Yesterday, I found myself feeling yucky after lunch. I had a headache. I felt like my heart was racing. I felt tired. Just yucky. I hadn't eaten breakfast and by 10, I was starving. I sucked down a handful of chips and salsa and then ate the girls left over pasta and popcorn chicken for lunch at noon. I realized I'd only had a few sips of water. I have always sort of paid attention to what I eat. I try to stay away from processed food, I don't buy junk food. We only have whole wheat pasta in the house (with the exception of the occasional tortellini, which is what I had yesterday) and we eat whole grain brown rice. I am ok with being a bit overweight. I would prefer not to be, but that's not what makes me mad. I am upset that I feel so terrible. We just finished a fast that seriously limits what we eat. It's basically vegan, plus no sweeteners, no yeast and only water to drink. I generally felt great for those 3 weeks. I got a bit cranky over not being allowed any sweets or bread, but my body was happy.
Last night, I declared to the hubs that I was going to be making changes that would make me feel better. Cutting my animal based protein back to one serving a day and really cutting way back on sugar. I also really NEED to carve out a little time for me to do some kind of exercise each day. As every mama knows it so hard to make time for yourself when you have young littles. A shower is a treat, the idea of getting to go for a jog or do anything uninterrupted for 30 minutes seems out of the realm of possible.
Now skip to this morning. I remembered a recipe I had seen on pinterest for a banana bread that used apple sauce and honey instead of oil and sugar. I just so happened to have 3 bananas turning just the right shade of black. When I pulled up the website to get the recipe I was super excited at what I found. Here it is if you wanna check it out. I don't want to buy in and participate but I do want to steal parts of it and make my own smaller scale challenge. The goal is an overall bettering of one's self.
Here's what I am thinking:
Physically:
1. Exercise 20 minutes a day.
2. Get at least 7 hours of sleep a night (This seems nearly impossible to me, but I'm gonna try)
3. Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.
4. NO SUGAR or high fructose corn syrup. (they include white flour here too because it becomes sugar so quickly. Sugar is in loads of foods, so you have to check labels. They make an exception for bread by limiting it to 2g of sugar per serving)
5. No Soda, fast food or junk food. Make healthier versions of bad foods and if you have to eat fast food go with the healthiest version you can.
6. Eat at least 2 servings of fruit and 2 of veg everyday.
7. No eating after 8! This is huge in this house.
Spiritually:
8. Write in a journal everyday (I am including blogging in this too)
9. 15 minutes of uplifting reading or scripture study.
10. Complete a random act of kindness everyday! Big or small but out of the realm of normal for you. (I love this!!)
11. I am adding that I will not watch, listen to, or read anything that hurts me. For me that means no news. It's chock full of terrible things, rape, murder, child abduction. It's not that I want to be out of touch with the reality of our world but I think it numbs us to it all and it really just hurts my heart and gives me anxiety.
You get one free day each week. The day has to be the same though, if Saturday is your free day, then that's it. One whole day. You can however, pick a different day for your free day from exercise.
What do you think? I am super excited. If anyone wants to play along maybe we could do points for doing each item daily and have a winner for each week. I'll come up with a fun prize. No money though. Oh, and wouldn't it be fun to earn bonus points for sharing recipes!?
Let me know what you think. I'm going to "practice" for the rest of the week and start on Monday.
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