Tag: food

Be curious. Be patient. Watch what happens!

HastonHelpingHands2 Comments

Dear Readers, I am taking a class right now that implores that you “be curious and be patient with yourself and others”

It occurred to me this is excellent life advice. Think about it. If you are curious, you are always learning. If you are patient, you lower your heart rate and your level of stress.

For instance, if you have a bad day or are stressed out about how you did at work, you can take the stance of being curious to figure out what you need to do to improve things. Instead of judging yourself for the difficulty, you can be patient with yourself as you learn about what needs to change.

On a personal note, in the last two weeks, I have gained almost 10 pounds due to an excess of eating foods not on our paleo diet. As my nurse friend pointed out, its easy to pack on the pounds when you go off such a strict diet. In the past, I would have shamed myself and tried to hide it or make excuses or feel guilty but now, with the advent of this advice, I am finding myself to be more patient with myself and forgiving the cheating and have a renewed vigor to resume the lifestyle choice of paleo, and give myself some grace for the past. To be clear, this is not license to continue the cheating, this is an acknowledgment that this is something I am still working on, just like the rest of life, we are all evolving and moving to whatever our next level is going to be. So I implore you, be curious and be patient. The results will surprise you. Think about it! 

Drum Roll Please……

HastonHelpingHands2 Comments

As of 6/1/2013 I have lost an additional 5 pounds making my total for the year 54 pounds. I now have to set a new goal, because my goal was 50 pounds for the year, and now I have met that goal.

I am shocked and amazed that the steps we have taken with paleo (If you are interested in Paleo- this is where we go for all our information, http://www.thepaleomom.com/)  have made such a difference. I shouldn’t be but I am. I mean, you hear all your life eat good food and exercise and you will have good health, seems really simple right? Well, when you get right down to it, it actually is. It boils down to baby steps, and figuring out what your overall goal is and then taking steps every day to work on it. If you fail, so what, you learned something new and that adds to your experience. Start again, try again, you are worth it!

When I started this, my goal was to get in better health. I have achieved that and tripped into some nice benefits like increased levels of confidence, more energy and of course weight loss. I think the biggest thing I have learned on the journey thus far is that your thinking will determine your action. Or put another way as Zig Ziglar said, “Your attitude not your aptitude determines your altitude”

It sounds like a great motivational platitude but in truth it matters. Positive Mental Attitude.

If you need science to back this up, I invite you to check out this youtube video

So what does this mean to you, dear reader? Simple. Figure out what you want to do and start doing it, little by little. Do you want to learn a new language? Run a marathon? It is all within your reach. If you believe it, you can achieve it. Make a plan and follow it. If it doesn’t work, try something else. If it does work, examine what happened to make it go well, and repeat!

 

If at first you don’t succeed, try try again..

HastonHelpingHands2 Comments

I have heard this advice on and off for most of my life and it is good advice if not hard to swallow on the heels of yet another disappointment.

But when you don’t succeed over and over and over again, its hard to slap on a happy face and Tony Robbins yourself into a good frame of mind. With this post, I am aiming to do just that. I am trying to talk myself into doing what I know I must.

I am speaking about my weight loss in the last few weeks, or to put it more accurately, my lack of weight loss. I am doing the same things, but not getting any results. It would be different if I was chowing down on Haagen Daz  or even eating mashed potatoes at every turn but I am following paleo down to the letter and I have remained the exact same weight for three consecutive weeks and its making me ornery and a whole lot less motivated to “stay the course”

I weigh 255 pounds which is 30 pounds less than I weighed at the end of 2012, so in that sense I am experiencing real progress and should be happy. However, comparing a bad score to a better one doesn’t make the better one great, it just makes it better.

But enough of this melancholy michegas, I have a job, I am loved, I can walk, I can talk and I can read and I can write. I have to think about all the things I have and have accomplished this year. To review my goals were these. 

1. More face to face. Less Facebook- I have had no less than 5 face to face coffee, tea and lunch encounters. Still working on less Facebook. The lure of other people is strong.

2. Read 10 books. I have actually read 2 and am close to finishing a third tonight.

3. Give 10 effective speeches. I have given two and will give a third this Saturday

4. Lose 50 pounds. I have lost 30 and that is nothing to sneeze at..

So at the quartermark, I have accomplished some things and still working on others.

How about you? What are you working on? Who do you count on for support?