Whole Foods

When you visualize "America", what do you see?  For me, my mind goes instantly to giant hamburgers, side-by-side with an enormous pile of salty french fries.  The world's largest, most greasy pizza pie.  Baseball games, where the viewers chow down on hotdogs.  Football games, where the viewers chow down on wings and chug beers by the minute.  American culture is food.  Everything that we do revolves around eating.  Let's meet for lunch.  Let's study over coffee.  What's for dinner?  I have to make snacks for this party.  Christmas dinner.  Valentine's Day chocolates.  Food.  Food.  Food.

I will admit, myself, that I am also an addict.  I love orange chicken and Hershey's bars just as much as the next girl.  Maybe even more so.  I, however, am on a mission.  My body is a wreck.  Overweight from too many Chicken McNuggets.  Tired from not enough water and too many processed, sugary beverages.  Overwhelmed with the ideas of trying this diet and that diet.  Oh my gosh, I have to fit in this dress next week, so I just won't eat at all.  I don't have time to cook.  I don't have time to work out.  I definitely have time to go for cocktails with my girlfriends, though.  "Fairy Godmother, make over my diet" isn't working.  Because I'm not letting it.

Day three of the 30 Day Reinvention Project is about learning more about whole foods, and how to incorporate them slowly into your daily routine.  Do I want to feel miserable about my body?  Do I want to lack confidence?  Do I want to risk my health?  Absolutley not.  Research is something I've done a lot of in the past.  I have read so many books, watched a ton of documentaries, and gone weeks with organic, raw juicing, and healthy eating.  It's not that I don't know how to eat correctly, it's that I lack the motivation.

Melissa Lanz, a food writer and whole foods expert has a couple of websites that really have inspired me to try something new.  Her tips for incorporating healthy, whole foods into your daily routine, and making a lifestyle change are as follows:

1.  Make one small change per week.  Take inventory on all of the foods you eat daily.  What is processed?  What is natural?  If it's a food I really, really like, how can I use whole foods to make the same thing in a healthier way?  My plan is going to be to keep a daily food journal.  List all of the foods I eat for a week.  Using a pink hi-lighter, I'll mark all the foods that are processed.  Using a green hi-lighter, I'll mark all the foods that are whole.  At the end of the week, I'll evaluate and figure out a way to make healthier changes.

2.  Plan ahead.  So many times, I'm rushed for time between shifts at work and don't make good decisions on what to eat.  Melissa has an awesome website:

Click here to see it!

The website is called The Fresh 20.  This sight gives you 20 fresh, whole ingredients that you can buy each week to make 5 healthy dinners.  They are relatively inexpensive, and also includes a meal plan and recipes for how to use those ingredients to feed your family.  Since I am a single, 24-year old that feeds myself, I decided to use this website as inspiration to create my own "fresh 20."

A:  Create a meal plan.
B:  How can I use whole foods to make those recipes?
C:  Write a list of groceries.  Can I buy a bag of spinach and use that for multiple recipes?
D:  Narrow my list down to 20 ingredients.

I'm so excited to work on a change that's going to benefit my physical health, as well as my mood.  How did these tips inspire you?  What are ways that you incorporate whole and organic foods into your daily lifestyle?  Please share!

From victim to empowered woman!

The second speaker for the 30 Day Reinvention Project, Stacey Spensley, had a lot of wisdom to share.  She spoke quite a bit on a topic that we ALL know exists, but usually tend to ignore.  It's something that's second nature to us.  Self-victimizing words.  So many times we are unsatisfied with how things are going in our day-to-day.  Instead of taking responsibility for our actions or reactions to certain events, we blame others and the situation.  We use phrases such as I hope, I wish, I can't, if only, I should, and it's not my fault.  What's the outcome of these words?  We start to really believe they're true, ourselves.  And even though we try to hide it and burry it deep inside, we pour out our pain subliminally through converstation.

For example!

I can't seem to lose any weight.  I don't have the time to work out.  I don't have the money to eat healthy.  I get embarrassed going to the gym.  Poor me.

No way, sister.  No more pity party!  It's time to take control.

Stacey gives great advice on how we can move forward from this by using empowering words.  Her worksheet, which I've attatched here, is an awesome way to help you realize just how much you might use these victimizing phrases in your vocabulary.

