A friend of mine has just completed a rather grueling 21 day "reset", involving eating 100% vegan, taking special supplements, and refraining from caffeine, among other things. The idea is to detox, refresh, and revitalize. It was hard for her, especially the vegan part, which made her cranky. But she did it.
My own "reset" has been much shorter and less grueling, but I must say that, starting Week 2, I feel much better physically. I've lost five pounds. But most importantly, I feel I am well and truly back in the game.
In the past, I had a set of tools which worked very well for me. Some of them lost their lustre after a while; good tools, they just lost strength over time. Others, I return to again and again.
FOOD/EXERCISE PLAN
I still believe strongly in writing a food plan every day --- not a log of what you have eaten, but a plan, composed the night before, of what you INTEND to eat the next day. This is SO helpful, folks. It takes the guesswork and the last minute waffling out of the equation. How many of us "give in" and end up eating extra, unplanned calories --- which add up really fast --- because we're busy and hungry and need to grab something and move on with our day? We end up thinking, "Well, a cheeseburger won't kill me just this once". It doesn't look like a huge amount of food, but even a plain fast food cheeseburger (no fries, no mayo, no nothin', just bread and cheese and burger) is 300 calories. 300 calories of crappy poor quality food that will still leave you hungry.
If you've planned your food in advance, and better yet, taken time to prepare it, you can eat MORE and better quality food, and stay within your calorie range for the day. You have a guide to what you can eat to stay on track, and you have to make a conscious decision to stray.
I also find it's enormously helpful to write down what workout I plan to do the next day, and to prepare for it by making sure all my clothes are laid out and any equipment is close at hand. It's almost like writing a little contract with yourself. It's motivating.
FOOD/EXERCISE LOG (here's the part about the cookies)
I've written recently about how much I like LoseIt --- I've started using the website more, but it links to my phone and I can enter info on the app as well. MyFitnessPal, SparkPeople, what have you ... logging food used to feel punitive to me, but the apps make it so easy that it's become an invaluable tool in making sure I stay accountable, really measure what I'm putting in my mouth, and can stay under my daily goal.
For instance. I made a horrible, horrible discovery today. Over the summer, in Princeton, I became positively addicted to these magnificent, amazing peanut butter cookies sold by the coffee house I frequented. And then, I discovered that the local franchise had them, too. I even found out the brand name.
All summer, I'd been calculating these big cookies at about 350 calories each --- a hefty snack, and one only to be enjoyed when I could be sure I'd burned an equivalent amount cycling. Well, I was thinking about having one today, and I looked them up on the website. At first I was elated to see that they're listed at 250 calories. Then I looked at the serving size, which is HALF A COOKIE.
Seriously. Who eats half a cookie? Especially an amazing cookie? I'd been eating 500 calories of cookie every time! So depressing. But I am glad I know. As much as I might want one of those cookies, I'm not sure I can see "spending" that much of my daily calorie budget on one. Having to log it is a huge deterrent. But I'm grateful to know.
Logging exercise, on the other hand, is pure joy. The minute I'm done, dripping with sweat and filling the house with toxic body odor, I race to my laptop or phone to record what I did and receive my reward of calories burned detracted from my daily limit. Take that, delicious giant cookie of doom!
FASHION ADVICE AND OTHER GIRLY STUFF
Taking the time to look good is always a major morale booster. That seems like a no-brainer, but when you're busy and tired and schlepping all over the place, sometimes it's tempting to just to throw on some sweats, wad your hair into a scrunchy, and hope you won't run into anyone important at the grocery store. Heck, I have Yoga Tog days all the time. Days when I refuse to put anything on my face other than sunscreen, and anything on my body that doesn't stretch. And I do go to the grocery store like that, hoping that I look "sporty" as opposed to tired and washed out.
Ahem.
Recently, driven by despair at my overcrowded closet and plethora of cute things that no longer fit, I re-subscribed to Missus Smarty Pants. This is online "personal" fashion consulting, and the very best thing it has to offer is teaching you to dress for your body type, down to the right kinds of shoes and bags. Now, granted, this particular consultant's taste, at least in the weekly blogs and newsletters she sends out, is pretty basic. It's a guide to nice dressing for soccer moms and realtors, and there's nothing wrong with that. I rarely actually buy any of the items she specifically recommends. But the service is reasonably priced (and so are the clothes MSP recommends), and once you master the basic concepts you can develop your own sassier style. There is lots and lots of good advice, and there is some inspiration.
That's what I'm there for. Because looking put together ALWAYS makes you feel better. Looking out of date and schlubby only contributes to poor self esteem. And you can look put together at any weight, believe me. Thus the big closet purge, and reorganization. Thus putting on a little bit of makeup --- just a little --- even on days when I might not be going out at all. It reminds me that I'm worth taking care of.
THIS BLOG
I'm a performer by nature as well as profession, and I've always been a writer, from before I could actually write words. (Seriously. Somewhere I have a picture book which I illustrated and dictated to my mother when I was, like, three). There is something in my nature which requires an audience, which of course sounds horribly narcissitic and maybe it is. Regardless, writing this blog, knowing there are a few people out there who take the time to read it and maybe even get something from it, helps me. It helps me stay accountable, it helps me continue to educate myself, it helps me to work through stuff. And I firmly believe that everyone needs a tool like this. Not everyone is driven to spatter their deep thoughts across cyberspace, but everybody needs some sort of outlet and some sort of community to share with. This blog provides me with one of mine.
Those are a few of my most useful health and fitness tools. What are yours? I'd love to hear about them.