This feels like such an accomplishment! Since I stopped eating deep-fried foods, my body now craves good foods. It’s a nice feeling, and I’m feeling so much better. I have a lot of energy to do things that I didn’t have in the past.

This goal was definately worth doing! :-)

Now I’m on to working on my low sodium diet, and no chocolate goals!!! 6 years ago

Wow! This month went by so fast. I just reviewed my measurements, and it looks like I’ve lost the most around my hips… I think that this goal really helped! 6 years ago

This is exciting… makes me want to gear up for another ‘challenge!’

:-) 6 years ago

to watch my sodium intake. I asked my acupuncturist for some advice on diet, nutrition, and things that I can do to get healthy, and meet my goals, and she suggested that I watch my sodium intake. I wanted to have a goal that was going to be something that I can do in steps, yet is challenging, and I think that this will do.

Once this goal expires, then I’ll adopt watch my sodium intake as the new challenge. I need to find out how much sodium is a ‘safe’ amount to be consuming. I’m definately going to have to pay closer attention to what I’m eating to track the sodium so this will be a great goal for me.

I’m not going to have a harsh consequence for the new challenge as it’s going to be challenging enough to remember to look at all of the food labels, weigh, measure, and pay close attention. I’ll probably just put a silly consequence so that I don’t feel pressure to do this challenge perfectly. 6 years ago

Wow! Only 5 days left to go! 6 years ago

Wow! Less than a week to go! Whoo hoo. 6 years ago

Today, I had to wait nearly 8 hours to submit my passport, and in that time I couldn’t leave the line. After wait for several hours, I didn’t want to take any chances to leave the line to go eat. So after submitting my papers I rushed down to the food court. AAAh! I was soooo hungry. Most of the food was heavily deep-fried. It was so tempting to get something there seeing how hungry I was, but I walked around and tried to make the best choice possible. I had a bottle of water with me so that meant that I didn’t have to get pop, or a sugary drink. I had to be very, very picky, but in the end made a good choice. It got the job done.

Later on, I was trying to think of something to eat for dinner. I just wanted to have something quick so I went to the frozen food section, but then changed my mind after reading the ingredient label, and the nutritional content. Ych. It had 29g of fat! Waaaay too much fat.

I didn’t feel like cooking so I wondered around a bit, and got stuff to make a salad. I was craving chocolate, but couldn’t find the little Lindt chocolate balls so I got a chocolate bar. When I ate the chocolate bar I felt disappointed. It didn’t taste good. Now I feel like I’ve eaten a lot of salt.

Now my body recognizes good, wholesome food from the bad stuff, and I get a reaction like I’ve eaten a tonne of salt. I guess that it’s good to have this type of feedback so that I don’t repeat it. 6 years ago

I don’t think that there is a significant change in the percentage of body fat. I just realized this morning, that my scale probably only calculates the body fat based on my height and weight. Duh! I could evevn calculate this… nothing special or high tech.

I guess that I was thinking that it was sending an electric current to actually measure the body fat like when I go for a fitness assessment. When you go for a fitness assessment it actually shows the amount of body mass (lean body tissue), fat, and water percentages. 6 years ago

Hmm, it looks like the consequence of having to go swimming if I ate any deep-fried foods was a good deterent. That’s ok for now, but I’m probably going to have to shift this attitude/ perception in the future and maybe take up swimming as a way of exercising. 6 years ago

Whoo hoo! Now into the single digit number of days left to go on this challenge.

Doing this challenge has taught me that:

1. I do have self-control, discipline, and can follow through on a commitment to myself to take control of my eating.

2. I am the one who is in control of what I choose to eat! This in inself is such a powerful experience to know that I have the power to say “NO” when it comes to making food choices, and that I don’t have to go along with others are trying to push food on me. (Come on try it, it tastes soooo good! There won’t be any later. It’s now or never.)

3. I can survive without deep-fried foods.

4. My body is changing shape faster simply by not eating deep-fried foods.

5. My stomach is getting flatter. I haven’t had a flat stomach in years! It isn’t getting bloated like it used to be, so this goal is helping in that department.

6. I’ve learned that doing little things can have big impacts on the overall goal. This challenge is giving me motivation to try new things. I think that my next challenge will be to stop eating chocolate bars! (I can still eat chocolate just not chocolate bars!)

7. I have power from within to make lifestyle changes, and that it possible to make a lifestyle change: I just have to do it in gradual steps.

