Thursday 5 February 2015

Gesundheit im Jahr 2015

I have been looking forward to turning 30 since I was about 8, because for some weird reason, I felt that this was the moment when girls became women. It is for this reason that I gave myself the deadline of 30 as the age when I'd put childish things behind me and grow up. One of those "childish things" was for me, my unhealthy lifestyle. So as a bona fide over-planner, in anticipation of this, I carried out a trial run in 2013. However, as you may remember from my new year's resolution post, I failed very miserably. Now, two years later, I'm motivated, better prepared and very determined.  It is now or never. 

Since I got back to Brussels on the 5th of January, I've been working hard to ensure that I achieve this year's health and fitness goals. These were to:
  1. Increase my fitness levels 
  2. Give up caffeine and sugary, fizzy drinks while also increasing my water intake
  3. Minimise junk food and up my fruit/vegetables consumption
One of the sub-goals was to make sure I walked for at least 2x 15mins each day. Well I'm pleased to report that I am walking a whole lot more, and I often see on my phone that I have exceeded the daily goal number of steps. The walk from the bus-stop to my hospital for example, is through a hilly stone-paved path that is actually a bit difficult to do, and I used to struggle/get out of breath. But, no longer! In fact the same route now seems easier and shorter. I guess I'm getting used to it.

In other news, I haven't had any fizzy drinks since I got back from England on the 5th. This is a huge huge deal for  me, as I was addicted to and used to guzzling down litres of coke every week. It might be a bit precocious to say this, but I think I might just have succeeded in kicking the habit for good. In fact I seem to have completely lost the desire to drink Coke/other fizzy drinks. Even when we had a (soft drink) celebration at work, I chose to go with a smoothie. I still drink wine/palm wine/cider sha, I am NEVER going to give those up...

I also wanted to reduce my caffeine intake drastically. Considering that I used to drink 5-6 cups of very sweet coffee per day, this was going to be a tall order indeed. The initial plan was to replace my work coffees with unsugared tea, but before carrying out the swap, I decided to do some research into the benefits of drinking tea over coffee. Surprisingly, all the studies I read actually said that drinking coffee is not bad for you. In fact they all went on to state that both tea and coffee have health benefits in terms of the antioxidants they provide. As a result of this, I've decided not to completely cut out coffee. Instead I have swapped a few of the daily cups of coffee for tea, and whenever I have coffee (or tea), I make sure that it is black and unsweetened. The good thing about all the tea/coffee I drink is that it helps me reach my daily fluid intake goals. 

I've also rediscovered a new love for water, and no longer need squash, juice or anything else to mask the taste or flavour it. It goes down well unaided. 
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Rice/spinach/vegetable dinner

In terms of food, my overall eating habits have improved too. I try to make healthier choices, while ensuring that I am not depriving myself. I try for instance not to eat any junk food or snacks, except for a slice of cake during my conversation exchange. However, I also eat whatever is offered at work,  including stereotypically unhealthy food such chips. I just make sure that the serving size is appropriate, and try to consume as much fruit and veg as possible. And because I no longer snack on junk, I often find myself hungry and needing to eat more. This is practically an aberration for me! I used to go hungry for very long periods of time then overeat. Now I fill up on fruit/veg, eat more regularly and use a smaller plate to reduce/avoid overeating.


Results
I've noticed improved overall health. The most obvious area being my digestive health; I've noticed that I no longer get my random episodes of nausea. The second improvement I've noticed is in my dermatological health. My skin is clearing up slowly but surely. No more teenage acne, and even my eczema and psoriasis are behaving themselves in spite of the lack of special attention. Truly miraculous!  In addition to all of this, my period was much easier this month; practically pain-free, with minimal bloating and hardly any new pimples. I'm putting this down to the increased exercise and (warm) fluid intake. The biggest unexpected benefit though is that I have been able save quite a bit of money from the ban on (relatively expensive) junk-food and fizzy drinks. This is great, as one of my new year's resolutions was to save a certain amount of money this year. 
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New improved weight ;)

And just to finish, I thought I'd mention that the new healthier lifestyle has also led to me losing weight. I lost (and have kept off so far) about 1kg in the first 2 weeks! The thing is I have always found it hard to gain or lose weight, and have been more or less stable at 50-51kg over the last few years, so I was surprised to see that eating healthy and mildly increasing my activity levels could lead to such changes in my body. It just goes to show right...?

Anyway, the results have been encouraging, and I am very motivated to continue. Now I just need to add getting enough sleep to the mix, and I'll have found the elixir of immortality and eternal youth!

