So life isn't always fair. Sometimes things beyond your control. You can choose to be defeated or spin it positively in your favor.
Anytime I decide to eat healthy and work out on a regular basis, I seem to get sick or hurt or both. This is when I usually give up completely and go back to my old habits. Because at that point I just want to feel "normal. "
Well, this time will be different. Hurting and not knowing why and then feeling sick and just wanting crackers. Being out in pain meds again just to get through the day. Hopefully they can determine what the root cause of this pain is and I can get of the medication quickly.i can still walk. I can still do what I can do. I don't have to just stop completely. I can still choose healthy food even if I have a moment of weakness.
No one is perfect but I am going to keep on going as much as I can instead of quiting.
Thanks to all of my friends who are uber supportive and not judgy when I ate queso this weekend and drank sugary alcoholic drinks. It was fun. I felt awful the next day (not from a hangover but from my body saying-you are so dumb, for real).
Making different choices isn't always the easiest thing but it is the best one in the end. So I'm going to keep on keeping on.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Day 1 Complete - No Animal Protein
So - today was Day 1. I thought it would be a lot harder than it was. To be honest, I am normally extremely good during the day anyhow. It's at night when I am super munchy, hungry.
Breakfast was a smoothie of unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 banana, peaches, some cinnamon and 2 scoops of green. I drank that along with 2-24 ounces of water before 9. Reminder - I was up at 3:30 this morning.
I also took my supplements, which consisted of omega-3, fiber, cleanse and gymnema(which is suppose to help with carb cravings).
At 10:30 I was hungry. I ate my power greens salad with carrots and 1/2 small avocado, tossed with a little bit of garlic.
12:30 - I had another smoothie - unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 banana, mixed berries and my supplements.
Around 2 I am exhausted. I have been up for over 10 hours and I could crash. I decided to take a break and went and ate an entire bag of frozen broccoli steamed. Yes, probably a little overkill, but I was hungry.
Get off work at 5. Drive directly to HEB, do not pass go. I thought about stopping in at a deli and getting a salad bar instead, but realized that I would probably eat something ridiculous instead.
So, for all those negative ninnies out there. I bought 4 bags of vegetables for $35. It will last me through Saturday and my family will be eating some as well. So - I don't know how that is SO expensive.
I bought Brussel sprouts, asparagus, red onions, portabello mushrooms, beets, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, a spaghetti squash (which was $6 by itself), broccoli/cauliflower mix (2 bags).
Now, did I buy all or any of this organic? No, I did not. I am starting off with the dirty dozen which are rated the highest in insecticides/chemicals. They include:
Breakfast was a smoothie of unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 banana, peaches, some cinnamon and 2 scoops of green. I drank that along with 2-24 ounces of water before 9. Reminder - I was up at 3:30 this morning.
I also took my supplements, which consisted of omega-3, fiber, cleanse and gymnema(which is suppose to help with carb cravings).
At 10:30 I was hungry. I ate my power greens salad with carrots and 1/2 small avocado, tossed with a little bit of garlic.
12:30 - I had another smoothie - unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 banana, mixed berries and my supplements.
Around 2 I am exhausted. I have been up for over 10 hours and I could crash. I decided to take a break and went and ate an entire bag of frozen broccoli steamed. Yes, probably a little overkill, but I was hungry.
Get off work at 5. Drive directly to HEB, do not pass go. I thought about stopping in at a deli and getting a salad bar instead, but realized that I would probably eat something ridiculous instead.
So, for all those negative ninnies out there. I bought 4 bags of vegetables for $35. It will last me through Saturday and my family will be eating some as well. So - I don't know how that is SO expensive.
I bought Brussel sprouts, asparagus, red onions, portabello mushrooms, beets, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, a spaghetti squash (which was $6 by itself), broccoli/cauliflower mix (2 bags).
Now, did I buy all or any of this organic? No, I did not. I am starting off with the dirty dozen which are rated the highest in insecticides/chemicals. They include:
- Peaches
- Apples
- Sweet Bell Peppers
- Celery
- Nectarines
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Pears
- Grapes (Imported)
- Spinach
- Lettuce
- Potatoes
The 12 I won't EVER be buying organic, unless the price is less expensive than non-organic are the ones that are rated the safest (least amount of pesticides) Those include:
- Onions
- Avocado
- Sweet Corn (Frozen)
- Pineapples
- Mango
- Asparagus
- Sweet Peas (Frozen)
- Kiwi Fruit
- Bananas
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Papaya
So nothing on my list today needed to be organic.
