The Power of Positive Thinking

Happy Friday!

About five-ish months ago, I was in my hometown visiting family.  I met up with a friend who I hadn't seen since high school (looking at you Keah!) and a very close friend (looking at you Sara!) and realized how positive they were about everything.  Somewhere along the line, I slipped into a deep hole of negative thinking.  Let's be honest, negative thinking brings you down in every single way.  It affects your home life, your mental health, your work, your health, the people around you...everything. 

I have been working over the past 5 months to turn my negativity around.  While, yes, I am human and I still fall into the negative thinking worm hole from time to time, I have been finding positivity to be my go-to attitude now.  I literally faked it until I made it.  (Side note - I never though you could actually 'fake it until you made it.'  You actually can!)

I am not an expert on the subject (I'm a geographer, not a psychologist), but there were several tricks that I used to lessen the grasp that negative thinking had on me.  I highly recommend trying these out if you are looking to change your attitude towards your life and situation:

1.  When something negative, unhappy, or unpleasant happens to you, stop, think, and then write yourself a list of why this negative thing can be a blessing in disguise.  If you are unable to do this in the moment (this is a hard switch to make), come back to it later.  What good can come out of the situation?  What is the silver lining?  Doing this everytime anything negative happens leads, over time, to this action becoming second nature.

2.  If you feel as though you've reacted poorly (or just not how you would have liked to have reacted) in a situation and are thus having negative and weighing thoughts, do your best to correct the situation and then give yourself permission to move beyond it.  If you apologize or correct yourself, you have done the best you can and that is all you can do.

3.  Spend 5 minutes in bed right when you wake up in the morning thinking positive mantras like:

  -  My day is going to be awesome.
  -  I am incredibly blessed.
  -  I am a hard-working, beautiful woman (or man!).
  -  No matter what others think of me, I do everything I can to be the person I want to be.
  -  No matter what situation arises today, I will handle it with grace and thankfulness.

I always thought positive thinking mantras were a little "granola", but really, they affirm positive thinking and really calm me down.

4.  Stop and think at some point every day about how your life is incredible, whether you have the support of your family and friends, a furry sidekick, a great job (or just a job in general), a significant other, and/or great health.  All these things are likely something that someone else would kill for.  Don't take them for granted.

5.  If you find yourself jealous of someone else, remember that Life is Not a Supermarket.  Just because someone else has what you want, doesn't mean that you cannot achieve the same thing.  There is not a limited amount of happiness to go around.  Go find yours!  It is important to support and be happy for those around you.  That genuine happiness will carry over into your life.

6.  If you find that there are certain people in your life that bring on those negative thoughts and feelings, make you feel bad about yourself, or just do not support you or the positive changes you are making (i.e. toxic friends - friends that are likely not bad people but maybe aren't right for you at this point in your life), it might be worth it to sit back and think long and hard about why they are in your life.  Is it time to reduce the amount of time you spend with that person?  Is the situation bad enough that your "toxic" friend is affecting you so greatly that you should just gently let them go?  You get one life, live it to the fullest.

7.  Finally, take time for yourself.  It takes time to get over the guilt of walking away from everyday duties to take the time to do something for yourself.  We have all grown up learning that being selfish (as in, saying, "HEY, this is ME time!") is a bad thing.  Taking time for yourself is not selfish, though.  Taking this time (for me, I work out or read a book) makes you a happier person which will in turn lead to a positive attitude.  I have first hand learned that this time away for myself makes me a better daughter, sister, friend, and employee.  I am happier, more productive, and more supportive of those around me.  Keep in mind, the dishes, vacuuming, work, and laundry will still be there when you get back and life will not end if it gets put off for a couple hours.


All these things take time and a lot of effort to add into your life, but, trust me, it's worth it.  Mental health is just as important, if not more so, than your physical health.  Climbing my way out of the worm hole of negative thinking has been one of the most important changes I have ever made in my life (which is saying a lot being that I've lost almost 100 pounds).  The work I have done has paid off ten-fold and will likely continue to as I go throughout my life with this commitment to being a positive, happy person, no matter what my situation is.

