Sneaking in Healthy Habits for June

This year I've gone back and forth from being really, really healthy to spurts of allowing myself to eat and drink whatever I want.  I've been meditating on this, and it seems that it may be because I go cold turkey and haven't been going slowly and taking baby steps like I used to.  It's been all or nothing.  So in June I'm going to slowly start adding in the good habits, but not being too crazy about the rules.  I am just going to focus on one or two things at a time until they become good habits and then move to the next.  Some of the habits I am going to focus on:

Avoiding Grains- from the Paleo challenge in January I realize this is a very healthy habit for me. 
Eating more vegetables- This is how I will replace my grains
Avoiding Alcohol- this one is pretty obvious. 
Drink more unsweetened tea and water- this is how I will replace the alcohol
Avoiding Sugar- I wanted to focus on grains first because it's my first major evil, but sugar is my second.  This includes sugar added to sauces, creams, bacon, and everything else delicious out there.  So I will be consciously looking at all of my ingredients lists and choosing the items without sugar added.
Make my own sauces- this is how I will avoid sugar in sauces
Make my own desserts- this is how I will avoid ice cream and other desserts
Avoid processed foods- these just have junk in them. 
Buy more fruit and make my own snacks- this is how I will replace processed foods
Avoiding soy- I kind of do this already, so I'll just keep this one in mind.
Avoiding legumes- This will be my last to add back on.  I generally do stay away from the legumes, but until the other habits are in place, I won't focus too much on this one.

The first goals I am going to focus on are the first 4 (two really that relate to each other).  These will be the hardest, but the most beneficial.  I will work on them until they feel comfortable and easy.  Could be a month, but I'll check in.  I already started today.
Avoiding grains and alcohol and replacing them with more vegetables, water and unsweetened flavored tea.  And packing my lunch with these items to I don't get caught at work without healthy substitutes.

Finding Balance

I have subscribed to Mark's Daily Apple blog for a long time.  I get email updates often.  Just the other day when I was feeling again, like I need some kind of help getting back to eating healthy, I read the email on tips to get yourself back to living primal.  It was perfect timing.  I have since then been sifting through the articles on that website and there is so much good information.  I am glad that I started this year with the Paleo Challenge, but have been struggling for a way to make it fit into my life without having the support of my NY crossfitter friends.  The fact that my husband doesn't eat primally and constantly has things like chips, cookies, ice cream, etc in the house make it difficult.  Especially on weekends.  I am going to start doing the PBF (Primal Blueprint Fitness) by Mark Sisson, again, at Mark's Daily Apple.  I am tempted to do another challenge, this time eating well, but not as strict, more 80/20 and following his plan of 2x a week play, 1x a week sprint, 2x a week LHT or WOW (Lift Heavy Things or Workout of the Week), and move slow for 3-5 hours a week and rest one of the days.  I like his idea of moving slow for 3 to 5 hours and only sprinting once a week.  I'm curious to see how this changes the way I feel, if at all.  Of course TKD is my play.  Hiking and walking the dogs and the beach will account for my moving slow.  I really would like to buy Vibrams.  I can't afford them right now though.  Maybe I'll ask for a pair for my birthday.  I can wait 2 months.  For now I'm going to do a lot more barefoot walking.  I am going to start running and hiking in vibrams when I can finally afford them.

Started TKD, and I'm loving it.  I finally got my DuBok.  I am starting to learn the techniques.  I have decided on my off days that I am going to start Mike Sisson's Primal Fitness.  It seems very functional.  To track my progress I will look at the five essential moves.  Today I'm doing the self-assessment.
Here's what I did today:
Incline Pushups: 26
Squats: 50 (slow)
Elevated Jack Knife Press: 20 (might do next level next time- it seemed a little easy)
Forearm/Knee Plank and Side Knee Plank: 90sec and 45 sec
Incline Pushups: 27
Squats: 76
Jack Knife Press: 20 (Seemed easy still, so I did 3 Dive Bombers, that's the level I need to do next time)
Forearm/Knee Plank and Side Knee Plank: 150 sec and 60 seconds on the sides.

I didn't realize that I was supposed to go to my max, but duh, of course that's how it works.  So the second round I maxed and definitely should be doing the next level on most of the moves.  I am feeling it though, surprisingly tired already. 
Supposed to do Chair assisted (one leg) pullups, but I don't have a bar.  If I remember to do a few when I walk the dogs later, I'll update this.
Am going to watch my TKD video right now and practice my moves also.  Feeling very primal!

