Power Re-Stored & Mindful Eating

It's funny, just a few days after I wrote my more personal "update" post, I found out that my body has gone back to normal more or less after all - hurrah!

I suppose it is only because I decided to go the more natural way with recovering, as opposed to taking medication and other supplements, that it took a little longer than it should have. I have heard that with amenorrhea, it can take a good few years to recover, and so I am really happy that I managed to do so without prescriptions up to here *points to the sky*.

Having that said, since recovering, I have decided to cut out something that has sadly played a big part in my life for the last two and a half years (since I got ill, basically), and that is to count calories.
Now, even if counting to maintain a healthy and happy life-style, I have no discovered that it really isn't that good for you at all! It's understandable that it is a "safe-zone" go-to if you are in a very bad shape and want to work on weight reduction, but it can too easily become a bit of an obsession. This is something I have realised over the last couple of days... Tired of checking the labels on packets? Me too!

Even on days when I would treat myself and go "over the GDA", I felt OK about it, because I had the rest of the meals scribbled down - and thus I was somewhat control still. But I find now that without writing it down - I am struggling: Have I had enough nutrition? Have I had "too much"?
I have always been good at giving advice, but it's seldom that I follow it when it comes to myself, which is a real shame, because you should "practise what you preach". I really detest the word "preach", so.... Practise you own advice? I guess that is more fitting, and as long as you have the proper understanding of nutrition and what is more or less healthy, then you will be OK! Almost a week down the line now, and I find myself worrying about the numbers on the packets a little less, but the first few days was a big struggle. Feeling insecure, like Bambi on ice - but really without reason, I realise that now...

More of this!

I have a pretty good insight into the world of nutrition since I started the home-nutrition course and also since starting becoming increasingly more interested in a healthy life-style and cooking a few years back, so I know I have the fundamental information which will get me far, and I really have no reason to stress!
So I have decided to put it down in writing, the basic rules for my fundamental diet - which will not be a "diet" the way most people think of it, but more like mindful eating. It is important to enjoy the food, and you shouldn't have to stress about it!

The main things to keep in mind are:
Get your 5-a-day! At least three of these should be through vegetables, as some fruits are high in sugar - it's good sugar though, so if you opt for berries instead of sweets, I wouldn't feel toooo bad about it. Everyone needs a little bit of chocolate now and then though, and I wont deny my body any foods, just eat in moderation. Should you go over your five portions of fruit and vegetables though, that is not a bad thing! Plenty of vitamins and fibre to keep you energised.

Make sure you get plenty of protein, whether it be through animal sources, dairy, nuts, legumes or other sources.
Calcium is another very important nutrient for anyone, really! Your bone density decreases as you get older, and so making sure that you get a lot of it at an earlier stage will help slow that process down. These two points can be tricky for vegetarians and vegans, and might require a little reasearch and understanding beforehand. Tofu, mushrooms, nuts, beans and legumes are great vegan sources for protein. As far as calcium goes, leafy greens, calcium-fortified tofu, soy milk and soybeans are essential. Some supplements can get you ahead, if you're afraid you might not get as much of these nutrients as you need, but getting it all through a varied diet is a lot better for your body (and usually way lighter on your wallet too!) Soybeans are in fact the only vegan food that has been proven to contain ALL 12 key nutrients that your body needs, now how about that?!

Make sure to get enough carbohydrates - this is your number ONE source of energy and it will make sure you stay fuller for longer. Not having a source of carbohydrates with your meal means that the body will take longer to break down the nutrition from fats and protein resulting in you not feeling as satisfied. You are more likely to want a snack shortly after. Just make sure you go for wholemeal breads and pastas, and starchy vegetables packed with nutrition such as sweet potatoes and potatoes.

