One-Hundred Weeks

A fool's guide to living well: learn from my mistakes as I spend 100 weeks forming lifelong habits.

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Cheddar-Yogurt Biscuit & Grilled Chicken Salad from Onehundredweeks.worpress.com

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Week 4, Part 1: Healthy & Delicious Meals! MOTDs

I am ecstatic! I’ve made it to the final habit in the Nutrition series: Healthy & Delicious Meals! Vaguely, this habit translates to cultivating a mental cook book which contains an arsenal of healthy and delicious meals that I can reliably prepare. I’m energized about solidifying my cooking skills and meal habits. I’ll keep a visual record of what I make on this blog under the “Meal of the Day” tag (MOTD for short) as a reminder of the mental cookbook. For some of the more involved meals, I may post recipes along with the photo or link to the recipe from which I took inspiration. Ultimately, I expect the Meal of the Day posts to grow substantially over time as I will continue experimenting in the kitchen and eating delicious meals long after this week is over. 

To give you a taste of what’s to come, I’ll embed a photo at the bottom of this post later in the week. Get ready for some aesthetically-pleasing and tastefully-arranged food shots!

[glowmag]

Week 3, Part 3: Limit Portions Update! Superchewing is the Answer!

Hello! I’m back on track from my vacation mishaps. Hydration system is back on line, fiber/sweets/salt intake is once again balanced, and finally, food portions are scaling back! Right now portions are large enough to fill me up, but small enough to avoid that uncomfortable fullness. 

In addition to all of the tips I posted earlier for limiting portions, I’ll add superchewing--a word I’m using to mean excessively chewing your food to the point of no return. What that really means is chew until foodstuff have graduated from mushy to straightup liquid. Now it’s much easier to do this with some foods (water rich foods for the win!), but regardless of the food, chewing to liquid stage takes a bit of patience and intentional chewing. After a few days of superchewing, I’ve decided to make it a permanent part of my routine for four key reasons: 

it minimizes obnoxious post-meal bloat

it encourages me to pile less onto my plate (as I’m reminded of how much effort it’s going to take to chew it all)

it makes it easier to tell when I’m actually full due to the slower eating pace

it makes it easier to take breaks while eating or stop altogether (since at some point, the reward of food is not sufficient for me to tolerate any more superchewing).  

Wins all around! 

Additional useful tips for limiting portions: taking only one-bite full’s worth did turn out to be effective for limiting intake of sweets/baked goods/fatty foods; portion controlling before cooking the food was extremely helpful for eating less. as was putting away foods as soon as possible to prevent mindless eating. 

That’s a wrap for the limiting portions habit. In the next post, I’ll talk more about the next habit: Healthy & Delicious Meals! 

Bye for now, 

Nikita!   

[glowmag]

Week 3, Part 2: Vacation

A few days after my last post, I took two trips off the north of the city. First, I spent a night and day in Peekskill, NY for a volunteer-related orientation event. As soon as I returned, I left on a road-trip to Rochester with one of my oldest friends. The week was exciting in all its novelty yet draining from all the seated travel, but ultimately, restorative. I spent the week feeling buzzed as I related with strangers, adventured through one of the most gorgeous natural parks I’ve ever seen, and strolling through a picturesque stretch of little city. I’ll run through my photos sometime and post the ones that captures the week’s beauty. 

With regard to my nutrition goal of limiting portions, I have to admit that I was far less careful about my habits while on vacation than I’ve been at home. Particularly, I fell off my strict hydration schedule towards the end of the week  and consumed so much more sugar than I needed from alcoholic beverages (cider and well drinks) and candy. However, where I really need to improve is on the candy front. For the dark chocolate nibbles I bought at the specialty store, I found it fairly easy to limit my portions by simply buying less. When I craved something sweet, I satisfied myself with half a bite of chocolate. However, when it came to more commercial candies (tootsie rolls, skittles, sour patch kids, twix etc) and banana muffins, this portion control was much harder. Though I aimed to eat only a handful of the commercial candies at a time. The tactic only stalled me for maybe half an hour before I returned for a second handful. The banana muffins were absolutely delicious, but, if I were to make them, I’d use fewer chocolate chips, make them even smaller or only eat one bite at a time. I’ll need to do more work to limit my portion of sugar. Perhaps a “one-bite” strategy would work, but also if I push myself to drink more water before and after eating candy, my sugar consumption will drop. 

