This week I have been doing alright with my health aspect. I have kept up with the 21 day fix workouts so I have worked out every day for the past 2 weeks so far. Some days it is easy to get myself to do the workouts and some days not so much. Today was one of those days where I honestly just wanted to lay in bed all day and not workout. I have not felt great today, but I eventually made myself get up and spend 30 mins working out. I am proud of the fact that I have worked out for at least 30 mins a day for 14 days straight, but I really need to work on my nutrition because I know I will never reach my goal by just working out and not giving myself the proper foods. I have decided to stop drinking for a while and hopefully that will help me achieve my goal and feel better about myself.
I’d like to think that everyone has their struggles with their own body image at some point in their lives. Not because anyone should feel like that, but it makes me feel better about my own body image and it is just reality. I wish we didn’t but the reality is that it is hard to accept yourself when the media is so prevalent in our lives. The media is always showing the most “perfect” people online and on TV. Not only are they giving people expectations that are very hard to fulfill, but they are also always advertising very unhealthy foods that are “low-priced, high-calorie and supersized portions”(Donatelle, 2019, p.207). It is hard for anyone to watch an advertisement for some super unhealthy comfort foods without craving them, this reigns especially true for children since they are so easy to influence. When children are raised on fast-food and unhealthy choices, it can follow them to adulthood and it is not easy for them to make healthy choices later on in life.
A good way to train yourself to eat less or eat more healthily is to utilize mindful eating. “Mindful eating means eating with awareness – awareness of why we are eating, what we are eating, and how much we are eating”(Donatelle, 2019, p.212). This is an important tool that I often forget to use. I have a nasty habit of binge eating and it is not an easy habit to kick. By taking a moment to think about why what and how much food I am eating can help me to make the decision to put the snacks away. The book talks about how we should assess whether we are actually hungry or if we have been triggered to eat by a factor in our environment. It says to keep a log of eating triggers to help your awareness of why you are eating. This is something I think I could benefit from because I often find myself eating even though I am not hungry (especially now that we are all quarantined and it is hard to find other things to do to distract myself). My eating habits are a big reason that I am not completely satisfied with the progress I have made with my health aspect because it is hard to see results when I over eat.
In the past, I have tried many different diets to control my eating habits and some work temporarily while others do not work at all. The book calls these yo-yo diets because once you lose the weight you are destined to gain it all back once the diet is over. “After repeated losses and gains, it becomes increasingly harder to lose weight and easy to regain it”(Donatelle, 2019, p.206). I find this to be personally true and honestly pretty disappointing. When I started this class, I chose to use intermittent fasting as a way of achieving my health goal because it had worked in the past, but in the end I gained the weight back and this time around it was very hard to commit to and ended up not working for me. I am actively trying to find new ways to achieve my health goal that are more long term and healthier for me.
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