The Farmers Market

This weekend I did something wonderful!!! I went to the farmers market-and by golly I had forgotten how much I love the farmers market-you can get so much fresh fruit and fresh vegetables-and in the end it's so much cheaper than going to the grocery store!!! Enjoy some pictures of my loot :)

who doesn't love Wirsing?? and some lettuce :) 

amazing for salads yumm yumm

have to wash those mushrooms-don't want no bugs and dirt

broccoli and cauliflower 

this ones for my Mami :) 

Zucchini taste good in anything!!!!

Power is knowledge and knowledge is power

Without any knowledge-we don't go anywhere in life. And nowadays finding the right information might be a little overwhelming. There isn't just one small library, and three fact books. No there are tons and tons of information, tons of dieting, weight loss, health tips. These can be found as books, as blogs, as programs etc etc. And every person then has to make sense of all  this information.
In the end there is not one "change your life" perfect program. Some people do better with low carb, vegetarian/vegan, or calorie counting others need a program to follow such as weight watchers. There are many ways to go about this. But before such a decision is made I think it is important to find information. One should never just follow one persons advice on losing weight, or on being healthy. Though there is not one right way, there are definitely wrong ways. I myself have read tons of books-some about this new vegan trend, others by fitness gurus popular today. When it comes to knowledge about healthy eating I think I have it, (so much so that I can even tell my friends why the gym going they are doing is not giving them the adequate results...)! Now what do I do with all this knowledge-I have to turn it into power-power to change my life, power to be healthy and to ultimately be the me I want to be.
The number one rule is that change cannot happen if you do not have a goal in mind. There has to be an end goal, but also an attainable in between goal. It is here that I often fail, as I do not give myself little goals-however I have found two perfect goals that I want to attain, and a reasonable time in which to do so :)
Goal 1: I have a pair of jeans that I love. They are awesome, and looked really good on me-but now they are about 1 size too small. So by the time mom comes for vacation to Germany I would like to fit back into these jeans. That's a month and it's possible.
Goal 2: To do 5 real push ups. In my entire life I cannot remember ever being able to do a real push up (Army Style) By August I want to be able to do 5! I think that is more than doable and it's a goal I can work for!
I need to use my good health knowledge to empower me, instead of just others and that is what I am doing :)

Don't let a setback, set you back

This week was overall pretty successful, I did my exercises every other day (more often and my muscles wold ache like none other) and cooked semi-regularly. Overall, my eating had improved-and honestly I already notice improvements in my health. For one the dark circle around my neck is getting lighter, and my head itches much less both signs that my body is recuperating from bad eating :).
However, as nice as this progress report is, I did have some setbacks. I had a day were i was kinda eating a lot, and did not want to work out. But I did not let that damage all the progress I have made. Instead I got up the next day, and continued business as usual. It is the one thing that used to screw me up, I would start wonderfully for two or three days-screw up and then not continue. The thing many overweight people say-"my diet will start tomorrow" something I repeated for many many years, and what I would say post-screw up. Except I never went back to said "diet." Hence, this time around I am making a healthy change. I want to eat healthy, exercise moderately and overall just feel better. If i have a day of setbacks, well then I will just get on my horse the next day. Perhaps, I want to get to the point, were a screw up is just a small meal, not a full day.
Whatever the case don't let setbacks set you back!!!!
This week has been productive and great :)

Eat Real Food

So a week is up, and I've done moderately well. hehe. I did eat my fruits, and didn't let any of them go bad-so that's awesome. And I cooked a couple of times during the week which is also always awesome :)
What exercise is concerned I did not do so good. I did do my physical therapy a couple times in the week, but not every day as I should so that will have to be my goal this week-to really do it every day. Perhaps I should set a time, such as doing it every morning after I get up. Actually that sounds pretty smart. I shall wake up, do my physical therapy exercise and then I shall follow that by doing some yoga every other day. The reason I think I should do yoga is because I have really bad posture, and my physical therapist told me that the reason why my shoulder hurts so much is because I have learned to set it in a wrong way, in order to stop the initial pain. Except this new way of holding my shoulder makes it even more painful, ouchy. So the initial injury is long gone, I've just been nursing a new one ever since-Amazing right? So this week, physical therapy exercise followed by yoga!

