My Big Fat Body

Just thought I'd give you all an update on the past 9 days. We started our fast 9 days ago, as I posted. One of the things the fast was/is supposed to do involves the physical...our health. Well, can I just say...IT IS GOING GREAT! It really is. We are fasting meats and sweets (when I say meat I am talking about beef, poultry, fish). I haven't even been tempted...I really haven't. I mean if the thought of a Milky Way pops into my mind, I just don't entertain the thought...otherwise I would be tempted and really want a Milky Way (FYI: in the last 3 months or so, really had a craving for Milky Ways...not sure why...hadn't wanted a Milky Way in years before that, but I would totally satisfy my craving every time...by going to the store and getting a Milky Way of course).

Update on my body (the one that I still don't recognize when I look in the mirror...crazy how when I think about myself, I still picture the body that came along with the 25-yr. old, pre-kids me). Like I said, started eating healthy again 9 days ago. Well, as of this morning I was down 7 1/2 pounds and had lost about an inch off my waist. Not too bad.

Here is what I'm doing in my diet (diet as in way I like to eat, not as in "I'm going on a diet"):
1. avoiding anything with high fructose corn syrup...have just learned how to really read labels over the years
2. avoiding anything with hydrogenated oils
3. obviously I'm not having any sweets, but that includes basically eating nothing that has sugar period...not added sugar or simple sugars listed in the ingredients; now, for example, there is a Kashi cereal that I will eat occasionally that is "lightly sweetened," but it's with evaporated cane juice...I stay away from the highly processed, refined white table sugar
4. avoiding all bad carbs.; good carbs., like brown rice, whole grain bread (without high fructose corn syrup or refined flour of any kind), high-fiber cereal, etc....we eat those of course; it isn't tempting to me to overeat the good carbs. because frankly they don't taste as good as the bad ones in my opinion; you know, like that soft, white Wonder bread...the kind that is highly processed and refined...yeah, that tastes better to me...too bad it's toxic
5. drinking at least 64 oz. of water a day; lots of times I will end up drinking about 96, but at least 64
6. avoiding dairy; I've done this before and really liked the way I felt on no dairy...I replace milk with soymilk, although I don't really drink milk of any kind...it's just to use in my oatmeal, smoothies, etc.; I figure if I'm being bad enough to eat the chocolate cake or brownies (the only time I drink milk), I can go ahead and go all the way and drink cow's milk :)

So, what are we eating? Anything healthy that we want. :) I tried to do the Weight Watchers thing again, which worked so wonderfully for me to lose the weight after I had Hadley. But, for some reason, this time I just wasn't feeling it. I was not excited about counting points and measuring and stuff.

A sample day is something like this:
Breakfast - Oatmeal w/ Raisins or a 2-egg omelette with green bell peppers, onions, and tomato
Lunch/Supper - any combo of beans/peas and grains so that we make a complete protein...I've
found some great recipes online and borrowed some from friends...of course it also helps
that Joel's favorite food basically is Brazilian rice and beans :)
Snack - a handful of Pecans (from Granny's back yard) or maybe a smoothie (bananas, frozen
strawberries, soymilk, vanilla protein powder)

I like the idea of a vegetarian/vegan diet and am really pretty much doing a vegan diet now (except for my omelettes), but don't think it's realistic for me long-term...not 100% anyhow. I think it might be do-able to do that at home, but as far as traveling, family/church functions, eating out, etc....just not realistic to be able to avoid things like dairy and meat products. I tell you what though...man is it SO MUCH CHEAPER to not buy and cook meat.

I've also been exercising almost every day. It's too cold to go outside and run, and I wouldn't really get the chance to do that these days anyhow, so have just been doing videos. I highly recommend the Turbo Jam exercise videos...you may have seen them in an infomercial (that's where I saw them first). They are really good and really fun. I despise cheesy exercise videos.

And, usually it helps me to get on track if I can read a new book about health/fitness to really get informed and get motivated. I got the Natural Cures one, but it was honestly a little too "conspiracy theory" for me. I mean, good information and I don't necessarily refute the claims he makes...I just didn't like his presentation. So, I got the book by Dr. Oz (from the Oprah show)...You On a Diet. It is really very good. I've read about a b-jillion books on health/fitness (and pregnancy/childbirth and child-raising...). That being the case, Joel asked me if I was learning anything new from this book. I am. More than any of the other books I've read, it goes into great explanations about what food does to your body, good and bad. It just informs you about your body processes as related to food I guess. And it's very well written...not so in-depth that it's boring. I really like it.

Anyhow, like I said...just an update and a little detail about what I'm doing. More to come.