Month: November 2018

Throughout this trial, things have felt to be a huge hassle. I’m not particularly enjoying trying to keep up with and record what I’ve eaten. I think I know why. Most things in my life I prefer to take a proactive approach, rather than reactive.

Planning vs Tracking

For the past few weeks, I’ve been tracking and journaling what my meals. It’s been interesting to think about but also become more work than I feel the benefits are worth.

Something I’ve found I’ve gotten more benefit out of is simply planning meals in the past. Instead of trying to stay on track with what I’ve eaten during or after, I have the idea in mind. There are many things in general that I feel I operate better at by simply being proactive. In regards to food especially, I feel when I plan ahead, I waste less food and worry less.

My personal tactic is to use a calendar and plan meals through that. I’ll often only need to plan dinner, as many lunches are simply leftovers and breakfast is usually a quick bite or coffee, depending on how I feel in the morning.

I see how closer tracking can be beneficial for people following a particular regiment, but I’ve never enjoyed overthinking food.

Quick Thoughts on Diets

Something I tried a little over a year ago was a vegetarian diet. I feel I’ve discovered more and more diets as time goes on. Each claiming to be the healthiest and best for you.

In general, I kind of hate diets. Call me stubborn, but I am not a fan of losing the creativity that comes with cooking or sharing food. Creatively structuring meals around particular diets, on the other hand, that I can get into. Constraints develop creativity. Coming back around to the vegetarian trial from last year, I’ve been trying to experiment with vegan and vegetarian meals. Putting together plant based meals that don’t feel lacking has been an interesting adventure in cooking.

Food plays a big role in our personal lives and in society as a whole. It can be easy to take it for granted, but on the other side of the coin overthinking and analyzing food is just as bad. I’ve definitely enjoyed thinking a bit more about food than I normally do, but there’s definitely a limit.

It is by no coincidence I’ve felt the desire to write on this subject the day before the holiday centered around thanks. Over the past week, I’ve found myself eating quickly and moving on to the next thing. No moment of savoring the food or appreciation for all the work that was done to bring it to my table.

Extreme Thanksgiving

A.J. Jacobs wrote a book around a remarkable idea, thanking every person involved in the making of his morning cup of coffee. You may think, “Okay so the coffee shop and barista. Done, right?” If you’re particularly clever, you may think okay there’s also the farmers who grew and harvested the beans and the company that shipped the coffee around. The book, however, takes the idea to the extreme.

What about the equipment used to farm, ship, process, and make the cup of coffee. A.J. thanked the people who provided the materials for those. Then there’s the pest prevention company that kept the beans protected during storage and shipment.

While you don’t need to head to the farm or track down the manufacturer of the silverware used for a meal, I think recognizing that the list of all factors that go into creating a single dish are near incomprehensible. This is a good habit at any time, but especially on a day committed to gratitude.

Mindful Eating

In college, I was in a class called positive psychology. In the class, we had a practice called “mindful eating.” It was a mixture of pleasure and “pain” as we took different foods and really processed every element.

There were foods that eating slowly felt right. Letting the flavor and texture change by simply letting it breakdown and savoring it was satisfying. Other foods not so much. As it sat in the mouth it formed into a nasty flavor. The texture grew worse and worse, but we weren’t supposed to swallow for a few minutes at a time.

This is again a situation where daily practice isn’t necessary or even recommended. We all know  we should slow down when eating. Often, I find myself mid-meal thinking I need to slow down and enjoy what I’m eating, but moments later will start scarfing the plate down trying to get to the next thing in my day. It could be lunch at work or dinner at home.

With the holiday tomorrow, I really want to focus on the meal I’m sharing with family. All of the effort that was put in to feed me and those celebrating with me. Taking my time to savor that effort.

Thanks for your continued support in what I’m doing here! This has been a fun project for the past year and a half. 

Keeping track of what I’m eating has opened the lid on a number of habits I have. I often don’t notice how often I eat or what it is I’m eating. This is especially influenced by my current state.

