December 31st- wow! Today is long noodle day, which means an easy lunch that my daughter loves- long noodle soup to symbolize living a long life. I add lots of veggies to the noodles (symbolizing a healthy life haha). After all, the pleasure of a long life comes from good health.
Recipe (if you can even call it that):
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I have not forgotten the resolution posts that I started several weeks ago, but I’ve been wrestling with technology. With the clock ticking down, I decided to go ahead and post anyway. I already mentioned one of my resolutions for next year (lose the weight that found me again this fall), but that is the narrowest part of an overall plan I have been working on for a while (my “Fork in the Road”).
So, here is the entire resolution articulated: In 2013 I will continue improving my own life physically, mentally, and emotionally/spiritually, and I will extend that holistic wellness outwards toward others and the planet.
Sounds like I’ve gone straight from narcissism to grandiosity, but let me explain what this looks like: In 2013 I plan to continue having just as much fun exploring healthy eating and new physical challenges, but I am now going to consciously strive to extend the good feelings in any way I can. I follow Marc Hemmingway’s hilarious blog, and I will be starting the year by taking him up on his challenge with a few modifications:
I will exercise, run, walk or bike the equivalent of 2013 kilometres in 2013, and in the process I want to earn $2013.00 for my chosen charity, West Coast Assistance Teams. (The technology I am wrestling with is the fundraising platform giving page that I am trying to set up to take any pledges or donations- I’ll get it sorted before Jan. 1st, though). Update: I have my donation page up and running here. Read my full update here. 2013 kilometres is a tad more than 5.5 km per day throughout the year, which could be quite “do-able” if I only wanted to focus on running or walking. However, I want to try other challenges, too, so I have also allowed other exercise in my challenge. I will count every 10 minutes of hard exercise as 1 km. (for example, if I do a 50 minute “cardio/core” circuit class, I will count that as 5 km). I usually average one km. in about 8.5 minutes when I walk/run races, so I think that is a reasonable equivalent.
So here is the challenge I offer to you: for 2013, do one (or both) of these things:
1) Donate to someone else’s challenge (if 100 people sponsored me for 1 cent per km., they would only need to donate $20.13 and I would reach my goal!)
or:
2) Set up your own 2013 challenge like Marc Hemmingway and I have done, and collect your own funds for the charity of your choice.
Once I’ve sorted out the giving page, I will link to it, and I will also create a page here on my blog that I will update to keep track of my progress. Check back to see how I am doing and also to let me know how you are doing on your resolutions- if I get really clever, maybe I can create an interactive page where we can all share our progress. Also, check out “Run Hemmingway Run” to see how he is doing with his challenge.
Three more days to go (two for some of you!), so get your resolutions out there!
Update: I have my donation page up and running here.
Read my full update here.
Last post I talked about success at New Year’s Resolutions. This is a very quick illustration of how I am putting the plan to work for me.
Step one- Set Your Resolution as a Goal.
My goal is healthy weight loss, and it will have two parts to it. The part I will “plug in” here is the diet part. (Exercise is already in place, though I will be tweaking that later).
Going by my “SMART” parameters:
S – specific, stepped, significant, stretching
M – measurable, meaningful, motivational
A – agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
R – realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
T – time-based, timely, tangible, trackable
Specifically (and measurably), I am aiming at an even 150 lbs.
This is indeed attainable, reasonable, and trackable, and by setting out my diet plans and tools, it will be action-oriented.
There, that part was simple (I could detail it a bit better, but it will become clearer as I fill out step two and three)
Step Two- Plan for the Goal.
Part One- Check out the research on what has worked for other people:
After comparing Canada’s food guide, a vegan food pyramid, and Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine’s Power Plate, and reading literature about them, I will be basing my diet on PCRM’s Vegan Power Plate.
Part Two- Figure out what has worked for me in the past: In the past, I have found the two most important parts of eating well to lose weight are to never let myself go hungry, and to stay completely away from processed foods. When I get hungry I become like a nicotine addict seeking the next cigarette, and all thoughts of real food go out the window as I urgently seek something fatty and chemical-filled. What the heck do they put in processed foods anyway to make this happen? Willpower holds me off for a while but all too soon it is game over. Then I have to go cold turkey again as I continue to experience cravings for processed foods for the next few days (often at the exact same time of day). If I keep well-enough fed on good food I don’t experience these cravings at all, but it definitely takes careful planning to stay out of that cycle.
Step Three- Prepare for Success.
Set up my tools and supports:
I will be relying on three things in particular for this step. First, my online diet/exercise tracker (which goes back to the “T” in my SMART goal). This is a well-known technique for dieting success, in large part because it makes you eat and exercise more mindfully. There are many different free programs, and it is not a bad idea to sign up for a few and then after a few weeks drop the extras and keep up the one that seems to offer the ease and features that fit your lifestyle best.
I will also be modifying and using an old visual template that I used to use to plan meals for the week. When I get it completed, I will post it on the blog. The old template was based on an older food pyramid, so I want to update and improve it before sharing.
The final step is to create a backup plan for days or weeks that knock me off track. It will consist of “emergency” foods, meals, and strategies that will be posted in my kitchen. I will also share it as it is developed.
by epSos.de
That’s it for now. Easy-peasy plugin.
Christmas is coming, and so is the New Year. I already posted once about New Year’s resolutions, so you may wonder why am I on about it again? Two reasons- I have been putting weight back on this fall (apparently my body is under the impression that I am a bear getting ready for hibernation), and I have a love/hate relationship with New Year’s resolutions. I love the idea of them, but not how they are carried out.
So, today I am giving a mini course on how to make a successful New Year’s resolution, and in the next post I will use myself as the guinea pig and put my own goals into place. In later posts I will report back on my progress as I go, and later on I have a challenge for myself and for you, as well.
Fork In The Road 