Accountability

Logging my fitness works!

15Jan11, 9am: Hot yoga with Deva Biswas

16Jan11, 9am: Hot yoga with Bernadette Leung

16Jan11, 2pm: Two-hour hike (some good vertical)

17Jan11, 7am: Hot yoga with Deva Biswas

Now it's time for logging my water consumption to work. I've been keeping track for the past three days exactly how many containers of water I've consumed. I don't count tea or coffee, and some days I drink a lot of green tea because I'm so cold in my office. I feel especially happy if I'm still getting in my regular water consumption on top of that. In addition, my water bottle is just around 750mL and so if I get to the point where I am drinking 4 containers per day, I'll be having 3L of water.

I have also been trying to be more aware of my eating. There are so many things I'd like to change with my eating habits, but I also know that I can be a very extreme all-or-nothing kind of person, and those practices are not sustainable for me. So, one at a time.

I already eat high-quality, humane, and environmentally-friendly food. This has taken a couple years to become second nature, but it is now. There are areas where I draw the line here in Hong Kong. For one, I don't eat meat where I am either unaware of or uncomfortable of the origin. This means that most times eating out means going vegetarian. I buy only organic, free range meat and dairy (yogurt and I've bought cheese once). Most of it comes from either NZ or Australia. I buy only organic produce and dairy as well. There are many cafes I enjoy in Hong Kong that only serve organic food (namely Life Cafe), but that is one area that I'm not so hard on myself about. Meat is priority. Furthermore, when living in Vancouver, I was easily able to buy not only organic, but local produce and meat. I don't have that luxury here. There is no chicken produced in Hong Kong because of Avian Flu, but I am able to find Hong Kong grown organic lettuces and carrots! "Food miles" is a big concern for me, but transporting produce from NZ to Hong Kong, while a flight is involved, isn't as damaging in my opinion as bananas from South America. I have it justified for now.

My timing and rationale for eating is where I can focus my goal-setting for now, I think. I just wrote a letter to a friend where I included the following bit about mindful eating:

"... Indeed, food has turned into this crazy thing for some… I’ll say, most people… it’s a political movement, it’s an environmental movement, it’s a social movement, it medicates us, it makes us happy, it makes us hate our bodies, it makes us feel smart, it makes us have more energy, it makes us feel connected to family, it makes us feel rich, it makes us feel poor… but really, it does go back to calories in, calories out. We nourish our bodies in the best way possible so that our bodies are able to be the best they can be. That’s all, and we definitely have more knowledge about that now. Nowadays, however, because of all of the emotional attachment we have with food, we have to start recognizing hunger again… in general. Sometimes, I have no clue as to the difference between mind hunger and body hunger. Mind hunger… all of the other reasons that we eat- a stressful day, a celebration, boredom, sadness, fear of feeling an emotion… We have learned that when our body or mind is yearning for something, we give it food. It is a quick and easy fix. Maybe what we really needed was a nap, or a hug, or someone to listen or to learn how to express ourselves better. Or, does your body physiologically need more energy to sustain an activity? Learning to not feed mind hunger with food is a long process; this is a behavior that we learned long ago, and need to relearn other coping techniques. But just being aware is a great start. When you think you’re hungry, ask yourself if food is truly what you need... "

There have been a few nights where I've found myself staying up rather late, past my midnight bedtime, which may sound late to some, but it works for me. With the exception of one weekend night, perhaps, if I'm getting to bed before midnight every night, I am a happy clam. I also know that if I stay up past midnight, I'm more likely to eat again. Why? Am I really hungry again? If I eat too close to bedtime, I have an even more difficult time calming down and settling in for a good night's sleep. Sure, this is very much a physiology-based issue (specific dynamic action), as our bodies have to shuttle energy to digest food, making it hard to completely relax. So, in the past, I've aimed to have all of my meals and snacks eaten by 10pm each night. I feel that this gives my body a couple hours to digest and start the relaxing process before I lay my head down around midnight. This also keeps me from eating for "the wrong reasons" as I mentioned above. For example, if I eat after 10pm to get more energy to stay up later, what is that saying? Jodie, just go to bed! That's only one example. For now, in hopes of maintaining a great balance with my body and energy and keep off unwanted pounds, I am logging this as well.

For water (blue) and food (black), it's only been a few days (started on the 15th), but it's a start... 21 days to make or break a habit, right?