Me Update!

It's been a while since I have updated you on my health/fitness journey. Happy to say I'm back, although I am no longer writing "health diary" posts or posting progress pictures anymore. Even though I was trying to lose weight in a gentle manner I realized in my heart I was still placing too much importance on losing weight for my physical appearance and that type of thinking is just not conducive to my goal of living a healthy and happy life. I'm sure I will always have a desire to be healthy and challenge my fitness but I'm currently trying to remember to focus on more meaningful reasons behind my efforts such as wanting:

to feel energized, strong and capable
to stay flexible and free of aches and pains
to be better able to handle the occasional stresses and anxieties of life
(Just to name a few.)

I am still working on having a healthy positive body image. I want to accept how I am every single moment of every single day. I want to be at peace with who I am regardless of the number on the scale or the lines on my face.  One book that is helping me change my mindset when it comes to how I view myself is Body Image Remix by Summer Innanen. It's refreshing to hear someone speak about how you can be happy with yourself without feeling the need to change your body. Another positive body image coach I follow is Maddy Moon.  Maddy has a great blog and podcast and speaks about ways you can improve the relationship between yourself, food and your body. If you are interested in learning more, check them out!

So like I said, the health diaries are no more, but in their place I will be sharing happiness diary posts.  Each day I will write about things that made me particularly happy including:

One thing I ate that was delicious
One thing that happened or I accomplished that made me feel good
One thing I was grateful for or that made me happy
And just for fun, a random photo of the day (don't be surprised if they are all of Zuzu, haha)

I may edit the list as time goes on but for now I think it's a good start and I am really looking forward to thinking and writing about these things each day. I should have the first post up by Saturday!

Stair climbing!

One of the simplest ways for me to get in a little bit of extra movement in my day is climbing stairs on my breaks at work. The entire staircase (ten floors per my Fitbit) is 162 stairs and takes about five minutes including the walk to and from the staircase. I aim for two sets a day but on days I'm either feeling really motivated or I know I won't be doing an actual workout, I will do up to six sets. Climbing stairs is great for increasing my energy and also warms me up if I'm feeling chilly but it's not always easy to decide to climb those stairs. Sometimes I feel tired or sore and just want to head to the break room and enjoy a full break. Sometimes It seems like climbing or not climbing a few stairs doesn't really make a difference in how fit I am or how I look or feel. This is when I remind myself that every little thing I do for myself and my health is a positive thing. Every small change or healthy decision made is an accomplishment and something in which to be proud. Climbing these stairs increases my fitness level and even makes my usual workouts easier to do. It also makes me feel proud knowing that I've done something most people might not think about doing. I think I've just motivated myself for a sixer today. :)

Jessica Smith Answers MY question!

(Side note: I wrote this post on my family blog in 2013 and decided to transfer it over to my personal blog just to be a bit more organized)

One of my favorite fitness instructors is Jessica Smith of jessicasmithtv.com. I have three of her DVDs which I love working out with:

She also has a YouTube channel where she posts workout videos on a regular basis. Some of my favorites are the more intense ones (like this metabolic conditioning workout) but she also has easier stretching and walking videos that are also nice to do sometimes (a few she even does with her mom like this one here.). Jessica is active in the social networks and often asks for feedback and questions from her followers. The other day I submitted a question and she was nice enough to answer it in the "Ask Jessica" section on her website. If you ever wondered about muscle soreness and how to "stay safely and appropriately challenged" when working out, check out my question and her answer by clicking the image below. Check out her other fitness videos while you are at it, they are great and so convenient to play on my Ipad!

Health Diary Week Seven

Week Seven!

Monday (11/23/15)

Movement: Rest day

Fruit: 3 (Banana and pomegranate)

Veggies: 2 (Lots of mushrooms)

Meditation: No

Notes: Ate more than usual but it is still vacation and I'm not beating myself up.

Tuesday

Movement: Yoga and hill HIIT

Fruit: 0!