Great quotes for this topic:

     "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
- Herm Albright

 "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Winston Churchill

"Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results."
- Willie Nelson

Do you have a positive thinking tips?

Happy a happy and healthy weekend!

Healthy by 30?

It's the big post that you may or may not have been waiting for!  I have finally hit my 30's today.  So, first things first.  Here's how I feel about turning 30:

I feel like my 30's is going to be my decade!  :)

That being said, I thought this might be a great time to do a few things:
1. Take a look at progress in photo form
2. Take a look at progress in number form
3. Discuss if I think I made the progress I had hoped for
4. Discuss the health-oriented goals I have for my 30's
5. Rename the blog!

Let's start with #1: Progress in photo form!  Now, I will admit that looking through old photos of myself was painful.  And I mean, very painful.  It is hard to look at yourself when you know when you are not at your best.  I never saw myself as big, even though I obviously was.  The good news is that looking at these photos is very motivating as I never want to be that unhealthy again.

One thing to keep in mind with these photos:  I have always avoided cameras like the plague so I don't have that many great photos of myself at my biggest.  My more recent photos are ones that I've taken of myself (to prove to myself that I really am losing the weight and I'm not going crazy as I don't see it when I look in the mirror every day) or by my parents so I had a couple of very recent photos to post today!

All that being said, if you are interested in seeing what has been going on over the last 2ish years, click the link under the header called Progress Photos (or click here).  I will continue to update this page as I make progress!


Alrighty, let's move on to #2: Progress in number form.  Numbers don't mean that much to me but I like to see them add up over time as I often look in the mirror and don't see a change.  I will forever be a chubby girl in my brain, apparently!

As of March 17th, 2012:
Total weight lost:  91.2 pounds
Total inches lost in waist:  14
Total drop in BMI:  14.8


And... #3: Discussion of progress.  I have been saying for the last two years that my main goal was to enter my 30's healthier than I entered my 20's (I swear I wrote this on the blog somewhere along the way but for the life of me, I cannot figure out where!).  While I am NOT at my goal weight, I am very happy with where I am.  I am wearing rings that I could not wear throughout my teens and 20's.  Over Christmas, I happened upon a dress I wore for my senior pictures and it fit!  Okay, it fit over a t-shirt, tank top, sweater, and fleece pants.  I am at a weight that I have not seen since I was, oh, 14?  Most importantly, I eat very healthfully on a daily basis and I workout regularly.  These are not optional to me anymore, they are my life and I love it!

And, now for #4: Health-oriented goals for my 30's. 

1. My main goal is to continue on the same road I've been on for the last 2 years.  Slow and steady wins the race!
2. Walk a half marathon
3. Achieve and stay within a healthy weight range
4. Eat mostly whole foods and fuel my body for the long haul
5. Stay active and continue to build endurance and strength
6. Keep my Celiac and Fibromyalgia under control (sans medication for Fibro if at all possible)
7. Work on my mental vision of myself.  As mentioned earlier, I still see myself as though I haven't lost any weight.  I don't feel like I have changed.  This is something I need work on daily and probably for quite some time, if not the rest of my life.

Finally, #5: Rename the blog!  I have had a lot of really great feedback on this blog, even though I post fairly sporadically (sorry!) and I'm not listed in search engines.  There have been numerous people who have said, e-mailed, commented, or messaged me that they find this blog inspiring.  This inspires ME and I am happy that my ramblings have helped other people.  Therefore, I want to keep the blog going!  Since the name "Healthy by 30" no longer applies (being that I'm now 30!), I am seeking ideas for a new name for the blog!  Comment away below or shoot me an e-mail!  :)

Thank you to everyone who have helped me along the way over the last 2 years.  I could have never gotten this far without the support and love of everyone around me!

Coming soon:  I promised a friend that I would do a 30 during 30 list with her.  I just have to write it!

