Vacation! May 21, 2007

by © terrytigger

I’m off work for a weeks vacation. Not that I’ll have a chance to rest much. This is gardening week. Today I put down almost 20 bags of mulch, with another 7 to 10 to go. My garden went to weed last year, so I had a huge job in pulling all of the weeds up. I’m quite impressed though with how much I got done today. It looks like I may even have time this week to tackle the back yard.

I bought a bunch of pansies and violas to put in my planter boxes.I wanted to spend a little time doing something fun (like planting) rather than just pulling up weeds for 3 days. I’m waiting until later this week to get the rest of my perennials, and vegetables for the back.

That was my exercise for the day, along with 30 minutes on the treadmill tonight. Hopefully, that will take care of my major digression this weekend. Including today as well.

What I ate today:

2 green smoothies (with fruit)

a salad

tons of water

dinner was ahem…swiss chalet *cough* not quite raw, and certainly not vegan …ah well, tomorrows another day.

I was up in weight a bit today, which I was expecting from the sheer volume of food this weekend.

232.2 (or 231.2 …it’s fuzzy now)

Crazy Weekend May 20, 2007

I pretty much fell off the wagon this weekend. I was taking a full weekend course, and had a dinner planned. Too much temptation.

Let’s just say i ate…a lot.

I ended the day well though with a nice salad. That’s pretty much the only thing good that I ate this weekend. I’m also going to have to pull out my old crappy blender again, as my husband managed to destroy my vitamix while I was away. I’ve only had it two weeks. He blended a spoon

Hopefully, my old one will make green smoothies ok.

Weight today 230.6 - I’m betting tomorrow will be higher.

Weekly Update May 19, 2007

Did well with the smoothies yesterday. My plan was to eat one in the morning, and another in the evening to get in my full quart. I actually did it. Evenings are usually when I fall off the wagon, so I’m quite pleased with myself that I followed through. So far, I’ve only experimented with the sweet smoothie recipes. I’m a little nervous of trying out the savoury ones. My husband has been doing his own experimentation, and most of his non sweet versions have caused instant nausea for me. I think I’ll stick with the sweet ones for now.

I started up on the treadmill yesterday, but I was feeling a little short of breath, so I only did about 10 minutes. I do think I’m starting to come down with something though.

Yesterdays Food - 1 full quart of green smoothie (spinach, romaine, bananas, peaches) about 32 oz of water

an apple

a banana

a handfull of raw trail mix tyoe stuff (nuts/seeds/dried fruit)

dinner was not so great, but I’m quite pleased with my progress nontheless. When I do eat cooked foods, my portions are much smaller. I’m satisfied with sometimes even just a taste. We had made the kids corn on the cob with homemade mac and cheese. They both requested it for dinner, so instead of buying KD, I made whole wheat organic pasta with my own cheese sauce (all organic)

I ate about a half cup of the mac and cheese.

Weekly stats

Weight 231 - total weight loss 15lbs

Down  3.4 lbs for the week.
Measurements (loss calculated from heaviest)
arms - 16.25 (-.75)

Bust - 44.5 (-2.0)

Under breast - 39 (-2.0)

waist - 40 (-2.0)

hips 56 (-2.0)

thighs 29 (-1.0)

calves 18 (0)

I’m taking some classes this weekend. The challenge will be to try to bring some appropriate food. Tonight, we’re taking my mother out for a late mothers day dinner. It won’t be raw , hopefully I’ll be able to eat well the rest of the day.

Green for life May 18, 2007

A while back I ordered Victoria Boutenko’s books 12 steps to raw, and Green for Life.  I haven’t had a chance to delve into the 12 steps yet, but I did start reading Green for Life.  I am now thouroughly commited to morning green smoothie. I made one recipe last night. I think it was Igor’s favourite, a sweet green smoothie with spinach, apples, lime, and banana. I’m going to try working my way through the recipes over the next week. I’ll also have to pick up a large variety of fresh greens this weekend. In her book, she recommends rotating through a large variety of greens for optimal nutrition.

I find I can’t drink a full quart in the morning, but a half quart works quite well for me. My husband drinks the other half. We plan to make one in the morning, and one at night. That will give us a full quart each.

