CakeBanisher - Banishing Fear

[AverageJoe]

Cake, I feel kind of like an echo here but I totally sympathize with the "Eat Everything" mentality.  I also have limited control over what's in our house, my 3yr old seems to live off pasta, cheese, hot dogs and jelly sandwiches.

 

I used to meditate when I was younger and found that if distracting/negative thoughts got in the way it was best to acknowledge them.  Ignoring them only gives them strength.  If I tell you to meditate for 5 minutes and DO NOT think about Pink Elephants, what's the first thing that's popping in your head? Pink Elephants!  So give yourself 1-2 minutes to address your worries BUT try to keep your breathing and heart rate at a calm pace.  Then set the thought aside and focus on a "Happy Place".  Maybe picture yourself playing the most beautiful calming piece of music you know.   Anyway just my two cents.  

 

Glad to hear the music festival went so well.

[The Borg Queen]

 

For meditating, if I am having an issue with meditating on something I shouldn't, I find something mildly interesting and watch it.  I have used tropical fish in an aquarium, the birds outside on my bird feeder, waves on a pond, and the words of a familiar prayer to good effect.  Clouds would probably also work.  Try it if concentrating on your breath is not working.

 

I love this!

 

You might also need a loud mantra, like, "Breathing in, I calm my body, breathing out, my mind is at peace." The mantras help me a lot.

[CakeBanisher]

Thanks for the meditation ideas!  I've been messing around with them, and they have helped.  I've also been doing something my violin professor taught me to do to "speed up/slow down" that has been helpful.  Basically, count to ten over and over, at whatever speed feels comfortable, no matter how fast or slow.  Then, depending on if you want to "speed up" or "slow down" your mind, you gradually either speed up or slow down your counting, at a tempo that feels comfortable.  Sometimes it can take a couple minutes, sometimes longer, occasionally shorter, but I've found it to be beneficial

 

Anyway.  The past week has been a pretty catastrophic failure as far as my eating goal.  I make no excuses, although I think I can logically say it's because I'm stressed about starting school again (today is the first day back) and I always have a harder time when I'm dealing with allergies.  I have been sporadic with my tracking as well, although we had about an hours notice before going out of town overnight where I had zero control over food/sleep/writing/etc. (more music ) so I'm cutting myself a little slack on that front.  Basically, I can't seem to get back on the wagon...

 

So, all my non-eating goals have gone pretty well this challenge.  My eating one hasn't.  I really need to sort out my diet.  If I were living on my own, it would be pretty easy, I think, especially by comparison.  But, I'm not, so I need to exercise better control.  Or something.

 

Anyway.  I will try and catch up with you lot as soon as I can.  I've missed you.  

[MadScientist]

Three out of four good outcomes is a win!  Don't beat yourself up, especially for being at a music festival.  You do need to sort out your diet, but it didn't happen the last five weeks.  That's OK.  You can start now .  We will be here to cheer you on!  In the meantime, rejoice that you did three out of four!  You succeeded.

[AverageJoe]

Three out of four good outcomes is a win!  Don't beat yourself up, especially for being at a music festival.  You do need to sort out your diet, but it didn't happen the last five weeks.  That's OK.  You can start now .  We will be here to cheer you on!  In the meantime, rejoice that you did three out of four!  You succeeded.

 

I second that.  What's the saying? "Two steps forward and one step back is still moving forward!" Also, don't be too hard on yourself over diet stuff.  It's a huge uphill battle, especially if you're not in control of what the kitchen is stocked with.  Maybe, you could offer to cook a paleo meal for your family to show them how tasty and satisfying it can be.  Then maybe they'll be more inclined to stock some more goodies for you.  If you need help with recipes I've got some and I'm sure lots of other rebels here do too.  Good luck.

[I am Eve]

CB, I feel bad, I've been neglecting you:-(

Still, you seem to have some great support here .....!

I think you're doing great and as stated above, not achieving one of your goals means that you achieved the other three!

