Goals

I got up this morning and kicked off my day two of my Arbonne Seasource Detox.  I decided to do a detox to end my lent with a “bang”!  Technically, since February 17^th – Ash Wednesday, I’ve been on a detox.  I cut out sodas, alcohol, chocolate, and mostly all red meat (I’ve had red meat 4 times in the last 5 plus weeks) – to include all meat on Fridays.  In the process, I ended up cutting out sweets, candy, chips (the brown rice chips I love) and added a lot more fruits and vegetables to my diet.

Yesterday, on my first day of the detox – you could say that “it” hit me pretty hard towards late afternoon.   I found myself running to the bathroom and feeling like parts of my insides were not very happy with me.  Frankly, I was shocked it got to me the way it did but Aaron pointed out “You have a pretty sensitive stomach to start out with”.  He made a good point. I do have a sensitive stomach.

Today, I got up and drank my second bottle.  The way it works – the Detox kit is a seven day detox system of seven potent 1oz bottles – one bottle a day mixed with one quart (32 ounce) of liquid.  In my case, I’m mixing it with light apple juice and water.  No way I could swallow it down with water only.  Not exactly the best tasting or smelling stuff…

I drank my entire “potion” before I left the house to go to the gym…I drank most of it while I was meditating, on an empty stomach.  I had to visit the bathroom while I was at the gym but it wasn’t too bad.  After lunch, Aaron and I went to get massages…I was doing just fine.

We left the massage place and headed to the grocery store on the other side of town.  Halfway there my stomach started acting up.  I’ll spare you the intricate details but we’ll just say that I barely made it and it was definitely not something I wanted to do in a public bathroom.

That was around 2:45pm…it’s past 8pm now – stomach is feeling fine.  Staying hydrated and maintaining electrolytes, I’m noticing to be extra important while on this detox.

I don’t know what’s in store for me tomorrow but for tomorrow and the rest of the week – I plan on looking closely at my schedule.  I don’t want to be caught somewhere out of reach of a bathroom.

What are my expectations on Day 7? No clue.  Will I feel “cleansed”?  Will I have more energy?  Will all the cravings be gone?  I’ll tell you on Sunday!

This past weekend I received my 2010 Womenthealth.gov calendar. It’s really packed with some great information…like this:

New information shows that smoking causes diseases in nearly every organ of the body.  Smoking is linked to diseases such as: leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia, and cancers of the cervix, lung, kidney, pancreas, and stomach. Lunch cancer alone claims the lives of more women than any other cancer.  You must stop smoking to lower your chances of getting these diseases.

Here is what happens in the 15 years health recovery cycle once you quit smoking:

20 Minutes after Quitting

Your heart rate drops

12 Hours after Quitting

The carbon monoxide (a gas that can be toxic) in your blood drops to normal

2 Weeks to 3 Months after Quitting

Your heart attack risk begins to drop

Your lungs are working better

1 to 9 Months after Quitting

Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease

Your lungs start to function better, lowering your risk of lung infections

1 Year after Quitting

Your risk of heart disease is half that of a smoker’s

5 Years after Quitting

Your risk of having a stroke is the same as someone who doesn’t smoke

10 Years after Quitting

Your risk of dying of lung cancer is half that of a smoker’s

Your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas also decreases

15 Years after Quitting

Your risk of heart disease is now the same as someone who doesn’t smoke

Get your Free 2010 Calendar at Womenshealth.gov – This is more information on How to Quit Smoking

I hope everyone had a fabulous Mardi Gras – from what I could hear outside (we live in the French Quarter) people really seemed to have been enjoying themselves.  This morning when I went to drop Aaron off at work, we saw people staggering about with drinks in their hands…I guess they don’t care that today is Ash Wednesday.  When the clock struck midnight, the start of Ash Wednesday and Lent descendant upon us.

Lent is the season before Easter, in the West lasting liturgically from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of Holy Thursday. The evening of Holy Thursday begins the The Easter Triduum, which lasts from Holy Thursday to the Evening Prayer of Easter Day. However, Lenten fasting and penance continue until the end of Holy Week, and all of Holy Week is included in the traditional 40 day Lenten fast, despite Lent ending liturgically on Holy Thursday.

The purpose of Lent is to be a season of fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence, conversion, and simplicity. Lent, which comes from the Teutonic (Germanic) word for springtime, can be viewed as a spiritual spring cleaning: a time for taking spiritual inventory and then cleaning out those things which hinder our corporate and personal relationships with Jesus Christ and our service to him. Thus it is fitting that the season of Lent begin with a symbol of repentance: placing ashes mixed with oil on one’s head or forehead. However, we must remember that our Lenten disciplines are supposed to ultimately transform our entire person: body, soul, and spirit. Our Lenten disciplines are supposed to help us become more like Christ. Eastern Christians call this process theosis, which St. Athanasius aptly describes as “becoming by grace what God is by nature.” (Source: Churchyear.net)

For 2010, Lent began today on 17 February and ends on 3 April.

