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Living with Intent

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Intent Noun
intention or purpose.
      “with alarm she realized his intent”
syn: aim, intention, purpose, objective, object, goal, target

“Be careful about what you think, your thoughts run your life” -Proverbs 4:23

 

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I am not a yogi. I am not a psychiatrist. I am not a dietician. I am happy. I am whole. I am living with intent. In an ever evolving journey to near a holistic lifestyle, I find it comforting that little things make a big impact on how I feel. Brussels sprouts make me feel satisfied. Sunlight brings me joy. Peppermint soothes my stomach. But what about your mind? I am constantly telling myself “it’s okay”. We always hear “our mind is powerful thing”, but what exactly can it do? Just like mastering a sport or instrument takes a lot of practice, so does training your mind. And in order to train your mind, you must live with intent.

What is living with intent?

In my little world, it’s the act of being present. Being here, not there. Being open, engaged and grounded. It’s not an easy thing to do and it doesn’t happen all the time. Some ways you can practice this are by putting your phone away when you’re out to dinner, pausing what you’re doing to listen to a coworker, or by eating your food slowly.

I should probably stop here and master these seemingly simple tasks because I haven’t yet (cue eating an entire bag of popcorn in three handfuls). In my yoga class, we practice noticing things. Noticing how my body feels in a certain pose, noticing how the room sounds, noticing where my mind goes in savasana. I’ve started noticing things outside of class, too. Like how I’m constantly on my phone, how I ‘multitask’ while talking to people, how I finish my food before I even know what I ate. Certainly not engaging acts, but the fact that I am aware makes me able to be more intentional in fixing them.

 

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How else can you live with intent?

There are a million ways to live intentionally. Some people chose to practice yoga several times a day. Some people chose to eat only organic foods. Some people only check their phone at the end of the day. I chose to cultivate my relationships by checking in with my friends regularly. I try to eat wholesome foods to fuel my body, not my mind (because my mind wants to eat everything under the sun). I **try to react slowly to things that easily cause anger (i.e. someone cuts me in traffic, “was that really a big deal? No. Am I fine? Yes. Does it actually matter? No.”). This is a big one for me. I am typically wired Type A, which causes me unwarranted and unwanted stress. Over what? I don’t know. And that’s exactly the point. I am proud to be competitive, driven and proactive. But controlling, worried and impatient are traits I’m working on mending. How? By living with intent 🙂

Take what you can get and be grateful for what it is.
Pass small stuff with ease.
Seek happiness and own it.
Clear your conscious.
Be here.

Why I Stopped Counting Calories

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Do you obsess over calories? Do you not care at all? Either way, calories are very real. But they are also different from one another. 200 calories of broccoli is going to treat you body much better than a 200 calorie candy bar.

I used to count calories on MyFitnessPal. It’s an awesome app filled with recipes, blog posts, and every tool you need to start a healthier lifestyle. It really helped me realize what I was eating and what I thought was a great healthy day, actually had treats and snacks that I had completely forgotten about. Go figure. Writing down what I ate gave me a great sense of my overall health and what I was putting in my body. It helped me pass up a second helping, or second treat if I had already had something “bad” that day. But it also made me completely obsessed with counting calories. On all calorie counting apps and devices, it generalizes what your body needs and how much you burn on a personal level. I was constantly worried about going over my “recommended” amount of daily calories to stay “on track”. What does that even mean? I would reach my recommended number before the end of the day, and still need to eat dinner. This would always consume my thoughts and I would worry about being in the red on my app.

I stopped tracking what I ate and stopped focusing on calories. With a much clearer head, I now focus on what I’m eating, not how many calories I’m going over my limit. I focus on eating real food, made from real ingredients. You can’t really go wrong with that. By sticking to mostly veggies, proteins and whole grains, I don’t feel the need to rack up the calorie count. I still like to use my app, to continue getting the whole picture of what I consume in a day. I don’t look at calories, but at the foods I log. It helps me stay on track and see patterns in how I feel, what food make me crave others, and what times of day I eat. Which are all helpful things to keep in mind.

