Day 21 Raw food Challenge

So I`m on day 21 of my 100 days of raw food.  I have to say that although I am calling this a challenge, it doesn`t feel very challenging! One of the best things to come out of eating raw foods is that I feel satisfied   I eat a meal and then guess what I don`t feel like I need to eat to bursting!  Shocking I know.  Eating more moderately without trying, I`m in!

Most days I start the day off with a juice or smoothie and have some veggies and dip or salad with a juice for lunch or just a smoothie.  For dinners I have veggies and dip, raw pizza, raw pasta, or wild salmon sashimi or even a smoothie.

The hardest thing for me is snacking.  You know that curling on the couch watching a movie having a snack.  I have a hard time with that.  I have found that pomegranates make a great movie snack at least at home, as they take time to eat and are sweet and crunchy!  I have also been playing around with dehydrating different veggies, so far potato sucks, yam is ok, zuchinni was ok, cauliflower has been pretty good!  I`ve heard that sweet potatoes are yummy as well so maybe that will be the next experiment  The thing I don`t want to get into is snacking on nuts.  I love them and they are easy to go for so I am trying not to let myself because a few can turn into a handful and then all bets are off.  Sure it`s healthier then chips but they are loaded with calories and that I do not need more of!

So, so far so good, I`m feeling better, clearer and more focused.  I have better energy throughout the day, and I`m down about 6-7 pounds in 3 weeks:)

And so the journey continues

It's been much much to long since I last wrote to confess or speak of my progress. Where to start, I will start at Christmas. As you may know in November I started juicing and eating raw foods, I felt incredible. I was loosing weight, had energy, my skin looked better, but I was freezing cold (juicing in the winter is hard in this climate). So I started having soups and then Christmas hit. I won't say it was a debaucherous holiday... ok it was! I indulged, the shortbread was out, cocktails were poured, everything was wrapped in puff pastry. I must have eaten 3 pounds of butter that week! Now really this wouldn't have been so bad if I was able to get back on track afterwards. But I didn't and here I find myself back up to 167 pounds, my energy is low, my skin sucks, my face is fuller, my pants are tighter, the new shirts I had bought aren't fitting well anymore... Not good.

So here I am faze 5? You know this is the truth of my weight loss journey, can we say cliche? I have yo-yoed up and down, indulged and deprived, ridiculous! What have a learned.

-I can not have even a little processed sugar.
This is something I know and then I forget. And I think to myself a little won't matter, I can have a bite, just one. I won't start wanting it all the time. Well guess what, lies! I can't just have a little. When I eat a little sugar I want a lot of sugar, all the time! I am fully a sugar addict, I know it sounds funny but I couldn't be more serious and you know what I know others are to. I am not alone in this fight. I will dive into this more in another post, for now I will move on.

So here I am back to the start again, it's time to buckle up and take control. It's time to get back to the basics and eat a wholesome diet, free of processed foods.

On May 1st I am starting up again, I will start with around 2 weeks of juicing and will go from there. I will write more and not be so ashamed to share my story.

Thank you

Juicing for Health and Weight Loss!

So over the years I have juiced for cleansing. I have gone on juice cleanses maybe 4 times before now always lasting around one week. Unlike fasting or the Master Cleanse where you are only consuming lemon, maple sugar, cayenne and water on a juice cleanse/fast/feast you are juicing wholesome fresh nutrient rich juices. So after my trip to Nevada a few weeks ago I started juicing. Unlike other cleanses I have done I wanted to keep some fiber in my system to help flush things out. (sorry but it's true and VERY important) So instead of only juicing I have been having a green smoothie for lunch and 1 tbs. of pshylium husk in my morning juice.

Green Super Lunch Smoothie

1-2 cups spinach leaves
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries
2 tbs. hemp seeds
1 tsp. maca powder -optional
1/2 tsp. chlorella
1 tbs ground flax seeds
Unsweetened Almond Milk

400 calories
High in Omega Oils, Vitamins A, B6, C, High in manganese, magnesium, potassium, high in Fiber and contains around 13grams of protein. Not to mention all the greens and chlorella help to remove heavy metals from the system.

Now you may be thinking that sounds gross, drinking greens! But I can assure you that it does not taste like spinach in fact it is delicious!

So my daily routine for the first week was some kind of fruit juice for breakfast like cantaloupe juice (my personal fav)or a nice apple, fennel, ginger or a carrot, apple, beet juice. Really the sky's the limit depending on your personal likes. For lunch I would have my Super Smoothie then I would have a light afternoon juice usually something like apple, cucumber, celery, kale or apple, lemon, red cabbage (pink lemonade:). And for dinner a nice vegetable juice like parsnip, tomato, cucumber, celery, red pepper, garlic/ginger. An important thing to remember with juicing is that you want to limit your intake of sweet root vegetables and fruits in the afternoon evening as the sugar found in these foods will keep you up. And drinking lots of water and tea in between. You may be surprised but you do not feel starved and after a few days you are quite use to "eating" this way.

