Where you can find me....

Thanks for visiting my page. It's currently undergoing maintenance so please forgive the look!
My new website www.myultimatehealthproject.com will be up in January 2016 where you can find more information around cancer as well as support and inspiration for your own personal health transformation. I hope that you will join my tribe!
In the meantime you can see what I am getting up to in my own My Ultimate Health Project over on Instagram - my username is myultimatehealthproject connect with me there!
Much love for now and here is to an amazing 2016!
Petrina xxx

MY ULTIMATE HEALTH PROJECT - WEEK 12 - REFLECTIONS

Whilst I haven't always been consistent in terms of writing towards the end of my project this week's delay was a deliberate act of delay allowing for me to really reflect on some of my experiences over the last 12 weeks. 

I started this project 12 weeks ago to address the fact that I no longer felt like myself anymore having gone through my particular cancer treatment. It was to rebuild myself mentally and physically but probably on some level to feel like I could be back in control of my own health journey and it's destiny. Whilst it was unsaid at the time it was also because I wanted something to do and focus on for 12 weeks to keep me occupied before I found out if my treatment has been successful. 

These are my top 10 reflections (and there were many but in an attempt to be concise it was whittled down!)

1. You're the architect of your own life. You have to take an active role in your own life and circumstances. If you don't like something change it, if you can't change it alter your perception to it. People whine a lot I've observed.
2. Happiness is a choice and comes from living in the present moment. Not the past or the future, what is happening in the here and now is real and where you can derive happiness.
3. Start and finish every day with gratitude. Gratitude is all about perception.
4. Changing my diet (which was pretty good before) and when I ate completely revolutionized how my body felt and my energy levels.
5. Exercise is the foundation for a healthy body and mind.
6. Don't ever quit anything because it's hard. Ever. You usually find out some really interesting stuff about you, your life and the universe at that point in time.
7. You're way stronger than you think you are. It is amazing what we can actually do. You have to challenge and push yourself for things to ever change.
8. Fear traps us from doing the things we really want to do in our lives and being the people that we really want to be.
9. Ditch the stress. If your body is in chronic stress it cannot heal itself. This is easier said then done.
10. People say some really dumb and insensitive things without even realizing it. I could write pages about the dumb things that have come out of people's mouths. It's made me really try and stop and think before I say things now. Or if in doubt I don't say anything at all.
11. OK I know that I said 10 but this one is super important to finish on. People are also AMAZING. Kindness exists everywhere and you would be amazed at the selflessness of the human spirit that is there in some people. I have been humbled.

My final reflection just because I couldn't close out the 12 weeks without referencing it somewhere:

• Sauerkraut is both amazingly beneficial and disgusting at the same time. The only thing I eat in my life that I cannot stand.

The 12 weeks is now up and I have my PET scan happening this coming Monday. Next week will mean I find out if I still have cancer. The time has gone really quickly but it also seems like such a long time ago when I was that person that couldn't even stand or brush her teeth. 

To be clear I'm not in any sense grateful for cancer, nor will I ever be, but I am grateful for the perspective it has afforded me. I'm so lucky - some people live their whole lives never having gained the insight into their lives that I now have. Cancer has just become part of my journey, whatever happens next week I truly believe that I am capable of dealing with anything and I just love my life.

Thanks for reading and being with me on my 12 week journey. So many of you have reached out to me throughout this process and wished me well which I am incredibly grateful for. It has honestly been overwhelming the support from everyone. Many of you have your own health journeys that are still ongoing and I wish you all the love and light in the world.

P xoxo

My Ultimate Health Project - Week 11 - Stress

I challenge one single person to tell me honestly that they have never been stressed in their lives. If you told me to my face I don't think I would be able to believe you, even if you swore that it was true. All of us can relate to the concept of stress, we have too much on our plate, all at the same time, most of it time sensitive and no profession goes untouched anymore when it comes to operating in a stressful environment. We can't expect to avoid stress but we need to learn to successfully manage it.

Reflecting back on these last few weeks and the topics that I have explored, it is clear that stress can be a real sabotager in achieving any goals or aspirations. More successful individuals have coping mechanisms to be able to deal with and manage stress on a real time basis.

Managing stress doesn't just lead to you being a nicer person to be around, it has health benefits too. Stress and associated negative behaviors attributed to stress (such as lack of sleep, dependency on alcohol, increased intake of sugary foods and irregular exercise) can lead to a depleted immune system over time. This reduces your bodies ability to fight off infection and why stress can make you feel "run down".

Mentally stress just weighs you down, it's excess baggage, stopping you from living in your present and enjoying it.

What's my objective this week?

This week I will be looking at and documenting stress managing strategies.

Tips to not derail when real-life hits

What do you do when real-life happens? When you have conflicting priorities, not enough hours in the day to get it all done and you can see your personal goals and objectives unravelling in front of you? 

These are the top 5 things that I consider and do when I feel myself off track. 

1. Go back to your "why". Think back to why you started something in the beginning, what was at the heart of your decision. Figure out if this is still a priority before you quit. If you can reengage with your "why" and it's still something you can feel is a priority you've got to figure out a way to keep going.
2. Bring it back to the basics. Chances are that you've thrown yourself into your new project with such gusto and enthusiasm that you've added a few bells and whistles along the way. If you find yourself losing focus and becoming derailed, strip it all back to the fundamentals. Remember it's not about perfection - it's about progress.
3. Clear your mind. Usually by the point that we are derailing there is an enormous amount of noise going on in our heads. Find a way to clear that out. I do something called my 5 minute meditation that helps me to sort and organize my thoughts in a logical way making me feel more focussed and in control. Plus it only takes 5 minutes.
4. Stop with the self defeating talk. Talking down to yourself or negatively isn't going to help get you back on track. In fact it's probably going to stick the final nail in the coffin on whatever project you're trying to finish.  
5. Get some sleep. Anxiety and emotions are heightened when we are operating on not enough sleep. Rationale decisions are harder to make and logical thought process out the window. 

Finally (this isn't a tip but words to live by) comparison is the biggest thief of joy. No one else's life is perfect, even it appears all wonderful and shiny via Facebook / Instagram / their chat. Don't worry about others, just focus on yourself, take a deep breathe and get back on track.

My Ultimate Health Project - Week 10 - Staying on track

The last few weeks it has probably been clear that what I am choosing for my "topic" is being driven by what's been going on in my life. I didn't necessarily intend for the project to happen organically, rather I thought that I would plan out my 12 weeks in terms of my mental and physical well being and how that relates to my cancer and see what I uncovered along the way. 

Actually what has happened is a deeper knowledge and understanding at the beginning of the project around the things that I value and hold important to me such as gratitude, nutrition and my own learning and educating. Then it started to morph into something else as my "real-life" resumed, my integration back into the world at large, the care for my son, my job, finding time for exercise, cooking and my semblance of a social life started to happen. Suddenly my order and planning slipped regardless of my intentions, talking about certain issues like navigating financial wellness and medical expenses (a topic I had previously chosen) just didn't sit right with me when I was struggling and had an overall lack of energy. So I pivoted, changed direction, realized I needed to dig deep and preserver if completing my project was something I wanted to do, which I did / do. 

This change of direction and more apt topic made me realize that my lessons are happening in real time, in life around me right now and it's not about remaining rigid and unbending and sticking to the plan but instead learning how to identify where the lessons exist and my own response to that.

It also made me realizes that set back still happen, even after something as horrible as cancer. Maybe the set backs aren't quite as large as that but they are still set backs, they still affect me, I'm not immune, I have a new perspective granted but it's not all kittens and mittens and rainbows over here. There are still the average, everyday struggles that we all suffer with and they are just as much of a pain in the ass now as they were before the cancer.

So all that pre-amble leads me to what I am thinking about this week which is staying on track. In thinking about this project and feeling like I had lost my way both in focus and dedication and how I would figure that out, I thought that similar principles could be applied to many aspects of life where you may find yourself wandering off track. Healthy eating, fitness routines, personal pursuits. Typically when life happens and time becomes constrained we start to reprioritize unconsciously. tackling Items and things we consider "must dos" such as our jobs, feeding our children, paying bills. There becomes little time for other activities and we wander off track.

In all of this the first thing I have recognized is that it's really ok that I wander off track sometimes. Rather than beat myself up that I've missed some self imposed deadline of posting my topic update on a weekly basis I've instead let it slide because it happened. No one died, it's not a tragic mistake. What's actually more key was the recognition in myself that I wanted to get it back on track, that I was still committed to it. Being able to answer the question of "is this important to me and something that will benefit me in a mental or physical way?" was far more constructive for me than just kicking myself verbally in my own head for "failing".

