Well, as far as updating posts go, I seem to have failed Step 4 after a mere 3 days. But after a brief hiatus, I have returned singing songs of victory! Save a few minor pitfalls (an accidental encounter with a butterscotch candy while dyyyyying during a Doctoring lecture; having Hare Krishna lunch with Bernard today -though in my defense only the vegetables and salad passed my lips!) I have adhered to my rules with more stringency than I thought I'd be able to muster! And I've noticed more and more positive increases in energy along the way though there was one interesting side effect that I will share now that was not anticipated:
Food for Thought #3: "You are what you eat", or so the adage goes.
I was speaking with one of my classmates today who was relating stories about a yoga instructor at our studio who embarked on a 30-day Raw Foods retreat. According to her, eating only raw foods led her on a path to becoming very emotionally vulnerable and raw in the process. Now I know I've been sneaking a few boiled vegetables here and there, but nevertheless I've noticed this week that my mood has been out of control. Sure there has been a definite upturn in my attentiveness, and even though I'm not having sex at the moment (*tear*) I can tell there has been a huge increase in libido, plus I've become so much more chipper around people in general. But the downturn to this upheaval of dining patterns is that I have definitely had more than my fair share of low moments this week. Twice I found myself crying in the library over memories that have been suppressed for ages. I find my thoughts wandering to all the fabulous romances and amorous escapades I've been lucky enough to experience and I think to myself that I want to find someone I can be that crazy with again. I don't really think of myself as emotionally needy (those who I've seriously dated are probably laughing hysterically right now), but I've devoted more time this week than probably ever in my life to indulging in thoughts of relationships - I'm ready for an amazing one, when will he come? will I ever get married? when will I ever have children??? And the list goes on and on, a staggering heap of inquiries that even if I know the answer to them, there's nothing I can do about them now. I'm hoping thse feelings will pass sooner than later, though I fear I may be facing my emotional fears for the long haul. And considering I haven't even started to address the real nitty gritty issues as to why none of the aforementioned could ever happen in the current state of affairs, now is a terrible time to need support. Forget about turning to friends for motivation, our block 1 exams are next week and the panick is settling in for all of us. I wish I could kick emotions to the curb for just a few days but I can already tell I'm about to get run over...
Well, if nothing else I can plaster a smile on my face because at least the weekend is almost here and I actually have a date tomorrow night. It should be fabulous, it's going to be with myself :)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Step 3: Implement and Execute
Seeing that it's the night before a quiz, I'll be brief.
Food for Thought #1: Nutritionists don't lie. If you do in fact consume calories from a healthier source your hunger is zapped and your energy sky rockets! Despite eating about 1/3 of what I'd normally been consuming over the past month, I paid better attention in class all day and felt like a zillion dollars after running 3 miles at the gym (a task which I anyways complete about every other day but feel like I got hit by a truck consistently every time thereafter). And the best part....I made it through the day without ANY caffeinated beverages! And better still, I quadrupled my water intake (which I had calculated to be ideally 92oz per day but according to that algorithm I'm still a few ounces short).
Food for Thought #2: I came to realize that up until now, pretty much my entire life has been very fickly executed. Though I have a long history of many of them, individual relationships are always ephemeral. How much I'm willing to do for friends and family is always dictated by the constraints of school, which is dictated by the constraints of my undiagnosed ADD. Only goals that can be accomplished in the short-term are set because I am always thinking 3 steps ahead to the part where I will inevitably grow bored/tired and want to chase after new dreams, leaving the old ones abandoned and unfulfilled. So after my many musings, I decided I want to take this little project one step further. I could make it easy on myself and leave loop holes for the days when I am feeling like cutting myself some slack but then this endeavor would be no different than any other I've ever taken on. So now I'm thinking I will round out this week eating chicken and fish and "minimally processed" foods but then starting next week I'm going to go basically completely fresh whole fruits and veggies. Baked boiled, broiled, grilled what have you but that's where I'm going to draw the line. I don't want to set myself up for failure by allowing certain transgressions so the easiest way to do so is to for once in my life be strict with myself! Not gonna lie, I think giving up the alcohol and coffee will be the hardest part but I'm pretty sure I could survive for 5 weeks. (The fact that the end of this adventure lands right into my spring break, which I'm 99.9% sure I'll be spending in Costa Rica doesn't hurt as far as proffering some motivation!)