Once I had finished about 10 days of this I started adding in a raw meal for dinner instead of juice. I would have my favorite raw zucchini pasta with a raw marinara sauce or a big vegetable salad. Two days ago I had my first "cooked food" eating a nice bowl of vegetable soup. So far I am down 10 pounds, and feeling fabulous! When you add juicing into your life you are adding soo many vitamins and nutrients that you are brimming with energy! To make my point last week my partner had the flu everyone at work had the flu and I just sailed on by without getting ill:) I plan to stay on my course having a juice for breakfast, a smoothie for lunch and either a raw or cooked meal for dinner.

As I sit here writing this I have been thoroughly enjoying a glass of fresh papaya, guava, apple juice. I can say it is amazing!! High in Vitamins and contains around 8 grams of protein. Now that's good breakfast.

Well it's been a month...

Well it's been a month since my last post. What have I been doing. I stopped tracking every single little piece of food I was eating although I haven't gained any weight I certainly haven't lost any either. I can say that it has been nice relaxing with food for a while it is soo hard it the summer to be on it 100% with dinners out and drinks and camping. But I'm ready to see some movement on the scale now downwards so I've got to up my game again. In a month I am off on an american road trip / festival in the desert and I know I will not be 100% on it while I'm gone. So now's a good time to see if I can get into the 40's before I leave. I was super excited to see that my body fat % is now in the 20's !!!! 29.6% such an improvement from the 42% I started out as. I'm aiming for between 18-22% it's going to feel really good when I'm there:)

On another note the hair loss has seemed to slow, thank fully I am not having huge amounts fall out in my hand anymore. That was very scary, but I just don't know that it can be avoided when you shock your body like that.

This month is flying by!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Well I stalled. Yes it's true. I guess we all go through ebbs and as much as I said when I started this journey in January that I wasn't going to deviate at all from my path I did. Now that being said I have NOT gained any weight, I was just averaging 1450 calories a day instead of the 1270 I am aiming for. I wasn't going crazy but I was going out for drinks and letting loose a little. So I stalled. What I now see is that I need to up the exercise. The other day I went for my first bike ride in a year and we covered 30 kms or about 19 miles all around the seawall. It was fabulous I wish I could do it every day! Ok maybe not everyday I'd be a bit sore. But still it was great and I burned about 1800 calories doing it. But that's not something I can do everyday or even every week so I have to find other ways to kick off the pounds. One thing I am wanting to start is Wushu or Chinese martial arts for a number of reasons I think it is fabulous but that to would only be once a week with practicing at home of course. I think that that plus the hot yoga, pilates, and cycling I should be able to get myself back on track and get myself tones and fit. As it is I am down 1.4 pounds and feeling pretty fabulous. Except for the hair issue I've been having but I'm going to write about that in the next post.

Chewing Gum and Cravings

I wanted to write a quick post about chewing gum. Since I started this journey it's become a big part of my life. I know it's funny but it really has saved me. I have found that when I want a snack, just something to munch on I will reach for a stick of sugar free gum or a sugar free mint and I am satisfied enough that I don't want for something else. Personally I enjoy cinnamon gum and mints and I also have gotten into fruit flavored gums. It really helps kind of like quitting smoking, lol. I guess eating can also be an oral fixation. Regardless if you are like me it works.

Yoga

What a difference. I forgot what it was like to be able to do certain poses in yoga. Tonight I did a Pilates workout at home and then started to do a few yoga stretches all of a sudden I was able to do poses I haven't been able to do in years. I was able to do the Bow (Dhanura-asana) when before I could only do one leg at a time. I also was able to do the Plow (Hala-asana). I can tell you it feels amazing:) Absolutely amazing!

2 weeks since ending Bernstein

Well it's been 2 weeks since I ended the Bernstein diet. I feel fantastic, my energy is great and I have lost 3.5 pounds since stopping which is excellent. To recap you need to burn 3500 calories to burn 1 pound of fat. By figuring out your BMR you can figure out how many calories you need to be eating to lose a pound. I am aiming for 1.5 pounds a week so I am consuming 1200-1300 calories a day and am exercising 2-3 times a week. That's for my body, everyone is different. Women should not eat less then 1200 calories a day and Men not less then 1500 a day, unless supervised by a Doctor. But again we are all different heights so it is really a unique number to each of us.

I am happy that I did the Bernstein diet, it is a rapid weight loss diet and it does work. But wow it was a weird experience that I am happy is behind me. It gave me the tools I needed, and I now feel that I can't fail in this endeavor.

