This is Day 11 of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.
Hi everyone!! :D It’s now Day 11 of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. Only three days left before our challenge ends! Let’s go!
Challenge Tasks to Date
- Announcement and signup page: Join 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge!
- Day 0: Create Your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan | Comments
- Day 1: Drink 8 Glasses of Water | Comments
- Day 2: Eat 5 Servings of Fruits & Vegetables | Comments
- Day 3: Create Your Calorie List | Comments
- Day 4: Calculate Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure | Comments
- Day 5: Create Your Ideal Meal Plan | Comments
- Day 6: Follow Your Ideal Meal Plan! | Comments
- Day 7: Review & Set Your Plan for Week 2! | Comments
- Day 8: Get a Great Workout! | Comments
- Day 9: Identify Your Healthy Living Pitfalls | Comments
- Day 10: Meditate | Comments
My Day 10 in Pictures
Here’s a recap of my Day 10 in pictures:
Veggie patty again, this time with multi-grain bread (finally)! I was busy the whole day preparing for the Passive Income Course, so I only ate this in the day. (The class was a blast as usual; such fun working with the participants to plant the seeds for their P.I. businesses!!!)
After the course, went to the usual Chinese place to have “supper” (which was really my second meal for the day) with Ken. It has become a practice to go there every Saturday after my live courses. Sugar cane juice and century egg porridge, and chee cheong fun (it’s a Cantonese delicacy called rice noodle roll), shared with Ken!
Then, went grocery shopping for supplies for the week. Grapes, bananas, tofu, vegetables, bacon bits, and chick peas!
Grapes and salad (consisting of lettuce, chickpeas, pineapple, mushroom, sesame seeds, cucumber, sunflower seeds, and bacon bits). Water as usual. Big yum!! :D
Last but not least, a banana! Unfortunately not as ripe it should be for optimal effects, but there was nothing else to eat so I thought better a banana than Cheezels (Ken’s favorite snack; he just got two packs yesterday)! Also two slices of wheat bread with peanut butter (not in the picture).
Today I meditated for 10 minutes (as per the challenge task) and felt very relaxed at the end of it. In fact, I was so relaxed that I took a quick nap for one and a half hours! It’s not surprising given that meditating clears our mind and relaxes us, hence making it easier to sleep. While meditating, I cleared out thoughts of random things that happened in the past few weeks — always interesting to observe. I’ve found that the longer I meditate, the “older” the thoughts that get processed. For example, when I meditate for 30 minutes, I can be processing thoughts from a month ago or two; when I meditate for one hour, I can be processing things from months ago in my mind.
Doing the meditation task has reinvigorated my interest to work meditation back into my life as a daily (if not near daily) habit. For the past couple of years I’ve been practicing meditation as a state of awareness that I uphold throughout the day; while this is good, I feel that setting aside 10, 15 minutes a day solely for meditation can give me stronger effects. I’m considering making it a 7- or 14-day experiment like how I did my 21-day fasting experiment before, where I meditate intensely for each day (say an hour) with daily journaling on significant observations and benefits (if any), but I’m not sure if there’ll be any interest in it.
What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments section. Perhaps I can even jokingly name it as my experiment to “meditate to nirvana,” LOL! Journaling or not, daily meditation is something that I will be doing because I see the long-term benefits of doing so.
Reviewing my 14HLC goals, they are
- Exercise at least three times a week – My second exercise for the week is tomorrow!
- Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet – Check!
- Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can – Check!
Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 10’s comments section!
With that, let’s move to today’s task, which is…
Day 11: Identify Your Food Struggles
It’s been 10 days since the new year started. In the past 10 days, we have authentically shared our meals and diet progress with each other. Some of us have been doing great in our healthy living plan. Some of us have been having moderate success. And then there are some of us who may be struggling to get our diet to where we’d like it to be.
No matter where you stand now in your healthy eating, I’d like you to know that you’re not alone. Big or small, many of us have our food struggles. For example, long ago my biggest struggle with food was that it was my agent of comfort and love. And comfort and love it was, for I would turn to it whenever I felt anxiety, stress, uncertainty, or even — get this — happy. Because of that, I could never eat in accordance with my ideal calorie intake. It was a long, painful struggle as I would exercise to try to shed off my excess food intake and then eat more than I should like a woman possessed. This overeating could happen once every few days to at its worse, for a continuous period of weeks. (I have since worked through my emotional eating issues after many years, and share my complete solution to addressing stress eating in How to Stop Stress Eating Program.)
For today’s task, I would like you to share your food struggles. While overcoming them won’t be an overnight switch, my hope is that by having this space to share your food struggles, it will (a) let you know that you’re not alone, (b) let you air out your personal difficulties with food / in your diet at the moment, and (c) perhaps help you to identify the initial steps towards tackling them. Because at the end of the day, know that we’re in this journey for healthy living, not a race or some quest for perfection.
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Identify your current food struggles
What are your biggest food struggles at the moment?
- Perhaps you wish to remove fried food from your diet but you keep eating it all the same.
- Perhaps you want to stop having dairy but you still continue having it — and the worst thing is when you do, it triggers the eating of other foods that you want to keep out of your diet.
- Perhaps you want to remove the unhealthy, sugary desserts in your life but you can never bring yourself to say “no” when it comes to a cupcake or a cake.