Excuses

So Monday night, after all my talk of emotional eating and such, we had a power outage and went to a friend's house to eat dinner, since they had power.  They were making pasta.  Now I am not one to be a pain in the ass, I wasn't going to ask them to make it paleo somehow.  They had put together this amazing meat and veggie sauce that was all chunky and delicious.  Now, I could have had just a small serving of the pasta with lots of chunky meat sauce and no bread.  Is that what happened?  No.  I devoured a ginormous bowl of pasta with 2 fat slices of bread with butter.  There was no real reason for me to be such a gluttinous pig, but I inhaled that stuff.  It's not like I had been ending a 30 day round of strict paleo and was indulging.  I just finished a 4 day stint of poor eating choices.  It makes you really wonder how addictive these food choices really are.  I had the fullest intention of eating paleo all day, and did until the power went out.  Funny how that works.  Oh yeah, and had ice cream and a twix bar on the way home.  Hmm. 
On a happier note yesterday and today I've eaten extremely well.  Plus yesterday was TKD.  I did 2 hours of it and am feeling the awesome soreness that comes from a hard workout.  I think I will be able to pick up some of the moves soon and not look like a total idiot. 

Emotional Eating

So this topic is not a new one.  Emotional eating.  How does it always sneak up and bite you in the ass right when you think you've got things under control?  It so easily hides itself under the guise of a delicious "cheat" from your usual healthy eating pattern and then oozes into a weekend binge of cookies, bread and beer.  I swear I was eating paleo 4 days ago.  Doing great.  Paleo, really briefly, is eating nuts, fruits, vegetables and meats.  No dairy, added sugar (or HFCS), grains, alcohol, soy, or beans (legumes).  This sounds strict, but is extremely satisfying and delicious.  I love to eat this way because I don't have energy highs and low crashes, I feel full and satisfied all day long, my skin looks better, and my workouts are stronger.  This is an aside, though, back to emotional eating.  Basically, I was eating really healthy a few days ago.  Then I wanted a beer.  I'm a lady who doesn't restrict herself for the sake of restriction.  My whole point of eating healthy is to be healthy.  So when a strong urge kicks in, I indulge.  I believe that you should eat healthy most of the time, but then when you really want that fudge brownie or Guinness, well, by all means, enjoy it.  Don't just enjoy it, savor it.  So I bought some beer.  But, oh, one beer is never enough.  One beer became beer and cookies.  Which became beer, cookies, and 2 more beers.  And then I felt awful the next day.  Welcome, emotional eating.  I think this is why sugar is so addictive.  You enjoy a beer or large portion of cake or cookies, or whatever and then feel like crap the next day for various reasons.  The actual physical effect is pretty strong for me, but there's also the guilt.  Oh, I fell off the wagon again.  I ate too much last night, I was doing so good!  And so on and so forth.  Which for some reason invariably leads to finishing off the six pack the next night.  Because you're not feeling good.  And you want to feel better.  And beer makes you feel better!  And so does chocolate ice cream!  And then the next day you feel like crap, and round and round we go.  Oy vey.  Can't a girl just enjoy a beer? 
Well, I am eating healthy again today and enduring all of the physical setbacks that come with eating crap for 4 days, the bloated belly, the gas (holy moly!) and the headache today when I didn't scarf down any carbs for breakfast.  At least I know now that these side effects are short-term.  I know that by tomorrow's evening workout I will begin to feel healthy again. 
A few things I am going to do to get myself back on track:
I am going to start up my food journal again, I find that when I start to go on a bender, it helps steer me back.  I'm not going to get a new one, I'm just going to pull out the old notebook that I used last time.  I am not going to use it to count calories though, I'm going to document what the feelings and thoughts are that are driving me to want to drink beer and eat high carb stuff. 
I am paying to start TKD officially tomorrow.  That should get me a book and then I can have a fitness goal to work towards.  I am going to work to test for the next belt as soon as I'm ready for it. 
I am going to plan my meals better this paycheck period than I did last time.  Last week was the end of the month and because I hadn't planned out my meals very well, it gave me an easy excuse to resort to what was already in the fridge.
I weighed myself this morning: 132.  That helps give me a goal to work towards.  With TKD I might be able to get down to a healthy 125.  If I feel like I have lost fat and have gained muscle and don't get below 127, I know that's fine too.  127 seems to be where my body rests these days.  I think 125 would be fun to work towards though, only because that would mean some really vigorous workouts in the next few weeks, and I love a vigorous workout.  Maybe I'll do some Insanity with my friends this week or next.