could improve on this by using a normal water bottle (the ones that bottled water come in) because those have a nice twist top and I'll only have to fill it 4 times, assuming it's a normal 600mL one.

2. I haven't been exercising nor have I been doing the stretching that my doctor-guy has instructed me to do for my feet.
I could improve this by allotting a part of my day to just doing these. My doctor guy recommended that I do the stretching in the morning and in the evening. There are two ways I can do this: I could walk around without shoes (which also gives me time to think about things) and/or I have a giant piece of rubber for stretching with. I might be able to use the rubber thing in the morning on the bus on the way to school (the people on my bus think/know I'm weird anyway.

3. The amount of junkfood in my house is accumulating because normally I would eat it. This isn't exactly unhealthy, my not eating it, but it gets rather tempting from time to time.
My mom's been buying a lot more healthy foods since I started the challenge (I ask her to buy nuts, fruits, pumpkin, broccoli, etc) but I should probably inform her that I'm not going to eat the Chips Ahoy cookies she bought yesterday (she was rather proud of her purchase because you can't really get them here) or the salt and vinegar chips or the 6-8 boxes of Poptarts in my cupboard.

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Day 12 - Evaluate Your Relationship With Food

I think I have a rather alright relationship with food as far as the signs go because I'm not terribly fond of food in general. I usually just eat if I'm hungry or bored and I'm bored more often than I feel hungry oftentimes.
Lately I've improved that so I try not to eat because I'm bored and instead I go to the kitchen, open the cupboard and look at all the unhealthy food I could be eating and get a little sense of pride that I'm not eating it. It's a little backward but it seems to work when I feel like eating due to boredom.
I think if I were having an issue with food, it would be because I don't eat enough nutritious food and what I do eat is junk so I've been working on that and eating a lot of apples (well, two per day and an orange juice)to satisfy my love of sweet things.
Of those those indicators, I got a 1 or 2 so that's pretty good.

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Day 13 - Explore Your Relationship With Food

I think I sort of did that before except that I didn't think of why I would eat when I'm bored. I suppose it's just out of habit that I would look and see what new things my mom buys and then I'd pick something. It would satisfy a curiosity and it would generally taste good and things that taste good are enjoyable. It would temporarily cure my boredom. I could be doing just about anything else and I already wrote about what I'm doing to improve on this habit.

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My free period is just about over so I'm going to go buy my lunch before the lines start and I'll get something nice and healthy

Also thanks JadePenguin for the link to the article and I think I'll try some of the darker chocolates if I'm going to have any chocolate. I think it'd be a nice reward at the end of the week or for something positive. It won't make me feel as much like I'm cheating or something. I had the 80% one before and it was marvelous

Post: #25

Day 14 - Review and Plan for the Last Week
I'm going to do the tasks as usual, and continue with the ones relevent to me and maybe some other stuff too

• I am going to get a normal disposable water bottle (and decorate it so I don't throw it out) to carry with me so I can better keep track of my water intake
• Continue to make an effort to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables (5+ servings)
• Go to my doctor to improve my feet again
• Retry brushing my teeth twice a day
• Try flossing
• Use the Wii Fit (at least it's something I can do afterschool)
• Pay more attention to the food I eat
• Set up some reminders to continue with the tasks from this after the 21st
  

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Today and Yesterday Pitfalls and Triumphs

I woke up WAY too late today. Waking up at a particular time wasn't one of my goals if I recall correctly but I didn't get up until 3pm!!! I went to bed at nearly 2am but even then I normally wouldn't get up any later than 11am on a weekend. There was an Irish Pub Night at my house so I stayed up and talked to random people and showed them my art and such. I was pretty good as far as healthy things go during that. I only drank water (despite having been offered a stronger drink) and didn't eat the chips that were in bowls all over the place.

