The 8 week Challenge.

I mentioned the 8 week challenge in my last blog, briefly. It starts next Tuesday, and in spite of my loathing of the concept, I decided to do it, and I signed up yesterday. 

Partially because it had a concrete start date and would commit me to resuming my no sugar thing soon, but mostly because it will simply be a way to "bond" with my neighbors that I know, but not very well—because I'm not part of the mommy brigade, the playground platoon, or the pool-time playgroup.  I could just go hang out at the playground and get to know all the parents there, but there is something creepy about  a childless adult— that you only sort of know—sitting on a bench, waiting for children to come out after lunch, is there not? So, joining the 8 week challenge is what I consider "a social effort." Sometimes I have to force my self to make small talk and form new relationships. 


Here is the break down of the challenge—

On Goal Setting: what works for me.

I'm a firm believer in setting goals. Setting them, and tracking them. It's been shown that those who set goals and constantly review them are extremely more likely to reach their goals, whether they be spiritual, mental, physical, or financial.

Now, My church Ward/condo complex women (because in my case the boundaries are the same) and a few men decided to do an "8 week challenge."

Even though I'm big on goals, I'm not particularly fond of these challenges. I don't mind the competition, I just hate the concept of having to pay to do something you should just do for free (ie: run 5k). I also think it is a little arbitrary to have one set of goals for multiple people. No one is at the same point in their life, and different people need to work on different things.

But I blather on. Today is my last day of 30 days no sugar, and I did it on my own. It wasn't the first time I tried to go off sugar, it's just the first time I did it without cheat days.

I made a spread sheet for all my goals. I marked them off (or left them blank) every single night.  It took some getting used to, and I had to start bringing my charts with me  on campouts and vacations. Started trying to chart in september, but it wasn't until june 1st that I charted consistently.  

My intermittent charting helped a lot. Even though I wasn't tracking my goals obsessively, I was still reviewing them periodically, and because of that, I'd forget my goals less often, and I'd make efforts to incorporate vegetables into my meals, etc.

But it wasn't until I started charting every day that things really became habit forming. I wanted to mark things off, and when I pulled it out right before bed, I'd see things that I could still squeeze in and mark off.

That's when the power of the streak began. I couldn't bring my self to break my streak. There was something about the visual... about seeing 25 bubbles in a row filled in (see today's other post on scripture reading). And so, no matter how tired I was, no matter how boring the section I was in was, I had to read at least one verse. But I never did. I read at least half a chapter, and more often a whole chapter... or two.  There are still nights when I forget to do it, but I pull out that chart as I climb into bed, and I'm reminded that I'm on a streak... and you can't break a streak. 

I decided to try for the power of the streak with sugar. As I mentioned last week, I doubled that up with a goal to use money saved from eating junk food (increased daily $ value the longer I maintained that streak).  

And it worked. Set Goals. Review Goals. Track Goals. Give yourself Visual feedback to show your progress.  Eventually, I am going to be awesome.

Long Lost Goals of 2011—Goal 15

Last night marked 65 days in a row of reading my scriptures. That, I believe counts as fulfilling the goal of reading my scriptures.  My goal wasn't specific, I just new I needed to get better at it, and it took  a while, but I can now say without fail that I have improved. 

What can I say. After reading the BOM 3 times a year for 5 years, I got pretty sick of it.  They say it gets better every time, but I couldn't stand the monotony any more. . The only way I was able to get started this time was by reading the Pearl of Great Price first, then conference talks,  then picked up where our Sunday School class was and then I tried to just read all of them before class. Then I got down to reading every day. And now, I can definitely say "it's more interesting than before."  Partially because I can focus better, partially because somethings make more impact when read with less time between the sections. But I'm thinking that after this, I have to go to New or Old Testament. Take advantage that what we have is a second testament of Jesus Christ, and not the Only Testament. 

I mentioned earlier today the power of the streak.  It's simple easier to keep a ball rolling  than it is to start it rolling—at least if it's a heavy ball. Some where along the line I realized that I had read my scriptures (one of those easy things to squeeze in) for 25 days in a row.

