Summer Days of Fruitrition 3/7 – Healing Journey Day 65

Journal:
We are back on track! I woke up super tired. I definitely went to bed too late, but the menu was completed and sent so that my family could buy their groceries today. I am praying for them!

So, something happened this morning that I have not talked about in this blog. But I believe this part is crucial for FEMALES who may be embarking on a journey similar to mine, so I will comment about it as of today. Today, I got my period. Yes, I know, that seems like no big deal. But it is a big deal when I tell you that I haven’t had my period for 94 days. I knew I wasn’t pregnant, and I knew it could happen because of my change in diet. Although I enjoyed not having it for so long, I was prepared for it to come back at any time. I do the fertility awareness method (check it out here: http://www.tcoyf.com) but had slacked for awhile so even though I could have probably been able to tell when it would come, my lack of tracking made it slightly more difficult to tell. Was I worried when I didn’t get my period? No. If something was really wrong, I would have noticed something different. But I didn’t notice anything different; I felt great, didn’t feel like I was lacking anything except water, and it is fairly common for people who go raw. I’ve also done some research online of people who even question how “normal” a typical period is and I must say it is fascinating. I encourage you to do some research of your own. 🙂

So this morning, I went with the Summer Days of Fruitrition Wednesday schedule. That meant blending up some strawberries and mangoes this morning to make a “fruity soup.” I didn’t follow the exact proportions, but it really did turn out so good. I could see making this soup throughout the summer regularly.

For lunch, I chopped up 6 bananas and blended up 1 lb of strawberries to pour over the bananas as a strawberry sauce. It was honestly so simple, but so good.

Because I got in a bit of a “rush” to get to the gym and back, I indulged in a bit of rice. I am figuring out that part of my issue is prep time. No, I know I don’t seem to be “fixing” everything as quickly as expected, but part of the ability to fix things is to understand why they are happening. My last meal was going to be chopped up mangoes and tomatoes eaten in cups of lettuce. That’s a lot of prep whereas rice you just throw in a pot. Perhaps if my primary food was a different fruit, I wouldn’t have to spend as much time to eat. But, I’m going to keep going.

I had a superb workout. I did a full body workout, hitting each muscle group with at least one exercise. I finished up the session by doing some HIIT cycling. I felt SO GOOD. I missed the gym. I loved being back. But, they did rearrange the whole gym set up, so it took awhile to adjust my bearings and find all the equipment and benches I needed. But I did it, and I loved it.

After the workout, I was dangerously hungry… which led me to pick up a salad on the way home. Guys, this is huge. I easily could have picked up a sub where I would have had bread for the same price, but I went with a salad, no bread included. I am honestly so proud and amazed at myself that I’m picking such better food than I normally would have. I have changed, big time!

However, it fell apart – a bit – once I got home. Salads that you buy are usually much smaller than what you would make for yourself at home, and so, it didn’t fill me up. So as soon as I got home, I made some peanut butter dates, rice, and junk (aka finished the vegan ice cream in the freezer). I was ravenous! Crazy. Honestly crazy. If I was a binger, this would have been my binge. But, it’s over and I’m not replacing these junk foods that I’m eating. So, if they aren’t in the house, I won’t eat them. And that’s going to be a strategy going forward.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is bad.
-Hunger was ravenous after the gym.
-I actually got my period after 94 days!!
-Can tell I need to drink more water.
-Excellent strength and endurance in the gym.

Weight at the end of the day = 167.4 lbs (same as yesterday)

Total Calories = 2739 (87% carbs, 8% fat, 5% protein… I ate a lot!!)

Ripe Fruit Would Make This Easier – Healing Journey Day 61

Journal:
I woke up today uncomfortable just as I had assumed I would last night. I had too much in my stomach and my body just didn’t like it. However, I was productive this morning with work, not so much with getting breakfast.

I packed the rest of last night’s soup to take with me today, as well as a box of strawberries and some dates. However, all I had the chance to eat today was the soup which was nowhere on the Summer Days of Fruitrition after having it for supper last night. It also is just not as rich as it could have been had the mangoes actually been ripe. So what ended up happening? I fell apart when I came home. Instead of making my raw foods (and also the frustration of finding out that the fridge froze my lettuce), I went to what was easy: Hummus and this Indian cracker stuff. And that’s what I ate. Tons of it. And to add to the awful food I was eating, I ate some vegan ice cream that has been sitting in the freezer for over two months. I HAVE TO find a way to get in more food during the day. My job is just not the greatest at allowing that to happen.