If you don’t write down what you eat, try it! Without focusing on the numbers, take a look at everything you eat in a day- maybe even record how you felt that day. Were you tired? Did your stomach ache? Did you feel energized and happy? These can all reflect what you ate.  It’s fun to see the patterns and how food affects you.

Maltodextrin-what?

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After researching and diving a little deeper into the reason I believe what I do, it’s clear that there are widely different opinions on all things health. I suppose you can’t take any as a rule of thumb, but rather a suggestion or piece of thought.

With that, one of my general rules of thumb: If you don’t know what is it, your body doesn’t either.

 Perhaps you’ve heard this before, or another similar message. And maybe you already do this- which is awesome. But if you’re not one to read ingredients or have never realized the junk that’s in our food (not including junk food), it’s time to do some digging. Let’s look at a few samples of common household foods you may not have thought twice about.

 

For example, check out this ingredient list for your favorite pastime snack. Warning- this is a sad one. If I had to choose what ingredients were in Goldfish it’d look something like MADE WITH SMILES AND AMAZINGNESS, DELICIOUSNESS, CRUNCHINESS AND MORE SMILES. With my utmost regret, I must tell you that these fishes, along with just about everything else in its class (Cheez-itz, Ritz, etc) is not on the “yay all these ingredients are natural” list. As stated in this article, Goldfish come from several sources of artificial and processed ingredients, such as folic acid, enriched flower, and GMO cheese. Are they the worst things ever? No. But they certainly don’t make the cut to feed your body with only things it likes.

Another childhood favorite? Quaker Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

GRANOLA (WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS, BROWNSUGAR, CRISP RICE [RICE FLOUR, SUGAR, SALT, MALTED BARLEY EXTRACT],WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED WHEAT, SOYBEAN OIL, DRIED COCONUT, WHOLE WHEATFLOUR, SODIUM BICARBONATE, SOY LECITHIN, CARAMEL COLOR, NONFAT DRYMILK), SEMISWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS (SUGAR, CHOCOLATE LIQUOR, COCOABUTTER, SOY LECITHIN, VANILLA EXTRACT), CORN SYRUP, BROWN RICE CRISP(WHOLE GRAIN BROWN RICE, SUGAR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, SALT), INVERTSUGAR, SUGAR, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, GLYCERIN, SOYBEAN OIL. CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF SORBITOL, CALCIUM CARBONATE, SALT, WATER, SOY LECITHIN, MOLASSES, NATURAL ANDARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, BHT (PRESERVATIVE), CITRIC ACID.

RED ALERT! This recipe says “sugar” 8 times. In that teeny little bar, there is all this junk. Don’t get me wrong, they are so tasty, but it’s a whole lot of things your body doesn’t need. And let’s be honest, whether these “bad ingredients” are worth is a different story. Ice cream? Worth it. A basically bite-sized granola bar that you need 3 entire boxes to actually make a dent in your hunger? Maybe not worth it.

Or the classic ingredients in Ketchup, which does not consist of any tomatoes (yes, really. Google it).

Consider checking the ingredients before putting these snacks in your cart and indulging in a little treat. It seems silly and time-consuming but it’s well worth the extra few minutes at the store to ensure you’re treating your body right. If you want other grocery store tips, check out my next article about the grocery store map. Try it out!

It’s a sad realization. I grew up on a bag of Goldfish a day, and it’s now one of those things that is hard to go back to, knowing my body doesn’t agree. But don’t let me fool you. As with all my thoughts and posts, they are just mindful tips and it is not to say I sneak a handful of crackers and fish occasionally (because they are in my office and I can’t walk by without sneaking some).

By the way, Maltodextin is a food additive commonly found in chips, pop, starch and many processed foods.

If you don’t read anything else: try sticking to food that has natural ingredients (it’s quite surprising what you’ll find).