Smoothie Day – Healing Journey Day 30

Journal:
It was nice to be able to sleep in again. I’m surely going to miss these days when I leave tomorrow. I do have to admit I didn’t sleep the greatest last night. I was an incredibly light sleeper (versus being my normal heavy sleeper self) and there was a mountain lion screaming in our back field for part of the night. So I guess sleeping in was a bit of a requirement.

For breakfast, I made myself a banana, date, and raspberry smoothie. It was ok, but really not the greatest. I’m really beginning to think that the dates truly are not as sweet, and the amount of water I’m putting in just drowns out the flavour. It could also be that I don’t have a high-powered blender so everything is not quite mixing as well, but either way, I’m looking forward to smoothie days being over.

Following breakfast, we did a bit of laying around and getting ready to go take our dogs for a walk. Knowing that it was a very hot day and that we wouldn’t be back for quite awhile, I decided to eat a snack before we left. I didn’t have a bottle or anything to put a smoothie in, so I ended up taking something to try: I had thin corn cakes (like rice cakes but half the size and made from corn) topped with a little Kite Hill original cream cheese-like spread and a spoon of salsa. Believe it or not, it was SUPER good. The Kite Hill cheese is made from cultured almonds. So no, this wasn’t a completely raw meal, but again, I have to use my resources, and for the future when I’m back to eating cooked food again, I know this will be a repeat purchase. Highly recommend!

We took the dogs to the local park, but stopped at Starbucks along the way. My husband got a frappuccino and I refrained from getting anything.

The park was a lot of fun. There is a little island with a gazebo connected to the mainland by a bridge. I like going on the island because the dogs can run free without worry. However, though my dogs HATE water, I was shocked to see how badly they wanted to get the ducks that were abundantly swimming around. My oldest dog who has hated water for the 6/7 years of his life actually went swimming after them. He progressed through stepping into the water, going until he couldn’t touch anymore, and then finally swimming towards them. We were shocked and so impressed knowing that he actually can swim and will when necessary, but called him back because we didn’t actually want him to go after the ducks. Our youngest dog only went up to his stomach but even that was huge improvement for him. We may turn them into water dogs yet!

After going home, I was hungry. My two corn cakes did not keep me satisfied whatsoever and my mother-in-law wanted to take me shopping. She sees me as the daughter she never had (she had two boys and my husband’s brother is not married nor seeing anyone at the time). So before we went, I made up a bowl of that Kite Hill cheese and mixed in some salsa. I ate it with rice crackers.

We had some fun shopping and I tried on many things. I ended up getting a sweater but definitely didn’t have as successful of a trip as we did when we went shopping this past summer.

After shopping for quite awhile, we ended up going back to Chilli’s and I had the same salad again. I don’t know what happened this time, but I felt a little weird after eating it. I really can’t figure out why since it didn’t even contained cooked food, but for some reason it did not sit with me the same way.

After we ate and said our good-byes, my husband and I drove back to the city. We stayed at the same hotel we did two nights ago, but this time I had a blender! What a game-changer!

We ended up going to the movies (neither one of us have been to a movie in 8 months), but in order to help fight the popcorn craving (my husband always gets candy and popcorn), I was able to use the blender to make a banana, date, and blackberry smoothie. It was pretty good to be honest, but I used almost the whole clam of blackberries. Needless to say, there were a lot of those tough blackberry pits in it (as you’ll see in the picture). But, did I crave with the popcorn? No! It was a success!

We ended up getting back at the hotel around midnight so that pretty much ended our night. We knew we wanted to get up fairly early to spend my last few hours doing as much as possible in town, so the alarms were set and lights went out.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue lightly coated.
-Feeling good for the most part, but not after the salad (possibly because of too much fat, also).
-Was able to stay awake until midnight (this alone is sometimes a success).
-Fighting the most tempting popcorn smells with success.
-Acne is the same.
-Digestion still good.

Weight at the end of the day = Didn’t have a scale at the hotel so I cannot report.

