I was sick and tired of cheese and other fatty cravings… they seem to strike me on most days when I’m doing only fruit through the day.
So… I came up with a solution to get myself off the cheese and other fatty foods for good and eliminate cravings. So far it’s working – I’ve been doing it since Tuesday!
I’ve bought these “organic all-natural vegan” items in the past few days to have for lunch and/or dinner:
- Amy’s Vegan Veggie burger patties – 140 calories, all natural and made only with veggies, spices and grain! And delicious! (And no soy, to my delight).
- Van’s All-Natural Blueberry waffles (vegan and wheat-free)
- Some all-natural plain popcorn
- Organic all-natural hamburger buns
- Organic spelt bread
- A couple of the other Amy’s all-natural organic vegan dinner items (black bean burrito, etc)
I’ve eaten most of these things once or twice in the past few days and have had NO problems. Everything seems to digest fine and I don’t break out or get an upset stomach. The only item that is a little bad with sodium is the veggie burger, which is 18% of the daily amount. I wish I could add pasta in to have with lunch or dinner on some days, but as I’ve learned on more than one occasion, my body can’t deal with any type of it. (Wheat free, rice pasta, white pasta, etc). Oh well.
What I will do/have been doing for lunch and dinner is have one cooked vegan item, and either fruit and/or raw veggies on the side. And of course up until lunch, it’s only fruit, seeds and a few nuts.
I will continue to do this for a while and see how it goes and if my weight loss continues. It’s going great so far. The veggie burger is absolutely delicious! I use just a bit of mustard on it and it’s so good that I feel like I’m “cheating” with something absolutely sinful.
My main short-term goal is to eliminate all animal products. Once I’m off the cheese for a few weeks and no longer have cravings, I will make my next step, which will be to go back to high-raw fruitarian.
So what do you all think? I probably should have done it this way first. Going high-raw AND vegan at once it just too darn difficult.
In regards to exercise, I’ve been doing yoga, (M has showed me a couple more poses), the stairs and my airdyne. I feel body getting stronger by the day!
So…. I started feeling better yesterday as the day wore on. By about 5pm I felt pretty good! And so I decided to break my diet with macaroni and cheese and 2 glass of wine. (I wanted to finish off the bottle of organic merlot I had in my fridge).
Anyway, needless to say my soft skin has disappeared for the time being. Yeah – only one cooked meal and 2 small glasses of wine and BAM: gone. Sharp vision is gone as well. I know they will return in a couple days though.
I did not enjoy the cooked food or the wine and have decided that that was the last time I will enjoy either of those two items. For the past couple of weeks I have been looking for a strong inner conviction to truly become vegan. And last night I found it… I now believe in my heart that it is wrong – for various reasons – to eat meat or animal products. I got the conviction deep in my heart and soul, and it’s what I needed. A visit to sites like all-creatures.org and cok.net (compassion over killing) solidified my resolution.
I do not wish to offend the meat-eaters who read my blog so I will leave it at that! (Don’t worry – I won’t be preaching about not eating meat on this blog, either).
So as of today I am 100% raw vegan. I am no longer afraid of the detox and cleansing process that will likely continue to take place; I got through it yesterday (although painful) and I am fine.
Anyway, after all of my experimenting with fruits and greens over the past few weeks, I now know which ones I love and which I only ‘like’. I’m going to stick with the greens I enjoy – spinach, dandelion greens, bok choy and other tender baby greens for blending, and romaine and other lettuces for salads. My favorite fruits are oranges, bananas, pears, mango, berries, melons, grapes and tart green apples. I will still eat other fruits but not as often. I’m also eager for my trip to Southern California in another couple of months – I know they have lots of other fruit that I’ve never tried but want to (like dragon fruit, etc).