In modern society, full Lenten fasting is not very popular…instead it’s been replaced with “giving one or two things up” for lent.  All over twitter this morning, people are discussing what they are going to give up for lent: #lent.  Red meat, alcohol, and chocolate seem to dominate the list…followed by fast food.

Lent Fasting: The Diet of Self-Discovery

“In the secular world, ‘fasting’ means abstaining from all food and drink, but in religious circles, ‘fasting’ means going on a disciplined diet. The purpose of a fast is to find out who is in control, you or your belly, and to win that control if necessary. It’s also a way of using your appetite as a spiritual snooze alarm that moves you to pray.” Karl Loren Happiness

Fasting or giving up whatever is on your list is about dedicating yourself to a challenge and to a cause for the next 40 days and in the process discovering more about yourself. Who is in control? How do you deal without the things you love the most? What kind of mind of matter and willpower do you possess? Are you willing to go on a journey of self-discovery for 40 days?  It’s amazing how many of us can’t bother do commit to change for 40 days.  We have become so narcissistic and unwilling to see our own shortcomings.

Fasting is dieting on an entirely new level for people looking to lose weight and fasting is something entirely foreign to someone who has never dieted in his or her life.

I encourage you to give up most, if not all the foods and comforts in life you love the most for the next 40 days.  Open a journal and start chronicling how you feel, what you’re experiencing, why you miss the things you miss, and how your attitude, energy level and life is affected.

I’m giving up chocolate, Nutella, red meat, all meat on Friday, and diet soda.  I would never give these things up as part of a regular diet; instead I would choose to consume them in moderation – but I commit myself to not having them until April 3^rd.

Now it’s your turn…what kind of fasting are you planning to do during lent?

As you know, we have been encouraging people to take part in the Pound for Pound Challenge because we believe it is such a wonderful opportunity to do something good for yourself, while at the same time, do something amazing for your community.

How exactly will you be helping your community? Watch this video and learn more about Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana and how the donation from General Mills for every pound you pledge to lose will help people in need.

As of this post, 18,686 pounds have been pledged by 578 people for New Orleans.

Be Fit Nola Interviews Second Harvest Food Bank from BeFitNola on Vimeo.

Willpower After Eycken by Tim Brown

Here’s a quick recap from Part I of this series on Willpower. Studies show human beings only have a limited amount of willpower and if overtaxed…you will run out of willpower and the ability to say no to temptations or yes to things you must do but hate doing.  This means that if you’re planning to survive the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras and living in New Orleans by relying on your willpower to not over eat and over drink…you are guaranteed to eventually give in and fail.

No One Wants to Be a Failure

There nothing good or appealing about failure.  Failure is demoralizing, depressing and discouraging. We’ve all heard the saying “You don’t plan to fail – You fail to plan”.

If Not Willpower Than What!??!

If you can’t rely on your willpower to live a healthy lifestyle…than what can you reply on?  What can you do, a mere human being, to be able to withstand New Orleans and all her temptations?

Plan, Structure and Boundaries

Without a plan, structure and boundaries you have a bit of chaos and free for all.  You keep yourself open and vulnerable to every temptations and weaknesses you have.

In order to not overtaxed your willpower – you need to craft a plan, establish some structure and set boundaries in order to create an environment where you are no longer exposed to constant temptations and your weaknesses.

From within the comfort of your plan, structure, and boundaries you can strive and achieve your goal of living a healthy lifestyle.

Can you see it now!?! Starting to?  Not at all…

Willpower Meter

Have a look at that list of everything that was taxing your willpower meter in a 24 hour period.  Can you see how, if you had a plan, structure and boundaries you would forego quite a few things on your list?

Going to give you some time to think about it; we’ll pick this conversation back up next week!

A series of studies show one thing to be a fact about willpower…we only have a limited supply of it. I say again; studies show that human beings only have a limited amount of willpower.  Granted, some folks might have a greater amount than others, but even they have a limited amount.

Here are overviews of some studies – very interesting reading:

Why Willpower Often Fails

The Frontal Cortex and Willpower

Three Effective Ways to Enhance Your Willpower

Willpower Meter

Willpower is what we exercise; it’s what we use, when we want to control ourselves from either doing or not doing something.  The studies show that when we are required to apply/exercise our willpower – it leaves less for the next time (say in a 24 hour period) for us to use towards something else.