- Perhaps you really wish to eat healthily but the food all around you is unhealthy, from the eateries around your home, to the food that’s stocked in your house, to the food that your family members cook / bring home.
Whatever these struggles are, write all of them now. If you have specific food struggles (e.g. issue with cupcakes, or issue with cereals as was the case of one of my How to Stop Stress Eating Program course participants in the past), write them down too!
Step 2: Identify possible solutions to these struggles
For each of the struggles you just identified, what are some possible solutions that can tackle this?
For example, let’s say you have a weakness for cupcakes. Why is that? Perhaps your mom has always bought you a cupcake when you were young, as reward for being a good boy/girl. Hence, cupcakes have been ingrained in your mind as being synonymous with love, with being a good person, and with reward. Given that, your possible solutions can be
- Recognize that you don’t need to eat a cupcake to feel love, to feel like you’re a good person, or to reward yourself. There are other ways to do this.
- Practice tiny acts of self-love each day. This can include hugging yourself the first thing in the morning as part of your morning ritual, taking regular breaks out for yourself, giving positive words of affirmation for yourself, and doing activities you love.
- Recognize your worth as an individual. Read: How To Be The Most Confident Person In The World
- Identify other forms of reward that don’t involve food. For example, a reward can be reading your favorite book, watching your favorite movie, taking a rest after a long day of work, listening to your favorite podcast, and reading your favorite articles at PE. These will make you feel more emotional rewarded than eating a food that you intrinsically do not want to eat, and subsequently feeling bad after that.
- Know that you can say “no” to foods that are bad for you, and you should say no to them because that’s how you can then say “yes” to your ideal healthy diet and life.
Step 3: Read the participants’ comments and share your encouragement
Just like you have your food struggles, other participants have their food struggles too.
Read the other participants’ comments today, and respond to at least one of them. Share some positive words of encouragement to their situation; if you have some ideas of your own, you’re free to suggest ways they can break out of their food struggles. Remember, we’re all in this together as a family, and together we’ll work towards healthy living together — one step at a time!
For More on Overcoming Stress Eating
If you’re going through stress eating, know that you’re not alone. I’ve created a complete solution to overcome your emotional eating, How to Stop Stress Eating Program, which is my premium four-week course to overcome stress eating for life. Check it out in the Courses Section.
Next, Follow Your Plan for Day 11 (Take Pictures Too!)
What tasks have you set for Day 11 of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan? Do them today!
Take pictures of your healthy meals — breakfast, lunch, dinner, and mid-day snacks if any — and share them in the comments section. :D After all, a picture tells a thousand words, and when you share photos of your healthy meals, it inspires others to eat healthily and gives them ideas on what healthy food they can have too!
Post your initial comment sharing your results for today’s challenge task, then add on throughout the day as you have your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and/or if you’re doing any workouts. Attach photos of your meals by clicking the image icon on the bottom left of every comment box. As you add on to your comment thread, be sure to click on the reply button directly below your original comment so that you reply to your own thread (as opposed to starting a new thread).
Share Your Results (and Photos!)
Share in the comments section!
- Your food struggles and possible solutions to them
- Your progress with your healthy living plan today
- Pictures of your meals
- Pictures of your workout (if any)
Do check out the other participants’ comments too and share a word of encouragement or two. We’re all in this together, so let’s support each other as a group! :)
After you’re done, proceed to Day 12: Practice Conscious Eating!
(Image: Women running, Raspberries)
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My greatest food struggle is that I used to eat 4500 calories a day when I was training for fitness and built. Fast forward 15 years later, even at 3000 calories a day a lot of calories are converted into fats instead of muscles. Lack to exercise and a lower metabolic rate had drastically reduced my body’s energy needs.
The challenging part is although my body had adjusted to a lower energy requirements, I still find it hard to transition to a diet running at 2000-2500 calories a day. It will be like almost eating incompletely to me. During this challenge I consciously make it a point to eat more fruits and I think I am moving in the right direction.
I hope eating the lower calorie but equally filling food like lots of fruits will help me in my goal to lose some weight and be fitter!!
Food struggles? The only one would be leaving cooking til too late or not having enough leftovers for the following day, and having to eat biscuits or instant noodles to fill up. Not much choice of ready meals if you’re vegan. Well, I can always make a wholewheat sandwich or have cereal, though that would be repeating what I have for breakfasts!
Solution? Make bigger portions for dinner, I suppose. Or have homemade cake around (I’m not worried about sugar, as it’s not big quantities in my cakes). Better than going hungry!
Daily tasks:
Fruit – banana and 2 clems
Water – 900ml
Meditation – done!
Food struggles:
1-Managing sodium and sugar intake
2-Money to buy healthier food
3-I like the flavor of soda. I consume it only during meetings or parties (never at home and it’s something I’m used to as mom never bought soda) but it’s still hard to quit it.
4- I don’t like fruits very much (especially apples, oranges and grapes. I like my apples chopped and my grapes to be seedless, but for some odd reason I can’t find them like that anywhere and the texture of oranges feels like paper.)
5-Reaching the right amount of required vegetables and dairy to reach my weight.
*dairies in specific are a huge problem for me as I am lactose intolerant.
