image by moria

At the beginning of the year, I made a commitment to improve my physical well-being and strength through nutrition and exercise.

My goals were simple: I wanted to see how it felt to take excellent care of my body, and I wanted to find out what can emerge from going beyond what I thought I could do. How would eating super-nutritiously and pushing myself with exercise transform me? And can doing something I’ve never done before in one area of life bring about new possibilities in others?

Four and a half months in, I’m learning a ton through these changes.

Nutrition

I started with Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s Eat to Live program on January 5th, and, though I have gone off the plan here and there since then, for the most part, this plan has become my standard diet.

He recommends eating a pound of raw green veggies every day, plus a pound of cooked veggies, at least a cup of beans, 4 or more fruits, and a handful of nuts. That’s a lot of veggies to get in me, and most days I don’t make the goal, but I eat a LOT of greens—mostly in the form of green smoothies and salads.

Like I said, I’ve had some deviations. On Easter, I really enjoyed the bunny cake and the mashed potatoes. And several times I’ve strung 4 or 5 days together only to slide right out of the zone again.

But I haven’t gone mad for food, and it’s not hard to get back on track. This in and of itself constitutes a huge shift in my habits around food. In the past, I figured if I ate some French fries, I already ruined everything so I might as well also eat the cupcakes, the chips, and the brie baguette. Now, though, I make a point to focus on and really enjoy whatever I’ve decided to have. Then the next meal I shift back into greens-mode.

I see this same dynamic in meditation—when I catch my mind wandering, there’s no need to make a big production out of what a bad meditator I am and how I have no discipline and I can never stick to anything, blah blah blah. I can simply just bring my awareness back. It seems that in many areas of life, I am learning how to see what needs to be done and then do it without drama. This is huge!

When I’m eating a lot of greens and fruit, I feel freer to make decisions rather than be pushed along by inertia. I feel lighter inside, less obsessed with food and more interested in the rest of life. I also see that my strength and endurance go way up the more cleanly I eat, and I crave more and more physical activity. My behind has grown roots in the sofa for many many years, so this is also pretty huge.

Exercise

At the beginning of the year, I was still recovering from a broken ankle and under doctor’s orders to take it easy with the exercise. On January 18th he gave me a clean bill of health to start working out again, so I started walking a lot. Gradually I added in sessions on the elliptical trainer at the gym.

In February, I joined Uli’s challenge to commit to an exercise goal and meet it every week, or else pay the group $50. I am happy to say that I have met my goal of 5 hours of exercise every single week! Some weeks that has meant dragging myself to the gym when I would rather be doing anything else, but that’s the point, right?

In March, I had a session with a wonderful former-bodybuilder-turned-personal-trainer who developed a weight training program for me and for the last 6 or 7 weeks I’ve been enjoying the heck out of it. I love being able to see measurable progress, both in the number on the weights I’m lifting and in the reduction in flab around my body. I also like the meditative focus and determination that weightlifting requires of me. For 3 sets of 10 reps, I make my commitment and follow through on it. It feels good.

Physically, I’m getting into better and better shape. My resting heart rate has gone down 25% and recovers very quickly when I stop exercising. I’ve lost 28 pounds, dropped 9 inches off my waist, and am out of the BMI’s “obese” range and into just plain “overweight” (which I find really funny for some reason).

But I would say that the greatest gain has been the internal shift from seeing my body as something negative I couldn’t figure out and would just have to accept, to recognizing and appreciating the incredibly sensitive and powerful instrument it is—that I am. I spent a very long time feeling victimized by the mystery of my body, but now I am interested in exploring it. How far can it go, this vehicle of mine? What can I use these hands and lungs and brains to create? What can I experience? How can I contribute?

In the last few weeks, I’ve taken my first few tentative steps into running, and am rather shocked to find that I like how difficult it is. I want to push myself, to go farther than I thought I could, and I find this feeling leaking over into all of my life. It’s incredible, really, and exactly what I hoped would happen.

Have you made a shift in how you take care of yourself? What has it created in your life?