I weighed in at 231 lbs this morning

I really need to start writing down what I eat in a day. I don’t actually remember anything I ate yesterday other than the green smoothie, and two slices of pizza. Of course the pizza was awful, and I instantly regretted eating it. Everything else yesterday was good wholesome raw food….I just don’t remember what kinds

A really raw day May 17, 2007

Yesterday was awesome. I ate close to 95% raw, and felt wonderful all day. I even managed to get in a bit of excercise as well. I should be able to eat well today as well. I came well prepared to work.

I find it amazing how we can try to saboutage ourselves though. I remember thinking at least a few times yesterday how well things we’re going, and how noticeable my weight loss is now. Well, this little voice in my head kept trying to convince me that to celebrate, I should have a big slice of chocolate cake :-)  Of course, I’m not going there. I feel great, I love the foods I’m eating, and I feel healthier than ever.

Any other diet I’ve been on, I would have had that chocolate cake by now.

What I ate yesterday:

1 carrot/fruit juice

lots of fruit fruit

some nuts

a bit of salad

a mock tuna recipe (I wouldn’t make it again) - Not completely awful, but certainly not good

(sprouts, carrots, soaked almonds, lemon, sunflower seeds, and more sprouts) wrapped in lettuce

some of my fudge balls

Weight today 231.4

still going down May 16, 2007

I was certain that most of yesterdays loss was water, that would immediately come back. I’m down again!  I had set a bunch of mini goals for myself. Weight loss in 15 lb increments. This sounds a lot better than just having your main goal be over 120 lbs away.  Another pound or two, and I’ll be at goal #1

another quickie update today. Here is what I ate yesterday.

lettuce/fruit smoothie

a huge spinach fruit salad. I had this for both lunch and dinner it was so big

a green purchased smoothie at work

some dates

my non raw dinner consisted of organic brown rice, chickpeas and sweet red pepper

I made fudge balls late last night from Alissa Cohen’s book.

a bunch of fruit as well.

Weight today 232.2

weight loss May 15, 2007

Lost a huge amount yesterday. Valerie, from greensmoothieexperiment had a similar weight loss the other day. I lost 2.2 lbs in one day. We’ll see how much comes back tomorrow

Had a great day food wise. I probably ate close to 90% raw.

lettuce/fruit smoothie

more fruit throughout the day - bananas, apples

some dried apple/cinnamon slices

dinner was awesome. On the G living network they posted a video which showed how to make “rice” wraps with coconut meat and milk. You blend the meat of two coconuts with the milk of 1 (I improvised a bit), and then spread out little circles on your dehydrator. Dehydrate for about 5 hours. I used these wraps filled with sprouts, avocado, cucumber, and peppers. They were so good that I forgot to leave any for my husband

My computer keeps crashing, so I can’t post the actual link (it crashes everytime i try to open a new window) but you can find the video at http://gliving.tv

I also had another late night snack of tortilla chips with salsa

Weight today 232.8

retitled somewhat raw May 14, 2007

My days always start out fabulously. I start my day with a smoothie. We recently got a vitamix that I picked up on ebay. My husband loves to use it. He usually makes a smoothie with a base of either lettuce or spinach, mixed with fruit. Or if we’re out of leafy greens, then just fruit. I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve been able to find organic frozen fruit far cheaper than the fresh variety to use in the smoothies. Our freezer has been transformed from being chock full of burgers, and chicken breasts to containing pretty much only frozen fruit. We do keep some frozen yogurt and juice Popsicles for the kids.

Lunch is usually a nice big spinach salad with mixed fruit/veggies. Most of my daily snacks are either fruit, larabars, chopped up carrots or cucumbers. I haven’t yet started to explore other types of vegetables. I think I’m at a stage where I need to try some new things.

Dinner is a big problem. This is where I really want cooked food. However, I’ve been eating raw food now for a month. This is long enough to know and see the health benefits, but no where near long enough yet that I don’t absolutely crave pasta, or something warm…like fresh baked bread. So, I’m about a third way there on dinner. I usually eat raw, or at least a portion raw. The rest is cooked. I’d like to get this down to cooked only once or twice a week at most.

