Journal | Jan Haas

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Journals- Keeping Track of Health

03/10/11 Jan Comments (1)

Do you know one of the best ways to stop eating foods that are bad for you? Start a food journal and write down everything you eat and drink for a day. Then continue the practice for the whole time you want to lose weight. Why you are at it, write down how you feel. You may notice a pattern of tiredness after your weekly lunch at your favorite mexican restaurant. Or maybe you are working out and noticing that the protein shake you drank before your workout gave you extra energy. I recommend at least six weeks of following your food intake. Remember it takes 21 days to change even a food habit. When you record for at least six weeks, you have a record of what weight you started at, what days were the best and how you felt, and a record of how you are improving as you eat your way to better health.

Along with recording your food, it is a good idea to record your exercise. I know for me, I don’t like to see blank spaces on my exercise tracker, days when I didn’t get any kind of exercise in. I like to know that I walked, did an exercise DVD, yoga, etc. Creating this blog post reminds me that I have a ways to go with my exercise, but I am committing to you that I won’t leave any blank spaces on my tracker. Even just 20 minutes of yoga is an amazing way to release daily stress.

If you look online, there are hundreds of different ways to track food and exercise. I like just a simple chart all in one that includes breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner, along with a space for how I feel and what my exercise was that day.

Journals/notebooks are great for keeping track of your health progress so you can celebrate when you achieve your weight loss/fitness/health goals.

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Categories : Coaching

Tags : coaching, Denver, exercise, fitness, food, journal, keep on track, medical, nutrition, records, weight loss

Reflect on Your Life Today!

01/07/11 Jan Comments (2)

Reflection: a thought occurring in consideration or meditation.

Looking at this picture, I am drawn into the reflection, wondering about what it is I am seeing in the soap bubble. This bubble captured a moment in time, when the trees were just beginning to bloom, or maybe it was taken when the trees were in the last stage of Autumn, dropping their leaves. I love the blue sky that almost looks like the world. The stillness of the house draws me into the moment.

The same thing happens when we decide to reflect on our lives. It is like looking at the soap bubble, where a moment of our life has been stopped in time and we are trying to figure out what the moment tells us about our life.

I have found one of the best ways to reflect on my life is through the use of a journal. Journals are multi-purpose, depending on what you want to reflect on. I have several journals myself, writing different things in each to keep a record of where I have been, and where I am going.

The first journal is full of my morning pages, the writing I do when I get up in the morning. Julia Cameron, author of “The Artist’s Way” suggests that everyone write morning pages as a way of clearing the mind and allowing our creativity to begin flowing. Many times, my morning pages are a mix of discussions with the Divine, my to do list, frustration at mistakes made, acceptance of self. When I take the time to write my morning pages, the writing I do later in the day is much more clear and creative because I have taken the time to clear the cobweb thoughts away.

I end the day with a gratitude journal, where I write three things that I am grateful for. These are usually grace filled moments that have shown up in my day, but sometimes, when I am really struggling, the three things may be as simple as “I am grateful that I had food today,” or ” I am grateful that I have a car to drive.”

In between the morning pages and the gratitude journal at night, there are many types of journals that can help record progress in my day. I can use a journal to record my exercise, or my food intake, so I know that I am on the right track for meeting physical goals. I may write a journal specifically for my health, where I spend time getting in touch with each body part, and asking what it needs to be healthy. I can keep a garden journal, a travel journal, a journal of stories from my childhood, etc. Each of these types of journals gives me insight into my life.

As the definition suggests, reflection takes place in a state of consideration or meditation. The more we slow down and look at where we are, the more conscious we are about the ways we move forward in the world. And the activity of writing brings us to the present moment, allowing us to reduce stress.

This year, I will be talking about each kind of journal in detail, so you will have the opportunity to see how each journal may or may not fit into your life. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Let’s see what we can do this year to make our lives a conscious decision to do the right thing, to treat ourselves and others with love, and to reflect on how we are showing up in the world.

Do you have a journal now? What kind and how does it serve you? Thanks for taking the time to share!

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Categories : Inspiration and Connection, Writing

Tags : acceptance, Awareness, gratitude, journal, morning pages, present moment, reflection, unexamined life

I write…

11/19/09 Jan Comments (0)

I write….

I write from the old rust colored chair in the corner of my bedroom by the window, where I can watch the sun move over the tops of houses and trees and the where the steam rises from my tea cup like morning prayers.

I write in a leather bound journal that houses a new notebook each time I scribble final words on the last page.

I write on my computer with thoughts flowing faster than my fingers can type, but I like the sound of my fingertips softly tapping the keys, changing single letters into words that create an artistic design, flowing easily from one idea to the next, eventually creating art to share.

I write from my heart the stories that have touched me as I travel on my journey; the people, the places, the sounds and experiences that shape my world. I write about love and friendship, family, illness, heartbreak, women and the man I love, children and laughter and anything that pokes and tugs at my heart and reminds me that I am alive.

I write from past experiences; from poems about childhood friends, to teenage crushes to finding the young girl who was lost in childhood moments of darkness. I write about love, children, and finding God in ordinary moments. I write about a debilitating illness that nearly took my life, and the journey to discover me again.

I write in the present time, about breathing and sitting on the beach letting go of all that does not serve me. I write about the sun coming through the window and the thoughts that dance around in my head. When I write, I am present in my body, and all of me moves in rhythm as the words form on the page.

I write in moments of joy, when words leap out of me, bursting forth in color like the show of fall leaves, in red and orange and gold, in a glorious display that shouts “Life is good.”

I write when tears of sadness fall from my face and run with the ink, blotting out my words, as if that would erase the pain. My pen carries the song of melancholy across the page, leaving a heart rendering piece that even years later still has the ability to bring the familiar wetness and sting to my eyes.

I write in moments of pain, when the screaming shows up in my hand wrapped tightly around a pen, intensely scratching out words across the page in dark deep indentations. It is impossible to write small when angered passion rushes out in bold large letters that don’t fit neatly on the lines.

I write in moments of reflection, looking back on an experience and seeing how much I have grown, or not. I write about who I was, who I long to become, and who I am in the present moment. I write from my center, allowing God’s voice to take form in my own words, reminding me of my own divine likeness and energy.

I write about life, all the light and the dark, the good and the bad, the sad and the happy. I am the words on the page, the object I write about and the experience that changes me. In the moment of writing, I am connected to all through a stream of consciousness that feeds my soul. The very act of writing gives me life.

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