Posts Tagged ‘eating healthy’
- Close your eyes and sit silently for a few minutes.
A thing of beauty
is a joy forever.
~ John Keats
Close your eyes and sit silently for a few minutes. Picture yourself sitting under a big tree smiling, and feeling relaxed. That is a thing of beauty!
We continuously have a choice to either feel good about ourselves or be our own worst enemy. Which one do you pick today? I choose to be kind to myself today!
I am sitting here with a smile on my face thinking about what I am going to do special for myself today. Below is my dream day.
- Think of happy thoughts all day and every time an unhappy thought pops into my head simply say, “No drama today.”
- Make myself a healthy and delicious breakfast. My favorite pancake recipe:
- ¼ Cup of Cottage Cheese
- 1 Egg
- ¼ Cup of uncooked Oatmeal
- 2 tbls. of water
- 1 Cup of Yogurt
- 1 Cup of Cut Up Fruit
Mix the cottage cheese, egg, oatmeal and water together. Pour the mixture into a frying pan and cook over a low heat. When pancake is cooked put it on a plate, add the yogurt and fruit. Enjoy!
- Work for half a day.
- Make myself a healthy salad for lunch. I always add cooked vegetables to a mixed green salad, protein, rice and salad dressing. For dessert I have fruit.
- Buy myself a small gift.
- Take a leisurely walk with a good friend along the Princeton Canal. Make sure we laugh a lot.
- Meet friends for dinner.
- Take a nice long bubble bath.
- Read a book and go to sleep early.
Doesn’t that sound like a special day? No DRAMA and being kind to myself all day long.
Please share your dream day with the Love Yourself – It Matters! Community. Together let’s create “BE Kind to You Day.” Looking forward to hearing about your special day.
Helen
‘We never have more than we can bear.
The present hour we are always able to endure.
As is our day, so is our strength.
If the trials of many years were gathered into one,
they would overwhelm us…
but all is so wisely measured to our strength
that the bruised reed is never broken.’
H.E. Manning
What great advice H. E. Manning’s quote illustrates, to only focus on the present moment instead of thinking about what happened in our lives and what the future brings.
Jan (name has been changed) was at her wits end, trying to control her binge eating at night. Every day she would skip breakfast, eat a salad for lunch and a bagel for dinner. Then around 7:00pm every night she would become very hungry and promise herself that she would only eat half of another bagel. Guess what happened, once eating the bagel she would start eating ice cream, cookies and anything else she could get her hands on. After finishing eating she would get into bed and hate herself. The next morning she would exercise for 2 hours and promise herself today would be different. Jan continued this routine for three years.
One day deciding to find another way of living she called me. We started working together and she took very small steps to change her behavior. Today Jan follows a healthy eating plan and is committed to her new lifestyle. Following are some of the small steps Jan takes everyday to ensure she maintains her recovery from binge eating.
1. Getting out of bed each morning Jan writes down a menu of all the foods and beverages she will eat during the day.
2. Eating only the food on her planned menu.
3. Drinking a cup of tea while preparing her meals.
4. Eating meals sitting down either in her kitchen or in a restaurant.
5. Cleaning-up after she is done eating and never eating anything while she is cleaning.
6. Taking a 10 minute mini-vacation everyday. Doing something for herself she really enjoys.
7. Writing in her beautiful Happiness Journal what made her happy during the day and a short sentence describing the event.
By following this Loving Yourself Plan and only focusing on the present moment Jan is able to maintain her goal weight and live a live filled with self-respect, happiness and the knowledge she is taking care of herself.
As usual, I would love to hear from you. Please let me know how you are doing on your journey of life or if you need any support. You can either leave a message on my blog or send me an email at helen@loveyourselfcoaching.net.
Do you have trouble eating healthy when you take a day trip? I remember always thinking I can eat anything I want because I am on vacation. Then when I returned home the vacation eating mentality continued until I started my next diet.
Yesterday my grandson Jeffrey and I went to the Aquarium for the day. I decided to make a picnic lunch so we didn’t have to worry about finding some place to eat. Wednesday night we both decided what we wanted to eat the next day.
We got to the Aquarium which was very crowded and after watching a few shows and looking at the different types of fish. Jeffrey and I had lunch. While we were eating, Jeffrey commented he really liked having a picnic because he had his favorite foods and we did not have to stand in the long lines. Not only did we eat healthy we had more time to visit the different exhibits. We both loved the sharks swimming over our heads and being able to touch the sharks. It was really a fun day!