Today so far I’ve had a large navel orange and a green smoothie comprised of spinach, dandelion greens and bananas. I plan to eat a couple of pears, some berries, another orange or two, and some pineapple throughout the day. In the evening I’m making myself a large salad with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber slices, mung bean sprouts, broccoli sprouts and shredded carrots. (I’ll take a picture of it if it comes out OK!) An ounce of sunflower seeds will finish off the day’s eating.
Unfortunately it is extremely windy outside so I can’t go walking – plus it’s supposed to storm violently here later, so I’m stuck on the elliptical yet again.
TOM is over early this month (only 3 days!) so I will be weighing myself mid-week. I don’t want to weigh myself now since I had wheat pasta and wine last night… GOK what the scale says right now!
Tagged as:
fruits,
Meals,
raw vegan,
veggies
Yeah, I blew it yesterday… no details needed. However, today was extremely successful and amazing! The only cooked thing I had was my boiled spinach & chard. I increased my fruit intake quite a bit and managed to have just over 1400 calories.
I have decided to [try my hardest to] stick to a 70/15/15 plan – 70% carbs, and 15% fat and protein. It’s quite different from ANY plan I’ve ever been on, but after hours of research on various raw websites and reading three or four raw books, it seems to be the one with the best health and weight benefits. (Well, the 80/10/10 plan is popular, but a bit too extreme for me!) Raw foodists who cut their fat dramatically and increase their fruit intake tend to see unbelievable health results.
Thank goodness for Fitday.com! It kept track of my food, calories and vitamins. My protein intake was a little low, but that is OK. As I increase my fruit and greens intake, it will go up a bit more. I had just over 58 grams of fiber today and boy, that was… interesting. I will have to gradually introduce any more into my diet.
Some of the items on my food list were ingredients in the juice I got at Whole Foods today.
So… here is what I ate today (click to enlarge any of these):
Here’s the overall breakdown:
Nutrition:
Also, I have begun taking a B12 supplement… and I took a 30-minute walk today for my Vitamin D, plus 55 minutes yesterday. So I’m covered in those areas. I also had a shot of wheat grass today and my usual kelp tablet, both of which add more nutrients. (I didn’t add them to my Fitday intake as they weren’t listed).
I have a new favorite fruit: red grapes. They are absolutely divine! Crispier and a little less sweet than both black and green. Mmmmmm.
It’s about midnight here right now and I’m going to bed shortly, but I wanted to update on one major thing I’ve already noticed: my vision. About an hour ago, I began noticing that my eye sight was more crisp and clear than it has been in… who knows how long?! Colors and light seem dramatically sharper! I know I mentioned about a month back that I was starting to have trouble seeing with my contacts, but that my glasses vision seemed better. Well, now they both seem extraordinarily sharper. Extraordinarily! I have no idea what could be causing this.
The only negative thing I’m feeling right now is a slight ringing in my right ear.
I can see this plan is going to require more self-discipline than I usually exercise. And that’s OK… that is an area of my life where I am clearly lacking.
Anyway, bedtime!
Tagged as:
daily intake,
raw food
My fruit adventures may be over for now, but my vegetable ones are not. I’m going to continue eating several servings per day, especially now that I bought some digestive enzymes! I got two types – one that helps digest protein, fat, dairy and carbs, and another one that helps digest veggies and beans and prevents bloating/gas.
Although my heartburn and stomach pains have finally gone away, so I may not need them.
Anyway, I’ve been running around a lot today and didn’t get a chance to eat lunch. It seems appetite suppression has already kicked in from doing low carb because I actually forgot about lunch. So for dinner, I’m planning to have a large salad and some eggs. I’ve been looking up some recipes online and have decided to experiment a bit with salad ingredients. Tonight’s salad is likely going to have:
- Two kinds of lettuce – butter leaf and red leaf
- Baby spinach leaves
- A few slices of strawberries (so few that the carb count won’t matter)
- Sliced cucumber
- Slices of roma tomatoes
- Fresh mint leaves
- Slices of red pepper
- Grated carrots (If I can find my grater!)
