Week 7: Helpful Websites

I only worked out twice this past week. One of those days was during our Wednesday fieldtrip to Stroller Strides... that workout was super fun but tough! It left my legs sore for 2.5 days and a little pain still lingers. Must've been all the lunges and squats.

I'm hoping to do better with exercising for the rest of this month. My current motivation is Spring Break! :)

Here are some websites I found helpful:

Women's Health Magazine - Workouts

This section of the website has a whole bunch of workouts tailored just for women. My favorite section is "Workouts To Go," where you can download a workout and transfer it to your iPod, iPhone, Zune, Blackberry, Treo, etc. I also love the yoga section!

Shape.com

Another website where I get tips and ideas about different exercises. An interesting feature is the "What does it take to burn it off? Calculator." It would take me 293.78 minutes of shopping to burn off a cheeseburger... I wonder if I could use this as an excuse to eat a cheeseburger and shop for 5 hours! :)

Healthy Eating @ FoodNetwork.com

I love watching Food Network, so its only natural that I go to FoodNetwork.com for healthy recipes. My favorite feature is the "Quick Meals" search engine. You put in what type of meal you want to make (breakfast, lunch, dinner), what you want to make it with (chicken, beef, shrimp, etc), and how long you want to spend making it (15, 30, 45 minutes).

CookingLight.com

My favorite section is the Quick & Healthy recipes. These are definitely a must for busy people. The food looks so good and they have a wide variety of options (comfort food, seafood, Mexican, Italian, Vegetarian, etc).

MyPyramid.gov

This is a great website because it tells you how much of each food group you should eat (based on your age, height, weight, and exercise level). You can also plan for future meals and track current meals and exercise. My favorite feature is the Menu Planner because it is easy to use and gives you a visual aid to understand how much of each food group you are eating.

MyPlate @ Livestrong.com

This is another great food and exercise tracker. My favorite feature is that it compares how many calories you've eaten with how much you've burned. It also gives you a Daily Nutrition Breakdown, which helps you see what percentage of carbs, fat, & protein you are eating. I see that I am overloading on carbs & fat :(

Mint.com

This is not really a fitness/food website, but it helps keep track of your spending and you can set a budget for how much you spend on food or exercise. If you're like me, you will also realize that you spend too much on discretionary items and that this money could be saved or used for healthier choices.

Week 6: Challenging Situations

This past week, I went to the gym twice for 60 minutes each day. I did about an hour of walking on Saturday, too. Missed my goal by 1 day.

As far as food goes, my boyfriend and I got 20 piece chicken mcnuggets from McDonald's at 11 PM on Sunday night... not a good choice, but eating McDonald's is a habit that I just can't seem to kick. I also hate the fact that I live really close to Jack In the Box. It makes me crave curly fries and other fried items. But after I eat them, I end up feeling sick from all the oil & greasiness. Eating healthier is definitely more of a challenge for me than getting to the gym.

On the other hand, I got lots of good food from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Ralph's including California mandarins, grapefruit, asparagus, carrots, and multigrain cereal.

It was challenging to achieve my goals this past week because of my schedule. I had a lot of work to do for my classes and residency site (especially from Sunday to Wednesday). So that distracted me from working out and mentally drained me. If I feel like I have a lot of schoolwork to do, it stresses me out and I can't seem to get it off my mind.

I was able to get to the gym on the days I had less work (Thursday and Friday). I usually get some exercise in on Saturday, especially if my boyfriend feels like doing something active (hike, gym, "the stairs" @ Santa Monica).

But my sister came to visit me this Saturday and Sunday, and she is not big on exercising or eating healthy. We did a lot of (unhealthy) eating and hanging out. Its always challenging when family/friends visit because you want to spend as much time with them as possible and then working out/eating healthy kind of takes the backseat.

This is a "Loco Moco" that my sister made for breakfast. It is a popular dish in Hawaii, and is usually served with a hamburger patty (this one is made with a corned-beef hash patty... yes, we like unusual things like that and Spam in Hawaii), eggs, rice, and lots of brown gravy. It is very unhealthy and I don't eat it often, but it helps me understand how culture can be a major influence on eating and physical activity habits. After eating this big and heavy meal, we planted ourselves on the couch for about 2 hours before getting ready to go out.

