Tag: my13daychallenge

Challenge Eight: Food Diary · Musings

Signs

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Yesterday, I had a stomach ache. It wasn’t serious enough to stay home from church, but I felt grouchy and sorry for myself as my stomach rumbled. As I was puttering around the house, I got an idea. I should make a sign to tell the world how I felt.

Sign

It was a brilliant idea. I started imagining sitting in the church pew with my little sign. Some nice lady might even cook me dinner, because that is what nice church ladies do.  My stomach ache eventually went away so I didn’t need to wear my sign. It got me thinking though. Things might be a lot easier if people wore signs and said what was really going on in their life.

What might your sign say?

 

Challenge Eight: Food Diary · Musings

Hot Fudge Sundae

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    I’ve been so busy with my day job the last two weeks that my blog had to take a back seat.  But never fear! I am back now and ready to start my next 13 day challenge. My eighth challenge is to keep a food diary. Now, I’ve kept a food diary in the past so this one is different. Instead of writing down my food and portion size, I’m going to just write down the time of day I eat and any emotions connected to when I ate. My goal is not really to stop myself from eating ice cream ever again or to only eat carrots.  Who wants to only eat carrots? My goal is to  track how I feel about the food I eat. I might learn something along the way.

The Practical Reason

Many studies show that tracking helps you recognize patterns. In fact, I have read that you don’t have to track forever. You just need to track long enough to get a true picture of your habits.  I think 13 days will give me a good picture.

The Philosophy Reason

The whole idea for this challenge came from this cool quote. “Freedom from obsession is not about something you do; it’s about knowing who you are. It’s about recognizing what sustains you and what exhausts you. What you love and what you think you love because you believe you can’t have it. We don’t want to EAT hot fudge sundaes as much as we want our lives to BE hot fudge sundaes. We want to come home to ourselves –Geneen Roth.

I don’t really consider myself obsessed, but I do like the idea of being true to myself and recognizing what I really want out of life.

Challenge Seven: My Thoughts · Musings

Life Lesson

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Hair

I have curly hair which means that I’ve had a lot of bad hair days over the years. Recently, I’ve had more good hair days than bad days. Let me tell you my story. One day, I saw a woman at the grocery store with beautiful curly hair. I followed her for ten minutes from isle to isle until I got up enough courage to ask who did her hair. I walked away with a phone number for a fancy salon.  When I called to set an appointment, a woman with a  European accent answered the phone. “We are running a special for new customers. It is only $100”. I’m the type of girl who clips coupons  so the price seemed absolutely scandalous. I was even more shocked when the receptionist told me that in this salon your hair will be cleansed and cut by a true hair artist, but all the styling is done by the patron. “What”, I cried. “I’m paying a $100 to do my own hair”. “It is part of our philosophy”, said the receptionist. “How will you do it at home if we style it?”

My appointment took three hours at the salon. Apparently, my hair artist had to spend longer with me than the typical client, because the receptionist kept coming in to let the artist know her next appointment was here. In the end, it was the best $100 I’ve ever spent. I have been much happier with my hair and I’ve learned two life lessons.

Lesson one: When you see people who have what you want, ask them how they got it.

Lesson two: It is okay to spend $100 on yourself.

Challenge Seven: My Thoughts · Uncategorized

Positive Thinking

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Closeup of US Quarter Heads on white background Stock Photo - 6167956

Today I went to a holistic health care conference with a friend. We had a good time looking at the vender booths and going to the different workshops. I attended a workshop about the power of positive, happy thoughts. The speaker told everyone that they could improve their health and make more money by changing their thinking. I agree with the health part, but I was a bit skeptical about the money. After the presentation, I went to the bathroom. While I was  sitting there doing my business, a quarter came rolling in from another stall. I was pretty excited and cried out loud. “It works.  Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts”.

Challenge Seven: My Thoughts · Musings

Boxes are not just for little kids

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Hidden

We got a package in the mail.  Boxes are not just fun for little kids. I just had to know how much of me would fit inside of it.  After the picture was taken, I started thinking. How many times have I put myself in a box?  How many times have I told myself that I couldn’t do something or say something or be something based on the box around me? Whose box is it anyway? Have I ever stopped myself from being healthy based on my thoughts and feelings? The box really got me thinking about my thinking.  For my next 13 day challenge, I’m going to make a concentrated effort to analyze my  thoughts related to my physical and emotional health. Here is the plan. I’m carrying a little notebook around with me. If I catch myself saying anything negative about my body, mind or path in life,  I’m writing it down. I will then try to rephrase the negative thought with something more positive.

The Practical Reason

I read somewhere that the average human has 50,000 thoughts per day. If I can make some of those little  thoughts more happy and positive, I’m sure it will help with my physical and emotional health.

The Philosophy Reason

“Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself”–Plato

You can’t get more philosophical than Plato.

Challenge Six: Menu Planning

What I’ve learned from menu planning

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I’m coming to the end of challenge number six. It has been a good experience to be more conscientious about planning meals. Here is what I’ve learned.

1. Simple is better.

When the Accountant and I got married, we received 10 cookbooks as gifts. My Grandma gave us a red cookbook with a note that said we would use her gift more than the other cookbooks we got. Don’t argue with grandma. How many times have I opened up Fancy Dinners with Martha Steward in the last ten years? Once. I opened it up and realized that I would have to make a trip to the store to buy dried porcini mushrooms. Book closed. Thank you Grandma for the great lesson. Simple is better. We’ve survived just fine with  our old faithful red cookbook and the internet.

