Treat yourself well.

What does it mean to be kind to yourself? What does it mean to love yourself? What does it mean that you are enough?

 

Be content to be yourself. Relax, knowing that you are enough right now. Go ahead and do absolutely nothing - and you will still be enough. You are enough without DOING.

You are unique and special being yourself. Go ahead, stay as you are, take a break from continually trying to be better at things - and you will still be enough. It's not necessary for you to be more than you are right now. You are enough without IMPROVEMENTS.

You are an amazingly put together work of art. You are exactly who you were meant to be. You can be comfortable looking after yourself with no negative feelings. Go ahead, rest and take time out for yourself - and you will still be enough. It's not necessary to be uncomfortable about looking after your miraculously designed body. You are enough without REASONS.

You are extraordinary. You are perfect right now. It's not necessary to exhaust yourself tying to make up for lost time and things gone. Today was meant to be lived and enjoyed by you now. Take a deep breath and make peace with yourself. You are enough without PERFECTION.

BE KIND TO YOURSELF AND LOVE YOURSELF -- YOU ARE ENOUGH RIGHT NOW AS YOU ARE.

WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING, WITHOUT ANY REASONS OR IMPROVEMENTS - YOU ARE PERFECT THE WAY YOU ARE RIGHT NOW.

What is mindful eating?

I am interrupting my fun times with the alphabet to present to you my current thoughts. I can do these things -- because it's my blog!! LOL.

I have recently taken some times out to evaluate this whole maintaining weight business because it is seriously hard work! It really should not be so HARD!! I don't want to have to struggle along with maintenance for the rest of my life -- so I have decided to go about it in a different way. Being a creature of routine and habit this is going to be a major challenge. However -- I like challenges!! Bring it on! :-D

There are 2 ways to go about this whole weight loss business -- the self-controlled, restrictive, tough approach (which I have used successfully and have won much of the fight - take THAT 50kg!!). Or there is this other way, which takes the fight out of it and has you focusing on enjoying food, taking care of your body being kind to yourself. Now -- as mind blowingly foreign as this sounds to me I am weary enough of the fight to attempt something as crazy as this sounds. So, as is my way -- once I have decided to do something, I set about researching it and seeing how I can do it best and succeed at it!! Hahaha!! (Something which will hopefully change in this process of learning how to be kind to myself.) BUT in the meantime -- I thought you could all benefit from my research!! LOL.

So - what is mindful eating:

Mindful eating involves a nonjudgmental awareness of your body. It means that you need to pay attention to the moment when you eat -- pay attention to what is happening in your brain and your body. Think about how you feel before and during eating and it has you concentrating on the food while you are eating it using all your senses. It has you exploring how you feel while eating both emotionally and also physically, so you are aware of why you are eating. You become aware of feeling physically hungry and you can feel when you are getting full.

Mindful eating promotes balance, choice, wisdom and acceptance of what is - it may be something that you may not like about yourself, however with this approach it's about calmly acknowledging the fact and looking at it with curiosity rather than judgement. With practice, mindful eating can have you free from reactive, habitual patterns of thinking, feeling and acting. It encourages you to choose food that it nourishing to your body, and it encourages the enjoyment of all aspects of food through an awareness using all your senses. A person who eats mindfully looks at the immediate choices and direct experiences associated with eating food and not to the distant health outcome of having eaten it -- but at the same time they are aware of and reflect on the effects caused by unmindful eating. This reflecting is not a time where they beat themselves up - but a non-judgemental observation which can be used to help them make wise decisions in the future.

Today’s experiment in eating involves becoming aware of that reflexive urge to plow through your meal like Cookie Monster on a shortbread bender. Resist it. Leave the fork on the table. Chew slowly. Stop talking. Tune in to the texture of the pasta, the flavor of the cheese, the bright color of the sauce in the bowl, the aroma of the rising steam.

Continue this way throughout the course of a meal, and you’ll experience the third-eye-opening pleasures and frustrations of a practice known as mindful eating.