Eat for Fuel Challenge

Ah, Sunday.  I love you!  I have been going, going, going nonstop for a couple weeks and plan to take much of the day off.  I had a very hard time getting out of bed this morning and am having a hard time getting myself motivated to do much of anything lately.  I took a bit of a mental and physical break from my HM training this week as I was feeling like I was coming down with something and was just overall exhausted.

I was paging through my food journal this morning and realized that, while I my weight has been heading in the right direction (down!), I have not been hitting my calorie goals as often as I like and the foods I have been eating are not optimal.  I think this is why I have been so sluggish lately (on top of having just too much to do and too little time to sleep!).  The way I have been eating is just not going to cut it for the long term.  I haven't been too far off, but I can feel myself slipping here and there and I need to refocus myself before I let go of all control.

Since my 30th bday is officially one month (31 days) away, and my main goal is to go into my 30's as healthy as possible, I've decided to challenge myself to focus on eating foods that will healthfully fuel my body for both my everyday life and my HM training.  So, here's the plan:

31-Day Eat for Fuel Challenge

The plan is to spend the next 31 days eating 90% from the list below and in combinations that will properly fuel my body (fats + proteins + carbs + fruits/veggies).  10% of my daily calories and food intake can come from foods off the list (like coffee!).  I hope to meet my calorie goals (not over or under) 6 out of 7 days a week.  I will also be planning all of my food the night before with some flexibility built in for those times when cravings hit.

Fuel Foods:

All fruits

All veggies

Beans

Eggs

Peanut Butter (no sugar added)

Fish

Chicken or Turkey

Lentils

Quinoa
Nuts/Seeds

Oatmeal/Oats

Brown Rice

Chia and Flax

Olive Oil

Vinegar

Salsa

Spices

Yogurt

Milk

Agave

Tea

(note - I'm probably forgetting some foods and may add to this list)

Anyone up for doing this challenge with me?  I think this will be a great way to enter my 30's and am excited to be back on track.  Challenges always motivate me!

Year End Recap & New Year's Resolutions

Last year, my goal was to hold on to the healthy living bandwagon for dear life.  I definitely accomplished that.  The last year has been a rollercoaster ride and this is possibly the first year that I am so happy for a fresh start.  I am honestly not a New Year's Resolution person, but I do like going into a new year with goals. 

A little spring to get us through the winter.  :)

First, a 2011 recap!  For whatever reason, I do not have my stats from before last June, so I estimate that in the last year, I have lost approximately 48ish pounds, 26 since July. 76 pounds overall.  Yep, I'm a slow loser, but that's okay.  I feel more prepared to live my life healthfully once I meet goal. 

I have also completely changed the way I eat.  I try my hardest to stay away from most processed foods and have greatly decreased my meat intake (I only eat chicken, fish, and turkey in general).  I typically am only eating meat if someone else cooks it or if I go out to eat.  This means that my veggie intake is up!  Yay! 

So, here are a few good posts that puts the last year into perspective:

-Celiac and Healing Through Food Part I and Part II
-Hitting the big 5-0
-My biggest weight loss resource:  my food scale!
-The Awesome-ness of CSAs
-Learning to love veggies for breakfast
-Recap on being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (more on that later) and my awesome Turkey Trot!

I thought I'd put forth some goals for 2012:  short term, for the spring semester, and long term.  Hopefully at the end of 2012, I'll be checking these off with glee.  Today, I'm just going to start with my short term goals for 2012 (the next three-four weeks).

1. Read From Fatigued to Fantastic!  I saw a pain management specialist yesterday who gave me a little shock: he doesn't think I have fibromyalgia.  I have all the symptoms and everything lines up but I don't "look like like a fibro".  According to this doc, I am too athletic, my muscles are in too good of shape, and I am in no means depressed (very often accompanies fibromyalgia).  Because he has no other ideas on what I could be dealing with, he told me to read this book and come back to see him with ideas about where I want to go on this.  I get to decide on my treatment options (and they will NOT include prescription medications if I have a choice)!  I like having this control and I'm glad he's giving me options.

