Avoiding the train wreck.

Avoiding the Train Wreck

I have well engrained habits of no-breakfast-no-movement-no-water days fueled by caffeinated-whacked-out-blood-sugar-and-adrenaline. And I can tell you that I was a wreck – a train wreck actually. But, I’m happy to report that eating this elephant, one tiny bite at a time, has resulted overall in a MONUMENTAL shift in my lifestyle.

Little by little.

A shift here and there counts. Big time.

Consistency is queen.

I am both proud and grateful for being able to transform my life (that is, making a dent in my proverbial elephant).

But I am easily side tracked. Life gets busy. The phones ring. The meetings are relentless. The todo list is never ending. Life’s commitments continue to rear their ugly head trying to interfere with my healthy choices.

I’ve learned several interesting things about myself through this process.

When I don’t drink water, I crave crappy food and soda.

When I’m overly hungry, I crave more crappy food.

When I don’t move, I don’t crave water.

But, when I treat myself well, I crave more of the good stuff.

I’ve also learned that I can change my direction at any time during the day. BUT, for me, it is much harder to redirect the locomotive than it is to keep the train on the desired track.

So why not start the day with a few purposeful, mindful actions to firmly set the day’s course?

Eat breakfast. I’m a yogurt, berries, nuts, and flax seed girl. I’ve been VERY good about this for about two years, so it really doesn’t require much effort. But since it is the gateway for day’s healthy fuel choices, it must be on the list.Pack a lunch. I’m basically very busy lazy. And I’m not a sandwich girl. I either throw dinner’s leftovers into a pyrex, or I throw together spinach, pre-grated carrots, tomatoes, beans, and cucumber said pyrex dish. It sounds silly, but if I don’t pack a lunch, I forget to eat, and by 2 or 3 I’m starved and doomed. (Can you tell I love my pyrex bowls with lids? They’re in the top 5 for my key health tools.)Drink a bottle of water. Yep, water is my nemesis. I’ve tried all sorts of water drinking trickery: lemon, cucumber, cranberry juice ice cubes. But this strategy of finishing a full bottle of water before I go to work has been perfect for me! After all, I’m a third of the way done before my crazy day even begins. Brilliant!Plan for the day’s 20 minutes of movement. Will I be walking to work? Will I be sneaking in some intermittent bodyweight exercises at the office? If I’m going to the gym, when and what will I do? This sounds simple enough, but without a plan, I’m unlikely to find my resolve at 6pm.Breathe. This may sound silly, but I think I hold my breath. A lot. So I’ve been trying to be more mindful of full and complete inhales and exhales. Sometimes I breathe in the shower. Other times I breathe when doing the dishes or tidying up the house. Sometimes I turn on a song and breathe through the melody. Sometimes I do a couple of sun salutations. It doesn’t matter what the tool or prompt is, just that I engage in some action to create some awareness of the power and importance of breath.

So there you have it – my little twist as I trip down this health and wellness path.

Inspired by the words of Miz, “Set yourself up to succeed.”

And I might add, “Set yourself up to succeed… first thing in the day, before the train takes the wrong track!”

Kris is a wannabe fitness/culinary guru who can neither cook nor jog. You can find her sweet and snarky commentary at Kris M Beal | The Heart and Humor of Being Human where she learns to mince basil and do kettlebell swings while tweeting, all while trying to find some balance in this distracting world. You can also find her on twitter @krazy_kris.

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Crazy. Busy. Avoiding the Second Arrow

I don’t get too busy too often, and when I do, it’s usually not for more than a day, maybe two. This last week, though, has been non-stop busy, and it’s given me a huge appreciation for those of you who’ve told me how hard it is to plan your menu for a day, let alone a week, because your schedules are so hectic. I kind of get that now.

I forgot to eat dinner on Thursday night and ate a bowl of Grape-Nuts when I woke up very hungry at 2 a.m. I slammed down a Subway Veggie Delite on my way home from Pittsburgh late Friday night and it sat in my stomach like a lead balloon. (For the record, I love Subway’s veggie sandwich, but the bread was overkill after a day saturated with simple carbs.)

Saturday I was up early, went to a bridal shower, had lunch with my daughter, came home, showered and went out again…another missed dinner. When I got home at midnight, I had a PB2 sandwich and a Hershey Bliss. Granted, that’s a far cry from the days of grilled Spam and Velvetta sandwiches or 3-egg ham and cheese omelets, but still…chocolate and peanut butter at midnight?

It’s not easy to be prepared for everything and all circumstances, but I had advanced warning for several of the things that made me busy. But rather than plan my food like I usually do, I flew by the seat of my pants. Not my most stellar move.

The crazy business of the week involves many things: Mathilda’s death (we put her down last Tuesday, poor girl’s legs just weren’t going to work anymore), my knee, the lack of hard-core aerobic exercise, and, without boring you with details, a kinda sorta messy personal life. When it rains it pours.

It’s rained like this before when I’ve lost weight and…surprise, surprise…I was unable to maintain my weight loss. The culprit was always eating whatever whenever and not giving any thought to my body and what it needed. The things that were falling apart around me superseded that and I sought comfort in food rather than a fully alive and functioning body.

I can see how this could happen again, but I’ve got a rock solid maintenance mentality on my side. I trust that all I’ve learned in the last four years will keep me from straying too far.

I also trust the guidance of the Buddhist teaching of the second arrow, that when we encounter pain (when we’re shot with the first arrow), we have the choice of how we handle that pain. We can blame or whine or indulge (hello chocolate cake!), trying to run away from the pain (thus shooting ourselves with the second arrow), or we can experience the pain of the original arrow and live from within that pain and work out the best course of action that will not further our suffering.

Sometimes it sucks to feel that first arrow. OK, who am I kidding? It usually ALWAYS sucks to feel the pain of the first arrow. But in maintenance, I’m going to do all I can to not further my suffering by piling on a few or 20 pounds.

This week I will do my best to stay mindful, to treat myself and my body kindly. Not eating, carbohydrate shock – these are second arrows. And god knows I’ve got enough to deal with with that first arrow than work around the emotional complications of that second one.

In terms of food and taking care of yourself, how do you deal with that first arrow?

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