- A little bit of olive oil drizzled on top
- Sunflower and sesame seeds sprinkled on top
Mmmm… does that not sound delicious and inventive (at least for me)? I will take a photograph of the salad if it comes out looking good!
I also got some raspberry vinaigrette and a roasted red pepper & artichoke bruschette topping to try on future salads, plus some other fresh herbs I haven’t tried before. I really need to get my Aerogarden set up so I can grow my own!
While at Akin’s earlier, I grabbed some organic teas – a sleepytime tea with passion fruit & chamomile, a blueberry leaf tea, and some parsley tea. (I love parsley – it really helps with water retention and bloating!)
So, something interesting happened while I was out running errands. Some people I [sort of] knew from my old AA group called me. They told me they knew the reason I had stopped coming to meetings (T and another friend who turned out to be a total nutcase) and said that they miss me, want me to start coming back and want me to be sober and happy. I told them that I haven’t had a problem staying sober lately and was generally happy, so why go to meetings? They acted like they didn’t believe me. (Not in a mean way).
Now I can’t but wonder if someone there has been reading this blog, or perhaps someone saw me going into a liquor store last week when I was buying wine? I mentioned in a couple of previous posts that I had had a couple glasses of Riesling a few nights ago, and another night last week had three glasses of organic chardonnay. That is hardly getting drunk or needing AA, as far as I can see it.
They were really nice and said they missed me a lot. But the phone call sounded like an intervention! Grrr. I know they are worried, but at the same time, just because I don’t go to meetings doesn’t mean I’m depressed or out getting drunk. Quite the opposite, in fact.
I’m sorry to say this, but the majority of the people in the AA program I was going to seem to have either traded their addiction for another one (excessive caffeine, smoking or serial dating) or are horribly self-absorbed people that I wouldn’t want to be anything like even if I never touched another drink in my life. Then there are the ones who have true mental illness. Am I wrong for wanting to separate myself from that? Am I wrong for wanting to focus on other things in life and not worry about ‘not drinking’ every single day? The stringent program and worrying about ‘not drinking’ only made me want to drink even more. My worst binge-drinking episodes were the ones I had during “relapses” in the program.
I don’t know… maybe I’m only fooling myself. But for now I’m OK. Life is OK, I have a spiritual connection with my HP, and there are a good many other things to do in life than stress out over alcohol. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to enjoying a couple of glasses of wine maybe once or twice a week. I learned some really good things from the program while I was in it, such as to not hold grudges or resentments. Before doing my 4th step back in July 2008, I was holding an awful lot of resentment towards various people and things in my past. But today, I can honestly say I hold none. And anytime I do incur a new grudge or anger against someone else, I pray for them for a few nights in a row, and the grudge/anger goes away! (This truly works, by the way.)
Anyway… I told them I may show up to a noon meeting sometime soon. But I doubt I will. If I went to a meeting now I’d be a hypocrite, anyway.
Enough updating for now… I think it’s time to get dinner started. (Although to be honest, I’m still not hungry!)
Tagged as:
AA,
alcohol,
salad recipe,
veggies
I have decided to totally blow my diet tonight… figured I could use a nice carb blowout before going back to low carb. And what better way to do that than with… Mexican food.
So I ordered some cheese enchiladas for myself, my sister and niece (who are on their way over) and am having myself an absolutely delicious glass of Riesling – which is the sweetest and most decadent flavor of wine I’ve yet tried. I will probably have a second glass of this stuff… mmm.
I had a pretty unpredictably busy day… when I left my house to go run some errands earlier, I noticed I had a puddle under my car. When I got home I checked it and it was oil… not good. Considering there wasn’t one under my car just yesterday, I knew it was leaking at a pretty good rate. So I worriedly called my local Midas shop, where I had just had my car’s oil and fluids changed last Friday. He told me at the rate it was coming out, I should have the car towed there to be on the safe side. (The shop is about 4 miles from where I live). So I called AAA and they came. (The driver was SO hot and I felt like such a bum – I was wearing a purple long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans that were hanging from my hips, which is only a good look on a skinny girl, IMHO. I think it’s about time to retire those particular pair of jeans and trade them for one of the smaller-sized ones!) Anyway it turns out the oil leak was caused by a gasket head that had broken. But the shop fixed it for free… which is great!
