Be The Example!

This past weekend, I was invited to a little girl’s birthday party. This little girl is the daughter of a very good friend of mine, so I was invited to the family dinner party as an honourable “Aunty.” Of course …

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!!)

All Fruit Day – Healing Journey Day 37

Journal:
This morning, I didn’t wake up until almost 10:00! Man, I’m enjoying the ability to sleep in. It shall be short-lived as I return to work tomorrow.

I didn’t eat ANYTHING until 2:00 today. My fruit supplies at home were low, and I needed to go get groceries. There are four organic grocery stores in my city, and I frequent three of them (one has awkward parking). So, I made a list for what I will need this week and went out.

It wasn’t until I got to the second grocery that I noticed they had apple samples! Yes! I ate about a quarter of a Fuji apple that was amazingly delicious, and about a quarter of a Red Delicious apple that wasn’t so impressive. Needless to say, I chose Fuji apples to buy. Then, as I was getting ready to checkout, I decided that I should buy something to take with me. So I bought a cup of grapes to take along.

Now, you’ll notice in the picture that I also bought a bottle of water. One thing that I have noticed is that I am NOT consuming water. Yes, fruit is hydrating, but I haven’t been doing well getting in all my calories lately either. So not only am I not eating everything I need to, my body is also being deprived of water which ended up leaving me with the feeling that I needed to pee all day. It was almost like I couldn’t get all the urine out and I know that lack of water causes all kinds of problems in that area, hence, the bottle of water. People, don’t joke around; drink your water!

After I came home and put everything away, I went to the gym and completed about 26.5 minutes on the rowing machine. Now, this is interesting because I use to try using the rowing machine when I ate the typical bodybuilding diet and I HATED it. I don’t think I was ever on one longer than 5 minutes; seriously. And yet, with no rowing experience, after having eaten maybe 150-200 calories so far, I was able to do the 26.5 minutes of rowing with burst intervals (fast/strong pulling reps between slow/easy pulling reps). I was shocked and amazed. There truly is something to this journey about unlocking my own potential and I’m loving it.

When I came home, I went to look at my food sources I had only to discover I didn’t have much that was ripe for today. I guess I kind of overlooked that when planning my grocery shopping. So I ate an apple. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I ate an apple to end my day. So in total today (and this is terrible), I ate 1.5 apples and 1.5 cups of grapes. Yup, I ate hardly anything and it doesn’t make me happy. This is an example of bad planning. Please don’t replicate days like these. On the other hand, this also proves the potential our bodies have and how ridiculous it is that we – as a society – have become so distant and scared of the feeling of hunger. It’s not going to kill us to feel hungry from time-to-time, just not purposefully starving ourselves either.

Now, let’s talk about hair. I said I was going to finally fill you guys in and so let’s do it right now! I have been looking into the no-poo movement. Basically, it explains about all the chemicals we put into our hair which ultimately gets absorbed into our heads. It also discusses how the typical shampoos and conditioners strip our hair of its natural oils and all of the damage we do. So the no-poo movement works towards restoring your hair back to maintaining its own oil balance while using no shampoos and conditioners and washing with simply water.

Now, it doesn’t happen overnight. We have trained our hair to create more oil than it needs to for years, hence the greasiness you feel when you haven’t washed it in so long. So it is quite the process to get your hair to look and feel good without washing it for a long time. Currently, I wash my hair every 4 days with water, and every 12 days with shampoo and conditioner. When I started this 3 months ago, I ended up wearing my hair up a lot because it looked greasy and awful. But now, 3 months later, I only wear my hair up one or two days of those 12 days and it’s awesome. My hair is learning. 🙂

If you’re interested in learning about the no-poo method as well, please Google it! There is so much information out there and it is totally awesome for those who are trying to get back to our natural state. I’m all about keeping as many chemicals as possible away from my body!

Review of Symptoms:
-Surprisingly energetic despite a lack of calories.
-Stamina is so much better!
-Hair is not greasy.
-Acne is awful.
-Digestion on pause… but what can you expect with hardly any food…
-NEED MORE WATER! Caused me to feel like I needed to pee all day without actually having to.

Weight at the end of the day = 169.4 lbs (down 1 lb from yesterday… so excited!! Haven’t seen the 160s in a LONG time!)