Week 5: Barriers

First an update... I went to the gym 3 days this past week for 60 minutes each day, and I also walked/jogged my dogs around Santa Monica for 45 minutes 1 day this week. I almost reached my goal! Just missed it by 15 minutes! I still need to work on eating healthier and will attempt to make a positive post about that next week.

Three barriers I face when trying to successfully enact my health behavior changes are 1) time, 2) energy levels, and 3) distractions.

Time is an issue because of school responsibilities. I have 2 graduate classes per week. Each class meets once a week and are each about 3 hours long. Of course, they also require time outside of class to be spent on assignments (article/book readings, writing a business plan, other projects, etc). I also have a residency as part of my OTD program, which is ~20 hrs/week. I work on my OTD project/portfolio during the week, too. All of this leaves me with limited time for non-school activities and leisure activities. Chores and caring for my pets take up a nice chunk of non-school time. While I usually don't cook from scratch, I try choose easy-to-prepare foods (love Trader Joe's) that are a bit healthier than frozen dinners and/or fast food. This saves me some time on cooking, without sacrificing too much health-wise (although, I do have a weakness for Cup'O'Noodles and the like). After all my responsibilities are taken care of, I like to spend the rest of my free-time engaging in more relaxing, restful, and/or fun activities (reading, watching TV, shopping, hanging out with friends). Even though working out has such positive benefits and can be fun, it has not been on my free-time priority list.

Poor energy levels have a lot to do with the above time issue. Right now, when I get done with school for the day, I am unmotivated to exercise or be conscious of preparing a healthy meal. Because so much of my day is spent thinking (mental exertion) and requires some physical exertion (taking public transportation, walking around the hospital, etc), I usually come home exhausted and feel like taking an afternoon/early evening nap. It is a real challenge to stay up and not nap because napping would just ruin my sleep schedule. I have a hard time getting to bed early, but try to get to bed by midnight. I usually never feel refreshed when I wake up before 10 am. I also think my poor eating habits contribute to my poor energy levels. If I eat less sugar and more whole grains, I should have more stable energy levels throughout the day. I also notice that when I eat a late lunch, I tend to eat more and end up getting extra sleepy in the afternoons. I should try eating my biggest meal at breakfast and eat lunch more towards the middle of my day, when possible. Energy levels also contribute to why I tend to choose more relaxing and restful activities during my free-time. Coming from my occupational therapy perspective, I feel that because I spend so much of my day in work/school and self-care (cooking, cleaning, etc) activities, I need these rest/restorative activities for balance and health. What I need to realize is that exercise and eating healthy can be restorative activities that make me feel better and give me more energy! I think this association will come with time and increased, routine engagement in these activities.

Distractions come in many forms. Fatigue and my preference for restful/relaxing activities can be considered a distraction. If my favorite TV show is on (Vampire Diaries, hehe), I feel less strongly about working out. If I am stressing out about school work that needs to be done or an apartment that needs to be cleaned, I am really less likely to get to the gym. Friends and family can also be distracting. If they want to go out to dinner or to a bar/club, I would choose that social interaction over exercise and am more prone to make unhealthier food choices. Distractions aren't considered bad events, but rather, I feel like I should learn how to manage my time and my energy levels so that I can engage in these "distractions" while still making room for exercise and healthy foods.

Week 3: Support

As of today, I still have not been to the gym or specifically designated a time for working out. One thing I can say is that I love shopping and I spent over an hour walking around Melrose on Saturday. I could stand and walk while shopping for hours :) That gives me at least some physical activity.

I also take public transportation to and from school and my residency site. There is quite a bit of walking involved in that... and there are some stairs and slopes I come across during these walks to the Metro. So I don't feel completely inactive, but I do feel that I could still improve in this area.

It is hard to measure the consistency and intensity of the physical activity I participate in when it is spread out and woven into my daily activities. Once I get into the routine of going to the gym, I actually enjoy the structure and noticeable consistency of it.

As far as the second part of my goal, I haven't really been eating healthy. I went to Big Man Bakes on Saturday and ate a handful of mini cupcakes. Very yummy, but that probably negated all the walking I did.

