I’m still here June 29, 2007

I’ve been at work pretty much non stop – all day/all night since last week. I had my first day off today, and it felt good to do absolutely nothing

We’ll just say that I completely went off my diet over the last week or so. I did try to eat as healthy as possible, lots of fruit and salad, but also a ton of stuff I shouldn’t have. Today was my transition day back to raw.

1 small green smoothie this morning

a banana, an apple, 4 fresh figs

dinner was not raw – peel and eat shrimp with corn on the cob, and a hot dog – (grin) – I really gotta ditch this hotdog obsession

I’m starving, so i’m also about to eat tortilla chips with salsa – back to raw tomorrow.

I haven’t weighed myself, i’m too frightened! I will tomorrow though.

Can I just…. June 21, 2007

forget this week ever happened?

Not good, and getting worse. I was pretty good yesterday, and dropped a pound this morning. Today, I was fine until dinner time. Some stuff came up at work, and i’m now going to have to be there 12 to 15 hour days for the next three or 4 days.

I ended up having swiss chalet for dinner, as I was starving. I hadn’t planned on staying late, so didn’t come prepared at all. Now that I know I’m going to be there all weekend, I’ll hit the grocery store on my way in tomorrow and stock up on fresh veggies , nuts, and fruits to keep there.

I probably won’t get a chance to update again until Sunday. I haven’t completely lost the plot just yet

Thank you to all of you who have left notes. I’ve been too busy lately to respond individually, but I do really appreciate everyones comments. Thanks!

Weight Gain June 20, 2007

The last couple of days have been interesting. I fell off the wagon again for certain meals (dinners out, pizza night, and dinner out with friends). The remainder of those days (and meals) have been consistantly raw. What I find the most interesting is the weight gain. My “off the wagon” dinners were not binges. Normal portions of the healthiest alternative that I could manage. At the restaraunt last night, which was a buffet, was mainly the salad bar. I even stayed away from the heavier options on that table. I did have a small selection of desert, but certainly nothing huge.

SO, in the last three days I’ve gained 4.4 lbs I think. Something like that anyway. I’m really hoping this is water, and it will flow right out over the next couple of days. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m heading to the grocery store to seriously stock up on raw. I’ve lost too much weight, and I feel way too healthy now to give up. I feel like I need to isolate myself for a while from temptation. I may do that.

so, this morning i weighed in at 222.4

no exercise over the last few days, that will change tonight.

two day update June 18, 2007

Didn’t get a chance to post an update yesterday. We ended up going to my husbands fathers house for Fathers Day dinner. I wasn’t prepared, and of course there were absolutely NO raw food options. They even put in cooked rice into the salad.  I stayed raw the remainder of the day though with a green smoothie, lots of fruit, cashews, goji berries and a couple of dates.

My weight has been going up a bit the last two days. Yesterday morning I weighed in at 219.4, and this morning 219.8 – I suspect I’m retaining a bit of water, since prior to yesterday my weight was dropping quite rapidly. We’ll see what happens over the next few days.

I’ll probably be eating entirely raw today, no surprises that I’m aware of.

More tomorrow, as I have a late night this evening.

Saturday Update June 16, 2007

Had a surprisingly good day. We were running around all day on errands, so I made sure to pack lots of good snacks for the hours in the car/park/stores. This way I wouldn’t have to be tempted with any fast food restaurants. We had promised the kids an ice cream cone from a local dairy. We discovered that a new organic produce store opened up right next door. I’m quite thrilled. Everything in the shop was organic, and the prices were more reasonable than our big box grocery store. This place had a much better selection. We’ll certainly support them now on a weekly basis.

We then headed downtown to go to Toronto Sprouts to pick up our sprouting seeds, we found that inside they had a little cafe. They had raw sandwiches on the menu! – Dan and I each had a sprout/sunflower pate sandwich on some sort of raw cracker.

Breakfast was almost a full quart green smoothie (spring mix, spinach, cucumber, apples, peach, flax seeds)

during the day I munched on dates, goji berries, a sunburger, a banana, and the raw sandwich

Dinner was a small portion of stir fried veggies and tofu that the kids had. I also had a bunch of various cut up fruit with raw chocolate sauce from the Naked Chocolate book. It’s made from Raw cacao, agave nectar and a bit of coconut oil. – divine!

We bought a selection of sprouting seeds which we’ll try to get started tonight. We bought

sandwich booster mix – clover, alfalfa, radish, canola

Alfalfa

Sunflower

crunchy bean mix – peas, lentils, garbanzos

ancient eastern blend – fenugreek, french lentils, kamut, adzuki beans

buckwheat 

Weekly stats

Weight - 218.4 (down 3.6 lbs for the week, and down 27.6 lbs total)

Arms – 16.0 (-1.0)

Bust – 43.5 (-3.0)

back – 38.0 (-3.0)

waist - 39 (-3.0)

hips – 54.5  (-3.5)

thighs – 29 (-1.0)

calves – 17.5 (-.50)

Sprouts June 15, 2007

I resisted temptation at dinner! Quite proud of myself, and it was my favourite – pasta. I made it for the kids and my mom who was over for dinner. While that was cooking, I made up a big bowl of guacamole, along with a cucumber and a “sunburger” from one of my raw cook books (can’t remember which one)

Breakfast was a green smoothie, and an additional 25 oz of green smoothies later in the day. I also ate 2 more sunburgers at lunch. I’m probably going to snack on fruit later tonight after I workout. I’ll probably follow the same workout I did yesterday as it felt really good, and was a decent challenge.

 Tomorrow, we’re heading to Toronto Sprouts, to pick up a bunch of organic sprouting seeds. I have a big indoor “greenhouse” that I was going to use to start all of my garden plants from seed. Unfortunately, I have not been even remotely successful in keeping anything alive. However, it’s perfect for growing sprouts. I think I can manage that.

This morning I weighed in at 119.8 lbs! 

The Restaurant Experience June 14, 2007

We took the kids out for dinner tonight as a little treat for being cooped up in the house all week. Poor little monkeys have been so sick. I was quite determined to stay raw if at all possible. I came close

First, I asked for their house garden salad. All raw, no problem there. Not quite the same story with the dressing. I knew of course that they would not have any “raw dressings” So I asked for olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar (not raw, but it needed “something”) They brought me canola oil and balsamic “dressing” – The salad was also tiny. At this point, I’m starving and watching my family chow down on yummy smelling and looking food. I break out the menu again to see what else they had. Not much. They did have a vegan pizza on the menu though with tons of veggies. I actually ordered the pizza, and only ate the toppings – The veggies were cooked, but a much better choice than anything else on the menu. I’m quite proud of myself – I did get very strange looks from the waitress though.

food today:

breakfast was two banana’s sliced into little bits with a raisin and a half walnut on each slice. This came from a raw compilation cookbook. Shazzie me thinks.

later I had an apple, and a sunburger patty (same cookbook as above)

I guess that’s it, along with the above mentioned dinner. I wasn’t overly hungry until I got to the restaurant. I should probably try to force myself to eat a bit more during the day. I wouldn’t get quite so hungry at night then.

Had an excellent workout tonight. I followed another of the programs on my treadmill. This one was the “weight loss” program and I upped the difficulty level. I actually RAN for 1 minute! Most of you are thinking big f$%$#ing deal i’m sure. However, I don’t think I’ve “run” in about 7 years. So this was a huge step forward for me. Total milage 1.67 in 40 minutes with a maximum climb of 5.5 (average 3)

weight today 221.8 – same as yesterday

Willpower, or lack thereof June 13, 2007

I now understand the all or nothing approach some raw foodists seem to espouse. Having “just one” (insert your poison here) doesn’t work. 1 hot dog turns into 2, and then it sets off a craving for something else. While I’m not convinced that all cooked food is bad, the cooked food I tend to eat when I “go off” certainly is. The strangest thing is this craving for hotdogs! Hotdogs of any kind regular/veggie/chicken whatever I rarely ever ate. Since “going raw” I’ve had more hotdogs than I’ve had in a couple years

Oh well, I do see this as a lifestyle change, not a diet. I’m not going to beat myself up over the odd slipup, and I would like to encourage my children to eat more raw foods as well. We’re slowly introducing more and more fruits and vegetables into their diet. This part has been easy, as they’ve always loved fruits over other sweets, and chopped up veggies have always been a hit. I cannot get them to eat salads, or even consider drinking a smoothie (green or fruit). They will also not eat nuts, avocados, or any of the “raw entree’s”. I’m very concerned about the lack of fat that a raw diet would provide for them. 