Possible solutions:
1- To reduce sodium eat less fatty foods such as Chinese rice and meat (less than 1 or twice a week) and eliminate salty treats from my diet. I’m not that interested in them anymore anyways.
To reduce sugar I can eliminate the sweets. (Working with them so much REALLY makes this goal super easy as I already sort of practice it. I’m super tired of the tastes of sugary treats.
2- Turn in job applications as soon as I finish pastry chef and continue with my journalism dream.
3- Substitute soda for iced tea or orange juice while out
4- eat the colored fruits I do like (banana, strawberries, raisins, prunes, pear, etc.)
5- lactose free products are usually bought in my house as I’m not the only one with this. I can and do drink normal milk and treats all the time but whenever I have access to it I choose the lactose free products. So I already follow this solution. Milk with lactose just makes my stomach hurt real bad.
Hi Celes, your idea of ‘meditating to nirvana’ sounds great:D I read your 21-day fasting experiment series and found it very insightful. If you could do the same with meditation, I think that would not only be helpful to people interested in meditation but also the ones interested in overall better living as it increases concentration & reduces stress. If you decide to do a series on your experience with meditation, I am definitely going to be one of the many who’d be following it.
My current food struggles
I started slowly eliminating unhealthy food from my diet since November. Then, I came up with some meal plans and started eating healthy since last week of December. Initially, I struggled with making healthy choices. But currently I am not having any notable food struggles. These days, most of the food I eat are natural, raw, boiled or steamed, and have very little oil.
But of course, occasionally I do have an urge to eat fried/junk food. Here’s a solution that’s working for me: I have 2 cheat meals in a week (one on Sunday & one on Thursday). If I start having any urge to eat unhealthy food at other meals, I write it down and tell myself that I’ll have it at my next cheat meal. Then, when it’s time for my cheat meal, I choose one of the foods I listed earlier.
If I were to write about my past food struggles, there are many and I have already written about top two in day 9 task.
My progress with my healthy living plan
Healthy Eating: Done!
Meditation: Done!
Breathing exercises: Done!
Workout: Done!
I didn’t take any pictures on day 11.
Hi Vani, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on the meditation series! I’d personally want to do it in my own time, just a matter of whether I journal about it. One thing I’m cautious about is not to start a series or something that not many would want to read, and I’m not sure what concrete insights I can pinpoint with a meditation experiment (as in I know from experience that I’ll have a lot of benefits from doing so and hence why I want to do it, I just think they are tangible benefits that can be concretely articulated in a post). I’m really happy that this is something you will be interested in, and I’ll keep your vote in mind!
PS: Excellent work in the challenge by the way!! I always enjoy seeing your comments come up in the challenge!
I understand, Celes. May be you could share some insights after you have finished the experiment if possible. Anyhow, all the meditation related articles you have already posted have lots of info, and the post on vipassana meditation has inspired me to signup for a class someday.
PS: I am glad that you enjoy seeing my comments :)
HLC Day 11 IDENTIFY YOUR FOOD STRUGGLES
FOOD STRUGGLES & SOLUTIONS
Any food could tempt me or call out to me when I am in an emotional eating mode
CARBOHYDRATES are tempting to me….Even if carbs are unrefined or whole grains, they are still carbohydrates, and it is best if I limit them to a small portion when I eat them. (1//2 c.grains, 1 slice whole grain toast, 1 fruit, etc.)
Healthy FATS are good for the brain and many other things, but it is best I limit my healthy oil, such as flaxseed, coconut, or olive oil) to 2 T daily.
PROTEIN is good for me, but 2-3 oz small meals eaten more often is a wiser choice than bigger portions less often
VEGGIES are not so tempting unless they are prepared with appetizing herbs and spices and carbs/protein and oil, and then I could be tempted to eat too much of them. Portion control is important, or else I can go off the deep end.
Some foods or dishes are better left OFF my ideal eating plan completely, because once I start them, I will just keep eating them. SUGAR is NOT in my food plan. Period. I need to keep carefully reading the ingredients labels, so I am not in any fantasy or denial as to just WHAT I am eating! If I am eating LIVE, FRESH, locally grown/raised food, there are no labels to read, just go for organic!
I need to allow others to eat what they eat and not give into the temptation of eating or drinking that too! That is not MY food plan. That is THEIR choice and their body, and I choose to follow MY healthy plan. And yet…If I make an unwise choice, realize it as such, notice how I am feeling, and forgive myself lovingly instead of ‘beating myself up’! Remind myself that I am my own best friend and that I love myself unconditionally and am interested in living healthfully and my best life. Making a plan and having goals are not punishment, but the ways and means for me to achieve what is truly best for me!
What is eating me up? Let me sleuth it out, if it is mot already obvious to me. I need to find out what is affecting my feelings, and then take care of myself in such a way that I will not eat over it, stuffing down my feelings. Better to find out, feel the feelings, no matter how uncomfortable, instead of pushing them down. The feelings not felt will only rise again to greet me at another time. It would be a very wise choice for me to take care of myself by facing what is really upsetting me or scaring me. What is it that I am avoiding or scared of, and Why? Is it really worth my sabotaging myself further and further by hurting myself with FOOD…Food that is meant to increase my health and vitality. Will I allow ANYTHING or ANYONE to rob me of my health? I must take a stand for myself, make a decision that I am my biggest advocate, and I have all the forces of Good behind my life, my being, my health, my goals.