Staying on track is really about the long game. Figuring out what's important to you and refocussing at an appropriate point. Short term quitting may seem like a more palatable answer but rarely will you be glad that was the decisions that you took a month later.

So here I am, several days late but still in the game and THAT is the important part.

What's my objective this week?
To figure out what will help me stay on track.

Sleep

I have such mixed emotions writing this particular post. When talking about energy, sleep is an obvious topic to cover. Not sure that anyone would dispute the link between the amount of sleep that you get and the direct collation with increased energy. We are always being told to get more sleep to increase immunity, reduce overall body inflammation  cope with stress, increase concentration and decision making capabilities. For women we are driven into a frenzy of fear that our lack of sleep is contributing to an inability to shift some pounds of weight.

The reason I have mixed emotions is because I believe the research and I love sleep, but for some of us it's just not as simple as attempting to sleep more. Some of us have lives that require us to work peculiar hours, children that don't or won't sleep through the night, multiple priorities and a whole life that happens at 5am before we even get into the office or are having chemo and then sleep is literally impossible. So whilst I think it is important to understand that there is a strong linkage between sleep and energy levels I focus on quality over quantity because realistically speaking it's just not feasible to try to fall asleep in some instances or squeeze an extra few hours in. The rest of my life would simply stop functioning.

This isn't a science lesson so not going to go into the minutia, but your sleep pattern of an evening is comprised of different stages or cycles. The most important cycles of sleep are the deep sleep phase where most of the great restorative work happens and the REM stage. The damaging effects of sleep deprivation are mainly felt when we lack deep sleep because this is where the body repairs and heals itself and creates energy for us. To maximize your ability to gain deep sleep you should try and create an environment where you are disturbed by light and noise as little as possible. Be conscious of drinking or smoking in the evening. We also need REM sleep though as well as this phase plays a key role in restoring learning and memory and a brain functioning on all cylinders without the aid of coffee is our objective here.

In summary we should all be aiming for 7.5 hours sleep a night where possible. Where that might not be realistic simply ensure that you're doing everything you can to maximize the amount of time you have asleep or helping yourself fall asleep in the first place. Make sleep a priority, set a regular bedtime, don't watch TV or check your phone in bed, minimize noise and light where possible and if your mind is cluttered do my "5 minute meditation". Some things you simply can't control but those are aspects of your sleep schedule that you can so start there!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

My Ultimate Health Project - Week 9 - Energy

Last week was all about digging deep and persevering. Boy what a week it was. It can be tough juggling multiple priorities including things that you have to do and finding time for the things that are priorities for you but you don't HAVE to do. Then if you layer that onto an environment of uncertainty and instability it can be downright overwhelming and much easier to just allow yourself the ability to stop or park whatever initiative you were in the midst of. It's why so many new years resolutions fail, or any lifestyle changes become unsustainable. We start new projects with gusto and enthusiasm which lends itself to us feeling like our new project is no effort, once that initial shine wears off and then life throws challenges our way we want to throw in the towel. This is where perseverance comes in and the position I found myself in last week. Clearly I've given no detail around the circumstances, quite frankly I didn't have time to write although I would have loved to have done. I had to reprioritize in terms of what I could accomplish, at some points I felt like I have simply taken on too much but then it's sad to think that you would end up doing less of the things that make you happy because you quit.

The experience last week lent itself to what I wanted to explore this week - the concept of energy. If I think about the original reasoning of this project and why I doing this, it comes down to energy, rebuilding that energy that was diminished from the cancer treatment both from a metal and physical perspective. 

But energy is so crucial to our overall functioning. It's the first thing that is impacted by bad health, disease, poor lifestyle choices and a big reason as to why people look to make more health conscious decisions. When we have physical energy it's easier to keep momentum going and our enthusiasm and passion. Tasks are easier to accomplish, we see everything from a place of gratitude. It feels like it's hard to start but easy to keep on going once we have done. 

Likewise positivity seems easier when we are coming from a place of mental energy. Negative mental energy can be created from within if we talk down to ourselves, live in the past or the future (neither of which we can control) or we draw comparisons to ourselves and lives to others around us. Negative energy from others really does drag us down. Ever had that situation where you hate spending time around a friend who you brings out the worst in you by their own complaining? Yup negative energy.

So if energy is so important to overall wellbeing how do you ensure that you're firing on all cylinders?

What's my objective this week?
To explore the ways in which I can develop more energy be through nutrition or lifestyle.

Understand what situations or circumstances deplete energy.