Total Calories = approx. 2072 (72% carbs, 23% fat, 5% protein… way too much fat!!)

Orange Island – Healing Journey Day 15

Journal:
Today was a very lazy day. I didn’t wake up in time to go to church so I grabbed a plate of oranges and stayed home.

I don’t have a lot to write about today as I literally rested for most of the day.

After sundown, I did start prepping some items for tomorrow’s softball tournament. My housemate and I made up more candy bags, made two kinds of popcorn balls and rice krispy squares. Though I did stick to just eating oranges, the smell of vanilla was getting to me. It took some willpower to not breakdown and eat something today. But once again, I was able to do it.

It was a late night, but by 12:30 am, I was asleep.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne showing no improvement.
-Hair is still not greasy and I’m loving it.
-Digestion is great.

Weight at the end of the day = 174.6 lbs (down a total of 14.2 lbs)

Total Calories = 781 (98% carbs, 1% fat, 1% protein)

Day 9

I woke up several times through the night last night, each time feeling like I was ready to get up and start my day. Something is going on with my sleep and somehow I need to get down to the bottom of it.

I had a later breakfast this morning, well after I got to work. I drank 1.75L of pulpy orange juice.

The juice ended up being both my snack and lunch. I was handed back my students’ PATs to grade for myself, something I had not done in past years. If you can imagine my students writing stories and newspaper articles for 2-3 hours each, and then me trying to get these graded… it’s taking forever!

As an afternoon snack, I ate my last mini red banana, two small tangerines, and two small apricots.

By the time the day was done, I was drained. And yet I looked at my grading table (overloaded), and I looked at the PATs that were only half-graded, and my pile of ESL papers I was returned to also grade. There’s no way I should leave it like this. So I spent an hour and a half finishing the PATs, grading Bible books and Spelling tests. I even managed to get Handwriting books graded. But after that, I left knowing my mental capacity was seriously about to break.

Meanwhile, as I was dying mentally, I started thinking of all the fast food places I could go. I started thinking of Wendy’s, of Subway, of tonnes of places. I even started thinking some ice cream and a nice big burger would be so good right now. I must have spent a good 20-30 minutes grading and trying to talk myself out of going somewhere and just eating at home. My mental exhaustion was getting a bit extreme.

Somehow, I drove myself straight home. I defeated all of those tempting thoughts I had. I sat down to some corn chip crumbs mixed with some salsa. I also took out the fresh mango cake I made last night and ate about a quarter of it. I also had got this Natur-a Cappuccino Soy Beverage. Oh my goodness. So good. I’m going to finish this thing tonight! I also wanted something not so sweet, and there weren’t enough chips left to satisfy me (literally crumbs left), so I made some popcorn with salsa on it. This is when I realized how hard it is to give up dairy. That was the only reason I couldn’t do vegan before. I like butter and cheese. But I’m doing it for my health and the welfare of animals, so I have to keep my mental battle going.

I went to the gym and did an awesome circuit of jump rope, overhead squats, walking lunges, push-ups and planks. I did my chiropractor’s exercises and left feeling amazing.

After returning home, I finished that Natur-a Cappuccino Soy Beverage. Oh yum! Wish I had one of these every day!

As a last meal, I blended up my last 4 organic bananas from my first Organic Box. They were pretty much as ripe as they could be before they started going bad. I blended them with some unsweetened almond milk, 2 medjool dates, and a tablespoon of organic coconut palm sugar. It was a yummy, filling way to end the night.

Day 7

I had the laziest morning ever. My husband’s new job is somewhat shift work, so he doesn’t work until 2:30 or 3:30 today. I set my alarm way too early (was thinking I’d be more ambitious this morning), and thus laid in bed for forever. Even so, I was still up, ready, and out the door 10-15 minutes earlier than the average day in the past two weeks. It was awesome!

For breakfast, I ate the last 4 pieces of my Korean potatoes. I totally broke the RawTill4 rule, but I was salivating just thinking of them. They are so good.