As for portions of full meals, I typically ate more than I would at home. Though it’s one thin to write off the week of un-nutritious eating as a rare blip (I typically don’t go on vacation), I’m going to hold myself accountable, when I left home and found myself in a new environment, I chose to ignore my nutrition goals rather than negotiate between my goals and desire for “fun”. I want to internalize these goals so that they become a part of me, so that behavior is not acceptable. As a result of my poor adherence to last weeks goals, I will be spending this week re-attempting the smaller servings habit and re-grounding myself in the habits I spent the last few weeks building. 

Overall, I loved my little vacation. Not only was it enjoyable, but it also allowed me to work on some of the habits further down on my list (i.e relationships with god and others), and for that, I am grateful. Check back in next week for an update on how I’m re-grounding myself in my Nutrition habits.

Until next time, 

Nikita

[glowmag]

Week 3, Part 1: Smaller Servings

I could be eating nutrient-dense food, but if I’m eating enough to feed a cow, I’ll soon balloon to the size of said cow. Without further introduction, this week’s habit will focus on steadily decreasing the amount of food I eat. To simplify the strategy, I’ll be prioritize limiting my portions of sweets, desserts, baked goods, and red meat. These foods are by the largest source of excess calories in my diet. They’re also usually delicious and decadent and therefore difficult to resist. 

Before I begin to practice this habit, I need to introduce a ‘handy’ image that helps with portion size approximations. A fist full of ice-cream is twice the recommended size, meat should typically be about the size of a palm and pasta should be about a fist. Now of course these recommendations depend on how often someone eats these different foods. For instance, if I only eat ice-cream twice a year, 1 cup of ice-cream may not be so horrible. However, given that it’s possible to eat carbs, butter/nut oil, and meats weekly, if not daily, then the recommendations below are probably a good rule of thumb. I will personally stick to these for the sake of forming consistent habits. For food items that do not appear on the handy guide above, I’ll be relying on the nutrition label.

In addition utilizing the nutrition label and the guide above, I’ll be using a fewe other useful tips: using smaller plates to consume less. 

Only eating sweets by the handful, as in one serving of sweets = 1 handful

Sharing snacks and sweets with others

There’s not much else to say about this habit. However, in the next post about smaller portions, I’ll post updates on how, I’ve been eating smaller portions. 

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Week 2, Part 2: Salt, Sugar, Fiber Results

As promised, I spent two days tediously tracking my intake of fiber, sodium and added sugars and here’s what I found: trying to meet the daily requirements is absolutely doable! I went in thinking that I’d under-consumed fiber, over-consumed sugar and overestimated my ability to judge healthy salt levels. Imagine my surprise when I was more than 75% of the way to the goals after only two meals on day 1. Day 1 ease may have just been a side effect of being aware of my intake, but on day 2, even after ordering Chinese takeout and garlic knots, drinking wine and eating candy--yup not the healthiest of meals—the two-day totals were very close to the healthy limits. Over 2 days I averaged about 30g fiber, 20g of added sugar, and 2530mg of sodium. There’s definite room for improvement, but damn it feels good to see how accessible the nutrition recommendations are! In the plate below, I definitely treated fruits and vegetables as one category. Meaning that at any given meal I tried to fill half of my plate with fruit or vegetables or some combination of both.

Meeting the fiber intake recommendation took conscious effort of eating beans, fruit with skin, or whole-grain bread/oatmeal with practically every meal. I actually needed to grab a slice of lavash bread to bump up my fiber count towards the end of the day. As It turns out, vegetables are mostly for plate decoration right now as I don’t eat enough of them to really contribute to my fiber count. So for the rest of the week, I’ll aim to incorporate beans, fruit, whole grains and fibrous vegetables into a day’s worth of plates. Regardless, the few vegetables I do eat take up space and prevent me from inhaling too many empty calories. Also, fun fact: cocoa powder (unsweetened) is a good source of fiber! I see chocolate experiments in my future! If you’re interested in the top fiber rich foods simply do a quick google search or go to page 114 in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Tracking also showed me where I could limit sodium—which I ate slightly too much of. For instane, hot sauce seems pretty excisable—I can get my heat from spices (red pepper flakes, paprika, ghost peppers anyone?) rather than sodium-laden, one-dimensional sauces. That rule may also apply to pre-made sauces in general, even—and though I’m sad to admit this since it’s one of my favorites--BBQ sauce. Opportunities to cut salt emerged when I ordered Chinese take-out. I ordered with others I didn’t have to order more than one meal to make up the delivery minimum. The meal that I did order was still too large (but I ate it all anyway). Therefore, to avoid eating unhealthy levels of sodium in the future, I’ll work on eating as conscientiously as I would when I prepare my own meals. Portion sizes are the next phase of the nutrition habit plan, so I’ll tackle that in next week’s nutrition habit.