The concept has roots in Buddhist teachings. Just as there are forms of meditation that involve sitting, breathing, standing and walking, many Buddhist teachers encourage their students to meditate with food, expanding consciousness by paying close attention to the sensation and purpose of each morsel. In one common exercise, a student is given three raisins, or a tangerine, to spend 10 or 20 minutes gazing at, musing on, holding and patiently masticating.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/dining/mindful-eating-as-food-for-thought.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

When you are eating mindfully you are eating slowly and relishing each bite. It's not about giving anything up -- it's about experiencing food more intensely and getting lots of pleasure from it.

C is for CANT

Most of the time people use this word when they should not. Most of the time people use the word cant they really should be saying "wont" or "don't want to". There are a few times where cant may be true but it may be more helpful to say "I don't know how to yet" .. At least with this last statement something can be done about it if you are willing.

Cant is such a negative, reactive word - it is so final! It does not allow for any learning or any attempts to do things another way to make something happen.

Start calling it what it really is, and speaking more helpfully to yourself.

So many people say they cant do something when they have not even given it a go! In the very saying of those words they are then stripped of the power to give it a go and learn! Next time you find yourself thinking you cant do something -- stop yourself and ask if you actually want to do it. If the answer is yes, ask yourself what is stopping you from giving it a go. Are you afraid of failing? Is it more a case of you not knowing how to do it? You may not be able to dance -- but you can go and get lessons!! Why not? It would be very rare that there would be something you cannot do if you put your mind to it.

Using the word cant is just an excuse - get rid of it and speak a different way to yourself. With the right mindset, positive attitude, and a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, the only thing that is holding you back is yourself!! How you approach an opportunity, and the result of it, is solely based on you and your attitude -- get a positive one!! You will have SO many more opportunities in life if you just get rid of that one word and replace it with the truth.

C is for COURAGE

Life requires courage. Courage has got to do with the ability to confront things that scare the crap out of you -- but act as though you are not afraid. It is what picks you up and dusts you off, and sets you on your path to becoming the best version of yourself. If there was no perceived risk then we would never have any need of courage!!

Without courage we can have no real self-esteem, pride or power. Without courage we would never push ourselves beyond where we feel comfortable; therefore -- we would never grow! We would never learn what we are truly capable of and therefore we miss out on developing to our full potential.

Courage is empowering. It's a choice to stand and fight -- when it would be much easier to give up.

Courage enables you to try new things or do things a different way -- courage enables us to get uncomfortable and grow!!

Without courage we are merely a victim of our own circumstances. If we want things to be different we actually need to do things differently NOW!! We have the power to gather our courage and get uncomfortable -- we have the power to do things differently!!

Courage determines what we do, or do NOT do, with our lives.

C is for CHANGE.

CHANGE: To make the future course of something different from what it is or what it would be if it was left alone.

CHANGE: To transform something into something different. A passing of one phase into another.

Change and courage kind of go hand in hand. One is required for the other. But this post will focus on change. Change is necessary for growth to happen. Without change - nothing changes! LOL! ie. No growth!! If you want your future to look different than what you are doing now - things need to change.

Change and growth both take time. You can’t become an expert in a day, or completely shed all your old bad habits in a week. However, you should be always moving forwards!! Persistence will be needed to get to where you want to be! If you never give up -- keep on changing and persevering and you will get to where you want to go! This is true for whatever area in life you want to change in.

Change and growth can be scary!! You need to recognize if you are feeling discomfort, boredom, confusion, fear or worry about the idea of changing something. Think about your reasons for wanting it and find something which is going to motivate you enough to push through it!! You have to want the change badly enough to overcome the discomfort, boredom, confusion, embarrassment, and worry that pops up to stop you along the way. How badly you want it and the intensity of your desire to change is going to determine whether you actually get there or not.

If you want to be successful, grow and move forward in life -- in whatever area you are thinking of... change is a necessity!

C is for CALORIE

A calorie is a unit of food energy. 1 calorie = 4.2 kilojoules. This unit of measurement allows us to talk about how much energy a food contains and how much energy is used for our bodies to function and burned up during exercise.

How much energy there is in food is determined by how much carbohydrates, fats and protein there is in it! Fats and alcohol are the most energy dense food.