Healthy fats are essential! I remember always cutting back on oil and butter in cooking, I have realised now that a little bit of this is good for you (also... some things simply cannot be fried without a bit of it). Omega 3 and other healthy fats helps your brain function better, it's easier to stay focused, and it will make sure your hair and skin stay healthy! So if you're craving something salt, grab a handful of nuts, or tropical mix, as it sure will make you feel a lot better.

To eat healthy doesn't have to mean eating "boring" foods at all!

So, in short: 5-a-day, protein, calcium, good sources of carbohydrates and healthy fats. This is basically the key to good living. Make sure to eat varied, and you are likely to get all the nutrition your body needs without as much as having to spare it a thought!
I eat every 3-4 hours, to make sure my biological machinery stays happy, healthy, and get a regular top-up of energy. If you're in a hurry - grab a smoothie, or homemade granola bar!

I hope you like this little "guide", and that you will find is as useful as myself! If you have anything you would like to add, like hints and tips to mindful eating, vegetarianism, veganism, or thoughts on amenorrhea, please feel free to share your experiences!

This blog will still focus on healthy eating, so worry not that there isn't any nutritional information provided, have a quick look at the ingredients, and you'll see!

- Jules

Stress Less & Update

stress!

I thought I would get back to the subject of amenorrhea since it has been a long time since I last posted about it as a quick sort of update.

My aim was to recover as soon as possible, gain weight in order to restore my normal hormone levels and assume my body would get back to normal. Things are still the same since October 2012, which I find a bit odd. 3-4 kilos and a year and three months later, nothing has changed apart from the fact that I get a bit more hormonal now than what I used to - which funnily enough I have to count as a positive! I went on the pill for three months just to see if that would trigger my body to respond, which it did, but as soon as I stopped taking them - it went back to normal, unfortunately.

A part of me tells me that it might not have to do with the working out and running now as much as it did before. Amenorrhea can also be triggered or go into "standby" if you are stressed though, and I have been stressed out a lot over the last year due to numerous reasons. I feel a lot healthier as far as my diet goes, and I also make sure to care more about the food I eat, ever-looking for inspiration and new ideas. As far as the blogging goes, I enjoy it more than ever, and I love when you drop by and give me feedback - sometimes giving me helpful advice - thank you so much!

And...if you happen to have any good advice as to how you relax at the end (or even better during!) the day, please feel free to share - I would definitely appreciate it big time! And I also reckon other readers could find it helpful.

Sometimes, you don't take note of these little underlying things that cause you to worry, but once it piles up - it isn't hard to tell at all. It's good to be a little organised, and try and work on ticking off little to-do boxes in order to keep everything up to date.

As far as working out goes, make sure not to over-do it, because then you are more likely to get fed up after not long, and motivation can sink. Find something that YOU enjoy doing, don't try and manipulate yourself into thinking you like it just because everyone else for example seems to be attending the gym instead of going hill climbing, or taking a ride on your bike.

Don't over-think what you're eating, aim for your 5-a-day and get enough protein! Through a varied diet and portion control, you will get all the nutrients you need. Make sure to eat every 3-4 hours to keep your system working, and allow yourself to indulge every now and again. Food is meant to be enjoyed, and you don't necessarily have to count your calories. In fact - I wouldn't advise it at all, unless making sure your body is getting enough fuel. 70-80% of your diet should consist of primarily healthy foods, then the remaining 20% you can do as you please with! That's a handy thumb-rule to go by I think!

I had to feature this little guy - too cute! And most certainly relaxed *winks*

If you find yourself a little overwhelmed, try taking a couple of hours to yourself, draw a bath, read a good book, or cook up a nice meal. You don't always have to be on the go, or run... Peace of mind is necessary for your mental and physical health. So relax - it's Saturday!


All the best!

- Jules

PS. All the pictures in this post are taken from Google Images, all the pictures of the food I make are taken by myself.

Why doth Thou Feareth Bread if Thou Runneth?

For some time now, I have been wanting to write about exercising, fitness and a healthy diet. What stopped me? Well, around ten months ago, I discovered that I had eaten a little "too healthy" and thus not gotten enough nutrition, which resulted in amenorrhea. So who was I to speak about fitness and nutrition, when it turned out I had been doing it wrong all along? I went from being chubby, to not eating enough of the right things. This came as a surprise, as I had thought I had been living a very healthy life-style, feeling fresh as a daisy and full of energy.

Around 2 years ago, I weighed 69 kilos, that was when I realised something had to be done. I wasn't comfortable in my own skin, because I hadn't always been as chubby. I was working full-time, and dinner usually consisted of something that came out of the freezer, made by some random factory somewhere... I thought I didn't have time to fit in exercising and cooking, but what did I know? It turns out you can fit in both, and quite easily as well, it's all just a matter of convincing yourself and getting started! The progress was slow, I did it the way we are told - to lose weight slowly and healthily, by eating well and exercising regularly so as to not gain the weight back on as soon as you stop being as active. Now, I am around 50 kilos - and my goal before I started to change my life-style, was to go down to 55.

5-a-day might sound like a challenge to some, but whenever you're avoiding this food and that, all of a sudden you have had 7 out of your 5-a-day! That was were I was at, and after a long session at the gym, I would normally go home and make something to eat, usually very low in calories which ended in my body not getting enough protein, calcium and carbohydrates, as well as iron.
Since then, I have and still am suffering from amenorrhea - which some girls might already have heard of. Because this is a blog for everyone to see, I feel a bit queasy about posting up the description of it, as it basically just messes up girls' hormones. I am sure Google or Wikipedia can make you a little wiser, should you wish to look it up (or just go to http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/women/a/Amenorrhea.htm)

Mainly, I am writing this in case any girls or women who come across this blog, is going through the same, and are looking for advice. When I first discovered it, it was easily enough to find information about it online, but to actually read other people's experience was a little more difficult to come by. I thought I'd add a quote from the movie "Patch Adams" on how we each learn from one another:

-Mr. Adams... have you or have you not been treating patients at your ranch?
-Everyone who comes to the ranch is a patient, yes. And every person who comes to the ranch is also a doctor.
-I'm sorry?
-Every person who comes to the ranch is in need... of some form of physical or mental help. They're patients. But also every person who comes to the ranch is in charge of taking care of someone else-- whether it's cooking for them, cleaning them... or even as simple a task as listening. That makes them doctors. I use that term broadly, but is not a doctor someone who helps someone else?

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/p/patch-adams-script-transcript-robin.html

We all learn from each others' life experiences as well as our own, be it bad or good!
In itself, as long as you ackowledge amenorrhea and start eating more, making sure you get a little bit of everything, it will go away and you will go back to normal. If you choose to ignore it though, it will as far as I've understood, lead to lower bone density which can be a big problem should you get osteoporosis at an onlder age. It will also take longer for your bones to heal should you get a fracture. The stress factor increases, and your body, nutrition-wise, is not healthy. There are medical ways of "fixing" the problems, but in my opinion the best way is the natural way - decrease the amount of exercise you do for a short period of time, and also eat more. Within a few weeks or months, the body usually gets back to normal.

Calorie counting: I had been feeling stronger and more energised than ever, going to the gym twice a week, steadily increasing the amount of time I spent there each session. As soon as I realised my body wasn't catching up with me though, I figured I would have to be careful, making sure I would get enough calories. Now, I thought I could get enough nutrition once I started counting my calories - it made sense to me! I kept trying to avoid bread, rice, pasta, fats and sugary products still, and all the obvious "unhealthy" foods, and just ate more of what I already was eating, counting between 1800-2000 calories each day, but aaalways rounding the calories up. Say, if I had a snack that was 66 calories, I would count that as 70 and so on, which meant I was getting less than I needed.

