Walking, Healthy Habits, Caffeine, and My Day

Today I went for the longest walk, and did the most walking, I have done in months. And I mean months. This morning I walked to the tram stop, approx 1.2kms. Then navigated my way through various shops and errands to get where i was going in town. Unsure of the actual distance but at a guess a little over 1 km. Then I walked hom from a different tram stop which was 1.5 kms. The 1.5 is my longest single walk, and the amount of walking I did in total is the most in a day. Since forever ago.

I feel great. My legs are tired though. They are not used to it. This morning the Achilles was tight and sore. But considering it was 0.7 degrees in Adelaide this morning, I am guessing the cold had a lot to do with that. Once it warmed up it felt good. Now I am sitting with my leg up and it is a bit tired and achey, but not sore. This is a good thing. I won't walk again tomorrow, but I will jump on the trainer. Should be a bit less pressure on it.

My week of healthy habits has gone better than last week, but not brilliant. I had breakfast on the go a couple of times. And had some chips. My water and exercise were good. I have one more day left of the week, and even though I did not nail it, I am going to add to it this week. Just need to decide what I will add.

I am still off the caffeine. I just wanted to report in on my little experiment I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. A few weeks back I had some Diet Coke at a party. 48 hours later I was hit with a wave of anxiety that lasted several hours. I was unsure if it was the caffeine, or the chemicals. To test it I decided to have a coffee one day and see how I felt 48 hours later. I have now done this. The result? It is the chemicals. I had absolutely no reaction to the caffeine in the coffee and no anxiety within the next week. So for me this means I can have the occasional coffee and be confident that I will feel fine. I can not have Diet Coke. I am okay with that.

Today I went to a Psychic Development class at the WEA. I have been looking forward to this for a while. Basically it was an introduction to various types of intuitive and psychic abilities by trying them out. I had a great time, and had more success than I expected. There were a few things I had no success at, but that is cool. I was very excited to get to practice some Psychometry, which I recently discovered I had a knack for. I was spot on each time I tried it today and was able to put the feelings into words better than I have in the past, so that was pretty exciting. I am hoping to catch up with one of the ladies again in order to give it another shot.

Tomorrow I have to write an assignment and clean my house, oh what fun... :)

xox

A New Week

So it is a new week and a new chance to implement and solidify my new healthy habits. I got up at 5.55am ready to go for a walk. It was cold and I weas tired. But I kinda had no choice because I had made a deal with the Shrinking Sheep that is she got up to run I would get up to walk.
At 6am she messaged me to make sure I was doing it. I did it. It was cold. But I did it.

I came home and had my breaksfast at home. So that is 2 out of 4 for the day. Now I just have to stay away from the chips and drink my water and I am done. :)

While you are here, I would love it if you would check out my new blog over at Riding With A Reason. Not much there yet but it will be exciting...

xox

Healthy Habits

So, this week my healthy habits have not been going so well. Even my water consumption has been down. Not quite sure why though because normally I am good at that.

I have decided not to add anymore habits this week, I need another week to consolidate what I have already started.

So for another week I am:
Drinking 2L a day
Exercising 4 times a week
Not eating breakfast on the run
Not eating chips

I started this morning with a scrumptious breakfast of yogurt, toasted oats, nuts & seeds, mandarin and apple. It was fantastic.

This afternoon I am off to do my first 2 exams. I am completely underprepared. Not assisted by the fact that I spent yesterday afternoon at the hairdressers getting a funky new haircut (pics to come) instead of studying. I am pretty sure I know enough to get through, as long as I have studied the right material. Overall I am relatively confident though.

xox

This & That

Not much has been going on this week. Work, study. The usual.

Yesterday I went to Day 2 of the "Heal Your Life" workshop. I attended Day 1 a couple of months ago. It was a really good workshop. Some of it was quite similar to things I worked on at the Retreat a few weeks ago, but in different ways which was really good. All the same people from the Day 1 course were there, which was great too. A really amazing group of people.

