My Lifestyle

When I think of mindfulness I contemplate of ones empathetic to interpret a situation. For two weeks every night before I went to bed, I wrote down three items I was grateful for. Some of the words were “Health”,” Family”,” Friends”,” Food”, and” Childhood”. This list goes on, what I grasped is whatever I did that day predisposed what I wrote down. On days I lifted I would appreciate my health, when I went away with my family I recognized how much I appreciated my family, when I was home for a day I realized how much I adored my bed. The new custom I obtained made me appreciate how indebted I am in my life to points I didn’t fathom before. This taught me to feel empathy for people who can’t say the same good things as me which gave me very good insight on to be grateful for the life I have.

Often many people dwell on their failures and dream about a time where they can go back in time and do things differently. I recall the summer transitioning from junior year to my last year in high school, I aspired to be thin like the models you see on TV or in any of the magazines. I decided to take it upon myself to exercise daily and limit my diet to healthier options. This method however, was taking too long for me, I needed to find a quicker way. My obsession with perfection took over and I began watching my caloric intake too closely. I consumed 500 calories a day and advanced my workout routine. I ran 2 miles in the morning, went home to sleep for a couple of hours and then went to Volleyball practice followed by another run. Eventually, after three months or so I grew so tired and so weak that I had to cut down on my workouts.

Ever since a young boy, I was known for my crazy eating habits. I had an abnormally large sweet tooth and stomach. There would be days I would eat a whole bag of candy and still have a taste for more sweets. I had a fairly thin physique with some muscle tone. Everybody told me that one day, I’ll become obese and regret all these “bad” decisions; I disregarded every comment and lived by the motto, “ As long as I don’t get fat, I’m fine.”

Ever since I have been in school I was always the “bigger girl” of all my friends. I constantly wished I could look like them, and fit into the same clothing that they wore. I know that sounds silly and when I look back at it now it was absurd, I was young and did not know any better. I struggled through middle school, and then high school took effect. I pushed myself so hard to lose weight, to reach my goals, to finally be happy with myself. I ended up losing twenty pounds. Back then that still was not satisfying enough for me; I was obsessive about the number I would see when I stepped onto that scale. I wanted more! That was then and this is now. Being twenty years old, I wish I could go back to that weight I was in high school, but not having that negative unhealthy attitude towards myself. A negative mind is never going to give you a positive life. As a college student I am always busy and on the go, I sometimes lose track of what food I am putting into my body, and how I am putting that food into my body. This book put a different perspective into my mind, and made me realize that I needed to change something in order for me to be happy with myself again. One specific part of the book really caught my attention. It is titled,

My current eating habits are not very good. I am well aware of this, and my excuse is that I am a father of two that works full time, attends online college part time, has a dad that is very medically involved and children that are in sports, and I have recently joined a gym that I try to attend three nights a week. My life is very rushed and busy all the time.

Recently I have been motivated by my friend Adrian’s life changing decision of putting behind his desire of just letting go and being determined to live a healthy life. I have always had an active life and enjoy playing sports but figured that it wouldn’t be enough and I am currently on a diet which has cut down on my calorie and sugar level intake. Nowadays I take the time to read nutrition labels and measure portion sizes which make a great difference. Every now and then I have a break and consume foods that are not healthy but I now I am doing better now. It is a constant struggle to not get tempted into a delicious looking pizza or some perfectly rounded donuts but I stay motivated to achieve my

It is often hard for me to maintain a healthy diet. Although I have took several classes that outline the benefits of eating healthy, I often find myself setting a healthy eating goal and relapsing the next day. My goals first consisted of me getting a balanced diet for three months. This goal began to fail after two days. I had visited family members during the thanksgiving holiday and ate several unhealthy foods. I then set a small goal of consuming only healthy foods for a week. I wrote down the foods I would eat each day, within that week, and their proportion size. This goal last for three days, and failed due to financial issues. Foods that were easy to prepare became my best friend. However, when I became pregnant, I began to gain excuses weight. My doctor informed on the importance it was to eat a balanced diet. He also taught me the effects unhealthy foods could have on the baby, as well as me while being pregnant. Eating healthy then became a struggle, due to me having a loss of appetite. Now that I am not pregnant anymore, and have gained my appetite back, it was not evident to me the different foods and calories I consume in a day. Completing a dietary analysis has allowed me to gain insight on the foods I eat, my normal calorie intake, and the amount of calories recommended.

I once fell victim to the almost trancelike state that the food industry casts upon its consumers. I was more than content to eat the things that tasted delicious. Gluttony sets in fast when that’s all you want to eat. After realizing I had a problem, eating nothing but garbage on a daily basis and gaining copious amounts of weight for someone my age, I decided to take better control over the things that I put on my plate. There was a year of nonstop fruits and veggies from the farmer’s market because it still had a quality taste while being substantially healthier than any food that was readily available for my convenience at the store. My story was one of trial and error. It was a deep gouge in my confidence that was necessary to break me away from society’s cornucopia of health

At the age of fourteen, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) which is an imbalance of reproductive hormones, in short. PCOS makes it very difficult to use insulin to convert carbohydrates into energy. A common characteristic of PCOS is obesity. Even then, eight years ago, I knew I needed to maintain of lifestyle of healthy eating and daily physical activity. But, during a self-assessment period, I realized I would eat unhealthy meals multiple times per week. My choices were your typical “hot and ready” meals, fast-food items, or just unhealthy snacks supplemented for lunch or dinner. With the stresses of school and work, quick-grabs were very convenient and oddly satisfying. These environments not only limited physical activity, but required prolonged sitting. Consequently, a lifestyle of inactivity resulted. I knew that too much stress, too much eating, and not enough exercise would soon lead to a sedentary lifestyle, but I did not have the discipline, interest, or time to make the necessary changes. I thought I reached the point of no return when I began eating just because I had access to it or in response to stress. Guilty and ashamed, I realized I was not eating because I was hungry, but because of stress and availability. Overtime, I recognized I

The problem I have is not eating the right kind of food like fruit, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grain sometimes I don’t eat nothing at all or I may eat lunch or dinner but never breakfast. I came to realize that is not healthy at all, actually is it a great risk for my health. I plan on trying to eat right and will try to eat at least three meals a day, even their just small meals to start me off. When I decided to make this change I believe it will make a great influence on my life and, for the years to come I need to do the right thing maybe some of my health problems will go away. Making the change will be difficult but I am going to try and see what happens. My long term goals are to improve my health,

Dieting comes in many different shapes, styles, and forms. Dieting is not necessarily watching what you eat, it is much more. A lot of adding and subtracting calories, making sure you are getting the right amount of nutrition is very important in dieting. Many people think that dieting is a short term process. In fact, it is a life change moment that will last a life time. Not every diet will work for you. Your body might not cut out for veganism or an ancestral diet. The diet that works for might by the diet in a bottle, or you might just need to do some spring cleaning and detox your body. There is no need to be ashamed that you have to diet. That show that you care about your body, not that you are ashamed about your body. Sometimes diets can be boring because they don’t have very exciting foods. Some diet are an adventure because they bring new foods to the table, because you probably would never have bought them, the food, before the diet. You get to learn new cooking styles. These diet change lives. They bring in the good, cholesterol and nutrients, and take out the bad, cholesterol and “gunk’. Dieting is a life style, that can last for

The behavior that I want to modify is my excessive and continual bad diet habits. This behavior would be considered excessive because it is occurring way more frequently than it should be. This behavior began this semester. Throughout the summer, when I was living at home, I was on a very strict diet, and also had time to accommodate this lifestyle. However, now that I am living on my own again, I have more access to unhealthy food and less time to prepare meals and eat them. I find myself grabbing something easy, which is typically unhealthy, for breakfast almost every morning. Lunch and supper are not much different. In the past, I could easily avoid situations where unhealthy food would be served, and I did not buy anything unhealthy as

As I get older, I find myself realizing I have spent too much time working. Being consumed by my work, I felt I was doing what needed to be done to support my family. This was a struggle for me because I thought I had to be the solution to the problems at work. This resulted in me being at home less and working more. In the article Downshifting, it talks about how culture has consumed leisure instead of creating it. “Today consumerism has consumed us in the sense that we are trapped by money, and those elements of creativity and sociability found in leisure are disappearing” (Junui, quoted by Hemingway 2000). I had no balance between work and family life. This was not healthy for my relationship with my family. My job continued to take advantage of that weakness. According to a reading from Pieper, “’intellectual work’-the exaggerated value which is put upon the ‘difficult’ simply because it is ‘difficult’-becomes evident in the accentuation of a particular trait in the look of the ‘worker’: the fixed, mask-like readiness to suffer in vacuo, without relation to anything” (Pieper, 1952). This is referring to how my employer sees me as a hard worker and knows how to suck me in like a vacuum. I had continued support of family with the decisions I was making, but my family/work balance would not get any better.

Are you constantly on a quest to lose weight? Perhaps you step on the scales and you haven 't lost half as much weight as you would of liked, or perhaps you cheat a little and have a fatty meal. Before long you are on back to your old ways, and so the self promises and disappointment starts all over again. Does this pattern sound familiar? Many people fall into this trap, but don 't fully realize why, and sadly only a few ever break out of it. They tell themselves it was the wrong diet, or lie to themselves about it being their fault. However, the true reason lies with them - within their mind. In the patterns of behavior they have conditioned into themselves into over the years.. If you are always having a hard time trying to lose

Before I paid any attention to my body I would eat a bunch, I'm talking about chips, cupcakes, pizza, popcorn and other delicious foods. But of course, eating causes you to gain weight, so I started to watch what I ate, and limit how much I consumed. At that point I wasn’t enjoying the food as much as I did before. While eating anything, in the back of my mind, I would start thinking of “how many calories the food has” and “I shouldn't be eating this”. Heck, I would eat one cookie and instantly regret it. Honestly, I'm tired of starving myself. I want to love food again, I refuse to worry about gaining weight if I ate a full tub of ice cream. Not to mention, I have no idea when I will digest this, but I know I will.