That’s Not Such A Good Idea

March 21, 2016March 20, 2016 / ktbuchs87 / 2 Comments

You might think it would be a good idea to eat a bunch of broccoli while you’re feeling nauseated because “Broccoli is good for you, it can only make you feel better.”

That's Not Such A Good Idea | Life Healthfully Lived

I don’t eat broccoli anymore, I just wear it.

You would be wrong. That’s not such a good idea.

You might think it would be a good idea to workout ONE DAY after laying on the couch the whole day before due to feeling like death.

Totally ready for this workout guys…

You would be wrong. That’s not such a good idea.

You might think it would be a good idea to try and work at your standing desk right after being knocked out by some stomach virus for a few days.

Bed desk > Standing desk

You would be wrong. That’s not such a good idea.

You might think it would be a good idea to buy a bunch of vegetables with the hopes of eating it in the next day or two even though you can still barely stomach brown rice cakes and baby carrots.

Immediately regret all the vegetables!

You would be wrong. That’s not such a good idea.

The moral of the story? I didn’t have many good ideas in the past few days and I’m still trying to listen to what my body is telling me. It’s ok if I can’t eat as many green things or exercise as much as I’m used to when my health clearly isn’t at 100%. I shouldn’t feel bad or like a failure. When you’re sick you need to forget all your reason and do what feels best because that will get you healthier faster.

And for goodness sake, DON’T take a walk down to the lake just to “get some fresh air” when there isn’t a bathroom in the near vicinity.

At least I got a workout sprinting back to my apartment….

That’s not such a good idea.

Self-Affirmations & Feeling Silly

March 14, 2016March 14, 2016 / ktbuchs87

We have all probably heard at some point in our life that we should think positively, especially about ourselves. Browse around on Pinterest and you will see thousands of pins that have sayings like “BeYOUtiful” and “You are your harshest critic” and “Hey, stop being mean to yourself”. Ok, maybe not the last one but you get the idea. Self Affirmations & Feeling Silly | Life Healthfully Lived

The thing is we know we should be kind to ourselves, we just have a really hard time doing it. It’s easy to critique our own body’s, habits, and personalities. We’re used to being kind to others but don’t really know what to do when it comes to us.

That’s why self-affirmations were made.

Ok, that’s also probably not true but someone along the way that in order to be kinder to ourselves we should actually talk positively to ourselves. Like actually out loud say nice things about us. Stand in front of the mirror in the bathroom and say things like, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” By doing this every day, you’ll learn to love yourself and be kinder to your body. Those of you rolling your eyes at me right now, don’t worry I’m with you. Self Affirmations & Feeling Silly | Life Healthfully Lived

Or, at least, I was.

Self-affirmations sounded like a load of self-help hogwash. Something that sounds good on paper and in books but doesn’t really work. How is standing in front of the mirror every day (something I already don’t like doing) and talking out loud like a lunatic going to really help me like myself more? But I also thought what have I got to lose? If it doesn’t work no skin off my nose. It’s not like I had to make these affirmations out loud in front of a crowd so I started talking nice to myself. Self Affirmations & Feeling Silly | Life Healthfully Lived

I didn’t choose hokey phrases that meant nothing to me, but rather I would look at myself and make a conscious effort to say something I truly liked about my body/life/personality.

“Good morning Katie, your eyes look really green and bright today. Lots of people would really like to have your green eyes.”

“Hey there Kate, you just squatted more weight than you have before and I can tell your legs are stronger than ever. Nice work!”

“That dinner you made from scratch last night really hit the spot and it’s awesome that you can come up with flavor combinations like that all on your own now. Keep up the good work!”

Sure, I felt silly at first but then a funny thing started happening. I started to believe my affirmations. I was getting stronger, my recipes were coming to me easier, there are certain features of my face and body that are absolutely beautiful. And these feelings started to flow into other parts of my life. I felt more confident and believed I could do anything I wanted. I started complimenting other people because I knew just like me they were awesome. Self Affirmations & Feeling Silly | Life Healthfully Lived

Moral of the story? Sometimes things that sound silly and hokey can really help you out. If you’ve never tried self-affirmations, give it a go. Will it feel awkward and weird? You bet. Especially if your husband knocks on the bathroom door and asks if you’re talking to one of the cats and you tell him no, just yourself…. but as time goes on it will fell less and less weird and more natural. It will start to show that you think highly of yourself and you should always think highly of yourself.

Because you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like you!

3 Health Rules I Routinely Break & 1 I Always Follow

February 29, 2016February 29, 2016 / ktbuchs87

3 Health Rules I Routinely Break & 1 I Always Follow | Life Healthfully Lived I’m not a person who usually breaks the rules. I hate conflict and I’m a huge people-pleaser. I don’t like anyone to be mad at me and I really hate being called out for doing something wrong. I was the kid in class who would raise my hand because I knew it was expected but pray the teacher would never call on my because what if I was wrong and everyone would hate me?