Anyway, I went home and started making my salads for tomorrow.
I made a beet/carrot salad that has olive oil/honey/cinnamon dressing that it is marinated in. Then I made my favorite cucumber/red onion salad that has apple cider vinegar/vinegar and it normally calls for sugar- I used honey as I don't have stevia at the house which is the only approved sweetener other than honey.
While I am busy cutting up my veggies- I start cooking some small sweet potatoes for my dinner. I wish I had taken pictures as they were tiny ones. I ate two for dinner which was really the equivalent of 1/2 a regular one. I ate it with guess what - BUTTER. It was delicious. I normally eat mine plain, but I hadn't had enough fat today logged, so I got to have a pat of butter.
I thought I would be able to sleep as I was so tired, but not going to happen. Around 8, I decided to try my salads and had a small scoop of each. Delicious. I have some tweaking to do, but so good.
I spent the next couple of hours on pinterest stalking my healthy friends boards to find some good veggie recipes.
What about protein - don't freak out on me. My smoothies have tons of greens in them - kale, spinach, chard and they all have protein. :)
I am not hungry or less than satisfied. I did drink a TON of water today and spent a lot of the day walking back and forth to pee. Which is good - get all those yucky toxins out of my body.
Hopefully I will be able to get a full night's sleep. I feel accomplished today. I did want to cheat at dinner when the boys are heating up their meat and it smelled so good, but I just ate some mushrooms instead.
Side effects today: I was tired from no sleep last night so I am going to say my grumpiness was really from lack of sleep instead of the food changes.
I had a headache a few times today. I know that is the caffeine withdrawal though. I am a coffee/tea drinker so switching to all water was hard. And guess what gets rid of the headaches...MORE WATER.
I did get on the scale this morning just to have a starting point. I will report periodically if there are "weight loss" benefits of this, but I am more about feeling good.
Getting back on track with my exercise hopefully on Friday. I had to take an entire week off from having oral surgery last week and I should get the go ahead tomorrow!
That's all for now. Thanks again for those of you that gave me a little extra push today with your kind words. It's time like these you really know who your friends are.
Changing the way I eat/drink...NOT a DIET
I have been "sick" for a long time now with sleeping issues, eating problems, chronic pain, anxiety, depression and so on.
I have been to a wide variety of doctors from holistic to medical.
Medications galore have been put into my body and help for periods of time.
At no point have I gone to the doctor and had them discuss with me the importance of nutrition or what/what not I should be eating.
With that said - how many times has a doctor told me that I am overweight? How many times have I heard, you should lose weight, that will assist with your pain/anxiety/sleep....
Almost every single time. When I ask how, I have been told some "basic" guidelines, but more or less to eat less and move more. Makes sense to me. I have done almost every diet that has been invented. I have spent a lot of money on diet supplements, meal replacements, etc.
I have been told if I lose the first 20 pounds myself, that they would prescribe me with appetite suppressants.
All of these "diets" seem to cause even more issues with my stomach issues/food allergies.
Things were so bad a few years ago, my family paid for me to have extensive food allergy testing that is not covered under medical insurance.
I found that I am "allergic" to more things than not. It would really be shorter for me to tell you what I "can" have than what I can't. Not only food wise, but just in general.
Last year I started experiencing - Chronic pain. I'm not talking about a little soreness here and there - like getting old pains. I am talking about it feels like someone beat the hell out of me everyday pain. Migraines, joint issues, overall pain. EVERY DAY. I thought I had the flu. I went to my general doctor, then had a wide variety of useless tests done - MRI, Echo cardiogram, Stress Test, Ultrasounds on my female organs, a mammogram (I'm 38) and guess what they found nothing. I was referred to a rheumatologist as my ANA levels were a tad high. I was started on more medication that again, helped a little for a bit.
I don't have anything that they tested me for and they can't explain why I hurt and things are swollen.
So, they give you a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia if you have a bunch of qualifying symptoms on a list over a specified period of time. I was put on a higher dosage of daily medication and a sleeping aid. If you aren't sleeping, guess what your body will hurt. It's telling you to slow your roll.....
Why the rant? NO ONE TOLD ME how to eat.
Not once.
Not, you should do X or Y or Z or have you looked into this.....
Let's just put a bunch of chemicals in your body that is making you more sick or more dependent on us so you continue coming back from more medication.
