Wasting away (sigh)

So the 1/2 kilos keeps going--I've lost another 2.2 lbs since I last reported my weight. I've not been eating the last two days (a half juice fast, with a salad here and there). Again, I don't think I need to lose weight and I haven't seen this size in several years, but I've been doing what my digestion dictates. I've realised my digestive system is very lazy---any time I give it any work to do, it start complaining (loudly!) and I have to take my peppermint tablets (not cool). So I've been giving it only a lil bit of work to do, with lots of juice and not much solids.

Still, I think I'll eat some more nuts because I haven't been eating much of that and I think the fat in it should help me increase my calorie intake and to give me some other nutrients that I wont get from fruits, vegs, and greens.

Checklist:

1. I was in the gym today and that was good :-)

2. Several new spanish words -atuendo (attire), calzar (to dress), calcetines (socks), gastado (worn)- and I hear memorisation helps keep your brain young, so double benefits!

3. I did the 1/2 hour cleaning today altho I didn't want to...yay me for still doing it.

4. The raw part is coming, I had some crackers today, hope I'm not paying for it tomorrow (but I bet I will). Lots of juice today, have more juicing to do tonight to make space for my organic fruit and veg box, which is arriving early in the AM tomorrow.

Have you set any specific goals/actions for tomorrow? Tomorrow the big challenge will be to clear my bed....oooh, that's a tough one!!!

Another 2nd day (countdowns make me antsy!)

Obviously the things that are easy to do get done and the things that are hard to do don't get done.

Yesterday I:

1. Spent more than 30 minutes cleaning the living room and putting all the novels in the house on the bookshelf (except the ones on my bed LOL).

2. Went to the gym, did legs (ouch!).

3. Learnt a new spanish phrase (so there!) --los dedos gordos de los pies (big toes).

4. Ate mostly raw---hmm, I guess you can see what the hard one is!

Well I don't know if the 30 day challenge is gonna work with my diet because I've just not yet built up the self-discipline to say no to everything I should. We went for pizza last night at my suggestion (first mistake). I ordered salad with the cheese, the cooked mushrooms, and the dressing on the side. [The salad came with lightly fried bread as well, hmmm.] Anyway, while the salad was yummy (avocado, yay!), I felt I had no choice but to eat the bread and the mushrooms because there salad was so effing small! Now this salad is on the menu as a main meal, not a side dish so I don't know which tiny bird they expect that to fill! Cho! Anyway, while Chris' pizza (with extra goat's cheese) looked yummy, I refrained from asking for a lil teeny-weeny so-small-no-one-would-notice bite, so that was a success :-)

Today a friend of mine is coming so there will definitely be more cleaning (my desk in the living room is still in a state!!!). That's the first thing on the list this morning :-)

More eating raw is next as I have to drink some tea and make a smoothie (will it be good?) from my carrots, beets, greens juice concoction.

No gym today, but definitely tomorrow (if I can walk! ouch)

Spanish is often the last thing of the day because La Hermandad is my bedtime reading (about a page a night so far) and then it gives me all day to repeat the word/phrase I learnt in my head and out loud to make it stick.

And today is the day I write out my large and small goals and stick some of them on the wall so I can see them everyday...

Oh, I think I'll add "getting up within 30 minutes of waking" as another 30-day challenge and then maybe next month I can try "getting up at 8am in the winter" (HAHAHAHAHA, oh, plz god no), we'll see how it goes.

Toodles.

30 days to success?

The first thing I really read on going raw is Steve Pavlina's blog about his 30 day trial. I didn't think I wanted to do a 30 day trial, I just thought I'd 'transition' into it. But now I'm reading more of his personal development articles on his blog and he has one about doing 30 day trials on any new habit you are thinking of picking up---including a new diet or having a clean desk (two things I desperately need). Here's the link: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/

So I'm thinking maybe I should do this 30 day trial thing. Definitely in terms of keeping my desk and my room clean---today is day 1 (as in cleaning day LOL). In terms of the diet, I am a bit scared about doing a 30 day trial---what about a 10-day trial of just raw? Saying no to chicken at Nandos, eating the salad but not the salmon at Wagamama's, not eating the cookie that happens to be on the living room table???? It sounds like a real challenge to me--but I've been copping out by saying 'I'm transitioning' which I take to mean I can eat any crap as long as I mostly eat raw....

Ok, so here's the plan, for the next 30 days I will:

1. Spend 30 minutes organising and cleaning up my 'office' and bedroom every day,

2. Eat a 90% raw diet (some things like humus and tahini will not be raw and I'm not so stressed at the moment to sprout stuff, but no meat and cookies and no ice-cream for 30 days, easy cheesy [but hold the cheese!]),

3. Learn a new spanish word every day,

4. Go to the gym every other day (4 times a week).

Do you think that's too much? I find the more I do, the more I do---LOL. I mean, when I'm doing stuff, I do a lot of stuff and when I'm not doing anything I just continue in that vein.

I'm working on other aspects of my self-discipline, particularly as they relate to my academic life, but these are my 'general goals' that I'm planning to pursue.

Ok, so today is day 1! So far so good on the diet, I had a cup of hot water w/lemon and an apple/banana/strawberry/nuts smoothie I made yesterday for breakfast. There is more juice in the fridge but I think I'll have a salad now and then head to the gym! I'm reading La Hermandad (the Brethren by Grisham)---i've learnt 'plegable' (foldaway) but I need to read some more today and add another word to that list. Cleaning? I've been washing (gasp!) and I'll be back on that at the end of the day.

Will update you soon.

Eating that stuff

When will I get back to 'eating normally'?? Such a funny question, but people keep asking it....

Today I had a sausage, a slice of bread, and later some fries and I'm convinced all of this is the reason I'm feeling a wee bit bloated right now as I write this.

I wouldn't say I've fallen off the wagon, because I've not been fully on the wagon. Hm, I need to make a commitment here. I feel good when I eat raw/drink juices and smoothies but I want to eat other stuff (mostly because it's in the house and it's in front of me....). At the same time, eating raw depresses my appetite and so when I have a '100% raw' day, I don't think I consume as much calories as I need, even though I'm not hungry.

I think I do really need to commit to this and stop the yo-yoing because I'm hoping that everything will sort itself out (appetite and weight-wise) as soon as my body gets used to a certain diet. So eating those fries is counter-productive in more ways than one...

Anyway, I've juiced several carrots, apples, and green stuff and stored them in the fridge, so I can drink them first thing in the morning with no effort. I've also bought pre-made salad (yes, bad habit) and so I'll have that tomorrow. And some yummy english plums! So that's the menu for tomorrow----oh and there's mango and pineapple sorbet in the freezer! yay!----we'll see how I do, won't we? :-)

The Return of the Gym

Ok, so here's what I ate today (yes, there is a point to this...):

I got up at 10.45 (or so) and had 1/2 cup hot water and lemon

I then had a 1/2 glass watermelon juice (was juiced last night at our first ever juice party!!)

At say 12.30pm I had 4/5 of a large vegetable salad w/humus and 1/2 cup peppermint tea

I left for the gym at about 1.30pm and I did cardio for approx 50 mins (5 mins rowing warm up, 32 mins of cycling, 10 minutes on the elliptical). Since it was my first day back at the gym in 2.5 months (and I haven't put a programme together yet), I decided cardio would be enough to get back into it. Anyway, I went on the scale and it told me 53.5kg (117 lbs) which means I've lost 8lbs since I was in B'dos at the beginning of August. I'm not trying to lose weight; not eating does that quite fine! LOL. But seriously, I'm hoping to get to some kind of stable weight in the next few months as I get my eating into a pattern. I'm kinda scared of what that weight might be tho, I'm not thinking under 110lbs would look cute on me at all!!!! But I weight training will likely make me heavier, even while I look slimmer....

Anyway, the point of this blog:

I thought I might not feel well without food at the gym (altho I wasn't feeling hungry) so I brought 1/2 glass of green juice diluted with water with me. (Green juice is w/e greens I have in the fridge. Last night it was spinach, celery, parsley, broccoli w/pineapple, melon, and lemon.) Glad to report that I had a lot of energy and I was just mentally lazy so I didn't stay longer.

I always thought I had to eat a 'good, solid' amount about 3 hours before going to gym. But I've found (from May and June when I was detoxing and still gyming) that when I'm 'light' going into the gym I have more energy, more stamina and so end up working harder and longer! So there! Gym is back!

Goals are for losers!

So, I've not made any new raw dishes over the last few days....hm, but I have a good reason! (How can I spin this?). Ok, so I have IBS (google it, the wiki explanation isn't bad) and my digestion does what it wants when it wants. It is primarily the IBS that sent me down the path of detoxing and fasting (for short periods, not a whole day yet) and getting back to basics....

Over the past few days I haven't been feeling well even though I had been eating primarily fruits and veg. So I came to the conclusion (as I often find in the last few months) that its just simply eating that is the problem.

Ok, hold on, I don't have an eating disorder, but you might consider not eating too if it made you feel 'not well' every time you did. Anyway, on Monday I tried eating a lil food and I was still not feeling well so I decided that a day of semi-fasting/semi-detoxing might be needed. On Tuesday I had only a pack of beetroot chips at about 12.30pm (I had to try them cause I was wondering how they tasted and they were good!). I then went out with my friends at about 4pm and I had a smoked salmon salad (which was cool except it was begging for some olive oil, vinegar, and salt). I then had some popcorn at the movies (and two lil spoons of ice cream wid brownie, shamefully, since I'm allergic to dairy and all...). Anyway, the long and short of it is that I felt a lot better yesterday and it's continuing today so I don't know if I'll dive into my organic fruit and veg box today (it came! yay!) or continue subsist on tea and hot water w/lemon.

That said, all bets are off if my juicer comes today!!!!! Cause then the carrots will be getting it! (Bwahahahahaha!) But I'm thinking that if I have juices all day (other than the three clementines aka tangerines that I just ate), then that will give my digestive organs a rest and I'll keep feeling good.

Anyway, the goal was good while it lasted but I'm now back to working on my PhD research, so that's copious numbers of hours in front of the computer everyday so I'll prob stick to salads (with my newly acquired zucchini, cauliflower/leaves, carrot leaves, radish/leaves.... :-) and juices :-).

Peace, love and butterflies (LOL!)