From People Pleasing to Conscious Eating: My Journey to Paleo

Motivation

 

Orange tea mug

“Eat only when you feel hungry. Notice and feel your hunger. This is conscious eating.”

Deepak Chopra

“Ugh!”

I spit into the sink, wiping my tongue with my hands. “Do you know how many CALORIES were in that!”

It was a Saturday night senior year in college, and my roommates and I were throwing our annual “bathtub party.” Friends were over, music was blasting, and our bathtub was filled with ice and the finest 30-racks of cheap beer a few college kids could buy.

Needless to say, we weren’t at our best and brightest. Continue reading →

Getting Started

Motivation

Starting Line

“Making a decision was only the beginning of things.”

Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist

It’s amazing what happens when you acknowledge your circumstances, and just get started toward your goal.

For instance:

  • Six months ago, I was confined to my couch, unable to walk down the street
  • Six years ago, I was looking for my first job out of college amidst the toughest economic environment in decades
  • Sixteen years back, I was a chunky 10 year-old trying to prove my athletic worth to Little League coaches and teammates

The common thread to overcoming each obstacle? Accepting where I was, and getting started by taking small steps to reach my goal. Continue reading →

Healing Foods (Healing Practice: Part 3)

Knees, Pain Management, ,

Since sharing my knee story a few weeks ago, many people have asked about my diet. They were mainly curious how I managed to stay so lean, given how little physical activity I was partaking in. Some wanted to know what I learned about healing foods that help reduce joint pain. Others just asked how I did my grocery shopping on crutches (I used a delivery service called Instacart, which was a life saver!)

It turns out I’ve learned quite a bit about how food effects the body, and how the right diet can help you recover from an injury. Continue reading →

My Knee Story, Part 2: Reflections

Conscious Living, Knees, Pain Management,

This is the second of two posts explaining my one and a half year recovery from a chronic knee injury, and reflecting on the experience. You can read part one here. This post reflects on my injury, recovery, and lessons learned. 

Part of what kept me going was knowing I could share my story and hopefully help other people. I view these posts as part of my healing process. 

I haven’t been myself since February 12, 2012. That’s the day I injured my right knee running up a hill in San Francisco, on my way to a casual five mile race. I was fit, active, and bursting with the energy and perfectionism typical of a driven young professional in his early 20’s. But over the next year and a half, I would be tested mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, whittled down to nothing but the core of who I am as a person. A core that’s been shaped and re-defined by the experience. Continue reading →

My Knee Story, Part 1: Injury and Recovery

Knees, Pain Management, , ,

This is the first of two posts explaining my one and a half year recovery from a chronic knee injury, and reflecting on the experience. You can read post two here. This post explains the onset and recovery of my injury in detail. 

Part of what kept me going was knowing I could share my story and hopefully help other people. I view these posts as part of my healing process. 

This is for anyone who has been diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), synovitis, or a chronic injury of any kind. My hope is to provide the specific, detailed information I found so hard to find as I recovered from my injury. I’m still not 100% recovered yet (physically, mentally, and emotionally), but feel well enough to share what has worked for me. Continue reading →

Breathing, Writing, and Giving Thanks (Healing Practice: Part 2)

Knees, Pain Management, ,

In Part 1, I talked about using a mantra (I am relaxed) to reinforce a positive mindset and state of relaxation. Repeating this positive message to myself over and over throughout the day has helped me see beyond my injured state, and focus on something more productive.

This mantra has been effective, but is admittedly abstract and intermittent. Continue reading →

3 Rules For Cooking With Fats

Uncategorized,

cooking fats pic (resized)

Protein. Carbohydrates. Fat. Calories. That’s how we’ve been taught to think about what we eat. If we can only find the magical mix of macronutrient percentages, we’re told, we can achieve the health and aesthetic goals we’re after. Provided, of course, we stay within the upper bounds of our caloric intake limits.

There are many problems with this thinking, and I won’t address them all in this post. What I want to point out is how thinking about the individual nutrient components of our food (Nutritionism, as Michael Pollan likes to call it), removes eating from its context. Continue reading →