Found a Nutritionist

A few people at my job love a particular nutritionist and have been seeing her for awhile. I've been watching my pennies since I first learned of her and have rearranged my budget so that I will have enough money to see her this month- I'm very excited about this. This woman is well versed on vegetarian foods and just wrote a book about vegetarianism. One of my coworkers who started seeing her this year looks awesome- he has lost weight and looks generally healthier- he's a walking billboard for healthy eating. He speaks enthusiastically about how his life has changed since learning about eating properly. Well, he's singing to the choir. I know from my experiences with my raw diet last year how wonderful the right diet plan can be. I plan to ask her about vegetarian, vegan and raw diets, and especially about weight loss.

I like the idea of seeing a nutritionist (who asks you a bunch of questions and creates a personalized plan) much more than seeing the personal trainer with a sports nutrition education who gave me a generic plan meant for athletes. Nothing against her personally (she's very nice) but I'm not in training to become an athlete. I'm just an ordinary Jane who wants to be fit enough to live a healthy life doing things like racquetball, biking, dancing, riding in an airplane comfortably, wearing clothes I actually like, riding roller coasters, etc. I also want to have energy and stamina because not only can my job be intense, my doctoral studies require hours upon hours of research. I don't like drinking coffee or energy drinks in an attempt to keep myself awake (doesn't work anyway).

Because my Sunday weigh-in still shows no weight loss I made a concerted effort to eat less today. I ended up getting only about 1200 calories. I took some nonfat cottage cheese and melon chunks to work for a "late" breakfast, and a couple of hours later had a Cedarlane lowfat burrito for the fiber. For lunch I had Campbell's ham and bean soup - the whole, big can! For dinner I had some broiled cod, a small sweet potato (baked) and broccoli. Today wasn't a workout day, which is good because I'm still nursing my calves from the stint on the elliptical trainer.

I'm feeling good about the healthy foods I've been eating, and the way I've stuck to my 45-minute workouts, which are increasing in intensity every week. I'm amazed that so quickly, 2.5 mph on the treadmill became too slow! I'm also happy about saving for the nutritionist; I'm hoping this will be a major turning point for me in putting me on the path back to raw (and jump-starting my weight loss).

One thing I learned through my Raw Odyssey last year was that the journey to health can be just as fun as reaching the final weight and fitness goal numbers. I tend to envision the future and want to be there already, so I get frustrated. But if I keep in mind how well I've been doing overall - while not aiming for perfection- I can really enjoy the odyssey and have much to be proud of along the way.

Ow

Today I met with my trainer for our nutrition counseling. Now I'm seriously having doubts about this! She wants to train me as if I were an athlete. She wants me to eat 2,400 calories a day. You read that right- 2,400 calories! I don't know how I'm going to do that without cheese, nuts and other high fat foods. She wants me to eat 6 times a day, too. A protein bar and two protein shakes a day make up part of the daily plan. I don't want to get so much protein from those types of "foods" but I figure I'll try what I can for the next week or two and then see how flexible she can be if I decide I really cannot do this. I already know I won't be doing the protein bars; maybe 1 shake a day, though (the powder in my smoothie).

The exercise is less of a problem. I'm in pain (neck, shoulders, back, and the front of each ankle) but I can deal with that. I always push myself when it comes to physical training, anyway. Today I did 3 mph on a 2% incline for part of the workout, and then varied the speed and incline throughout the rest of the time. 40 minutes came and went just like that! I completed 2 miles this time. I'm probably overdoing it; based on the soreness I wonder if I should be working out every other day rather than daily, but I'm willing to see if I can keep up this pace.

I bought the groceries on the list of foods she gave me- $96. I feel very far away from my raw plan at this point, but I know I have to work my way back to it. I have yogurt, cottage cheese, egg beaters, salmon, oatmeal, and a host of fruits. I also bought my soups and two Amy's burritos. I don't have enough vegetables, however. More shopping! I only ate about 22 points today but considering she wants me to eat 2400 calories a day, the points will go up this week as I strive to increase the calories.

That's it for today. I can't wait to lie down, I'm so achy and tired.