2. Work out 5-6 day a week.  I've been doing well with this since the fall semester ended.  This is just a "keep it up!" goal.

3. Work 3-5 hours a day.  This doesn't necessarily mean work on work for next semester, but do something productive (like prepping for spring) or finish projects that I have started but never finished.  I tend to get very lazy during the breaks between semesters.  I stress myself out way too much over the semester and then just zone out until it's time to go through it again.  Time to get productive and get stuff done before the spring semester sneaks up on me!

4. Cook!  And cook good food.

5. Create menus.  I use a whiteboard on my fridge to sort out what I want to make each week but I feel like I could be making it easier on myself.  I plan to list out all the foods I make for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks so I can make meal planning quicker and easier.  I want to put these in sheet protectors on my fridge so I can look at it easily and make grocery lists easier (and hopefully save a little money this spring!).

6. Similarly to making food planning easier, I want to make calorie counting easier.  I want to go through the most common foods I eat and have a list on my fridge of the calories per ounce so that calorie counting doesn't have to be so time consuming.


Okay, off to eat breakfast (pumpkin yogurt and quinoa granola!).  I hope everyone had an awesome holiday last weekend and a very safe New Years!  Longer term goals are coming!

Mullings on Late November and Early December

Good evening folks!  I've been meaning to post for a while - life has been busy.  I've also been feeling not so great, so sitting on the computer hasn't been at top of my priority list.  I always think it's good to look back at the last month as see where I've gone wrong, right, and what I've learned.  So, a few things...let's start with the good:

1. I have been focusing on health, not weight loss, and it's awesome.  I feel great!  This is something that has been morphing in my life for a while now.  I try to eat mostly whole foods with some treats here and there.  I find when I focus on being healthy, I can more easily maintain or lose weight.  If I am obsessed with weight loss, I lose nothing and likely gain.  It's too much pressure.  What I really want is to be healthy, no matter what my weight is!
2. Even with fibromyalgia, I am able to keep up my workouts and increase my intensity.  :)  I'm just as active now as I was before diagnosis.  I find that if I do something cardio and/or free weights every day, I can hold off on pain a bit or at least the pain isn't as severe.
• Stretching is a huge thing with me right now too.  My muscles get super tight very quickly.
3. (Knock on wood...) I haven't gotten sick this fall!  I've had fibro pain, sure, but no colds or flu...nothing!  I'm no doctor, but I am going to guess this is because of two things:  (1) I have been working out outside for most of the fall (fresh air!) and (2) being healthier and more on top of my issues which likely causes my immune system to function better.  Either way, I'm happy!
4. I don't need caffeine to function.  I've had to severely reduce my caffeine because of my fibromyalgia.  I really do think it's helping.  I'm currently either drinking one (max) 1/2 caff cup of coffee in the morning or only decaf.  I know, decaf does have caffeine in it, but I love a hot coffee in the morning.  I'm working on it...

Now the weird weight loss discoveries that have come up in the last month:

1. Are you aware that your feet lose weight?  Yep, it's true!  I used to wear a 9.5 or 10 sized shoe and now I'm more in a 9 or 9.5 in dress/workout shoes (my feet swell).  My right foot is also now smaller than my left.  :/  When I put my work shoes on for the first time this fall, I thought it was odd that they kept slipping off (they are slip ons).  I didn't really think about it until I went to buy shoes a few weeks ago.
2. You are cold all. the. time.  Seriously.  I never understood why people were cold all the time.  Now I know.
3. Losing a lot of weight has caused massive hair loss for me.  I have been steadily losing tons of hair since the beginning of June.  I talked to my hair gal and she said that this is actually pretty normal when you lose higher amounts of weight.  Who knew?
4. You suddenly find bones you never knew existed!  I still have a good amount of weight to lose and I'm already finding new bones poking out.  Score!