Total Calories = 320 (96% carbs, 0% fat, 4% protein… embarrassingly low…)

All Fruit Day – Healing Journey Day 36

Journal:
I’m still shocked at how little of a difference the food I ate yesterday made in my weight. I’m really figuring out that the more raw fruits and vegetables we eat, the better it is for our bodies. Honestly, if you need to get healthier and lose some weight, start swapping out cooked meals for raw meals and eat as little cooked food as possible. I promise it will work.

I slept in again today and it felt great. Unfortunately, I did not make it in time for church so I watched a church service from home. My stomach felt so heavy when I woke up this morning, but of course, I knew it was because of the cooked food from yesterday, so it wasn’t really a surprise.

I didn’t eat until 2:00 pm today. I’m not meaning to do intermittent fasting, but it just seems to be happening. I’m not complaining as it does mean that I’ve learned that a hunger feeling is ok and normal. But… I should be so lazy.

So for my first “meal”, I had a smoothie made from frozen bananas and frozen strawberries. It was pretty good and came out more of a sorbet consistency.

Later, I made another smoothie with bananas, blueberry juice and strawberries. It was good as well but again, came out as a sorbet consistency.

Because these smoothies were very low calories, it didn’t take long for me to get hungry again. So then I decided to snack on ten deglet noor dates.

I didn’t do much for the rest of the night; mostly some work on the computer. I was super hungry still, so I made another banana and strawberry smoothie. However, I never was satisfied. My fruit supply is low which means I desperately need to go buy some fruit tomorrow. And then on Monday, I get to have salads for supper! I have been doing my research to find some dressings made only out of fruits and veggies so I’m looking forward to that! The variety is about to increase!

Review of Symptoms:
-Digestion is good.
-Acne still bad.
-Muscles are so sore after yesterday’s workout (need to eat more).
-Very hungry on few calories.
-“Your poo smells like roses.” This is a sarcastic phrase I’ve heard since a child. However, I have learned that the more pure the food is that you eat, the less smell there is. There is a difference when you eat cooked foods.

Weight at the end of the day = 170.4 lbs (down 1.8 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 1047 (93% carbs, 3% fat, 4% protein… need to eat more)

Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 11

Journal:
I did not feel 100% this morning. I felt kind of like I was dehydrated and possibly on a “toxic overload”? It felt like things wanted to come out (felt a little nauseated) but alas everything stayed put. What I have noticed though is that when I have little spurts of not feeling good like that, it honestly does my body good to just not consume anything or to just simply have some water. I’m really beginning to understand that humans treat everything with food and sometimes our bodies simply need time to deal with whatever is ailing us and not have to worry about dealing with and spending more energy digesting food. I have definitely learned this: Do not be afraid of the feeling of hunger.

So what was today’s juice of choice? Grape. Now, I wasn’t really looking forward to grape. I like grapes and when I’m not juice feasting, I love grape juice. But I am going to be honest that I am really not looking forward to my juices anymore. The thought of veggies, nuts, breads, pretty much anything else seems better than another day of juice. Thankfully, I only have two days of juice feasting left and both of those days are slightly different than what I’ve had so far. Stay tuned to find out why! In the mean time, here is my juice for today:

I made it through the school day fairly well though the feeling of dehydration never left 100%. It at least wasn’t bad enough to interfere with anything.

After school, I had enough energy to go out to a closing scrapbook store to check out their sales with a few friends, to the dog park with my dog and my housemates, and then to the gym to do a 30-minute spinning session. I was planning to do more than that at the gym, but it was getting really late by the time I had done everything else and I decided that since work still comes early in the morning, I should go home and get some rest. Hopefully tomorrow I can do some more before cardio.

Towards the end of the day (or rather even half way through), I was getting really sick of drinking juice. In fact, I can tell my taste buds are changing because the juice gets sweeter and sweeter every day. I have never had a diabetic test done where you have to drink the super sweet liquid, but I can imagine that I’m getting just as sick of this as people do of that. It’s so sweet. Anything un-sweet sounds so good right now.

Once again, I ended the day only drinking 2L of juice with water on the side.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue not as white. I’m truly loving it!
-Elimination is little but I haven’t had any “food” so it is to be expected.
-Felt really good until the very end of the day when I had an overwhelming “hot flash” through my chest area a few times. It wasn’t the same as the heartburn/acid reflux feeling but literally like heat went through my body at one time in that one area. It was weird.
-Energy was great.
-Acne was… so-so. I really hope it’s just taking its time to clear up.

