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Writing can help manage weight

Friday, January 22nd, 2010 | The Chief Weight Loss Competition | No Comments

I regularly like to "track" or observe on paper my personal habits so that I can see patterns to change behaviors. Back in September, I decided to write down every time I ate out and how much I spent. After getting over the shock of my eating out habits ( ie. 12-14 times a week), I decided that both my waistline AND my pocketbook would benefit if I made some changes. Now, I am happy to report that other than my coffee addiction (which I don’t include as "eating out" ha ha), I have reduced the number to 2 times a week. Had I not measured, I wouldn’t have been so alarmed and may not have been moved to change!

On January 1st, I decided to apply the same principle to my eating, just to see what I ate, if I was getting enough veggies in my diet (I was pretty sure I wasn’t!) and see if I was over-consuming (I WAS!). One evening, while at my laptop with a box of ginger snaps next to me, I had to decide if I was willing to write down how many cookies I planned to eat that night. Having to put down in my food journal made me stop, think, and put half the cookies back!

I did this for two weeks and I observed some habits and some trends (although no graphs were created). Speaking of graphs though, some people like to use online journaling  sites such as FitnessJournal.org or Nutrition Data.com to have more sophisticated  measurements from calories to percentages of daily nutrients to how much if a certain vitamin or mineral you still need to consume that day (WOW, technology is amazing!). My suggestion is if you like this stuff, find a site that works, maybe even one that links to your iPhone (like Fitness Journal.org does) so that it’s convenient. I found that I had to journal  on paper once a day because that was most convenient and quick.

Studies of clients on diets who had to write down their food lost twice as much weight as others who didn’t. I would add that if you are one who eats when emotions or fatigue are involved, perhaps adding some notes about your "state" along with what you ate can help you see your relationship to being angry, anxious, tired or lonely. This can be the "awareness" you need to find a true means of dealing with over-eating, if that maybe the case. I hope this helps. Please feel free to leave your comments below!

Sue Shalanski is a physiotherapist and the clinic owner of Reach Physio Solutions who’s taken up this recent hobby of  blogging about living a healthier life! If you have topic suggestions for her to write about during the 10 week weight-loss competition that The Chief is running starting this week.

Shelley Cottle joins our team on January 4th, 2010

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 | Team Interviews | No Comments

Shelley was born and raised in New Zealand.  Growing up on a farm, an appreciation for the outdoors was quickly founded .  Always active in sport, art and learning in youth, she has taken these interests into adulthood.  Shelley decided at the tender age of four that she wanted to be a Physiotherapist, following in the footsteps of an Aunty she admired.   Shelley had a strong interest in Sciences, Art and Physical education at High School, this further strengthened the decision to study Physiotherapy.

Shelley took undergraduate papers in Design, Physiology and Anatomy prior to beginning her study in Physiotherapy. She Graduated from Physiotherapy at Otago University, New Zealand in 2005.  She spent the first 2 years working in a Hospital in a small city called Rotorua, New Zealand, before beginning her world travels in 2007.  Shelley likes a challenge and to be involved in a multitude of sports and activities.

Shelley was drawn to Canada in 2008 for open spaces with a variety of outdoor adventures on the doorstep.  Squamish was a natural choice being the outdoor recreation capital of Canada.  On arrival Squamish immediately felt like home.  She continues to focus mostly on multisport, mountain biking and snowboarding outside of work hours. 

Shelley has worked in Occupational Rehabilitation and private practice over the past year and a half.  Often described as friendly and relaxed, she is also very driven and focused on learning more and excelling in her interests in life.  Shelley is excited to continue with her professional development by taking multiple courses including Acupuncture in the next year.  She is excited to be part of the ‘Reach Physio Solutions’ team and help enable future and current clients towards achieving their goals.

Before & After the 100 Day Challenge of 2009

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | 100 Day Challenge Stories | 4 Comments

Below are some great stories and photos of 10 people’s experiences during the 100 Day Challenge that began September 22nd and ended on Dec 31st, 2009. The winner of the "Challenger’s Choice" and an 8GB iPod nano, as voted by her peers, was JANE SMITH. Her challenge story is lower on this page so read on.