I made it through work fine today and simply continued working at home. I also watched 3 documentaries tonight: Prescription Thugs, Fed Up, and Food Matters. They are wonderful documentaries and I highly recommend them!

While I was watching these documentaries, I also worked on some hip flexor stretches and exercises. It doesn’t hurt badly at this point, but I can definitely tell when I’m using it and when I’m not. So the rehabilitation continues.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is still bad.
-Woke up with an uncomfortable stomach.
-Energy was decent.
-Hair is not good. Ugh… Regressing slightly thanks to bad foods…
-Need to eat more throughout the day.
-Hip Flexor seems to be holding up through exercises and stretches.

Weight at the end of the day = 169 lbs (same as yesterday)

Total Calories = 1835 (59% carbs, 35% fat, 6% protein… awful macros)

A Flying Smoothie Day – Healing Journey Day 28

Journal:
I gotta be honest guys, I didn’t sleep more than 30 minutes throughout the night. You know how you hit that point of tired where you aren’t really concentrating very well resulting in things taking twice as long to do? That was me, resulting in a delayed time even getting to bed. Oh well. I definitely made it to the airport on time.

So I didn’t get a chance to make a mango smoothie before I left, so in order to save the fruit that I still had at home, I had some work to do. For the mangoes, I simply put them in the fridge to slow down the ripening process hoping that they will make it until I get back. For the bananas, I peeled them, chunked them up, and put the in the freezer. Perhaps there shall be some banana nice cream in my future! But of course, since I didn’t have time to make a smoothie, that meant I had to find breakfast at the airport.

Now, I’ve traveled on the national side of the airport often, but I have not traveled on the international side more than once, and that one time was only flying back from the states so I didn’t even get to see what stores and restaurants were on the international side. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Well, let me just start off by saying that travelling on a smoothie day is not the easiest thing to do. Of the 5 places that serve food on the international side, none made smoothies out of just fruit. But, good ol’ Starbucks had the Odwalla smoothies so I decided to take a look at them. Thankfully, the Mango Tango flavour only has fruit in it. No, Odwalla is not organic and yes it does have additives to help it last longer, but it seriously was the best option I had in this situation. It was either that, or the choice of water fasting today and I’m not feeling a water fast at the moment.

How much did a 450 mL bottle of Odwalla Mango Tango smoothie cost? Well, I bought two and it was over $10. I don’t typically spend this much on a meal, but I’m trying to be dedicated guys! So I did what I had to do. And to be honest, this smoothie actually tasted sweeter than I remembered so tastebud sensitivity is still there. I thoroughly enjoyed them.

I pretty much slept through my first flight. I guess my 20-30 minutes of sleep during the night wasn’t enough… (insert crying/laughing face here)! I had around 2 hours to sit at the second airport and actually found a place that makes all fruit smoothies! However, I have limited US funds on me, and I will be arriving at my final destination at lunch time, so I held off to get something with my husband.

Once I finally landed, I joined my husband and we both went to a juice/smoothie place. I got a what was called a Marathon smoothie which was made from orange juice, frozen bananas and frozen strawberries. It was ok. It actually was missing some flavour because the lady put ice cubes in with it, but I ate it regardless because it was the only smoothie place in town.

Now, later in the night, we wanted to eat again. My husband did not want another smoothie, but instead wanted real food. By the time he would have gotten food and gotten his dessert from the place he wanted, there would have been no time to drive over to the other side of the city to get another smoothie from the same place. And sadly, it was the only smoothie place in this city. So I was left with a decision: I could either continue on with my smoothie thing by drinking the “fake” smoothies  like I had in the morning (fake as in hardly any fibre and seeming more like a thick juice than a full smoothie), or postpone my smoothie days by another day and eat a cooked meal with my husband. Since I am not trying to do fake smoothie days, and didn’t really feel like I was totally completing a smoothie day while using pre-made smoothie drinks with additives in them as a primary source of food, I decided that after a month and a half of not seeing my husband, we could eat together.

