Just What the Doctor Ordered

I had the most wonderful weekend, hanging out with my friend Cindy. She made a great dinner, of course, grilling mahi mahi and shrimp (see photo), and preparing a healthy coleslaw, couscous, and corn on the cob. The next day we went fishing- one of the items on my "one day I'd like to do this" list. You can't really call what I did "fishing" since I spent most of the time bugging Cindy about how to do this or that, and getting the line caught in the rocks under the water. But I did learn how to cast the line and reel it back in. We didn't catch anything because a storm blew in, but I hope we'll go fishing again and actually catch dinner.

Today I started my new nutritional plan. Following my nutritionist's suggestions, I created meals balanced in protein, starches, vegetables, carbs and fruits. I had 2% cottage cheese with fruit for breakfast. For lunch I made a salad with 2 oz of grilled salmon, tofu, 1/2 oz. of Stilton, and veggies. For dinner I had 4 oz of salmon, some brown rice, and I grilled some bell pepper slices. (Whenever I eat healthfully I feel like an adult. I don't know if that's good or bad...

The longer I stay overweight and less active, the more I worry about high cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes. I've taken a giant step by making a doctor's appointment for this week. I'm getting bloodwork done, and also checking to make sure I don't have blood sugar problems. I know that seeing the numbers will motivate me to do improve them. I love to compare and contrast my "before" results with the consequences of changing my diet for the better.

I may start my journey back to raw very simply, starting with one raw meal + two less-than-100% raw meals a day. That is easily done by eating a salad as my raw meal. My raw diet this time around won't be like my previous one. I've probably mentioned before that I'm not really into the faux-cooked foods made with raw ingredients, except as a treat (like an occasional meal at a raw restaurant). I don't plan on making raw "burgers" and fake tortilla chips, etc. Those can be fun to do, but the more I process foods into semblances of cooked ones, the more I get away from the reasons I'm turning to a raw diet again. I want to separate myself from the processed foods mentality. Over time I'll be giving up even my beloved sodas and will probably drink only water and teas. I think the only "mechanical" processing I'll do is use the dehydrator to make flaxseed crackers and dried fruit, and use a food processor/vitamix to make smoothies and cold soups.

June, 2007

STARTING OVER. AGAIN.
I'm sitting here in my lovely apartment after a 40 minute treadmill workout feeling pretty good: proud, capable and confident! It's been a loooong time since I've done anything decent with my health, and I have been paying the price with all the predictable effects - the weight gain, bad complexion, poor fitness level, lowered energy, not-very-happy-mood, low self esteem, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. But last week I was ready to get back on the wagon, so up I hopped. I have lost about 8 lbs (the first week is always mostly water), and today I started working out.

PROGRAM AND GOALS

Fitness
To get me back into the gym, I found a personal trainer. Today was my first meeting with her. She recorded my BMI, measurements and starting weight. I have to get a doctor's release before we truly begin to work out, but she wants me to do 40 minutes on the treadmill at only 2.5 mph, 0 incline, 5 days a week. As my cardiovascular fitness improves we'll increase the speed and incline level. Eventually we'll add weights and do a 30-minute circuit training type of workout (ugh). I can only afford her once a week right now, but that's all right.

Weight
My initial weight goal is to lose about 30 lbs in three months. My overall goal is to reach 160 lbs by the time I earn my doctorate in 2009.


FOOD
Although my goal is to eat a "high raw" (not all raw) diet, I am starting out cautiously. Last time I started raw I jumped in with both feet and lost 25 lbs in one month, and about 1/4 of my hair. I want to lose weight quickly, but not with that kind of side effect! I'm still growing my hair back and it looks better, one year later. I stopped wearing a wig last month- scary move, but a happy occasion.

My previous raw diet was very low in protein so this time around I plan to ensure that I get enough of it. Since I love nigiri sushi, I will be getting some of my protein raw. These past two weeks I've been having a fruit smoothie with protein powder every morning, low-fat vegetable or vegetable/bean soups for lunch, and then salads with some sort of cheese for dinner. For a snack I eat raw cashews and almonds. My trainer wants me to stop eating cheese and nuts, and to not do protein supplements. She recommends I eat oatmeal, egg whites and brown rice, all of which I am willing to do for a little while as I establish myself in this new health routine. She knows I am avoiding all red meats and fowl but I didn't go into the whole future raw thing with her- I'll do that later!