So there you have it, I am stripping my needs down to the very basic and am leaving myself wide open to whatever benefits come along the way. And now that my laptop has sufficiently warmed my bed, I will take leave of this blog and this day. I'm ready for a new one to start.
Food for Thought #1: Nutritionists don't lie. If you do in fact consume calories from a healthier source your hunger is zapped and your energy sky rockets! Despite eating about 1/3 of what I'd normally been consuming over the past month, I paid better attention in class all day and felt like a zillion dollars after running 3 miles at the gym (a task which I anyways complete about every other day but feel like I got hit by a truck consistently every time thereafter). And the best part....I made it through the day without ANY caffeinated beverages! And better still, I quadrupled my water intake (which I had calculated to be ideally 92oz per day but according to that algorithm I'm still a few ounces short).
Food for Thought #2: I came to realize that up until now, pretty much my entire life has been very fickly executed. Though I have a long history of many of them, individual relationships are always ephemeral. How much I'm willing to do for friends and family is always dictated by the constraints of school, which is dictated by the constraints of my undiagnosed ADD. Only goals that can be accomplished in the short-term are set because I am always thinking 3 steps ahead to the part where I will inevitably grow bored/tired and want to chase after new dreams, leaving the old ones abandoned and unfulfilled. So after my many musings, I decided I want to take this little project one step further. I could make it easy on myself and leave loop holes for the days when I am feeling like cutting myself some slack but then this endeavor would be no different than any other I've ever taken on. So now I'm thinking I will round out this week eating chicken and fish and "minimally processed" foods but then starting next week I'm going to go basically completely fresh whole fruits and veggies. Baked boiled, broiled, grilled what have you but that's where I'm going to draw the line. I don't want to set myself up for failure by allowing certain transgressions so the easiest way to do so is to for once in my life be strict with myself! Not gonna lie, I think giving up the alcohol and coffee will be the hardest part but I'm pretty sure I could survive for 5 weeks. (The fact that the end of this adventure lands right into my spring break, which I'm 99.9% sure I'll be spending in Costa Rica doesn't hurt as far as proffering some motivation!)
So there you have it, I am stripping my needs down to the very basic and am leaving myself wide open to whatever benefits come along the way. And now that my laptop has sufficiently warmed my bed, I will take leave of this blog and this day. I'm ready for a new one to start.
Step 2: Logistics and Emergency Preparedness
In the midst of gorging on every baked good imaginable, I spent the remainder of the weekend planning how to curtail my feeding habits and came up with the following guidelines:
1. After calculating my allotted caloric intake requirement, I've decided to live on an 85%/15% diet: 85% of my daily caloric intake will come from whole, fresh fruits and vegetables. Eating them raw will be preferable but I still get a pat on the back and a gold star if they are boiled and not seasoned with anything more than rock salt and pepper. 15% of my daily caloric intake will come from what I will refer to as "minimally processed foods". Now it was while defining the rules of the latter category that I began to forsee how I would create very large loopholes if I wasn't careful...
2. I originally had planned to keep coffee, teas and the occasional diet coke as part of my acceptable diet because let's face it, what medical student would survive without a constant IV infusion of the aforementioned? But then I realized that if I still drink said beverages, then I would have to allow for Splenda to remain on the list to sweeten the coffee and honey for the tea. And if honey is still on the list, then I need rules to regulate exactly how much honey I could use every day because spooning out tablespoons (...or ladle-fuls) of honey Winnie-the-Pooh style from jar to mouth would not be below me in times of desperation. THIS IS GETTING TOO COMPLICATED!!!! So then I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and have made up my mind to..
give up coffee, tea and diet coke all together. I am crying like a little baby right now, I haven't even started yet and I already feel like i won't make it. But then I remind myself that this is all part of the cleansing process I am so badly desiring. There was a time when the natural sugar in fruits was enough to keep (wo)Man satisfied and I am going to get there. I am convinced that after the first week or two of detox I will be able to reformat my palate and no longer be romanced by the artificial sweeteners that have enticed my taste buds from the moment of birth. But enough of this fire and brimstone, I've made my decision, will stand my ground and contrary to what Jonathan Edwards may say, my foot isn't sliding anywhere!!!