For the moment, I may be faced with numerous challenges, even obstacles, but I have the power within myself to move through apparent, imaginary, or even real obstacles and challenges, somehow, someway, or they would not be there for me to face and work through. If I cannot change it, then may I have the acceptance. And truly to know the difference. GO for it!…or make peace with myself about it.
I am learning more and more how to take care of myself other than eating ‘comfort’ food. There is nothing comfortable about feeling icky after eating too much or something that is not good for me. If I treat myself in loving ways, enjoying things I like, such as,,,,, being out in nature, meditating, reading a good book, seeing a wonderful movie, creatively writing, drawing, putting together my ‘treasure books’, having good conversation, watching an inspiring video, listening to music I love, being with loving, supportive friends…. I get the message that I KNOW and REALIZE that I really AM okay and worth taking very good care of. (I really AM okay and worth it anyway! underneath it all, but sometimes I forget!) And being with those who are supportive of me and who appreciate me is a huge blessing!
Celes, btw, thank you for the ‘Confidence’ article you wrote on PE. I plan to reread it. While I’m at it, Celes, thank you for your time and dedication, for all the articles and courses and challenges you write and share, helping SO many people in this world in so many ways! (smiling a big smile)
As I am learning to nurture myself in other ways than FOOD, I say affirmations and I visualize good things for myself. Such as:
Walking tall, freely and easily.
Riding a bicycle,
Hiking through the forest,
Walking on the beach
Dancing
Confidently socializing with others.
Some affirmations are:
‘I love myself unconditionally, and it is very very easy for people to like/love me.’
‘I am a beautiful and bright woman who has much to contribute, learn, and explore.’
‘No one is quite like I am.’
‘I come closer and closer to my goals every day!’ or, even better, ‘I achieve my goals.’
‘I am confident, and I believe in myself.’
‘I know just what to do, and I DO it!’
‘I have trustworthy, supportive, loving friends who appreciate and truly care about me.’
‘I trust myself.’
I need to surrender to and willingly embrace and be thankful for a food plan that is part of a larger plan designed to take excellent care of myself. i need to follow a food plan, preparing the food and packing it up to go with me, if necessary. I love to be a part of a community of like-minded souls, and I, for one, am preparing to be more available to friends.
There is so much to look forward to. Even though at times things look bleak. It is then that I need to go ‘inside,’ within the deep resources and wellspring within myself, get very quiet and still, and ask for help. I need to remember that I really do have everything within myself that I need, and when I feel that is not true, there is help for me…People and reminders telling me that I am not alone and that there is help for me when I need it. Keep going, Have faith, Keep going….I need to listen to and let the POSITIVE messages really go deep.
What is important is being in this moment, the only moment I have, honoring my life, living the healthiest moment I can create, enjoying my life, as i embrace myself in a healthy, vibrant, and loving way.
Those words sound sweet, but it really boils down to:
‘What am I thinking?, (Am I thinking POSITIVELY?)
‘Am I prepared for my next HEALTHY meal?, (Am I prepared and ready with HEALTHY choices in the right PORTIONS?) &
‘What can I do THIS DAY that is WORTHWHILE and NURTURING for myself and for others?’ (OTHER THAN having nourishing, wise food choices.)
These are my thoughts about my FOOD STRUGGLES and SOLUTIONS.
My HOPE about all these food struggles and solutions is that I, that we all, are nurturing and kind to ourselves and to each other in our day to day journey.
Wow Bette, what a beautiful list of self-revelations!!!
Bette, you’re very welcome! Thank you so much for being part of PE and also being such a great supporter of my work, being part of my live courses, joining the challenges, buying the relevant products for your growth, etc. I really appreciate your presence here and I know you lit up every comments discussion thread that you are a part of.
Bette, I recall you were in the self-esteem webinar that I conducted last time — in fact I just checked and you were part of the self-esteem webinar plus you also bought the Emotional Eating product @ PE. You are welcome to revisit the materials in the members portal too! The frameworks in the EE program are timeless, and they tackle EE at the very root. I don’t know if you ever got to Module 3, on the spiritual pillar? That one really helps to reveal some of the very roots of EE if they haven’t been uncovered yet.
Yes, Celes, I really was inspired to write all that! I need to revisit what I read! And I so appreciate your reminders for EE and for Module 3, all good reminders! Sometimes we just cannot possibly know how much benefit something we share has to others. Seeds we sow, grow. Muchas gracias!
Wow! It was such an inspiring piece to read. I felt as it is me, voicing out my concerns and problems and getting more determinent to live the best life I can. Thank you!
Thank you Maryna! You have encouraged me in that I am not alone with my concerns and problems, and that my writing was inspiring to you. You inspire me too with your meals and your portions. I send you best thoughts for your best life! And best to you with your studies and getting the rest you need.
My biggest food struggle is eating out too often, or as of lately getting food delivered. Because restaurant food is never going to be as healthy as cooking or preparing food at home. The lure is always there! And on average, we probably eat out 3 times a week, which isn’t good.
By “getting food delivered,” do you mean ordering delivery/takeout? What kind of delivery do you get Glenn? And is it because you’re too busy that you get the delivery?