Now, I'm not sure if I like what my trainer is having me do for food: she uses the volume method for determining portion sizes rather than counting calories or food values. I mean, how do you determine an index finger's worth of olive oil? She admits that this is "ambiguous" but wants me to try it out before I completely reject it. We'll see how it goes but I am already not overjoyed with the foods or the portion-control method.

HOW TODAY WENT

I am SO out of shape it is pitiful. She did a stress test on me and wanted me to stop when my heart rate went back down to 119, but it never went below 130! My resting pulse was 80. She set me up to do 40 minutes on the treadmill at 2.5 mph. When she left, I experimented with raising the incline to .5 and then 1, and raising the speed to 2.7 - just little changes to see how my heart rate was affected. She wants me to stay between 117 and 144 beats per minute and I did that, but overall I only achieved 1.75 miles in 41 minutes. I'm very impatient and want to go faster than that, but I know I have to start slowly. The good thing is that I can only get better, and it'll be fun seeing the improvement. My arms and my neck are a little sore, and I'm sure my legs will be sore tomorrow, but my iPod will help to distract me from pain when I work out tomorrow.

Well that's it for today. I'm about to see what I can eat for dinner! A fist-sized portion of something...

GOIN' RAW!

I spent the night contemplating this WW thing and decided to morph over to a high raw diet now rather than doing it more slowly. I remember how eating raw last year helped me to feel less depressed, cleared up my skin, and helped me deal with the desire to overeat so I figured, why wait any longer? I shopped for fruits, herbs and veggies for salads, and got low fat cottage cheese and organic nut butter for extra protein. I have extra virgin olive oil and avocados to make sure I get my good fats in. I bought fresh squeezed OJ rather than a bunch of oranges because I know I'm not going to spend time in the morning squeezing orange juice. I will start with these, and eat up the remaining 3 or so frozen meals I have in the fridge. I feel better already!

Now, tonight I'm going to be eating a very non-raw dinner with a friend. She is grilling steaks and roasting potatoes, and we'll have bread and dessert. All of that would be allowed on the WW Flex plan but I have to count points and would have to eat small portions to keep the point value low. I'm going to still count points with my high-raw plan as well. Right now I'm allowed 36 points a day, and 35 extra points over the course of a week. It should be very interesting to see how many points I manage to take in on a high raw diet. I'm guessing it'll very hard to make 36 points and that I'll settle into whatever points work for me.

A New Year, a New Me

I have decided to get back to blogging after several months off. As some of you know I was having difficulties staying raw due to personal difficulties (stressful relationship, stressful academic requirements, abject poverty- you know, the usual). Since jumping off the raw wagon I regained almost all of the weight I'd lost, along with the health problems - the bad skin, the "allergies," the severe back pain, etc. The hair loss I experienced from losing 25 lbs in one month (January 2006) has not totally been rectified so I'm still wearing a wig to deal with that.

This year I am in a new set of circumstances and felt that it was time for me to start getting back to health. For one thing, I am now single and living on my own. Although it's lonely, it's not like I've never been in this position before- it just takes time to get used to. I've also found a great job as a sociologist, working with a wonderful group of people. I love going to work everyday, even when I feel overwhelmed with full-time work and full-time school. So stressors still exist in my life- they'll never go away- but they are different and are not causing me to turn to food.

Rather than jumping full on into raw, I have gone to my old standby: Weight Watchers. I weighed in at 325 lbs, and I did not cry. I am using their "Flex" plan, which gives a point-value to foods based on their fiber, calorie and fat count. This means I can eat anything I want, as long as I don't go over a certain number of points (37 for me at first, due to my weight, gender, and sedentariness). I chose the Flex because I didn't want to feel that I was suddenly switching to a "diet;" I wanted to first get used to tracking what I eat.

I drank 20 oz of Pepsi, ate full-fat frozen meals, had nuts and lots of brie that first week and lost 9.6 lbs anyway. At the WW meeting when they give everyone the opportunity to celebrate their losses, I almost didn't say anything because I really don't care about the pounds as much as I care about getting the junk out of my system and getting the good stuff in. My celebration is about weaning myself off of fat, sugar and salt. And after week one, I've begun to do that.