8. I think that this goal is giving me the mental strength to tackle the goal of losing 60 lbs, and I have more confidence in myself that I WILL lose 60 lbs this year!

9. It’s important, and worthwhile to take care of myself. I’ve been eating, but not nourishing my body with good food, for some time so this goal has really got me thinking about taking better care of myself. Eat slower, and savour every bite of food, and not eat for the sake of ‘eating.’

10. I’m now thinking of my body as a machine that I need to take care of (needs proper maintenance, etc.). If I get this in my head that body = machine then I will take better care of myself. A machine needs all of the parts to be working properly so I’m also taking a holistic approach to my health.

11. This goal has helped to get balanced in life.

In summary, I think that this goal has really been ‘life-changing’ for me as it has helped me to shift my outlook, and define the focus of my life goals. This has been the fire, to get myself in gear, and until now I haven’t really had the incentive/ courage to tackle the goal of losing 60 lbs! 6 years ago

I should have gotten a cholestrol test to find out if this challenge for a month reduced my cholestrol, and by how much.

Oh well! C’est la vie! 6 years ago

Only 10 days left to go! I’m sooooo excited! I can’t believe that it’s almost a month. 6 years ago

I think that since I stopped eating deep-fried foods, my body shape has started to change more dramatically! Pants/ Jeans are starting to get baggier around the waist, hips, and thighs—all areas which have been difficult for me to lose weight!

I gotta keep this goal going after this challenge!6 years ago

Whoo hoo! I think that this goal is helping to lose weight off my stomach, hips, and thighs!

I can’t believe it, but I fit into a pair of cords that I’ve never been able to wear!!!! 6 years ago

Two weeks left to go… I seriously doubted that I would make it this far, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised, and have made it TWO weeks without eating any deep-fried foods.

This morning, I noticed that my stomach doesn’t look bloated so maybe it’s in part to not eating deep-fried foods. My stomach isn’t bloated, but it’s feeling upset. Probably getting upset from all of the different vegetables, and recipes that I’ve been making!

One thing that I am noticing is that I’m getting an upset stomach from eating ‘whole foods’... I guess that my body isn’t used to eating so much fruit, vegetables, and drinking fruit/ vegetable juice. It’s like my body has to work harder to digest food. I never thought of it like this until now, but it is more work for my body.

Again, it’s just another thing to get used to doing. I was telling my husband, how it’s so hard to keep doing all of these ‘healthy’ behaviours that I’m trying to adopt. Sometimes I wonder why I doing it, and if it’s worth all of the effort.

Yesterday, I spent about 2.5 hours in the kitchen preparing, planning, cooking, and cleaning. Well, at least the dinner turned out ok. It was a lot of effort! I went the extra mile, and tried to arrange the food nicely on the plate, and used a bit of parsley to garnish the plate. Everything was so colourful, and I couldn’t wait to dig in!

It’s amazing how much of an impact it has when you choose brightly coloured vegetables, and then arrange them on the plate; even using parsley to garnish the plate made a huge difference.

It’s worth all of the effort… I guess that I’m still trying to get used to the idea of this being a lifestyle change that is here to stay. 6 years ago

I’m almost half-way through this goal… it’s like running a race, and seeing the finish line ribbon in the distance! LOL!

I think that I’m probably going to continue this goal, and just avoid all deep-fried foods. The more I write about doing it, and not eating deep-fried foods, the more I realize that it’s a good thing.

It’s hard to do, but it’s worth it! Gotta keep reminding myself of this whenever I want some deep-fried foods! 6 years ago

I was going to have another goal called only go out for dinner 4 times this month… but I thought that this goal (stop eating deep-fried foods for the month of April) would be challenging enough! :-p

When I first started this goal, my husband asked me why I chose to make it for the entire month, and not just a day, a week, then a couple of weeks at a time. I think that he is having just as hard a time with this goal, as I am.

This goal has certainly made me aware of the kinds of foods that I have been eating in the past!!!! It’s a real eye-opener.

I don’t know why I didn’t think to do this goal sooner. I never thought to eliminate a whole range of foods before!

I haven’t been weighing myself everyday, but I am noticing that there isn’t as much fat around my thighs, hips, and waist so maybe something is working here! In the past when I managed to lose a significant amount of weight, I still had a lot of fat in those areas, so maybe cutting out the deep-fried foods is helping.

