Evolution Coaching Change for Life

Next Challenge

Shayla — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:46:48 +0000

The next challenge is to follow my own advice. I make training plans, meal plans, all sorts of plans for other people. They want to get fit, get faster, lose weight, do their best at an event. I see their progress, talk to them about their goals, help them through obstacles, you name it, but I don’t do it for myself. Why do we always do that? I read a quote yesterday by William James an American psychologist and philosopher, it is perfect, it is my new mantra.

“To change one’s life:

1. Start immediately.

2. Do it flamboyantly.

3. No exceptions.”

Brilliant. Simple. True. With this in mind I am going to follow my own plan. If I really want to be fitter and faster, it means consistently tracking my progress and pushing myself, by following the plan. I can’t just go through the motions, or comfortably stay where I am now. While this doesn’t sound flamboyant it is not the ordinary path, it is not the path of least resistance. Day One of sticking to my plan. No exceptions.

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Run. Run. Run.

Shayla — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:33:33 +0000

Today I went for a long run, a commuter run. I had to get to a client’s house about 10 km from my place, do a couple of errands and I thought I would run like the Tarahumara and run to all my appointments. I didn’t go fast, I stopped when I felt like it. I had a latte when I was almost home. I was out for 3:45 and running for at least 1/2 of that time and 1100 calories later I ate like a Tarahumara too and had a great salad for lunch. It felt great. I feel fine.

It was a great form of meditation, I really did smell the flowers, notice the birds singing, said “hi” to random strangers. Stopped to help a young guy with bike problems. I even ran the long way home, just because I was having so much fun. Fun is what this was. No time constraints, nothing to do except get to my original destination and then make my way home, making a few stops and no hurry. The longer I ran the better I felt. I can hardly wait to do it again. Human powered commuting, whether by foot or bike is fun, relieves stress and lets you really think, focus on things without the regular distractions. Tomorrow’s run is a regular workout, I am sure I will be tired, but I might enjoy it more than I usually do and that is truly the Tarahumara way.

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Week 5: Born to Run

Shayla — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:37:22 +0000

My week of meditation is over and now I am going to see if I am born to run. Like many others I have read Christopher McDougall’s book, Born to Run it was fun, entertaining and inspiring. It made me want to run all the time – for the record, with my shoes on – everyday, everywhere. This week I am going to try it. Last week’s meditation experiment was pretty good, I mean, I liked the meditation, but I am not actually very good at it, unless I am running. I am going to continue to practice meditation regularly. I think it is important, it reminds me to pay attention, do one thing at a time, focus. All the things that running reminds me of too.

There is nothing as good as feeling light, fast, free on a run. Nothing more elusive either. Maybe practice makes perfect. We shall see.

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Week 4: Meditation

Shayla — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:17:07 +0000

It has been 4 weeks since I started practicing doing one thing that I have been thinking about doing forever. One habit for one week and this week it is meditation. Yesterday I tried walking meditation and a Body Scan, I started at my toes and fell asleep before I got to my ankles, not during the walking meditation, the point is not to fall asleep, but apparently it was too relaxing.

I am a doer, I love to be busy, doing, in action. I also love relaxing, being so physically tired not much is possible, maybe this is a form of meditation, enforced exhaustion leads to inner peace. But others like Ph.D and professional meditator Rick Hanson ( 5 Ways to Slow Down) believes that sometimes we don’t need to rush. I believe that too, but it’s hard to practice.

I also believe half of us are so busy rushing we are on life support. How many times do I walk downtown and have to dodge the “busy” folks texting while they walk or avoid hitting them while they talk on their phone. I have a theory that the more connected you feel you need to be is inversely proportional to how connected you need to be…

You are officially on life support if you can’t go out without your smart phone. I tried this too. Sunday I left my phone off and at home. No watch, no phone, sometimes you don’t need to be anywhere. Try it for one day, I recommend it as much as meditation.

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Cycle Fit Outdoors

Shayla — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:17:42 +0000

Tuesday May 1, 2012 – Tuesday June 19, 2012

Stanley Park

Map and Directions | Register

Description:

90 minutes of cycling outside, with the focus on bike handling skills, intervals and drills. An intense 8 weeks of interval training to get you fit and comfortable on your bike. Heart rate monitor is recommended. Space is extremely limited.

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Week 3: Day 5 ADF

Shayla — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:45:14 +0000

All of sudden there are fasting articles and stories everywhere! In my local paper, The Vancouver Sun, on Livestrong, on Facebook links. Wow, who knew this was so trendy. I have tried the Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) for the last week, with a couple of detours. First, I had clients in the afternoon on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I can’t be completely out of it. I ate an apple everyday at 3:00 and Wednesday I had a juice at 4:00 I will explain later. Apparently you shouldn’t work and try to fast which is why I was having juice.

The first day I had a client at 4:00 and I was feeling a little sleepy and disconnected from reality. I thought I would have a snack for the sake of my business… they still kept asking me if I was okay and if I wanted to go home. Hmm, maybe I didn’t feel as good as I thought. Then I read the article about fasting without the stress of work, exercise or distractions, might be a good idea if I do this again.

The second day I had the apple at 3:00 and a small juice at 4:00, just before seeing my client, they asked if this was my fasting day and how it was going. Okay, so the juice was a great idea, I didn’t feel disconnected from reality, great and feeling fine.