Tracking assured me that I could trust my taste-buds with regard to salt. My Day 1 eggs were overly salty and had I omitted the hot sauce or the dashes of salt, I would have fallen below the recommended range. For the next week I’ll be keeping my habit of only adding salt when it enhances the original flavors of the meal’s ingredients and tossing overly salted meals or watering them down before eating (*cough* ramen *cough*).

With respect to sugar, I was well under the Dietary Guideline’s added sugar recommendation, but given that diabetes runs in my family, I’ve decided to follow the American Heart Association Guideline which suggests no more than 20 grams (which is equivalent to about 198 calories) of added sugar. Which means, I just made the cut.

Interesting side bar though-- after reading the AHA Paper, I saw that the recommendation is not based on any association between higher added sugar levels and obesity or type II diabetes. Rather, it is a suggestion based on the calorie allowance per day and assumed intake from other important food groups. Basically, the authors say that for someone eating 1800 calories per day and aiming to meet the guidelines laid out for other nutrients, there’s really only room in the diet for about 198 freebie calories (discretionary calories) each day. From what I understand, a person is allowed to distribute these daily freebie calories between solid fats, added sugar, and alcohol as they see fit. However, to come up with a formal recommendation, the AHA assigned about half of the discretionary calories to added sugars and the other half to solid fats.

Hmm….so if I don’t eat things like butter or fatty meats or drink alcohol on a given day, then I can basically eat a serving of things like candy or bacon while still drinking coffee with sugar. Hmm given that I currently only feel a craving for candy once every few weeks or so, this knowledge is gastronomically liberating! If I eat well for 3-4 days, then eating multiple serving of candy—like a bag of my favorite non-chocolate candy—Australia’s Darrel Lea Strawberry Licorice won’t really hurt me sugar-wise. Not a bad set up!

Overall, tracking my nutritional intake was a bit tedious, but it made me realize that I’ve been too self-critical in some areas (especially my sugar intake). It’s also made me very thankful that I stopped drinking soda and eating fast food regularly. I think the process of doing so reset my taste-buds so that I can now enjoy the fresh stuff. However, I will always have a place in my heart for the perfect slice of thin crust pizza.

For the next 5 days, I’ll be working on eating:

2 servings of fruit & 2 servings of veggies each day

3-4 servings of whole-grains

2-3 servings of beans/meat/eggs

Relying on spices instead of hot sauce or salt for flavor.

Continuing to stay hydrated with water    

This was a long update, thanks for sticking through to the end. I’ll see you all next week with the next habit in the nutrition series: smaller portions!

Peace,

- Nikita

[glowmag]

Week 2, Part 1: Current Salt, Sugar & Fiber Habits

The next set of habits on the nutrition agenda concerns the intake of salt, sugar and fiber. Individually, these nutrients are critical to the body’s function--salt drives transport of materials in an out of cells, sugar provides energy, and fiber helps digested material move through the gut. Intake levels of these (and other nutrients*) have been linked to blood pressure, blood glucose levels, cardiovascular health and diabetes. 

Sugar Goals

To sum up my current sugar consumption habits, I used to be the kid who ate all her halloween candy right away. I’ve since grown to prefer the taste of natural sugars to artificial sugars, but decadent candy & dessert, and sour & chewy candy are still very much my kryptonite. Even now, when I have candy or dessert in the house at all, it rarely lasts longer than a day or two. As a result, I don’t buy candy regularly anymore and I never order dessert with dinner. Outside of the sugar loaded desserts and candy, the next largest source of sugar for me would be the added sugars in processed foods. Other sources of sugars for me include: beer, wine, cocktails and coffee. My goal for a new sugar habit is to deal with my sugar cravings by either finding satisfying alternatives or minimizing the cravings so that I fall way below the recommended maximum of 180 calories** of added sugar. 