Let's look back at the same example I used earlier.  Instead of using that awful phrasing, I can take charge by using a more positive approach.

I won't lose weight if I keep this up.  It's all my fault that I've procrastinated and haven't made time in my daily schedule to work out.  Perhaps I shouldn't have gone out last night.  I can learn from this experience and make better use of my time in the future.  I can work harder at budgeting and skip that latte in the morning in order to eat healthier.  I know I can handle going to the gym, I just need to stop using silly excuses!

Where there's a will, there's a way!  I'm going to definitely work on taking more control of my life and stop playing the damsel in distress.  In order to change my ways, I have to save myself!   This will definitely be a work in progress!

Task #2

My circle of life project put a lot of things into perspective for me about how unbalanced I really feel.  I took a lot of time today to write about what areas I was most dissatisfied with, and how they affected other areas of my life.  What surprised me most was that pretty much every issue I deal with on the daily, and every ounce of stress I have, stems from the fact that I don't handle my money very well.  I'm always broke, haven't payed my bills properly in the past, leading me deep into the depths of Debtville, and I constantly find myself longing for things I wish I could have.  I worry about not finishing school and getting my dream job because I can't afford it.  I've been needing a serious doctor's visit for some time now, but don't have any insurance to cover it.  I work long hours at both of my jobs, come home feeling exhausted, but instead of sleeping, go out with all of my friends and party until the sun comes up, just to be able to have a little fun.  Then I spend my time at home complaining to my boyfriend (Still boyfriend?  Things have been so bad lately, I don't even know.) about how bad my day was and how I don't have any money and how the house is a wreck and poor me, poor me.  Not "how was your day, honey?  I missed you!" (insert hug and kiss)  This epiphany of "financial disaster" makes it very obvious what one of my non-negotiable tasks for the next several months is going to be.  Budget.  I've developed a new plan.  First, I listed all of my bills.  After that, I organized them on what needs to be paid now, soon, and can wait a little while.  Then I wrote a list of all other expenses (gas, food, home, personal, education, fun, vacation.)  As a waitress and bartender, I make cash money on the daily.  This has been a problem for me, because cash in my pocket seems to disappear just as fast as I make it.  To eliminate this problem, I made envelopes labeled with all of the previous expenses and am budgeting my daily salary like this:

bills 50%
gas 5%
groceries 5%
home 5%
personal 10%
education 15%
fun 5%
vacation 5%

It is my new daily task to stick with this plan.  Take the money that I make every day, split it, and place it in the corresponding envelopes.  I must keep the envelopes at home and only take with me, the ones that relate to what I'm doing.  Example: if I'm going to the grocery store, I can take the grocery envelope with me.  I can only use that money to buy food items.

It's definitely going to be a challenge, but with time, I think I'll start to have more and more funds and will be much less stressed out.  If things become really good, I might even be able to open up my savings account again and work on getting my student loans fully paid.  Up, will open a new chapter in my life, and things will finally fall into place.

Imbalance.

My friend Lauren shared an amazing website with me that's exactly what I need in order to get more structure and focus on my life makeover.  It's a free sight that offers daily advice and tips from professional women that reach out and help people find peace, health, energy, and balance.  It's called the 30 Day Reinvention Project and after a major breakdown today, I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Link to the website!

Day one:  The first step is to evaluate your life.  This is a visual to help determine what's making you happy and what's imbalanced.

Circle of Life

Mine looks like this...

Not exactly a perfect circle, now is it?  Kind of puts into perspective how unbalanced I really am.

Let go and forgive.

According to 365 Ways to Live Happy: Simple Ways to Find Joy Every Day, by Meera Lester:

"You can never go back to previous moments or past events.  Once you have moved through them, they are forever gone.  Whatever is in the past that haunts you or makes you sad or fearful necessarily stays there.  It cannot be undone.  If some past event or encounter still bothers you, do what you can to process through it and let it go.  You alone give it the power it has over you.  Release it and instead focus on the present moment.  Be mindful right now of where you are, who you are, and what you're doing.  Paying attention to and being fully present in each moment of your life means you truly will be showing up for your life.  That is the way to happiness."