It might take a while longer to really notice any big changes. A couple of days ago, I tried on some pants that were too tight when I bought them (I bought them for when I would lose the weight), and now I can do up the buttons, and zippers on the pants. I think that I might have to lose about 5 to 10 lbs to get them to a ‘comfortable’ state in which I will actually wear them in public! LOL! :-)

I’ve never challenged myself in this way, and I think that it’s good to challenge yourself, and stretch beyond your comfort zone sometimes. After this challenge, I’d like to challenge myself more, and start doing new things beyond my goal of trying new things each week. 6 years ago

I made it through dinner without getting anything that was deep-fried, and I was good at dessert. I just have to remember this goal, and stick to my plan when I go out for dinner.

It was a buffet dinner so I decided to stick to some salad, 2 vegetables, and some meat. For dessert, I had 2 very small pieces of dessert (I don’t know the names of the squares), and I drank some water.

Sometimes it’s hard to stick to the plan when everyone else is eating the things that I’m trying to avoid, but if I visualize what I’m going to eat before I go out for dinner then it really helps. I also remind myself that I really want to reach my goal weight so with that in mind I always make good choices. 6 years ago

I’m going out for dinner tonight so I’m going to plan to make healthy choices! :-)

I think that I’ll probably stick to salads, soup, and other low-fat, low cal foods. I found some more juice recipes so that should help me for the remainder of the challenge. 6 years ago

I probably should have started this goal by going one week without deep-fried foods, then 2 weeks, and so on until I built up the time. It was ambitious to automatically take 1 month as the starting point, but I’ve been doing ok. It’s been a real challenge NOT to eat deep-fried foods, but I always visualize this goal on the top of the page, and it gives me the strength NOT to eat deep-fried foods.

Now that I’m almost half way through this goal, I’m so determined to keep going to the end of the month. I think that once I’ve gone one month without eating deep-fried foods it will be hard to go back to eating deep-fried foods that I’ll have to extend the dates and keep going without eating deep-fried foods!

I think that if I go this long without eating deep-fried foods that I’ll probably get sick or have an upset stomach if I eat deep-fried foods so that in itself is a good deterent.

I really want to lose the weight, and I think that this goal is going to help big time! :-) 6 years ago

I’ve been true to myself and have NOT eaten any deep-fried foods. The more I think about this goal, the more I realize that deep-fried foods are everywhere! You really have to think carefully about your food choices when you go out for dinner.

Another thing that I realized is that sometimes it’s the texture of the deep-fried food that I enjoy.

It’s much harder for me to give up eating deep-fried foods than it was to give up drinking pop, eating cookies, or limiting fruit juice/ sugary drinks!!!!

Deep-fried foods can be:
-sweet;
-salty;
-sweet and salty;
-crunchy;
-soft and pillowy;
-crunchy on the outside, and soft on the inside;
-crisp and salty;
-hot;
-layered with different textures;
-spicy;
-hot, spicy, and crunchy!

etc. etc. etc.

I think that I like the hot oily taste with the crunch factor… like deep-fried chicken.

I’ve been reading some magazines about healthy lifestyles, and the more I learn the more I don’t want to eat deep-fried foods!!!! 6 years ago

I don’t know what’s overcome me, but I really want to eat deep-fried foods. It seems like it’s all that I think about eating! I wonder if I was always like this, before I make a concious decision not to eat the deep-fried foods, or if it’s a series of stressful events that triggered my deep-fried food cravings?!

I don’t know if it’s because I’m not allowing myself this food that I’m thinking about it even more or if I always thought about it this much.

On the way home, I was starting to think of the routes to fast food places to get a big greasy hamburger, fries, and pop, which are all on my NO food list! I was feeling upset on the drive home so maybe this was a trigger, but I was also very hungry, and didn’t want to have to go home to make something ‘healthy’ to eat. I also didn’t want to go to the grocery store to buy something, because I was so hungry, and I knew that it would only fuel my temptations.

In the end, I came home, and had some light tuna with celery bits, and a small serving of pasta.

Right now I feel:
1. very tired (didn’t get much sleep last night or for the past few nights);

2. anxious, about meeting some deadlines, and not having the things done the way that I think they should be done, but having to accept that it’s probably ‘okay’... (just want everything to be perfect, and it’s adding a lot of extra stress);

3. upset about a few things that have happened this week (no control over these things, but these are things that continue to happen so it’s very annoying, and frustrating).

