Nutrition and Beauty: I'm pretty sure they're related.

A few reasons...

Firstly, whenever I eat a lot of sugary foods, I get pimples. Usually I have fairly clear skin, but when I OD on junk processed chocolates (ie, around Easter Time) I break out. All over. Chest, shoulders, face. It's not acne standard, we're talking 3-4 at a time, but it's still very very annoying. Especially when you went and got fake nails the other week and can't pop the damn pimples because crazy thick nails are next to useless for all the things you need them to do.

Secondly, when I eat processed crapola like too much bread, or (non eggplant crust) pizza, I start to get fat in a really odd spot. Well you know, as well as in the usual spots that fat loves to hang out. It's my neck. I get a fat neck. Like my chin would like to be much better friends with my chest, or multiply, or something. But this is a particular "I'm only doing this for processed carbs" spot. It doesn't matter how thin I am on the rest of my body, if I'm eating wrong my neck stays flabby. And if I put on weight eating too much GOOD stuff, I just get a curvy butt but my neck stays slender. Bizarre. It runs in the family too, but my other siblings are pizza/pasta addicts and refuse to experiment with giving them up.

Lastly, alcohol. Alcohol is shit. It dries me out so badly, no matter how much water I drink to balance it out. And it makes me gain fat in a specific spot too. Which is my midsection. If I'm super healthy in all other ways, but drink too much, I start looking like an egg on legs. Wine waist is not a good look for me. Even more so when it comes with flaky skin and frizzy hair. Humpty Dumpty as a mad scientist, that's me.

So anyway, my point is, the things you put into your body don't just affect you in a linear, calories-in-calories-out, way. They have particular unique effects, that are different not only between types of food (or other ingestible substance), but also different between people. Maybe the sugar and the alcohol effects might be similar for most, but I bet processed-carb-turkey-neck isn't a mainstream affliction.

Good nutrition changes your body in more ways than one.

Watch what you eat, yo.

How I get through (boring) cardio

Long story short, I read.
Long story long, it's all about flow.

See the book I've been reading the last few elliptical sessions (did 45min today, Woop) is all about human emotions. How they work, what they're for, how to use them, all that good stuff. Very very insightful and interesting book, well worth a look for just about everyone.
So, as I'm striding along on the elliptical today, book in hands, I was reading about a chapter on empathy, related to which is something called 'flow'. Flow, as far as I understand, is when you get so into an activity that you lose yourself. It's like a transcendental state of hyper concentration, yet simultaneous oblivion.
We've all had at least one experience of being so wrapped up in what we're doing that it feels like we're not even giving orders anymore, our body is just performing on autopilot, and nothing outside of that even registers.
The author says sex, *good sex*, is an example of this. (Good sex sans wandering, interruptive, toddlers me thinks)

And I realised, I get this feeling of flow sometimes when I'm reading. Which is why I can go on the elliptical for an extended period of time without even realising how hard I'm working.
I'm no good at running, I feel every little pain and discomfort, and I get bored, even with music on. The time just drags. Lion King can. He talks (and writes) about getting this flow while running.
We're very different.
But reading, on the elliptical, the time passes without me even noticing. It's fantastic!
It's like I just settle in to read this interesting book, and suddenly this machine is beeping at me saying I've burned all these calories and I'm dripping in sweat and my legs feel like jelly.

So if, like me, cardio doesn't really engage your interest, find something else to do (while you exercise) that does!
Apparently just by concentrating and focusing you can get flow, and this exercise without remembering you're exercising.

...But, there's a catch. The task has to be the right level of difficult. If it's too easy, you'll be too bored to reach flow, but if its too hard you'll be too frustrated.
So don't go for calculus, but possibly not a picture book either.
Books about emotional intelligence work perfectly.

Or, you know, if you hate reading as much as you hate cardio, just find something else :)
What else is good to do while exercising? Music? Audio books? Podcasts? Watching TV? Knitting?
Lets share ideas :)

Day 15

So I'm continuing longer than I thought.
I'm actually finding doing this really helpful.
I can't fool myself into forgetting all the small ways I undermine myself, and how regularly I do it.

Definitely time for a Whole 30.
And with Easter coming this weekend. Maybe that's bad timing. ...OR maybe it's great timing.
I can do it. I just need to prepare and plan.

