Countdown to TTC: Week 37

 

Get HAPI ... Fork

For the holidays this year, I received many lovely gifts and some of them have even caused me to change around my weekly challenges for my countdown to TTC.  One such gift was the HAPI fork (pictured above).  I had been thinking about various habits I could try to adopt that encourage mindful eating (such as putting down my fork between bites, counting how many times I chew, serving my food on a smaller plate and waiting a certain amount of time before going back for seconds, etc.), but this new gadget really gave me a way to get started on those mindful eating goals without quite so much "mindfulness".  

The HAPI fork is a mindful eating tool that subtly warns you when you are eating faster than you should be.  The fork has an internal brain that measures each bite you take and then records how long you wait until the next bite.  If your next bite is sooner than a preset interval (default is 10 seconds), then the fork vibrates and a little light briefly turns red.  If you are eating at the preferred interval, you can see the light turn green with every bite but otherwise it just acts like a normal fork.  

Of course, I do think it is good to move toward actual mindful eating and a deep awareness of what is going on between myself and my meal, but for someone who has a hard time slowing down while eating and a tendency to shovel food this HAPI fork is a great help.  Even when I start a meal with focus, I tend to become kindof zombie-like about midway through and just hork down the second half of my portion without really thinking or sometimes even tasting it.  Part of that is related to other bad habits, but some of it is that I start to pick up speed as the meal goes on and I'm no longer quite as hungry.   

Although I find it inconvenient to use this fork at every meal (that's a fair bit of re-washing throughout the day), I find that I can use it once a day or so pretty easily.  Conveniently, the non-electronic part of the fork is dishwasher safe so I can give it a thorough clean once in a while.  Just have to make sure to remove the electronic "brain" before immersing it in water!

You are supposed to turn the fork on at the start of a meal and turn it back off at the end.  Any time there's at least a 15 minute interval after eating, the fork decides you have finished eating and records all the bites taken before that time as a meal.  Using the HAPI website, you can track your eating stats and monitor your progress toward goals by plugging the fork's "brain" in and letting it download your data.  I don't have a smart phone, but I also think the fork is wireless Bluetooth enabled and can transmit your data directly to a smart phone or tablet, which would probably be more convenient.

Below is a picture of the output the site gave me after my first HAPI fork meal (which happened to be Christmas dinner):

  
You find out how much of the time you were eating faster than target, how long on average you waited between bites, how long you spent on the meal, and how many total bites you took during the meal.  Although these data might not be particularly important for any one meal (except perhaps to discover how long you spent eating a specific meal), over time they do allow you to monitor your success and progress.  Plus, if you have a scientific way of thinking, like myself, it's just a pleasure to see so much quantitative evidence about yourself presented in such an appealing manner.   

As I approach my TTC start date, I will continue to use the HAPI fork but also try to move toward a more internalized mindful eating habit.  Still, when I know I'm really cognitively depleted and just can't pay any attention to how long I'm taking between bites, it's nice to know I can have a good angel reminding me to slow down and care about what I'm putting into my body.  

What about you?  Any great strategies or gadgets that help you eat mindfully or live a healthy lifestyle?  What do you think about the HAPI fork -- brilliant or evil?  What eating habits of yours would you most like to be more conscious about or improve on?

For more in this countdown series, see last week's challenge about Counting pregnancy costs. 

Countdown to TTC: Week 40

Walk It Off

With the holidays here, I am finding myself getting hopelessly behind on my challenges!  I suppose it's just one of those life things I'll have to get over--I'm sure there will be more and more distractions and interruptions when kids are in the picture anyway.  But sometime a few weeks ago my weekly challenge was to add more walking to my daily routine and I've really made headway with that goal.

I live a 15-20 minute walk from my academic building which I go to approximately 2 days a week, but I normally get dropped off by my husband to save time.  Since adding this challenge to my routine, I have been able to walk to school at least once a week and sometime even more than once (it's usually later when I leave and I take the bus home).  I have noticed several time in recent months that walking any significant distance has caused me to have hip pain, but stretching my hips before I leave the house and walking for briefer periods seems to have helped.  Hopefully I am also building up my muscles for future longer walks. 

In addition, I've found lots of other opportunities to walk more, like walking to meetings in other buildings, shopping, walking the family dog while visiting for Thanksgiving, etc.  So far I have had no trouble adding an extra 30-60 minutes of walking to my weekly routine.  In the coming months, I will try to keep this up despite the increasingly wintry weather and plan to increase my walking intensity as I approach the TTC date.

Here's hoping I can keep up my motivation for this habit, because I think it's a good one.  I already added a pedometer to my Christmas list to give me a little mid-winter boost in enthusiasm.

How about you?  What's your favorite weight-bearing exercise to do outdoors?  Is walking your thing or do you find it boring?  How do you add more steps to your daily activity for good health?

For more in this countdown series, see last week's challenge about Strength Training.