2. Cooking together can be fun

The Accountant and I are one of those couples that go grocery shopping as a date night. And guess what? We’ve found that it is kind of fun to plan, shop, cook and eat together.

Farmers

Here we are at an apple orchard pretending to be farmers. Don’t we look cute?

Challenge Six: Menu Planning · Memory Lane

Memory Lane

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When I was eleven years old, I saw a PBS special on small pox and became fascinated with diseases. I wanted to learn how everything in the human body worked so I could avoid diseases like small pox.  The library had anticipated my interest, because the next time I went  they had put up a huge display in the lobby. The sign said you could protect yourself from diseases. I picked ten random books from the display and went up to the library counter to check out. The lady at the front desk started asking me questions about my books.

“Honey, does your mother know you are reading books about sexually transmitted diseases? These are kind of big books for a little girl”.

I was insulted.  How dare she tell a grown 11-year-old like me that I was a little girl? I told her that my mother let me read whatever I wanted. Driving home with Mom and the brothers from the library, I wondered if I would really be allowed to read anything I wanted. Just to be on the safe side, I hid all the books in my laundry basket and only read them when I thought Mom wasn’t watching me.  I think about it now and laugh. Yes, I was a very mature 11-year-old.

Update on my challenge

Tonight we had chicken stuffed with green chilies and cheese on top of a bed of asparagus and potatoes.  I felt like I was real chef when I put it on the table.  There is something fulfilling about making things yourself.

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Challenge Six: Menu Planning

My 6th Challenge: Menu Planning

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Life can be busy. Very busy. At the end of the day, frozen pizza can look really good if you don’t have a plan about what is for dinner.  My 6th challenge is to plan my meals so that every meal has a serving of fruit and a serving of vegetable.

The Practical Reason

I read an article in US News and Report that said the typical US family spends $4,000 each year on eating meals outside the home. I don’t know if the Accountant and I are the  typical family spending 4,000 a year,  but who doesn’t want to save a little money.

The Philosophy Reason

The Accountant and I like to spend time together. We are doing this challenge together. We’ve made a little menu together. Eating together, planning together and cooking together can be a chance to talk. It gives you a chance to connect and talk about your day.

Challenge Five: Jump Rope

Dancing a new way

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When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I
wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment. I told
them they didn’t understand life.” – John Lennon

Dancing Feet

We had friends over this week. They brought their Dance Revolution Game. Have you played it before? It was a lot of fun. Let me tell you about it. You plug this large game mat into your computer and then start dancing to a pattern on the computer screen. When the up arrow appears, you step up a square. When the down arrow appears you step back. The entire time music is playing along with the dancing arrows.  I was having a great time on the novice level. It was fun. I could get those little arrows to blink and go away with my steps. The song ended. I got points. Yeah for me!  I walked away to get a drink of water. I learned you should never leave the room in this game.  When I came back the settings had magically changed to hard. The Hamster Dance started off easy, but then it went crazy. The arrows were going everywhere. Up. Down. Left. Right. Together. Together. Down. They weren’t coming one at a time either. There were doubles and triples and at one point the computer screen started shaking in attack mode and the game made a sinister laugh.  My feet were getting all tangled up. Well, I didn’t want to get a bad score so I changed the rules.  Forget feet. Hands are much easier. I jumped off that little game mat and started pounding with my hands. I could keep up much better with all those arrows.

Lesson Learned

I still got points using my hands. Keep going on your goals even if you take an unconventional path.

Challenge Four: Sleep

What I’ve Learned from Sleeping

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What I’ve Learned from Sleeping (My Fourth Challenge)

I’m coming to the end of challenge number four. I wish I could tell you that I am now getting a nice eight hours of sleep every night. I’m not, but I did learn a few things along the way.

1.     It is important to look at the big picture and the small picture.

When I started this challenge, I was getting about 6 hours a sleep on average each night.  After 13 days of concentrated effort to work on my sleep, I’m now getting 6.25 hours of sleep every night. That is right. After working like crazy to make myself go to bed by 10:30 p.m, I’ve only increased my sleeping  time by  an extra 15 minutes a night.   I thought it was a tiny amount until I realized that it adds up fast.

.25 hours of extra sleep      X     365 days   =  91.25 hours of extra sleep

By working on getting to bed by 10:30 p.m , I am giving my body  a 91 hour present.

2.     Encouragement to do your challenge can from funny places

One night about 10:20 pm,  I was on the computer. Suddenly, the computer screen gave me a message.  “I am your computer”, it read. “It is time to go to bed. The internet will be turning off at 10:30 p.m”.

Well, I was quite impressed that my computer knew I was doing this challenge, but I didn’t believe that it would actually happen. At 10:30, the computer did what it said it would do.  It turned the internet off.  I had a good laugh and the next day the Accountant showed me how to use the settings on our computer  network to turn the internet on and off.

There is still time to vote for my next challenge.

A)   Track  everything I eat and plan menus for the next 13 days

B)   Jump rope for 13 minutes every day for the next 13 days

C)   Write 13 positive affirmations about myself every day

D) Clean my house  (I read a study that said people with clean houses are healthier.)

Vote now by leaving a comment.