Welcome to the life of an introvert.

As I get older I’m getting better with the people-pleasing thing because it is literally impossible to please every person in your life at one time and it’s not my job to make everyone happy. But there is one area of my life that I’m really good at breaking the “rules”.

My health.

I know, my health seems like the one place I should ALWAYS follow the rules. Why mess with something as important as my health? But here’s the thing: There are so many rules that it can be mind-boggling. One person says to do this but another says that will actually kill you. One expert has found the key to success but another says that will literally destroy everything. So I’ve given up trying to follow all the rules and made up some of my own.

Here the top five rules/advice everyone has heard before and what I actually do. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying these rules are bad. They just don’t work for me. And that’s what’s best for your health, finding what works for you.

Rule #1: Eat five to six small meals throughout the day instead of three big meals

I like food so you would think I would love to eat six meals in a day. But here’s the thing, I like a big plate of food. I tend to eat with my eyes first and if I see a small plate with a small amount of food, my brain and stomach get sad. My brain is already telling my stomach that won’t be enough food to feed me and I start plotting what I’m going to eat next to fill that void rather than enjoy what’s in front of me. 3 Health Rules I Routinely Break & 1 I Always Follow | Life Healthfully Lived

What works for me: Eating when I’m hungry. Sometimes that’s three square meals a day and sometimes that’s two really big meals. Listening to my body allows me to enjoy the food on my plate at that moment instead of worrying about where I’m going to get more food to fill me up.

Rule #2: Don’t eat after 6 or 7 p.m.

If I followed this rule, I would never have dinner. Adam usually doesn’t get home until after 6 and we usually have dinner between 7:30 and 8. That’s just what works for us. Now I get that this “rule” is meant to curb after dinner eating but I think a lot of people take it as somehow calories matter more at a magic time of night. They don’t. 350 calories at 6 a.m. are the same 350 calories at 6 p.m. How your body uses them will be different because you’re generally more active in the morning than at night. But you get what I mean. 3 Health Rules I Routinely Break & 1 I Always Follow | Life Healthfully Lived

What works for me: Eating dinner at my normal time and not worrying about closing my kitchen at a certain time. I also generally don’t snack after dinner because we eat later and I’m just not hungry.

Rule #3: Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day

Let me make this clear: water is good. You should drink water. But I have a hard time sucking down all that water every day. Believe me, I’ve tried. I feel bloated, uncomfortable, and have to pee every five minutes. I’ve done all the tricks. Gotten a water bottle, set timers, added fruit to make it taste better, but at the end of the day, I just don’t stick with the water program. 3 Health Rules I Routinely Break & 1 I Always Follow | Life Healthfully Lived

What works for me: I do drink water first thing in the morning because I’m usually thirsty when I wake up and right after I workout, also in the morning. Then I listen to my body and drink when I’m thirsty not just because I have to. I also drink a lot of tea and eat a ton of vegetables and your body will get water through those means as well.

The Rule I Always Follow: Portion Control

Portions get me every time. Remember how I said I eat with my eyes? I tend to fill up my plate and then eat every last bit of that food and sometimes go back for seconds. So I have to be good with my portions. Now, that doesn’t mean I get out my measuring cups and spoons and make sure everything is perfectly portioned. I have switched to smaller plates and bowls because our regular dinner plates could feed a small army. And on some things (cough peanut butter cough cough) I do measure it out or else I would eat the whole jar in two days. No joke.

There you have it, how I’ve changed a few of the rules to work for me and not make me feel bad about my decisions. It’s better to make your health your own rather than following a set of rules that make you feel restricted and guilty. 3 Health Rules I Routinely Break & 1 I Always Follow | Life Healthfully Lived

What are some of the health rules that you break?

Busy, Wonderful, Happy Weekend

February 15, 2016February 15, 2016 / ktbuchs87

Today is just a happy recap of my awesome weekend along with a few pictures from the frozen tundra of Chicago!

Adam and I decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Saturday and by celebrate I mean we went out to eat a delicious breakfast. Going out to breakfast is kind of our thing. I know most people like to go to fancy dinners but to me, breakfast is where it’s at.

Busy, Wonderful, Happy Weekend | Life Healthfully Lived

Layer of ice on the last step in front of Lake Michigan.

Adam found this really cool little breakfast joint in Uptown called Tweet. They had an awesome gluten-free menu as well as a packed full menu and it wasn’t hard to find something delicious to eat. I had a build your own omelette with mushrooms and peppers, plus fruit, sliced tomatoes, and sauteed tofu. Adam decided to go for a steak breakfast burrito with Chipotle aioli and was pretty much in heaven. If you’re looking for a neat little breakfast joint, you should check them out!