One week in to phase 2!

Well it's been a week today since I started my 1200 calorie diet plan:) Today I had 56 g (dry weight) of pasta with tomatoes, mushrooms and zuchinni it was wonderful. It has been interesting adding foods back into my diet, it seems that I may actually have a sensitivity to rice! Crazy I always thought it was the tofu that upset my belly but then I always ate rice and tofu together so... I will have to try rice again to see if it really was that. Otherwise things are moving along I'm down a little over 2 pounds since last Monday which is wonderful! I hope this continues on I realize that it may be a bit more this first week as I have been transitioning off of the Bernstein diet but I should be losing 1.5 pounds a week from here on out. We'll see where I am at next monday.

Check ins

Well it's been a little while since my last post. At the Bernstein clinic they got me to start taking 3 k-lite potassium tablets a day as my weight was not moving. Since I started taking the extra k-lite my weight has been melting away, I'm down 3 pounds this last week much better then the 1.5 I was doing before. We will see what my weight in is tomorrow. This diet should really not be done without some kind of doctor supervision. It's a rapid weight loss diet and you could hurt yourself if you just winged it on your own. I am surprised at the amount of vitamins I need to take to keep my body functioning like this. I am so excited about eating just a normal whole foods diet. I am getting soo bored of the few veggies I can eat, I really really want to eat a potato. But my weight is changing I can fit into jeans 2-3 sizes smaller then I use to fit into and I have started a give away bin of my too big clothes. That feels good. I am almost done this portion of my weight loss program, in a couple of weeks I will start weaning myself off of it and will up my calorie intake to 1200-1300 calories a day. I will start a workout program as well. On the Bernstein diet I am just soo tired all the time, last night I went to bed at 9pm and didn't get up today till 8:30 I was just soo tired. I am really looking forward to a more balanced diet with energy giving foods. I don't want to be taking potassium and crazy amounts of b vitamins to get through the day I don't like it.

But hey it does work and I know that I needed it. It gave me the kick in the ass I was looking for and now that I am free of the dreaded sugar and can eat a meal without some kind of starch/carb I know that I can have the body I have always wanted. I can be healthy and feel good about myself. I no longer feel that I can't do it, how can I fail.

The Bernstein Guaranty

So today marked the end of my second month on the Bernstein Diet. As my weight had stalled and I was only burning 1-1.5 pounds a week I did not make the monthly guaranty of 10 pounds I fell short by 1.4 pounds. Now that's not a huge difference but still I wanted to see if they would honor their policy and treat me for free. The answer to that was no. As I had more then 2 processed proteins per week. I stated that as I am mostly vegetarian I had asked a nurse if I could eat more then the alloted "proteins" she had told me yes I could. But it seems that I couldn't I was "cheating" on the diet... Haha I love that only being able to eat 600 calories a day and having to eat the same foods day in and day out is "cheating". I can tell you if I was going to cheat it wouldn't have been with a yves veggie dog. I would have had a slice of pizza. Alas what do you do, I am not going to bother fighting it this is my last few weeks on this diet then I will be free FREE! But no I am not going to run out and eat pizza that would defeat the point I am in this to lose the pounds and am loving the new me that's emerging:)

Weigh in

Well today I was down 1.4 pounds. I have to be happy about this as in the last 3 weeks I have only lost 5 pounds and being that on this diet I should be losing 3 pounds a week that's not to much. SO while I am still on this diet for the next few weeks I hope that the scale moves closer to 165 so I only have about 40 pounds left to go. That seems like a good number to me, we will see....

Salt and Weight

So I guess I have been eating to much salt. I went to the clinic yesterday for my weigh in and I am up a pound but I am burning +1 for keytones so I was like ?? The nurse told me that even if you are 100% strict and burning good keytones you can stall if you have to much salt. Now when I say salt I don't just mean the table variety but sodium that sneaky stuff that gets into foods, like the yves products. As I am basically a vegetarian I do eat some fish I have been eating more yves products then the 2 allowed per week. But I never thought of the sodium in these foods so I have been overdoing it. Crazy who knew 1-2 veggie dogs a day was overkill... Anyway it is so they are out at least until next week. I'm back to eggs and prawns for the next while. Not really so bad;)

I am not too sure of what happens in the body but my understanding is that when we eat to much salt the body holds water and when it holds water it holds fat as well... I got a bit scared thinking well then what am I burning but the nurse told me that I was not burning muscle so I am going to have to believe her. I don't want any of that. So I will do whatever I can to burn the fat away!

Weigh in

Today I had my weigh in with the Bernstein people and I am down 2 pounds far this week. Just over 22 pounds down so far and almost in the 170's can't wait to be there:)

Day 37

Well I am down 2.2 pounds this week, this diet does work. Onwards and downwards.