Yeah, yeah...

So I've been wavering a little bit. My motivation is, well, in jeopardy. It's odd because I'm actually enjoying this change and yet, I can feel the problem brewing. But what is the problem? 

According to the annoying personal trainer on X-Weighted (Slice is definitely my vice), you need a fitness goal to keep yourself motivated. That got me thinking. The problem, it seems, is that I lack a concrete goal for this entire challenge. Sure, sure, I want to be fitter, happier, more productive, but that's not good enough for motivational purposes, especially with summer patios on the horizon! 

So here is my fitness goal: by the end of August, I would like to do the 3+km run through High Park in 20 mins or less. That's big because I am truly an awful outdoor runner - picture: starts sprinting, runs out of breathe quickly, resumes sprinting, nearly passes out and barely makes it home. So that's my goal - finding my running mojo and building the endurance to do that run quickly and efficiently.

Anyone care to join me? :)

The Challenge... it's boot camp time!

In two weeks, I start my ultimate frisbee league and frankly, it would be nice to make it through a game without passing out. So... this week I am seriously amping up the activity quotient of my challenge with the following:

• 3km morning run every morning that it's not raining (looks like Monday and Tuesday are out this week). 
• At least two gym visits.
• One hot yoga class. 
• For every hour of television, 25 stability ball push-ups, sit-ups, those plank things, and free weights. 
• Sunday however, is rest day.

mxo

Holiday = challenge...

So I survived and that's pretty much what I should have expected. This was a week dedicated to eating (a lovely birthday dinner party at an amazing restaurant on Queen, Nota Bena, for a lovely lady, Hil + Good Friday dinner at mom's + Easter dinners on Saturday and Sunday)... most of the goals went down the drain. I didn't avoid meat, unless turkey and ham don't qualify as meat. I did not eat small portions and vegetables were not the main attraction. I had some chocolate eggs, which I'm pretty sure constitute as junk food. Despite good intentions, I only made it to one yoga class. And finally, I did NOT eat only from a plate - lunch for me, it seems, always equals eating at my desk.

BUT despite all of those 'failures', I am not beating myself up because this week I learned another part of my 80 year-old grandpa's secrets: balance. My grandfather is extremely healthy 90% of the time; 10% of the time, he goes all out. For his 80th, he treated his guests to a three hour meal of wild boar (don't ask), washed down with copious amounts wine, brandy, vodka, etc. This is the lesson he tried to impart when I was much younger - the molten chocolate cake will taste so much more amazing when you have it every couple of months with friends, for a special occasion, than it will eaten every few days. This is one of the lessons Michael Pollen presents in his book (more on the book later). This is the secret of the French, Greeks, Italians, and apparently even the Polish. Food is more than just a means of survival. It is about friends, family, celebration, and fun. This is the lesson I had to learn this week, and so it was.

ALL of that being said, this week it's back to business because after a month of this challenge, even despite last week, I feel noticeably different. I feel great.

 

mxo

The challenge continues...

Okay truth... it's actually been two weeks since I started my healthy experiment. I wrote last week's introductory blog at the end of my first week. Why? Partially it was due to an insane schedule, partially because I didn't initially intend to blog this, and partially it was because I didn't want to commit and have my first week be an utter disaster. It wasn't. The last two weeks have actually been great. I have managed to stick to all of the my food related goals without any struggles - a huge shock to me but perhaps it just shows that my body was ready for it. I made it to one hot yoga class which nearly killed me, but it was well worth it. Cutting out TV left me with buckets of time to get ready for exams. All in all, I did what I set out to do and, like any accomplished goal, it feels good. Hopefully week two (well three, but let's just say two) goes equally well!

Week two of healthiness:

• Eat only from a plate and only sitting down at a table (a desk doesn't count!). I have a really bad tendency to eat wherever I can - at my desk at work, in the lecture rooms, etc. I can't imagine that makes for very conscious eating.
• TWO hot yoga classes... fingers crossed I don't pass out!
• Read another book just because. This week's choice: "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollen.
• Wherever possible, eat organic and local food.

And maintenance of the new status quo:

• Eat small portions at regular times. Easter weekend will prove to be a challenge! Eek.
• Eat primary plant-based foods.
• No meat, except fish.
• No diary. 
• No junk food. 

Wish me luck!

Just finished The 100-Mile Diet by Alisa Smith & J. B. MacKinnon. I must admit I was a tad weary that this book would be overly preachy and I would be left feeling less than stellar about my destruction of the environment (by participating in the overwhelming global food system). The book proved instead to be honest, captivating, and the genuine story of a couple who decided to eat locally for a whole year on a whim, and ending up learning one of the most important lessons we all seem to be forgetting: food is about more than just sustenance. It is about our relationships to people and to our land. It is an adventure. 

I highly recommend this book.

An excerpt:

It's no secret that we, as a society, have been losing the traceability not only of our food, but of every aspect of our lies. On any given day, chances are high I will have no idea what phase the moon is in. I cannot reliably list my brothers' birthdates, and I regularly use products that work according to principles that I cannot explain. I suspect I will go through life without meeting an of the people who make my shoes, or even seeing the factories where those shoemakers work. Like many people, Alisa and I have lost all trace of our traceability to community.... I had expected the 100-mile experiment to be a platform to think about many things, among them a long list of bummers from climate change to the failure of whole generations to learn how to recognize edible mushrooms. What I could see around the table was now a less tangible consideration: a sense of adventure. We are at a point in world history where bad news about the state of the Earth is just as jaded and timeworn as the idea that there is nowhere left to go, nothing new to explore. Put those two statements side by side however, and something hidden is revealed. Of course there are new things to do, and no shortage of them. We need to find new was to live into the future. We can start any time.