Countdown to TTC: Week 45

Proper Posture

Again this week, I decided to begin working on something that's a bit more challenging for me than some of my early goals: posture.  Honestly, if I just make a little progress on this one it will be a big improvement, because I have been hunching for as long as I can remember.  Maybe it's because I'm taller than most women, or maybe it's a holdover from my awkward teenage posture, or possibly I'm just too lazy to stand up straight.  Certainly adopting a lifestyle that involves sitting at a computer most of the day hasn't helped.  Whatever the reason, I know it's probably bad for my neck and back in the long run and I especially want to improve my posture before I get pregnant.  I've read numerous times that posture during pregnancy is even more important than it usually is because your body is changing and working hard to support extra weight that's all concentrated in one spot.  Women are already understandably more prone to back pain during pregnancy, so I really don't want to make it even worse by slouching all the time.

Although the origin of my bad posture is somewhat unknown, the reason for its maintenance is fairly obvious--my core, back, and neck muscles are weak.  Plus, I am so used to having bad posture that I almost can't even tell if my posture is good or bad at any particular moment.  Thus, my first course of action was to buy an inexpensive posture corrector to remind me to sit and stand up straight.  The particular corrector I ordered is made of elastic material that stretches around your back and shoulders and wraps around under your chest to attach with velcro.  It could be worn by a man or woman, but I feel it is particularly designed to strap under a woman's bosom.  I opened it as soon as I saw that it had arrived and started wearing it.  As various reviewers had mentioned, the material and the velcro are not very comfortable, so I wore a t-shirt underneath and padded some of the spots that rubbed (under the armpits, probably because my arms aren't as slim as the models) with washcloths.  While it doesn't exactly force you into the correct posture, the elastic is strong and definitely pulls my shoulders back without me doing anything.  Because of the way the getup looks and the fact that I am wearing it over clothes, I have no intention of wearing it out of the house.  Instead, it is a way to practice a couple of hours at a time sitting with good posture and hopefully that will slowly train my muscles and also make me more conscious of what proper posture feels like.  Even after just a few days I do feel like it is a little more natural to rest with my shoulders back rather than hunched forward.  But I'm sure it will take a long time to break my bad habits for good.

In addition to my sessions with the corrector, I am beginning to try a few other strategies to make my posture improvement a speedier and less unpleasant process:

1. Work on back and core strength.  There are numerous online articles and video explaining and demonstrating exercises that promote good posture.  In general, it is easier to support your head and keep your shoulders back if you have good upper back strength and to support the weight of your body if you have strong abdominals.  My typical exercise routine doesn't focus much on strength, and when it does I focus mostly on my arms and legs, so these are definite weak spots for me.  
2. Stretch.  There are lots of good stretches that promote better posture and reduce back and neck fatigue/pain.  Stretches can even be done at a desk at work. 
3. Adjust my sitting position.  If you're going to sit all day, it's better to sit properly in an ergonomic chair with legs straight down and preferably feet slightly elevated.  Or even better to use an exercise ball or a kneeling chair rather than a traditional desk chair.  Since I share my office space and take whatever chairs are available, for now I'll settle for getting up frequently, setting my chair to the proper height for my computer monitor, and trying to to cross my legs or lean to one side for a long time while I work.  

What about you?  Have you done anything to improve your posture recently and, if so, what was your strategy?  Do you have any experience with the effects of good/bad posture during pregnancy or have any words of wisdom to share?

For more in this countdown series, see last week's challenge about Having an Active Lifestyle. 

Countdown to TTC: Week 46

Get Active, Have Fun

 Once I commit to a certain activity or behavior, I am pretty good at following through on it.  So taking the stairs more or drinking more water are doable as long as I am able to remember they are on my to-do list.  But something I don't really do well is add spontaneous healthy behaviors to my day.  Even if I have an opportunity, I won't spontaneously add extra walking or play outside with friends or go out dancing.  For me, health-related activities are a necessary chore that you have to plan for but that you wouldn't want to do for fun.  So my goal this week was to work on changing my perspective about being active and to move toward having a healthy lifestyle, rather than a set of specific healthy behaviors.    

Step one of this effort was to register for and participate in a Color Run.  These events are popping up all over the United States and are pitched as "The Happiest 5k on the Planet".  Participants register in advance to take part in a 5 kilometer walk/run and show up on race day with thousands of other people to travel on a single track.  People of all shapes, sizes, and ages come to take part (including many families with infants and small children).  Runners/walkers are released in small waves, and there are several stations set up along the track representing a single color.  At each station, participants are sprayed by enthusiastic volunteers with dyed corn starch that starts to cover their clothing and bodies in bursts of bright colors.  When you complete the race, you toss a final color packet that you received at the start of the race along with hundreds of other participants, creating a rainbow cloud (pictured above).  