Attention to Food

One of the biggest benefits I’ve experienced is an increased awareness of what I eat and when. I’ve tried to make meals a bit more structured, but I haven’t quite addressed my other problem, snacking.

The amount of snacking I’ve done throughout the day is surprising. There was a day this past week where most of my calorie intake was from snacks throughout the day. Not even all of my meals combined that day added up.

Recognizing a behavior is the first step to taking action to adjust it. I know that most of my snacking is done at work. It’s easy to grab a treat a co-worker brought in and take my mind off a stressful day for even a minute or two. A helpful fix to this can be removing the ease of which I can get up and grab a snack.

I solved the possibility of going to the vending machine by not bringing my wallet to work unless needed. Though coming up with a solution for easily available snacks is still beyond me. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Mood Inspires Food

It’s funny how simple it seems that how we feel really impacts our diet, and then our diet impacts how we feel. During days of stress, I’ve found myself eating whatever junk I can get my hands on. While days that I feel accomplished or gratified, I can easily grab a healthier bite.

It makes me wonder, if eating better foods, we can trick ourselves that we’re in a better mood than we are. That might have to be an experiment during this trial. I’d love to set up a hack for myself to get back on track after a tough day.

Tools of the Trade

My Fitness Pal is a pretty commonly referenced app when people decide to start tracking their eating habits. I’ve enjoyed it so far. It’s simple to use, but there’s a lot of work that goes into early set up.

Each food item has to be searched in a massive database, and finding the right dish that coincides with what you ate can be a bit of a puzzle. Especially if you have a broad range of foods in a meal.

I’m interested to try out some other apps or practices for tracking this info. If you have any recommendations, let me know if the comments, and I’ll give it a try!

There’s no feeling like clearing your to-do list before others are even up for the day. Waking up earlier is something I never really thought I’d be able to do. For years I claimed, “I’m not a morning person,” which really held me back from pursuing something like this. Throughout the trial I’ve felt better in terms of both the overall feel of a day, as well as made much greater progress on bigger projects.

Control the Course of the Day

Waking up early has allowed me to steer the direction of my day. Yesterday, for example, I didn’t get out of bed when I wanted to and thus didn’t get what I wanted to done. By the time I got home from a long day at work, I was too exhausted to make any progress on other goals.

Today, however, regardless of what happens after I write this post, I have already completed the biggest item on my list for the day. Being able to start the day off in accordance to my plan usually helps guide the course of the rest of the day.

Back to yesterday, starting the day out of control pushed the day overall in that direction. The entire day was spent reacting to things out of my control, causing stress and frustration for nearly the entire day. While we do not have control in every situation of our lives, stacking a few in our favor can help us to cope with those that aren’t.

Moving the Needle

The feeling of accomplishment I’ve experienced has already been highlighted in my other posts for this trial, but what am I accomplishing? There are a few other projects that have been on my mind that I haven’t made the time to put concentrated effort on for a long time.

One may not be a major project, but finally clearing out the items from my minimalism trial has nearly come to a close. With five things left as of this morning, I’ve been able to gift, donate, or sell everything else. These last five are on my for sale list, which was well over double in size prior to being able to tackle posting and coordinating sales when I had the energy to in the morning.

 Most activities done, the above included, have been more in the spirit of maintenance and consolidation. Simple things like re-organizing certain spaces that have gone out of order, researching cost saving matters for projects like this blog, and other mundane activities that are often brushed aside.

I have been tinkering with some larger ventures, but want to have more concrete progress before discussing those further.

What’s Next?

This trial, which I absolutely loved, has now come to a close. I’m still going to keep the momentum on waking up earlier. However, I might shoot for 5 to 5:30, with a little more wiggle room on the weekends. The feeling I’m getting from doing more in the morning is phenomenal. I can’t recommend trying this out enough.

Next up, I’m going to be shifting focus from sleep to diet by keeping a food journal.