1g fat = 9 cal

1g alcohol = 7 cal

1g carbohydrate = 4 cal

1g protein = 4 cal

When we regularly eat more energy than our body needs, the excess is stored inside fat cells. Obviously if we eat less energy than we need -- we lose fat cells!! To lose 1kg in a week a person needs their energy balance to be 7000 cal in debit. How many calories a person uses per day depends on their age, gender, body composition, and activity levels.

Couple of interesting facts!

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

The average deep fried mars bar contains almost 1,000 calories – that could be most of your daily allowance, if you’re a small female.

12WBT Blog Hop #1

12WBT Blog Hop #1.

I am Kelly. In 2010 I lost almost 50kg. In 2011 I maintained my weight and became a personal trainer!
I am excited to be helping others become the best version of themselves!!
I am looking forward to this round of the 12WBT -- learning more about myself and continuing to cement my ability to maintain my weight long term!

An insight into what made me begin the journey.

http://falldown7timesgetup8justdontgiveup.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/me-and-my-weight-emotional-eating.html

http://www.katesaysstuff.com/

B is for BREAKFAST.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day".

Breakfast may be the meal that is most often neglected or skipped. Eating breakfast not only aids in weight management, it fuels the body to help provide energy, better concentration and problem-solving ability throughout the day,

Eating a healthy breakfast kick-starts your metabolism for the day. It replenishes your supply of glucose and provides other essential nutrients to keep your energy levels up throughout the day. Neglecting breakfast slows the metabolic rate (which is the biggest burner of energy). The idea is to have smaller regular meals throughout the day keeps the metabolic rate high chewing through energy constantly.

Research has shown that:

Those who eat breakfast tend to have more nutritious eating habits than those who skip breakfast. The problem comes because by the time lunch comes around people who skip breakfast are usually ravenous and tend to eat more to compensate. So, if you do miss breakfast for any reason try a nutritious snack such as fresh fruit, yoghurt, or a wholemeal sandwich to help you through that mid-morning hunger to avoid over-eating at lunchtime.

Skipping breakfast can diminish mental performance, which lowers your ability to concentrate. Eating high fibre breakfast cereals reduces your fatigue and tiredness and help you to concentrate more!!

B is for BOSU

The name is an acronym which stands for "Both Sides Up" or "Both Sides Utilized" a reference to the two ways a BOSU ball can be positioned. It is flat on one side and a raised dome on the other. The solid platform is 25 inches in diameter and the dome should be inflated until it is firm. Using a BOSU ball is another way of adding variety into your workouts in a functional way. It focuses on developing balance in your left and right sides and also efficient timing of the up and down movement.

When the dome side faces up, the BOSU ball provides an unstable surface while the device remains stable. In this position it is often used for balance training; however, you can walk, run, jump or hop on it which means you can use it for an aerobic workout too. 

If you flip it over  the BOSU is extremely unstable and there are a huge number of exercises you can do on it in this position too. This combination of stable/unstable means a wide range of people can use it, elderly people, injured people all the way up to elite level athletes.

The BOSU can also be used for core conditioning and stabilization and can provide great proprioception challenges to your training.

B is for BANANA

1. Banana's a great for providing energy during sports, restoring normal bowel function and even improving your mood and reducing depression!! (They contain tryptophan, an aminoacid that can be converted to serotonin.)

2. Bananas are extremely high in potassium, yet very low in sodium which is the perfect ratio for preventing high blood pressure and stroke.

3. This high potassium helps normalize the hearthbeat and regulate the
body’s water balance. When we are really stressed, our body’s potassium levels tend to be extremely low-- eating bananas is a great way to get them up without using drugs.

4. They are low in calories -- one medium banana has only around 105 calories!

Other interesting facts:

1. Bananas are usually harvested when they are green, but not eaten until they are yellow!!

2. You can freeze a banana for up to 2 months! Just remove the peel and sprinkle some lemon juice over the pulp to prevent discoloration; then wrap them in plastic.

3. The cluster of bananas sold in supermarkets is a "hand" of bananas, while the individual bananas on the hand are called fingers.