And finally, the bad stuff:

1. Eh...not much worth talking about.  Besides a few slips in eating and a few extra days off working out, I've been going pretty strong.  Might as well stay positive!  I've been hanging out around 73lbs gone for a while now (which is not a bad thing!).  I think it's a mental thing, so I'll keep working on staying healthy!
2. The caffeine thing:  I gave up my regular morning joe right after Thanksgiving and it took about 10-12 days to really feel clear headed without caffeine.  That was not fun.

So, my thoughts for the rest of December is that I would really like to hit that 75lb mark.  I mean, I've been working at it for what feels like forever.  But, more than that, I would like to make excellent choices throughout the holidays.  Not too many gluten free cookies, not too much chocolate, and keeping up with workouts at least 4-5 days a week (6-7 days a week when the semester is over).  Last year, I was just trying to maintain my weight throughout the holidays and I feel like I can do better than that this year.

Sorry for the lack of awesome photos.  :)  I'll work on breaking out the camera for the next post.

Thanksgiving & Fibromyalgia

Well, Thanksgiving break has officially wrapped up and it's back to work!  I was able to be on break at my parent's house for nearly a week, which was much needed.  My break promptly started out with a trip to see a rheumatologist to figure out what is going on with all the muscle/joint pain that I've had all fall, as well as my everyday headaches.  I had a ton of bloodwork completed in October, including every rheumatological condition that could include muscle aches.  I was also tested for Lyme and various flu's and whatnot.  All that came back was that I showed inflammation. 

So, after a long exam, the rheumatologist came up with an answer:  fibromyalgia.  Great, right?  But at least I have an answer.  More fibromyalgia info is here and here.

The rheumatologist didn't seem to be the most knowledgeable (I felt like I knew more about fibromyalgia) and decided that I didn't need any medications.  She felt as though my blood pressure (108/57 mmHG), resting heart rate (52 bpm), and other stats were too healthy and that she didn't want to mess me up with any sort of medication.  While I am not a fan of medication (I take it as a last resort), I asked her what I could do to relieve some of the pain and she had no answer.  Literally.  So, it's back to my primary doctor to see what she says and then potentially (hopefully) a pain management doctor who can help me look into treatments like acupuncture instead of medications.

So, that was the lows.  I felt crappy and super achy all week and weekend.  I am cutting way back on caffeine, staying active, and trying to get enough sleep in hopes of avoiding any really horrible days before the semester ends in a few weeks.

Now, for the highs!  Of course, I got to spend tons of time with family and friends.  I always miss having that time and I wish I could see everyone more often. 

Also, remember me saying that I was going to walk the 5-mile Turkey Trot run in my hometown?  Well....I did!  And I beat my personal record!  By a lot!  My goal (since I had been so achy and the wind was high) was to come in under 70 minutes.  My previous record was 68.5 minutes for 5 miles.  Here's what I ended up with!

Yep, you read my time right!  65 minutes, 12 seconds; average of 13 minutes, 3 seconds per mile.  There were 524 participants, I placed 500 overall.  This seems a touch sad however this was a run and I walked the entire thing and finished ahead of a number of run/walkers.  I am 98% sure that I was the first person who walked the entire race to cross the finish line so I'm pretty proud of myself!  I was so happy when I was done. 

I set out to just beat my own record but my competitive side really came out mid-race.  With fibromyalgia, I have been told and read a lot about how hard everything is going to be with all the pain associated with it, but I feel like I showed myself that I am still a very healthy person and I can keep fibromyalgia in the background instead of letting it run my entire life.  I would love to walk another race! 

Walking this race really helped me stay on track with exercise this fall.  Even with all the pain I was experiencing, I forced myself to get out and get a walk in, knowing that I wanted to beat my personal record.  Now that the race is over and I am heading into the last few crazy weeks of the semester, I plan to tone down my workouts a little and get in whatever I can whenever I can.  So, my goal for working out for the next three weeks is do something five days a week.  I need to start working with weights again, so maybe a little Ripped in 30?