As an earlier morning snack (4 pieces of Korean potatoes was not a big meal), I had another ripe mini red banana, and about 6-7 medjool dates.

I did horribly at lunch. I just don’t, for some reason, want to eat the mangos I brought at all! I think I’ve been eating too many mangos and not enough other varieties lately. I gotta fix that. The weird thing is, I want to juice them. I could see myself drinking mango juice, but just can’t be bothered to eat them. So for an awful lunch, I had two snack-size bags of chips, and a can of orange juice. This is not good nutrition…

After school, I quickly went home to do a few things, then went to the more local mall to meet a woman. While I was there, I was so hungry and tempted to buy so much junk! I was even thinking of all the dairy items I could enjoy. My head was NOT in a good place. But I am proud to report, I got a veggie burrito with beans and rice, some tater tots, and an iced tea. I could have done without the tater tots and iced tea, but to be quite honest, by the time I was done eating these, I was satisfied. I didn’t go after any dairy treats that I was thinking of, I didn’t buy that creamy frappuccino with whipped cream that I was thinking of, I simply stuck with my meal. Now that says something!

I did a lot of grocery shopping for my students who were writing PATs the next day, and went to the gym, both without buying anything else to eat. I call this success!

Later at home, I had a lot to do, and a very little amount of time before my husband would be home. So I quickly ate some tortilla chips with salsa, and some popcorn. Total junk food, I know.

I did not eat anything else after this, but simply went to bed.

Day 4

We slept for as long as we wanted; it was so nice! I love the weekends where we don’t have to wake up according to an alarm clock. They’re so nice!

This morning was bad. My husband hadn’t put away the stuff from pizza last night, and I had a sip of Coke Zero, and the rest of the cinnamon sticks. I felt awful, the sugar in my throat (or cinnamon, or both) was actually choking me (hence the drink of Coke Zero), and it was just a mess. I wished I hadn’t done it as soon as I had done it.

For a pre-workout snack, I had a vegetarian wrap and a fresh juice made from beets, carrots and apples. If you’ve never juiced beets before, you need to. I love the flavour and texture it gives the juice. Yum! However, it is recommended that you don’t drink liquids and eat food together. I think I felt this a bit. I felt extremely full and slightly uncomfortable.

My workout went well. I did some squats, lunges, push-ups, lateral raises, and of course my chiropractor exercises.

For a late lunch, I ate 4 mangos. I really don’t know why I was feeling so full today, but that junk food really didn’t help. My body was “off”!

I had to rush to leave for a presentation that my students were doing for a crowd of 1800 people! They sang in the choir and gave an awesome concert. What I didn’t expect was the concert to take an hour, (we were there already an hour early to practice), the sermon to take about an hour and a bit, and the baptisms to be quite so many, but praise God! It was all amazing! I love seeing people give their hearts to God, and to praise with all of their hearts for God. A spectacular night, all 4 1/2 hours of it! Can you imagine how much I was starving?

I had promised my husband a date night, and since I was in a rush to get home, I actually ended up taking two detours, one out of our own city! Needless to say I was later than I said I was going to be. I even called ahead and have him get ready and meet me outside. Somehow, we made it in time and even had a fairly empty theatre. But that of course meant my supper was some popcorn, candy, and some Fanta Orange Pop. Not a supper I recommend. But by the time we got home (1:00 a.m.), I was too tired, and still full so I got ready and went to bed.

Tomorrow needs to be a better day…

Week 5 Day 7

Today, I’m not hungry again. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Someday my appetite has to come back… I already went to bed without fulfilling all of my macros yesterday, I’m not going to do that today!

This was my rest day, but we had a morning full of drama with family issues. And yet, somehow, we still managed to get ready and make it to church on time. I’m really not sure how we pulled this off, but I was so happy we did. It was a great service about opening our spiritual eyes. Excellent sermon!