Hmm...

Well anyway today was:

Woke up. Coffee
Uni for a few hours
Gym - elliptical
Home, had sausage, and cucumber salad
Dinner was crumbed fish, roast potato and pumpkin, green peas, and salt-n-pepper tomato slices.

But after dinner, had chocolate and cider. Tsk tsk.

So... Whole 30 start tomorrow?

Days 13 & 14

Were quite terrible really.
Junk foods all weekend. No exercise.

Except Saturday, I took WildChild to the Territory Wildlife Park, and we walked around there for over 3 hours. So that was exercise. And actually we took healthy snacks (apples and almonds) so it was a pretty healthy day after all.
And in the evening I went to dinner with friends and had an amazing Mayasian fried fish dish, so that wasn't too bad either.
Just the drinking that ruined it all.

Sunday was no good though. Did nothing all day, and then finished it off with McDonalds and more drinks.

Bleargh. So I drank Wednesday through to Sunday. Not too great on the cutting down front.

Okay strictly no alcohol this week at all.

I think I need a better action plan than just saying "I'll do better"...

Hmm

Day 12. Time to get serious.

I promised myself first thing this morning I would have a day of complete and utter health today.
Real food, big effort at the gym, and NO drinking.

Here's how I went:

Two black coffees
Handful of almonds

Elliptical - 413cal, 5.83km
2 sets of:
30 sit-ups (including twisted sit-ups) with medicine ball
40 Russian twists with medicine ball
10 push-ups (on knees)
30sec plank
20 hip extensions each leg
20 side lying leg lifts

Then I had a "high protein" iced coffee. Which isn't real food at all. And even though I could only get through three quarters of it, it made me feel really sick. So never buying that again.

Then uni work for a few hours... So interesting though. Need to write about some of the stuff sometime.

Then got WildChild and we went to the shops for a chicken salad, and she had an ice-cream too.
Then we got home and had a little left over cake.... Haha bad! But it's grain dairy and refined sugar free, so it's only half bad lol. No, I just forgot I was supposed to be being good.

Ooh well.
Now I'm so full. I don't think I'll eat anymore tonight so I'm signing off :)
Toodaloo!

Day 11 little brother's birthday

Bad scene last night. Had 5 ciders.
They were low sugar/carb so I'm comforting myself a small amount with that info. But still bad.

But gym this morning.
Elliptical, but did shorter intervals and went 5min longer. So burnt 410cal and did 5.6km. Which is super dooper :)

THEN went to the city to get LittleBrother his present (ticket to see the Wayans Brothers stand up comedy show in May), and had a simply lip-smacking Cajun chicken salad from a little Thai place (I know, Cajun, Thai, what the?), I think called Hum Cafe. Amazeballs! Highly recommend.

Ended the day with KFC, chocolate birthday cake and more ciders.

FAIL

Late night thoughts on the nature of self

Are we what we are just because we are that way, or do we choose it in certain ways?
If we just are what we are, then why does pretending to be something start to make us feel like we're becoming it? (At least me, it's a bit presumptuous to say 'we' probably)

Since I've started caring more about the way I dress and the way I do my makeup and how my body looks, I've started to feel like I'm losing my depth of character and thought. Like I'm losing myself. Becoming superficial and narcissistic and stupid... And more feminine. But what the fuck?
Getting gel nails makes me feel girly. But that can SURELY not be physiological. It has got to be cultural. So therefore I only feel girly with fake nails because some particular culture that I feel part of dictates that girls/women have pretty nails. Women and girls are decorative. Of course. So then I should KNOW that that doesn't MAKE me anyone, it's purely a construct.
Why do I feel that I'm changing?

I know why. It's because I feel that I APPEAR different. And how we, (sorry I) see ourselves (myself) is very often through the eyes of others. I think they'll look at my nails and makeup and clothes and think "vapid, self-obsessed, unintelligent", so that's how I'm seeing myself.

Interesting ideas to think about... especially in relation to child rearing. I've heard it said before that the words we speak to our children become their inner voice. After thinking about it, I'd have to say I believe it whole-heartedly.

We are EXACTLY what we believe ourselves to be. What we do is who we are.

What are you?