Veggies: 2 (Green pepper and onion)

Meditation: No

Notes: Not the most healthy but I'm happy I worked out!

Wednesday

Movement: BBG Legs

Fruit: 0

Veggies: 1 (spinach)

Meditation: No

Notes: Last day of vacation and though I have been indulging recently and have eaten too much candy for the past six days I don't feel terrible because I didn't over eat today so it is a win!

Health Diary Week Six

Ahh I've been slacking and am late to get this posted because I haven't wanted to get on the computer during my little vacation. I'm still here though and I'm still doing this!

Monday (11/16/15)
Movement: Rest day
Fruit: 2 (Banana and Apple)
Veggies: 3 (Black beans and lots of zucchini)
Meditation: No
Notes: I worked 11 hours today so I planned to take a rest day which worked out really well. I am satisfied with my food choices today. It seems to be getting easier to be satisfied at the end of the day and I'm hoping it's not just a phase. I keep reminding myself to take it one satisfied day at a time and the changes will come!

Tuesday
Movement: Walk and hill HIIT
Fruit: 1 (Apple)
Veggies: 0
Meditation: No
Notes: Not terrible but could be better.

Wednesday
Movement: BBG legs
Fruit: 3 (Apple, pomegranate)
Veggies:2 (black beans and zucchini)
Meditation: Yes
Notes: I did not eat great today. Had a crappy couple days of work and feeling down but tomorrow is my last day and then I have six days off so really looking forward to some much needed vaca!

Health Diary Week Five

Monday (11/9/15)
Movement: 60 minutes yoga
Fruit: 1 (Apple)
Veggies: 2 (Asian salad)
Meditation: Yes
Notes: A satisfying day!

Tuesday
Movement: 2.5 mile walk and 60 min pickleball
Fruit: 2 (a big pomegranate)
Veggies: 0
Meditation: Yes
Notes: A good day food-wise though I really need to hit the store and buy some veggies! In other news I hurt my heel playing pickleball :(.

Wednesday
Movement: W1 BBG Legs
Fruit: 1 (Apple)
Veggies: 1 (Black beans)
Meditation: Yes
Notes: Satisfied! We went shopping so I have some veggies!

The Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide

I have decided I'm going to try Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide (BBG) once again. Who is Kayla Itsines?  Kayla is a personal trainer from Australia who creates and sells very popular fitness and nutrition guides on her website.  I first discovered her on Instagram when I noticed many girls posting pictures of their impressive BBG results. I haven't tried Kayla's nutrition guides but own both of her BBGs. Each guide is twelve weeks long and consist of 28 minute strength routines which are performed two to three times a week (for the first guide). You also work in days of stretching, LISS (low intensity steady state cardio) and eventually HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts. 

I started the BBG workout about six months ago and made it to the middle of the second month in the first guide. I loved it at first because the workouts were shorter than my usual workouts yet they were intense and I was always pushed to my max. I could tell I was getting stronger, especially my arms from doing all the push-ups and commandos and my thighs from the killer leg workouts. My cardio was improving too and I was pleasantly surprised with my 5K race result I achieved around that time, especially since I wasn't running much at the time and on race day we arrived late and had to run around a bunch of slower people.

Very decent time for me anyway!

Gentle Weight Loss Plan Update

Progress so far:

Starting weight 141 lbs
Week four: 139.7 lbs

So I have to admit it's nice to see my weight go down a little but everyone's weight fluctuates by a few pounds and who knows if this is a legitimate weight loss or not. There is little to no change in the photographs and even if there is, maybe I just ate less salt today (doubtful though because it was a bit of a binge day...). Anyway the only way to find out if I'm really making progress is to keep on keeping on! 

The Plan, Phase Two

For the next month I am going to keep tracking everything like usual except I will write my satisfaction level in the 'notes' section and instead of 'food' I will document my number of vegetable and fruit servings eaten during the day. I need to be a little more intentional about putting good things into my body. I am not going to be tracking my green tea anymore because although I want to continue to drink it, it doesn't really affect me mentally or physically if I don't. I am also going to be stepping my workouts up a notch and give the Kayla Itsines' Bikini Body Guide another try. More on that soon! 

