Slow Moving Friday
This morning my body was protesting getting up early (but I did) and it certainly didn't want to exercise (but I did). It was very half-hearted dancing interspersed with walking; I was watching the clock the whole time and the music didn't even pump me up today so I knew it was going to be a mellow workout. That's OK, I know that lower intensity workouts burn more fat while higher intensity workouts burn more calories. I'm OK with the variety. Sure, I could have saved my workout for tomorrow, but I really like the idea of taking the weekends off. Still I got my 150 minutes of cardio exercise in the bag for week 1. Taking 5 minutes to myself was something I didn't overthink. I honestly already do that when I play games on my phone or just thinking things through, etc. I don't cram my days so full that I don't have a little time to do enjoyable things. A tougher challenge for me would have been to give up a set amount of screen time each day, but I think my company knows that would be too challenging.
Everything about today says take it easy to me. My body feels like it needs some TLC/rest/relaxation. I do miss the way yoga made me feel and I do think I will get back into it, maybe as part of this challenge or maybe after it. I can see myself getting really sick of dancing and biking for exercise and yoga is active enough that I feel I can count it as cardio. The days that are gentler stretching I can make an effort to get some extra steps in on my Fitbit or something. It will be a day-by-day thing; most days I don't feel as sluggish as I do today.
As I was walking my dog around this morning I was thinking about recent things I have seen on Facebook. People are so "vocal" about their opinions on there and I usually try to stay out of drama because all it does it drive people apart. Also, while I have my own feelings about things, I do admit they are largely driven by emotional reaction to something as I don't feel I need to become an expert on a subject in order to feel a certain way about it. I try not to talk politics to anyone or get involved in people clashing over it because I don't have a very solid foundation of knowledge on which to base my opinions and I think that spouting off passionate pleas for feelings on social media without having that background knowledge is part of the problem that is dividing us. My sister and my cousin were discussing an issue and were butting heads about it on Facebook and it made me feel bad to see that. I understand that everyone feels how they do based on their experiences and it's highly unlikely that you can change someone's mind just because you tell them how you feel and why. It just made me feel bad because you could feel the judgment being passed between these two who normally get along great and have similarly big hearts all of humanity. That judgment seems to be everywhere these days, doesn't it? How we raise our kids, how we write and speak, how we eat, who our dollars support...it's everywhere. So as I was thinking about all the things I could potentially be labled "wrong" or "bad" about where food is concerned I found myself feeling a little stressed out because food is a whole other area where judgment is concerned. Gluten, sugar, white foods, processed foods, salts, meat, carageenen, caffeine, fats...you name it, there's an opinion on everything and it all makes me feel like, even when I am eating much healthier than what is automatic for me, I am still failing because I'm not perfect in every category. And I got mad about that feeling. Nowhere in life does demand perfection. Those who only eat whole, organic, plant-based foods from reusable plates and all items only purchased from local stores who don't support anything they don't agree with...UGH, well, kudos to them. My life is a little more relaxed than that THANKFULLY. I don't have to be perfect with food to have a healthy eating lifestyle. I have a hard time with that concept and it has tripped me up many times in the past when I eat something "off plan" and then throw the towel in because it's too hard to be disciplined all the time.
So that made me think back to last weekend when I was looking up descriptions of different diets/fads and of all places Food Network had a comparison of some of them. I read about Keto, South Beach, DASH diet, Mediterranean diet and a few others. They included their pros and cons about each diet and some of them (keto) had a lot more cons than pros. After looking over them, South Beach and DASH had the best reviews though they did admit that DASH would be hard to follow long-term where South Beach was reviewed as being reasonably easy to stay on as indefinitely. DASH, if you don't know is Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It is largely based on loads of produce while reducing your salt and saturated fat intake. It is said to be the number one diet for overall health. Still, it's not terribly different from South Beach.
So I think I am going to be putting some thought into my food over the course of next week and making some decisions on what to do next. I won't bother starting anything until after Thanksgiving because that has been a holiday that has tripped me up more than once; I just don't need the drama over it right now.
Well, I sure hope everyone is having a great Friday and have a great weekend too!
Everything about today says take it easy to me. My body feels like it needs some TLC/rest/relaxation. I do miss the way yoga made me feel and I do think I will get back into it, maybe as part of this challenge or maybe after it. I can see myself getting really sick of dancing and biking for exercise and yoga is active enough that I feel I can count it as cardio. The days that are gentler stretching I can make an effort to get some extra steps in on my Fitbit or something. It will be a day-by-day thing; most days I don't feel as sluggish as I do today.
As I was walking my dog around this morning I was thinking about recent things I have seen on Facebook. People are so "vocal" about their opinions on there and I usually try to stay out of drama because all it does it drive people apart. Also, while I have my own feelings about things, I do admit they are largely driven by emotional reaction to something as I don't feel I need to become an expert on a subject in order to feel a certain way about it. I try not to talk politics to anyone or get involved in people clashing over it because I don't have a very solid foundation of knowledge on which to base my opinions and I think that spouting off passionate pleas for feelings on social media without having that background knowledge is part of the problem that is dividing us. My sister and my cousin were discussing an issue and were butting heads about it on Facebook and it made me feel bad to see that. I understand that everyone feels how they do based on their experiences and it's highly unlikely that you can change someone's mind just because you tell them how you feel and why. It just made me feel bad because you could feel the judgment being passed between these two who normally get along great and have similarly big hearts all of humanity. That judgment seems to be everywhere these days, doesn't it? How we raise our kids, how we write and speak, how we eat, who our dollars support...it's everywhere. So as I was thinking about all the things I could potentially be labled "wrong" or "bad" about where food is concerned I found myself feeling a little stressed out because food is a whole other area where judgment is concerned. Gluten, sugar, white foods, processed foods, salts, meat, carageenen, caffeine, fats...you name it, there's an opinion on everything and it all makes me feel like, even when I am eating much healthier than what is automatic for me, I am still failing because I'm not perfect in every category. And I got mad about that feeling. Nowhere in life does demand perfection. Those who only eat whole, organic, plant-based foods from reusable plates and all items only purchased from local stores who don't support anything they don't agree with...UGH, well, kudos to them. My life is a little more relaxed than that THANKFULLY. I don't have to be perfect with food to have a healthy eating lifestyle. I have a hard time with that concept and it has tripped me up many times in the past when I eat something "off plan" and then throw the towel in because it's too hard to be disciplined all the time.
So that made me think back to last weekend when I was looking up descriptions of different diets/fads and of all places Food Network had a comparison of some of them. I read about Keto, South Beach, DASH diet, Mediterranean diet and a few others. They included their pros and cons about each diet and some of them (keto) had a lot more cons than pros. After looking over them, South Beach and DASH had the best reviews though they did admit that DASH would be hard to follow long-term where South Beach was reviewed as being reasonably easy to stay on as indefinitely. DASH, if you don't know is Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It is largely based on loads of produce while reducing your salt and saturated fat intake. It is said to be the number one diet for overall health. Still, it's not terribly different from South Beach.
So I think I am going to be putting some thought into my food over the course of next week and making some decisions on what to do next. I won't bother starting anything until after Thanksgiving because that has been a holiday that has tripped me up more than once; I just don't need the drama over it right now.
Well, I sure hope everyone is having a great Friday and have a great weekend too!
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