My husband listed a bunch of places to go, so we compromised with the healthiest option: Genghis Grill. At Genghis Grill, you get to choose the size of stir fry you want as well as you get to choose what goes in your stir fry. Because I was thinking about how awful my stomach felt after the cooked food last night, I almost backed out of eating there as we went in. But I decided to give it a go and ordered the smallest size I could. I put in mostly veggies and fruit (spinach, bean sprouts, broccoli, pineapple, clementines, baby corn) as well as a tiny bit of tofu. I had it served with some steamed rice and a bit of sweet and sour sauce on top. It tasted pretty good, though I must say, it was way sweeter than I had every remembered it being. The tastebuds are still in full effect.

After supper, we decided to go shopping for some fruit so I can make smoothies the rest of the weekend when we go home. While shopping in Sprouts, I found something I had never seen yet! I saw Let Thy Food’s Chile Con Queso! It’s a vegan chile con queso or Mexican cheese dip. I was actually going to save it and take it back home with me to wait for the day that I can eat stuff like that again, but instead of waiting, my husband and I decided to eat it tonight as a snack. To be honest, it’s been nice to have a date night with my husband and to do things with him again.

If you’re eating junk foods, I highly recommend this cheese sauce. It is so good with a kick. But of course, more than anything, this means I’m back 100% for the next 3 days. I don’t have a scale, but I can guarantee I went up a few pounds again especially considering I had chips with the dip. So here goes the clean-eating again tomorrow.

Review of Symptoms:
-Energy is good
-Tired from not sleeping
-Really not feeling the cooked and junk vegan foods
-Throat actually feels dry from too much salt… needing to drink lots of water.
-Face is not good. Junk food is definitely an acne trigger!

Weight = Don’t have a scale in the hotel so cannot report on the weight until we go back to my mother-in-law’s tomorrow.

Total Calories = approx. 2766 (72% carbs, 20% fat, 8% protein… that was a lot of food!)

Week 1 Day 3

According to today’s schedule, it was supposed to be a rest day. Our coach has given us the ok to do cardio or something like yoga on a rest day if we are restless. I’m used to working out 6 days a week, so I definitely went ahead and did some cardio. Because I knew that I wouldn’t be tired out from anything else, I decided to push myself with something I dislike: the stairclimber.

I managed to complete a hard 12 minutes of HIIT. I may not have liked it during the moment, but I felt so good about it after I was done. And as my husband finished working out, I was able to spend an ample amount of time stretching and working on my flexibility, something that is very important to me.

Today I had less stress than yesterday, and my meals were more timely. The only time I sensed too long of a stretch between eating was after work. I have a ton of grading to do (life of a teacher…) and so I decided to stay a little longer to get some done. I didn’t bring any extra meals with me and so I was tempted to eat those popsicles in my freezer in my room. But I managed to avoid it and waited until I got home.

The ironic part of this is that when I got home I made my fish (haddock), rice and slice of cheese. I also added a little mustard on this. My husband came home shortly after and was in a miserable state, feeling awful. He was very hungry, and unfortunately we were running out of his groceries (he has his own macros/plan) so fast food was the way we went. We ended up at Pizza Hut. And on our table was: cheese breadsticks, boneless wings, pizza, and cinnaparts. Oh that smell.

I wanted that food. It looked good. It smelled good. But in my head, I knew that wasn’t what I wanted. That food would not make me feel good. That food would not help me reach my goals. That food would definitely not help me in this competition, and so I sat, watching my husband eat that food. And guess what! I did it. I didn’t have a single bite, no matter how tempted I was!

The worst part is, the rest of that meal is sitting in our fridge. How incredibly easy and habitual is it to go to the fridge, pop open the tasty leftovers, and heat them up. Too easy. So the battle is not over yet, but I’ve already determined that I will not let food control me. I will not indulge. I have a plan. I have a goal. And that is where my focus is going to be.

I am currently finishing my bowl of frozen mango, frozen blueberries, and greek yogurt and then I shall be off to bed. Have a great night everyone.