A few reasons. Sometimes we’ll feel like Thai food, but won’t have enough ingredients or feel like cooking it ourselves, so we’ll order it. Normally I would go and pick it up, but still can’t drive again yet because my foot is still healing.
Do you have any thoughts on planning and addressing it (since the task is on addressing food struggles, so I was wondering what possible solutions to address your situation)? If you have a fixed grocery shopping schedule (maybe you already do) and a list of ingredients to always stock up on, then it’ll ensure that the house will always have the ingredients needed. As for the cooking, when Ken cooks, I try to divide the work with him like washing the dishes etc. to make it easier for him! (Though he often does everything anyway!)
Yes, true. I think we’ll be good once I’m back to normal. Lydia’s pretty much taken over the kitchen and grocery shopping since I busted my leg. Both of which would normally be at least 80% my job! But I’m slow getting back that control over the kitchen the more I can do these things again.
Unfortunately, I’ve fallen a bit off track with you all because of my work :( Now I still feel tired, but am ready to carry on. I guess, I will post some pictures of what I ate yesterday, but won’t go that deep into details.
My current food struggles:
1. Eat only what planned, not to eat some extra food when I am done with my meal.
This challenge on PE has been a big help for me here. As I take a picture of what I’ll it and later report on that, I do not eat extra servings of food that I do not really want or need.
2. Do not overeat when I am stressed out. A really hard thing to do for me.
I just feel like printing out the tips that Celes gives in Step 2, this is what I should do.
So, for Struggle 1: leave kitchen once I’m done with the meal. Have a food diary, where I record and control what I eat. Plan my meals in advance and do not treat food like a source of pleasure and positive emotions (but rather make my life more exciting overall).
For Struggle #2: do not eat alone when I am stressed out, develop some healthy de-stress techniques. Find other ways to deal with stress then loose contor in food and overeat.
Here are some pictures of my yesterday’s meals:
here we go:
Hi Maryna, I’m so glad that the challenge is helping for you! I agree with you on developing healthy de-stressing techniques as that’d be the long-term solution to addressing stress eating. Have you read my emotional eating series? There are many tips I share about addressing EE which may help.
I love what you have written Maryna…very helpful, and I relate!
‘Plan my meals in advance and do not treat food like a source of pleasure and positive emotions (but rather make my life more exciting overall).’ really hits the nail on the head when it comes to planning ideal meals for healthy eating, and I am reminded to eat to LIVE, not live to eat!
I know that when I am tired and need to rest, or just plain need more SLEEP, I feed that need with FOOD, when that is not really what I need! You have a full schedule and mention how tired you feel, so i support you in getting the amount of rest and sleep that you need to feel and do your best. What is ANYthing worth if we don’t FEEL good, right?!!
All the best to you with your living your most healthy lifestyle!
What is ANYthing worth if we don’t FEEL good, right?!! – absolutely true! When I am sleep-deprived, I have cravings for sweets, which is terrible, because I try to exclude fron my diet completely. And in general self-pity (“I am so exhausted, I am so stressed-out) provoces unhealthy eating for me.
I don’t think anyone else noticed, but there’s a small typing mistake in the article, Celes: “Perhaps you really wish to eat unhealthily but the food all around you is unhealthy…”. I think it was supposed to say “Perhaps you really wish yo eat *healthily* etc.”. Thought of pointing it out, hope you don’t mind it.
Now, biggest food struggles: emotional eating and sugar cravings.
Overcoming emotional eating has been a years-long struggle, but I’m still trying. Putting in place other “reward” mechanisms, which have nothing to do with food is probably what works best, but usually short-term, because I start emotionally overeating soon after. Emotional eating helps me cope with various things in my life which aren’t pleasant, and that’s why I think of food in terms of “pleasure”, “happiness”, “comfort”. I’ve read the articles on PE about love and emotional eating so many times, yet theory is always easier than practice.
Techniques I use to cope with EE and to overcome it:
-keeping a food journal
-keeping track of how many times I get the urge to eat and under what circumstances (this helped me identify my triggers)
-taking a walk or doing any other activity instead of eating (this is hard to stick to, because when I get the urge to eat, I go into mindless-autopilot mode and can’t stop myself from grabbing the first thing in sight that’s either sugary or fatty/salty)
I have a ton of limiting beliefs, especially about love and money, so I guess that unless I overcome those, I won’t see any significant change in my life. I both want love and at the same time fear it (I don’t like to depend on anyone and to have to organize my life around somebody else’s, because I’ve been doing those things for my entire life so far). As for money, I’ve always seen it like this hard to get thing which rules everyone’s lives (these beliefs stem from my parents’ ideas and how they raised me to believe the same things by telling me how hard it is to get money and how important it is, how they’ve always needed it, etc., but also because of my current experience: I can’t get a part-time job no matter how much I look for it, and when you *do* find one it’s usually in fields such as IT and business and I’m not qualified for those).
I just try to stay positive and to work on improving myself even a little bit daily. Daydreaming is an escape for me, though not visualizing (paradoxically, visualizing makes me sad, lol, because it reminds me of all the things I would like to have and to experience, but which I have no idea how to get).
