Therapeutic Thoughts and Thinkies [09.03.2013]

[one: lunch is not improving]
Remember how I said I had this plan to improve my overall approach to lunch? Which meant I would actually eat a decent, and complete lunch? Well, I am still failing to do so….

[a half a small sweet potato, a small handful of puffins, a couple small scoops of Greek Yogurt, some broccoli, a T of hummus and a little sunbutter which probably rounded up to being about a tsp smeared]

Now, I am in no way implying that this amount of food is too little. Often this will satisfy me, but not for very long. First of all, note the plate: it is a baby plate. I much prefer eating off children’s plates because they have dividers and I hate when certain foods mingle with other foods. It isn’t a crazy habit, but let’s be honest… puffins+greek shan’t mix with broccoli + hummus. However kid plates tend to run on the smaller scale [this is not a large plate] and as you can plainly see my foods do not even fill the provided spaces.

Take away: Eat more!

What happens is, I get scared [oh, boy, here she goes again]. I get this irrational process: what if I overeat at lunch?
The response [in my rational mind]: Then I overeat at lunch and will not be as hungry come dinner. And scene. Yet, regardless of my ability to think this way, my ability to actually act on it is… it doesn’t happen.
As mentioned, I have been extensively looking into the Harvard Food Guide, which has been noted to be one of [if not, the] best guide to follow in terms of achieving optimal health. As such, I have come to learn that what I have been giving myself as food still isn’t quite ‘enough’.
So, naturally, this week’s recovery goal has become [regardless of my past submission] to follow the guidelines as dictated by the Harvard food Guide. Of course, having read the guidelines I have tailored the suggestions to my body. What it needs/how it reacts to certain food groups and have come up with the following make up: 6 servings of whole grains or starches per day, 2-3 servings of nuts, beans, lentils, etc per day, 2 servings of dairy per day, 1-2 servings of animal proteins per day, 1-1.5 oz of healthy oils per day, 3 servings of fruits and an abundance of vegetables.

Hopefully this will work better for my body. Cross your fingers for me.

[two: does any one else miss Swayze?]

This weekend, due to… there being virtually no where to go… my family and I did the only thing we could think of:

We went dirty dancing in a roadhouse

I had not watch Dirty Dancing in a very long time. I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Yet, somehow I remembered every line in my head. Do you love that as much as me? How you could not watch something for years, but still remember everything about it? The same goes for another oldie, but goodie…

At work on Saturday, during a down moment, my co-workers and I deeply discussed the characters of this fine piece of television history.

I guess this one was two-fold… [one] I miss the Swazye and [two] I love how I still remember the Magic School Bus in great volumes

[three: birthday cake is awesome]

Every day I look at this cake, I smile. I am at the point in my life where I do not feel ashamed to enjoy a slice of birthday cake. Furthermore, I am at the point in my life where family members actually make me birthday cake :). I am so happy that when I walked into my house to see this sitting on my counter, my initial reaction was not fear, but joy. This is a feeling I want to keep forever.

[four: do you meet your goals?]

This morning I woke up thinking: I don’t want to take that right now.

‘Huh?’ might be your reaction. Essentially, after reading the syllabus for a course I am taking, I realized it might be smarter to take it later on. Why? It kept referring to “building off of another class” (a class which I am only going to be taking this semester as well). The emphasis made me feel like it would be smarter to take that class after I have completed this class.

So, I went back to the ol’ drawing board.

During this process, I found this:

[on the right: my school plans. on the right: an old list of “goals” for the summer. Clearly I did not get to ten for some reason]

I had completely forgotten about this list, yet somehow managed to meet almost [I repeat: almost] all go)als. The only thing I have left to do is bake dog treats, which I really do want to do.

I have decided to add a ten to the list:
10) Bake more human recipes too

I found this really cool. I make goals so often, and always feel worried that I will fail to meet them. To find an old list that I did not even remember making was cool enough, but to find out that I had managed to meet most of the without even trying? Bonus!

This prompted me to think about making more goals for myself for this year:

 1. Become more comfortable with your body – dance more!

2. Work on learning a new skill (for example: cake decorating)

3. Establish blog further

4. Learn to live life and not fear it. Laugh more.

5. Enjoy food and do not fear it.

6. Get further into my volunteer work :)

7. Try new foods every now and again.

8. Commit to recovery and not ‘midway’ recovery (which I am currently in)

This is not an exhausted list! I think each month I will make a tentative list of goals. I will not fret should I fail to attain all of them, but I will use them as a guide to better my days and give me further purpose. Obviously, the main focal point right now is to get better with my food and exercise. With school, however, the additive of a solid educational career this year will also become important.

How about you?

Do you set monthly goals?
Do you miss old TV?
Do you have troubles with lunch?