That's when the power of the streak began. I couldn't bring my self to break my streak. There was something about the visual... about seeing 25 bubbles in a row filled in. And so, no matter how tired I was, no matter how boring the section I was in was, I had to read at least one verse. But I never did. I read at least half a chapter, and more often a whole chapter... or two.  There are still nights when I forget to do it, but I pull out that chart as I climb into bed, and I'm reminded that I'm on a streak... and you can't break a streak. 

...Last night marked 65 days in a row of reading my scriptures. 

The Long Lost Goals of 2011— Goal 6

 Goal 6—Hoping I’ve learned lessons from the inefficient gardening of 2010, I want to make a more successful Garden this year.

First off, I miss my SLR. I can't wait to get it back, in the mean time, enjoy the lazyness of my point and shoot

Well, this may have been the one goal I was decent about keeping updated last year. I started seeds in yogurt cups out in the sun, planted them in   pots on a timed hose over and the in-aws place.  It had it's ups and downs. 

I had cucumbers, squash, pumpkin, and watermelon all survive, unlike 2010 (where only the squash made it). However, I only got a few cucumbers, my pumpkin was small and not completely ripe, my watermelons were tiny (2), and my squash were pathetic compared to the precious year. My tomatos did okay in pots, the snap peas did fine, as always, and the swiss chard wasn't hearty enough to pick. Oh well. 

Anyhow for TAKE 3, or Garden 2012,  I made a garden at our stake plots (year one was ward plot, but they stopped doing it)

I started my seeds in yogurt cups, much later than I should of, but they did okay under my new grow lights, and I look forward to starting them EARLY this way next year. 

I then weeded our stake plot, and transplanted them.  You see  those weeds taking over my little mounds, I was weeding it several times a week but they were persistent little buggers. 

See how optimistic and covered with dirt I am?

I was really excited because the raddish were a supperfast harvest... about a month for these cute little french breakfast raddish. I ate them, then picked the rest of the row and ate those too. 

I got slightly sunburnt that day, as you can see from this disgusting photo of my arm. But I went all with crazy castor oil/glycerine/rosehip seed oil/tea tree oil on it, and IT NEVER PEELED. SO, I had a pretty sweet farmer's tan for a while. 

My first pea harvest (small, but exciting)

Now, I get something like THIS about twice  a week.

I HAVE 19 TOMATO PLANTS.  3 were donated from a nursery (Early Girl/ better boy), and all the rest were one's I started from seeds... though one of them is still only 8 inches tall with no hope of growing, so we'll say I have 18 tomato plants.  

My tomato rows a few weeks ago. 

My tomato rows yesterday

They are basically falling on each other and the tomato cages are all bent. 

These Early Girls have something like 30 tomatos each. This is my 5th red tomato from them. 2 I picked, and 2 someone blatantly stole. BLATANTLY, as in I decided to give the  maters one more day, came back and someone had clearly broken them off the vine, not eaten like a bug, but cut the vine. JERK 

above- Early girls, donated starter from a nursery

bellow- My Purple Cherokees in all their glory.  I hope they ripen before the frost. 

Then, I planted sweet 100's in the same row as some plum tomatoes, but I can't tell them apart, so these (below) are one of those. 

Here I am standing next to Brandywine. Only 2 of those made it to maturity, and so far, these are THE ONLY TOMATO PLANTS (besides the 8 inch one we are pretending doesn't exist) THAT DON'T HAVE ANY GREEN FRUITS ON THEM YET.  So sad. they have flowers, but I doubt we'll harvest from these .

My tomatos are So exciting. Imagine how excited I would be if I actually liked tomatos!

This is the ripest of my sugar pumpkins. I'm guessing it's about 8" in diameter. I've been picking off all the baby pumpkins to make sure it has enough strenght to finish, but a few snuck by me and I didn't have the heart to kill them, so now I have 3 pumpkins. The others are just a little smaller. 

Here you can see two of my 3 bean plants, that I put in when the other squash died. You'll notice the weed wall to the right. I spent so much time trying to keep the tomatoes and squash area weed free, that I'm afraid the other half of my garden got a little lost. 

The Bean plants are so small, that it surprised me that one of them was hanging in fruit. Say hello to my dragon beans. 

I had some broccoli seeds for sprouting and eating as sprouts so I planted some and got super excited.  Turns out, they are pretty sad as plants very sparse little wispy things, so I let the weeds take them over.

Then the nursery donated some broccoli plants, so I put two of those in.  They are no where near as tall as my seedlings and have no buds, but they are much stronger in stature. 