Another pitfall was that I ate too much in a short time period. I was going out with some friends to a movie so I had a chicken sandwich beforehand so I had a good reason not to buy popcorn (besides the obvious) since I wouldn't be really hungry. It turned out that we were going to have dinner at the mall and we didn't have time for a movie. We went to a sushi place and there was only one thing I liked there (because I dislike Asian food; ironic, eh?) so I got what I normally would and ate almost half of it. I spent the whole time feeling rather guilty about eating it because I wasn't hungry and I got fuller than I would have liked. Also we ate over 2 hours later than I normally would have. I felt quite bad about it.

A little triumph is that my nails have grown half a centimetre and I've not bitten them! It's driving me insane because they get caught on everything and everything gets stuck under them but I can now tap them irritatingly on the table and by the time prom comes, I can paint them prettily

Also I've been eating enough fruits and vegetables so far. It's been pretty good. Since the Irish thing last night, there's a big container of raw veggies in the fridge that I can munch on

Post: #26

Wow! Your posts are very detailed. *applauds*
Wish you all the best for the coming week!!

Post: #27

Day 15 - Practice Conscious Eating

This was a little strange in my opinion. It didn't make me feel any different about eating things for the most part. This month, I've paid attention to which foods I eat so I'm less absent in that sense but paying attention while it's in my mouth didn't really feel too different. I've mentioned before that I'm not too fond of food, so savouring it didn't really do anything for me today. It might in a year from now but at this point it just didn't.

Also it was very difficult at dinner because I'm always the last to finish eating anyway (for the past week my family have started clearing the table and I'd still be eating) so today I felt a bit rushed trying to savour the food (and it was really good, except I put too much cinnamon in the pumpkin but the steak was amazing)

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Day 16 - Improve Your Posture

Fortunately I started improving my posture a while back so now I quite often sit properly. Because of the way I walk, I still have to visit a chiropracter every once in a while to get my hips realigned and my back adjusted but nowadays it's a little less frequent at least (I used to have it done every Friday during physio)

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Other

Water
I actually drank 3L of water today. It's over what I need so I had to go to the bathroom a lot but it's a weekend so that's fine. I got a good water bottle and I've decorated it with goal reminders so it makes me think. Having this water bottle makes me just absent-mindedly drink. I probably also drank more because I woke up really early. Also because I drank a lot of water, I was hardly hungry today. It was rather filling.

Food

I got 6 servings of fruits and vegetables today so that's good. I gutted a pumpkin
My mom gave me a little cube of fudge from New Zealand (which I was very hesitant about) and it was pretty gross as far as fudge goes. It was definitely not worth it.

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Thank you Scorpionsage for the comment, compliment and well-wishes. I enjoyed reading your thread

Also to everyone reading this, good luck! I hope you all continue these habits into the rest of the year

Post: #28

Wow, your journal is seriously impressive! Well done for writing everything down and keeping up with all the tasks so far! Best of luck for tomorrow!

Post: #29

Okie, I'm about 2 days behind. I don't like being behind but I can't really help it this week. I've been trying to do the tasks still but I just haven't posted due to the continuing internet issues. This is a really busy because I have an art piece to make for tomorrow, a few cartoons for the school magazine, university apps and regular other homework.

Day 17 - Flossing

Honestly, I didn't really do this one. I don't have any dental floss but I plan on getting some next week because I don't have time to go anywhere for the next little while. I will be trying to make flossing daily or at least every other day but it will be annoying because I don't like it.

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Day 18 - Breathe

I must say that being made conscious of my own breathing is awkward. It makes me feel very light-headed and it's really uncomfortable. I'm not entirely sure what I can do about that... It's just a bit weird.

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Other

I've been rather good about getting enough water and eating 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables. I haven't been getting enough water at school so I always drink the most water after school despite spending 7 hours at school and maybe about 5 or 6 at home (I try to get to sleep by around 9:30)

I don't think I have too much else to say for today. Good luck everyone!

Post: #30

OOH! Could you post your art piece and cartoons too?!?!
Good luck with those new challenges!!

