Health · Uncategorized

Meditation for Beginners

You have heard about mindfullness, meditation, even thought about trying Yoga. You have read a lot of self help books, tried downloading meditation apps and tried everything you could but you can’t stay with it and nothing seemed to help- the voice on the app was too distracting or the music was too loud, the app was full of ads and you couldn’t get it to load properly.

All of those are issues I had when I first started. So I started looking for blogs and sites to help, bought several magazines and in the end, stopped reading and started trying.

There was one daily Yoga app that helped, but I don’t like paying for apps unless they are truly gold- the beta only covered a few weeks and after those weeks, I lost touch. I tried buying a Yoga DVD, I have a yoga ball, bricks and a mat- the mat collects dust, we had to throw the bricks away and the ball was a play toy until we finally admitted it was too big for our house. Now it’s in storage.

You do not need tons of stuff- a mat could come in handy if you have hard floors. MineĀ  are carpeted, so I need nothing.

All you need to start a daily routine- yourself and the will to do it. Determine if you’re wanting to learn mindful meditation, Yoga or normal meditation. The next step is to just start- find a chart on Pinterest with beginner Yoga moves and start doing it.

Find some time in your day and just sit down, close your eyes and clear your mind. Clearing your mind isn’t as easy as it seems at first, when I can’t clear my mind for any reason, I start counting. It works well for getting me to sleep. If you can’t find a good time of your day, put yourself to bed, lie there and count. Start at one, slow yourself down and each time you inhale, count. Focusing on your breath is the first step and once you start feeling your lungs inflate, deflate, chest rise and fall and the air going in and out of your nose/lips it will clear your mind.

I already wrote a tried/tested guide to making meditation part of your everyday routine when you’re too busy to just sit down

All four of those methods are things I try to do on a regular basis because I’m not living a lazy, laid back life (although I’d LOVE to slow down a bit).

 

I’ll be writing more on the topics of Yoga and meditation, I’d like to know what types of advice would you give beginners?

Health · Uncategorized

Day 6 of the 21 Days Happiness Challenge

Today was to start with a meditation. I got off to a rocky start, but I did get a minute or two in. I have been trying to get it in daily- different times of the day, though.

Tomorrow’s challenge-

Today, be mindful of the quality of food you are eating, and start each meal by taking the first five bites with full awareness.

So, tomorrow I’ll be trying to focus on what I’m eating instead of just eating. Maybe it can help me with cutting back how much I eat. I guess I’ll see how easy it is tomorrow.

Health · Uncategorized

EDS, post 30 can your body bounce back?

I know your metabolism takes a slight hit at 30, larger hit at 35 and every 5 years or so keeps shrinking. I’m still heavier than I was pre-kids and reality is hitting me. I knew I no longer had my pre-baby body, but will I be able to go back?

I accepted the fact that pregnancy made my hips more of a problem area than they already were. I only wore a larger size (11-13 in high school) for that reason, but had an hourglass figure. When I dropped to a 14, I tried on some 17s and couldn’t get them past my hips. That was when I read that juniors and adult sizes are made different (1,3,5, etc are juniors. 2,4,6, etc are adult). Juniors are made narrow in the hips where adult jeans are made wider in the hips.

I do know that with Ehlers Danlos, collagen is affected and where it makes your skin stretchy, it seems it may be harder to just bounce back. My scars fade but they still look strange when they heal. I don’t know much else about EDS but I do have an appointment, not only with a genetic specialist, but a specialist who lives with EDS herself. But that’s in a little bit. Right now, I’ve been researching trying to find foods that can help, workouts good enough to help lose weight and tone up but also safe for Osteo and loose joints and anything else that could help me with shrinking back down.

In the past 2 years, I’m down from 220 to about 170. I’m down from a size 20 to a size 14-16. I still have 40lbs left and hoping to get down to a 6ish or 8, maybe and I have 5 years in my mind to do it. If I can get down to my goal, fix what I need to fix diet wise and perfect my ingredient reading I should be able to maintain despite my Hashimotos. I’m seeing that even thyroid isn’t as much of an excuse as people use it. I dropped 20lbs in 4 months on a good dose of thyroid medication and cutting 1 ingredient out. I’m almost 1 month back to the normal (gluten free) lifestyle and finally feeling back to how I was feeling. I just had my thyroid levels tested again and they were perfect.

Right now, I’m trying to buy less processed foods. I have quit drinking Mello Yello (but I did switch to Diet coke for the time being), I’m eating 1 grain meal a day (if that) and the rest are cooked or salad. I do need to cut condiments and I still am drinking my Starbucks double shots (1 a day), I also started to notice my sugar drops when I eat potatoes so I’m switching to sweet potatoes.

The problem is when you have multiple diagnosis’s with several recomendations for diets. Where I have obvious issues with gluten, gluten free is needed (unless I want to spend all day cramping and in the bathroom), I had the diabetic low glycemic diet recommended to me for the reactive hypoglycemia. Cutting everything that was recommended to me feels restrictive. It also makes my OCD mind feel like I’ll be depriving myself and feels like it’s a black/white situation instead of- eat this way and you’ll feel great, eat that way and feel like crap.

I’m working on disassociating food with pleasure or anything related to emotions and trying to associate it with fueling my body and nothing more. Mindfulness helps that. Taking time to savor what I eat and pay attention to it is what I’m working on. Salad tastes great, so does fruit. Sugar and snacks that are heavily processed taste like chemicals but are an addiction- I’ve read all about sugar addiction and cold turkey is the way to go with kicking it. I’ve been thinking about trying a 1 month sugar free diet to try to break it. Just not sure if I have the will power currently. I will start it at the beginning of a month this year, though. Just have to build up and do further research into it to go in armed instead of half assing it.

In my picture, I was 18. I was constantly working out but didn’t know half of what I know now. I was also healthy.

I wasn’t skinny, but I was a good 30lbs smaller than I am now.