Say hello to the other half of my "Garden"

If all you see are weeds, you're not looking hard enough (but let's be frank, it's mostlty 4 foot tall weeds)

See, my bolted lettuce? I ate a good 3 of those before I let them be.

I'm not sure if this (below) is swiss chard or spinach I had both before the weeds conspired against me. Wasn't as waxy as my swiss chard though, so I think it is spinach.

And look carefully for my carrot leaves

I just ate these for lunch. The Horses ate the leaves for lunch a few days ago. This variety of carrot, I learned, gets pithy if you don't cook them soon, but cooking them firmed them right back up.

I'll keep picking my snap peas, carrots, get some more  tomatos hopefully by the end of august/september. 

AND NEXT YEAR I will definitely PUT DOWN WEED BLOCKER FABRIC.  This stake plot is just out of control with weeds. 

The Long Lost Goals of 2011— Goal 11

So, clearly I am not doing these goals in a row, forgive me. Or don't. Either way, I am doing them out of order.

Goal 11—Addictions: I need to control sugar. This is going to be one of those lifetime journeys, I’m sure. Some people don’t have a sweet tooth. I am not one of those people. I’m not going to go for “no sweets,” because frankly, One cookie a day would be a huge improvement over  my current habits. It is a wonder I haven’t gained more weight than I have. Too my credit, my actual food is much healthier than it used to be (since I have been doing more from scratch, eating occasional vegetables, learning to drink water), it’s only the sugar that gets me. 

Okay. This is one of those cases where little steps  can be giant leaps for Charlo-kind.  In 2011, I went about 3 weeks without sugar.  Now, this was not consecutive, mind you. Still, I went without out sugar for about 3 weeks during about a month and a half. That deserves a half-hearted clap, if I don't mind saying so myself. 

Then, Naturally, I spiraled wildly out of control... okay, I mostly just had no motivation to start it up again.

Sugar struggle 2012

It took a while to get motivated again, but I am back at it again. I am applying some lessons I learned last time:

1. I learned tricks to curb that sweet tooth ( like the tea trick, which I love, and have only used on one day)
2. I learned that planned cheat days usually evolved to cheat weekends. 
3. I learned that I am much more motivated when the rest of my food is healthy. 


Things I am doing differently this time:

1. My motivation is different this time. After that non-fiction kick, I understood a little better why I shouldn't eat sugar, and when I understand things, I don't stubbornly fight it in the back of my head.

2. A different goal.  I decided that the money I save on candy should go towards extra Fast Offerings. Each day starts at  a measly 50¢, but there is a bonus that goes up at the end of every week  I go without sugar consecutively. After one consecutive month, that's $30 bucks to help someone else, instead of  money spent selfishly killing my own organs.  This has been really leveling for me. It's not guilt motivated, but it makes me realize how I don't need sugar, while other's might desperately need a little help. 

3. Banish Brett to the Basement. Okay, that's a lie, but I used some "fun money" I saved up, and I bought a chest freezer  for the garage. Mostly, it will be used for our 1/4 a cow, and I have a lot of homemade soup down in it (to thaw on my lazy cooking days). Well, now, when Brett buys ice cream (which he recently went through quite the surge of ) the ice cream gets banished to the garage.  I also put things like my left over lollypops down there, some cookies I had left in the freezer. If Brett wants it, he can have some. If I want some, well, that's my choice, but I have to go down 3 floors of stairs and around the building to get to it. This has made me realize how much of my crappy eatting is just pure lazyness. To lazy to chop up fruits.  blah blah blah.  I don't have to look at ice cream whenever I open the freezer in my kitchen, and that helps.  Brett also slowed down his ice cream consumption by about 50% when I banished it. He won't admit it though, because he "doesn't have" an ice cream problem. 



4.  Pack food everywhere. Since Carrisa is pretty strict on her WAPF  food, she has to do this. So, I started doing this too. I pack healthy food, (because I am also trying to minimalize processing and chemicals), I pack a lot of it (because you never know what you will be in the mood for), and I plan for snacks—

 Like this ugly but effective "Lara bar" I made by blending almonds, cashews, and unsulfured/unsweetened dried fruit  together. Roll between was paper, and cut. Voila.   I have also developed a love for organic grapes with Kolona cottage cheese (it's just yummier than any other cottage cheese), topped with Parmesan Ragiano. Strange combination, but I made it up, and liked it. Now, I make it whenever Brett eats ice cream. Jerk. 


