Eating Healthy

If I have trained my body to overeat once again and then desire to bring it back into balance, I have to follow this plan strictly until it is apart of me.

Total Daily Calories
The first step is to figure out my total daily calories based on my:

Weight

General Activity Level

Fitness Goals

Specific Daily Exercise

Tools I use to assess these readings:

Weight
To assess my weight I just need to step on the dreaded scale again and see what the damage is.  I enter that number in Livestrong by clicking on the Weight tab.  Then on My Plate, it says:

General Activity Level
This is the most imprecise measurement.  I assess it generally.  Do I have a desk job or am I on my feet most of the day?  Do I clean the house for hours and work outside or do I work on things sitting down.  These variables describe how many calories I generally burn and therefore need to consume minus my daily hour of exercise.  If I want to more precisely measure how many calories I burn in an average day I can wear my heart rate monitor for the entire day and see.

Fitness Goals
My fitness goal has always been to decrease the percentage of fat while increasing the percentage of muscular strength and flexibility.  I find that this goal and the incremental obtainment of it gives me optimal sensitivity to the balance of peace and energy I desire to experience on a daily basis.

How fast I get there while still maintaining that balance is another part of that goal.  How fast can I lose the weight without hitting the wall and rebounding?  How fast can I lose it and keep it off?  How fast can I make living within a higher level of balance apart of myself?

-1 lb./week?

-2 lbs./week?

I can select this option on Livestrong:  My Plate submenu:  Calorie Goals.

Specific Daily Exercise
It’s important that I choose a daily exercise that I look forward to.  It used to be group fitness (aerobics) when I was younger.  Now it is walking/jogging/bike riding.  But I also enjoy working around the house and out in the yard.  I try to work at zoom-pace and with my ipod on.  Really fast.  And I wear my heart rate monitor.  I do that for cardio in addition to my strength training and flexibility workouts.  For this I use gravity, weights, and the machines at the gym.  I make sure my core is always engaged when lifting.  I have found the best results for my body are obtained by using low weights 5-10 lbs.  I'm not interested in being ripped.  I just need to have the muscle it takes to do what I need to do and love it.

When I burn Calories during exercise, I need to account for those by eating them.  In the past I have made the mistake of not eating more when I exercised.  The result was exhaustion and headaches.   That meant I couldn’t stick with healthy eating and instead turned to emergency-treat-mode.  The key for me in losing weight is to keep the balance minus the Calories I need to go without in order to lose the 1-2 lbs./week.

Calories in/Calories out – 1-2 lbs./week Calorie deficit (-3,500-7,000 Calories/week)

This is calculated for me on the Livestrong site.

Frequency:  Eat every 3 hours
Once I have the total Calories I need to eat everyday, I divide that number by the number of meals I eat per day.  If I don’t keep my blood-sugar (hunger level) balanced, then I will end up in emergency-treat-mode.  I have found that I can keep this balance if I eat every 3 hours.

I divide my total daily Calories by the number of meals I will eat every 3 hours which usually is 4.

Making a Template Menu
It is best if I take the time in the morning and plan my menu for the day.  I usually eat the same thing, only varying types of vegetables, fruits, and proteins.  Eating all kinds of exotic foods or learning new recipes for new fandangled diets has always been a recipe for failure for me.  I don’t want to overly focus on food.  Eat, enjoy, and then let’s go!

In order to make my daily menu planning easy I have divided my total Calories for each meal by these three categories:

I tweak the percentage I need to eat of each of these categories based on my Fitness Goals.

The following targeted percentages seem to work the best for my goals:

25% of Calories from Protein

25% of Calories from Fat

50% of Calories from Carbs

I use the word "targeted" because it is never exact and that's okay.


All Carbs Are Not All Made Equal
Fruits and veggies are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and digestive enzymes my body needs.  If it doesn’t get them, it will be hungry.  So I can’t just eat grains and other starches for my carb allotment.  I need to make room for those fruits and veggies.  So I divide the total carb calories like this:

This basically means that I eat as many vegetables as I can, 3 servings of fruit, and 3 servings of grains or starchy veggies a day.

Savoring My Food
This is hard because I like to move quickly, get on to the next thing on my list.  But I’m trying to train myself to slow down and savor my food.  Here are the reasons to motivate me:

Enzymes in saliva help break down the food I eat so my body is able to digest more and access more vitamins.  Saliva and savoring go together.  Savoring results in a more complete satiation.  I don’t want more when I'm finished eating.  When I make the best use of the food I’m eating, I eat less food.

Drink lots of water
Once I’ve eaten the food, I want to make sure the waterways upon which it is transported to all areas of my body are well supplied.  If the waters are too low and slow then food will be slowly transported.

I also want to make sure the trash is quickly taken out.  If trash accumulates in a local area because transportation is too slow, then the environment gets dirty and optimal functioning decreases incrementally.

Avoid Certain Foods

Too High In Sugar
I avoid foods that are too high in sugar.  What is too high?  For every person that varies.  I had to go on a way low sugar fast over an extended period of time to reset my body’s sensors.  Once they were reset, I could taste when specific foods like a “nutrition bar” or certain treats were too high.  Other treats like dark chocolate don’t seem to cause the overly high glycemic response in my body.  Yet, if I eat too much of it, I do begin to feel it.

Too High In Salt
Salt has been off my radar for a while because I have been so focused on reducing the sugar.  But recently I’ve noticed that I consume too much salt.  I mainly get it from Sam’s Club canned chicken or Prego Pasta Sauce.  When I reduce it my fingers stop bloating in the mornings and my thirst for water increases.

Structurally Modified Macronutrients
Hydrogenated Fats, Trans Fats, and GMOs have been genetically modified to lengthen the shelf-life of a packaged food or to increase a plant’s defense against drought and pestilence.  I wouldn’t mind that.  Sounds reasonable to me.  But my body minds it.  When I eat foods with hydrogenated fats my body starts itching all over.  When I eat foods that have been altered from their natural state, I sense it.  The next day I am unable to maintain my total daily calorie limit.  I become way hungry.  I keep thinking this could be attributed to something else (because I really want to eat it!) but each time I retest, same result.

Wikipedia says, "Wheat (Triticum spp.) is an important domesticated grass used worldwide for food, and its evolution has been influenced by human intervention since the dawn of agriculture."

Artificial Stimulants and Relaxants
I’m not really interested in artificial relaxants other than pain relievers.  I do not like taking them.  But I do take them when I get a headache that rivals child birth.  Because I know acetaminophen is bad for my liver and ibuprofen is bad for my stomach and who knows what else, I remain on my quest to figure out what causes my headaches and what I can do to prevent them.

Artificial stimulants such as caffeine give me headaches which then require me to take the pain relief meds which then cause other problems.  Additionally, I just can’t in my right mind subject myself to a substance that requires me to increase its dose over time while its energizing effects decrease and the need for artificial relaxants increase.  If I developed a dependence on pseudo energy boosts like this, there will be no satiation in the end.  Just constant craving.  I’ve noticed that my spirit and body cannot be dealt with separately.  Not being able to experience real energy would be an utter hell for me.  I like to be stimulated, motivated.  But passing this energy along in balanced exercise creates this flow of energy inside of me that I can’t get in any other way.  Because I love it so much, I want to identify how to obtain it in balanced ways so I can have it forever.

I have determined that avoiding these foods promotes endurance in healthy balanced eating.  When I stay balanced, I have the energy and peace I desire.

Eating Treats
Eating treats slows me down in my overall progression towards achieving my goal.  But sometimes I need to slow down or I’m going to crash hard.  And sometimes if I crash too hard I don’t get back up for a long time.  “I’m not doin’ that again!” my body tells me.  So I have to compromise.  I can’t expect it to change at too fast a pace.

Treats I like that don’t make my blood-sugar sky rocket at this point in my journey are dark chocolate (70%), nuts, baked sweet potato wedges w/olive oil, apple oatmeal. I can't overeat these things. Everything in balance.

All this said, I think the most important thing I need to remember is that I'm not sacrificing in this way for NOTHING!  There is something I'm trying to obtain.  When we sacrifice we give something up that is good for something better.  I will write more on that in the next blog post. 

Anxiety and Depression

I used to think life was only a pit of anxiety and depression even though I didn't know it was that bad at the time. I thought that was just the way it was. I didn’t know how much sorrow I was dealing with until I finally knew the joy. Only then did I look back and say, “Man I was so depressed and stressed out back then!”