*Edited and blurred photo because there is more to life and health than how we look! (January, 2016)

Health Diary Week Four

Day 22 (11/2/15)
Movement: Arms and abs
Food: Satisfied!
G tea: Yes
Meditation: Yes
Notes: Way to start this week off right, me! My goal is to have at least five satisfied days this week!


Day 23
Movement: Walk and hill HIIT
Food: Satisfied!
G tea: Yes
Meditation: Yes
Notes: Happy with my food choices and happy I got in a little workout when I was planning on having a day off.


Day 24
Movement: Long walk in the park
Food: Satisfied!
G tea: Yes
Meditation: Yes
Notes: A good day although I think I ate some bad mushrooms. :(

Health Diary Week Three

Here are my notes for week three:

Day 15 (10-26-15)
Movement: Rest day
Food: Not satisfied
G tea: Yes
Meditation: No
Notes: Forgot to meditate when I got home from work. It was an unusual work day which always throws my routine for a loop.

Day 16
Movement: Legs
Food: Ehhh not so much
G tea: Yes
Meditation: ..well I tried but Zuzu was being a pistol and then Brian came home with Panera. So no.
Notes: Was proud of myself for working out before work today since I was scheduled to start work two hours later than usual. So at least that part of my day went well!

Day 17
Movement: 20 min cardio and 20 min arms
Food: Satisfied
G tea: Yes
Meditation: Yes
Notes: Today I had a great day at work and a great day at home! Why can't every day be this way? 

Health Diary Week Two

My second week of my health journey went pretty well. I feel like I'm doing a little better with remembering my goals and I had a few days of feeling really happy and positive which is always a nice change from PMS week.  I find when I slip up the happy days can be hard to come.  Just one more thing remember when reaching for the candy bowl for the fourteenth time. 

Day eight (10/19/15)
Movement: Another rest day
Food: Unsatisfied
G tea: Yes
Meditation: No
Notes: I had to work two hours overtime today so I just felt like I needed to chill with my family. Looking back I think I would have felt much better had I meditated and worked out. :/

Day nine
Movement: Nope
Food: Nope
G tea: Nope
Meditation: Nope
Notes: Also forgot to make tea for tomorrow. Moving on!

Day ten
Movement: Leg day
Food: Satisfied
G tea: No, see yesterday.
Meditation: Yes and I love it, why don't I do this every day???
Notes: Feeling much happier tonight than yesterday, that's for sure! 

Health Diary Week One

This was my first week tracking my level of satisfaction with what I ate each day.  It's the first small change I am making towards improving my health and wellness.


Day one (Monday, Oct 12, 2015)
Movement: 4.3 mile run/walk (mostly walk)
Food: Satisfied!
G tea (green tea): Yes!
Meditation: Yes!
Notes: Had a normal breakfast and lunch at work and for dinner ate a bunch of munchie randoms-not exactly healthy but I didn't over eat so it is a win for day one!

Day two (10/13)
Movement: Rest day
Food: Not very satisfied
G tea: Yes!
Meditation: No :(
Notes: My dinner was basically Costco samples and half a wheel of Brie. Probably not the most nutritious. Went to bed trying not to hate myself.

Day three (10/14)
Movement: Easy 45 minute yoga and 15 minute walk.
Food: Satisfied.
G tea: Yes.
Meditation: Yes.
Notes: So grateful for a new day and a new opportunity to try again. I need to remind myself to think about how I feel when I make good choices as opposed to poor ones. 

Fat Fat Fat!

I've spent a lot of my life feeling fat. I’ve never been fat. The heaviest I've ever been was in college when I gained 25 pounds bringing my weight to 155, still just within the normal BMI range. I think it was a gradual thing, my obsession with body image and weight. It probably started around junior high and continued on until, well, pretty recently if I’m being honest.