I guess that it’s waaaay better to write about this stuff here, than to go eat. I must start another knitting project even though I’m very tired. I think that it helps me to relax, and keep my mind off eating, and thinking about annoying things!

knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit…... 6 years ago

I came very close to getting some greasy, fattening, french fries, but suddenly my mind kicked in, and reminded me of this goal! I can’t believe how close I was to order french fries!!! It was sooo hard. Much, much harder than when I gave up drinking pop, and even at that I wanted pop to go with the fries.

I guess that it’s stress, and emotional eating that triggers the bad eating so I had to turn around, and fight the urge to get the fries. I’m mad that I can’t have them, but I’m glad that I didn’t give in. It was so hard, and I kept thinking that alarms would go off if I ate those darn fries.

I have to keep telling myself that these foods are B-A-D for me! That my body doesn’t want them. I have got to pick up my knitting, and keep my hands busy.

I even wanted to get a bag of potato chips, and I rarely eat chips so I must be feeling really upset to want to eat these things. I suppose that writing about this helps me to stay focused on my goal.

I’m very close to one of my goal weights so I can’t mess things up now. When I accomplish that weight loss goal, then I will have lost 20 lbs!!!! Gotta remember this when stupid fries start calling me. 6 years ago

Today is the second day, and I’ve made it two days without any deep-fried foods!

I plan to keep this goal around for a long time, after I finish the first month, as I think that it will help me to lose a lot of weight! WHooohooo!

I really want to be my goal weight by August!!!! 6 years ago

I’m glad that my challenge is back to this goal, and not the cross-stitch! :-) 6 years ago

Say what you’re going do, Do what you say you’re going to do, believe what you say you’re going to do, practice what you say, do, and believe you’re going to do, and it will happen! 6 years ago

I was so excited to finally find a book on Dim Sum (Yum-Cha) recipes that was so close to buying, but then remembered that it would probably affect this goal as a lot of the recipes were deep-fried or involved cooking with a lot of oil!!! :-(

Sassy so Sad! :-(

Oh well, maybe if I write about it here I’m remember about the book someday or perhaps I’ll just look for the specific recipes that I like on the internet so that I avoid the temptation of making the fried foods.

Hmm, come to think of it I won’t be able to go to Dim Sum for this month! Or I’ll have to be very,very,very good and only eat things that aren’t deep fried.

Writing this entry has made me realize just how much deep-fried food is in my life! Actually doing a lot of these ‘healthy’ goals has made me start thinking about my diet, nutrition, lifestyle, and habits. It’s quite amazing how many bad foods or poor food choices are available, and are easily accessible!

I think that the motivation for this goal came from seeing a few minutes of the Montel Williams show. It’s not a show that I normally watch, but I caught a few moments of it, and saw the devastating effects of junk food on a guest. The show was about addictions, and one guest was addicted to junk food. For the past 4 years all she ate was junk food, and she had an identical twin who did not eat the same way, and you could tell them apart, simply because of the differences in diet, and nutrition!!!

I felt really badly for the guest, because she was so malnourished, weak, tired, and looked sad. It’s so true that you are what you eat. Interestingly enough, that is also the title of one of my favourite tv shows! I haven’t seen it for a while, but I’m sure that it’s still on tv.

This show has fantastic advice on nutrition, diet, exercise, and advice for adopting a healtier lifestyle! Instead of buying the book on Dim Sum I saw a book by the hostess of the show “You are What you Eat” and I bought it! It was a sign!

I’m sure that I could have looked around for a cheaper copy of the book as a grocery store is not the best place to buy books, but I knew that it would be too time consuming to find it so I just got it.

I’m really looking forward to this book, and have already bought some of the ingredients to make a fruit drink that’s in the book!

When I looked at the recipes in the book, I started thinking about another goal that I managed to do, which was to start drinking more tea, and less sugary drinks. I’m now thinking of using my fruit juicer more often. Again, this is something I should have been doing a long time ago.