In a city like New Orleans – where there are temptations around every bend supporting living an unhealthy lifestyle…can your willpower withstand it all?

Your Willpower Meter

Think about a regular weekday – how often during the day do you exercise your willpower?

To get up early in the morning?

To go to a job you don’t necessarily like?

To not run over the idiots on the road?

To skip buying an expensive coffee at PJ’s or Community Coffee?

To skip eating a piece of King Cake once you’re at work?

To restrain from doing a,b,c at work – like being on twitter all day?

To skip the fried shrimp po-boy for lunch?

To skip going out with friends?

To skip shopping, buying things you can’t afford?

To keep from emailing or calling an ex boyfriend or girlfriend?

To make yourself cook at home instead of ordering out or going through a drive-thru?

To make yourself do the dishes and clean-up before going to bed?

To make yourself go to bed early?

Willpower Meter Exercise

I challenge you to do this for just one day – every time you find yourself having to make yourself do something or not do something; write it down.  Consciously have a look at all the times during a 24 hour period you have to use your willpower.

We have a lot more to talk about willpower and living in New Orleans…but first, I’ll give everyone a little bit of time to do this easy exercise.  Feel free to post your list of things that make you use your willpower in a 24 hour period, in the comment area.

You may or may not have already read my previous post: “Some Things are Worth Quitting: Like Smoking,” which talked about how I quit and some of the things that I found particularly helpful.

What I didn’t explain in that post was why I made the decision to quit smoking. Naturally, most smokers say they want to quit or even try to quit several times. I had “tried” to quit multiple times before, but it was never a conscious decision until 2009 – after five years of being a smoker.

I got the swine (H1N1) flu in April 2009 – which left me barely able to move, vomiting out of control and extremely short of breath for seven days. The difficulty breathing was the worst part. I was miserable for 24 hours a day during those seven days. At one point, during a moment of consciousness, I realized that to the shortness of breath I was experiencing was probably comparable to that of someone who had been smoking for 20 or 30 years and had developed lung problems because of it. I stopped smoking for 2 weeks after I finally got better, but as soon as I felt completely better, and out with friends, I forgot about how I had felt and thought about…my old habits prevailed. Still, in the back of my mind I WANTED to quit; I just hadn’t yet DECIDED to quit.

The turning point was when I met a woman through a business project, who (for anonymity’s sake) I’ll call “Sandy.” I swore she was nearing 60, only to find out after talking to her; she was only in her 40’s. She had yellow teeth, dry, wrinkled skin and she would do that awful smoker’s cough thing pretty frequently. She told me that she had been smoking since college – which is when I started. Call me vain, but Sandy was my big epiphany. I could not keep on hurting my body like this. I needed to start taking better care of myself; I did NOT want to end up like Sandy. I decided I wanted to live as long and as comfortable of a life, as is in my control – and hey, I want to look good, too!

I’m happy to report that several months later, (I’ve already lost count), I am officially a non-smoker! Not only that, but this success has led to me making several other positive, healthy lifestyle changes, including eating fresher, local produce, jogging for 15 minutes three times a week (baby steps!) and YOGA! I’ll tell you more about my newfound love of yoga and why I’m doing it next post.

Have you quit smoking? What finally made you decide to quit?  Would love to hear about it.

If on the other hand, you are in the process of quitting or making the decision to quit smoking and want a cheerleader, feel free to email me at mhargroder@gmail.com or message me on twitter @heyitsmegan.

Telling people they need to quit smoking is pointless.  The questions is: Do you really want to quit smoking? If you can answer “yes” without hesitation, then congratulations – you’re already on your way to being a healthier, happier you with some extra money in your pocket!

I smoked for five years and was nearly at a pack a day. But believe it or not, for me, personally, cold turkey was the way to go. One day, I had my last cigarette and that was it. Not even a “puff.” I’m not going to sugar coat this; the first three weeks were pretty awful. I was very moody and short tempered. To make matters worse…I already deal with an anxiety disorder so when I just up and quit smoking; my panic attacks started happening every day for a couple of weeks. Note: someone without an anxiety disorder does not experience this volume of anxiety. However, I think that these side effects really worked to my advantage in the long run. Every time I’m in a bar and think it would be nice to have a cigarette, I think about how hard it was to quit and how I never ever want to go through that again.

The key to your journey to quit smoking is willpower.  Your willpower to resist and to say no is number one in overcoming a nicotine addiction. There are several different programs that can assist you in quitting, such as nicotine patches which allow you to gradually decrease your nicotine intake, nicotine gum that can help calm cravings or prescriptions such as Chantix. I think that no one road is right for everyone and it never hurts to consult a physician – especially if you’ve been smoking for over 10 years.