Postscript: In the interest of honesty and full disclosure, I must say that I've had 1 Coke zero since writing this two weeks ago. However, in other more positive news, I have been making sleep a priority and getting 7-8hours of sleep per night, as well as doing about 10,000 steps daily. On top of this, I have seem to have completely stopped eating and even lost the desire to eat "unhealthy" desserts, except for dark chocolate, which is often served during our weekly meetings at work.



19 comments:

  1. I'll key into this goals, I've reduced my sugar intake too and I hardly eat junks but on the flipside, I'm a picky eater as I practically have to force myself to eat even though I'm a good cook. I'm in the north where there are lots of fresh veggies but I've not started maximizing this rare opportunities.
    Clara but I'm 65kg oh

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    1. Lol Amaka, our grammar nazi! I knew it was a slip of the keyboard.

      In other news, force yourself to eat! I notice that cutting out junk actually makes me hungrier for real food which means I wasn't getting what my body needed before. And you're very lucky you've got fresh veggies all around you. They must be so cheap too! Enjoy, and remember sometimes if you're lazy, you can eat some raw.

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  2. Great work, Clara—it isn't easy to change your habits, or to choose good habits over bad ones (which always seem to come more easily to us). Every day is a new chance to keep up the good work, or if we've had a setback, we can get back on track!

    Another thing I see here is that small actions repeated over time lead to good things—yay, consistency!

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    1. Yes GNG. It really took me about 2 weeks to start getting into the better habits. Now I do things without actually thinking about them, and I still don't miss Coke! testimony!

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    2. And thanks for the encouragement as usual!

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  3. I have tried a tausend time to get Gorgeousness off the habit of coffee, latte machiatto heiße Kakao usw aber es isn't working! Unsere Erfrischungsgetränk intake has seriously reduced and ich muss sage, Wasser trinken ist nicht so einfach! 8 Gläser? Harder than I thought. Aber one step at a time oder?! Jetzt essen wir so viel Gemüse. Drei vor viermal pro Woche isst G salat bei der Arbeit und wann ist es nicht so kalt gehen wir mehr spazieren also vielleicht auch joggen! Ich wollte, dass er in einem Fitnessstudio registrieren aber laufen, rennen Spaziergang oder joggin klingt besser und errrr kostenlos hahahah du kennst ich , resident cheapskate!
    Enjoy your weekend liebe Clara

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  4. Drei oder viermal* nicht drei vor viermal. Entschuldigung

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    1. You and Amaka are such grammar nazis lol! I knew you meant Drei oder viermal :)
      You know let him drink his coffee. Apparently, it's really not bad for you, as long as one is prudent with the amount of cream, sugar etc that goes into it. And water drinking used to be hard until I forced myself into a schedule, and now I just drink when I need to because I'm used to it, and still I often go up to 2,5-3l per day. it's a pain to pee all the time, but my skin thanks me for it.

      Exercise, from one cheapskate to another, walking is the answer! And dancing too. The gym costs way too much and as I don't want to loose weight, (and you too I think), I don't need it and can't justify the expense. Walking or dancing on the other hand...fun!

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  5. Keep this up, and you just might help me repent from bad eating habits. I need to repent.

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    1. Haha at repent, me I've seen the light lol!

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  6. Blessings, Happy New Year and good luck and determination with your resolution.

    stay blessed
    Much success

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    1. Aww thanks and you too (if you made any resolutions!)

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  7. This is great, Clara. Coffee is not bad and I do drink it from time to time, but I have always preferred tea. Guess it must be because my grandparents on my father's side were born in England. :)

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  8. This is great, Clara. Coffee is not bad and I do drink it from time to time, but I have always preferred tea. Guess it must be because my grandparents on my father's side were born in England. :)

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    1. Thanks! The british me likes tea too Linda, but like you, living in a Francophone environment means that one is constantly surrounded by coffee!

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  9. 30 is a wonderful milestone. So all I need do is copy you and add sleep to my mix, then i will be immortal & eternally youthful? :)
    I like the idea of getting more sleep. Power to you! Go go go!

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  10. Great Job! Ich bin so stolz auf dich. Du bist eine Inspiration! I have decided to do better starting this year too. I've had some ups and downs with the eating (paleo/low carb) and exercising but thus far I've lost 10lbs (4.5kg). I can do better and I will. It's a new month. You're struggle is inspiring me. I will not even get on a scale and show my weight. But in the near future I'll be where you are :)

    Gruß und Kuss,

    La Deutsche Diva — The Denglisch Blog

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