Sodium Goals

With regard to salt, I don’t believe that I eat too much sodium, but I’m basing this entirely off of my taste buds--which I realize are highly susceptible to eating habits. I tend to season things like meat, potatoes, sauces and cooked leafy greens fairly liberally with salt, but otherwise I barely use the stuff beyond a pinch here an there while cooking (i.e a pinch in oatmeal, eggs, crepes etc). As you can see by the mathematical precision with which I’m describing my salt intake, my measurements could use some fine-tuning. Therefore, my salt goals will be to assess just how much salt I’m taking in daily, to decide whether I am exceeding the recommended 2300mg**, and to find ways to eliminate salt, without losing too much taste. Regulating salt contribution from processed food would definitely help with this last goal. 

Fiber Goals

Lastly, fiber. Without going into too much detail, I know I don’t consume enough fiber regularly. As a formerly chronically dehydrated person, fiber and I did not get along well. As you may know, fiber, particularly the soluble variety, requires a healthy consumption of water to digest effectively. However, the time has come for this newly reformed and newly hydrated woman to put those habits behind me. My fiber goal is to successively increase my fiber intake until I meet the recommended level (for my age/size/1800 calorie diet) of about 25 grams**.

[*Note that for now, I’ve decided to forego a post on fats, proteins and micronutrients, not because they are unimportant to a healthy diet, but because tracking this of level of detail doesn’t seem sustainable for me right now. After the first 100 weeks, I may double back to Nutrition to modify my fat, protein and micronutrient habits. If you’re interested in seeing a post about these topics, let me know in the suggestions box and I’ll consider devoting an entry to them before first 100 weeks passes.]

[** All dietary recommendations are based on my specific needs as a 5ft 4in, 24 year old, sedentary woman who aims to eat on average an 1800 calorie diet. I arrived at them from page 97 of the 2015 - 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans published by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee]

In the next post, I’ll quantify my current daily totals for sodium, added sugar, and fiber and propose a system for incorporating more fiber.  

See you soon, 

Nikita 

[glowmag]

Week 1, Part 4: Hydration Update

Morning Readers, 

After 5 days of this hydration thing, I finally have an update. It’s been easy to stick to the outlined plan, especially since I’ve been flavoring my water with lemon juice. In fact, I might have been overdoing the water intake, because my glasses are larger than 8 ounces. As it turns out, my glasses are about 12 fluid ounces or 1.5 cups (8 x 1.5  = 12 cups of water per day--y’all that’s about 6.25lbs of water each day). Additionally, I’ve been eating water-rich foods regularly so who knows what the total really amounts to. 

Needless to say, I’ve been feeling quite hydrated these last few days. Even though I suspect that drank too much water this last few days, I think I’ll appreciate extra fluid intake when I start exercising regularly. So what did I gain from 12 cups of water each day? 

Oh let me count the gains: 

Clear non-offensive urine, check!

Less offensive sweat, check! (and what a blessing, since this last week has been one of the hottest on record)

My mouth feels much cleaner during the day, which in turn makes me much less self-consciousness about food debris in my mouth.

Despite light sweating at night, I still wake up looking hydrated (i.e taut skin, plump cheeks). 

My lips feel fantastic! I’ve barely felt the need for chapstick this week.

I eat less during meals, because my stomach already feels half-full. 

I stopped having the sensation of an “empty stomach” because my stomach was almost always filled with pre-meal water or my last meal. Now, I recognized hunger by low energy.

I have more energy during the day. I feel more alert after drinking water/de-caffeinated tea in the morning than when I don’t drink anything, but coffee/caffeine still gives the ultimate energy hit. 

There were some drawbacks though:

 I use the bathroom all the damn time -________- and the hand soap is drying out my hands.

Overnight, I gained about 3-4lbs. I’m sure it’s water weight, but it’s still annoying to see the scale go up and stay up. 

Sometimes the fullness in my stomach/digestive system becomes uncomfortable. I had hoped that water would generally speed things up, but no such luck. The verdict is still out on whether I’m just eating too much during meals or not eating enough of the right things generally—a topic for next week.