It would be so much easier if we were all raw, the temptation simply wouldn’t be there. In the meantime, I must stop my husband from ever making hotdogs again. If he’s going to cook, it’s got to be a more healthy option….Dan, i hope you’re reading this!

Weight today was back down to Sunday mornings weight of 221.8

No exercise today as I seem to have caught that bug my kids have, or it could just be the damn hotdogs.

Get the Glow June 12, 2007

The first thing my friend (whom I haven’t seen for a few months) said to me when we saw each other on Sunday was …. Ohhhh….you’re all glowy. What are you doing?  – Was I thrilled!

It’s hard for me to personally see a lot of progress, as of course I see myself in the mirror daily. I do really feel awesome though.

I just picked up Sarma’s raw food cookbook yesterday, and I must say the recipes look pretty awesome. I’m currently drinking the grape/fig cleanse shake. It’s quite good, but a tad too sweet for an everyday kinda drink. I’ve had a completely raw day, primarily due to my weight gain the other day that is stubbornly staying put.

I’ve mainly been snacking today, no green smoothie as my kids are sick. They’ve been up all night, and I was just too tired.

So, I ate a bunch of watermelon(probably about half a whole watermelon), about a 1/4 cup of gogi berries, some “fettucini alfredo” from Alissa Cohen’s book, a bunch of fresh blueberries, now I’m having the above mentioned grape/fig shake.

I did walk on the treadmill today, but I decided to try one of the built in programs. It was 30 minutes, and way too easy for me. The distance was just under 1 mile, but it did bring me up to an incline of 4, which I’ve never tried before. I may try one of my Yoga video’s tonight. We’ll see.

Weight this morning was 223.8

Exercise June 11, 2007

by © duckguy1

This is how I felt this morning after getting on the scale. My one little pig out day caused me to gain 2.2 lbs, mostly water no doubt, but still. yeesh.

I have now dropped at least one dress size. I used to be a 24 to a 22, depending on the cut. Today I did a bit of shopping, and everything I tried on in a 20 fit fabulously!  All of my clothes are becoming way too large to wear, even around the house. My husband commented on my tent like clothes this morning, so I felt that I should buy at least a few skirts or pants that I cannot get my entire arm down through the waistband (with my waist in it) You also know your pants might be a bit too big when you can use the washroom without having to unbutton, or unzip!

So, I am now very, very anxious to get into a size 18….the faster the better, I’m also very anxious to get below 200 lbs. It’s not all that far off. I’m going to seriously step up my exercise routine. This week, I’ll be walking 1.5 miles per day on the treadmill, the next week 2 miles, and in three weeks, 2.5 miles.

I also want to add in some other types of exercise, but I’ll stick with the walking for the moment. I’ll be posting my exercise status daily from now on along with my weight.

Food …Not too bad today

Breakfast was a green smoothie and some watermelon

Lunch I had out at the mall, so I had a 1/4 of my husbands salad, and a half portion of pad thai – couldn’t be helped

dinner was lots of chopped up raw veggies, apples with raw almond butter, and a slice of Blueberry Pie from Alissa Cohen’s book living on live food. Awesome!

the crust is made with almonds and dates, and the filling has tons of blueberries, banana’s and honey. I highly recommend her book for some great recipes. The entree’s and deserts are heavy on the nuts, but as I’m still new to raw foods, I do appreciate the heaviness of them sometimes.

Weight today 224.0 

exercise – treadmill 1.62 miles