Guess who's back?

If I'm not the laziest blogger, hahaha!

I'm going raw again and so here I am. Today has been a 100% raw day so far (minus the copious cups of mint and rosemary tea), but I'm about to dilute that with some fried plantain and a fried egg. That was my only non-raw meal yesterday as well. Feeling good so far and planning to stick to it!

Made a whole batch of juice yesterday and I made a lovely (Otahiti) apple and banana smoothie today. I have (Otahiti) apple and carrot juice in store for first thing tomorrow as well, yummy. I've decided to add cooked foods (deliberately) to my diet however and see how that works. Yam, banana, sweet potato, callaloo, cabbage, pak choi----I can't wait!

I'll try to be a better blogger this time. Tweet me @BeautifulEarth1 :D

30 days is too long

Now I realise that there were several things I set myself to do and I did these for about 10 days and then I fell back into old routines (or no routine at all). Well, enough of that! Steve Pavlina opines that self discipline: comes down to taking on little challenges, conquering them, and gradually progressing to bigger ones. http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser-part-ii/

Well, then let me re-strategise for a bit and work on some transition training for my self-discipline and my raw food diet.

I'm back to not feeling well because I've been eating cooked food almost every day for the last two weeks. And yes, I knew this would happen, so why did I let it happen? Little to no self-discipline is the answer. So how I rectify that? I think I need to go back and start smaller, and when I conquer those I can set myself some bigger challenges.

So how about setting myself some goals for the next 7 days? Not 30 days, not forever, just for the next week.

Well I have a lot of work to do, so I have to work on getting up early. Ok, so one goal is to get up at 6am from tomorrow til next Sunday.

My diet needs to go back to optimal, I cannot be productive when I'm not well. Ok, so my other goal is to eat only uncooked food (not necessarily raw, so maybe things like oats) for the next 7 days, including tomorrow at the cookup and next weekend in London.

My desk is a tip again. So the final goal is to clean my desk every night before I leave it. Just til next Sunday really.

I want to be more disciplined, so let me start with the baby steps.

What's your excuse?

So what's the excuse today? The excuse for not updating your blog in a month? The excuse for not going to the gym, the excuse for not learning a new spanish word, the excuse for eating those fries?

I've fallen back into several bad habit or should I say not continued on the path of righteousness...

Fortunately, some things are in motion and so there are cumulative benefits--for example, my health is very much better than a month ago even though I have had several days (over last weekend) of eating full non-raw meals. It then seems to me that my body has built up enough resistance (which can easily change) to allow me to eat in the not best way and still not need any of the medication I used to need just a month or so ago.

Still, I've been making too many excuses and not updating my blog out of shame as I have not been living up to my goals. But hiding doesn't make it better, does it?

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? :-)