There you have it. Overall, the benefits of drinking 12 cups of water each day outweigh the drawbacks, but I’ll give myself a little lee-way to cut back fluid intake in one of three ways based on how thirsty I feel:

Skip the pre-breakfast drink

Skip the pre-bed drink

Fill my 12 oz cup a little less during the day

That’s all for now. Check back in on Wednesday, July 27th for an intro to the next set of habits in the Nutrition series: wean off added sugar & salt while increasing soluble and insoluble fiber.

Until then, Nikita

[aspiring-weird-old-man]

My dash did a thing. Stay HYDRAted, kids.

[glowmag]

XD

[mas-sera-o-benedict]

366 days of Benedict Cumberbatch - day 146

(x)

[glowmag]

Cumberbatch on the water train.

[cwote]

you should probably have some today.

[glowmag]

About Me

Dear Readers,

I've found myself in an uncertain place in life. You see, I've recently graduated from university and the efforts I've place into the external world have not yet to come to fruition. Honestly, it's unclear whether they will. Though I'm still working to find my footing post graduation, I think now is a good time to look inward.

I want to do so intentionally by producing this blog for the next 100 weeks. Part blog, part magazine, part cartharsis, I will spend the next 100 weeks devoted to cultivating healthy habits for a happy and balanced life.  I'll begin with the basics--Nutrition, Hygiene, & Physical Activity--then progressively move on to slightly more complex parts of my life. If you're curious about the week-by-week plan, take a look at the table below. With the exception of the Nutrition category, I've condensed all of the categories.

So join me on this journey. I'd be honored to walk with others.Questions, comments and suggestions are more than welcome here. I can't promise that I'll have all of the answers or the same desires. However, I can promise transparency about my goals, honesty about the difficulties I encounter on my journey to self-growth, commitment to growing past my limitations, and earnest attempts to curate accurate information and experience-tested advice.

Peace all,

-Nikita

[glowmag]

Week 1, Part 3: Hydration Plan

Now that I’m in the right mindset to change my habits, it’s time to layout the details of physically getting more water into my system. In the past, I have tried setting a goal for each day (like the recommended 8 glasses), but keeping track made drinking water feel like a chore and I often found myself guzzling water towards the end of the day because I was low on my count. I’ve also attempted to carry a water bottle with me at all times to sip on. This worked incredibly well--water was always accessible and I only had to refill once or twice to get my water fix--that is until I inevitably lost the water bottle(s). 

Most recently, I’ve tried using an app called Aqualert, which notifies you at pre-set intervals to drink water. You’re able to track how much you’re drinking over time as well, but I’ve found that the notification feature is enough for me.

I think the best way to ensure that I’m drinking enough is to set up a system. A system tied to time of day is essentially how Aqualert works (the user sets the desired intervals between notifications). This would be ideal for someone with a relatively consistent routine, but a system tied to daily activities like like waking up, eating and sleeping, would make it even easier for me to form a hydration habit. 

So here it is, the hydration habit system that I’ll be putting into action:

Wake up: Drink a glass of tea/coffee to start the day (1)

Meals: Drink a glass before breakfast, lunch & dinner (2-3)

Sip water during meals (1)

Drink a glass after each meal (3)

Sleep: Drink water/tea to end the day (1)

Exercise: Drink a glass before, during, and after (3)

Sleep: Drink water/tea to end the day (1)

This system adds up to 8 glasses per day without counting exercise fluids. How veeery convenient. 

As I’ve learned, foods contribute to fluid intake as well. So in addition the above system, I’ll be choosing water-rich snacks (fruits, yogurt, & veggies) and water-rich meals (yogurt, soups, and salads) whenever possible. Okay, maybe not salads, unless they’re particularly tasty ones. 

Check back early next week for an update on how the system is working out for me. 

Until then, 

Stay Radiant 💛

[glowmag]

Week 1, Part 2: Hydration Habit Incentives

Hydration Benefits

Now that I’ve acknowledged my dehydration habit and learned to recognize when I’m low on fluids before I feel woozy, I need to cultivate a hydration habit. Let’s borrow a page from basic psychology to accomplish this: Operant Conditioning. So operant conditioning means trying to increase or decrease the frequency of a particular behavior by using reward/punishment systems (very basic). Now I personally prefer to run towards good outcomes that running away from bad ones, but some people out there may find it more motivating to avoid unwanted outcomes. For those people, you can simply re-frame my motivations so that they reflect “avoid bad” instead of “obtain good.”