I think this picture of Lake Michigan almost looks like another planet

After eating, we headed over to the McCormick Place to check out the Auto Show. Neither Adam or I are nuts about cars (we have a car that we rarely drive because it’s RIDICULOUSLY expensive to pay for parking in the city) but it was freezing outside and this was an inexpensive activity that was inside. We wandered around for awhile, looked at cars of the future, (hint: they all look the same and robots are going to take over the driving world) and tried to figure out which car models actually knew anything about the car they were standing in front of. Spoiler alert: Not many.

Ice in Belmont Harbor

After we were done with that we headed home to just hang out and relax. Well, our plan was to relax but I decided to ruin that. Recently, I just finished reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. It’s an awesome little book and a lot of the advice and methods she uses made a lot of sense. I started to look around our apartment and noticed that we had a lot of stuff. Stuff that we never used, stuff that was just taking up space, and stuff that wasn’t bringing us any joy. I decided enough was enough and I started tackling the clutter.

Soon I sucked Adam into the cleaning spree and over the course of two days we drastically cut down on the amount of junk we had accumulated over the years. I would say about 20-30ish reusable bags were filled with things we didn’t need and that was only from 3 rooms. We still have to go through our closets and our bedroom, but I already feel a lot better and I’ll have pictures when it’s all done!

That was our weekend and even though a large portion of it was cleaning it was wonderful. I got to spend some quality time with my husband, made our apartment cleaner and more comfortable, and ate tasty food. That’s my idea of fun!

How was your weekend? What did you do for Valentine’s Day?

Being Brave And Making The Change

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

I have been mulling this post over in my head for awhile now. I guess it’s been at the back of my thoughts for at least a few months, but I kept pushing it away. I didn’t want to deal with it and ignoring things always makes them go away, right?

If only it did. Being Brave And Making The Change | Life Healthfully Lived

So last week when I wrote about my theme for 2016, I knew that I would finally have to deal with this issue. If I really want to grow and mature I have to actually grow and mature. Profound thoughts guys, I know. But for me, it was kind of profound.

I’m not dying, in fact, no one is dying. No one is sick, nothing is horribly or awfully wrong. So don’t worry about that. But there is a big change coming for me and I’m a little nervous. I’m putting on my big girl panties and telling myself, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

I’m taking a break from running.

All of you reading this are probably cursing me because who cares if I’m taking a break from running? It doesn’t affect the vast majority of people and this isn’t a life-altering announcement. Except that it is. For me. Being Brave And Making The Change | Life Healthfully Lived

You have heard me rave about running and how it has given me so much. I am proud to call myself a runner and join the ranks of thousands who log their miles with their feet. I have talked about finally running a marathon, I love watching races, and I love getting outside and hitting the trail.

Until a few months ago that is. Lately, I have been struggling with my running. Instead of waking up excited to head out for my run, I’m dreading it. I find myself dawdling longer and longer before finally motivating myself to get out the door. At first, I thought it was just a down week. All runners have them. Those days or weeks where it’s just a little tougher to get out the door than usual. I thought it would pass, I would get back to my usual enthusiasm soon enough. But that enthusiasm hasn’t returned. Being Brave And Making The Change | Life Healthfully Lived

My immediate reaction was to just push through. I’m a runner. This is what I do. This is what I have done for the past eight years. This is how it is. I was just going to keep running and ignore that little voice in the back of my mind that was telling me something just isn’t quite right. And then Adam got a cold right before the new year.

He took a week off from running because he is much better at resting when he knows he needs it most. And because he likes to take any excuse to not run :). I still kept up with my normal running schedule, but I started to sleep in a little with him and go on my run later in the morning. Then I started to get the sniffles on my rest day and when I woke up on Monday, I did not feel like running. Even more than I had in the past few months. So I did something that I rarely if ever do: I decided not to run.

It was a little tough at first and I found a different workout to do inside just so I had some movement. But it wasn’t horrible and I found myself feeling ok about my decision. As it stands right now, I haven’t run in over a week. That’s the longest I’ve gone since I hurt my knee a few years ago. And I’m going to keep not running for the foreseeable future.

Am I giving up running completely? No. I am eternally grateful for everything that running has given me. It totally changed me inside and out and that is truly amazing. It’s because of that that I’m taking this hiatus. I don’t want to keep running until I totally hate it and I give it up for good. I want to find that feeling that I used to have and in order to do that I have to let go. Being Brave And Making The Change | Life Healthfully Lived

I’m also not giving up exercise altogether. This decision is opening doors for me to explore other areas of fitness that I had previously neglected. I’ve been doing Fitness Blender’s 5-Day Fit Challenge and I have been excited for every new day. I’ve missed that excitement when it comes to working out.

So what can you take away from this really long winded post? Just because something scares you or you’ve been doing something for years doesn’t mean you can’t change. You are not a tree. If you don’t like something get up and move. Switch directions. Try a new approach. I have no idea what my relationship with running will look like in the coming months but it will always be there, waiting for me.

Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?