I have
been under the impression of having a relatively healthy lifestyle; I
don't drink, smoke, do drugs, and maintain a healthy body weight.
After taking the lifestyle evaluation at the beginning of the
chapter, I realised that wasn't necessarily the case. My three
weakest components were a 2 in nutrition, 5 in fitness, and 6 in
emotional health (WW #1). A month earlier, nutrition and fitness
would have been my strongest components. Without the mandatory meals
and physical training enforced by the Air Force, and the large
shuffle of moving back into civilian life, these fundamentals slipped
away. I chose nutrition because I assumed it would be a relatively
easy lifestyle change to bring back into my life.
Upon
deciding on nutrition as the topic for my lifestyle change, I decided
to improve my daily nutritional intake by eating two planned meals
per day including the addition of greenery and fruits and vegetables
as daily snacks (WW #2). Initially, I set bi-monthly goals for
myself to remove any unhealthy food from my home, cut out sugary
drinks and fast food, and to add vitamin supplements to my diet. As
an avid gamer, setting the reward of a new game was an easy incentive
(WW #2).
At the
beginning of this project, I was in a depressive slump. A
combination of negative events had left me feeling numb to the world
and taking care of myself had slipped to the wayside. I was going
through the actions of life, but not really living. The onset of
this assignment was when I had started to try to improve my state of
living, and throwing myself into something was a good start. My
improper diet was something I had noticed and had intentions of
changing, which is probably why I set unrealistic goals for myself at
the beginning. Eating properly has been a long standing issue for
me, it was slightly improved when I relied upon the meals provided by
the dining facilities while enlisted but made me even lazier in terms
of providing for myself.
As the
semester comes to a close, I feel like I haven't accomplished much in
terms of my goals and have fallen very far off from my primary goal.
Difficulty finding a job in a timely manner depleted my cash
reserves, making it difficult to keep on track with the slightly more
expensive healthy options. It also led to a need of relocating my
living situation for more affordable rent and picking up more hours
at work. The additional work hours on a third shift sleeping
schedule while still maintaining four classes caused stress and time
constraints which led to simple repetitive or sometimes skipped
meals. Most of my downtime was split between classwork and catching
up on sleep. My new living environment also lacks heat other than
the personal heater in my room also contributed to me not wanting to
spend elongated periods of time in the kitchen as the weather turned
colder. I acknowledge that these reasons are ultimately excuses, but
combined with my already existent difficulty in getting myself to
follow through with even basic tasks some days, it became difficult
to stick to a schedule.
As an
avid gamer, I originally chose treating myself to a new game purchase
with each goal I met (WW #2). When my economic forecast changed, I
altered my reward system to abide small food treats of items that
don't fit the diet change when I maintain changed behaviour traits
(WW #4). I feel like this change would have gone smoother if I had
had proper funds to support it, and if I had started off with lower
expectations from the onset. Daily and weekly rewards would have
been a nice mixture to add in, such as a daily fun sized bar for
remembering to record all foods eaten that day and weekly ones for
maintaining proper calorie intake.
At the
beginning of this project, I was living in a house with two roommates
whom I enlisted to aid me in reaching my goals. Both were supportive
of the change, one is my best friend of 8 years, the other has been a
friend for 6 years (WW #3). Their role in helping me reach my goal
ended up being a very difficult one to play, we worked opposite
shifts and due to economic restraints I moved to a new location in
October. Since moving out I have been a shut in, splitting my time
between work, school, and sleep leaving little time for social
interactions. Without having them to help remind me to do things
outside of just work and school, the days started to blend together
and meals became a kind of random pattern I occasionally remembered
to partake in.
Expense,
ease of fast food acquisition, and cravings were the challenges I
knew I would need to overcome during this endeavour (WW #2). As it
turns out, I underestimated the difficulties which would be brought
about by economic responsibility. Fast food was relatively easy to
overcome, only eating it a few times when I had to work particularly
late shifts and nothing else was open. Cravings didn't come up as
often as I thought they would, not often having any cravings which I
had the means to follow through with. Expense, time management, and
access to means of travel which could carry groceries definitely
hampered my quest in nutrition that were unexpected. For expense,
the degree of difficulty it played was more to handle than
anticipated. I changed my plan to just ensuring I at least had close
to the proper allotment of daily calories with food that wasn't
complete junk. This switch made my goal easier to obtain, but also
made my food consumption become very boring and repetitive.
Everything
in life comes down to money. With unexpected expenses, difficulties
finding a job, and depleted savings, my initial plan was impossible
to keep on track. Nutritious and delicious food requires a decent
amount of money to purchase, to balance this I found simple foods
that may not have been particularly nutritious or delicious, but they
weren't especially unhealthy and made sure I was at least eating
semi-proper meals. I hope to improve on this once I get back on
track and can re-establish some sort of pattern to my life.
Although
I already had designs to make a similar change in my life, I feel
like I ended up rushing into it before I was properly prepared.
Advice for someone who is preparing to make a similar dietary change
would be to make sure you have your finances in control before
initiating a change that needs a decent income. It also is best to
wait until you have a stable home situation, moving and big changes
often throw in a wrench. Unexpected issues are easier to deal with
when you have a relative pattern and stable ground to stand on for
support in an awkward situation.
Time
management was also a big issue. Between work, school, and trying to
get enough sleep, the idea of creating meals instead of just relying
on quick fixes was never very appealing. There were situations where
a lack of time and working late nights led to quick and easy fast
food consumption. Time crunch and admittedly my own laziness played
a large role in slacking on my diet improvements. Being tired and
cold definitely doesn't lead to successful time in an equally cold
and lonely kitchen.
Once I
get my finances in a better situation and my life back on track with
an established pattern working I definitely intend on reconfiguring
how and what I eat. As I said before, I feel like I will have better
success if I don't rush into it, with the adaptation at a slower pace
on my own terms. Hopefully I can get a good reserve of money and
hopefully my string of bad luck will have ended. Outside stressors
played a large role along side financial burdens and time management
for this adventure, rebooting once all my ducks are in a row will
have an outcome with more substantial results. I prefer change
without outside pressure dictating the timeframe when possible. I
plan to keep up the pattern I have established for now, and to
revisit adjustments after the holiday season is over and retail hours
calm down. I also recently switched to the evening shift at work,
which has a mandated half hour break for lunch midshift. My plan is
to prepare dinners for myself to save on costs as well as fit in a
healthier option than scrounging at work for something cheap and easy
to prepare and eat in under 30 minutes.
I
honestly feel like this project has stressed me out more in a way
than make the change easier. Having to keep track of my consumption
annoyed me, and when I forgot it would make me nervous and frustrated
trying to remember what had transpired correctly. It made me set
myself in to boring and repetitive meals so I could easily prepare
and track what I've consumed. It is definitely a habit at this
point, but one that makes me want to rebel and waste the day eating
an entire bag of chips in one sitting just because I it isn't
allowed. I have to find a proper balance between eating healthy and
letting myself slip and live like a regular college student in their
20s. I feel like this project definitely gave me a proper guideline
of what not to do to help myself change something so ingrained in my
life. I now know I need to find a slow adapting path to change, but
after I have a stable foundation to build these changes.
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