My child-bearing years were particularly difficult. I was continuously swinging back and forth between depression and anxiety experiencing only patches of real peace and excitement. I prayed, read scriptures, received priesthood blessings, took anti-depressants, and went to a couple of counselors.  Nothing had any lasting effect and some things made it worse—numbed me to feeling any joy at all or stressed me out to the max.

After years of dealing with it all and despairing that my fate was to forever be a broken person, I started listening a little more carefully to the Spirit which kept calling my attention to Dietary Solutions.

The Spirit was guiding me to eat better, give up my treats, and slow down my kick-butt exercise habits.  But as yet I didn’t have enough faith that something that small could make such great changes in my life. Besides, I was highly dependent upon my treats for peace and excitement. And my exercise methods helped me keep up with the Jones'.

I had noticed for quite some time that the problem was associated with my hormone cycle. One day while looking in the telephone directory I noticed a “PMS clinic for Women” in Boulder, CO. In hindsight I recognize that was another clue, a lifeline being thrown to me but again, I didn’t take it! I had grown very leery of therapists and other helpers.  But one day in the year 2000 when I had reached an all-time low I finally agreed to go to that PMS clinic (now called Full Circle Women's Health).
 

Stephanie Bender, LPN & Psychologist

I went in that very day and met with my imminent liberator, Stephanie Bender, who is a nurse and a psychologist specializing in women’s health. She understood exactly what I was going through! I can still remember how powerful my astonishment was in combination with the relief I felt when I sat in her office listening to her describe to me exactly how I had been feeling for the past 8 years. Up until then nobody had been able to do that. Her recommended solution? Change my diet! Cut out the sugar and refined grains. Increase whole foods and add some supplemental vitamins. But she didn't expect me to do that on my own or overnight. Through medical testing, she found my progesterone levels to be incredibly low for my age. That’s the hormone that is supposed to calm us—assist us in our ability to feel peace. She worked with my doctor to prescribe for me, not another synthetic anti-depressant--Band-Aid-fix, but bio-identical progesterone (Read: evidence-based research on the use of bio-identical hormones). 

Her easy to understand explanation was that synthetic meds are like keys that fit into the lock but they don’t unlock the door so that the body’s inherent needs are filled. Instead these meds serve to clog up the passageway. They half-way meet the need, leaving a person almost obtaining but never actually getting there. They also block any naturally produced progesterone from being able to fulfill its purpose.

Bio-identical hormones, on the other hand, match the hormones identically as their name implies. They are derived from real foods. This key fits the lock, unlocks the door, and delivers the needed physical peace.

I followed her plan. Sure enough this was exactly what my body needed. The progesterone served as a merciful crutch that supported me until I could master the higher level nutrition skills and moderate my cardio output, which my body required for its balance. Turns out changing one's diet isn't such a small thing after all.

Dr. Susanna Choi, MD

Over time and with the help of another health professional—Dr. Susanna Choi and her staff at Integrated OB/GYN in Parker, Colorado I became so sensitive to my body’s balance and how to maintain it that I was eventually able to go off progesterone entirely. I learned from Dr. Choi that because I had allowed taste to govern too much of my food choices I had developed an imbalanced environment in my body—especially in my gut. Re-balancing that ecosystem took years of learning about nutrition.  I had to develop the trust that if I let nutrition be my main governor with taste being the deputy governor, I would be completely satisfied. Once I had enough faith to do it, I had to then convince and persuade my body to come on board with long suffering and gentleness (D&C 121:41). My body incrementally learned to find its pleasure in balance. I’m still working on fine tuning it and I believe I always will be. But as soon as I started, I felt better. There has been much joy in the journey. And the depth of overall health I enjoy has increased steadily over the past 13 years.

As my body became increasingly balanced I became more sensitive to the ever present, softer (but oh so powerful!), deeper joy of Jesus Christ. I found that cutting out the alternative sources I was turning to for peace and excitement was a prerequisite to receiving the real source, both physically and spiritually.
 