But it is late and I digress. So basically, the only "minimally processed" foods I've allowed myself to have will be to continue my 1 cup of plain Special K and unsweetened soy milk for breakfast and however much brown rice I can fit into my daily allotted 15% should I feel so inclined. Also, organically raised chicken and fish and raw nuts have my stamp of approval too.
So this plan will be great because not only am I doing my health a service by cutting out processed foods, but I will also be going organic and better still, buying locally grown foods! Or as much as my budget allows anyways...My biggest worry is the $$$ involved. I went to an organic food market today and on fruits and vegetables ALONE i spent $101.15. All I can say now is thank Joseph, Mary and Krishna for student loans.
Tomorrow officially marks Day 1 of this 42 day escapade. I think I fear most for my classmates. Sorry but you guys will be receiving the brunt of my imminent moodiness as my serotonin and endorphin levels fly out of control while this process gets going. A special thanks goes out to Bernard for motivating me to make a list of do's and don'ts, though I probably will be wanting to bite your head off soon enough too. <3.
1. After calculating my allotted caloric intake requirement, I've decided to live on an 85%/15% diet: 85% of my daily caloric intake will come from whole, fresh fruits and vegetables. Eating them raw will be preferable but I still get a pat on the back and a gold star if they are boiled and not seasoned with anything more than rock salt and pepper. 15% of my daily caloric intake will come from what I will refer to as "minimally processed foods". Now it was while defining the rules of the latter category that I began to forsee how I would create very large loopholes if I wasn't careful...
2. I originally had planned to keep coffee, teas and the occasional diet coke as part of my acceptable diet because let's face it, what medical student would survive without a constant IV infusion of the aforementioned? But then I realized that if I still drink said beverages, then I would have to allow for Splenda to remain on the list to sweeten the coffee and honey for the tea. And if honey is still on the list, then I need rules to regulate exactly how much honey I could use every day because spooning out tablespoons (...or ladle-fuls) of honey Winnie-the-Pooh style from jar to mouth would not be below me in times of desperation. THIS IS GETTING TOO COMPLICATED!!!! So then I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and have made up my mind to..
give up coffee, tea and diet coke all together. I am crying like a little baby right now, I haven't even started yet and I already feel like i won't make it. But then I remind myself that this is all part of the cleansing process I am so badly desiring. There was a time when the natural sugar in fruits was enough to keep (wo)Man satisfied and I am going to get there. I am convinced that after the first week or two of detox I will be able to reformat my palate and no longer be romanced by the artificial sweeteners that have enticed my taste buds from the moment of birth. But enough of this fire and brimstone, I've made my decision, will stand my ground and contrary to what Jonathan Edwards may say, my foot isn't sliding anywhere!!!
But it is late and I digress. So basically, the only "minimally processed" foods I've allowed myself to have will be to continue my 1 cup of plain Special K and unsweetened soy milk for breakfast and however much brown rice I can fit into my daily allotted 15% should I feel so inclined. Also, organically raised chicken and fish and raw nuts have my stamp of approval too.
So this plan will be great because not only am I doing my health a service by cutting out processed foods, but I will also be going organic and better still, buying locally grown foods! Or as much as my budget allows anyways...My biggest worry is the $$$ involved. I went to an organic food market today and on fruits and vegetables ALONE i spent $101.15. All I can say now is thank Joseph, Mary and Krishna for student loans.