[The Borg Queen]

Thanks for the meditation ideas!  I've been messing around with them, and they have helped.  I've also been doing something my violin professor taught me to do to "speed up/slow down" that has been helpful.  Basically, count to ten over and over, at whatever speed feels comfortable, no matter how fast or slow.  Then, depending on if you want to "speed up" or "slow down" your mind, you gradually either speed up or slow down your counting, at a tempo that feels comfortable.  Sometimes it can take a couple minutes, sometimes longer, occasionally shorter, but I've found it to be beneficial

This one looks great! I'll give it a whirl

[CakeBanisher]

You guys are all great!  Seriously

 

Unfortunately, I have not been so great recently...school has started up again, and I am rapidly falling back into old habits.  But, I can analyze it more now than in the past.  I suspect I tend to relapse, not because I don't have enough time (which I know isn't true) but because my mind isn't trained to handle this much stuff going on at once.  I can deal with school.  But school and other stuff?  Apparently, my brain rebels at the thought.  I always two to three classes more than most people seem to consider sane, so I'm incredibly busy.  Either I go into "goal overload" and fizzle out, or I simply can't keep track of everything.  Usually some combination thereof, methinks.  My conclusion is that I need to structure goals differently when I'm in class.

 

But I haven't gone overboard, in fact I'm eating better now than I was a week ago.  My tracking and meditation has been sporadic, mostly because I never remember at a time that I can really track or meditate.  And my writing has fallen by the wayside as well  I also haven't done yoga in what feels like forever (reality check - it's been a couple weeks) and really want/need to.  Yesterday, two of my teachers had us do forward bends.  I was stiff, but they felt oh-so-good  So.  Back into yoga I shall go!

 

 

Anyway.  I kind of missed the actual end of this challenge  I'll try and read everyones threads, because I have missed doing so, and feel bad that you lot have been giving me all this support and encouragement, and I've been ignoring you...  I'll also post my own challenge overview in the near future.

[keliswicked]

I totally agree that being back in school kind of blows when it comes to goals and health.  I just have so little time to give to myself, and I end up eating pizza a lot on the weekends with my friends.  So I feel your pain.

 

That being said, at least we can put our goals purely towards what we know we can accomplish during the school year.  I'll make sure to keep checking up on you through the next challenge!

[L'irlandaise]

Hey there. Missed you this challenge but can understand the pressures on a superactive Cake. I''m sure you'll set yourself SMART goals for the next challenge. Don't forget to build in some wiggle room! Big hugs, sparkly girl.

[CakeBanisher]

Challenge Overview!  Better late than never, I suppose...

 

Goal 1.) - ease into paleo

 

I'm giving myself a B- for this one.  I either did really well, or really poorly with it.  My original strategy, that doing it in stages would help, proved false.  I really need to just buckle down and eat healthy.  

 

Goal 2.)  Track Stuff

 

Grade of A- for this one.  I had a few little spurts where the tracking thing didn't go so well, but otherwise was pretty good about doing this.

 

Goal 3.)  Meditate

 

I'm giving myself an A on this goal.  I changed it part-way through the challenge, because my original goal (working out in the morning) failed.  I had an A with my original goal, and in looking back, I actually did a lot better than I thought during the challenge with this.  Even if I didn't meditate for as long as I wanted, I still did it.

 

Life Quest - write

 

A.  I wrote a lot this challenge.  It was really cool  I also signed up for nanowrimo...so it was good practice for that

 

I don't think I did as well with this challenge as my first one.  I just wasn't properly prepared for all of the last-minute stuff that happened (and there was a lot of it) or for the start of the school year.  But it taught me a fair bit about goal-setting, planning, and that sort of thing, so it wasn't wasted

 

Thank you every one so incredibly much for all the support and encouragement you've given me!  You guys are the greatest!

[AverageJoe]

Sounds like you did pretty damn well on this challenge and with a busy schedule to boot!!  Great job.