Whereas the initial experiments used external rewards, like food, I’ll rely on internal thoughts/emotions as my rewards. Basically, whenever I drink water I will “reward” myself by thinking of benefits of my choice and feeling good about my choice. I’ll also reward myself when I see signs of good fluid intake. Okay, so here are 12 rewarding thoughts to run through when I’m drinking water:

My skin/hair is going to be bomb AF with all this H2O. Slay on with the healthy choices!

Nothing like toxin clearance to start off the day.

Water keeps my brain sharp--making all the neural connections today.

Water keeps my energy level all the way up.

Clear pee is the way to be

Alternatively: Odor free is the life for me.

Water keeps my vital organs running. NEAT-O!

Thanks to this water, I’ll keep smelling fresh down there. Awesome choice!

Water makes my sweat way less offensive, so I can actually bask in my post-workout “glow”. Fabulous decision!

Water keeps me kissing ready: clean & hydrated mouth, fresh breath, lips moisturized.

Water keeps me slim

Water resets my taste buds so that I can enjoy the real taste of my food

That is quite the list! Now water’s got me feeling like:

Until next time!

[glowmag]

Week 1, Part 1: De-hydration Habit

My Dehydration Habit

I’ve been hearing the general recommendation to drink 8 glasses of water each day for as long as I’ve been watching T.V in the U.S--not that it’s helped. Eight glasses isn’t a rigid rule, so I cut myself a little slack. However, even if I set the bar low--to say 5 or 6 glasses, I know that on any given day I probably imbibe 2 8-oz glasses, maybe 3. Drinking water almost always slips my mind, until the headaches start and I start to feel sluggish, faint, and constipated. That’s when I remember that--oh yeah--my body needs water to function! After a little re-hydration, I feel instant relief. 

Unfortunately, the gradations between hydrated and thirsty are subtler than the ones between thirsty and help-my-body-can’t-function. According to WebMD, some of these more subtle signs include: darker urine, lower pee frequency, dry mouth, dry skin, tiredness and headaches. Out of all of these, the urine color/smell and dry mouth are the most useful signs.

Darker urine (How dark is dark you ask? see handy dandy chart below)

Not needing to pee as often (How often is often? Largely depends on the person, but apparently most people urinate between 6 and 8 times a day. Going up to 10 could still be normal though, especially if you’re guzzling down liquids or taking medications that act as diuretics.)

Dry mouth (How dry is dry? A good objective sign of that you’re low on fluids is cracked lips. Additionally, bad breath may help you recognize your need for water) 

Dry skin (aka as ashy skin; Dry skin might occur too far along the dehydration spectrum, but regardless here’s an easy test for it. Pinch the skin between your wrist and knuckles and pull it up, when you let go, check whether the skin bounces back immediately or slowly. If immediate, congratulations! Your skin is not dry. If slowly, your skin is dry, go drink something. Dry skin might be an extreme sign though)

**Feeling tired/lightheaded (based on my low fluid intake, I’ve made it a habit to drink water whenever I feel this way, but I would argue that if my body’s sending me this sign, I’ve let my self go way too long without fluids) 

**Headache (this sign is too extreme for me, I need signals before I get to headache-level dehydration)

**Nevertheless, it’s probably probably a good idea to drink water & eat something if you feel a headache coming on or feel drained of energy. As someone who once went to the emergency room only to find out that the reason I felt like death was because I was severely dehydrated and hungry on top of having a cold & neck pain, I wish I had saved myself that hospital bill by eating and drinking fluids (and taking an adult dose of tylenol for the fever & pain). Oh well, lesson learned.

So there you have it, my dehydration problem explained and tips for recognizing low fluid intake. In Part 2 of the hydration series, I’ll explain the plan that I’m following to drink more water. Do you have a tactic to know when your body needs water? Or do you eschew body signals and drink a set amount each day? Let me know in the suggestions box and I’ll post the best suggestions I receive.

Goodbye for now!