Tomorrow officially marks Day 1 of this 42 day escapade. I think I fear most for my classmates. Sorry but you guys will be receiving the brunt of my imminent moodiness as my serotonin and endorphin levels fly out of control while this process gets going. A special thanks goes out to Bernard for motivating me to make a list of do's and don'ts, though I probably will be wanting to bite your head off soon enough too. <3.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Step 1: Identifying the problem
A Gator in 'Nole country, a beauty pageant queen in medical school, a yoga fitness instructor who binge eats sweets and fats on an hourly basis, I often feel like my life is one big contradiction. To straighten out the chaos, I decided to use an assignment from our Medicine and Behavior class as an excuse to become more neurotic than I already am. The assignment?
BEHAVIOR CHANGE PLAN - Choose a target behavior you'd like to change and explain why it was chosen. Monitor your behavior for at least 2 weeks and discuss observed patterns and potential hurdles. Set a specific personal goal and develop a change plan, then implement and monitor it for 6 weeks.
......Ok, cool! I can do this! Let's see, the examples they gave were things like, "I will use the elliptical machine at XXXX Health Club for 30 minutes, Tuesdays and Thursdays". After realizing that going to the gym is definitely NOT a problem for me, I delved further to discover what really irks me about, well, me. And let me tell you, it was exhausting! No, I mean it quite literally. My brain fatigued after wracking over the problem for about 5 minutes, which then led me to question: Why am I always so mentally exhausted!? I pondered the conundrum while eating a row of double stuf oreos and as I polished off the last one and the food comatose started to hit I realized with a blinding flash of clarity (....wait no, that was my dining table light glaring off the now empty aluminum wrapping of the oreo package) that my biggest time waster and energy zapper -facebook aside- is FOOD!
I love food. Specifically, I love cookies, chocolate, breads, pastas, vegetables, salads, fruits, ice cream, tofu, red meats, white meats, fish meat...ok well I guess there aren't really any specifics because I am the world's biggest hearted, caste no bar lover of food in all its guises. Anyone who knows me knows to fear my constantly unabated hunger. My food mania has undoubtedly progressed at a horrific rate over the years as I came to realize that I am blessed with a very forgiving metabolism. Due to the aforementioned coupled with my obsessiveness about working out my body has been able to sneak by on bad behavior without ever having to face any real consequences, save one: My brain has become sluggish! My mental processes have quite literally been bogged down by the sludgy residue left behind by the metabolism of a plethora of unecessary fats.
CONCLUSION: My behavior change plan will be to completely cut out processed foods and consume organic whole foods for the next 6 weeks. After doing tons of research, I've found out that there are tons of crap in our foods. Quite literally speaking. Think back to news reports of salmonella in our peanut butter, listeria in our spinach, roaches in our coffee grinds; processing foods has repeatedly demonstrated the potential for causing acute illnesses but I am convinced that even if you've never experienced projectile vomiting or explosive diarrhea from eating crappy food, that doesn't exempt you from suffering from the adverse effects of over-processing and over-refining. It will get us all eventually when we're in our old age and wrought with type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, Alzheimer's, pick your poison ladies and gents!
Now I'm not your staunch and stoic kind of girl. I'll be the first to admit that I am probably one of the most efficiently lazy people you'll ever meet and inconveniencing myself for any reason is not going to happen so I'm going to make these next 6 weeks as easy as possible. Instead of consuming the quick unhealthy stuff (i.e. fast food, anything packaged or preserved) I'm going to go for the quick healthy stuff (fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains). This allows for 3 aspects that I like my food to proffer:
1). Variety - I still get my sweet, salty, bitter and umami taste buds satisfied = I feel satisfied.
2). Quantity - I'm a snacker, and I think I could get by snacking on nutrient rich foods because they have a higher water content than packaged foods which automatically fills you up quicker.
3). Ease - Medical school means there is no time to prepare elaborate meals. Grabbing some fruits and pre-cut veggies before I head out the door seems feasible. Baking fresh fish, roasting veggies and boiling some brown rice for dinner seems feasible. I'm happy so far.