I am usually the type of person who avoids such events when possible, but since I started counting down to trying to conceive I have been thinking about my goals a little differently.  Usually I pass because I don't like waking up early on the weekends, which is almost always mandatory for walks/runs, and also I worry that I will get too tired or sore by the end of the race and look foolish.  Now, though, I am thinking more long-term.  Why avoid something fun like the Color Run just in case I might get tired?  I should instead look at it as a challenge and a goal for self-improvement.  Plus, it could be fun and maybe I would even want to be one of those mommies out there in a future race pushing my baby in a stroller or one of the fit pregnant ladies strutting along with a prominent belly bump.  

The next step will be a bit more difficult, because there is no specific plan or list to follow.  I will just need to start saying yes more often to opportunities to get active. I don't want to make a rule to always say yes, because there are some things I don't like to do or that are beyond my current abilities.  But having a yes attitude will be a good start.  Also, keeping an eye open for opportunities I might otherwise miss is a good idea.  I see lots of information about free events in my community, but usually I skip right to the ones about food or theater/movies and don't even look at active ones.  Even though most of them might not be my thing (I loathe most organized sports, for example), I might find the occasional gem like the Color Run - within my ability level, active, fun.  

What about you?  Is routine exercise the only way you get active, or are you able to find ways to get moving that aren't part of your exercise schedule?  How do you have fun while staying or getting fit?  What are some calorie-burning activities that you actually enjoy?   

For more in this countdown series, see last week's challenge about Eating More Produce. 

Countdown to TTC: Week 49

Meet Some Families in Your Community

 As a fairly young prospective parent and a graduate student whose peers are still fairly unsettled in terms of career and family, I have found it somewhat difficult to get to know people who are parents.  I suspect that most people naturally meet other parents when they are expecting a first child and continue to develop those relationships as their kids grow, but I think it could also be helpful to begin incorporating parents and children into my social network before I have baby #1.  With that end in mind, I incorporated two challenges into this week of my countdown.  

First, I agreed to babysit.  It can be difficult as a non-parent to mingle with families with kids because of the limited shared social opportunities that are available.  Since it doesn't seem like a great idea to be the creepy stranger who shows up at parks or kid's soccer games (for good reason), I realized the best way for me personally to meet parents around me is to serve them.  This can be especially easy if you are part of a church or a student--just put the word out there that you are available to help and you are likely to start getting requests.  This weekend, DH and I agreed to watch two kids for a family that we know from naptime to bedtime.  Admittedly, we have been babysitting for this family for a couple of years now so it wasn't a completely new item for my countdown, but lately I have started to look at these experiences as an opportunity to learn about and prepare for future parenting situations.  If you decide to try this too in your prep for TTC, bonus points if you can get your significant other to go with you.  It is always great for me to see DH interacting with children and imagine what a wonderful father he will be.  Babysitting can have the added benefit of reminding you to appreciate your current life stage.  The kids are adorable and fun, of course, but it's a good reminder of how much work it is to care for little ones full time. 

Of course, not everyone has opportunities to babysit and some people may worry that they aren't prepared to care for someone else's children because of their lack of experience.   If that describes you, it may be especially beneficial for you to seek out some parents for your social network and there are other ways to connect with them besides child care.  My second challenge for the week meets those criteria: in addition to babysitting, I decided to volunteer for the meals ministry at my church.  This group provides a service to new parents and others in our congregation who are currently in need of some extra help getting meals together for their family.  It's a new experience for me and the first informational meeting hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure I will feel good meeting others' immediate needs and may even have a chance to develop friendship with some of the families.  There will probably be plenty of opportunities to offer help and to listen in addition to just dropping off food.  Plus, I will be getting a chance to contribute to a service I plan to use in the future and will be inspired to start perfecting some healthy family recipes.

Here are the benefits (as I see them) of getting to know some families before you have kids:

1.  Becoming a first-time parent can be stressful and it is nice to know you have some experienced guides to support you.
2. Pregnancy and the early parenting days might be at least slightly less intimidating when you know what to expect and have some clue what you're doing.  You might never be totally prepared, but interacting with and observing other kids can definitely provide some perspective and confidence.
3. Helping out parents in whatever way you can is a good way to figure out what kinds of help might be available to you when you become a parent.  New parents can miss out on valuable community resources if they don't know about them or aren't sure how to request assistance.
4. Pregnancy isn't the best time to completely overhaul your social network.  You want to have support from people you know and have build lasting relationships with when you are starting a family.  Incorporating some parents into your group of friends before it's a practical necessity might not totally solve this problem, but could help you get used to balancing friendships with people at different life stages.  It might also help you figure out how to plan activities that friends with and without kids both enjoy, so you don't drift away from your non-parent friends after having a baby.  
5. It never hurts to help someone out!  Even if you don't become best buddies with any of the families you meet, you'll have made some new acquaintances, established some goodwill, and made a positive difference in your community. 

What about you?  Do you know a lot of parents, or did you before you had your first child?  Do you think there are any benefits?  Do you struggle with maintaining friendships with people who are in a different stage of life?  How can people maintain a thriving social network regardless of their current marital or parental status?     

For more in this countdown series, see last week's challenge about Saving.