Weight at the end of the day = 177 lbs (down a total of 11.8 lbs since the beginning)

Total Calories = approx. 1230 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)

Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 9

Journal:
I have determined that it will continue to be a pattern: mornings are simply a good time. I wake up feeling good. I enjoy it.

Today I had the absolute thrill of looking forward to something other than apple juice; I got to drink blueberry juice! The blueberry juice was wonderful. It was so nice to have a switch in flavours.

If you’ve never had blueberry juice before, it’s not quite as sweet as apple juice, but there is such a strong and beautiful blueberry flavour that it is super satisfying. I was so thankful to have it today, as I’m sure my body was as well.

For the most part, I did a lot of work at home today. I did go out and get some more juices to finish out my juice feasting, got a new leash for my dog, and did 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill. Yes, I am feeling stronger today, but I don’t want to “push my luck.” If all goes well, I will be adding in weights again soon!

After determining yesterday that I might be drinking more juice than my body wanted, I slowed down with the juice I drank today. What was the end result? Not one bout of upset stomach. Bingo! Listen to the body and don’t be scared to feel hunger to know if you truly are hungry or not.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is the same. Though one deep pimple is coming through on chin.
-Tongue covered in white again though actually not as bad as the past few days! Perhaps the majority of my toxins are getting out.
-No stomach pain due to reduced juice intake! Celebrate!
-Hair is WAY LESS GREASY! Actually was second-guessing whether it was greasy at all this morning.
-Digestion is regular (no issues).

Weight at the end of the day = 181 (down 0 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 772 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)

Multi-Day Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 8

Journal:

I am really enjoying my mornings. I always wake up feeling so good and didn’t even wake up once last night. It’s so nice to feel “normal.”

Today is my last day to consume apple juice. Although I have found that it is much easier to survive off of juice than I thought, I am getting tired of apple juice. I’m ready to try something else. That being said, today I changed my apple juice. I officially begin my organic juices today. Here is a picture of what I drank today:

Now, let me pause and discuss my thoughts here for a moment. This juice was physically easier on my stomach than the Simply Apple. I’m telling you people, it pays to buy the organic, small-company, pressed juices. The best is to do it fresh yourself, but if you’re in a situation like I am and that just isn’t possible, then this is second best. Upon researching the full process that Simply Apple uses, they separate things in the apple juice then fuse them back together. Here is an article from the Chicagoist that explains the process they use in their orange juice for your personal consideration:

http://chicagoist.com/2013/02/10/simply_orange_is_anything_but.php

So today, I got up, got ready and went to church. Yes, the tongue needed scraped again. This is an unpleasant side effect; I’m not going to lie. Everyday having the same bad taste in your mouth is terrible. Luckily enough, it is easy to fix through scraping so I have to remember that it could be a lot worse.

Today’s church service was a dedication to our school and the staff within it; it was wonderful. It’s nice to be uplifted, prayed for, and appreciated.

After church, I knew there would be a potluck. I drove with my housemates and packed a bottle of apple juice just incase they wanted to stay. They did, which was absolutely fine (though the smell of amazing vegan meatballs and rice were tempting). I stuck with feeding the baby (he’s becoming an excellent time-filler) and drinking my apple juice. Honestly, I didn’t take enough apple juice (note that for future reference). But since hunger and I aren’t that distant of friends, I was able to hold off until we came home.

I honestly did NOTHING the rest of the day. I stayed home, drank apple juice, rested, and at 8:00 pm (after Sabbath) watched The Olympia. It’s a tradition that my husband and I watch it every year.

So even though I did nothing, I do think I figured something important out. I think the bulk of my stomach discomfort is coming from the fact that I “think” I’m hungry and I drink more juice. I haven’t been drinking much water because I know there is water content in the juice. But I seriously think that even though I’m consuming very reasonable calories still, I need to break up my juice drinking. I don’t think my body is ready to digest all of those calories yet though I want to make sure I’m not consuming too little calories that I’m feeling weak again. The reason I am thinking this is simply because as the night went on, I had a determination to finish that jug of juice. I paid roughly $15 just for that jug and didn’t want to waste any of it. But the more I tried to finish in the evening, the more “blocked” my throat and stomach began to feel. The more I tried to finish, the more of that acid reflux/heartburn feeling I was getting. The more I tried to finish, the more unsettled my stomach was becoming. So sadly, I backed off and did not finish the whole thing. Slightly less than 2 cups of juice remained but I just wasn’t willing to suffer for it. So with my decision made, I went to bed.