Before you read their "high’s and low’s" I’d like to thank a few people who made this event work! Before this event began, Laurel Terlesky of Studio Blanc helped design some of the marketing material for the event. Along came Cinci Csere who posted "tweets" on Twitter and on Facebook so we could get "socially connected". Thanks! Early on in the event, Erica Otto from Violet Quartz Wellness, personal trainer, kinesiologist, Reiki Master, yogi and generally amazing chick, did measurements and weigh-ins to take some baseline measurements.  A number of you visited my (then empty) townhouse for a "kick-off/meet and greet" evening to start things off. Then, off we went, with a daily does of "Conversations with Jeff & Sue"- what varied and thought-provoking moments this provided! Thank-you Jeff Thompson- what a huge amount of work you put in! Then life coach Lara Williams offered 7 lucky ladies a 6 week group coaching program for people who wanted a framework to work with. In November, Erica conduction a stretch class with "yoga-inspired" stretches for a small group of us in the comfort of my living room! Now, we’ve survived another Christmas/New Years season and the stories are in! Thank-you to all of, I am indebted to you for a successful event!

As I reflect on my own journey since September 22nd, here are my before and after profiles:

Sue on Sept 22nd, 2009

• 2 clinics at either end of town, 1 office in my dining room in Brackendale, 1 assistant, 4 physios
• eating 14-15 meals OUT every week
• drinking 10-12 alcoholic beverages per week…
• no strength training
• lots of running to manage my stress
• 5 hours of rather restless sleep per night

Sue on Dec 31st, 2009

• 1 NEW clinic, 1 assistant, 1 receptionist, 5 physios, 2 massage therapists, one office in my home (across the street), sooo streamlined!
• eating out ONCE a week, loving cooking at home, a full freezer of yummy foods, very organized!
• ZERO drinks a week for 2 months (minus New Years eve )
• Strength training twice a week with Erica (someone noticed my "pipes" the other day Erica!)
• still running to manage my stress
• getting 6 hours of decent-enough sleep- I can handle that!
• BOOKED A VACATION in FEBRUARY 2010!!!

Overall, an absolutely AMAZING 100 Days. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" but I don’t regret a minute of it!

Thank-you to everyone who participated. You are inspiring to me!!!

Sue Shalanski

Top 10 lessons from the 100 Day Challenge

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | 100 Day Challenge Stories | 5 Comments

by Sue Emerick

Top ten things I have learned:

• Better health and wellness comes from making daily decisions

• Think small when getting started on the path toward fitness and lifestyle changes. A short bike ride is better than no bike ride.

• I have never regretted getting out and doing something no matter what the challenge was to getting started. Fending off magpies while riding a bike is       a very big and unusual challenge.

• Friends and family make the whole thing a lot easier.

• Stretching and fascia rolling are essential

• The 100 day challenge helped broaden my thinking to include things like art and literature for a more healthier living.

• Having a regular exercise class that you can easily attend and enjoy helps a lot.

• Think creatively and change things up a bit. It is fun to try new and different sports.

• Think young.

• The Fitness journal has helped me keep track of what I have done in a day.

and for continued success

• It is up to ME to make it continue to work

• Take on new challenges. For me it is an appointment with a nutritionist.

Thank you once again

Sue Emerick

Nancy’s Photo Journey

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | 100 Day Challenge Stories | 7 Comments

Hi Sue!

Here’s a photo documentary of my ‘100 Day Challenge’.

I can’t believe how fast these 100 days went by!  I had a lot of fun participating in the challenge, and more importantly I have made some big (and hopefully permanent) changes in my life.  I have always loved being outdoors, but this challenge took my love of nature to a whole new level.  Hiking, walking, yoga, dancing, skating, and snowshoeing all played a huge part in my success.

My goals were: to lose at least ten pounds, attend yoga classes regularly, and to be active three times a week.  I am happy to say I met all three of my goals.

Here are a few photos of my fitness journey….

I measured myself 4 times throughout the 100 days.  My waist measured 44 inches on Day 1.  Good Lord!  That’s bigger than most women’s hips!

I weighed 205 pounds on Day 1.  (I forgot to take a photo of the scale at the beginning of the challenge, so I took this photo a week later.)

My husband and I did a lot of hiking with friends this autumn.  Here’s a photo of the first of three stunning Joffre Lakes.  This hike was 11 kilometres long.

Next we hiked to Rainbow Lake.  This hike was 14 kilometres long.

The Elfin Lakes were our next destination.  This hike was a whopping 22 kilometres through snow!

We ended our 2009 hiking season with an ascent to the Stawamus Chief’s second peak.  It involved all manner of getting to the top.

But what a reward when we got to the top of the Chief’s second peak!

I had never participated in a yoga class before.  Here I am with Christy, the most loving and caring instructor on the planet!  Restorative yoga is where it’s at people!  Please try it!