I'm excited about my new life plan, hence the long post, but now it is time to do some more research and figure out exactly what I can buy on my first trip to the farmer's market when I return to Tallahassee. It is also time to enjoy my last, hearty helping of trans-fats before I implement my new plan. I'm thinking cookies...
BEHAVIOR CHANGE PLAN - Choose a target behavior you'd like to change and explain why it was chosen. Monitor your behavior for at least 2 weeks and discuss observed patterns and potential hurdles. Set a specific personal goal and develop a change plan, then implement and monitor it for 6 weeks.
......Ok, cool! I can do this! Let's see, the examples they gave were things like, "I will use the elliptical machine at XXXX Health Club for 30 minutes, Tuesdays and Thursdays". After realizing that going to the gym is definitely NOT a problem for me, I delved further to discover what really irks me about, well, me. And let me tell you, it was exhausting! No, I mean it quite literally. My brain fatigued after wracking over the problem for about 5 minutes, which then led me to question: Why am I always so mentally exhausted!? I pondered the conundrum while eating a row of double stuf oreos and as I polished off the last one and the food comatose started to hit I realized with a blinding flash of clarity (....wait no, that was my dining table light glaring off the now empty aluminum wrapping of the oreo package) that my biggest time waster and energy zapper -facebook aside- is FOOD!
I love food. Specifically, I love cookies, chocolate, breads, pastas, vegetables, salads, fruits, ice cream, tofu, red meats, white meats, fish meat...ok well I guess there aren't really any specifics because I am the world's biggest hearted, caste no bar lover of food in all its guises. Anyone who knows me knows to fear my constantly unabated hunger. My food mania has undoubtedly progressed at a horrific rate over the years as I came to realize that I am blessed with a very forgiving metabolism. Due to the aforementioned coupled with my obsessiveness about working out my body has been able to sneak by on bad behavior without ever having to face any real consequences, save one: My brain has become sluggish! My mental processes have quite literally been bogged down by the sludgy residue left behind by the metabolism of a plethora of unecessary fats.
CONCLUSION: My behavior change plan will be to completely cut out processed foods and consume organic whole foods for the next 6 weeks. After doing tons of research, I've found out that there are tons of crap in our foods. Quite literally speaking. Think back to news reports of salmonella in our peanut butter, listeria in our spinach, roaches in our coffee grinds; processing foods has repeatedly demonstrated the potential for causing acute illnesses but I am convinced that even if you've never experienced projectile vomiting or explosive diarrhea from eating crappy food, that doesn't exempt you from suffering from the adverse effects of over-processing and over-refining. It will get us all eventually when we're in our old age and wrought with type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, Alzheimer's, pick your poison ladies and gents!
Now I'm not your staunch and stoic kind of girl. I'll be the first to admit that I am probably one of the most efficiently lazy people you'll ever meet and inconveniencing myself for any reason is not going to happen so I'm going to make these next 6 weeks as easy as possible. Instead of consuming the quick unhealthy stuff (i.e. fast food, anything packaged or preserved) I'm going to go for the quick healthy stuff (fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains). This allows for 3 aspects that I like my food to proffer:
1). Variety - I still get my sweet, salty, bitter and umami taste buds satisfied = I feel satisfied.
2). Quantity - I'm a snacker, and I think I could get by snacking on nutrient rich foods because they have a higher water content than packaged foods which automatically fills you up quicker.
3). Ease - Medical school means there is no time to prepare elaborate meals. Grabbing some fruits and pre-cut veggies before I head out the door seems feasible. Baking fresh fish, roasting veggies and boiling some brown rice for dinner seems feasible. I'm happy so far.
I'm excited about my new life plan, hence the long post, but now it is time to do some more research and figure out exactly what I can buy on my first trip to the farmer's market when I return to Tallahassee. It is also time to enjoy my last, hearty helping of trans-fats before I implement my new plan. I'm thinking cookies...
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