So my Healthy Habits for the week have been going pretty well. I am doing well with the water. I have done well with the chips apart from one day. Friday night we have drinks and nibblies at work to celebrate moving into our new office. There were chip there. I had a few. I am okay with that. A few is not an entire 200g bag in one sitting.

So for this week I need to add one more good habit and remove or replace one more bad habit.

Good Habits
 + 2L of water every day
 + 20-30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week

Bad Habits
 - Potato chips
 - Eating breakfast on the run

The exercise thing is really important. Since finding out my Achilles was torn back in February I have really done nothing. And boy, can I feel it. My overall energy levels are so low. My fitness is all but gone. I have done up an exercising plan that is really gentle on the Achilles (still having a few issues there). Plus I can do gentle walking, and using the bike hooked up tot he trainer. I will start slow, but it is definitely time to start.

As for breakfast on the run - this is killing me. I eat in the car, in the office as I am firing up the computer, or when I walk to get the mail in the morning. No more. From now on breakfast is eaten at home at the table. At this point I am not being specific about what I eat, just as long as it is not on the run. I started today.

This is yummy Paris Creek Honey & Vanilla Yogurt,

with toasted oats (I toasted them myself), a small banana, and seeds (sunflower, pine nuts and pepitas). It was absolutely delicious, and I am counting on it to get me through till lunch time as I have a day of study planned.

xox

Anxiety

I had an interesting revelation on the whole caffeine/diet coke/anxiety issue last night. Last year when I gave up the caffeine I had a terrible bout of intense anxiety that lasted well over 6 months. I can see that I can not blame this on the caffeine withdrawal, it was just the trigger that set off a very terrible time for me.


This time when I gave it up I had mild anxiety for a few weeks. For the last 2 weeks it has been completely gone.

On Saturday night I went to a party and had some Diet Coke. It was okay. Last night 48 hours after the DC, I got hit with a very intense anxiety attack. It lasted all night. It was absolutely horrible.

Thankfully it is gone this morning.

However I don’t believe the caffeine triggered it. I feel it was the chemicals and crap that is in the DC. To test this theory I am going to have some coffee on Friday. If I do not get an anxiety attack on Sunday (48 hours later) then my theory will be confirmed. I will let you know how it goes.

As for my healthy habits, so far so good. I had an interesting comment from Sassy who suggested that instead of eliminating things, I replace them. I actually really like that concept. However I am not going to do that with chips. The reason being, I do not need them, or even like them very much. I never eat them out of hunger. It is a habit only. A habit I have no intention of keeping. So this one I will eliminate. However future unhealthy habits may be replaced. Thanks Sassy for your comment.

xox

Developing Healthy Habits

It is time for me to really start getting into some healthy habits. I talk the talk but do not walk the walk, and enough is enough. If I want to be a good Naturopath I need to follow what will be preaching and live a healthier life.


Plus, I really want to be the healthiest I can be when I turn 40 next year. I am not talking about losing weight – I am so over wanting to lose weight, I just don’t care. I want to be healthy. If weight loss comes along with that then so be it. If not, then that is okay too. As long as I am happy and healthy.

So in order to do this I am going to start adding healthy habits and eliminating unhealthy habits every week.

Week 1 starts today.

+ Healthy Habit – drink 2L of water every day

- Unhealthy habit – stop eating potato chips. I am having a couple of packets a week again and it is no good.

I will check in periodically on this and each Monday add one more healthy habit and remove one more unhealthy habit. This is not a Challenge or an all or nothing thing. This is just me trying to develop an healthy way of life.

If you have any ideas of healthy habits I could be incorporating or eliminating, I would love to hear them.

xox

Challenge Update, Exercise Contracts & Pepsi Max

As per my post from earlier today, I didn't go for my run today.  I have spent the evening with my foot up and ice on it.  Tomorrow I will go swimming in the morning, then if it's feeling better tomorrow night I will do tonights run then.

Last weeks challenges were okay.  My healthy habits challenge completely went out the window over the weekend.  Again.  My running challenge I did 1 out of 3 runs.  Not good enough.  Time to get strict.  I have read about making an exercise contract with yourself.  I think this is a good idea.  It is a simple idea.  You write out a contract that you sign, have co-signed, then are obligated to stick to.  I would like to ask all of you to co-sign my exercise contract. 

"I, Kylie, commit to sticking to my running training for the remainder of the timetable set out (barring injury).  I will run 3 times a week with the goal of being able to run 1km at the end of the challenge."

Week 3 of my Healthy Habit a Week Challenge sees me introduce a new challenge.  This weeks challenge is to record my food.  I still have to drink my water and eat my fruit as well as recording the food.  Today went well.  Now for tomorrow...

On to other topics....
Pepsi Max.  Oh how I love thee Pepsi Max.  I love thee bubbles.  I love thee caffeine.  I love thee taste.  But it is crap.  It is turning my teeth brown and it is filled with yucky nasty chemicals.  I suck it down all weekend and don't drink any water.  My sleep is disturbed, my tummy always bloated, and it makes me hungry.  It is time.  I will not go cold turkey.  I don't have time for a 4 day migraine.  I am going to slowly cut back and replace it it tea and coffee.  When I am off the Pepsi (and over the withdrawls from the chemicals) I will then cut back the tea and coffee.  Today went well.  Only 3 glasses (I normally drink 2 litres). 

Food for today was okay, although I did go over my calories.  I am PMS'ing - although I have been for about 2 weeks, my bad food has made my cycle extra long this month - and I am always starving when I am PMS'ing.  I did okay though and made some good choices.

Breakfast was the normal - oats with rice milk and some seeds/nuts and a squirt of honey.

Morning tea was 2 Salada Lites with cheese.  I forgot to take a pic so here is the box.  :o)

Lunch was a big green salad with 2 eggs and a dollop of cottage cheese.

Followed by watermelon & rockmelon.

Afternoon Tea was another Salada with cheese.

When I got home from work I decided to be naughty and have one of my Mega Choc Chunks.  I say naughty because I worked out the calories and these suckers are over 400 calories EACH!!!!

Dinner was egg noodles with the last of the Mexican Lentils that I thinned out with another can of tomatos.

With Bread

Now there are rumours that after dinner my have contained another naughty biccie, but this is something I can not confirm or deny...  :o)

Fingers crossed my ankle is feeling better tomorrow.

xox

Challenge Updates

It has been so hot here in SA for the last few days. Despite having air conditioning, I have been feeling slightly queasy for a few days. So that has translated into not doing my exercise over the weekend. Here is the updates:

Running Challenge
Monday and Wednesday were great. I got out there and pushed myself. Saturday I did not do my walk.

Cycling Challenge
Tuesday’s ride was great. Thursday I went out in the morning and although I did my ride, it wasn’t brilliant. Sunday – no ride.

Healthy Habit a Week Challenge
You would think with the heat drinking all my water would have been a cinch… But for some reason I got stuck into the Pepsi Max all weekend. That is probably one of the reasons I am feeling queasy.

This week I am going to get out there as much as I can for the Running & Cycling Challenges. Although today is another too hot day. The cool change is due tomorrow – YAY – so I will get out there for my ride and take it from there. And for the Healthy Habit a Week Challenge, I am adding habit 2, which is 2 serves of fruit a day. I am determined to have a more solid week.

xox

Healthy Habit a Week Challenge

I got this idea from the Escape from Obesity blog. And I love it! Basically you pick one new healthy habit to cultivate each week for a set period (I am going for 10 weeks). At the end of the 10 weeks you should have 10 brand new healthy habits that will hopefully stay with you.

My first weeks healthy habit is to drink at least 1.5L of water a day. If I have Monday as a start day I am doing well already, as I drank 2.25L yesterday, and am nearly through my first litre for today.

Week 2 I think I will work on getting my 2 pieces of fruit a day as this is something I really struggle with. After that – who knows! I will sit down on the weekend and try and work out what other healthy habits I want to become part of my life.

xox