The Heinie Chronicles - Part 1
It's the beginning of the year and most of us have some vague resolution to "lose weight." In order to make my goal, I've decided to try public humiliation. Lord knows private humiliation doesn't work for me! I've been reading all the right books and articles for years so the excuse of not knowing WHAT to do doesn't fly. In a nutshell this is what I've learned and am trying to apply:
- Eat more fruits and vegetables
- Exercise regularly
- Sleep 7+ hours every night
- Drink more water
I've been a "juicer/blender" for years. At the risk of sounding kooky, these juices really shouldn't include vodka. Juicing is when the pulp is extracted and you just drink the liquid from the fruit or vegetables. I prefer blending - drinking the juice and pulp. It's more filling. My favorite fruit blender is: 2 bananas, 2 oranges, 1 apple, 1 head of romaine lettuce and 2 cups of cold water. I use a Vita-Mix (a really high speed blender) which purees everything. For my vegetable blend, I use 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks, 3 cucumbers and 1 apple. I put apple in everything! I sweetens the drinks up and it's really super good for me! I try to drink 8 ounces of either drink every 3 hours throughout the day to keep my blood sugar levels even. Obviously I eat food at meals as well. I'm not a huge meat eater, but I eat beef, turkey and fish several times a week. Boil kidney beans or soak overnight, rinse and drain several times, use a tad bit of salt, heat up and it's not bad. Very filling. I'm trying to incorporate more lentils, too.
For exercise I'm mostly jogging on my mini-trampoline. No excuses for bad weather. I put on my MP3 and lose myself in the world of whatever music I choose. One of my biggest struggles with this is that I get too driven and don't want to spend less than an hour at a time. I have to constantly remind myself that even 20 minutes of sweating on the mini-tramp is invaluable to my journey. After about 15 minutes I feel that funny endorphin feelin' kicking in. It's so great - I feel capable of doing anything.
Sleep? What's that?? I have to take fake benedryl every evening to get a decent night's sleep. I'm hoping this is the beginning of my heinie chronicles and by trying to do all these other good things, I'll begin to sleep well on my own at some point. Right now, it's what works. I've tried a lot of other methods - time release melatonin, warm milk, prescription sleeping aids . . . the list goes on and none has been effective for me. I know how great I feel after a good night of sleep, though and I'd love that feeling every single day.
Drinking water. Hmmm. I actually love water. I love it mostly when it's hot with a slice of lemon or even a squirt of lemon juice. I buy bottled water by the case so it's always convenient to drink and tastes good. When I slip and drink a soda, I don't crave water, so I try to stay away from soda completely. I also notice when I drink my morning hot water, I'm less apt to drink my coffee. I usually only drink decaf, so it's not a caffeine issue, but if you've seen the tan shade of my coffee, you'd know how much creamer I use and therein lies the problem!
You might notice that although I've titled this post "The Heinie Chronicles," it's more than my heinie that needs help. From my nose to my ankles, I want to be the new and improved version of myself. I believe strongly in positive thinking. Nothing I'm doing now would be near as effective if I spent everyday thinking about how incapable I am and how much I don't like things about my life. So instead, I thank the universe for my health, my family and friends, my job, the things in my life that I love. I tell myself that I'm a good wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, person. I'm glad for the times when I am methodical and thorough and avert crises. I'm glad that today I will think through situations. I'm glad for the times when I treat others with kindness and respect and hope that today I will do that even better than yesterday. I'm OK with the days when I don't feel joyful. Every day is not my birthday. And when others don't treat me like I want to be treated, I'm glad when I remember that it's not always about me and when it is, I hope I recognize that. And everyday I hope I get better at knowing the difference.
I welcome any comments from others who want to change their heinies (and other stuff!) After all, it's not all about the heinie!
For exercise I'm mostly jogging on my mini-trampoline. No excuses for bad weather. I put on my MP3 and lose myself in the world of whatever music I choose. One of my biggest struggles with this is that I get too driven and don't want to spend less than an hour at a time. I have to constantly remind myself that even 20 minutes of sweating on the mini-tramp is invaluable to my journey. After about 15 minutes I feel that funny endorphin feelin' kicking in. It's so great - I feel capable of doing anything.
Sleep? What's that?? I have to take fake benedryl every evening to get a decent night's sleep. I'm hoping this is the beginning of my heinie chronicles and by trying to do all these other good things, I'll begin to sleep well on my own at some point. Right now, it's what works. I've tried a lot of other methods - time release melatonin, warm milk, prescription sleeping aids . . . the list goes on and none has been effective for me. I know how great I feel after a good night of sleep, though and I'd love that feeling every single day.
Drinking water. Hmmm. I actually love water. I love it mostly when it's hot with a slice of lemon or even a squirt of lemon juice. I buy bottled water by the case so it's always convenient to drink and tastes good. When I slip and drink a soda, I don't crave water, so I try to stay away from soda completely. I also notice when I drink my morning hot water, I'm less apt to drink my coffee. I usually only drink decaf, so it's not a caffeine issue, but if you've seen the tan shade of my coffee, you'd know how much creamer I use and therein lies the problem!
You might notice that although I've titled this post "The Heinie Chronicles," it's more than my heinie that needs help. From my nose to my ankles, I want to be the new and improved version of myself. I believe strongly in positive thinking. Nothing I'm doing now would be near as effective if I spent everyday thinking about how incapable I am and how much I don't like things about my life. So instead, I thank the universe for my health, my family and friends, my job, the things in my life that I love. I tell myself that I'm a good wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, person. I'm glad for the times when I am methodical and thorough and avert crises. I'm glad that today I will think through situations. I'm glad for the times when I treat others with kindness and respect and hope that today I will do that even better than yesterday. I'm OK with the days when I don't feel joyful. Every day is not my birthday. And when others don't treat me like I want to be treated, I'm glad when I remember that it's not always about me and when it is, I hope I recognize that. And everyday I hope I get better at knowing the difference.
I welcome any comments from others who want to change their heinies (and other stuff!) After all, it's not all about the heinie!
Have a great day! You deserve it!
1 comment:
I love the heinie chronicles. Although, I'm not sure that writing this at 2:02am is helping you work on your 7+ hours of sleep at night! Miss you guys. Kate
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