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
… 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
Yesterday I clocked in 1395 calories for the day… not bad!
I’m not sure if I mentioned this previously, but in addition to calorie-counting, I’m trying very hard to eat mostly organic or whole foods. Yesterday I went through my cabinets and got rid of everything that had a long list of chemicals in the ingredients. There wasn’t much of these foods left in my cabinet anyway, since I’ve been slowly replacing crap processed food with organic or whole food for a while now. The only thing I have left to switch out is my coffee creamer (I love the International Vanilla creamer) and parkay spray butter.
Also I am no longer going to buy any fruits or veggies in regular grocery stores. That may sound fanatical, but all of the fruits and veggies we see in our regular grocery stores are genetically modified with God-knows-what. I’m not worried about the pesticides in these foods so much as the genetic engineering…
Here is today’s menu:
Breakfast- Shredded wheat w/skim milk
Snack- organic brown cow yogurt
Lunch- chopped organic veggie salad (orange, red & yellow peppers, spinach leaves, carrots and cucumbers), talapia fish fillet, organic apple
Snack- handful of raw sunflower and pumpkin seeds
Dinner- low sodium organic soup, half of a grilled chicken breast, steamed veggies
I haven’t yet added up the calories but I know they are within my daily limit of 1500…
Thanks for the nice comments on yesterday’s post to all of you who left them!
Tagged as:
Meals,
organic
So, I’m back in New Hampshire!
I figured out why that breakfast I had in Eureka MO was so disgusting and salty-tasting…
I have lost my taste for highly processed foods. My taste buds now demand that I eat fresh, organic foods. I know this because I ended up having a couple of “bad” things on the road yesterday – a Jr. Whopper with cheese at Burger King, and a chicken wrap from McDonald’s. (I know, I know, awful, but I just gave in). Both meals were absolutely disgusting! They were salty and just tasted horrible. And I used to like those things before going fresh/organic.
So my taste buds have definitely changed for the better!
Anyway, I bought about a week’s worth of organic fresh food yesterday when I got home. I’m planning on going to Trader Joe’s later for some fruit.
I also double-checked that my gym membership was still active. It was. The woman behind the counter said I hadn’t been there in 128 days! Wow. That sounds about right since I’ve been gone since late March.
So I’m going to work out every single day that I’m here in some way. I’m also planning on taking walks in that beautiful park that I got tons of foliage pictures in last year, plus do my stationary bike.
So, B (my old drinking buddy) wants to hang out and go play pool. My longtime readers will remember that him and I used to play pool every Tuesday and Saturday. We got drunk together many times. Anyway, I may go shoot a game with him this Saturday, but I will not drink.
I haven’t yet gotten on the scale… I forgot to get on this morning before I ate. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow!
Tagged as:
foods,
organic,
workouts
Woman cannot subsist on nuts and seeds alone, so I was forced to seek out other alternatives on the road today.
So I began looking for healthy – organic if possible – fresh food. Whole wheat stuff, brown rice, good fruit, etc.
I couldn’t find any.
Tagged as:
healthy food,
organic
