Time for a challenge - my style September 11, 2007

I never did like to follow the rules I’m going to personally adapt the Alissa Coen 30 day raw challenge to better suit my needs. Yes, I want to eat primarily raw. Yes, I want to lose weight. I also need to be realistic.   My plan is: - breakfast, lunch, snacks and a part of dinner to be raw. If I really crave some whole grain pasta, rice, or bread, or cooked beans, I’m going to eat them, no guilt If I do want to make this a lifestyle change (which I do), I need this to work for the long term.

food today:

green smoothie (16 oz) (mache, raddichio, mango, cucumber)

zucchini pasta with “alfredo” sauce (cashews, olive oil, pine nuts)

carrot/ginger/cabbage coleslaw

a few dates

a raw cacao/carob/banana/almond milk shake

a few flax seed crackers

day 7 - weight 231.5 lbs

Guess What? September 9, 2007

I’m actually still here, and back on raw.

Vacation was wonderful, but while I was away my diet suffered. Unfortunately, it continued to suffer after I came back. For the last two months I’ve been eating horribly, with the odd day or two thrown in where I half heartedly attempted to eat raw again.

This time around, I’ve decided that for the next two months or so, I’ll transition into a fully raw diet. Taking it slow might make it easier. Pretty much all meals and snacks are raw, with the exception of dinner. This has always been my weak point. So far this is workign out quite well. I started back on raw foods on Monday or Tuesday of this week. The last three days I didn’t even bother with cooked meals, and ate all raw.

more tomorrow, it’s late but I wanted to get back into  keeping up my journal.

weight today 229.4

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

 

piggy piggy June 10, 2007

Yup, I certainly ate a lot today. I’m feeling pretty awful too. Nothing like a good pig out to get you back on track sometimes. I was relieved when the party was over, and I’m certainly looking forward to tomorrow so that I can eat healthy food again.  I knew today would be too difficult to control what I ate, so I allowed myself to eat anything and everything. However, I can’t eat as much food as I used to. I had a few types of salads, lots of veggies and dips (lots of dips) some tortilla chips with more dips, and a couple little pieces of cake over the course of the afternoon.

Tonight I made an extra effort to get in a really good walk on the treadmill. I was able to get myself up to a climb of 3 and up to a maximum speed of 3.1 mph. I ended up doing about 37 minutes total including a bit of a warm up and cool down.

Oceangirl made a comment yesterday to drink lots of water. I have been pretty consistantly, but the past few days as I thought back, I realized that when I increased my green smoothie intake, I stopped drinking as much water. This probably caused my “problem” the other day. I’m back to drinking 32 to 48 oz of water. I think I was only getting 16 to 24 oz while I was having trouble there. - Thanks Oceangirl!

weight today was 221.8 - i expect to be up a bit tomorrow.

Update day June 9, 2007

I’m still not feeling so great today, but much better than yesterday. Good thing too, as I’m way too busy preparing for my daughters party to be sick!  I was able to stay raw again no problem today. I think it’s mainly because I feel too off to eat much.

breakfast was a green smoothie, lunch was the leftover carrot salad from yesterday, and I think tonight I’ll just have another green smoothie, and some fruit if I can stomach it.

Tomorrow is going to be so not raw! I just got back from the grocery store with all of the food for tomorrow. Assuming I feel well enough to eat all those yummy dips and assorted chips and flat breads….I will. And then of course there’s the birthday cake, and the homemade cupcakes (had to make those for the kids with peanut allergies), which will probably be better than the store bought cake. The cake though is a fancy tinkerbell decorated thing. It looks quite incredible.

Weekly stats

Weight - 222 (down 3.0 lbs for the week, and down 24 lbs total)

Arms - 16.0 (-1.0)

Bust - 44 (-2.5)

back - 38.0 (-3.0)

waist - 40 (-2.0)

hips - 55.0 (-3.0)

thighs - 29 (-1.0)

calves - 17.75 (-.25)

quick note June 8, 2007

I’m feeling awful this evening, with horrible stomach cramping, so I’ll keep this short and sweet until tomorrow which is update day.

morning - 1 metamucil (not working yet) grrrr…

10oz green smoothie, and an additional 1 1/2 quarts of green smoothie throughout the day

lunch and sorta dinner was a shredded carrot, sunflower seed, raisin, coconut salad from Alissa Cohen’s book, Living on Live food.

I also had a handful or two of the kids plain popcorn, and I think i’ll be taking some more metamucil. This is unbearable.

weight today was the same 223.4