Another thing I wanted to talk about is food. There are so many diets, rules and regulations on how to best lose weight blah blah blah. But as I said in my first post, this is not about losing weight, this is about being healthy-and I think though calories in, calories out is important what is much more important is eating real food. What do I mean by real food-if it grows on this earth and you can see the shape it came in before you consume it that's good. Fresh or frozen vegetables, fresh meat, and eggs-even yoghurt is okay. But say nay to the processed food. As a university student, living on my own I am the queen of processed food-but that is not healthy and not really what I want to put into my body. So for this week I want to cook at least 3 fresh meals during the week. This can either be set aside for dinner, or for lunch or even both :)! In order to be able to cook meals, and know what will be on the table planning is necessary. Never go to the grocery store without a shopping list (however I tried that and lost mine on the way-bummer right?). I went to the grocery store earlier and got what I needed to make chicken curry tonight, my girlfriends are coming over and we're making it a girls night!! It's always lots of fun to do that and to get together! Then because I could not remember what else was on my list, I decided I really want to make chicken noodle soup. My friends have all been getting sick left and right, and though I've been able to avoid it for the most part, my sinuses are constantly sniffly and threatening me with a cold-and there is nothing to beat a cold like chicken noodle soup. So that is already two meals. For everything else I will have to go shopping again, but on the bright side I will be able to go shopping for cheaper-as I will not need something specific from the expensive supermarket. Okay that is my post for this week, I hope you are enjoying my updates :)

It's time...

...to start blogging again. I know some of you have been waiting for a new post since November and here it finally is.
In previous blogs, I was trying to be Vegan on a budget-well that ship has sailed. I have figured out for myself that being Vegan is not the best path-and that I have to find a better way to improve my eating habits. I have recently had a doctors appointment and we did the usual check-ups and he told me I am healthy and nothing was off. He was happy with all of my blood results, my blood pressure was fine, and after checking my organs he was happy as a clam except for one minor issue my weight. This has been a sore subject with me for years, almost as far back as I can remember. And I think that it is time to honestly talk about it, and to make a healthy change in my life. It has taken me years to accept who I am, and the way I look-this does not mean that I am always happy with the way I look, I do have my off days but for the most part I am happy. However, I know this is not a healthy lifestyle for me and I know that even though it is not yet so, it could have repercussions in the near future. I have to make a change for myself, and I know that in order to do so, I need to change my physical activity, as well as my eating habits and I need to want to make these changes. So I decided for the sake of accountability I want to share with everyone what I am doing, and how I am bettering my life in order for those check ups to keep coming back with good results.

Rome wasn't build in a day. This is an old saying, and a perfect one to start off this journey and my blogging about this journey. I read somewhere that it takes 4 weeks, for you to establish a new habit. If this habit is positively reinforced it is easier to keep it up. So bear with me, and with the mistakes I will undoubtedly make. No matter what in life you are trying to change, it all has to start with a goal, my major goal is to be healthy and happy-however, I also need small easily attainable goals. So every week I intend to have a new goal, something that I can achieve, and celebrate. To start this week off I have two goals one being that I eat more fruit. I often buy apples, grapes or bananas and except for the bananas it seems that I am always throwing away rotten fruit, I think this is a bad habit, I should remember to eat a piece of fruit everyday. They make a great snack, as they both keep you satiated and hydrated (due to their water content). So the first is more fruit. My second goal is to do the exercises from the Physical therapist daily. These are important for my shoulders health and they will get me started with exercise.

I realize these goals are very small, but I want to come back with a definite success-it will keep me motivated in the starting days/week, as this is often were I fail setting the bar too high. Now I intend to write weekly updates, and new goals, so if you are interested in following what I am doing, please remind me if I have not posted a new updated on Friday.