We then came home and basically did nothing for a few hours. We did take a nap, so that was nice.

Later, we decided to go out after sunset (when Sabbath ends). We got ready, made sure our animals were taken care of, and left. We stopped at Mac’s for my husband to get energy drinks (to get out of his sleepy slump), and I made a stop at Tim Horton’s for a quick pumpkin spiced ice coffee. I love pumpkin everything!

We then went to Bulk Barn where my husband picked up some candy and treats. Oh how I used to love picking stuff up at Bulk Barn too, but I fought the desire better knowing I had a snack in my purse that I had packed to fill me later. Planning ahead is a great idea!

We then went to Chapters. Oh how we both love books! We actually had to stop going to bookstores for awhile because we were spending way too much money on books. It was honestly like an addiction. Obviously it’s not a bad addiction other than it was taking our finances, so tonight was a real treat. We allowed ourselves to go through the entire store and pick a couple books. We probably won’t be back at the book store for at least another month or more so this was budgeted and allowed.

After some time at the bookstore, we sat in the car while I ate my snack (picture of it later). It really helped when we went to the theatre, and my husband got popcorn and chocolate for the movie. I wanted some of that stuff so badly. But I kept telling myself that one piece would break me so I needed to stand strong against even the smallest piece. And I did it! Yahoo!

When we came home, we basically had enough time to eat and go to bed. I wasn’t hungry, but the food was good and I managed to shove it in. So here was my food for the day:

Meal 1

I didn’t take a picture because we were in a rush to church. But this was the protein muffin I had several days ago, just chocolate flavoured instead of oatmeal. They are really good!

Meal 2

Tuna Salad Snack with celery, tomatoes and rice crackers.

Meal 3

Spaghetti Bolognese using lean ground beef.

Meal 4

Oatmeal Bake with Strawberries.

Meal 5

Cinnamon Cottage Cheese with finely chopped honeydew and cantaloupe. Took this with me and ate it before the movie.

Meal 6

(I normally don’t eat 6, but I had to make-up for the previous day and it all fit my macros.)

Sirloin Steak (I finished cooking to well done), potato mash and veggies. This was really delicious.

Week 2 Day 7

I woke up today feeling so much better. I slept in, and didn’t even bother starting to eat until noon. I could still feel the negative effects of eating so much sugar last night, just not quite as uncomfortably full.

I had my meals way more in check today and felt so much better. I made it back to the gym and finished my workout from the day before with much better energy and also completed 25 minutes of cardio on the stationary bike.

My husband and I decided to have a date night. We decided to go to a movie. As usual, we got a #1 combo that comes with a pop choice (we got diet coke), popcorn (no butter), and two candy choices: peanut butter M&Ms for my husband, and a fat free candy that I could have some of.

Now I know diet coke is not the greatest choice. I am against aspartame. But when I know I’m in a situation where I’m bound to slip, it’s better to make a safer choice than not. I also know popcorn, even with no butter, is not a very friendly food (when it comes from the theatre). But I already knew ahead of time I could only have a little, so it is much easier to stay within range without that yummy butter. I also already know that candy, especially after yesterday’s episode, was a terrible idea. But I also knew that again, I could smell my husband eating it, and it was better to plan ahead with something I could have some of without killing my diet. And yes, above all it would have been best to not buy anything, but I refuse to force my husband into doing what I’m doing if he doesn’t want to. So did I really make the worst decisions? In my mind, no. And it’s ok if you do not agree. I may come to a point where I can watch him eat other things and not feel tempted to eat the same things, but that day was not today and so I did what I could.

I did learn something from this whole experience, and that was that watching tv with too much food on your plate is a horrible decision. Do you know how easy it would have been to mindlessly keep eating that popcorn? My husband nudged me a little to remind me of my limit. I do so appreciate he supports me. But it really did hit me how easy it would have been to be tranced by the movie and not even notice how much I was eating.

HUGE fitness tip: Portion your food and don’t eat while watching tv!