I think thak keeping a food journal is a great idea! That way you could track what and how much you eat every day and that way you might see a pattern – at what times you go off track. And the same goes for keeping track of how many times you get the urge to eat and under what circumstances. When I was writing a few sentences every day about how I felt through each day (happy, tired, bored, lazy, excited, productive, not good, …) it helped me realize what was going on with me before the urge (for chocolate) happened – what were the circumstances like before the urge appeared on the surface of my consciousness.
(Thanks for letting me know about the typo, Lina! It’s been corrected. That’s what happens when write articles without sleeping the day before!)
Hey Celes! Here’s to getting the sleep you need on a regular basis! I know you can do it, because of all you have accomplished with all you have set your mind to! I know many of us stretch our limits when it comes to getting our proper rest and sleep…I know I have been challenged in getting too little good, healing sleep, so thanks for the reminder of how important it is!
And Bonne nuit! Buenas noches! Good Night!
Thank you Swann, you’re such a sweetie! *Many hugs*
Hi Lina….About limiting beliefs…I come from parents who had lots of limiting beliefs, and it has taken a lot of work for me to erase critical, negative thinking parental tapes. I have trudged through many a battlefield of negativity, and still feel I work through limiting thoughts. I discovered whether it had to do with limiting beliefs about money or love or anything, it always came down to my ability to receive, that I did not feel like I deserved to receive whatever it was. How could that be?!…I deserve this!…but deep down I didn’t feel like I did. I have really flooded myself with positivity, and I have made headway with affirmations and visualizations so that I am much kinder to myself. Progress. Anyway, I do relate to what you have written and just wanted to share with you.
How about the affirmation, ‘The perfect part-time job is waiting for me.’
May your best dreams come true!
Thank you for sharing and for the encouragement, Swann!
Overcoming limiting beliefs is definitely something deeply ingrained in our minds, so it takes some time to remove them. Just like you said, at a certain point your lips say “I deserve this”, but deep down you feel like you don’t. This proves how our beliefs define us and how deeply they’re rooted in our psyche.
However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be overcome, your case — one of many others — showing that it can be done and that a bath of positivity is surely to do the trick in the long run. I guess that this is my problem (or one of them at least): I rarely stay positive and optimistic over a long period of time, and when I get more negative about things and life in general it’s difficult for me to pull myself together and be positive again.
You are so welcome Lina…I love to share thoughts and ideas! Yes, i see how our beliefs define us and yes, the roots go deep! Pulling out the deeply embedded belief by the root is one way I visualize, but there are still the bad habits to eliminate. When I am successful at supplanting bad habits with good ones, i start the process of feeling better about myself, which evolves into better beliefs about myself. Kinda like taking care of the little things, and the big things take care of themselves, if that is making any sense. Just writing this has given me an AHA moment, so thanks for the ‘conversation’!
1. My food struggles and possible solutions to them
I strugle with eating chocolate and cookies because is not healthy. I have this luck that I am thin and I do not gain weight – but if I would gain weight from eating chocolate, than this would be much bigger strugle for me. I eat chocolate (crave for it) especially after eating dinner when I come home from work. I think that is because I am tired and stressed from work and I feel like doing nothing (tiredness, laziness), just resting. I find it so comfortable to sit on a couch under a warm blanket, watch a movie or read a book and eat chocolate – I cannot say no to that.
For the past 10 days I did not have this struggle – because I felt really motivated for doing something after work, I was not tired. Plus, like I said in previous comments, I ate more fruit than usual, so that also prevented my cravings for sugar.
So possible solutions are: keeping myself busy after work with things I love to do and making sure that I stay motivated. Eating enough fruit. Go for a run after work to get some fresh air and move the body.
2. My progress with my healthy living plan today
– drank 4 glasses of water
– did yoga in the afternoon (really happy that I made it)
– ate 7 servings of F&V
– did not go for a walk, but did go ice skating, so I say this is checked
I can totally relate to the being tired-eating sugary things part. I do that, too, especially during examination period in college. I’ve always said “Oh no, exams don’t stress me at all”, but I guess my body knows better, haha.
Great progress in the challenge so far! Keep going at it!:D
Food struggles? What food struggles? Oh, *those* food struggles!
I usually say that, humorously, when someone mentions stress in my life.
For me, the struggles are around the availability of healthy food choices, and avoiding ones that are not healthy. Also there are certain food triggers that I need to avoid. I could go on (and on and on!) in increased detail but I want to focus on solutions. Sometimes going into detail helps me uncover things I need to know to help arrive at a solution but sometimes, and nearly always when I’m thinking about food, the details turn into excuses and justifications for why I can’t do the thing that I need to do. So, solutions.
Solutions.
1. Protein bars. If I have one with me, I’m able to eat when I need to and thus not get overly hungry and thus more likely to eat badly.
2. Water. Sometimes I eat when I’m actually thirsty. Also water fills me up so I don’t eat as much.
3. Sitting where I can’t see the kitchen. Sometimes the kitchen triggers a “must eat” response.
4. Choose foods with a definite flavor because they are more satisfying than blander options.
5. Brush my teeth soon after so my mouth doesn’t taste like the last thing I ate.
6. Try to do like Val did (and it appear that Celes is doing something similar) — limit the options that I allow myself. The current eating plan leaves too much leeway for high-carb foods and/or trigger foods.
