Slug: habit-update Date: 2012-01-17 layout: post Title: Habits Update date: 2012-01-17 09:35 comments: true categories:

I posted a week or so ago that I was starting to work on my health, cutting a lot of carbs and sugar out of my diet, and focusing on foods that were actually profitable for my body. Here’s an update:

Say What?

So apparently the scale thinks I've lost 7 pounds this last week. #lowcarbs

— Steve Ivy (@steveivy) January 17, 2012

As I mentioned on Twitter earlier, my scale seems to believe that I’ve dropped 7 pounds in the last week, after cutting out most sugar and a lot of the carbs I was existing on. I have no reason so far to doubt it. I don’t know that those pounds missing are visible yet, but I feel much better. My energy level isn’t peaking and diving all day - I’m more consistent. This is making me more productive - both in front of the computer and not.

Changing habits, and making new ones, is the name of the game here. In my first post I talked about my coffee (more, my cream and sugar) habit, and how it was killing me slowly. Since then, I first cut back to unflavored, unsweeted heavy cream, and no sugar. That simply wasn’t tenable, so I’ve gone back to unflavored half and half (the flavored ones are sweetened to the tune of over a teaspoon per tablespoon of creamer - 1/3 the mass is sugar!!) with a flat teaspoon of sugar.

For a week I was avoiding the sugar container in the cupboard, and had almost trained myself to reach around it for the coffee. But when I decided that I wanted to start using some sugar, I knew I’d have to make sure I didn’t fall back into the Old Ways. So I moved the sugar container to the pantry, and told myself “one teaspoon” - I even used the measuring spoon. Must make new habits!

This would have been awful just 3 weeks ago - I was inured to the taste of sugar and it would have tasted terrible. But now I can taste the sweetness in just a teaspoon (4g) of sugar. I’ve also cut out a lot of other foods with “hidden” sugars (goodbye orange chicken :-( ).

Go Outside!

In addition to the food changes, I’ve started working on getting more active. I finally found a pair of hiking boots that work for me – Merrell Moab Ventilators (wide) – so yesterday the family and I tackled Piestewa Peak, a brutal climb up 1.2 miles of, basically, stairs. The Summit trail starts at 1400 ft., and ends at 2608 ft., for a 1200’ rise.

While Jodi and the girls turned around at the 2/3 mark, my 8yo son and I pushed up to the top, and he made it like a champ. I feel great today but imagine that my body will have it’s revenge soon enough!

Nevertheless, I’ve got several hikes planned in the near future at some of our favorite spots, and I’m going to get out on the bike more as well. I’m off to a good start, and I’m going to make this year count.