Lastly, every journey has trials and tribulations no matter which one it is a new job, budgeting, health no matter what you do it will not all be easy, and handed to you on a silver platter. It is very likely you will have an off day, and as I heard Dave Ramsey say in a lecture "You will screw up" but when you fall off that horse, get right back on it. Don't let one small screw up, destroy all the progress that has been achieved thus far.
This is a journey of becoming healthy, not a journey of weight loss, not a journey of looking a certain way-but a journey of feeling good, of having energy and of knowing what your body needs.

I hope you enjoyed my post and are excited about the posts to follow :)

Of Turkey's and being Thankful

This year, for the first time I made a Thanksgiving Turkey. I had a whole feast with my friends. And let me tell you I was scared out of my wits-because quite honestly I never had made a Turkey before. But after various facetimes with my father, advice from grandma and my aunt I just had to close my eyes and hope for the best. I powered through. And you know what my Turkey was awesome :). My stuffing was legendary, and the cherry cobbler was to die for. When a friend, who usually only eats one portion, eats 2 1/2 you best believe that it was delicious.

I am extremely thankful that when I decide to cook something so intricate and difficult that I manage without any trouble. I could've failed miserably but instead it was a success. I am thankful for my father who had the patience to deal with my 50thousand questions, and my mother who kept re-directing me to him. And because this reminded me how much I enjoy cooking/baking I decided to make a lemon cake today for my friends Llea's birthday and I hope it also turns out delicious.
Something else I learned, when after the party you are left with a mound of dishes-it is best to do said dished immediately! I decided last night that if I waited I would wake up and feel that daunting feeling of not being able to do anything until the work was done, but desperately looking for other things to do, instead I did all of the dishes immediately and I woke up refreshed and happy :)!
Sometimes it's the little things in life-now I will begin counting down the days until I get to fly home!! I'm super excited to see my family :), though I think this thanksgiving my friends were like my little family and I'm a pure ball of happiness!!

Accountability

Today I want to talk about a little word: accountability! What does it mean to you? To me it means that you have to answer to yourself for your actions. Of course there are other people we answer to: our boss, our teacher, our parents etc. but in this case I want to talk about answering to yourself. When I was younger, my daddy always told me: You can lie to me all you want, but you cannot lie to yourself. Yet that is exactly what we do oh so often. If you want to change something, then you have to be able to be accountable to yourself, if you want others to depend on you, and look to you for answers, you first have to answer to yourself. So I guess what I am getting at is, that lately I have not been so Vegan, or even Vegetarian for that matter-not at my house and not outside my house, yet I spend all this time telling myself, no no this is just a small slip up. Well no more, I decided I needed to get back on track and that starts now-with me making sure that I answer to myself, I do for myself what is best for me!
One of the reasons I write this, is because I have seen some changes since I've had a few "slip-ups" the biggest is that I've had migraine like headaches (though only 2 thus far) both have come with problems in my vision, making everything blurry and my prescription seeming to be a totally different one. There are many reasons why this can happen, however, as my cousin pointed out to me this weekend, and my optomologist before it can have something to do with your blood sugar levels. If all I eat is crap, and I don't keep a good schedule, and on top of that overdose on sugar-should I really be surprised by these headaches? I don't think so...this is why I will return to my old new eating habits. In order to get up to a new and good start tomorrow-I have put some overnight oats into the refrigerator (if they turn out yummy I'll give more on that) and I made vegan banana bred for snacking. Though I will not be able to eat vegan all week-as it is Thanksgiving and I am making a big Turkey, with stuffing, mashed taters, and cauliflower I will do my darndest to stay healthy until then. If not vegan at least I need to be conscious about what I am putting into my mouth-though I think that I prefer the vegan/vegetarian diet for most of my meals!!
I will be accountable to myself, and if I don't feel well-I should probably look at what I've eaten (is that a food diary in my future? who knows...)