I got plenty of exercise running from the 9th to the 3rd floor, back up, then down to the ground floor, out to my car, back up, etc etc. I took the stairs twice although I felt like absolute crap.
Part of my lousy feelings lately could be from pollen, which is supposedly very high in my area. Everyone I know (including me) is sneezing, has headaches, has burning eyes, is light-headed, itchy, etc.
Speaking of which, I felt terrible all day today until just after 5pm after I went to pick up my car and stopped at Whole Foods for my spinach/parsley/celery/carrot juice, which I haven’t had in almost a week. I had them add a wheat grass shot too (although I did have a few wheat grass tablets earlier today). I drank the entire 16 ounces of juice in record time, and FINALLY started feeling better! Man I love that stuff. I am just so thankful to be feeling better. Hopefully when I go back to semi low carb, I will start feeling strong, healthy and vibrant again. The past few days have been HELL.
I am going to keep my carb intake between 20-50 each day for a while and see how that goes.
I am going to miss my exotic fruit adventures, though… I will still be eating them, but only 1 or 2 servings first thing in the morning. I truly believe that if I hadn’t have messed up my body, metabolism and digestive system, that I could easily live on fruit. But years and years of bad eating have made me pre-diabetic and carb-addicted, and it just doesn’t work so well for me to eat so much of it. ::sob::: I so wanted to also be apart of the raw movement, but that didn’t work out very well either. Raw foods cause movement all right, but not the type I am particularly fond of… (sorry, very bad joke). 
Well, family is on their way and I’m going to go grab another glass of wine… I’m sure I’ll be paying for this blowout tomorrow morning, but oh well!
I have no idea how many calories I’ve had today. I ate my soup with some potato slices for breakfast, some coffee with half and half and honey, a pear a few hours later, the veggie juice around 5pm, and haven’t really had much else to eat until the Mexican food, which will be here any minute. I will start back up my calorie counting tomorrow…
Even later Update:
I didn’t overdo it, just had a couple of cheese enchiladas, a few chips and half of some kind of beef roll thingie. (It was my first time having beef in nearly 2 months!) I also had 2 glasses of Riesling. It’s 9pm now and I’m ready for bed! I have a very positive outlook for tomorrow, not only because it’s going to be sunny out (finally!) and in the 70’s.
I’m not going to get on the scale again for a while.
My sleeping schedule is still a bit messed up, which is why I’m up at 1:30am! However, since I slept for about 10 hours, I should be able to stay up until 8 or 9pm tonight (Tuesday), which will allow me to get up tomorrow in the morning like a normal person again.
In the past few days I’ve tried a couple of new fruits and veggies… one is star fruit (Carambola):
Which looks like this cut up (hence its name):
Cute huh? And delicious! This fruit tastes like a cross between Jicama and a Granny Smith apple. The entire fruit is only around 40 calories and has lots of vitamins and antioxidants, plus a good amount of fiber.
I got them at Whole Foods… of course. I know Whole Foods has a bad rep among some people for being way too expensive and yuppy. However, it’s a Godsend to places in the winter where you can’t get many varieties of fruit and veggies, like here in Tulsa! An absolute Godsend. I’ve scoured this city and there are no other places you can get exotic fruits like mango, starfruit, and other organic fruits. At other grocery stores in this area, the only selection of organic fruits is apples and oranges! So I will continue to support Whole Foods by buying fruit and veggies and stuff there. They are providing an AMAZING service to us organic fruit junkies.