Anyhow, so far, compared with last november, I have now gone 12 strait days without sugar.  I only had tea one day, and cocoa one day. So, less "titches" of honey this time. AND NO CHEATING.

The Long Lost Goals of 2011: Goal 1—Part 2

Goal 1— Read: 4 fiction, 2 nonfiction, all 12 issues of the Liahona (I’m horrible at reading magazines). I can do 12 books, I’ve proved that, but in order to encourage more learning, I am giving myself more time to devote to nonfiction (because those are rarely “can’t put it down” books.)

NON FICTION-2011/2012

• 1/2  of my Humanities Textbook : It counts. It was a lot of reading. This is when I was taking a secret class. 
• Tons of Historical litterature exerpts, some quite long to be called exerpts: Same class. Usual suspects: Beowulf, Aeneid, Iliad, Divine Comedy, Confessions, as well as some law exerpts and such.  True, many of these are Fiction, but they become Non fiction in the study of them... right?
• 1/2) of the 2011 issues of the Liahonna
• Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler First off, 5 star book. Should be entitled " 7 million things more important than the crap they taught you in sex-ed," or "guess how many false facts you've been told about your reproductive system." Generally, I haven't been one for books on infertility. They have drama filled titles, like "Every drunken cheerleader, why not me?" and "Empty womb, aching heart." BLEH. UGGG. GAGGG.  I've always been okay with my infertility  and the concept of adoption. I didn't want a book of Chicken Soup for the Infertile Soul. Anyhow, Tracie and I  were having one of those conversations  where our husbands somehow end up in the office "working" on the computer, and she lent me this book. I knew some F.A.M. basics from a lecture I had attended, and I had tried vaguely to chart before, but WOW DOES THIS BOOK HAVE A LOT OF INFO.  So much to learn, so much that I felt should have been handed down by my ancestors. So many LIES people believe (shall I mention my neighbor who thought she had to have intercourse on the 14th day of every cycle? ).   Now, I can tell when my period will come in approx. 2 weeks even though I am highly irregular. I could also tell that I might have a hypothyroid (which, when I went off sugar, my basal temps stopped being so abnormally low after while).  This book answered more questions than any obgyn I've ever been to, and helped me realize why I've hated every OBGYN I've been too, and felt like they were missing the point—cause they were. They were more interested in putting me on drugs with side effects than teaching me to recognize my bodies own signs, like fertile cervical fluid. 
• Lick the Sugar Habit, by Nancy Appleton I picked this book up at D.I. super cheep. It fell apart as I read it. Wasn't a five star book, and I in know way fully retained the info in it, but was the first thing to explain and bring to my attention how horrible sugar is to your body. Sugar uses up minerals in your body, and without these minerals, your body cannot make use of the vitamins . Sugar also causes some organs in your body to under function, forcing other organs to work overtime, causing them to exhaust and become more susceptible to degenerative diseases. This book wasn't a 5 star book, but it was enough to motivate me to go 3 weeks without sugar (with a few planned cheating days in the mix), before sugar got a hold of me again. Shortly after, I had my first fertile quality cervical fluid in years, and my period came more often—though I was simultaneously doing other dietary changes (hormone free meat, raw dairy, cod liver oil, etc), so sugar doesn't get all of the credit. This book also kickstarted my interest in the nutrition genre of books. 
• The Word of Wisdom - A Modern Interpretation, by John A. Widtsoe: My biggest frustraition with the book that it was written in the 50's and supposedly updated by his grand daugher, or something, but the there is no way of knowing what is old information, and what has been checked recently. It was slow at times. I found the sections on Alcohol and Tobacco rather "duh," but he did make a rather interesting point here—that these things not only have no nutritional purpose, but are harmful and make our bodies weaker, and that if mankind used the money they spend on these things to help the poor, we would make a huge  impact on the world. That struck me deep when I realized that (for me) sugar consumption is the same way. Hundreds of dollars a year spent on things that that hurt my body when it could be spent helping others.  It also spent a short chapter highlighting a verse (D&C 89:4) that I usually don't take notice of.  His mention, there, of fraud and food adulterations in the food industry had me giving more weight to the importance of making food from scratch, from fresh ingredients. He also reminded me of D&C 89:13, which I do think about from time to time, and how I don't eat meat sparingly, only in times of winter or famine.  Overall, I liked how he tried to explain how different vitamins worked, where they came from, how some are fat soluble (gettcha butter here....). Boring at times, but over all a motivator to eat healthier. 
• Gut and Psychology Syndrome—Natural treatment for Autism, Dyspraxia, A.D.D., Dyslexia, A.D.H.D., Depression, Schizophrenia, by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD I have mixed feelings on this book. Like most of the nutrition books so far, this one gets dull at times. Oh, and repetitive. The basic concept is that the balance of your gut flora can effect your brain, because byproducts of bad gut flora put of toxins that seep into your blood—often as the chemical reaction between that flora and your food. Food that is not fully digested because you do not have enough good flora can also have a toxic effect on the blood, often causing food allergies. Often times this is the effect of antibiotic treatments, that kill off good bacteria that your body needs, along with the bad bacteria. This leaves room for bad funguses and bad bacterias ( not effected by that particular antibiotic) to homestead in your gut.  Your gut flora is passed on to child during birth or gestation or both or something, so over generations, some conditions get worse.   To fix this, you adhere to a strict diet, which starves off bad bacteria, repeatedly introduce food containing good bacteria, eat foods that require little work of your digestive system at first, and over time you reintroduce certain foods. The more severe the person's condition, the slower the process, and the stricter the maintenance level of the diet might be. She does a decent job explaining how all the bacterias, enzymes, enterocytes, opportunistic floras, etc interact and  cause issues, how neurotoxins can be formed in your gut, etc. But, at last, I have no way of knowing if she made all this up. She also does thing bad-logic thing where she uses Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) to define itself—several times. I've had someone defend this to me, saying English is not her native language, but seams to me like the kinda thing you shouldn't do in any language.  Anyhow, I'm curious about it, it makes some sense and  I don't see how it could do much harm. Some people might be a little scared of her love of  natural fats (but really, what has margarine ever done good for you?), but after my familiarity with WAPF and new knowledge of fat soluble vitamins, this doesn't phase me much. I am leery though, that adhering to the strictest phase for too long might deprive your body a bit,no matter how many vitamins supplements she recommends you take, and I think she overemphases meat (I'm gunna let the word of wisdom win it out on this matter). I've considered implementing Gaps to some extent to clean and reset. I think she's on to something, though I don't necessarily think she has the fulness of truth here. 

