The Thirty Day Year

The Healthy Living Challenge-Part 1

photo credit: zimpenfish

For Part 1, I decided to do a general outline of dietary and physical intentions for this 30 day Healthy Living Challenge. My source of inspiration and information for these guidelines in particular is the DVD of “You, On A Diet”, as well as some excerpts from the book. Smattered in with these is my own hard-won understanding of what makes my body feel healthier/get more fit. As always, please do check with your doctor before making any changes in your style of living which affect an aspect of your health. Your doctor can advise you of the wisdom of making the changes you are planning to make, and will be able to determine if there are any reasons why you should not make them. Without further ado then:

Dietary Suggestions/My Guidelines 

Keep in mind that these suggestions and guidelines are my own, based on what has worked for me in the past, as well as recommendations from the book as mentioned. I am not a nutritionist nor a dietician. I simply am someone who would enjoy being healthier!

Foods you would do well to avoid, according to the book, “You, On A Diet”: (Please note that you really have to check labels in order to avoid these. Some so-called “healthy” foods include these in their lists of ingredients):

hydrogenated oils

sugars:

This one is a toughie. So much of what we consume has sugar in it in some form or other. I find that if I eat nothing with sugar listed in the first five ingredients, I tend to feel healthier, have more energy, and lose weight when I need to.

high fructose corn syrup

enriched flour

white foods, including bleached flour

Instead, choose polyunsaturated fats or monounsaturated fats, which may help ward off depression.

Rather than using commercial salad dressings (which, by the way, may contain as many calories as the so-called “fattening” foods you are trying to avoid by eating a salad!), substitute an olive oil and vinegar mixture. Lightly drizzled on a salad, it tastes wonderful, and is actually good for you. As well, you will be avoiding sugar in its many forms, or sugar substitutes.

You have to eat breakfast every day. 

This is particularly difficult for me, as I simply do not feel hungry until around 10 a.m.

When I eat breakfast, I tend to be hungry all day long, a result of breakfast being what stokes your metabolic fire in the morning. Shifting that metabolism into high gear by eating breakfast is on way you can encourage your body to burn more fuel each day.

photo credit: fotologic

Another way to encourage that caloric burn: Exercise

I love walking, and do so as often as I can find the time and energy to do so.

Daily is best, a minimum of 30 minutes total if you are fit enough to handle it.

Eventually, it is motivating to use a pedometer to track the number of steps you take every day. Aim for 10000 steps a day. For more information on doing this, please see 10000 Steps and Active 2010.

As well, working with weights will tone those muscles, which will result in a better, continuous calorie burn, even if you are not doing anything more strenuous than taking a nap! That, my friends, is what I call “power napping”!

You should do some form of stretching exercises several times per week as well. I like yoga, so will do that sometimes. However, wtih all the building, etc, I have been doing, it is tough to find the time. Simple stretches will have to suffice on the days when I am (pardon the pun) “stretched” for time.

Eat Salmon.

Salmon is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, which help to stabilize your heartbeat, lower your blood pressure, and may in turn help you to live longer. As well, Omega-3’s have been linked with lessening the effects of depression.

Additional Recommended Resource: Real Age: Live Life to The Youngest

Suggestions, anecdotes, useful sources of information or motivation? Why not share? Comments and stories are always most welcome!

Posted in Goals, Health, Life balance, weight loss | No Comments »

Wanna Change Your Track Record? Try Changing Tracks!

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting different results

I have had that thought very much in mind lately, as I consider my challenges, goals, and things that are generally going on.

For instance, my 30-day Car-Free Challenge.

I’ve completed this, but finding the time to write about it–about anything, really as of late–has been next-to impossible (I’m doing this post in the wee hours of a Sunday morning while my son sleeps, my daughter and husband are up north, and while I pack for our journey to join them),.

A quick update on that Challenge: it’s great to be able to drive again!

You don’t realize how much you take that gift for granted until you force yourself to not do it for a period of time.