I saw my Doctor once I had sussed out what was wrong with me, I had my blood tests taken, and because I had already started eating more of what I had been avoiding before, the blood levels came out "normal", but my body didn't recover... Again, a few weeks ago - over half a year since I last had seen the Doctor, I went back there - because I had been told that if the issue didn't resolve itself naturally, I should come back and talk to him to see if there was anything I needed to do. It turns out I had lost more weight since my previous visit, and I was told that it was not a problem, I would just have to gain a few kilos. I already knew this, but because I have been avoiding certain foods for so long, it almost became like an OCD way of thinking around it. So I tried to figure out what products to swap for what I was eating now that had more calories in it. This means I would eat the same types of foods still, except they were only slightly higher in calories, and the difference in the fat- and sugar content was miniscule. So even if I was counting calories and getting my GDA, this was still not enough, I still tried to stay away from certain foods that my body required.

After also having spoken with a PT and nutritional expert in my local gym, only about a week and a half ago, I have been set straight - hopefully... I was told that if you want to lose weight, you shouldn't both go on a diet AND exercise. Exercise, sure, and make sure you eat healthily, but healthy means that you need fats and carbohydrates, protein and sugar. Instead of getting it directly through chocolate, cheese, or other things that you only need a little bit of though, you can always eat fruits and nuts, add a big dab of delicious red pepper hummous on a slice of bread, and have wholemeal bread and brown rice. When you exercise on a regular basis, your body usually needs quite a bit of all the things you should "avoid" when on a diet and not doing much exercise.
Oh! And when I said I had been avoiding carbohydrates, the PT just looked at me surprised (and not the good kind of surprised...), with an expression saying "carbohydrates is one of THE most important part of an athletes diet!" When talking about eating healthily in general, he said I had been on the right track when I told him that I'd rather have a bit of chocolate or a piece of fruit to get my sugar kicks, eating a lot of vegetables, but also that I had to make sure I treated myself every now and again, and that I should perhaps consider having one or tro protein shakes a week to top up on my protein leves (I've still not gotten around to that yet, as I previously said - I prefer getting the right nutrition the natural way!)
I was assured that my problem was not uncommon, by the sound of it, athletic amenorrhea is something almost all female body builders suffer from and a lot of female athletes in general, and here is little me going on the treadmill and running a bit here and there having the same problem. The PT informed me that it wasn't my work-out session as much as my diet, but that I should definitely make sure to eat normally, fresh, using my common sense, and add a bit of resistance training into my weekly work-outs so as not make my body used to running and pushing itself, because it also needs exercises that help building muscles, so the body can support me when doing all the cardiovascular exercises.

I am still "recovering", and I will probably post an update on it as soon as everything is back to normal. I just felt that I should write about it, seeing as cooking and exercising is a big part of my life now. I didn't know anyone personally who had been through the same situation as me a month ago, but then I met someone who gave me a kick in the side telling me to make sure I'd eat enough, as she had had amenorrea herself and recovered by making sure she put on a couple of kilos. Most guys love a girl with a bit of curves anyway, right?
...It just goes to show that you can feel as fresh as ever, but not realise there is something wrong.
So, if you're an athlete, or exercise on a regular basis, you don't have to be afraid of certain foods, eat healthy, a little bit of everything but in moderation - your body needs it! And should you have a craving for something, that is probably your body telling you that it's short of it, have a bit of chocolate, a Babybel or a small bag of crisps. Make sure you get a lot of protein and carbohydrates, a bit of sugar and fat and also a lot of iron and calcium. It seems to be a fine balance between it all, but I had no clue exactly how big a deal your diet is in context to exercising until I learnt the hard way myself

You live and learn, try and fail, try again - and hopefully you get it right at least the second time around! We all have our moments where we feel like a clumsy puppy.
I just remembered I'm a libra, ha! So much for being indecisive and rambling on about scales eh?

Take care

- Jules

PS. All three photos in this post is from Google images, whereas usually I take them myself.