In my present life, depression and anxiety serve only as occasional warnings of imbalance or motivation for growth instead of being the state of my life. I realize now why my blessings, prayers, and scripture studies were not enough.  I had to learn the actual process to obtain my desire.  It wasn't  going to be given to me out of thin air. When I pray for healing, my next step is to go to work seeking out all that I can do to contribute to the process.  I know not to give up until I find it. It is neither all grace or all works. It is a balance between them.
Before I had depression seeping into the interstices of my heart for no apparent reason or anger exploding out of it over the smallest things.  Now I feel this deep, strong, affectionate love and gratitude for my God, my family, and my life. 

Elder Richard G. Scott

The challenges you face, the growth experiences you encounter, are intended to be temporary scenes played out on the stage of a life of continuing peace and happiness. Sadness, heartache, and disappointment are events in life. It is not intended that they be the substance of life. I do not minimize how hard some of these events can be. When the lesson you are to learn is very important, trials can extend over a long period of time, but they should not be allowed to become the confining focus of everything you do. Your life can and should be wondrously rewarding. It is your understanding and application of the laws of God that will give your life glorious purpose as you ascend and conquer the difficulties of life. That perspective keeps challenges confined to their proper place—stepping-stones to further growth and attainment.”~Elder Richard G. Scott, "The Atonement Can Secure Your Peace and Happiness”

What is your Desire?

“Cheshire Puss, would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”  

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don't much care where,” said Alice.

“Then it doesn't matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

“What is your Desire?”  I used to think this question sounded like a genie-in-a-lamp thing.  I thought the counsel and promise to “…Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” was only true in fairy tales (Luke 11:19).  And heaven knew I was way past the princess and the knight in shining armor stage.  Discovering that making my wishes come true started with identifying what it is that I truly wanted changed my entire way of thinking. From then on, instead of looking at my Desire as a wish, a pie in the sky, a golden ticket, I began to seriously contemplate embarking on a real journey to obtain it.


So what did I want? What was I always hankering for and why? What did I want to do with the time that has been allotted to me? Why did I always feel spiritually or emotionally hungry?  Even if I feared my Desires were not the best, I needed to at least acknowledge them to start and then the refining could begin.

Refiner's Fire by Mark Lawence

Where do Desires come from?
I have noticed Desires arise in me through my interactions with others--those who depend upon me and those I depend upon.  From feeling the constant pull of a deep rooted need I can't even name to encountering major conflicts with my kids that I don’t know how to resolve, Desire has always seemed to be an inherent part of my life.

Newton's Law of Motion
"An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."  So in a sense, I'm an object at rest and because there are forces out their acting upon me, I have desires.  But I use my agency to choose which ones I will act upon--accept and strive to obtain--and which ones I will not.  I describe who I am by these choices.

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility." ~2 Nephi 2:11

What Are My Thoughts, Words, and Actions Communicating?
I recognize that I communicate what my Desire is not only by my words but also by my thoughts and actions.  So the question becomes:  Is the Desire that my thoughts, words, and actions communicate the one I really want to obtain? 

Because I have been given the agency to choose what I will desire, I am therefore responsible for where I end up.  That makes this question,  “What is your Desire?” pretty crucial.  If I don’t actively choose my answers and make sure my thoughts and actions are in alignment with it, then I might end up in a place I never really wanted to be.

How do I know my Desire is right?
The act of desiring can veer off into demanding.  I know when I’m leaning to that direction when I begin to feel obsessive about my Desires.

Desiring can also veer off to the other side of the balance.  This is when I regard my Desire as only a wish and do little of myself to obtain it.  Apathy warns me when I’m deviating into that state.

I can't believe that Desire does not include an element of passion and single-mindedness.  I think it does.  I can't believe that it does not include an element of destiny and a reliance on a power greater than myself.  I think it does.  But I do believe that Desire without passion and a single-minded effort to obtain is more like wishing.  And Desire without a sense that there are greater purposes at work here than what I can presently understand is more like obsession.  I can feel when I'm balanced because I'm hopeful, motivated, and confident.

I have come to believe that we can obtain anything that we desire as long as we find the balance in our Desire Obtainment Process.

For with God nothing shall be impossible. ~Luke 1:37

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

“I have chosen to talk about the importance of desire. I hope each of us will search our hearts to determine what we really desire and how we rank our most important desires.  Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming.” ~"Desire" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, October 2011 General Conference