======= Date Modified 13 11 2010 13:11:30 =======
Hello all of us lazy PhDers,

Starting this thread for friendly, accommodating and productive pacting on health, exercise, diets. We could do this weekly - a diet and exercise plan for the week and updating on how much we stuck to it, what are goals are etc. We could keep count of 'good things' and 'bad things' that we have fed into our system, without going overboard... basically this could take any shape... people can come in and go off as they wish... but just a pact space for us to be accountable for our health!

:)

Am starting off. In the week ahead, of the 15th, i aim to:

1. Exercise/walk/combo for at least 30 mins every day
2. Meditate properly every alternate day
3. Pamper myself with a hot bath when I can make the time
4. Keep an eye on how often i am stressing
5. Eat at least one big salad for either lunch or dinner.
6. Not eat any fries or fried stuff.
7. Get up from my chair every 25 mins and take a walk down the corridor or small stretches as that's what's really needed.

My main aims are to lose weight, get fit and get healthy. A little bit of a confession about me....I walk the dog for about an hour a day but apart from that I'm not doing any exercise :$ I have a problem with my spine which means I am not meant to jog, row, do sit ups or anything that might pull or jar it and the problem prevents me from walking without severe pain. So when I do exercise I tend to stick to exercise dvds and my home bike - but haven;t done either in over 9 months now. My diet is atrocious at the mo, mainly consisting of takeaways, sweets, chocs and caffeine. I eat NO fruit and NO veg at all - I HATE them yuk! So my main aims for the coming months

- to lose weight (or more acccurately to get a healthier BMI - not too worried about weight per se)
- to eat my 5 a day
- to get fit

My aims for this week

- stop eating sugary things so get rid of the addiction
- drink innocent smoothies and eat veg with dinner to get my 5 a day
- have a daily calorie intake of 1200 Kcals
- do 10 mins on my bike at least 3 times (i need to work my way up to more time cos I am super unfit)
- get out my wii fit and start doing exercise on that and weekly weigh ins.

I think I will probably annoy you all with a food & exercise diary on here!

PS: we also need our regular calcium supply btw.... I never drink any milk...

S@sneaks - cant you blend 2 fruits and some ice cream into a smoothie for 2 of yoru 5 a day, and then force yourself to have a biggish salad with chicken and nice dressings in it?

i'm fine on the calcium front - cheese being my made food source :$

I daren't try mixing anything with ice cream - i have NO self control, so it would just turn into a bowl of ice cream with no fruit. I can actually stomach the idea of drinking a plain fruit smoothy - I seem to have a phobia of touching cold fruit cos its all slimey eewww, but I'm fine with it all wizzed up in a glass, or even hot (i do like plain hot stewed apple without any sugar).

I forgot to say that I do seem to have a phobia of cold food in general. I hate salads, fruit, sandwiches, unless toasted. I KNOW its wierd :$ So basically I would much rather have a plate full of broccoli and cauliflower etc than cold salad. I think I will also try making some homemade soups so I can chuck loads of veg in and then wizz it so I don't know its there.

Hmm, even I hate cold food, but somehow like salads. I hate fruits and seeds like crazy but have somehow managed to eat them in the last few days or so (like a medicine).

My key task really is to exercise, eat 5 a day, not eat any fries and not look at burger king on my way back, or pick up fish and chips from our restaurant at school (everything else looks ghastly - I tried out the African chicken - gawd. what the hell was that?) - so I always tend to go for the fish and chips as they are safest (not for health finally).

Anyway, back to work.

I have three:
1. Go to gym 3 times
2. Continue rehab of my shoulders/buy some light dumbells
3. Enjoy St. Patrick's day (this would normally be play football, but drinking takes precendence.)

that's my only saving grace, I've slipped into being tee total, not from any desire to be, my husband hates alcohol - the taste of it, so its a bit lonely being the drunk wife giggling on the floor, so I've stopped. So no smoking, no drinking. If I can get the exercise and diet thing sorted I will be super healthy (touch wood - its always when you say something like that that you come down with some incurable tropical disease)

Lol, at least you'll be exercising if you can't sit on the chair ;-)

My aims are to watch what I eat and avoid high fat/sugar
Exercise more - ie actually get on the clothes horse, I mean treadmill
Continue to shift the weight a bit more which will come from the above aims
try to eat more fruit and veg (sprout) - I do like them, well some of them, but never seem to get around to eating them! Its so much easier in the summer when you don't want hot food so much. I like salads then, can't stand them in the winter, and don't really like cooked veg very much so I'm a bit stuck. I hate pulses and seeds and nuts and know that my vitamin intake must be atrocious!
I don't really drink very much at all, would like to drink more ;-) but that's prob not a good idea

My goal is to make an appointment to see my doctor and discuss going back on some kind of anti-anxiety medication. And tomorrow i will try to go for a run as it's been over a week! Hopefully if I can get even a little more balance back mentally I'll be able to be healthy in other ways too. So, back to brave my painfully ignorant GP practice again...

@Teek - my GP practice is unbelivable,. I said I;ve been under super stress, and my whole body aches without a reason and I know the first thing that happe s on waking up is my tsomach ties into a knot and I get these unlocated achy sorey feelings, can you give me something for the stress?

They say - try ibuprufen.

Thanks.

Oh dear Bug, sounds just like mine. Have you tried asking for a second opinion? Usually there's at least one half-competent GP per practice, you just have to track them down. The first time I went my current practice with this stuff (bearing in mind I have a history of poor mental health including long term hospitalizations) I was basically told "yeah, you just need more to do, then you won't have time to be anxious" - Eh?! In fairness, they're not just sh*t at mental health, they also like to ignore blatant physical illness as well, I keep wanting to add a post-it note to consultants letters saying "I told you so" :p

Still, I'll just have to picket the guys desk again and tell him what to prescribe - any recommendations welcome!

I've started taking a whole cocktail of vitamins which includes some for stress / anxiety.  Evening Primrose oil, St John's Wort and something called Q10 Enzyme are the main ones for stress. Feel much better for taking them (along with multi vit and a few others). 

I had a lot of problems last academic year with sleep deprivation which included crashing my car into the central reservation at 75mph after I momentarily fell asleep (fortunately the motorway was fairly empty and I was uninjured other than being shaken up). I had been seeing my gp and she was useless - she was convinced it was my lifstyle and if I did more excercise, ate better (which i do anyway) etc  I would be fine. So I was trying to cram even more into my already overfull days (it doesn't help that I commute by car a minimum of an hour and a quarter each way every day).  Eventually my sleep problems were diagnosed (my physio and then confirmed by neurologist) as being physical (caused by pins and needles from carpal tunnel disturbing my sleep) - have had one operation in Jan and waiting for the other after teaching finishes. Much better now.

Oh and the postscript is I went to see another gp who immediately signed me off as she could see I was in no state from severe sleep deprivation (and totaly drowsiness caused by heavy duty pain killers for the neck and hand pain).  It is worth seeing different gps if you can (the one who isn't much good is the one you can always get an appointment with at short notice which says it all)