And of course, being as how I was walking everywhere, Mother Nature decided to make the entire 30 days rainy (so it seemed. I’m sure there was some sunshine involved somewhere!).

Anyway, that one was a success, and I surprised myself very early on with how short the walks to various stores seemed, after seeming to be so long at the beginning.

Would I recommend it?

Yep.

Good for the environment, good for you, and good for family members who are forced to tag along.

Plus, it helps now and again to remind ourselves how much we take so much of what we have (ie transportation in an automobile on rainy, cool days) for granted.

Another challenge I have embarked on is the 100 PushUs Challenge, which I am continuing, but have had some setbacks with due to the fact that we are in the midst of building a garage on our property up north.

We go up there every other week, and although the work is physical and hard, it does not count towards my pushup goal of 100.

So that is progressing more slowly than I had anticipated.

But I’m still in there!

My goal of writing a novel has been postponed indefinitely.

I bought a guide on plotting, but due to the extent of hours put into building the garage, I simply do not have the time to pursue that activity.

I will, in the future, but at the moment I simply do not have the time.

So, what does all of this have to do with changing tracks?

Simple.

I read recently on How To Be An Original of how he found focusing on fewer projects (2, plus his regular things) helped him to see those two projects to completion.

That got me to thinking.

I have such an array of projects going right now, including building a garage (and later a cottage, once the hole is dug for the foundation).

I wondered if I should change tracks, if perhaps it was time I focused on only two projects, plus MY usual stuff.

My usual stuff is family, and with school set to resume in three weeks and two weeks of garage building in the plans, there is precious little time for getting ready.

Plus, my son is starting nursery school this fall.

So even my “usual stuff” is being squeezed in.

The garage and cottage building process is eating much of my time, so that will be one of my “projects”.

The other?

It has to be something which takes no time and energy from the building project.

It must be something I can do while building, etc.

On the 45-Day Buondless Living Challenge, I have decided on a Healthy Living Challenge, and I do intend to keep with that Challenge (although I am not sure I will have time to report on it there.)

So that “healthy living challenge” will be what I will focus on for the next 30 days, while working on building buildings and getting the kids in their schooling, etc.

I will focus on seeing these projects through as much as I can, for 30 days at a time, and see where that will take me.

Plus, I’ll be writing about it here.

I just won’t be able to do it so often, as I haven’t been able to for much of the summer, due to that building project.

So, here I go.

Narrowing my focus, changing my track.

My question to you: What would you narrow your focus to, if you were to do so? Do you believe that this narrowing of your focus would help you to achieve goals you may not have been able to achieve thus far? What would you have to give up in your life to do so? And is there a project in which you find yourself immersed which has begun to take over so much of your time, that you find you are forced to change tracks, to narrow your focus, even if for  a short period of time?

If so, why not share? Comments, ideas, and recommendations are always most welcome!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Personal Core Values eBook Launched at How To Be An Original!

Lodewijk van den Broek of How To Be An Original has recently published his first-ever e-book, titled Personal Core Values–a practical guide to discover YOUR personal core values.
It is important to be aware of you personal core values because, as Lodewijk points out in his ebook, they:
* clarify who we are
* require no justification
* govern relationships
* guide us in making decisions
Anything which plays such a vital role in our lives is something which is well worth learning about.

Personal Core Values is a 66 page guide to discovering and using your personal core values in your life.

It is divided into three parts:

Part 1 defines and explains what values are.
Lodewijk talks about what characterizes values, and what makes a value a Personal Core Value.

In Part 2, there are helpful exercises to use to discover what your Personal Core Values are.

Part 3 shows how you can use your Personal Core Values in various areas of your life, including in your relationships, in decision making, and in the creation of a personal mission statement.

From the book…
“Personal core values are…the ones that are closest to your being, the ones that are most important to you. they are the foundation of who you are.”

At just $14.00 U.S., it is a guide which will proove most valuable to anyone seeking to improve their life.
I highly recommend it.

Click here to view more details

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »