Quote du jour: “If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.” ~Jack Dixon
I didn't post last week, so I lumped that post in with this week's post.
Week 5 - Made it through week 5 of the Eat to Live diet. Lost the four pounds of sodium/ water retention, gained two pounds from swollen legs due to excessive exercising, lost that too. Um, where am I again? It's easy to lose track, but I think I ended up back where I was in week 3.
I think my body's having trouble adjusting. This past week, my old headache has come back repeatedly. This is a hormone-related headache that involves my face swelling up like a balloon. The upper eyelids especially become so swollen that the pressure on the eyes causes the headaches.
Week 6 -- more headaches. For two days, I went back to the non-vegan style of eating, which had three immediate results: the headaches eased off, I gained two pounds, and I got my period. This last is one of those side effects that I should have been aware of. Apparently it is quite common to stop getting your period when you first switch over to a low-fat diet. It's a reminder that what I eat has a direct effect on the hormones coursing through my body. And eating this way makes the cramps much, much, MUCH less painful. I'll take the occasional headache any day compared to that.
I went right back to eating vegan, because I really do like it. I started this six week diet as a way to tie in with Lent, but I don't feel like I'm giving up anything now by eating this way. The only thing I plan to change is to add in some more starchy vegetables or grains sometimes. Maybe meat or fish on special occasions. Dr. Fuhrman suggests using the 90/10 rule as a long-term eating plan: only eat 10% "bad" food. I like that. I've learned it's important for me to not feel restricted; if I think I can never eat a particular food, I'll feel deprived. If I think "well, not today", then I am fine with it. It doesn't matter how much the eyes and the imagination want fried chicken and chocolate-- once I've eaten the beans, greens and strawberries, the stomach is perfectly happy with the substitution. The body doesn't NEED fried chicken.
Summary: after six weeks, I've lost eight pounds and a couple inches. More important, though, is what I've gained. I feel better. I feel healthy. My nails used to be brittle and break easily; now, I've had to buy a nail file because they are growing long without breaking. I'm enjoying eating more than I used to, and I'm much more aware of everything I taste.
Final note: Since I've started eating this way, Damn Back hasn't complained once. Not a peep.I think all that pain was exacerbated by the inflammation, which was itself fueled by the high fat diet.
Exercise du jour: I've decided to go for another 30-day challenge. This month, I'm going to be doing Callanetics in the morning and evening. It's rather like Pilates, but it is supposed to be good for people with bad backs. No, I don't currently have a bad back. I want to keep it that way.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
Showing posts with label Eat to Live. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eat to Live. Show all posts
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Week 4, Eat to Live
Quote du jour: “Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong'.
Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.”
― Charles M. Schulz
UPDATE:Done. I do feel a bit silly. Okay, a lot silly. But I did it anyway.
Made it through week 4 of the Eat to Live diet. Couple slip ups. Not with eating meat or grains or such, more a matter of eating things that I THOUGHT were low sodium, but turned out not to be. I shall avoid all sauces for the next couple weeks.
Usually, I don't track my weight this closely, but for the six week diet I decided to make note of how well it works. On Sunday, I gained four pounds overnight. An overnight gain like that suggests water retention, hence my suspicions about the sodium levels in the sauce. I'm not asking for advice on how to change this; I am merely keeping track.
Otherwise, I am enjoying the simplicity of this diet. Lettuce might not be very exciting to eat, but I like how it makes me feel full without feeling weighed down by greasy food. I don't have any qualms about eating with people who are downing French fries and cheeseburgers. So long as they don't expect me to join in, it's all good.
Exercise du jour: 15 minutes waving my arms around with an exercise band and trying not to feel foolish. If people stare I will smile and nod and Act Confident. What the hell.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.”
― Charles M. Schulz
UPDATE:Done. I do feel a bit silly. Okay, a lot silly. But I did it anyway.
Made it through week 4 of the Eat to Live diet. Couple slip ups. Not with eating meat or grains or such, more a matter of eating things that I THOUGHT were low sodium, but turned out not to be. I shall avoid all sauces for the next couple weeks.
Usually, I don't track my weight this closely, but for the six week diet I decided to make note of how well it works. On Sunday, I gained four pounds overnight. An overnight gain like that suggests water retention, hence my suspicions about the sodium levels in the sauce. I'm not asking for advice on how to change this; I am merely keeping track.
Otherwise, I am enjoying the simplicity of this diet. Lettuce might not be very exciting to eat, but I like how it makes me feel full without feeling weighed down by greasy food. I don't have any qualms about eating with people who are downing French fries and cheeseburgers. So long as they don't expect me to join in, it's all good.
Exercise du jour: 15 minutes waving my arms around with an exercise band and trying not to feel foolish. If people stare I will smile and nod and Act Confident. What the hell.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Eat to live, week 3
Quote du jour: I consider the 70s to be the youth of old age. So all you women out there who are afraid of getting older, just keep your orgasms in place, eat a lot of vegetables, take exercise, and you'll be fine.
- Betty Dodson
Finished the third week on the Eat to Live six week diet plan. Only lost a pound and a half this week. ("Only," she says.) I blame the pizza. (Yes, I could blame myself for lifting the pizza to my open mouth, but that's far less satisfying. Anyway, blame is boring. Done now. Moving on.) Had a little problem with the innards when I introduced ground up flax seed into the diet, but other than that the transition to eating high fiber has been amazingly stress free. I am pleasantly surprised.
Interesting note: Friday, the day of the Dreaded Pizza Encounter, was the first time in weeks that I felt hungry. I knew in theory that a diet of mostly rabbit food makes me feel full more than a high-fat low-fiber diet would, but this brought it home.
I'd eaten only low-fat food that morning to balance out the pizza, so I was quite hungry by lunch time. For about five minutes after I ate the pizza, I felt satisfied. Then I was hungry, a gnawing hunger that wouldn't go away until I ate a couple cups of lettuce. Then the stomach was happy, purring instead of growling. Damn. I really am turning into a healthy person.
Exercise du jour: 45 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes cleaning/organizing. Maybe if I post organizing up here, it will get done.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
- Betty Dodson
Finished the third week on the Eat to Live six week diet plan. Only lost a pound and a half this week. ("Only," she says.) I blame the pizza. (Yes, I could blame myself for lifting the pizza to my open mouth, but that's far less satisfying. Anyway, blame is boring. Done now. Moving on.) Had a little problem with the innards when I introduced ground up flax seed into the diet, but other than that the transition to eating high fiber has been amazingly stress free. I am pleasantly surprised.
Interesting note: Friday, the day of the Dreaded Pizza Encounter, was the first time in weeks that I felt hungry. I knew in theory that a diet of mostly rabbit food makes me feel full more than a high-fat low-fiber diet would, but this brought it home.
I'd eaten only low-fat food that morning to balance out the pizza, so I was quite hungry by lunch time. For about five minutes after I ate the pizza, I felt satisfied. Then I was hungry, a gnawing hunger that wouldn't go away until I ate a couple cups of lettuce. Then the stomach was happy, purring instead of growling. Damn. I really am turning into a healthy person.
Exercise du jour: 45 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes cleaning/organizing. Maybe if I post organizing up here, it will get done.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
Friday, March 09, 2012
Perils, pitfalls, pizza... and a plan.
Quote du jour: And Jesus saith to him: If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And immediately the father of the boy cried out with tears, I do believe, Lord: help my unbelief!
- Mark 9:23-24
Today is a short day at work, but it's a day filled with perils and pitfalls. Yes, today is pizza day. One is expected to attend. One will feel obliged to partake. It's showing Team Spirit, or something like that. I know that when faced with the pizza, I'll probably end up nibbling.
What I'm most concerned with is not losing momentum. I'm almost halfway through the six week diet plan; this is about the time when I'd expect doubts & difficulties to start dropping by for a visit. I've been losing weight at the rate of a steady 2 pounds a week, which is a great way to stay motivated. I've been averaging an hour a night on the elliptical. Things have been good.
Even a vegetarian pizza that's been commercially made is going to be stuffed to the gills with enough sodium to choke a horse. I've learned enough to know that it's going to add pounds on the scale, that I'm going to feel most irrationally annoyed, and that that I'm going to feel irrationally discouraged. Even though I believe the diet works, I will start to disbelieve in my ability to follow it in faith.
So the plan is this:
ALL DONE
Posted from DPad on my iPad
- Mark 9:23-24
Today is a short day at work, but it's a day filled with perils and pitfalls. Yes, today is pizza day. One is expected to attend. One will feel obliged to partake. It's showing Team Spirit, or something like that. I know that when faced with the pizza, I'll probably end up nibbling.
What I'm most concerned with is not losing momentum. I'm almost halfway through the six week diet plan; this is about the time when I'd expect doubts & difficulties to start dropping by for a visit. I've been losing weight at the rate of a steady 2 pounds a week, which is a great way to stay motivated. I've been averaging an hour a night on the elliptical. Things have been good.
Even a vegetarian pizza that's been commercially made is going to be stuffed to the gills with enough sodium to choke a horse. I've learned enough to know that it's going to add pounds on the scale, that I'm going to feel most irrationally annoyed, and that that I'm going to feel irrationally discouraged. Even though I believe the diet works, I will start to disbelieve in my ability to follow it in faith.
So the plan is this:
ALL DONE
- Eat a ton of fruit and vegetables for breakfast --DONE
- Start the day with 15 minutes on the elliptical --DONE!
- Work in 15 minutes of walking while waiting for the morning train --DONE!
- 45 minutes on the elliptical this evening
Posted from DPad on my iPad
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Second week doing Eat to Live
Quote du jour: The bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late. ~Charles Caleb Colton
Survived another week on the Eat to Live eating plan. Lost another two pounds, despite the Unfortunate Chinese Food Incident, which is not to be sneezed at even if it is allergy season. One thing I've noticed is that my weight is not fluctuating wildly up and down as it used to before I started this. Is it just reduced salt intake? I'm curious.
Another curious thing is how sensitive the taste buds are getting. Is it because so much of the diet is green, leafy, unspicy? I had a bowl of sweet, sweet early strawberries with some tart blueberries mixed in. Even ten minutes later, my taste buds were acting like a bunch of stoned hippies in a brownie factory: "whoa, man, that was, like, intense, dude.*"
Of course, that is not always a good thing. Yesterday I went out to eat at a restaurant with a bunch of people. It was the first time I'd eaten out, since I've been on this eating plan, at a place that didn't have a salad bar. All you could get was stir fry, though you could pick out what you wanted them to put in the wok. I thought I was playing it safe by getting a vegetable stir fry, but that sauce! Argh! I can still taste it. Forget Chinese food making you hungry, I was full for the rest of the day.
Update: exercise done!
Exercise du jour: Going for distance. 60 on the elliptical.
*Yes, my taste buds are Californian. They talk like that.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
Survived another week on the Eat to Live eating plan. Lost another two pounds, despite the Unfortunate Chinese Food Incident, which is not to be sneezed at even if it is allergy season. One thing I've noticed is that my weight is not fluctuating wildly up and down as it used to before I started this. Is it just reduced salt intake? I'm curious.
Another curious thing is how sensitive the taste buds are getting. Is it because so much of the diet is green, leafy, unspicy? I had a bowl of sweet, sweet early strawberries with some tart blueberries mixed in. Even ten minutes later, my taste buds were acting like a bunch of stoned hippies in a brownie factory: "whoa, man, that was, like, intense, dude.*"
Of course, that is not always a good thing. Yesterday I went out to eat at a restaurant with a bunch of people. It was the first time I'd eaten out, since I've been on this eating plan, at a place that didn't have a salad bar. All you could get was stir fry, though you could pick out what you wanted them to put in the wok. I thought I was playing it safe by getting a vegetable stir fry, but that sauce! Argh! I can still taste it. Forget Chinese food making you hungry, I was full for the rest of the day.
Update: exercise done!
Exercise du jour: Going for distance. 60 on the elliptical.
*Yes, my taste buds are Californian. They talk like that.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Eat to live, Merry style
Quote du jour: I hate it when my foot falls asleep during the day, because that means it's going to be up all night. ~Steven Wright
By request, a typical day's menu on the Eat to Live six week plan. At least, typical for me. One thing that I like about this way of eating is that you don't have to count calories. (I'm keeping track because it's a way to study my eating patterns, for my own understanding.) The emphasis is on eating beans and greens, especially green leafies, with 4 pieces of fruit and some nuts and seeds.
Breakfast is generally fruit with a bit of protein thrown in. Today, strawberries, blueberries, and a pear, about 3 cups' worth, with a bit of baked tofu on the side. The application I'm using to track calories suggests that I should aim for eating 200 calories and 5 grams of fiber at breakfast. I'm not an especially breakfast or morning type of person, so it might take me a couple hours to eat breakfast while at my desk. If I finish before 10, I call it breakfast.
Lunch is where I go to town on veggies. I usually go for a salad with a couple cups of greens, then beans, mushrooms, sliced carrots, whatever veggie toppings are around. There's a salad bar in the cafe at work, so I tend to cruise it for things I wouldn't usually buy at the store, and add them to my home-brought salad. One thing I've noticed about the beans and greens diet is that my taste buds are much more easily pleased. Used to be I didn't especially notice my food after the first taste of an entree, but now it's different. Suddenly, each bite of something like sundried tomatoes makes my taste buds all join hands and dance around in happy circles. Eating has become a lot more interesting.
For the mid-afternoon slump, I munch on an apple and some almonds.
Dinner is where I throw in any 'bad' food, i.e. anything that's not especially nutritious. Traditionally, I eat very well during the day and blow it after I get home at night. These days, I plan my bad, so I don't go overboard. One thing about this six week plan is that grains and starchy vegetables are limited, so here's where I'll eat some fritos or a baked (nuked) potato with salsa, something like that along with my salad. I'm still trying to find the best way to include flax seed into this diet.