I also tried Swiss Chard for the first time yesterday. It’s pretty good – a little bitter but not bad. I had a salad with chard, herbs, red peppers and yellow tomatoes for lunch.
So onto other things… for some reason the past few days I’ve had a bloated/puffy looking face and a somewhat bloated stomach. I have no idea what caused it, but I’m happy to report both have finally gone away.
I’m officially back to exercising… I did 45 minutes on the elliptical yesterday and plan to take a 45-minute walk today. The funny thing is that even though I didn’t work out on the elliptical for a few weeks, I didn’t seem to lose any muscle tone. I could still take it up to the highest level (8).
Tagged as:
organic,
star fruit
I love Thursday evenings – all of my favorite shows are on: Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice.
Anyway, I went to Whole Foods and got my usual juice blend. I also stocked up on lots of veggies and fruit – all organic. I got:
- 2 kinds of bundled spinach, 1 bag of loose baby spinach
- 1 bundle of green lettuce
- 2 bundles of carrots
- red bell peppers (my official favorite veggie)
- green bell peppers
- bundled cilantro (my official favorite herb)
- frozen corn
- frozen green beans
- frozen peas
- green apples
- pears
- mango
- kiwi
- dandelion greens
Yes I went overboard… as usual. I did however discover that bundled vegetables are a lot cheaper then pre-packaged ones. (Yes, I realize I should have learned this a long time ago. But… I’m only a recent veggieaholic).
Now that my blood sugar seems to have stabilized – meaning I can now have a yogurt and apple for breakfast and NOT have crashing blood sugar a couple hours later – I’m adding a little more fruit into my daily diet. What the heck, why not? They are vitamin, fiber and mineral-packed.
I’m still totally exhausted and achy. I hope it goes away soon.
Well, we are in the middle of yet another bad ice storm, and I think I’m going to be stuck at home for the next couple of days! I’m supposed to go somewhere later tonight with a friend, but I don’t trust anyone’s driving on the pure ice that is now coating the roads pretty badly. It’s raining at 27 degrees out… NOT a good combo. And I refuse to drive in this crap myself. I hope it doesn’t get bad enough to knock out the power or any services…! I think I’ll take the time stuck at home to catch up on laundry, some of my other websites, and maybe even utilize the building’s gym.
Anyway, I am currently eating the most delicious-tasting turkey breast cutlet that I’ve ever had… I oven-roasted it with a bit of olive oil, organic butter, cilantro and garlic pepper. To go along with it, I am having a romaine-herb salad with sliced tomatoes and colored bell peppers topped with organic sesame seeds:
Yum. Just a week ago, this salad would have tasted incredibly bland. But since detoxing my taste buds from chemicals and toxins located in processed foods, fresh food has become incredibly delicious. (And I promise you I am NOT exaggerating).
Overall I’m feeling pretty good today, although I was extremely tired this morning and did not want to get up. My waist, hips, thighs and stomach areas all feel smaller today. Scale is still reading the same number as yesterday though. I really need to stop weighing myself every day… I will see more dramatic results if I only do it once a week.
In any case, I will report on my weight loss one week from today… I know my weight stats are confusing since I never reveal the actual number to you all. I am going to start keeping track of the weight I lose again in the sidebar. The goal of -55 pounds is from my highest-ever weight, not my current weight (which is 8 pounds less than my highest-ever weight).
Anyway, I have my dinner all planned out… it’s going to be oven-baked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon and spinach. Perhaps some berries for dessert since I didn’t have them with my breakfast.
Tagged as:
Food Photos,
Meals
… about these things:
- My taste buds have woken up in a way I can’t even explain. Fresh, natural foods have never, EVER tasted so good! Even mineral water has a most delicious, subtle flavor to it which I could never taste before. Fresh raw veggies are as delicious now as chocolate once was.
- I woke up to another pound lost on the scale this morning as well as another inch or two off my waist. I tried on the same jeans I wore yesterday and they are noticeably looser.