My boyfriend attempts to be supportive of me as I try to change my health behaviors. He used to work out everyday and eat healthy (before he met me, haha) so it is something that he can relate to :) For a few months now, he has started working out about 4 or 5 times a week.

Before I went home for winter break, we would work out at the same time. I say at the same time and not together because he would go for a run outside while I headed straight for our apartment building's gym. I hate running, so I would never join him. But after his run was done, he would meet up with me in the gym and we would finish our workout.

This was a really nice arrangement because even though we weren't heading to the same place at first, we would leave the apartment together and come back together. When I lived on campus during undergrad, I would also go to the gym with friends from my building and this made it a lot easier to get up and go. If you're just waiting on yourself to go, there are a lot of excuses or things that can come up and distract you. But if you've made plans with someone else to go, then you're kind of held accountable and a specific time period is usually designated.

Well, I went home during winter break for 2 weeks and broke my gym routine. While I was gone, my boyfriend moved his workouts to Santa Monica (where he is originally from) and he likes running there a lot better than in Downtown LA... for many different reasons. When he doesn't feel like running, he also has the option of doing "the stairs" at Santa Monica... but he doesn't have that option in Downtown LA.

Since he usually goes straight to Santa Monica after work, I don't have anyone at home convincing me to exercise anymore. This makes it a lot harder to get it back into my routine... My boyfriend tries to verbally remind me to work out, but that doesn't really seem to be helping. It gets the idea into my head more, but hasn't pushed me to actually go to the gym.

This makes me think that verbal moral support isn't always as helpful as someone being there with you. As an occupational therapist, I do a lot of "doing with" clients and I definitely see how at first they may need your physical presence to feel comfortable doing something. Its funny to see this in myself... especially when I don't consider myself to be facing any major barriers.

My boyfriend definitely tries to have me eat healthier (more fruits and vegetables, brown rice vs. white rice, etc.) and since he does a lot of grocery shopping for us, his support there has been fairly successful. One thing he does not have much say in or influence over is my personal preferences. I love sweets, chocolate, and red meat. These are also the things I need to cut back on.

Having support is very helpful and makes these health behavior changes so much easier. But support also can only go so far. Ultimately, I must want to change and need to maintain these changes independently. If I really didn't want to change, I don't think anyone could make me.

Week 2: Motivation

My motivation for establishing this goal is mainly due to the fact that I feel really unhealthy! It seems like I know a lot of people who love to watch what they eat and make sure they exercise. I feel like the complete opposite, and sometimes it makes me feel guilty... just sometimes. I think there has to be a balance between enjoying the (maybe unhealthy) things you like and respecting your body. I don't hate eating healthy or exercising, but they just haven't been on the top of my list lately.

I know that staying active, exercising, and eating healthy is important for me! Especially since both sides of my family have a history of health issues (stroke, cancer, etc). I would love to have more personal experience of incorporating healthy foods and fun physical activity into my lifestyle. I think that once I have made these things "my own," I can later try to influence my family and friends to eat healthier and stay active. I care about them, too and want them to live long, healthy lives!

Lastly, as an occupational therapist I feel that I should practice what I preach! I feel like we are constantly telling our clients and patients to be healthy... but are we really being healthy ourselves? I can't answer this question for everyone, but I know the answer for myself... and I don't really consider myself a "healthy person." So in order to be a better occupational therapist for my clients, I need this personal experience and change!

My clinical doctorate of occupational therapy project also focuses on how children who have/survived pediatric cancer can stay healthy and active. So I am looking forward to trying new and fun physical activities and yummy healthy foods that I could later use in my project and share with these kids! :) If you have any ideas of things to try, let me know!

Week 1: My Goal

My personal project will focus on staying active. My goal is to engage in moderate exercise 4 times a week for 60 minutes each day. This moderate exercise will mostly take place in my apartment building's gym, which is one floor below me. Evenings are the best time for me to work out since I am not an early riser and am busy during the day. Days that look best for working out right now are: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I will use this blog to track my journey to reach this goal and maintain it. I will post information about changes such as increasing weights or time on the elliptical machine to see how I progress.

In this blog, I will also discuss other physical activities I participate in for fun as well as healthy foods that I enjoy. I believe that this information will show how being healthy and staying active can become a part of my lifestyle, not just an outside goal, a project for class, or something that is confined to the gym.