A weird thing has happened here. I wanted to get myself to read more non-fiction so that I could teach myself about things, expand my learning. I did not expect that I would go from having no desire to read non-fiction, to where I am now. Now, I actually prefer non fiction. I hunger for it.  It's also weird because I used to think that Nutrition was the most boring majors available at school. Now I find myself wanting to know more and more and more about nutrition.  

The Long Lost Goals of 2011: Goal 1—Part 1

Ah yes. Remember how I said I was going to review my goals EVERY MONTH, and keep you up dated. Well, I failed at that... but that's not to say my goals were completely neglected.  In fact, I like to think that I've made some pretty good progress in the last year in a half

Goal 1— Read: 4 fiction, 2 nonfiction, all 12 issues of the Liahona (I’m horrible at reading magazines). I can do 12 books, I’ve proved that, but in order to encourage more learning, I am giving myself more time to devote to nonfiction (because those are rarely “can’t put it down” books.)

FICTION-2011

• Some book I don't remember (clearly amazing)
• Master of all Desires, by Judith Merckle Riley:  A historical fiction I read on recommendation/loan. I enjoyed it, but it took a long time before I found it more than vaguely interesting. 
•  Book of Lights, Chaim Potock:  When have I ever not fallen completely in love with a Chaim Potock book? Oh yeah.  The time I read this book. Now I know what a story is like when it has no climax.  Now I know why I bought this for 50 cents as an old library copy from a thrift store, and why I have never seen a modern reprint of it. 

This makes 3/4 fiction books read in 2011

 

FICTION-2012

This Year I started "The Joy Luck Club" but I got distracted by NON FICTION, that I was reading at the same time, and ultimately found more intriguing.  I do think I'll pick it up again though.