Post: #31

I'll post the cartoons later today. I left the oil pastel piece at school over the weekend so I can't show you guys.

One exciting thing involving my art though! This piece will be travelling to Bangkok for IASAS (International Association of Southeast Asian Schools) Culture convention in the end of February/beginning of March:

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Day 20 - Create Healthy Living Journal

I made mine on Microsoft OneNote (I love this program so much). I have yet to format it but I've made it so I can update it daily. This weekend I'm going to set it up a bit better. I like it because I can have little check-boxes to show whether I've done something.

I think I'll also be posting in the forums in the Best Life Journal section or in the Health and Fitness section. I'll see which other people chose so that they're relatively in the same area. I'll start on the 22nd I think.

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Day 21 - FINAL DAY

Reflection

Going back to the goals I made at the beginning and reflecting on them:

• I will have lost weight, any amount is fine - Although I don't have a scale, I think I have. I have had to move to a new hole in my belt to make sure my pants stay comfortably on.
• I will have found a form of exercise I am capable of - I sorta did this. I found that I am capable of swimming, exercise videos, Wii Fit and speed-walking, to list a few. Did I do much exercise these 3 weeks? No, not really.
• I will have essentially drank water, teas, juices and chocolate milk - Actually I didn't even drink chocolate milk or that much tea! I mostly drank water and juice
• I will not have drank soft drinks - This is my second month completely without them!
• I will not have consumed too much unhealthy foods such as simple sugars, processed foods and take-out - I had take-out one night and I did avoid simple sugars for the most part. I had some but very little in comparison to how ate normally before.
• I will have eaten due to hunger and not boredom - YUS, I beat the dragon. Though I've not felt very hungry and often felt both hungry and full so that's been rather confusing as to whether I should eat or not.
• I will have chosen vegetables instead of meat when given the choice - sort of. The only edible sandwiches at school have meat in them so I generally go for them. At home, I will generally go for fruit and veggies when I'm hungry instead of any meat I could be having.
  

I'm sad that the challenge is ending... I love the interactivity and encouragement from the forums and all the accountability. I've really enjoyed doing this, which is odd because normally this healthier transition (I've tried it before by myself a couple times) really sucked and I went back right away. Because of this challenge, I think this is going to last a while.

Healthy Living Plan

This is vaguely my healthy living plan which I'll try and keep up with until I graduate high school. After that I will adjust it to be more specific and suit my needs and budget in University. I will also be making ideal meal plans and stuff when I'm the grocery boss.

• Continue to drink the correct amount of water
• Continue to strive for 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables per day
• Try and do exercise at least once a week
• Continue to eat food that is healthier
• Try and wake up earlier
• Continue to eat due to hunger, not boredom
• Continue to drink water, juice, tea and maybe chocolate milk
• Eat yoghurt more often (it's the least harmful dairy product and comes in fruitiness)
• Cook more often
• Keep up with my healthy living journal
  

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Other

As far as healthy goals go, this wasn't the best day. I used Senior Privelage to go to the mall during last period (my free period) because my boyfriend wanted to buy Mario Kart 7. While we were there, we got ice cream, as we do every time there. I did make a healthier choice than I normally would have. I got peach and black currant sorbet with almonds instead of dark chocolate and something with candy. It was also a better choice because I didn't have my allergy medications with me (vanilla and lactose). Not long after I got home, I pretty much crashed (5pm) and I woke up just now at 2am.

I've decided that I'm going to have a treat day once or twice about every month. I think these would be when I get to spend time with my boyfriend (I don't get to spend much time with him outside school because of his workload). We always get ice cream and caramel corn when we go to the movies and since I'll be eating healthy food, it'll seem twice as good (though I think I'll just go for the ice cream because the caramel corn isn't my favourite thing ever)

Post: #32

Wow!! That piece looks so damn stunning!!! Me love it!!! Well, done....really!