Allison Corcoran
Blog 2 of 4
SUST-S360
4/11/2016
Power 9 vs Life
Last week we were asked to add three of the “Power 9” from the Blue Zones Project to our daily lives. I didn’t think this would be much of a challenge for myself, I mean, they are all quite simple. Unfortunately, I’ve been proven wrong. It could’ve just been this past week’s circumstances or my stubbornness to change, but whatever it was, I STRUGGLED!
Move Naturally
The only “Power 9” that didn’t cause me any trouble was move naturally. Since Monday of last week, I’ve spent over 40 hours working. My job involves a lot of physical movement, so I easily achieved this “Power 9”. Although I didn’t start walking my dogs or parking further from my classes, mostly because I had no time, I believe once work slows down I will have more time for the actual fun physical activity.
I’m going to ask my mom to start walking the dogs with me. She and I have both expressed the want to start exercising more because of the benefits. Plus, having support from her (and the dogs) will encourage me more to get up and go walking. As I continue on with inserting this “Power 9” into my life, I will certainly do more enjoyable forms of moving naturally. Hopefully it’ll become more of a habit rather than a chore as I go on too.
Down Shift
Relaxing has not been part of my life in the last week. I haven’t had a chance to sit down, listen to my 80s music and color. This has been incredibly frustrating for me because as a human being I need to relax and it’s also just annoying because it’s affecting my overall completion of this assignment.
I think it’s best for me to attempt this “Power 9” as an individual activity. That way I know my time of peace won’t be disrupted and can carry it out to its fullest potential. I look forward to actually having a few minutes to spare to do what relaxes me. I also believe that in some cases I can use the time of moving naturally to be a time of relaxation as well.
80% Rule
It’s unfortunate that I am a stress eater and spent the last week drowning in stress…and therefore drowning myself in food. I completely threw out the idea of stopping eating once my stomach felt to be 80% full. Now I really need to continue on with my move naturally goals! Even though I’ve failed this week, I still plan on making my meal portions smaller and only eating while sitting at the kitchen table.
What I believe will be beneficial to me will be to include my mom, once again, with helping me add this “Power 9” into my life. We can plan our meals together and always encourage one another to not eat to the point where we feel like we might explode. As another action to play along with this 80% rule, I plan on not buying snacks at work.
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