4. The strings that go up and down the length of bananas are called Phloem Bundles. They help distribute nutrients to every part of the growing bananas.

5. The banana peel is edible, though perhaps not very palatable unless cooked.

6. Bananas usually grow in a horizontal fashion, which then becomes vertical with the weight of the bananas. This takes about 3 months.

7. A banana tree is not actually classified as a tree due to the fact that it has no wood fibres. So it is actually a plant, IE: Herb.

8. A banana is actually classed as a berry! A berry is an indehiscent fruit with two or more seeds and a fleshy pericarp, which is exactly what a banana is.

Favourite banana recipe.

3 egg whites
Mashed banana

Wisk those 2 things together and cook like pancakes.. YUMMO!!

B is for BELIEVE.

You will only achieve what you believe!! And this is the absolute truth! When I was training for my half I had someone tell me I was not a runner and I was going to struggle to do the half in the 2hours I wanted to do it in. Initially it knocked me around a little, however, I believed I had a good chance at being able to do it and so I went for it -- and managed to do it in 1:59:19... It got me thinking about this topic though. If I did not believe that I could do this -- of course there is NO chance of me doing it .. NONE! However, if I believed I could do it ... or at least that I had a good chance of doing it, then of course I am going to feel positive about it and put everything into it!! I am HEAPS more likely to succeed with the positive, give it my best shot, I think I can do it attitude!!

If you believe in yourself and your ability to do something it gives you the ability to be consistent, confident, focused and determined. A confident person will keep on going even when things may not be going perfectly, they will stay positive and enthusiastic. If you believe in your ability to succeed, then you are preparing yourself for success and at the same time bracing yourself for any obstacles. Obstacles with this frame of mind however, will be things to work around or just mow clean over!! LOL!!

Belief in yourself enables you to be courageous and do things you would not normally do.  Being courageous is not being fearless; you still may feel afraid but you act as if you are not. You will suck it up do what you need to do in order to get done what has to get done.

Goal setting is a great way to improve your confidence and belief in yourself!! Success (however big or small) is going to build your self confidence -- so set goals and get onto achieving them!! Visualising yourself doing things -- crossing that finish line, standing on the scales 5kg lighter etc... That is going to help!!

People who have a high self confidence have the following:

Thoughts - positive thoughts of success

Feelings - excited, anticipation, calm, elation, prepared

Focus - on self, on the task

Behaviour - give maximum effort and commitment, willing to take chances, positive reaction to set backs, open to learning, take responsibility for outcomes

However, people with a low self confidence end up with the following:

Thoughts - negative, defeat or failure, doubt

Feelings - tense, dread, fear. not wanting to take part

Focus - on others, on less relevant factors (coach, umpire, conditions)

Behaviour - lack of effort, likely to give up, unwilling to take risks (rather play safe), blame others or conditions for outcome

Rowing challenge.wmv

B is for BICEPS

The biceps are located on the upper arm. The muscle actually crosses both the radio-ulna, elbow and shoulder joints -- but most of its function is to do with the elbow and radio-ulna when it flexes the arm and supinates the forearm.

There are 3 muscles to the biceps:

1. Brachialis - flexes the forearm while the arm is in supination

2. Brachioradialis - flexes the arm when the it is pronated (palm facing the ground)

3. Biceps brachii - supinates the forearm (turns the palm up) and flexes the arm while it is supinated.

These 3 all happen at the elbow and radio-ulna joint; but the bicep also has a function at the shoulder joint where it assists with stabilization of the shoulder.

1. Weak flexion (arm forwards and up)

2. Weak abduction (arm out to side when it is externally rotated)

3. Weak horizontal adduction (arm across the body when it is medially rotated).

Biceps are used quite a bit in a back workout - All Chin-ups, Pull downs and Rows will use your biceps. That's why it's good to think big and then small in your workouts! Train your big muscles first (like your back/chest) so that you get the most out of them... and then train your little ones (like your biceps and triceps).

Isolation exercises could be used at the end of your workouts if your goal is to build up your muscles and tone up. Some different types of curls people use are: Bicep curls, Preacher curls, Concentration curls, Cable curls, and Screw curls.