I went skating at Robson Square….something I hadn’t done in decades!  (I’ve kinda forgotten how to skate though.  But no matter.  I had lots of laughs at my own expense.)

As a regular part of my fitness regime, I went to Shopper’s Drug Mart to take my blood pressure on a weekly basis.

At the end of the 100 days, I had lost 10 pounds!

But even more exciting than losing weight, was losing INCHES!  I lost 3 and a half inches off of my waist!  I now have the beginnings of an hourglass figure!  Woo hoo!

Another exciting development was that I can now shop in the regular women’s clothing departments!  No more buying my clothes in the ‘Large Marge’ section of stores!  The tag is XL, but that is music to my ears!  I almost want to wear my clothes with the size tag sticking out.  (Oh wait, I already do that…..)

To kick off the New Year, my husband Joe and I have recently registered for the ‘Edge to Edge Half-Marathon’ in Ucluelet in June.  I figure if I can walk 22 kilometres through mountainous snow-covered trails, I can certainly train to run/walk a 20 km half-marathon.

In closing, I want to thank you Sue for inspiring me to get out and get active!  It has been a LOT of fun and I am looking forward to kicking it up a notch in the New Year.  I’ll keep you posted regarding my marathon training.

Love,

Nancy

Colleen’s 100 Days

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | 100 Day Challenge Stories | 4 Comments

Well, I wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, but life gave me other, bigger challenges than I was anticipating. My dad’s death, which really knocked me harder than I thought possible and a strange bowel abscess that took a long time to figure out. Through that I managed to keep moving and trying to stretch, laugh and reorient myself to what is important- family, friends and lightening my load.

I weigh exactly what I did when I started, which I guess all things considered isn’t the worst.  My inches are less, not by a lot( 2 inches off my hips), but what I have come to realize that our bodies need care and love, and mine can  take me to the top of the Chief, or to Joffre lakes, and laugh the whole way (well, when I am not cursing about the elevation!)

Shuna bikes, skis, snowshoes & skates through the Challenge

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | 100 Day Challenge Stories | 4 Comments

Work with Life’s Challenges by Carol Ann

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | 100 Day Challenge Stories | 3 Comments

Hi Sue,

First, thank you, Lara, Erica, Jeff, and everyone else involved for all of the work in providing this opportunity for us.

I am amazed at the personal growth that I have experienced over the past few months by being aware daily of how I am reacting to life.

For over 2 years now I have been revisioning life following my marriage collapse and working at rediscovering who I am.  This 100 day period has affirmed and tied together much of what I have worked on.

I set out with certain goals at the beginning:  try to express myself more clearly; increase my social life; try and balance life (work vs play and emotional reactions);  improve my health (and hopefully drop a few pounds); declutter my home; seek a personal/romantic relationship.

Before we started, I identified my father’s failing health as a possible obstacle to my focusing on these goals.  And indeed just days into the challenge I was called to Toronto on emergency as my father was put on life support. I returned home after one week when he rallied but had to make a return trip to Toronto at the end of October for his funeral.

My family asked if I would give a eulogy.  My first reaction was a panic that I could not present the things that people would expect to hear.  However, I also felt the need to honour my father and I stepped into the uncomfortable zone and wrote and delivered a simple eulogy that described my father through my eyes.  It was accepted very warmly and I realized that those ‘uncomfortable’ first steps can lead to an amazing ‘comfort’ zone.  I now know that I needed to give that public farewell and I received a comfort and strength from it.

This encouraged me and I worked on opening up my inner self more.  Again I had to risk stepping out of the comfort of guarding my emotions.  I decided to stop doing what I thought people expected me to do or say.  It did mean accepting a degree of vulnerability.  To my surprise people actually interact much easier and happily with the real me!  and…. my opinions are more valued than I thought they would be. I make the effort to show appreciation as well as expect appreciation.  I feel more relaxed, realize laughter is always close at hand and have noticed more comfortable interactions with co-workers, friends and family.

I pushed myself to call friends that I had not heard from in a while and found that the reduced contact was not from a lack of desire to socialize but that they also were allowing life to overwhelm them.  We are planning to meet more regularly.  I find that being more open with my inner thoughts is also adding to the quality of our conversations.  I am avoiding making excuses for not doing activities – something that can be easy if there are chores to do or I am feeling tired.