So tonight I went to a nutrition seminar. I signed up for a 21 day detox and purification program. All of the natural products were $170. The first 10 days you eat mainly vegetables, some fruit and oddly enough - fat.
Day 11-21 you add lean protein to your diet.
Yes, the suggestion is to eat mostly organic vegetables (free from chemicals) and fruit and grass fed/hormone free protein. I am going to stick with the Dirty Dozen as far as organic fruits/veggies - because of cost.
No dairy, no grains (except brown or wild rice), no nuts/seeds, no alcohol/caffeine/tobacco and no processed foods.
So, I get home and start talking about the program and the organic veggies/fruit and hormone free meat. The comments I get - that's so expensive, who eats like that, etc.
Really? I have answer to that.
1) "It's too expensive to eat healthy" - I call bull.
Yes, I bought 3 organic honeycrisp apples for $9. - Oh my goodness, you spent $9 on apples.
Really? You don't have a problem spending $9 on a mexican martini. You don't have a problem spending $9 on that chinese food you ate for lunch. or how about that $6 Starbucks?
3 Organic Honeycrisp apples are 6 - count them 6 of my snacks. As they are SO big, that I cut them in half and put some lemon juice on them to keep them from browning.
So, while you consume whatever you are putting into your body - I challenge you to "record" how much money it really costs to eat that and then look into your healthy options - you will be surprised at how NOT much more expensive it is to eat healthy. I'm not talking about fast food or in a restaurant - I'm talking about YOU not being lazy and making your own food to take to work or eat for dinner. Yes, convenience food is more expensive to eat healthy. That is because they know you will pay it or just eat their crap that costs nothing for them to make and therefore is cheap for you to eat. Crap in is Crap out - quite literally.
2) $170 is a lot of money for 3 weeks worth of supplements...I have an answer to that.
I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars for tests, doctor appointments, medication that sits in my drawers. I have lost a LOT of my time dedicated to "figuring out" what is wrong with me. $170 is NOTHING.
3) Oh, well when are you going to start this "detox" We have X event and then Y and then there will be this other thing? I have an answer to that.
EXCUSES can ALWAYS be made to put off ANYTHING.
I don't think the world will stop or be overly concerned if on Friday I don't eat a cupcake at someone's graduation, if Saturday I don't drink a sugary sweet alcoholic beverage or if on Monday - I eat a veggie plate at a birthday celebration.
Will it be hard - ABSOLUTELY. We are so programmed to fall back into the ways we know. To enjoy the company of others around food that make us "feel" happy or have a drink to make the pain go away.
Guess what I am TIRED of trying to feel good in that moment and then suffer for countless other moments.
I am asking the negative people to please leave their comments inside themselves. I am asking for your support and your positive vibes while I am trying to make lifestyle changes so I can feel better.
This is not an attempt to "lose weight" or "look better" - this is a decision I have made so I FEEL better. I am sure that with the positive changes I am going to make I will have those first two things happen as a side effect and I will just call that my bonus.
Please don't be offended when I don't eat or drink the food you have prepared if it isn't within my parameters. I am sure it is tasty and you put a lot of hard work into it. It just isn't going to benefit me in the long run. Will I be perfect? I am sure I won't be, but I am asking for support in making the right choices for me.
I will let you know how my journey goes along the way. I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks and to a new healthy lifestyle. NOT a DIET.
I have been to a wide variety of doctors from holistic to medical.
Medications galore have been put into my body and help for periods of time.
At no point have I gone to the doctor and had them discuss with me the importance of nutrition or what/what not I should be eating.
With that said - how many times has a doctor told me that I am overweight? How many times have I heard, you should lose weight, that will assist with your pain/anxiety/sleep....
Almost every single time. When I ask how, I have been told some "basic" guidelines, but more or less to eat less and move more. Makes sense to me. I have done almost every diet that has been invented. I have spent a lot of money on diet supplements, meal replacements, etc.
I have been told if I lose the first 20 pounds myself, that they would prescribe me with appetite suppressants.
All of these "diets" seem to cause even more issues with my stomach issues/food allergies.
Things were so bad a few years ago, my family paid for me to have extensive food allergy testing that is not covered under medical insurance.
I found that I am "allergic" to more things than not. It would really be shorter for me to tell you what I "can" have than what I can't. Not only food wise, but just in general.