In high school I knew multiple people who were anorexic or bulimic including a close friend, and I'm sure that along with typical magazines and media increased my obsession with how I saw myself-fat. I found a kind of funny but sad journal entry I wrote while on vacation with my family many years ago. Sisters can be brutal. :)

If you can't read it, it says (grammatical errors included because it's comical):

Sometimes I hate Skye so much. She can be such a brat! She and I were kinda fighting and she said something like "Your getting a little big around your waist" It really hurt my feelings cause it's true. So I've decided to go on a diet. Try to eat healthy foods NO CANDY unless its to take out a bad taste (medicine) in my mouth. And not a lot of other foods like snacks. Plus whenever I can I'll go to the YMCA and work out in my room w/ waits and streaching in the basement. If it doesn't work maybe I'll eat diet pills or something.

Anything to show Skye how wrong she is (or will be). 

And I'll stop biting my fingers & stuff and try not to complain at all.  

Maybe I'll even start running w/ Kara if I can work up to it. 

My Gentle Weight Loss Plan

One of the main reasons I wanted to create this blog was to discuss my feelings and experiences with health and wellness and so here is where I will start. I would like to get on track with my physical being and make it back to my "happy weight", a number that would require me to lose a few pounds. Somewhere between five and ten to be non-exact. Although I am currently within the healthy BMI range, there have been many a binge day in the past year to get to this point. Lately my feelings towards food have become pretty unhealthy. I've been mindlessly eating, sometimes from insatiable hunger other times from boredom and habit but regardless of the cause the effect is always uncomfortable fullness, endless guilt and obsessive thoughts. I am trying to find my way to a healthy state of mind, something I probably haven't had since middle school.

I've tried fitness and diet programs in the past but never been able to stick to them. Even the idea of being on a program feels restrictive and so this time I'm going to try a more gentle approach. I'm not going to jump into this weight loss thing restricting calories or cutting whole food groups out of my diet. I'm going to do this in the most humane and enjoyable way possible-hopefully it will be possible...

I've learned the more you remove from your diet the more you can never eat again-or if you do you might experience some undesirable symptoms like headaches, intestinal distress or guilt.
I believe even the smallest changes can make a big impact and so here is my plan. (Please know I am not a nutrition or fitness expert I am simply taking what I have learned from past experiences to create this plan. I've never done this before and I'm sure I will make changes and possibly mistakes along the way. I'm not telling anyone to follow this plan, I'm simply sharing the process for my own good.)
_________________________________________________________________________

THE PLAN (for now)

For the first few weeks I'm going to focus on simply tracking my satisfaction level concerning my food choices for the day. I will also include my workout of the day just to show a bigger picture.

A daily entry will look like this:

Day one
Movement: Yoga for 60 minutes
Food: Satisfied.
Notes: Ate mindfully and felt content with my choices at the end of the day.

I will also be including two side goals I have been trying to meet every day. The first is drinking one cup of green tea and the second is meditating for at least ten minutes. I've only been about 50% successful up until now so I will be tracking this as well. 


Looking at the big picture and remembering I am going to be documenting my satisfaction level at the end of the day might make a difference in the food decisions I make. If it doesn't work and my unsatisfied days outweigh my satisfied then I will make another small change.

No weight loss journey is complete without a few "before" pictures. As much as I'm not looking forward to posting these I think it's important and honest and so I will be brave and hope this motivates me to achieve an improved after picture.  


Height: 5'6"
Weight: 141 lbs

The hearts are to remind me how important it is to love myself as I am in this moment. There is nothing wrong with my body. It is healthy and injury free. It can walk and run and swim and breathe and get me through work so I can help pay the bills and see and hear and learn and love. My goal is to lose a little weight and get back on track. However, if getting back on track just means I no longer feel lethargic and depressed and guilty and regretful from lack control around food, I will consider this experiment a success. Even if I don't lose a pound!

*Edited and blurred photo because there is more to life and health than how we look! (January, 2016)