I know I said I am lonely and alone, but I actually have a roommate. She's barely around because we have different schedules, but she's a health nut, which is great for me. She went to Whole Foods and brought a lot of good salad stuff, so I did the same this weekend and now the fridge is stocked with great salad ingredients. I might be returning to raw sooner than I'd planned! I even went to the raw restaurant for the first time in ages and got the raw pizza, and couldn't eat all of it. (In one sitting, of course, I can eat a ton of food that's bad for me. Hello, irony). My week's menu consists of low- or no-fat cottage cheese, smoked salmon, fresh fruits and vegetables, skim milk, Kombucha teas (the Synergy brand), low-fat/high fiber frozen meals, caprese salad (because I love cheese), whole wheat bread, diet Snapple, and nigiri sushi. Over time I'll eat fewer prepared foods, more whole foods, and more raw foods. But I believe I'm one of those people who needs a higher percentage of protein, therefore I will probably never give up the cottage cheese or the fish. I'll simply eat less of them because I'll be getting plant proteins as well.

Thank you to everyone who has been supportive during my absence. I was happy to receive encouraging words, support and understanding. I didn't think my blog still existed since it's been neglected for so long, but here it is, patiently waiting.

I'll update the blog probably on a weekly basis rather than daily, as I am busy with my new awesome job, and my full time academic load. Since I weigh in once a week, that day will be a good day to also update the blog.

Happy (belated) New Year! :-)

A Wild and Wacky Summer- and now the Holidays are Coming!

I would like to get back to raw before January of 2007, but my heart just hasn't been in it. Personal problems took up a lot of my energy starting this summer: I am a single woman now, which really took an emotional toll on me. Then, as a related problem, I had to move. That involved a lot of physical labor and emotional stress that took time away from my studies and made the whole break-up thing more upsetting. Remember that I joined the Raw Food Bootcamp? Well, need I say that I wasn't attentive to the Bootcamp regulations through all of this?

As part of my move I lost internet access at home, which interfered with my ability to stick to the Bootcamp regimen of checking in, logging foods, maintaining a blog, etc. It also interfered with my studies, a problem I especially do not need. Between trying to find reliable sources of free wi-fi, studying, moving and being generally depressed, it seemed that I had really picked the wrong time for the Bootcamp. I tried to stick to the regimen, thinking that if I could at least stay raw one of my biggest problems would be under control, but it was really too difficult for me to handle.

When I finally got moved, I thought I could then put more attention on the Bootcamp, but then my computer powercord broke! More internet woes, then- and not having a computer is even worse than not having internet because my research data is all digital. AARGH! That did me in as far as the Bootcamp. The truth is, other areas in my life have had more importance in my life than staying raw these past couple of months: my studies and my personal life. If I have to choose between the bootcamp and my studies, for example, the studies have to win. And I've found that it is too hard not to stray from raw when I'm so emotionally stressed.

So I am no longer a member of the Bootcamp. Speaking for me- not for anyone else- a Bootcamp experience works best when it's not competing with outside forces. I thought the Bootcamp would force me to focus on raw over those other forces, but no- I couldn't make it work no matter how important I thought it was. Carlene was very understanding that this was not the right time in my life for Bootcamp (although I didn't bring even bring up the break-up issues!). She didn't call me a whiny loser or anthing dreaded like that. :-) There is a time and a place for everything and if Bootcamp is in my future, it'll be when I am fully able to commit to it.

So what do I do now? I am definitely not eating raw these days, but I am starting from square one to get myself back on track. First, simply watching what I eat is important. I may progress from there to recording what I eat- maybe calories or Weight Watcher's points. I've bought some frozen meals because those are the easiest foods for someone going to grad school and working at two different job sites! After I'm in the habit of watching what I eat I can transition to an all-vegetarian diet, and then transition back to raw- maybe by my January 1st raw anniversary! Once the semester is over at the university I will also have some free time- a good time to start a gym regimen. So I know what options are out there. It's a matter of putting them into play. That's always the hard part.