I have lots of Raw “cookbooks”, and of course the internet has tons of recipes freely available. I just need to actually start making some of the recipes. Once I start that, I think I’ll find it far easier to transition even further.

I have made some excellent steps in the right direction, but I’m not quite there yet. Our family is now pretty much only eating organic food, we haven’t purchased meat in about a month. All milk, eggs, and yogurt are organic. Although, organic milk is crazy expensive! Almost $8 for three bags. The kids and my husband drink a lot of milk, so we go through 3 bags in about a day and a half.

Here is what I ate yesterday:

fruit smoothie

nori wrapped sprout/tomato/avocado wraps

a whole packet of medjool dates - didn’t mean to, I was in the car, and they were just soooo good

some dehydrated apple rings

a little bit of pasta and sauce (both organic)

and then a lot of organic chips with organic salsa (late night snack)

As you can see, it’s the evening that creates a problem for me. I’ll need to work on that.

Weight today -235

Weekends May 13, 2007

Somehow, my weekends are even busier than my weekday routine.  I had great intentions to do some “uncooking” this weekend, to keep in the fridge for during the week. I managed to forget about a communion party yesterday. I also managed to forget that today was Mothers Day. I Haven’t got anything yet for my Mom, and I had promised to take her and the girls out for dinner.

My garden desperately needs my attention today. Last year, I decided to get rid of the “lawn” and replace it with a perennial garden. Things we’re coming along nicely last summer until my Dad became very ill. He was in the hospital for a few months in ICU. Needless to say, my garden went to weed. Now I have to figure out what I planted earlier last year, and what’s a weed, and what isn’t. As I clear an area, I’m putting down tons of mulch to try to keep the weeds back.

I don’t really remember all I ate yesterday. I forgot to drink my morning smoothie. It was all good up until the party though.

I did have my favourite salad of spinach, mixed berries, walnuts and peppers.

Last night was the communion party. I should have ate before I got there. I started off well munching on veggies and salads. Then the “dips” started calling out to me. The artichoke and asiago dip was particularly yummy. I ate a lot of that. Then I decided that the crackers also looked quite good, especially with the artichoke dip piled on.  The worst though was the sausage….yes, a big fat cheese sausage. No bun….i just picked it up and started munching. Once I realized what I was doing, I discreetly dumped it on my husbands plate, and made him eat  the rest (there wasn’t much left though).

I really need to exert more self control in social situations.

Up exactly 1 lb from yesterday…can’t say i’m surprised.

135.4 lbs

Update day May 12, 2007

Well, I’m quite pleased with my weight loss this week. I didn’t do as well as I would have liked with my raw transition, but not too bad though.

Most of my raw food has been quite simple. lots of fruit, salad and chopped up veggies. I had setbacks mainly on evenings when I came home late from work, and too tired to prepare anything. I would then eat whatever my kids or husband was having. This week, I’m going to try preparing a few raw meals and keeping them in the fridge for during the week. That said, I’ve improved my diet drastically over the last month. I feel very good about the foods I’m consuming.

I haven’t been walking as much as I would have liked. My doctor is still trying to figure out what is going on with my leg. At this point he wants to rule out DVT (deep vein thrombosis) which is not that likely, but possible. My leg still hurts, and bruises and lumps are still forming and moving around.

Weight - 234.4 - down 3.6 lbs for the week

total weight loss - 11.6 lbs

measurements (loss calculated from my heaviest)

arms 16.5 (-.5)

bust 45 (-1.5)

under breast 39.5 (-1.5)

waist 39.5 (-2.5)

hips 56 (-2)

thighs 29 (-1)

calves 17.75 (-0.25)

I found this really neat site where you can visualize your weight loss. You plug in your weight, height, body type, and oter personalized details, then your goal weight. It spits out two versions of you. One fat, and one thin. I had fun playing with this and seeing what I would look like at various stages of my weight loss. I’ll post three pics. One at my heaviest, one now, and one at my goal weight. I got this off of preventions website -  http://www.mvm.com/en/go_shopping.htm