Review of Symptoms:
– Tongue covered in white again; needed scraped.
– Acne slightly more subtle.
– Felt true hunger again today.
– Slept through the night last night.
– Figured out that I may be forcing myself to drink too much juice which is causing the upset in the evenings.

Weight at the end of the day = 181 lbs (up 1.2 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 1856 (100% carbs, 0% fat, 0% protein)

Dry Fasting – Healing Journey Day 1

Journal:
Today was the first day and let me tell you, it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be! I have never dry fasted before, so this was a completely new experience.

For those who don’t know what dry fasting is, it’s abstaining from the consumption of food and liquids, including water. There is absolutely nothing but the air you breathe entering your body. Yes, it can be quite intense and no, it is not something that you can do for a long time.

There are some dry fasting extremists who even avoid brushing their teeth and showering, but I have chosen not to go that route as I use a very natural, clay toothpaste and shower with only water so I believe that is all apart of the cleansing state I’m trying to be in.

I quit eating around 7:00 last night. I was full from supper – a root veggie burger with corn – and though I planned on stuffing myself before falling asleep, I was so tired from my first week back to work that I crashed and didn’t get around to eating anything else.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty normal. I walked the dog, was on the computer for a bit, then got up and got ready to go to church.

Church went well; I always enjoy singing worship songs and the sermon was excellent as well.

After church, they had a fellowship meal in the hall. Yes, there was lots of good food, but just by going around and talking with different people that I knew, I was able to stay away from the food fairly easily. Thirst had not yet set in either so this didn’t really seem like a big deal to me.

After talking with almost everyone I was happy to see, I came home to the smell of garlic bread and lasagna – two of my favourite foods. Although I knew I wouldn’t be bothered to eat them because they were not made vegan, the thought of food did enter my mind. However, I must say that it wasn’t too hard to continue battling food at this moment. I was even offered vegan food to be made for me, but thankfully, my housemates have a baby so I was able to trade off by saying that I would take care of the baby while they ate and to not worry about a thing. There was even pumpkin pie and homemade peach sorbet but I managed to keep busy with the baby while only starting to notice hunger creeping in.

After a couple hours when the food was put away, I was invited to a church corn boil and potato roast. I was encouraged to come out to get to know some of the younger adults in the church so I took the opportunity to socialize, but knew I’d be confronted with food that would be perfectly delicious in a hungry state. However, I was determined to not allow the fasting to ruin my life and to get rid of the hold of food, so I still decided to go.

I had a good time overall. I got to meet some awesome new people and connect with people I haven’t seen in a long time. The corn was freshly harvested the day before as well as the potatoes. There was a cucumber salad, juices, lemon water, and cookies for dessert. Many times I was eyeing the food, but again, kept myself busy socializing with other people. By the time the sun began to set and we had a beautiful Vespers service, I knew I had gotten through without food or water successfully.

After I finally got home for the evening, I was hungry but not so bad that I was going crazy. Before too long, I came to bed and went to sleep.

Review of day and symptoms:
Overall, this honestly was a fairly easy day. I managed to dodge 3 food-related social situations by keeping myself busy talking with other people and taking care of the baby. I don’t feel bad at all besides the minor hunger and have been surprised that my energy has kept up all day. I consider this day an absolute success.

Weight at the end of day 1 = 188.8 lbs.

Total Calories = 0

Fat Loss Pills – Let’s Get Serious!

Ok. I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this before, but that doesn’t stop the convincing ads you see in magazines and on tv, and that surely doesn’t stop people from buying them. So I’m going to talk about them one more time, and explain my experience with the last weight loss pills I tried.

Why am I against weight loss pills? Simply because they don’t work. Diuretics may work, but that is simply causing you to lose water weight, not actual fat. There are some carb blocking pills and hunger reducing pills, but why are you starving your body of the nutrients it needs? People end up spending way too much money on these “miracle pills” only to end up wasting their money because they simply don’t work.