I challenged myself to do one household organizational chore each evening when I got home from work before relaxing for the evening.  This I managed to keep up fairly well and as a result I am noticing a definite declutter progressing and am even working through some renos with realistic time expectations.  Definitely more to go! By getting a few of these chores done on a gradual basis I am actually freeing up weekend time to allow me to plan for some recreation.  A balance is developing.

Unfortunately a week before Christmas I had my jacket and purse stolen at a pub following our staff party.  I was in shock for a while and then became very upset.  After allowing myself a day and a half of feeling sorry for myself (including a good crying spell) I realized I needed to let it go in order not to spoil my whole holiday season with my family.  I pondered the situation and realized that though this was a financial loss and inconvenience I would be able to move past it whereas the person who took these items is still facing whatever issues trigger the need to do something like this (I believe it had to be more than just greed).  This helped to rid me of anger and realize that I was actually the one better off in this situation.  I was surprised when the following day I received an inspirational email with a quote:

“When you develop your ability to balance your emotions, unexpected problems won’t knock you off balance as easily, and you’ll return more quickly to a positive outlook.”  Peggy McColl
How true I found this to be!  I had a wonderful Christmas with my children.

I have been getting to yoga and stretch classes more regularly and I am consistently doing a 5 – 10 minute yoga stretch session every morning.  This has improved my flexibility however I was not successful in losing any weight – that is for the new year’s goal.

I have enjoyed the daily encouragement and find I am already missing ‘Jeff and Sue’ each morning.  I am glad that I have kept all of the messages on email so that I can review them as needed.  I was actually emailing with a friend on a near daily basis covering a lot of the topics I was exploring and I substituted that for my journalling.  I believe that the daily attention to my progress and/or setbacks definitely accelerated the successes I have had and realize that it is necessary to keep personal tabs on this and not just allow life to happen.

Once again, thank you.

Carol Ann

PS – There is also a romantic interest that has sparked!!!!

Judy’s Challenge experience

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | 100 Day Challenge Stories | 2 Comments

Hi Sue

Oh the Challenge!!!

Everything started of on a great beginning.  By the middle of November I had

lost half of my weight goal and was making progress on healthier food choices.

Then, along came our house guest, the meals got bigger and better and I found

less time to exercise.  After the house guest I had four grandchildren for the

last weekend in November which put another obstacle in my way.  Oh what fun I

had with them  —  A trip to Science World and swimming in our local pool.

Back to the routine and I pulled a muscle in my leg, a serious cold and then

a trip to Alberta for Christmas.  Everything went out the window so my challenge

turned out to be not so successful.  I enjoyed the 30 day challenges more as I felt

that by half way through the 100 days I was out of touch with the group.  Not as much

contact to keep up the motivation.  I will continue to work on the weight loss and

have started to get back into the exercise routine.  Hopefully I will be more

successful this time.

Judy

Liz’s review of the last 100 Days

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | 100 Day Challenge Stories | 5 Comments

100 Day Challenge… how hard can it be I thought? Don’t make your goals too lofty and you should certainly be able to manage this, I told myself.

First of all, it took me a few weeks to even SET my goals. And here I am at the eleventh hour, writing about what I accomplished (or didn’t accomplish) along the way. So what were my goals? Only to lose 10 lbs., drink more water, go to yoga at least once a week (something I had been promising myself for the past two years!), and to read more. Did I accomplish my goals? Well, yes and no, or should I say, more or less. Not exactly, but I was not a complete failure either. I DID lose 8 of the 10 lbs., I AM drinking more water, I DID start going to yoga, once a week, and am ready now to up it to twice a week, and I AM reading more. I am also much more aware of what I am eating, I am conscious of the amount of water I am consuming (or not consuming), and I am taking the time out for myself which my family assures me makes me a better mother and wife.

You see, my journey started two years ago when I was diagnosed with a very rare form of leukemia that leaves me feeling very sore and achy each and every day. It also limits the amount of energy I have and as a person who has always been very active this has been a very tough pill for me to swallow. Over the course of these past two years I have gained, not lost, weight due in part to medication but also I’m sure due to menopause and a change in metabolism. I have had to give up working as well as some physical activities. One hundred days ago I was feeling very ready for this boost to get me back on track. Right about the time of signing up for the 100 day challenge a friend who had recovered from breast cancer about 10 years ago and had offered encouraging words to me when I was first diagnosed found out that her cancer had returned. She lost her battle on New Year’s Day, at the end of my 100 day challenge. My battle, as well as my ongoing goals, will continue in memory of my friend Chris.

Liz