Day 3, today, no eating since 8:00 AM, apple at 3;00 and I am going out for dinner to celebrate the end of the ADF.

This is what I learned about fasting, aside from feeling a little floaty and disconnected. The next day it is hard to exercise, no food = no fuel = no energy. It isn’t that hard to do and I ate less for dinner on fasting days. I didn’t lose any weight, same today as when I started. I wasn’t thinking about eating, just going about my day, which made me feel like I wasted a lot of time planning, shopping and preparing food. My overall conclusion is that I don’t need to eat as much as I do. My version of fasting was easy to do and I felt fine. Food is everywhere and it is easy to eat all the time. Would I fast again? Probably not, I didn’t see any immediate benefits. Am I opposed to it? No, I would rather fast than go to yoga.

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Week 3, Day 1: ADF

Shayla — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:35:18 +0000

This morning as I was trolling through science news to come up with an interesting Fat Fact I came across a couple of articles about Alternate Day Fasting. It was intriguing and I thought I could never do that… or could I? While many scientific studies have shown that calorie restriction (to a point) is healthy I always dismissed it as interesting, but impossible. Since I couldn’t choose my next week’s challenge in my quest to do all the things I had always thought about doing, but never got around to doing it, I thought maybe this would be one I could try. I must admit I am making my own rules on this one, I won’t eat from 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM, the study I read said no eating 8-8 but I go to bed so early I want to have some time in between eating and sleeping. I am going to try it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I am already anxious about the whole thing and I just finished breakfast. I wonder if I will lose weight or just eat so much on Tuesday and Thursday that I will come out even. I wonder if this will be an exercise in self-deprivation or if I will feel as good as eating to 80% full made me feel. We will see, I have nothing to lose… kind of.

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Week 2, Day 5: Eating Less

Shayla — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 01:04:13 +0000

I can’t believe this week went by so fast. I feel great except for my hamstring which I hurt at yoga and now have been going to acupuncture and massage to fix it. Eating less has been a lesson in how easy it is to eat unconsciously. I must be completely mindful if I want to eat until I am 80% full, otherwise before you know it I am definitely full. My hara hachi bu experiment is a keeper, I like it, I like the way I feel. I like being mindful about what I eat and when I am hungry. I still have a couple of days to go to decide what is next on the list, but I think this is one habit I want to keep practicing until it becomes part of my routine.

The Okinawan concept of hara hachi has a few details which include:

1. Eat until you are 80% full through mindful and conscious eating.

2. Eat whole grains, low calorie, plant based diet of soy foods and lots of vegetables. Okinawans eat fish, but I do not.

3. Regular physical exercise for a lifetime, I think I could consider this a habit now.

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Week 2, Day 3: Hara Hachi Bu

Shayla — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:36:00 +0000

Thai Veg Curry, tasted like seconds

Eat until you are 80% full is hard to measure, how do you know it is 80%? I have no idea. So I used breakfast as my guide. I eat the same thing for breakfast everyday with a few small variations: whole wheat, toasted bagel, natural peanut butter and a banana, sometimes jam, sometimes bread, mostly crunchy, but sometimes smooth peanut butter. I always feel good after breakfast, not too full, not empty, just right. So breakfast is my guide. I don’t eat too fast at breakfast, I don’t have seconds or dessert. If I can feel like breakfast after every meal I would consider it a success.

Until Day 3 I wasn’t even hungry. What I mean by that is I didn’t feel hungry, until this morning at the very end of my run when I thought “I am hungry” immediately followed by the disturbing thought “shouldn’t I always feel hungry before I eat?”. Yes, I should. I am not overweight, unhealthy or even out of touch with how I feel physically, most of the time, but this surprised and disturbed me. Wow, I didn’t feel hungry until Day 3 when I have done a spin class and a run within 12 hours of each other. I have been eating less, but I haven’t been hungry. What if no one ever feels hungry? Why am I eating when I am not hungry? I have been thinking about this all day. I also ate too much dinner. Now I am 100% Full. Hmmm? Didn’t follow my breakfast rule and had seconds, not because I needed to, but because my husband was, not a good reason and not that unusual either.

The funny thing about being 80% full was that when I finished eating I was done, but now I am 100% full all I can think about is what I can eat now… this is also disturbing. Along with my new insights today, it has been going better than I expected. I feel great, like I thought I would after yoga. Exactly what I was expecting from yoga I got from eating less. This has been a fascinating and insightful day. Makes me wonder what tomorrow will bring.

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Vegan Quesadilla

Shayla — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:44:30 +0000

8 – 6″Corn tortillas

1/2 cup Refried Beans

1/2 cup Guacamole

1/2 cup Vegan Cheese shredded

1 cup pinto beans

1 cup kidney beans

1 chopped onion

2-3 cloves of garlic chopped

1 red pepper chopped

1 cup fresh or frozen corn

1-2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp chili powder

juice from one lime

In a cast-iron fry pan, lightly coated in oil, add onion, garlic and spices and cook until onions become translucent. Add red pepper, corn and continue to stir. Add lime juice and beans, cook until hot.

In a separate pan place one tortilla in the pan and spread refried beans, a layer of cheese, add a layer of beans and corn, spread guacamole on another tortilla and place on top. Cook at medium heat for 2-3 minutes, flip carefully and heat for another 2 minutes.

Serve with salsa and a side salad.

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