The biggest challenge that I face is my spouse who brings home an endless variety of junk food, and eats huge quantities of it in front of me. Over the years, I’ve learned ways to resist eating it myself, about 80% of the time. Sometimes I give in to temptation, and usually end up getting sick. Excessive sugar makes me ill due to stomach surgery 12 years ago. Currently I am working on a more spiritual solution, like trying to have more compassion for his eating disorder, and trying to resist making snide comments about his gross food choices. Criticizing his failures is not helpful. It just makes him agitated and angry. My annoyance at his eating habits may be anger at myself, for my past bad eating habits. I would benefit from looking inward and healing my own eating issues rather than focusing on his eating issues. I would benefit from enjoying the beauty in the world instead of being self-critical.
Susan, that is a very good insight to realize that criticizing his eating habits is not helpful. Perhaps you are annoyed because even though you avoid temptation 80% of the time, you still sometimes succumb because those foods are there. And maybe because you are worried about his health? It can really be scary to see a loved one endangering themselves and their well-being, and for many of us, that feat gets expressed as anger.
I wish you the best in your healing process.
Hi Susan,
I just posted a reply to you for Day 10, and now I am inspired to reply another one!
Good for you for making progress in seeing what is going on for you instead of looking at your husband and his choices! That takes real focus and deliberate choice-making for sure! And enjoying beauty in the world sounds to me like a better choice…appreciating instead of being critical, so YAY! for that too! Also, kudos on resisting eating that junk most of the time, and here’s support for staying in that lane! Your reward for that behavior is that you won’t feel horrible like you would if you did get into eating the junk food. And great that you are developing more compassion, which sounds to me like a very spiritual solution.
All the best, and Keep on keepin’ on!!!
Hi Susan, it’s great that you have managed to resist 80% of the time. I have myself been in a similar situation before and I know it takes a lot of focus and will power to do so. Kudos to you! Your decision of focusing on healing your own eating issues rather than focusing on his eating issues is the best solution.
When I started eating healthy, I used to get off track seeing my family members eating variety of junk food. But when I started focusing on my food rather than theirs, it became easier to resist and slowly I reached a point where I didn’t have to resist anymore. Now no matter what people around me are eating, I don’t usually get tempted easily.
I hope slowly you’d too reach a point where what your spouse eats wouldn’t influence what you eat and may be one day he gets inspired by you to eat healthily. All the best for your healthy eating endeavors!
First meal of the day same combi as my dinners on Day 4 and 6): QQRice and freshly squeezed orange juice! My QQRice ingredients this time are wheatgerm rice with pickled vegetables, mushoom, vegetable floss, braised peanuts, and vegetarian duck (yes, I do eat the same things each time; I find that it creates consistency and streamlines the process!).
Another busy day today — editing the P.I. course lecture, editing a new Ask Celes video (YES FINALLY MOVING ALONG WITH NEW VIDEOS on PE!!!!), exercising later, and also editing my older articles on the blog to improve quality of writing. Will update later with my next meal!
Mid-day meal: Banana + grapes (combing old pictures as it’s becoming a bit of a hassle taking picture for small meal items)
Nightime supper: Same as yesterday — Century egg porridge and chee cheong fun. Honestly this isn’t the best in my diet right now especially when I’m having the healthy sandwiches, soups, and salads every day, but today it just happened that I don’t have enough food to last the day.
I think my biggest food “struggle” now is simply that 99% of the places around me sell bad, unhealthy food. And the sad thing is that this is simply the average diet that society goes for, which IMO is just unhealthy, oily, fried, and just plain nutritious. Now I don’t care about these foods and they aren’t the least appetizing to me (especially since I worked through my emotional hangups with eating from before) so I’m not interested to eat them at all.
The problem for me though is that it is very hard to get my ideal food as and when I want to (like I shared earlier in the challenge, I need to travel an hour at least in order to take away those healthy sandwiches/soups/salads that you see in my pictures daily), and they aren’t 24hr too which is an issue as I’m currently working night-owl timezones. I have streamlined the process by batching two days’ worth of meal purchases into one, but there are still situations where I’m busy (like the past couple of days) where I do have to end up with an occasional meal not being in line with my ideal diet (like the porridge and chee cheong fun I just had).
(I should also mention that cooking is simply not an option for me; I don’t have the capacity to cook my own meals plus do the frequent grocery shopping required since vegetables need to be fresh. I’m okay with making the occasional salad each week though.)
So my plan to address this is to sort out my routine. Right now it’s crazy as I’m so busy with the different things going on since the year started, including running the challenge and also including my 3-times-a-week workout and all (and it’s all in a good way), but moving forward, having a fixed routine like sleeping around midnight and waking up before sunrise to run and so on will help me to create an easy routine to take away my meals in a timely manner every other day. :D
Mid-day meal: Banana + grapes (combing old pictures as it’s becoming a bit of a hassle taking picture for small meal items)
Nightime supper: Same as yesterday — Century egg porridge and chee cheong fun. Honestly this isn’t the best in my diet right now especially when I’m having the healthy sandwiches, soups, and salads every day, but today it just happened that I don’t have enough food to last the day. The funny thing is that these are probably the healthiest things out of the 100 odd dishes the eatery sells.