Last year I started experiencing - Chronic pain. I'm not talking about a little soreness here and there - like getting old pains. I am talking about it feels like someone beat the hell out of me everyday pain. Migraines, joint issues, overall pain. EVERY DAY. I thought I had the flu. I went to my general doctor, then had a wide variety of useless tests done - MRI, Echo cardiogram, Stress Test, Ultrasounds on my female organs, a mammogram (I'm 38) and guess what they found nothing. I was referred to a rheumatologist as my ANA levels were a tad high. I was started on more medication that again, helped a little for a bit.
I don't have anything that they tested me for and they can't explain why I hurt and things are swollen.
So, they give you a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia if you have a bunch of qualifying symptoms on a list over a specified period of time. I was put on a higher dosage of daily medication and a sleeping aid. If you aren't sleeping, guess what your body will hurt. It's telling you to slow your roll.....
Why the rant? NO ONE TOLD ME how to eat.
Not once.
Not, you should do X or Y or Z or have you looked into this.....
Let's just put a bunch of chemicals in your body that is making you more sick or more dependent on us so you continue coming back from more medication.
So tonight I went to a nutrition seminar. I signed up for a 21 day detox and purification program. All of the natural products were $170. The first 10 days you eat mainly vegetables, some fruit and oddly enough - fat.
Day 11-21 you add lean protein to your diet.
Yes, the suggestion is to eat mostly organic vegetables (free from chemicals) and fruit and grass fed/hormone free protein. I am going to stick with the Dirty Dozen as far as organic fruits/veggies - because of cost.
No dairy, no grains (except brown or wild rice), no nuts/seeds, no alcohol/caffeine/tobacco and no processed foods.
So, I get home and start talking about the program and the organic veggies/fruit and hormone free meat. The comments I get - that's so expensive, who eats like that, etc.
Really? I have answer to that.
1) "It's too expensive to eat healthy" - I call bull.
Yes, I bought 3 organic honeycrisp apples for $9. - Oh my goodness, you spent $9 on apples.
Really? You don't have a problem spending $9 on a mexican martini. You don't have a problem spending $9 on that chinese food you ate for lunch. or how about that $6 Starbucks?
3 Organic Honeycrisp apples are 6 - count them 6 of my snacks. As they are SO big, that I cut them in half and put some lemon juice on them to keep them from browning.
So, while you consume whatever you are putting into your body - I challenge you to "record" how much money it really costs to eat that and then look into your healthy options - you will be surprised at how NOT much more expensive it is to eat healthy. I'm not talking about fast food or in a restaurant - I'm talking about YOU not being lazy and making your own food to take to work or eat for dinner. Yes, convenience food is more expensive to eat healthy. That is because they know you will pay it or just eat their crap that costs nothing for them to make and therefore is cheap for you to eat. Crap in is Crap out - quite literally.
2) $170 is a lot of money for 3 weeks worth of supplements...I have an answer to that.
I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars for tests, doctor appointments, medication that sits in my drawers. I have lost a LOT of my time dedicated to "figuring out" what is wrong with me. $170 is NOTHING.
3) Oh, well when are you going to start this "detox" We have X event and then Y and then there will be this other thing? I have an answer to that.
EXCUSES can ALWAYS be made to put off ANYTHING.
I don't think the world will stop or be overly concerned if on Friday I don't eat a cupcake at someone's graduation, if Saturday I don't drink a sugary sweet alcoholic beverage or if on Monday - I eat a veggie plate at a birthday celebration.
Will it be hard - ABSOLUTELY. We are so programmed to fall back into the ways we know. To enjoy the company of others around food that make us "feel" happy or have a drink to make the pain go away.
Guess what I am TIRED of trying to feel good in that moment and then suffer for countless other moments.
I am asking the negative people to please leave their comments inside themselves. I am asking for your support and your positive vibes while I am trying to make lifestyle changes so I can feel better.
This is not an attempt to "lose weight" or "look better" - this is a decision I have made so I FEEL better. I am sure that with the positive changes I am going to make I will have those first two things happen as a side effect and I will just call that my bonus.
Please don't be offended when I don't eat or drink the food you have prepared if it isn't within my parameters. I am sure it is tasty and you put a lot of hard work into it. It just isn't going to benefit me in the long run. Will I be perfect? I am sure I won't be, but I am asking for support in making the right choices for me.
I will let you know how my journey goes along the way. I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks and to a new healthy lifestyle. NOT a DIET.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)