There’s even a website dedicated to helping you quit smoking

Here are some tips that worked for me:

Things that help with oral fixation/needing something to do with your hands:

* Chewing Gum
* Holding Chopsticks (sounds weird, but takes concentration and really works!)
* Chewing on/holding straws (if you’re in a bar) or pens (if you’re at work)

Find something productive/healthy to do with your former smoke breaks

* Call your parents or significant other and let them know you are thinking about them
* Find a quiet place to just stand and take a few deep breaths of CLEAN AIR!
* Have a healthy snack break:apples, nuts or loose granola

My advice to anyone who’s serious about quitting: BE STRONG – second to your willpower is your determination. How determine are you to kick this nasty habit and save your life??  Only you can decide to quit and actually go through with it.

Another important thing to know; one moment of weakness will lead to another – the only way to quit is to quit completely. This means no “occasional cigarette when I’m drinking,” no “I’ll only take a drag here and there.” You’re either a smoker or you’re not.

Need a cheerleader? Email me at mhargroder@gmail.com or message me on twitter @heyitsmegan

What’s your unhealthy vice?  Beer, booze? Cigarettes? Chocolate? Ice cream?  Whatever your vice is – DO NOT bring it across the threshold and into your home.

I thought about this blog post last night after Aaron asked if I wanted him to buy my favorite chips; Parmesan RiceWorks. These are pretty healthy chips – they are made from brown rice; first ingredient is whole grain brown rice. The problem is once I open a bag…I’ll eat the whole darn thing. They are good in moderation, but if I have them, I can’t hold back my hand from reaching into the bag until it’s time to throw the bag away – even then, I keep looking at the bag hoping that miraculously more chips will appear. The answer and solution: Don’t have them in the house.

It’s a good rule for you to also apply and live by.  Don’t make it easy on yourself and don’t give yourself easy access to the unhealthy things in your life.  Put as many obstacles between you and your unhealthy vices to help you resist them.

3 Examples of Obstacles

1. Don’t buy them and don’t have them in your home

2. Lock down your accounts and make it difficult to buy them. Carry cash only so you don’t have access to money to buy it.

3. Tell your friends to say “No” to you if you ask for it. Like if you try to bum a cigarette.

Our most vulnerable times are normally when we’re at home.  That’s when we crave, want and need our vice(s).  If we don’t have them readily accessible – it makes us have to think twice about getting it.  If you have to get dress, drive somewhere, get money and deal with the hassles of getting it; it will force you to think about how much you will do for your vice and how much your vice takes over your life. Hopefully, all the obstacles in your way will deter you from getting it and in time; you will stop craving and needing it.

If you MUST have it – you still need to NOT bring it across the threshold.  My biggest vice is actually chocolate.  When I want chocolate – I want cake, I want a huge ice cream sundae or chocolate chip cookies.  None of those things are allowed in the house.  If I am to have chocolate dessert – it can only be when we go out and it’s obviously just one piece instead of having an entire cake sitting at home.

You crave a drink – yes, you will pay more; but only have it if you go out.  No keeping bottles at home. No keeping cartons of cigarettes at home.

It is absolutely not cost efficient but that’s the whole point.  Make it hurt financially and most of you will start saying “No”, “Forget it”, “Can’t afford it”, “It’s not worth it”…etc.

Look at your hard earn money leaving your hand each time you purchase your vice which is unhealthy and bad for you to begin with.

Can you think of other obstacles? Let me know how it goes for you!

Hopefully you’ve been doing some thinking about your New Year’s Resolution and now you’re ready for the simple three easy steps to take which will help you identify resolutions worth making and keeping.  With no further ado – here they are:

Ask Yourself Why:  Know exactly what your intentions are for making the resolution.  This can be done with a good internal dialogue or having a conversation with someone  that goes something like this:

“I’m thinking of making (blank) as my resolution this year”

“Really, and why is that?”

Have at least 5 strong reasons why you want to make your resolution.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify:  Make very simple and basic resolutions.  Smaller and more attainable resolutions will keep you motivated throughout the year, as you achieve them.  The rewards of accomplishment and attainment will help build your confidence to undertake larger goals throughout the year.

Turn it into a Positive:  Make resolutions in a positive light.  Every resolution is about change or improvement therefore in most cases entail; fixing, losing, quitting, stopping or a call to action that includes our shortcoming (get fit, tame the bulge, get out of dept).  No wonder we don’t follow through.  Make your resolutions fun, light, exciting and in alignment with what you love to do or what you know you can do.

Make resolutions that are call to action which will result in the outcome you seek; ride my bike three times a week or walk ½ hour a day, save $50 a month, clean the house once a week…