Tag: Happiness

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General Weight Loss Tips

The List

I’ve missed my blog, I really have. I am getting ready to do yoga. Last week was insane and I thought I do a quick catch-up in a list format.

1) I’ve decided to start saying “no” to projects that won’t get my closer to my goals. I’m giving up on my annoying habit and desire to be swamped with others work. Basically, I’m simplifying and narrowing down what really matters. Simple things make me happy. Cooking delicious food, writing, creating, learning- that’s all I need. I’m okay with not being an impressive person. I’m enough. I’m doing enough. I’m headed in the right direction.

2) I’ve also decided to start working on keeping the crazy out of my life. I have a tendency to let the stress and worry of others stress me out. It’s insane, it’s not positive, it’s not proactive. Worry is pointless. I’m doing the best I can, if someone is worried about me (or my husband) that is on them. Not me. Amen.

3) Growing a thicker skin/standing up for myself. If you know me well- you know one thing: I am a very sensitive person. I worry about people, I worry about the things they say. I think about why people do the things they do. And a lot of the time I get hurt easily. I want to stop allowing people to hurt me so easily.

4) Like number one: I want to do what’s important to me. My health is my number one priority. My happiness is important. My creativity is important. My husband, family and friends are important. When I pile on too much work, all of these things suffer, I am out of balance. My health is more important than being busy.

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General Weight Loss Tips

Do it Anyway

This poem by Mother Teresa has been on my mind lately…

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

I read this a few weeks ago and thought it was profound. It’s not directly related to weight loss, but I think we all worry too much about what other people think. We know people who will dissect every word and every action- do them anyway. I love that. Do it anyway. Take care of yourself regardless of what anyone may think. Find your own path.

Yesterday was another good day of food and exercise. I feel good that I’m building a little army of good days behind me. They will stand behind me on the days when I want to eat my weight in pizza. I will say that I’m glad I started this post PMS. It’s not a particularly unstressful time either, it’s just less of a struggle.

I realized this week that the hardest thing about eating less and counting calories is me. I had to get over my stubbornness, my unwillingness to admit that I needed to do this to lose weight. I had to arrive, yet again, to this conclusion on my own.

I’m eating anywhere from 1,200-1,700 calories a day and I’m not hungry- I thought I would be. I’m not deprived. I’m not unsatisfied. I’m not just eating salads and carrots-I’m eating what I truly want to eat. I’m full on less. And I think it’s important for me to remember this. That I can get by on less and I’ll be better for it.

Last night I really wanted to eat out. Even after having lunch out with a friend. I tried to use the excuse of chicken still being frozen. I kept going back and forth mentally and I knew, deep down, that if I ate out again I would go over my calories for the day. It’s so much easier to eat more quality food at home with less calories. When I’m in a restaurant I often find it too hard to stop eating the giant portions put in front of me.

And now on to yesterday’s food:

Quiche again. I ate about half of what you see here. And 6 oz. or so of orange juice. 363 Calories

Lamb burger from Natasha’s here in Floyd. So good! It felt pretty light to me, and was of course, very flavorful. I ate all of the burger and about half of the crisps. 650 calories

Chicken on mixed greens with cucumber, feta, bacon and vinaigrette dressing. About 400 calories.

Not pictured:

1 serving cashews- 160 calories

Glucosamine chews- 70 calories

Total calories: 1,643

Exercise: 45 minutes of Insanity Workout (400-500 calories)

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Weight Loss Exercise

The Happiness Project

The Happiness ProjectThe Happiness ProjectWell I started reading this book called The Happiness Project. My wife bought it a while ago and after I stumbled through Eat, Pray, Love I thought it would be great to get another soul.empowering type book under my belt

Gretchen Rubin who wrote this book is a real pro in the writing game and seems to write biographies on famous people like Winston Churchill, and JFK so she seem to come from a completely different spot than most of the people in this genre. She points this fact out early in the book as well as her aims for her own Happiness Project.

What is the Happiness Project About?

The book starts with Gretchen Rubin telling us how she is not unhappy but still since there is not an easy way to benchmark happiness she knew that she could be happier, wanted to avoid a conversation on depression and instead see, through research, how someone could be happier in their life.

The book is divided into 12 months and each month has an overarching idea that Gretchen has built resolutions on, and the idea is that every month she will build on what she had done before this newest month, so constant improvement will happen.

The first month was to improve her health, the second month was to Remember Love and Marriage…

The idea that Gretchen Rubin has is not that you will follow her ideas exactly but that she can give you a framework to build your own Happiness Project. Cool idea!

Full of Research and Ideas to Change Yourself

Anyway Gretchen Rubin has a law degree, is a writer, and decided to do this book with her awesome research skills behind her. So in the intro chapter and first chapter I found that the Happiness Project was so chock full of her research and discoveries that were not just touchy-feely that there was just a lot to get through. I have decided to turn this book into more of a project for me, and maybe you should too?

I am not going to take a year to change my life through the Happiness Project but I am sure that over the next few months as I dive into one month at a time I will make significant changes.

You can check out some reviews of the Happiness Project if you are interested in learning more