Exercise du jour: 15 minutes elliptical. Yesterday I did a rather long 50 minutes, the day before was resistance. Today is just a placeholder, a quickie. Because I overslept, I get to work late, which means I won't have time to organize the house and exercise both. Inner Slug will be pleased.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
By request, a typical day's menu on the Eat to Live six week plan. At least, typical for me. One thing that I like about this way of eating is that you don't have to count calories. (I'm keeping track because it's a way to study my eating patterns, for my own understanding.) The emphasis is on eating beans and greens, especially green leafies, with 4 pieces of fruit and some nuts and seeds.
Breakfast is generally fruit with a bit of protein thrown in. Today, strawberries, blueberries, and a pear, about 3 cups' worth, with a bit of baked tofu on the side. The application I'm using to track calories suggests that I should aim for eating 200 calories and 5 grams of fiber at breakfast. I'm not an especially breakfast or morning type of person, so it might take me a couple hours to eat breakfast while at my desk. If I finish before 10, I call it breakfast.
Lunch is where I go to town on veggies. I usually go for a salad with a couple cups of greens, then beans, mushrooms, sliced carrots, whatever veggie toppings are around. There's a salad bar in the cafe at work, so I tend to cruise it for things I wouldn't usually buy at the store, and add them to my home-brought salad. One thing I've noticed about the beans and greens diet is that my taste buds are much more easily pleased. Used to be I didn't especially notice my food after the first taste of an entree, but now it's different. Suddenly, each bite of something like sundried tomatoes makes my taste buds all join hands and dance around in happy circles. Eating has become a lot more interesting.
For the mid-afternoon slump, I munch on an apple and some almonds.
Dinner is where I throw in any 'bad' food, i.e. anything that's not especially nutritious. Traditionally, I eat very well during the day and blow it after I get home at night. These days, I plan my bad, so I don't go overboard. One thing about this six week plan is that grains and starchy vegetables are limited, so here's where I'll eat some fritos or a baked (nuked) potato with salsa, something like that along with my salad. I'm still trying to find the best way to include flax seed into this diet.
Exercise du jour: 15 minutes elliptical. Yesterday I did a rather long 50 minutes, the day before was resistance. Today is just a placeholder, a quickie. Because I overslept, I get to work late, which means I won't have time to organize the house and exercise both. Inner Slug will be pleased.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
So far... (Week 1 Eat to Live)
Quote du jour: Nothing cures insomnia as well as the realization that it's time to get up.
Survived week 1 of the Eat to Live six week plan.
Look, I don't want to jinx anything, but so far, so good. Not really noticing much difference. Well, yes, I did lose a couple pounds this week, but my weight fluctuates wildly anyway, so it's not that significant. (In the last six weeks, I've gained and lost 11 pounds. It's a roller coaster.)
More to the point, I'm not noticing any complaints from the Department of the Interior regarding the increase in high-fiber veggies in the diet. Not noticing any decrease in energy. I am noticing the feeling that I had before, the feeling of lightness, of not being weighed down by high-fat foods.
Exercise du jour: 50 minutes elliptical. Yesterday I did 30 minutes on a higher resistance; today I want to go for endurance.
I know I should mix it up with other kinds of exercise, such as spine-stretching yoga, but until I get all the furniture moved back into my office, the living room is too crowded for me to try exercise DVDs. No, seriously. I'll have to put a picture up. I keep planning to organize things when I get home, but i don't follow through. Turns out there is something my inner slug hates worse than exercising or house cleaning: organizing. The thought of being faced with that kind of decision-making at the end of the day makes the inner slug Really Eager to get on that elliptical.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
Survived week 1 of the Eat to Live six week plan.
Look, I don't want to jinx anything, but so far, so good. Not really noticing much difference. Well, yes, I did lose a couple pounds this week, but my weight fluctuates wildly anyway, so it's not that significant. (In the last six weeks, I've gained and lost 11 pounds. It's a roller coaster.)
More to the point, I'm not noticing any complaints from the Department of the Interior regarding the increase in high-fiber veggies in the diet. Not noticing any decrease in energy. I am noticing the feeling that I had before, the feeling of lightness, of not being weighed down by high-fat foods.
Exercise du jour: 50 minutes elliptical. Yesterday I did 30 minutes on a higher resistance; today I want to go for endurance.
I know I should mix it up with other kinds of exercise, such as spine-stretching yoga, but until I get all the furniture moved back into my office, the living room is too crowded for me to try exercise DVDs. No, seriously. I'll have to put a picture up. I keep planning to organize things when I get home, but i don't follow through. Turns out there is something my inner slug hates worse than exercising or house cleaning: organizing. The thought of being faced with that kind of decision-making at the end of the day makes the inner slug Really Eager to get on that elliptical.
Posted from DPad on my iPad
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