Following are some ideas you can use on your day trip to ensure you will eat healthy:
1. Plan what you are going to eat the day before.
2. Order a fruit cup for desert.
3. Leave the table and go to the rest room if the desire to eat something on the table is not on your food plan.
4. Keep reminding yourself, “You are special and deserve to take care of yourself.”
5. Have fun and enjoy the day!
I would like to hear what tools and techniques you use to ensure you eat healthy while on a day trip. Together we can create a list that can be used by anyone during their eating healthy journey. I can be reached either by leaving a comment on the blog or sending me an email at helen@loveyourselfcoaching.net.
FOLLOW YOUR BLISS
by Steve Goodier
Author Joseph Campbell often talked about “following your bliss.” I heard of a bus driver in Chicago who does just that. He sings while he drives. That’s right… sings! And I don’t mean he sings softly to himself, either. He sings so that the whole bus can hear! All day long he drives and sings.
He was once interviewed on Chicago television. He said that he is not actually a bus driver. “I’m a professional singer,” he asserted. “I only drive the bus to get a captive audience every single day.
His “bliss” is not driving a bus, though that may be a source of enjoyment for some people. His bliss is singing. And the supervisors at the Chicago Transit Authority are perfectly happy about the whole arrangement. You see, people line up to ride his bus. They even let other busses pass by so they can ride with the “singing bus driver.” They love it!
Here is a man who believes he knows why he was put here on earth. For him, it is to make people happy. And the more he sings, the more people he makes happy! He has found a way to align his purpose in living with his occupation. By following his bliss, he is actually living the kind of life he believes he was meant to live.
Not everybody can identify a purpose in life. But when you do, and when you pursue it, you will be living the kind of life you feel you were meant to live. And what’s more, you will be happy.
I love reading this story; it helps me realize that there is no specific way of achieving your dream. Normally, I would think of a singer performing at a concert and here he is singing on a bus.
After traveling on my life’s journey, I have found my inner passion is to see other people smile and feel good about themselves. The way I fulfill this passion is to coach individuals who are tired of struggling with food and want to get off the Diet Merry-Go-Round and into a vibrant life.
What is your inner passion and how are you fulfilling your dream? Please let me know.
I am looking out the window, it is snowing and all the birds are at the birdfeeders eating. It just goes to prove that nothing can stop God’s creatures from eating even if it is cold and snowing.
On cold snowy days I always think about the times when my children were small and we would go sledding, have snowball fights and make a snowman. We had a great time and I was always thinking about what we were going to eat when we went inside. Once everyone was soaked to the bone, we went inside the house, had hot chocolate and ate everything insight. For dinner I always made meatballs and spaghetti. What fun we had!
After writing about the snowy days, I realized what an important part food played in my life. Food was my main focus all day and if I was not eating I was unhappy and worrying about everything. Thinking back makes me sad to think about all the things I missed because my main focus was on the food.
After struggling with food most of my life and riding the diet merry-go-round, I finally grabbed the gold ring and fell off. The gold ring was my commitment to do whatever it takes to live a healthy lifestyle and stop focusing on the food. Some of the tools I use everyday are:
• Whenever I want to eat something not on my food plan, I scream to myself, “One Bite Is Not Enough, I want four cakes to make me happy.”
• Remind myself I am important, loveable and cannot hurt my best friend, Helen.
• Remember I have received a special gift of eating healthy and can’t hurt people who are supporting me.
• Not to use food as an alternative. If I want to eat something not on my eating plan, don’t eat anything else and call a friend instead.
In the morning on New Years Day I was on the treadmill and heard that the number one Resolution for 2007 was to lose weight. If we support each other while on our journey of eating healthy and creating a vibrant lifestyle we can beat this food addiction together. I would love to hear from you and see what we can create together.
Thank you!
Helen
I would like to share with you an extraordinary experience I had last night. On Mondays at 3:30pm I meet my grandson, Jeffrey who is six years old at his school. Yesterday I asked him if he would like to go on a date with me for dinner. After going to the library and doing his homework, we drove to the restaurant. When I parked the car Jeffrey told me to wait in the car and he opened my car door. We went into the restaurant and he told the hostess where we wanted to sit. After deciding what we wanted for dinner, Jeffrey told the waitress what we both wanted. We had a nice time talking and eating, he paid the bill with my credit card. I thanked him for our date and we promised each other we would have another date on my birthday next month.
While Jeffrey and I were at the restaurant talking and eating, I was not thinking about the food on my plate. Once Jeffrey had placed my order with healthy choices, and then choosing how much food I was going to eat, I could enjoy being with Jeffrey instead of obsessing over the food.
The magic cure for me is to keep my commitment at every meal, I will only make wise food choices with quantity control. I have been following this philosophy for over eight years and find for me all it takes is focusing on one meal at a time. Once the food I was going to eat was on my plate, I could enjoy being with Jeffrey. WHAT A MIRACLE!!
I would love to hear about your extraordinary experiences and how food did not play an important role.