I'm taking some time to write a forgiveness letter to someone that I care about deeply, but has shattered my heart through violent, angry actions.  If I'm ever going to progress with my relationships and be happy, I have to forgive others, and more importantly, myself.  This is a fresh start.  Holding on to angry feelings dealing with past events isn't going to get me anywhere but sad.

Now, for some music therapy...  Zeds Dead "Coffee Break"

Link for Lester's book:  http://www.amazon.com/365-Ways-Live-Happy-Simple/dp/1605500283/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325877581&sr=8-1

Beach Body Challenge

It's getting near!  Ultra Music Festival.  A time for me to escape from the daily stress of work and Nebraska and soak up some sunshine and beautiful music in Florida!  I'd really like to chisel off some of this extra weight before I go and get into the most incredible shape I've ever been in.  Therefore, I'm creating a challenge for myself.  I want this to be one of the most memorable experiences of my life...in a good way.

Right now, I'm lucky enough to have my afternoons free from work.  Why not take this time to do something productive for my health?

Here's a picture I took of myself a few minutes ago:

I'm definitely down a lot of weight from last year, which is awesome, but if I can get down another 25 pounds, I will feel like a goddess!

RULES:

* NO soda or processed juice.  If it isn't water or tea, and I didn't juice it myself,  I can't drink it.  I am going to make an exception (since I know myself all too well) and say that I can have 3 alcoholic beverages a week.  Check out my post about the importance of drinking water!  http://makeovergodmother.blogspot.com/2011/12/project-h2o.html

* NO fast food.  At all.  Zilch.  Period.

* NO junk food (chips, candy, ice cream, cake, prezels, crackers, overly salty, carb-y, or sugary)

* I can only eat out once a week.

* Follow the "proportion" plan.  http://makeovergodmother.blogspot.com/2011/12/proportion.html

* Work out an hour a day three times a week and two hours a day three times a week, stretches, meditation and refocus one day a week.

WORKOUT SCHEDULE:

Monday: (2) Cardio, strength, abs.
Tuesday: (1) Yoga/ pilates, cardio.
Wednesday: (2) Cardio, strength, abs.
Thursday: (1) Yoga/ pilates, cardio.
Friday: (2) Cardio, strength, abs.
Saturday: (1) Yoga/ pilates, cardio.
Sunday:  An hour of stretching and meditation, weigh in, measure, and record results.  Make new goals and refresh for the next week.

If anyone would like to join me on this challenge, please send me a comment or e-mail.  Work-out buddies make it much more fun.  Also, I'd like to let you in on a little something.  A friend shared a site with me that is filled with all sorts of information on lifestyle change, health, and fitness.  It's free to join and has some awesome work-out plans.  Check out Spark People for ideas when you get in a rut, or if it's your first time doing a work-out routine.  It's a great way to motivate yourself!

http://www.sparkpeople.com/

This is definitely going to be quite a challenge!  I look forward to filling you in on the progress and sharing more pictures of the results.  Hot body, I'll see YOU in a few months.  :)

Makeover my...fridge.

Healthy eating tip number one:  make sure you have healthy food to eat.  Duh.

My fridge right now...  full of leftovers, packaged goods, processed junk...what an unorganized, unhealthy mess!  This is partially my fault, and the rest, my 25 year-old male roommate with the metabolism of a 12 year-old growing boy.

Now that I've grossed you all out...  what to do about this mess?

1.  Ditch the crap.  Anything that looks unhealthy, has a ridiculous number of calories, or has gone bad (that doesn't belong to Tony, of course) TOSS.  If you see it, you'll crave it.  I promise.

2.  Make a list of healthy foods that can be transformed into several delicious meals.  Some people like to create a meal plan and go with it.  I live with a hectic schedule that is always being tweaked.  I like to cook in the moment.  Improvise.  Take what I have and create a masterpiece.  There goes that right brain again.

My List of Refrigerator must-haves:

*Baby spinach

*Eggs

*Skim milk

*Light vinegarette

*Roasted red peppers

*Imitation crab meat

*Yogurt

*Artisan cheeses

*Chicken

*Fish

*Lemons

*Onion

*Bell peppers

*Mushrooms

*Frozen berries

3.  Shop.  Don't be afraid to scan the ads to find your best values.

4.  Clean and re-stock the fridge.

5.  Voila!  Happy healthy eating to me.