- I feel much more energetic and light.
- I got a FANTASTIC night’s sleep last night and woke up feeling AMAZING.
- I am getting all of my nutritional (vitamin) needs met now with the food I eat. That has never happened before.
I have even discovered the joys of cooking and seasoning with spices like basil and cilantro – which actually have vitamins and minerals in them.
Anyway, yes, I’m super-excited about all of these things… and I know I will continue to see major improvements in my physical body as I continue on this journey of health!
Based on continued research and reading over the past few days, I have finally narrowed down my eating plan to this (all foods organic when possible):
Breakfast: 1 cup distilled water w/ 1 lemon squeezed in; mixed berries; half of an orange; 1 carton all-natural lowfat yogurt; coffee with: half and half, 1/2 teaspoon of raw honey, 1 packet Stevia sweetener.
Lunch: Either grilled wild caught salmon or grilled wild shrimp, with salad and/or raw mixed veggies; 1 ounce sharp cheddar.
Dinner: Either 1 chicken breast or 2 Omega 3 eggs, with raw veggies and/or spinach, and/or romaine salad.
Snacks: raw sunflower and pumpkin seeds, sharp cheddar, low fat mozzarella, mixed raw chopped veggies.
Seasonings for foods include extra-virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, cilantro, basil, black pepper, sea salt, lime or lemon, raw organic honey.
Drinks include distilled water, mineral water (San Pellegrino) or purified water (Fiji & Evian), coffee, green tea, other organic teas.
Vitamin/mineral supplements include Magnesium, calcium, potassium (I need extra of all of these when losing weight), Iodine (helps with thyroid gland, supposedly), a B complex (that I will take until I feel totally detoxified from chemicals and carbs), Zinc, Vitamin C. For Vitamin D, I spend at least 15 minutes in direct sunlight on every sunny day.
Anyway, that’s my plan!
Before this past week, I didn’t eat very many healthy vitamin-rich foods. No wonder I always felt like crap!
Keep an eye out for some diet/nutrition-related book reviews.
Tagged as:
meal plan,
organic,
vitamins
I am sitting here eating some baked wild-caught Alaskan salmon… it’s brushed with a tiny bit of olive oil, garlic pepper and basil, and it is SO damn delicious! I got the salmon shipped to me from a company located in Alaska, and let me tell you, this is the best salmon I’ve ever had in my life. Not that I’ve had a lot of salmon over the years, mind you, but I did once have an absolutely delicious garlic butter salmon meal down in Cape Cod a few years ago that rivals this meal.
Can I just say that now that I’ve been eating mostly fresh/organic and MSG/chemical free foods for the past 6 days, that the more fresh/organic/natrual food I eat, the better it tastes? It’s like my taste buds have woken from a slumber. I’m having the fish with a side of chopped raw veggies (various colored bell pappers, cucumber, sugar snap green peas, celery, carrots, tomatoes). Remember when I used to seriously dislike eating raw veggies? Now I absolutely love them – they are incredibly delicious! I’m not even sure why they suddenly taste so good.
So yeah, I’m still doing the natural, healthy low-carb thing. The scale is on the move again, and already clothing is fitting differently. As a matter of fact, when I went to put on my winter jacket last night, I couldn’t believe how loose it was around the front! Usually when I zip it up, it’s tight. Last night I suddenly had plenty of room to breathe.
On a last note, I discovered that MSG is in every single packaged diet food you find on regular store shelves – Wheat Thins, fat free chips, Special K bars, cereal, sauces, low fat or ff dressing… the list goes on and on and ON. It’s in gourmet coffee. It’s in cottage cheese. All those new low calorie/fiber filled “Fiber One” treats are either full of MSG or Aspartame – sometimes both.
!!!!
I think all of the chemicals I was ingesting on a daily basis destroyed my sense of taste, and now that I’ve been abstaining from such products, my taste buds are coming back.
Tagged as:
MSG,
weight loss