I think my biggest food “struggle” now is simply that 99% of the places around me sell bad, unhealthy food. And the sad thing is that this is simply the average diet that society goes for, which IMO is just unhealthy, oily, fried, and just plain nutritious. Now I don’t care about these foods and they aren’t the least appetizing to me (especially since I worked through my emotional hangups with eating from before) so I’m not interested to eat them at all.
The problem for me though is that it is very hard to get my ideal food as and when I want to (like I shared earlier in the challenge, I need to travel an hour at least in order to take away those healthy sandwiches/soups/salads that you see in my pictures daily), and they aren’t 24hr too which is an issue as I’m currently working night-owl timezones. I have streamlined the process by batching two days’ worth of meal purchases into one, but there are still situations where I’m busy (like the past couple of days) where I do have to end up with an occasional meal not being in line with my ideal diet (like the porridge and chee cheong fun I just had).
(I should also mention that cooking is simply not something I want to do for now; I don’t have the capacity to cook my own meals plus do the frequent grocery shopping required since vegetables need to be fresh. I made my own sandwiches/meals for a while but then I also realized it’s not something I want to keep doing daily. I’m okay with making the occasional salad each week though.)
So my plan to address this is to sort out my routine. Right now it’s crazy as I’m so busy with the different things going on since the year started, including running the challenge and also including my 3-times-a-week workout and all (and it’s all in a good way), but moving forward, having a fixed routine like sleeping around midnight and waking up before sunrise to run and so on will help me to create an easy routine to take away my meals in a timely manner every other day. :D
It is so sad and alarming that you have a store with healthy food an hour away from your home – because that means that people in your area mostly eat unhealthy non-nutritional food every single day. It is hard for me to understand that people do not care what they eat and that they litterally poison themselves slowly.
I cook. My meals are very very simple. They are always good to eat, but are not gourmet delight :) That is totally fine with me, because I do not really enjoy cooking. Preparing my meals and food itself is for me something that gives me energy and life, so I try not to complicate and keep it simple :)
Today I made rice (it cooks for 10 min in salted water)+red cabbage (it cooks on steam for 10 min)+cashew (I only roast them)+spices – lunch made in 20 minutes max. Other examples of my meals are: cooked rice/legumes/chickpea/pasta/… with vegetables (cooked, roasted on olive/coconut oil or cooked on steam) + spices. Etc. Vegetables can be frozen (not the best choise, but better than fried food) or fresh. Fresh vegetables hold on at last few days in the fridge. Home made soups are also so easy to make – all you have to have is a blender or stick mixer. All I do is roast onion on oil or butter, add vegetables (brocoli, mushrooms, cauliflower, pumpkin, beans, …) and water, cook for 10 min, add some spices (salt, pepper, …) and than mix it – voila, cream soup ready to eat.
Anyone who has a kitchen and 30-45 min time (includes cooking, eating and cleaning up the dishes), could easily have one healthy cooked meal a day (or 2 per week for starters).
Hi Miss Elf, yes it is! And actually it’s not just my area, but that the average societal diet in Singapore (and everywhere in first world countries really) is simply not very healthy. For example, look at McDonald’s — it’s everywhere. Starbucks, most of the stuff they serve (except for the mixed fruits cup) are all very very sugary and unhealthy. Typical restaurants, serving pastas, pizzas, “white” rice, “white foods, also not healthy. These standard eateries that have taken over shopping malls today, by default, serve unhealthy food.
The hawker centers, where most of the food are cultural and reflect Singapore’s natural heritage, serve unhealthy food too. And I don’t think it’s specific to Singapore because if I look at other traditional food say Indian food, they can be very unhealthy too. I recently read an article about how children in India are already starting to have diabetes, and it’s very much linked to their diet which is very sugary and high in dairy possibly. And I’m sure same for European traditional foods as well (when I was in Holland, there’s stuff like stroopwafels, poffertjes (like pancakes), patat (fries), hagelslag, crazy amount of dairy in their regular diet, etc. all of which really aren’t nutritious and healthy at all).
I think most local cultural food tends to be unhealthy, and that’s because in those times people were in a society where food wasn’t necessarily abundant and having something to eat was considered a luxury. As scarcity of food is no longer an issue in first world countries today, that’s where people have the luxury to think about having healthier meals like salads etc., which is where I guess that’s where most of our discussion is revolving in the 14HLC discussions. And that’s good of course, because people are evolving in their diet choice to opt for healthier options for themselves and their bodies, so as to live a better life.
Traditional foods are probably made of ingredients that were available in the olden days in particular area. And maybe traditional foods were not eaten on daily basis back than, like there are today (because of scarcity). Food was also more natural, not processed. Scarcity today is gone, but people do not realize that this doesn’t mean that they have to eat everything. And they certaintly do not have to eat everything that the industry offers, because industry is not there for us and our health, but is there for the money. Meat was also a luxury in the olden days, it was not eaten every day but rather on special occasions. But today is a totally different story: people eat meat every day, preferably more than once a day. And meat industry loves that and it also made it happen that way.
Celes, there are plenty of simple meals you can make at home. I sometimes make porridge with almond milk. I just he’s the porridge with water in a microwave. Only takes a couple of minutes. Or you could use that rice cooker you have, and add some frozen veggies and some spices, or curry powder to it. Smoothies are another option of course.
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