All of these changes that I’ve been trying to make have taught me a few ‘life lessons’

1. If you put your mind to it, and you BELIEVE you can do it, then you can do it!;

2. A little time, and a lot of patience goes a long way;

3. Practice, practice, practice makes perfect;

4. You don’t have to do things perfectly to achieve success (on some of these goals);

5. It takes time, determination, and strength;

6. Little changes, can equal big changes;

7. Time is a HUGE resource so don’t waste it!;

8. Take each day, one day at a time;

9. BUT also live each day to the fullest;

10. Make time for yourself;

11. Do nothing;

12. Laugh, cry, stick your tongue out—it’s ok to have emotions!;

13. Don’t stop, keep doing it until you get there;

14. It’s painful at first, but when you make the changes you’ll look back, and wonder why you didn’t change sooner;

15. It’s never too late to make the changes;

16. Change is good;

17. Get/ Ask for help when you need it;

18. Do a little bit each day;

19. Take time to reflect on goals;

20. Journal goals so that you stay accountable;

21. Plan ahead;

22. But allow for some sponeanity;

23. Listen to what people say (advice), but be careful not to take too much advice;

24. Stay focused;

25. Say what you’re going do, Do what you say you’re going to do, believe what you say you’re going to do, practice what you say, do, and believe you’re going to do, and it will happen!

This should be something that I repeat over to myself everyday, especially when I feel like I can’t do something, or don’t want to do something!

I’ve always wanted a little saying to repeat over, and over in my mind, and I’ve finally created one! Yeah! :-)

I think that this this is probably one of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned so far! It’s taken me many years to finally come to this conclusion, but it’s definately worth the wait!

I know of a lot of people who try to do one or two of these things, and it seems like I can believe/ trust that action xyz is going to happen, but then it doesn’t, and I think maybe next time. It wasn’t until this week (Thursday night) that I put the equation together, and realized that you need all of the parts to make it work).

When I studied English literature, I was told that humans like balance, and symmetry so that’s why a lot of art, music, literature (poems), architecture, design, etc. is in balance, and symmetry. I know that there is a mathematical formula, but I can’t think of it right now!

I’ve also heard about ‘balancing names’ so that the numbers work out to be balanced. There are a whole lot of things in life that are ‘balanced’...

Maybe we’re each programmed to be ‘balanced’, and that we have equations to make us balanced, but some of us know these equations, right away in life, and it makes us happy, while some of us are still looking for the balanced equation, and will take some time to find the appropriate equation. I’m still looking for the equation, but I think that I’ve found part of something that will work for me.

Saying+Doing+Believing+Practice = B-A-L-A-N-C-E

:-) 6 years ago

This is going to take a lot of will power… 6 years ago

I have chosen this consequence, because I don’t particularly care to go swimming at this stage in my weight loss efforts. I’m hoping, and working towards being comfortable enough to go swimming as a form of exercise, but this will be in the future… not in a month’s time! LOL. 6 years ago

My acupuncturist told me not to eat fried foods, deep-fried foods or very fatty foods so I’ve decided to commit to eating better, and one way to do this will be to eliminate these types of foods from my diet!

I really, really, really want to be able to do this, as I’ve already had success with cutting out pop, and cookies from my diet. I stopped drinking pop nearly 2 months ago, so I’m now ready for a new challenge. Hmmmm, maybe I should make this into a challenge!!!!

Fatty, deep-fried foods to avoid:
1. potato chips (I rarely eat these, almost never eat them so it shouldn’t be too hard);

2. french fries (might be a challenge, but there’s no nutritional value, lots of fat, cholestrol, salt, and carbs—gotta think about these thinks when I get tempted!)

3. Calamari (aaah, going to be very hard to give this up! I LOVE deep-fried calamari. I had my last serving of this on Thursday as I anticipated doing this goal.)

4. Tempura (Going to be challenging, but I think that I can do it. I don’t eat it often. Calamari, and tempura are things that I like to order when I go out to eat so I think that I might be able to do ok with these two items.)

5. Fried chicken (going to try to avoid it. I also think that I can do it. I’ll have to think of a subsitution)

6. Fish n’ Chips (I don’t eat it often so I think that I’ll be able to manage…. although it tastes sooooooo good! LOL!)

7. Anything else that is deep-fried or very high in fat!

I have to remind myself that these things are very bad for me, that I really want to lose 60 lbs, reach my healthy goal weight, and avoid artery clogging foods!

My action plan:
Going out to eat:
1. Order Salads with dressing on the side;
2. Order baked/ Broiled fish with fresh veggies (no oil).

I’m fairly confident that I can do this… I just need to think of an appropriate consequence to tie to this goal. 6 years ago