Now, there are also very expensive, powerful weight loss pills that can work, but I will tell you one thing for certain: it is going to be very hard on your body!

My sister bought one of these very powerful weight loss pills, and she ended up having consistent nightmares and barely being able to sleep. The pills were just short of giving her hallucinations. Definitely not a good sign.

I bought a weight loss pill from the states (I’ve tried many brands before), but these were supposed to be powerful enough that you can only take one capsule a day. You know what the pills did? I didn’t lose weight. Instead, my throat burned like a hole was forming in it. It didn’t matter if I took the pill with food, or what I drank with it, this one simple pill a day was strong enough to burn my throat and irritate me for the full day. I even tried taking it every other day. But same results. I didn’t even finish the bottle.

So ladies and gentlemen, before you go out and buy all of these weight loss supplements and fat loss pills, please just consider that healthy and balanced eating mixed with some type of exercise each day is the healthiest way to go. No pill is going to be healthy for you, and it’s definitely not going to do the job that healthy eating and exercise can do. Put in the work and be proud of the body you create. Don’t harm it out of desperation to look a certain way. There are enough things in this world that harm us already.

Week 2 Day 6

Oh how nice it feels to sleep in… those were my thoughts today! Of course, when I did wake up, I realized that I needed to get my butt in gear and get ready for my appointments. I had a massage, a chiropractor, and an acupuncture appointment back to back. I’m telling you, it was like being pampered in a spa!

As I was leaving, the fact that I had not eaten anything yet was starting to bother me. A few times, earlier in the summer, I would stop at the convenient drive-thru A&W on the way home. This thought crossed my mind again. But I began to mentally challenge myself. Do I really want something so greasy? Do I really want to waste my macros? Or possibly have a chance of going over? Is my body really being rewarded by eating that burger?

Then it hit me: It wasn’t the really the taste I was craving, it wasn’t really a love for the food, it was convenience, it was habit. How awful is that! Sure it would have been so easy to turn in, grab a burger, and satisfy my hunger sooner than later, but that’s not really what I wanted. I want to look good, to feel good, and to be in control of my body and the nutrition I feed it. So I kept on driving.

The rest of the day went well, until supper. My husband had to drive around to various tool shops looking for the right tools he needed for work. We had already driven around our side of the city, and decided we might as well drive to the other side of the city and get all the tool shopping done. So we planned on eating out (macros allowed for it).

Our favourite East Indian restaurant was on that side of the city. This restaurant has a buffet so it is very easy to control what gets put on your plate. But something happened that has never happened here before.

When we get buffet, the hostess always expects you to get up and start serving yourself. Then they always bring you a jug of water for your table. Well, this time, there was no jug of water when we got back. In fact, despite my trying to catch a waitresses attention (they were very busy), we probably didn’t have water for at least 15-20 minutes. When the waitress came over and realized, she gave me a look of horror and apologized so sincerely. I kept telling her it was ok, and she had a fresh jug of water rushed over to us. But that wasn’t the end. She also came over with a plate of 3 desserts. Oh boy…

The lady told us that as an apology she had picked out her top three favourite desserts from their storefront bakery and that she hoped we liked them. I felt so horrible. I could not eat them and run the risk of hurting her feelings, or I could eat them and let her know I liked them and that everything was good. Main point of the story, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, and I felt really bad that she felt so bad, I tried to eat them. Half way through, she brought us a fresh, straight out of the kitchen dessert. Now don’t get me wrong, they were delicious, but FOUR DESSERTS! My husband took a couple bites to help me, and I tried to get them all down, but needless to say, I was STUFFED and managed only a bite or two out of the last one. This was the worst thing I could have done.

See, upon reflection, I could have politely ate one and then asked for a box for the rest. I could have figured out other ways of not hurting her feelings instead of just going to the worst alternative. Because afterwards, I felt SO SICK.

I did make it to the gym that night, but managed to only complete half of my workout which was a circuit of four exercises. I felt so awful. Not to mention I haven’t had processed sugar in quite some time, since starting this challenge. All I wanted to do was sleep so that I didn’t have to be awake and feel the way I did. It really was that awful.

What can I say to sum up this day? Lesson learned!