At the beginning of this week I was very ambitious and decided that I was going to do a Protein diet all week, which in my mind at the time involved eating meats, boiled or steamed veggies, salads and fruits. I made this goal for a number of reasons. 1) As I am swimming lengths at the pool daily I want to cut down on carbohydrates and fatty foods so that I can achieve my ultimate health goal of loosing weight. 2) I wanted to test myself to see if my mind and body could fight the temptations that I knew would be in my way. 3) I wanted to see if I could undergo a healthy diet on the tight student budget that I have. Here’s how it went…
The purchases: The ingredients I purchased to make into dinner meals over the 7 nights included chicken breast, rump steak, pork chops, packet of mixed veggies, spinach, yams and eggs. The meats blew my measly student budget before I had even begun with buying the lunch ingredients that I desired. I had to turn my thinking cap on where I made the decision to hunt down a cheap veggie shop somewhere in the Dunedin suburbs. BINGO I managed to find one! I managed to score some good deals on avocados, tomatoes, a lettuce, cucumber and some fruit.
The process: Actively cooking my dinners and lunches were simple because I am very confident with cooking and have trust in what I make! However, my toughest challenge was dealing with the Temptations that surrounded me all week. Firstly living on great king streets “fatty lane” didn’t help with the smells of the takeaway shops wafting into the flat, slithering their way up my nostrils. On some occasions other flat mates would be in the tiny kitchen cooking up delicious fatty foods that looked overwhelmingly better looking than my boiled vegetables. On one of the evenings a friend was having a birthday b.y.o which I was invited to, this meant I had to pick wisely from the menu and watch everyone else indulge in way better looking food. It is now the time where I fess up to where I made two mistakes, I gave into the temptation of a hotdog and to the cravings of a mouthwatering snickers bar. Yes I messed up but I did get back on the band wagon and kept going on the diet. There were some opportunities or positives that I got out of the experience. I found I could reach out and get support from my friends to help me though it when I was finding it difficult. I became aware at the end of the week that my energy levels were increasing and I wasn’t feeling as bloated and overly full after meals.
Lessons learnt:
1) - Have self discipline when it comes to something you want to accomplish
2) - Mistakes will be made, however clean up the best you can and keep going
3) - Be persistent
4) - You can’t always do I alone, sometimes you need help from others
5) - Don’t sit around complaining, take action
Through my experience this week I can relate them to some of the essential messages shown in the movie ‘Julie and Julia’, particularly the message of “Stop complaining and take action”. For Julie she was sick and tiresome of her job, where nothing was ‘sure’ in her life. Instead of sitting around complaining Julie decided to do something with her life and take on the challenge for a year of cooking her way through the cook book Mastering the art of French cooking and blogging about her experiences. I can relate to this message of ‘stop complaining and take action’ as I have moaned and groaned for weeks to my friends and family around me about how unhappy I am with my body and how I need to diet, where finally I took action in my life and set myself this diet goal which was a great step for me, and I endeavor to continue it in the future. Here’s a nice quote where Julie is expressing to her husband about why she loves cooking and the meaning it plays in her life. “Chocolate cream pie! You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That's such a comfort” (Ephron, 2009).
References:
Ephron, N. (Director). Powell, J. (Actor). (2009). Julie & Julia [Motion picture]. United States: Columbia Pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment