figs, dates, & kale

The quick update

2011-11-08T19:53:00.000-08:00

Because I said I was going to be accountable, but I am finding I have less and less time for myself, here is the quickest update: Down 1.5 lbs (should be a little more, but got slightly side-tracked). Doing really well this last week and going in for blood work next week to see if my cholesterol has gone down (I'm not quite in the range I should be).

I'm also finally FINALLY back into a good running groove. I'm only running 20 mpw but hey, it's been 20 mpw for 3 weeks now with TWO group workouts (one track and one tempo-ish). After 1.5 months of solid running, I'm finally feeling like myself and getting the slightest bit of speed back.

Unfortunately, no cycling as it takes too much time and there is a wedding to plan!

6-week Challenge Wrap-up

2011-10-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

I didn't exactly post daily like I originally wanted to. Honestly I just have so much going on right now that it's difficult to get on the computer in the evenings. However, I did want to report that I think the 6-week challenge was successful. My goal was to stick to only Eat-to-Live approved foods and I mostly did this. I would say that I strayed from this goal about 5 different days total. 5 out of 42 isn't horrible and is certainly better than my average before!

My next goal is to see if I can improve on that and to actually look like I've been ETL-ing. I've been stuck with about 15 lbs to go until I reach my "ideal weight" according to Dr. F. It's hard to convince anyone that my diet is healthier than theirs when I'm still overweight surrounded by thin people. Also, my dress is supposed to come in a few weeks and I have my first fitting in exactly one month. I'd love to be "almost there" at the first fitting. I know better than to set unrealistic expectations so I'm just going to aim for 5 lbs in the next month. I can't promise that I'll report daily (I know I won't), but I will promise to check in weekly on my progress for accountability.

"You've ruined me for smoothies."

2011-10-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

Best line I've heard all week:

"You've ruined me for fast food smoothies."

That line was straight from the boyfriend's lips, who claims my delicious, 100% whole-fruit, HEALTHY smoothies actually taste better than the smoothies he's been trying at McDonald's. He said when he tried the McDonald's "fruit smoothie", he could taste the chemicals in it!

Now, I don't know whether there are chemicals in their smoothies since I couldn't find any ingredients lists online, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were. Anyway, I am thrilled! One baby step in the right direction...

6WC: Day 29

2011-09-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

I had a harder run workout this morning and was hungry most of the day. I overate on some dates in the evening, which was not good at all, but on the bright side, it wasn't chocolate or the junk food coffee cake that is sitting on my counter as we speak.

Breakfast was another green smoothie with 1/2 grapefruit, 1/2 banana, 1/2 orange, kale and flax seed. I had made 2 yesterday which is why it might look familiar. It was still just "okay" -- maybe I accidentally pureed a seed in there. I was still hungry and had about 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds to feel just about satisfied.

Lunch was a salad made from collards, green leaf lettuce, romaine, carrots, pinto beans, and casinera's caesar dressing. 2 large pluots and 1 passionfruit with about 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds for dessert.

Dinner was some steamed broccoli with tomato sauce. I also had a kale salad with fresh cucumbers. And lots of dates.

Calories: 1909, Carb: 357.7g (66.6%), Pro: 68.6g (12.8%), Fat: 23.g (20.6%), Fiber: 76.4g

6WC: Day 28

2011-09-28T20:47:00.001-07:00

I dare say I might, just might, be getting the hang of this nutritarian living. My cravings haven't gone away yet, but I am developing good habits and building a nice daily routine. It is getting easier which is great!

Breakfast was a green smoothie made with 1/2 grapefruit, 1/2 banana, 1/2 orange, flax seed and kale. It was just okay.

Lunch was a big salad made with green leaf lettuce, arugula, broccoli, carrots, pinto beans, and casinera's caesar salad. A whole cantaloupe and passion fruit for dessert.

Dinner was a simple saute made with beet greens, broccoli, radish greens, Swiss chard, garlic and onions. I had 3 pluots with almonds shortly after.

I am honestly scared I will "fall off the wagon" but I keep promising myself not to think that far ahead and just take it one day at a time. For that reason, I haven't been weighing myself either but my pants seem looser.

Calories: 1262, Carb: 247.8g (71%), Pro: 49.6g (14.2%), Fat: 23.g (14.8%), Fiber: 64g

6WC: Day 27

2011-09-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

Nothing interesting to report today. It was almost a repeat of yesterday. I had too much fruit though. I got home and immediately had to get to an appointment so I quickly at my dinner and when I got back, I was hungry so I had an entire melon! Better than chocolate, I suppose.

Breakfast was a mixed fruit bowl, which I ate on the way to work in the car. It had an orange, strawberries, a pear and an apple with some sunflower seeds.

Lunch was a big salad made with green leaf lettuce, arugula, carrots, broccoli, 1 cup kidney beans, and casinera's caesar dressing. Also a bowl of vegetable soup.

Dinner was the leftover Late Summer Veggie Medley from yesterday. Then about 2 hours later, I had an entire medium-sized melon. Not sure what type it was but it came in the CSA this week.

Calories: 1275, Carb: 270.7g (77.1%), Pro: 48.5g (13.8%), Fat: 14.1g (9%), Fiber: 64.3g

Late Summer Veggie-Medley

2011-09-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

Someone posted this Late Summer Veggie-Medley recipe on the Yahoo ETL group. I just happened to have most of the ingredients on hand from my CSA box so it was easy enough to make it tonight. I didn't have leeks so I used an extra onion and of course, I omitted the oil and salt. I steamed some Swiss chard (also from the CSA) and served the medley over that, with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Very good. Solid B.

6WC: Day 26 - Haven't disappeared, just got busy

2011-09-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

Oops, I let too long of a lapse go again. Thankfully, I haven't fallen off the wagon or given up, I just got busy with some other projects (can we say "wedding"??) that I haven't been able to post. Or rather, I keep getting on the computer late at night working on other things and finally think about posting, but then decide to go to sleep instead. This is good for my health but not good for my audience of one person. Hah.

I've been doing well so far with the CSA boxes. They've forced me to be a bit more creative in my recipes and to try things I don't normally eat. I made some raw tomato sauces from all of the tomatoes I've gotten and I'm trying to figure out something else I can make with all of the tomatoes I got this week. I also have a few long green eggplants that I'm not sure what to do with yet.

Today was a fairly normal day with my food. I had a fruit salad containing melon, strawberries, passion fruit, grapefruit, and sunflower seeds over finely chopped lettuce and broccoli. For lunch, I had a bigger raw salad made with lettuce, collards, broccoli, carrots, kidney beans, tomatoes, and casinera's caesar dressing (a favorite standby) with more fruit for dessert. Dinner was this veggie medley that I made with tomatoes, eggplants, and onions I had from my CSA. I had a cup of a spinach soup as well. For dessert, it was strawberries, 1/2 frozen banana, and some almonds.

Calories: 1439, Carb: 276.2g (69.9%), Pro: 60.8g (15.4%), Fat: 25.9g (14.7%), Fiber: 74.1g

6WC: Day 16

2011-09-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

Uneventful day today. I'm still having cravings. The desires to eat are especially bad around 4 pm until dinner and again after dinner. I am used to lots of sweet eating after dinner.

Today's food was pretty much the same as yesterday. Breakfast was 2 nectarines, a plum and two passion fruits. Lunch was a big salad of collards, carrots, heirloom tomatoes, kidney beans, broccoli, scallions and Not Cheese Sauce (I swear I'm almost done with the container). I forgot to bring more fruit with me so no fruit with lunch.

For dinner, I had the leftover raw zucchini "noodles" with tomato sauce that I made last night and then the leftover cauliflower / onions / scallions / mushrooms / radish greens mixture (I added no-salt seasonings to this). For dessert I had 3 small apples that I cut up and warmed up. I sprinkled some cinnamon and topped with 1/2 oz of walnuts.

Calories: 1218, Carb: 229.7g (68.3%), Pro: 53.2g (15.8%), Fat: 23.6g (15.8%), Fiber: 59.8g

6WC: Days 14 and 15

2011-09-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a harder day because I was out for both lunch and dinner. I always do better when I have planned ahead and am eating my own food. I know exactly what's in it!

For breakfast I had some fresh figs, sunflower seeds, and two nectarines. Lunch was out at a fish place and I had a salad with lemon squeezed on top with a cup of minestrone soup (definitely too much salt). We were out doing "wedding stuff" last night and at 8 pm were famished, so we ended up at a Japanese restaurant. I was ate some edamame, rice, and what I thought were steamed vegetables, but I think they had some oil on them). I came home still hungry and had some dates after that.

Today was MUCH better. I had some organic carrots, nectarines, a plum, and some sunflower seeds for breakfast. For lunch, it was a big salad of collards, romaine, carrots, heirloom tomatoes, kidney beans, broccoli, scallions and Not Cheese Sauce (I swear I'm almost done with the container). For dessert I had another nectarine and 2 passion fruits. This nectarine was a little dry, so I scooped out the passion fruit flesh and poured it over the cut up nectarine pieces and ate the whole thing together. It was lovely.

For dinner, I made some raw zucchini "noodles" with tomato sauce as a first course and then had a small bowl of a concoction I threw together that included steamed cauliflower, onions, scallions, mushrooms, and radish greens. For dessert I had 2 pluots and 1 plum with 1/4 oz sliced almonds on top.

I'm pretty full and am again surprised at these numbers:
Calories: 1127, Carb: 203.5g (65.6%), Pro: 48.3g (15.6%), Fat: 26g (18.9%), Fiber: 55g

6WC: Day 13

2011-09-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

Went out last night with some friends so I didn't get back home until late and I was too tired to post. I was able to stay away from eating the non-ETL foods while out, but I did snack substantially yesterday, although on ETL foods.

Breakfast was a green smoothie made with oranges, passion fruit, flax and bok choy. I also had an entire small "mystery" melon that I got from the CSA. Mystery only because I didn't know what type it was.

Lunch was a cup of spinach soup with dill and basil plus a big salad again with kidney beans, fresh tomatoes and Not Cheese sauce. I also had a plum and white nectarine for dessert.

Around 4:30 pm, I started to really have desires to eat. Not sure if I was actually hungry. I ended up eating a lot of raw sunflower seeds.

When I got home for dinner, I wasn't very hungry (how surprising!) and had a few pieces of fruit before meeting my friends.

6WC: Day 12

2011-09-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

Oops, didn't get a chance to post last night so here is what I ate yesterday. For breakfast, I had a green smoothie made with flax, bok choy, oranges and passion fruit.

Lunch was a delicious salad with heirloom tomatoes, collards, romaine, carrots, kidney beans and some Not Cheese sauce, plus a bowl of spinach soup with dill and basil. 2 white peaches and a plum for dessert.

I was definitely hungry in the afternoon but was able to hold off until I made dinner at 7 pm. Dinner was a bunch of things thrown together, that just tasted "okay." It was some mushrooms, cauliflower, radish greens and radishes with some no-salt seasoning over raw kale. I am not sure I like radishes. They are a little too "spicy" for me. What else can I do with them?? I need suggestions!

I ate the rest of the fresh figs from the CSA for dessert. About 7 of them! So good.

I've decided it might be interesting to track caloric intake as Barb has been doing on her blog for a week.

Calories: 1416, Carb: 292g (73%), Pro: 63.7g (16%), Fat: 18.6g (11%), Fiber: 79g

I'm amazed I can eat this much food and the numbers are so low.

6WC: Day 11

2011-09-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

Had a great day today! First, I got up early and exercised. That always puts me in the right frame of mine for the day. Sometimes I feel like it's the only time I have to myself and is great for clearing my head and organizing my thoughts for the upcoming day/week. I only ran for about an hour but it was enough to get the endorphins running.

I had two white peaches and a plum for breakfast, before meeting up with my sister-in-law to go to the farmer's market. We had a great time sampling lots of fresh fruit and talking to the growers. I ended up signing up for a trial at a CSA. I really like the ideas of CSAs, but I didn't think I could do one by myself since I wasn't sure if it would be cost-effective for me and if I would finish all of the food by myself. After I saw the box though, I was sold.

Here is the box they made for me today:

Of course, after I got home and researched all the CSAs in the area, I discovered I chose one of the higher priced ones. I figure if I do like it and use up the produce, I may do trial periods at a couple others I found online (one that was notorious for being mostly greens) to see which one I like the best.

When I got home, I had lunch, which was a huge salad of bargain greens (a whole bag for 99 cents!), a nut-based dressing, a tomato from my sister's yard, and about 5 figs from the CSA box.

Dinner was a huge amount of roasted vegetables (broccoli, onions, carrots) with some tomato sauce and a piece of garlic bread (whole-grain).

My new running partner?

2011-09-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

This is Maddie. She's my sister's dog and FULL of energy. Her husband BIKES with her while she runs along. Sometimes they do this for an hour! She has that much energy.

Although I've been running for a long time, when I look back at some of the things I've done, I think they haven't been the wisest decisions. I used to run in secluded trails very early in the morning by myself. Probably not so smart.

Since I recently moved into the same neighborhood as my sister and she recently had a baby, she doesn't have as much time for Maddie. This might be a good opportunity for Maddie to get some exercise and for me to gain an exercise partner for my early morning runs. Though she can look ferocious and mean, she's really a sweet dog. I ran with her this afternoon and we had a good time. She was going at a pretty good pace and was fairly well-behaved, save for the few attempts to chase after the bunnies she saw.

I wonder if she'll do intervals too??

6WC: Day 10

2011-09-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

First day in a long time where I ate like a nutritarian on a WEEKEND. It helps that I didn't have any social plans today. I didn't get up as early as I wanted so I didn't get a chance to ride my bike but hopefully I'll do that tomorrow.

Breakfast was some oatmeal with blueberries and peaches mixed in. Lunch was a big salad with cooked broccoli and tomatoes. Pluots for dessert. Dinner was some cooked cauliflower with peas, curry, cilantro and garbanzos. I might have some more fruit for dessert in a bit.

6WC: Day 9

2011-09-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

Oops, somehow I only wrote a draft last night of Day 9 and didn't hit the "publish" button. It's finally starting to feel like a routine. I didn't even flinch when the usual Friday evening went out on the free pizza at the local pizza joint. Even when they were "celebrating" with two people leaving and free beer. It helps that I am not a beer drinker. Haha.

Breakfast was 2 plums, 2 white peaches and some chopped kale. Lunch was the rest of the pinto bean and basil barley soup with raw salad greens mixed in and some frozen berries. Dinner was leftover broccoli and peas with Not cheese sauce and a whole grain english muffin.

I didn't get a chance to do much exercise this morning. With the power just coming back in some places, I wasn't sure what would be open. I went for a brief 20 minute jog this morning and that is it.

6WC: Day 8: Dinner by headlamp!

2011-09-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

This is a day late, because of the massive power outage that occurred in a lot of southern California yesterday afternoon. It took me TWO HOURS to drive home yesterday! That was pretty horrible.

There was some daylight by the time I got home so I managed to round up some candles, matches, and find my headlamp. I just got a new one last year for Christmas. People scoff at the lowly headlamp, but it really does have a lot of uses! I use it mostly for hiking, but have a friend who will wear it if we run in the dark (we were running at 4:30 in the morning for a while and it is dark that early!). Notice I said I let him wear it and not me. Hah. Yesterday though, I wore mine all around the house. It was a lot brighter than the candles we lit and much less dangerous.

The fiance and I decided to try not to open our fridge and freezer up so the food would stay insulated longer since we did not know how long the outage would last. Instead, I made dinner from pantry items: rinsed can of garbanzo beans, a couple of peaches, and some cashews. Not fancy but it did the trick.

We took a walk around the neighborhood and went to sleep early (what a luxury!).

6WC: Day 7

2011-09-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

I stuck to all nutritarian foods today, as my goal states, but I did give in to snacking. I wasn't really even hungry, as usual, just having a bit of a mental breakdown. Oh well. At least I didn't use it as an excuse to throw in the towel and continue eating. That has to count for something.

Breakfast was another fruit salad. This time it was 1/2 a cantaloupe with 1 white peach and 1 plum over spinach and some sunflower seeds. Lunch was another salad with soup as the dressing and some berries for dessert. My snack was some dried fruit and way too many sunflower seeds. Dinner was some blanched broccoli and peas with the awesome Not Cheese sauce. A handful of strawberries for dessert.

Broccoli and Not Cheese

2011-09-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

I admit it. I used to love macaroni and cheese. But it's probably one of the top disease-promoting foods so I can't imagine eating it anymore. I found this substitute from Rip Esselstyn's Engine 2 and finally got around to making it tonight.

Wow.

It's pretty good! I've tried a few "cheeze" sauces and this one is delicious. I didn't add any onion to it because I ran out of them so the sauce was a bit thin. I served it over blanched broccoli with the addition of peas instead of the pasta. Comfort food!

The recipe can be found here.

6WC: Day 6 - Now that's a fruit salad!

2011-09-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

I've been a little burned out on green smoothies lately but there are so many delicious fruits in season now. One thing I've been doing for breakfast is having cut up fruit with greens. Here is my breakfast from this morning - it's 2 white peaches, 2 black plums over 5 oz of chopped spinach. Now that's what I call a real fruit salad!

I was having a lot of wanting-to-eat desires, but not actually being hungry. For lunch I had 2 cups of a pinto bean and basil barley soup over chopped kale, romaine, carrots and broccoli with a handful of frozen blackberries and blueberries for dessert.

Dinner was the rest of a chili I made over the weekend and some leftover mixed vegetables.

6WC: Days 3-5

2011-09-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

Whew, that weekend went by fast. I did okay this weekend, exercising all three days, and mostly sticking to ETL foods, but I did participate in some snacking.

Highlight of the weekend: the juiciest, sweetest, most delicious pluots from the farmer's market:

I ate the last 3 I bought tonight after dinner. I even got the fiance to try a piece of one.

6WC: Day 2

2011-09-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

A couple more "tempting" situations today but I'm glad to say I got through them. Hurray!

Tempting situation #1: We finished our morning workout and a bunch of us decided to have breakfast together. I was tasked to help a friend out by ordering his food and picking it up, which I did, without buying anything for myself (except a beverage). This was at a favorite coffee shop of mine. While everyone else was eating their bagel-egg-ham-cheese-bacon-doughnut, I whipped out my container of fruit and nuts. Yes, I am a total dork. Although - two girls did admit that my fruit looked pretty good.

Tempting situation #2: Work potluck day. We have potlucks at work every month and there are about 0.001% healthy choices so lately I've been avoiding them. But today, I wanted to put in my "face time" and I wanted to help one of the guys who was doing a lot of work preparing food for everyone. So I volunteered and helped season all the burgers and helped prep some food (mostly SAD). I admit a lot of it looked good to me, but I also tried to tell myself that that stuff isn't real food.

Decent day overall, even though I did not get to the gym at lunch like I wanted to (too busy). I did swim this morning for an hour though.

Breakfast today was the earlier mentioned fruit and nuts (cantaloupe and blueberries with walnuts). Lunch was more cooked veggies and a big bowl of split pea soup. Dinner was mashed cauliflower and spinach with mushrooms and a lot of organic black plums. Mmmm.

Mashed Cauliflower and Spinach with Mushroom Duxelle

2011-09-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

I subscribe to Dr. Fuhrman's mailing list and get sent the daily recipes. I had all of the ingredients to make this one tonight. I love anything cauliflower and this one was pretty good. I'd give it a solid B. It was good (not Wow!) and I might make it again, but it was slightly more time-consuming than I expected since there are a few components to the dish.

I followed the recipe mostly, except I didn't have any wine so I skipped that part. I used a mix of shiitake and oyster mushrooms.

Mashed Cauliflower and Spinach with Mushroom Duxelle
Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 30 min

10 ounces mushrooms
1/4 cup shallots, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme or 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup dry white wine or sherry
6 cups cauliflower florets
4 cloves garlic
10 ounces fresh spinach
1/4 cup raw cashew butter or 1/2 cup raw cashews
soy, hemp or almond milk, if needed to thin
2 tablespoons Dr. Fuhrman's VegiZest, or other no salt seasoning blend, to taste
black pepper, to taste

Finely chop mushrooms in a food processor

Heat 2-3 tablespoons water in a large skillet and water saute shallots for 1 minute.

Add mushrooms and thyme and continue cooking until all mushroom liquid has evaporated.

Add wine and cook for an additional 4 minutes or until evaporated. Set aside.

Steam cauliflower and garlic for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender.

Drain and press out as much water as possible.

Place spinach in steamer, steam until just wilted, drain and set aside.

Process cauliflower, garlic, and cashew butter in a food processor until creamy and smooth. If necessary, add soy milk to adjust consistency.

Add Vegizest, stir in wilted spinach and add black pepper to taste.
Serve topped with Mushroom Duxelle.

6WC: Day 1

2011-09-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

Day 1 of the 6-week challenge was relatively easy since my motivation is still high. I had a slight breakdown this morning though. I had forgotten my green smoothie I had planned on drinking for breakfast at home so I needed to get something to eat for breakfast. I was starving after my morning workout and went to a nearby Trader Joe's. Although I was highly tempted to buy junk food (everything looks good when you're hungry!), I stayed the course and bought only what I came for.

Breakfast ended up being a bag of frozen vegetables and a can of garbanzo beans from Trader Joe's. Lunch was some leftover stir-fry (made in an ETL way) over raw romaine and carrots with some sunflower seeds and a fruit for dessert. For dinner, I had a date with the fiance, but we went to a vegan friendly Mexican restaurant where I was able to get steamed vegetables and a whole wheat tortilla with salsa.

The holiday weekend is coming which I am slightly apprehensive about but I know I can do it because I'm committed.

Just what I needed

2011-08-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

Barb at Food = Health is starting a challenge for September. The prize is a Vitamix, which I don't need, but this is definitely good motivation for me. We're to send her our goals and post our progress as we go. I'll be posting my progress here and my goal is to eat only ETL foods. I want to get the sugar and refined flour out of my system for good. Veteran ETL'ers say that the longer you stay away from SAD, the better your SAD cravings diminish. I want these cravings gone for good.

The Revival

2011-08-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

January 30, eh? It's been more than 6 months since I updated last! It's time to get this blog revived and started up again. To say I've been "busy" would be putting it mildly. In the last 6+ months, I bought a house and moved into it with my significant other.

And most recently, that significant other became my fiance.

Once the proposal happened, we quickly secured a venue. We "lucked" out in some ways, because the venue is gorgeous and usually needs to be reserved 1-2 years in advance, but there was an opening and the opening meant the wedding is in January! That left me about 6 months to plan, which meant I've been a major stress-o-holic for the past month. I finally feel like I am almost caught up and can breathe a bit easier.

But enough about boring personal details, this is an ETL blog. I've been doing what I can, but to be honest, I have only been about 60% ETL. In some ways, moving in with someone has curbed my bingeing. I can't pig out in front of someone or bring home bags of [insert artery-clogging foods] only to snack on them into the late night. The downside is that I end up giving in a lot to social situations. Now we eat out more together (typically SAD) and I am surrounded at home by SAD items he eats. Of course it is ultimately my responsibility and my choice to eat these things so these aren't excuses.

I know that I really need to be doing ETL closer to 95%, not 60% and I want to get there. Blogging seems to help me even if no one is listening (hah), so here we go again.

Hearty breakfasts

2011-01-30T12:35:00.000-08:00

I hate to admit it, but sometimes on the weekends, I miss big breakfasts of eggs and bacon. They still look good to me, but I know if I eat them, I certainly won't feel good. These days, I've been treating myself to my own versions of hearty breakfasts, ETL-style:

It's a big plate of scrambled tofu, tomatoes with basil, steamed broccoli and beans.

The Annual 1 Hour Postal Swim

2011-01-26T19:43:00.000-08:00

When the alarm went off this morning at 4:30 am, I sat in bed for a good 20 minutes debating whether I was going to wake up and go to swim practice. D tried to convince me to do the 1-hr postal swim workout with her this morning, but I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately and I really wanted to sleep in. I decided I was going to weigh myself and if the number was higher than yesterday (I honestly thought it wouldn't be), then I'd go. Well, it was 0.6 lb higher which is not much, but enough to drag my butt out of bed and do the workout!

The one-hour postal swim is an annual January event where instead of doing a "workout" we get in and try to see how many continuous yards we can swim in 1 hour. I think our times get mailed to USMS and it's probably some kind of competition, but since my times are not competitive, I've never actually looked.

I can't remember my yardage from the past since I think I've only done this swim once and remember it kind of sucking. I didn't think it was going to be any better today seeing how I haven't been swimming and am not in great swim shape. But we had 3 of us in the lane and decided that we'd trade off leading by 500s so it would be easier to count and we could all take turns drafting. I did okay in the beginning but by the end, I was reaaaaaally dragging and swimming pretty slow. The coach said we started doing our 100s on 1:15 and ended at 1:30, which is a significant difference! Anyway, I was so glad when the whistle was blown and we were done. We ended up swimming 4250 yards, which is "okay" but I actually thought we might make it to 4500 yds. :)

This just makes me think about the strength I've lost since IM. I haven't been strength training at all even though it's listed on my schedule. I keep sleeping in or driving home instead of to the gym after work. I need to make it a priority again.

Broccoli Fra Diablo

2011-01-12T21:35:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to have another dinner salad tonight but after meals and meals of salads, I didn't think I could stomach another. I was craving tomatoes (specifically, PIZZA), and remembered people on the Dr. Fuhrman forums recommending this dish. Though not consisting of pizza-like flavors, I thought this might do the trick for that tomato craving.

It was incredibly easy to make, coming together in about 20 minutes or less. I used fresh broccoli. The dish itself came out rather soupy, even though I added more broccoli than required. Perhaps my taste buds haven't been retrained yet, but I found it just a tad on the bland side. It tastes nothing like pizza (not that it ever claimed it did, but I wanted to make that disclaimer!) but was nice comfort food.

Recommended for easy, quick, and healthy. Recipe can be found
here.

Bad habits be gone

2011-01-11T21:44:00.000-08:00

After a couple of false starts, I am ready to take 2011 on.

#1 "resolution": STOP BINGEING

I don't care about anything else. Well, I do, but that's definitely #1. I'm so sick of spending all this time and energy loathing myself, feeling guilty, abusing my body, and putting The Evil Trinity (sugar, fat, and salt) before health. I want to be a "normal" person again and eat normally. Losing a few pounds and making myself disease proof are just the welcome side effects.

Like any goal, I need to break it down and take smaller steps to get there. I'm going to start tracking the days I stay binge-free (goal is to make it to 1 week first) and make smaller weekly goals.

First set of weekly goals:

Read reasons why I'm Eating-to-Live daily.
Plan out meals for the following day
Limit dinner time to 1 hour. Obviously the time can be shorter than that, but no more eating after 1 hour is up
After dinner, clean up kitchen and immediately brush + floss until any other "wind down" activities begin.

These are aimed toward my tendency to overeat in the evenings. I'll report back next week.

Mexican Raw Stew/Soup

2011-01-07T20:05:00.000-08:00

Today I made a Mexican raw stew I saw on Barb's blog in this post. I thought it looked interesting and didn't have high expectations but I was pleasantly surprised! I liked this, even if it's not much to look at - hah. It looks a lot like salsa, but the flavor is more complex with the additional vegetables.

I used the same "base" of tomatoes, cucumber, celery, cucumber and lettuce, and then added the spices and rest of the suggestions to finish off the "Mexican" version. I can see how this could be adapted to lots of variations.

2011-01-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that Santa was fairly nice to me this year. Among the fun stuff I got, I also received some ETL-friendly items!

Yellow Eye heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo

Vallarta heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo

Table Tasty from Bensons's Gourmet Seasonings

Vidalia Chop Wizard

A dehydrator!

I'm pretty excited to put these to use!

Christmas Dinner

2010-12-30T20:28:00.000-08:00

As mentioned previously, food is always the center of most of my family gatherings. The host was providing an almost entirely non-ETL menu (everyone seems to think my "weird eating" is just a fad) so of course I brought my own food.

A slice of Thanksgiving non-meat loaf, bean-creamed spinach, and some steamed broccoli:

Thanksgiving Non-Meat Loaf
(Dr. Fuhrman)
6 servings

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
4 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons Bragg Liquid Aminos
1 box soft tofu, drained and patted dry with paper towel
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/4 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped organic celery
2 cups chopped portobello mushrooms
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon Dr. Fuhrman's VegiZest
2 teaspoons Spike (no salt)
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons basil
1/2 teaspoon sage
3/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
Instructions:

Cook rice according to package directions.

Meanwhile, mix arrowroot powder, water, aminos, and tofu together in a high-powered blender.

Add walnuts & blend until smooth.

Saute onions, celery, and mushrooms in water with seasonings and herbs until vegetables are soft, stirring occasionally.

Mix tofu mixture, vegetables, bread crumbs and rice together in a bowl. With a paper towel, spread a small amount of olive oil in a loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degress for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool 30 minutes. Turn loaf out and slice.

Note: May be served with low sodium ketchup.

I pretty much followed the recipe, substituting oats for the whole wheat bread crumbs. I didn't have VegiZest so I used an organic no-salt seasoning blend I bought from Costco. I also couldn't find arrowroot so I used tapioca flour instead.

I enjoyed this! It was much better than the Quinoa Loaf I had made for Thanksgiving. It actually did form a firm loaf which was great! I ate it plain (without ketchup) but it probably would be good with mushroom gravy too.

Bean-Creamed Spinach
(Lorna Sass, Short-Cut Vegan)
4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil [omitted]
1 cup coarsely chopped onions
1 3/4 cups cooked navy or cannellini beans or 1 (15-ounce) can navy or cannellini beans, drained (rinsed if nonorganic)
1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach
1 cup water
1 tablespoon instant vegetable stock powder
2 teaspoons dried dill or 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Sauté the onions for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add the beans, spinach, water, stock powder, dill, and salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.

Break up the block of spinach with a fork and stir well. Cook until the spinach is tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Puree the mixture with an immersion blender (or transfer in small batches to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth).

If the creamed spinach seems too thick, thin slightly with lemon juice, which will sharpen the flavors, or with water. Season with pepper to taste. Depending upon the consistency, serve either in small bowls or on plates.

This was a winner too. It doesn't tasted exactly like real creamed spinach (yuck) but that's okay because I detest creamed spinach anyway. I wanted a dish I could take to the family gathering that didn't look too strange - especially since I already brought my loaf! Heh. I told everyone it was "creamed spinach" (leaving off the "bean") part and no one said anything to me. I'm sure they weren't fooled but they probably didn't guess that it was beans that provided the creaminess.

Lemon Lentil Soup

2010-12-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

I had a couple of duds last week and didn't want to post them but this one is a winner! I wasn't expecting it, since the list of ingredients didn't sound like it would be, and I was anticipating yet another bland soup. But this one was (1) quick (no pureeing in a blender!) and (2) delicious.

Because I like to make things in large quantities and freeze them, I doubled the recipe. It made a good amount, but I'm not sure about "12 servings." Maybe 12 1-cup servings? I ate more than 1 cup last night. :) When it came time to put the red lentils into the pot, I realized I didn't have 2 cups of red lentils. I had a little more than 1 cup. I filled the rest of the cup with brown lentils and when I ran out of those I added some split peas into the mix. The only other change I made was to use dandelion greens instead of bok choy. When (yes, I said "when" and not "if") I made this next time, I will add more greens -- it could use a lot more.

This soup is chunky, hearty, slightly sweet from the carrots and has a great flavor from the combination of ingredients. The recipe can be found here (you have to be a member at Dr. Fuhrman's website to view).

Thanksgiving recipes

2010-11-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

Food is always a huge affair at my family's household. This year, I made sure I bought dishes so I wouldn't feel deprived during the holiday. I made and brought the following to dinner:

Quinoa Loaf with Mushrooms and Peas (Whole Foods Market)

This was a disappointment. It wasn't bad, just a little bland. My "loaf" also did not stick together at all, so we had to scoop into the pan and dig up the mixture. It wasn't the end of the world, but it was a little embarrassing!

I followed the recipe exactly, except sticking with the ETL guidelines, so I didn't use the olive oil to saute the mushrooms (I water-sauteed) and did not use salt. It tasted like a quinoa grain salad, and although it had plenty of "goodies" in it, I didn't seem to taste much of it. Some people tried it and told me they liked it, but I'm not sure they weren't just saying that to be polite! In the end, I was happy to have a main dish that I could eat without guilt, but I am not sure I would make this again.

Kale with Caramelized Onions and Walnuts (I made this one up)

2 large onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 small bunches of kale (about 2 lbs), de-stemmed and chopped roughly
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

In a large pan, water saute the sliced onions until soft (about 10 minutes). Continue to cook the onions on low heat, stirring every so often. Eventually the onions will caramelize - it took about 25 minutes for me.

In a large pot, steam the garlic for a few minutes in a little water. Add about 1/4-1/2 cup water and add the kale, gently steaming for about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Combine the steamed kale and caramelized onions, tossing to combine. Mix in 2 T apple cider vinegar and top with walnuts.

This turned out surprisingly good and was easy to make. Even the non-vegetable eaters had some of this. Will make this one again.

Green Beans Almondine (Dr. Fuhrman)

The recipe can be found here (second one down).

This was a simple recipe green bean recipe that I felt much better making over the usual canned mushroom soup fried onion concoction (I have never made that recipe!). I thought it would taste a bit more "almond-y" but it didn't. I even invested in the $8+ almond oil (found it at Whole Foods) and it didn't taste like almonds. I love green beans so I enjoyed it and I think most people at the table found it acceptable.

Raw Apple Crumble (McDougall newsletter)

This one was getting praise on the forums at Dr. Fuhrman which convinced me to try it. I made it as specified, but doubled the recipe. It made a TON! I covered an entire 9x13" glass pan. I used organic Granny Smith apples and liked that because of their tartness and ablity to hold up. I made this recipe the day before, saving the topping in another container. It held up fine in the fridge.

I think most people were weirded out by the "raw" aspect of the dessert but tried a little. The sugar-holic BF told me it was "too tart" and went for the pumpkin pie. Another relative said it was good and was surprised to hear there was NO sugar in it. It is only sweetened with dates.

I thought it was good, and tasted close to a real apple crumble, but not exactly. :) Still tasted "healthy" to me. But I much rather preferred eating this to the other sweets on the table.

Overall, even though I spent a few hours making all these dishes and they weren't as good as I hoped, I was pleased to have plenty to eat among the deep fried turkey, ribs, potatoes, bread, pumpkin pie, and other traditional dishes that were offered.

140.6

2010-11-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

What an experience! The days leading up to the race were a mix of chaos, relaxing, and lots of waiting in line. With well over 2300 athletes preparing to compete at the Ironman on Sunday, there was a lot of energy in Tempe.

I won't bore you with the pre-race details so here is how the actual race went:

swim: I was told to start at the front because I'm a strong swimmer and by starting in the front, I wouldn't have to fight my way through people to pass them. However, I could see all of the men lining up at the front (they wore different colored caps than the women) and that made me nervous since they can be stupidly aggressive. I overheard one guy behind me say he was also told to start at the front because he is a fast swimmer but that he did that last year and STILL got swum over! That pretty much sealed the decision for me. A lot of people also start out way too fast, even though this is not a short distance (2.4 miles). They can't sustain that pace for more than 50 meters and in their excitement and madness, they swim over people. Happens every time!

I started out in the middle when the gun went off and wasted some time fighting people to pass them as expected. At least I didn't get swum over though! There seemed to be no shortage of bodies and hands grabbing at me. It didn't clear up until almost the turn around buoy. I was feeling that my pacing was okay, but was looking for someone to draft off of. A woman swimmer passed me, and she looked like a good candidate so I stuck to her for a while. It was going pretty well and I could tell we were moving quickly until some kayaks signaled that we were off course and needed to turn right! Oops. I dropped her after that, wanting to navigate on my own. There wasn't much of the course left and I swam into the finish stairs easily. My swim time was just over an hour, which is okay, but I think I could have done just a little better. :)

bike: I started relatively easy since I knew it was going to be a long day. I felt fine the first hour, but shortly after started to have bad stomach cramps. I hadn't felt anything like this before and couldn't figure out how to make them go away. I finally ended up stopping at an aid station to stop cycling and see if they would stop. They didn't. Was my HR too high? I stayed there for almost 10 minutes (my HR definitely dropped by then) but they were still there. I had some food and decided to try spinning easy. I cycled slowly and started getting panicky because I didn't think I could finish 70+ miles feeling like this. I didn't want to pull out at mile 30-something but was feeling that this might be a possibility.

Thankfully, the cramps did eventually go away, but very slowly, and after mile 50! I felt okay for a while, but the cramps came back two more times later, although to a lesser degree. I have a feeling this had to do with my fueling plan (probably not enough calories).

The weather wasn't helpful either. Wind and rain made the conditions tough. But even though this made it harder, I preferred this over blazing heat. By the third loop, I was ready for the bike leg to be over. By then, I was finally feeling okay, which showed in my time, since my last bike loop was the fastest. My final bike leg time was probably 30 minutes longer than it should have been, which I am not pleased about. However, I didn't have to pull out and am glad my stomach finally cooperated!

run: I took my time in T2 to get ready for the run. I started the run off steady but felt surprisingly good! I felt fresh on the first half of the run, and kept having to tell myself to slow down, since I knew I had a long way to go.

I didn't have any "goal run time" in mind, but I did want to see if I could run the entire thing, no matter how slowly. I felt like I was doing well after the first 2 laps (~16 miles), and thought if I could feel as good as I was feeling on those first 2 laps, I'd be doing great! I thought about how the longest run I'd ever done in my life was 14 miles and that I was going to run 12 more than that. It seemed overwhelming so I pushed those thoughts away and just concentrated on getting to the next mile marker.

Around mile 17, the pounding really started to get to me. Most of the course is on concrete and my feet really started to HURT. It was weird because I didn't feel aerobically tired, but my feet really hurt! At one point, I thought I had a rock in my shoe, so I stopped to check my shoe for the rock. I couldn't find one, and accidentally touched my foot and found it must have been a blister. Ouch. I walked a little after that, which was also painful, and now my pace was a very sloooow walking pace. I decided it was going to hurt walking or running so I might as well run and get my pain over with.

Those last 6 miles were tough. I looked at my watch and was motivated that if I kept running, I could finish in less than 14 hours. That seemed like something to shoot for and gave me focus. It looked like I was going to make it once I reached mile 25, even though by this point, I was "running" super slowly! I finally reached the long finish chute and I saw my coach and other friends cheering me on. That was really awesome! My final run time was a little over 5 hours, which I'm happy about because I was able to run mostly the whole thing -- with the exception of walking though the aid stations and when I thought had blisters.

There was no better feeling than crossing that finish line and hearing, "You are an IRONMAN!" I was quite emotional afterward. I did it!

I trained for this, I'm ready

2010-11-18T07:05:00.000-08:00

My good friend and coach says you need a mantra to get you through race day. I did the 98% -- I'm ready. I don't have any specific goal time in mind. I didn't want that pressure. I want to finish, and finish feeling as good as one can feel doing an Ironman.

We leave for Arizona today. Bring it!

Dream of Tomato Soup

2010-11-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

I've been watching tasty videos from Chef A.J. and Julieanna Hever recently. Their excellent show, The Chef and the Dietitian, features recipes that are fully ETL-compliant and contain no oil, sugar, or salt.

I made their Dream of Tomato Soup tonight for dinner. It was really, really easy and tasted great. I'm still trying to get over my salt addiction and this really did satisfy my salty cravings.

Here is the recipe from the video:

Dream of Tomato Soup

1 lb tomatoes, cut in half
2 red bell peppers, roughly chopped
2-3 cloves garlic
fresh basil
1 lemon, juiced
3-4 sun-dried tomatoes, not in oil
1/2 tsp chipotle powder [I omitted because I didn't have any]
up to 1 cup hemp seeds, or other seeds/nuts (optional)

Blend all ingredients except the seeds in a high powered blender (e.g. Vitamix) until smooth.

Blend the seeds, if using, into the soup to make it creamy.

Makes approximately 6 cups.

I found that without the seeds/nuts, the soup seemed creamy enough and tasted fine. But a little fat increases the absorption of nutrients better, so I added about 1/2 cup of cashews since I didn't have any hemp seeds. This lightened the color and made the soup a little richer.

I used a Vitamix but it didn't heat the soup up enough to steam like in the video. I gently heated my serving after it was done, but it would probably still taste good at room temperature.

You know you're training for Ironman when ...

2010-11-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

... your kitchen counter looks like this:

... your snack foods resemble this:

... and you look like this every Sunday afternoon!

2 more weeks!

What do you feel like doing?

2010-10-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting conversation with a friend yesterday. She works with women as a coach and is currently working with a woman who has lost over 120 lbs. In the beginning, it was both overwhelming and difficult to get started. The woman was unmotivated and feeling hopeless. Even though she had been given a plan to help get her started in fitness and healthy eating, she wouldn't follow through with it.

Her: [sigh] I didn't get in the exercise you asked of me.

Coach: Why not?

Her: I don't know, I just didn't feel like doing it.

Coach: Didn't feel like it? Look, you need to take your feelings out of this and just do it. There are lots of things we do everyday that we don't "feel" like doing. It doesn't matter whether you feel like doing it or not. You have to do it.

She's right. We do plenty of things everyday that we don't feel like doing. Who wants to get up early in the morning? Who wants to go to work? Who wants to brush and floss their teeth?? But we do them anyway.

If you took out a sheet of paper and divided it in half, listing on one half the things you felt like doing and on the other, the things you didn't feel like doing, what would it look like? Sadly, I think most of us would have a list where the things you didn't feel like doing far outweighed the things you did. But we still keep doing that which we don't want to do. Why? Because it's life! Because of some future pay-off. Because my future self wants that healthy, lean body. Because she wants a paycheck. And because she wants gleaming teeth. :)

That Crazy Girl on the Treadmill

2010-10-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

That would be me. This morning. 5 am. Did you see me there? I was the one running non-stop. People came by and joined in, doing their walk/run, but then they left. Rounds of people came. And they looked over at me. With the water bottles, discarded gels, and drenched towel. Step, step, step... focus, focus, focus.

TWO HOURS. Two hours!!! The treadmill doesn't even allow you to go that long. The LED display only has enough digits for 99 minutes so at that point, it turned off and I had to reset it to start again.

I felt surprisingly good. There might be something to this theory that eating more during training will help you perform better. I managed to get down 2 gels and 1 bottle of the Powerbar drink. It started tasting nauseatingly sweet near the end and I had to chase it with some water afterward though. My fellow triathlete friend D (who is very fast BTW) says she would have tried to get down 3 gels, but this was pretty good for me.

I could barely walk after I was done. Just think, by this point in the race, I'd already have swam 2.4 miles and biked 112 miles. And I'd STILL have to run 13 more miles! YIKES.

Practicing race fueling

2010-10-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

I haven't been ETL-ing as well as I would like. About a month ago, I had a discussion with my triathlon coach and some of the others in group also doing IM next month. The coach stressed the importance of fueling properly. He said that the more we eat while we race, the better we'll do. He gave us a formula to calculate how many calories to try to get per hour during the race. It worked out to about 200 calories/hour for me. 200 calories! That seems like a lot. I barely get 200 calories in 1.5-2 hours of training. I've always had stomach sensitivty and distress during races too (which rarely happens in training) so I'm a little worried about trying to eat so much in such a short period of time plus with stuff I'm not used to.

The coach also told us not to rely on our "special needs" bag since anything could happen and there is a possibility we won't have access to it. So although this doesn't jive with ETL, I've decided to try training with the stuff that will be used on the course - namely, Powerbar products. This way, I won't have to rely on my special needs bag and won't have to carry a bunch of special items with me. I can just grab what is at the aid stations because that is what will be there.

I purchased a few boxes of Powerbar gels and the powdered drink they'll have available. I refuse to do the bars because (1) I don't do solids well while racing and (2) they contain HFCS.

I hope my body tolerates this junk.

I want my girlfriend back.

2010-10-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

Those words were uttered last week by the Boy as I dashed off to yet another early morning training session. I received a new schedule from my coach and now comes the loooooooooong stuff. This weekend I will do my first 5 hour training ride followed by a run, and then on Sunday, an hour swim followed by a 2 hour strength interval bike ride. Tomorrow morning is my first "long-ish" 2 hour run. This is after we ran hard today at the group track workout.

But as my friend K told me today,

Suffer now, suffer LESS later.

So true. :) We are both doing IM AZ next month and she has been a real inspiration to me. She coaches beginner triathletes and this is her first Ironman as well. We've been running a lot together, which has been good for me. I'm the "slow" one in the group and usually never have anyone to run with. So I'm stuck most times by myself which is hardly any fun or motivating. She joined the group specifically for IM training back in July and is just about the same speed as I am in running.

During today's run, she said it was too bad she wasn't a faster swimmer or we could try to race with each other the entire time. How great would it be to have someone to run with during the most grueling part -- the marathon -- at the end? Who knows, I think she'll catch me on the bike so maybe there is a chance...

I thought I would have more free time now that my class ended but it looks like I will spending most of it exercising.

The Mt. Whitney Day Hike

2010-09-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

Brutal! The trail itself wasn't too difficult -- just LONG -- and the altitude past 12,000 ft affected me. Fatal mistake: not spending enough time to acclimate. We originally had planned on spending 3 nights at Whitney Portal (8200 ft) before starting the hike to acclimate but we were unable to get a campsite for all of those days and had to plan accordingly. BF planned the trip and after having gotten the permit in February for a September hike, found that mostly everything was full in early July when he looked! I didn't realize it was that popular. What we ended up doing instead was staying 1 night in Bishop (4200 ft) because all the hotels in Lone Pine and Independence were full and spending one night at Whitney Portal. In reality, we got to Whitney Portal in the late afternoon and since we planned on starting the hike in the early morning, we really only spent about 12 hours at 8200 ft.

NOT ENOUGH.

After we picked up our permits and checked into the campsite, we were informed that there was "high bear activity." The ranger told us that we were not allowed to open our bear lockers after dark and that we needed to store anything scented in there (food obviously, but also cosmetics, and even dirty laundry). She said that some bears had been following hikers and that if you set your pack down, a bear might steal it since they associate them with food. There was even a report of a bear growling at a few hikers. Yikes! I was really nervous about this, especially since we would have to grab our packs and food in the dark before the hike at 3 am.

We woke up at 3 am and started hiking by 4 am. The weather was mostly pleasant throughout the hike, ranging from 40-50 degrees. We used headlamps and started at an easy pace. I thought 4 am was early but glancing up, we could see scattered groups of flickering lights along the side of the mountain. I later heard some people had started at midnight! The first two hours in the dark were uneventful... one foot in front of the other... we barely spoke to each other and the sound of footsteps became meditative. By the time we reached Outpost Camp (10,400 ft) the sun had risen and we could see our surroundings. We are slow hikers and were passed by many. I already started feeling the high altitude towards Trail Camp (12,000 ft) which is only the halfway point (6 miles in). We had planned on refilling our camelbaks at Trail Camp using an advanced water purifier. Some advanced system... it didn't work! BF had tried it back home and it did, but we tried it at least a good 5 times before giving up. At this point, I was already thinking, "Oh well, no water... I guess we can't continue on..." Hah.

Luckily (or unluckily for me), some nice hikers let us borrow their water pump and we were able to get 2 more liters of water. Next up, were the "97 switchbacks" to the Trail Crest. Everyone had told me these were horrible, but they were surprisingly not as bad as I thought they would be. I ended up counting them, which I liked, as it gave me something to focus on and break up the work in chunks (just like in swimming!).

I had been having some negative thoughts up to this point, and later told BF that I would have been perfectly fine with turning around earlier and having to face everyone saying that we didn't summit. That is how bad I was feeling. But when we got to the Muir Trail junction and a hiker who had come from the summit told me, "Almost there! Just 2 miles to go!", I felt renewed. 2 more miles? Who can't walk 2 more miles?! That's nothing! Worse case scenario - it will take us 2 hours.

Oh how wrong I was.

Those last 2 miles to the summit were miserable. Parts of the terrain were rough - boulders and loose gravel - which just made for slow travel. The altitude started to affect me a lot by this time and I had to take frequent breaks. I had a pounding headache and was starting to feel a little nauseous.

We finally reached the summit at 2:30 pm (told ya I was slow!) and checked out the impressive view. We ate a bit, signed the register, took some photos, and then started the 11-mile hike back to Whitney Portal.

I already knew we'd be hiking in the dark again but I had no idea it would take us as long as it did. By the time we hit Trail Camp (halfway down), it was almost 7 pm and the sun was starting to set. Shortly after, it was dark again and we were back to using our headlamps. Mine started fading (I think the battery was dying) which meant I now had to walk in front so BF could help shine light for me.

By this time we were tired and cranky. In retrospect, it would have been nice to look at the stars and soak it in, but I wanted to be finished as soon as I could. My feet were achy and my headache hadn't gone away. There were other hikers on the trail still which was comforting at least and we even passed a couple going UP around 9 pm! Maybe they were trying to reach the summit for sunrise?

We finally, FINALLY!, reached the trailhead at Whitney Portal around 10:30 pm. What a grueling, long day! That was the longest hike I've ever done to date in time (18.5 hrs), distance (22 miles), and elevation (14,500 ft). It took us all of 10 minutes to change and jump into the tent for a snore-fest. Although I'm glad I did it, and I suppose it is some kind of "accomplishment", I feel that is one hike I will never need to do again. :)

Hiking and Camping ETL-Style

2010-09-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

I ended up packing too much food for the 4 day trip, but I didn't want to be hungry and cave into SAD food, so I was prepared! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had been borrowing a friend's dehydrator to make travel-friendly camping food. As far as the dehydrator goodies went, it was a success all around! I did a lot of experimenting and attempted dehydrating lots of vegetables. This is what I tried:

vegetable	instructions	notes
green beans	Dumped a bag of frozen green beans on the trays	crunchy! I like them on their own but they might be good with some garlic or other spices mixed in.
peas	They were too small to fit on the trays (they'd fall through) so I put foil over the trays and then poked small holes in the foil to allow the air to flow through. Used petite frozen peas from Trader Joe's with zero seasoning.	Tasted as expected - like dried peas!
red and yellow peppers	Sliced red and yellow peppers into thin strips, then put them in the dehydrator plain	Crunchy and tasty! Good on its own without seasoning if you like eating sweet peppers plain (I do)
onions	Diced an entire yellow onion and put the pieces onto the trays directly	It made the house smell nice (if you like onion!) but I wouldn't do this one again. I realized later I can easily buy dried onion at the bargain stores for cheap so it's not worth the effort.
kale	De-stemed and roughly cut without seasoning	Didn't make these for snacking but for soup mixes so I didn't try them plain

I ran out of time, but I had also wanted to try carrots, tomatoes, and beans. In the end, I used the dried vegetables to make my own soup mixes. These are the two I made:

Soup Mix 1

dehydrated onion (can also use dried)
garlic powder
kale (crush and crumble with hands)
dried sliced shiitake mushrooms from Asian market
zucchini chips
dehydrated peas
spice mix from Penzey's

Soup Mix 2

kale chips (curry-flavored)
sundried tomatoes, chopped
garlic powder
dehydrated peppers, cut into smaller pieces with scissors
zucchini chips

They were both great! The curry flavoring on the kale chips was enough to flavor the rest of the mix in the second soup mix. When it came time to eat, I used a Jetboil to make hot water, added the water to some of the mixture, and let it sit for a few minutes. It was great comfort food.

I also brought an array of other things to supplement the dried stuff:

canned no-salt beans, apples, bananas, homemade larabars, nuts and seeds, dried figs, zucchini chips, bag of frozen vegetables, roasted garbanzo beans, baby carrots

We stayed in a hotel the first night, which had a microwave and fridge, so I had a dinner meal of frozen vegetables and beans. BF had Jack in the Box. On the trail, I consumed homemade larabars, figs, brazil nuts, and roasted garbanzo beans. I didn't take any dried vegetables with me and think that was wise because since I was burning so many calories, I need to replenish them quickly, and eating the massive amounts of vegetables necessary to get that many calories would have taken a really long time. We're already slow hikers and didn't want to take longer breaks than we needed. The other meals (in the car) and at camp were the soup mixes, combined with some baby carrots, canned beans, nuts or seeds, and an apple. Surprisingly, I didn't feel as hungry as I thought I would (all the fiber?) and was able to stop eating with what seemed like very little food (and I was satisfied!).

I'm happy with how I did on the camping trip. In the past, I've caved and claimed it was "too hard" to eat this way on the road but it wasn't really a problem this time. Even with my SAD-eating BF eating fast food for almost all of his meals! With a little extra prep and planning, even I was able to stay true to ETL (so you can too :) ).

Not Your SAD Potato Chips

2010-09-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

As an alternative to potato chips, I tried making different vegetable chips in the dehydrator.

First up: Zucchini Chips

I sliced up zucchini using a mandoline and put them in plain into the dehydrator. Incredibly easy! It took all of 10 minutes from start to finish for 4 zucchinis and 6 trays worth (about 6 small snack bags). They don't need any flavoring because when dried, they have a naturally salty taste.

I put these in before going to sleep and let the dehydrator run overnight. By morning, they were dried, crispy, and yummy! It's no potato chip but it's a nice alternative. At least I can eat them guilt-free. :)

Next up: Kale Chips

I've made kale chips before using the oven, but this one from BeStrixed using a curry-flavored sauce intrigued me. It was a little more involved since the dressing had to be made (10 minutes), plus the kale had to be prepped (washed, de-stemed, chopped) (10 minutes), and then dressed (5 minutes). 10 + 10 + 5 = 25 minutes of prep time.

My dressing came out fairly thick and I didn't have a large enough container to mix the entire 12 ounces of kale with it, so I ended up mixing the dressing with my hands in batches of kale, which is probably why it took longer.

These were messier in the dehydrator and I did these overnight again (they were ready by morning). They were delicious! Better than a greasy, overly-salted potato chip! And a great way to get in some extra greens...

Notes: I couldn't find dino kale at the market that day and ended up using regular curly kale... which seemed to make the dressing a bit harder to cover - all those curls! I also found the resulting "chip" quite delicate and since dino kale leaves are typically thicker, they probably would hold up better.

I also ended up with a bit more dressing than kale when I was finished, so I bought some collards to try instead of the kale since the leaves tend to be thicker. Still delicious!

Preparing for Whitney

2010-09-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

In less than a week from now, I'll be attempting to climb Mt. Whitney. It will be grueling, judging from the way I've done on all two of the practice hikes I've finished. I've discovered I am a slow hiker. Besides the hikes, I haven't been doing anything special to train for it, except for of course, the background training I'm doing for Ironman. The Boy suggested I make friends with Mr. Stairmaster but I barely have enough time to juggle everything else so it didn't get done. I'm not so worried that I won't be in good enough physical shape to do it though. I'm more concerned about the altitude. I've never been up that high before and have no idea how it will affect me. The highest training hike we did was Mt. San Gorgonio which was "only" 11,5K ft -- certainly not 14.5K!

Because we'll have to camp for a couple of days before the hike, I've been tinkering with food to bring. I borrowed a friend's dehydrator for the projects and have been trying to dehydrate all kinds of vegetables. My plan is to make some kind of dried soup mix that I can add hot water to and have for meals. I suppose I could bring canned soups, but those are usually filled with salt and never have enough greens in them. These dried soup mixes will also be very light which is a plus while camping, even though we won't have to carry our meals with us since we'll be attempting to do the entire hike in one day.

Other things I'm thinking of bringing on the actual hike include:

dried fruit (figs, raisins)
nuts and seeds (raw almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds)
homemade "larabars"
roasted chickpeas
baby carrots

I noticed I easily tired of eating sweet items on the previous hikes so I'm trying some savory things to mix it up. I'm also trying to stay away from commercially processed "energy" and granola bars. So many of them contain soy isolate protein, including my favorites (Clif bars). Oh well, that's why I make my own!

Truth in Numbers

2010-09-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

I weighed in finally yesterday morning: 121.0 lbs. That is certainly more than when I was doing well so the frequent indulgences and lack of caring is showing itself. A great quote I read somewhere said that your body is the result of the decisions you made in the past. Likewise, the body you have in the future is the one based on decisions you make now.

Upping the Goal

2010-09-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

I forgot to report my DirectLife status for the week. Because the DL website asked me whether I wanted to increase my goal since I was consistently meeting it every week, I said, surrrrrrrre, why not? Now my ultimate goal is 1273+ cals/day, which according to my coach, would put me at a level 6. That seems awfully high but why not aim big? I figure I am burning on average 700-800 cals/day in exercise (sometimes way less, sometimes a lot more though) which would mean I would have to work for the additional calories burned.

This was the first week that I had the higher goal (1108 cal) and also the first week I didn't meet it. I got to 99% this week and was just shy of it. Boo. I hate not meeting goals! So obviously I will try harder this week. :)

I have a feature on my workout watch that lets you set an event timer (counts down to a specific date). Since IM is really my goal, I put it in a few months ago. I just looked at it yesterday and it said: 75. 75 days until Ironman! That kind of freaked me out. I am not feeling any more ready, mostly because the big volume increases haven't started yet.

Also, I am definitely NOT where I want to be weight-wise for this race. I really need to lean down for this and losing these last 10 lbs would help SO much. It irritates me to no end that I've been trying to do this for so long. I just want this to be done and over with so I can stop obsessing and feeling bad about my weight. It's time to get serious and just DO IT. I "do it" with everything else -- especially exercise -- I can't see why this should be any different!

I picked up some batteries for my scale so I'll finally know the damage (or not?) when I weigh in. That's right - time to weigh in, stick to the plan, and finish this.

I should catch you up

2010-08-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted anything. Between work, increased training, and now this evening class (that includes a surprising amount of homework!), I barely have time to do much but log onto PT and report my food and exercise.

So let's see... when we last left off, I was going through the assessment period with the Philips DirectLife activity monitor. I was assessed at a Level 3. This equated to "Elizabeth", who is moderately active and plays tennis for an hour twice a week. I thought the monitor grossly underestimated my activity. Vigorous exercise for 1 hour twice a week?? In reality, I'm doing about 14.5 hours per week of exercise with maybe 30% of that being high intensity.

Based on that information, the goal set for me was to increase my daily activity rate to 975 calories/day in 12 weeks. I will gradually increase the calories burned weekly. I'm 2 weeks into the program now and the first week's target was to burn 829 calories/day and the second week's target was to burn 843 calories/day.

Week 1 I burned on average 995 calories/day which was 122% of my target and week 2 I burned 1124 calories/day which equalled 136% of my target.

Hah.

It's not much of a goal if I've already surpassed the 975 calories "ultimate goal" in the first 2 weeks! It hasn't been too difficult to make the daily calorie goals. Though I don't always meet it, I end up burning huge amounts on longer training days which makes up for it since they take the average over a 1-week period. I admit that carrying the monitor around is somewhat motivating. I take it out at various times in the day to check my progress. However, since I know I won't have any problems meeting my quota for the week, I'm not particularly motivated to increase my daily activities, which I think is the point of the program.

I corresponded with my DirectLife coach, Erin, via email. I discussed my goals (Ironman + lose 10 lbs) but she didn't seem much help there. The coaches don't provide any nutritional or even weight-loss specific advice. They are just there to provide suggestions to increase your daily activities. I am mildly disappointed.

Now if I could find a similar device that works with monitoring food intake instead, I'd be set...

Accountability Tenfold

2010-08-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

Peertrainer is a daily accountability website used for diet and exercise. They have just launched a "Spotlight", which is a team of 16 members who support each other and agree to have their logs viewable to everyone. This particular Spotlight is sponsored by Philips, who is promoting their new DirectLife fitness coaching system. The DirectLife system consists of a small device you add to a necklace, belt, or pocket and wear everyday. The device connects to your computer where you can periodically upload your data to a website which will gather your activity data.

What makes this sponsored spotlight unique is that not only will the other team members support and hold one another accountable, but Philips will provide real coaches from DirectLife that will also review their activity and offer feedback. Accountability is a powerful motivator. When you know that people are watching your food and exercise log, it (usually) changes your behavior in a positive way.

Why am I telling you about the Philips Peertrainer Spotlight?

Because I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the participants!

We received the Philips monitor in the mail last week and I set mine up the other day. The first week is the "assessment period" where you're supposed to wear the monitor with you at all times. It magically calculates your movement and by the end of the assessment period, you're supposed to be given a plan used to get you to your goals.

I am on day 3 of the assessment. Now I hardly notice that I'm wearing the monitor, but initially I was confused on the proper placement. I have it set for "pocket" which means I'm placing it in my pocket, but I don't always have pockets on me when I swim, bike, or run. I emailed the support team at Philips and they responded promptly (a definite plus) and said I could put it in my sock while biking. Not sure how that will work but I'll try it this weekend.

You can view my log and follow me on Peertrainer here. I'm lacia.

Down But Not Out

2010-07-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

I fell off the wagon these past couple of days. I don't make good choices when I'm sleep-deprived, but I really should have been SLEEPING instead of EATING. Nothing to do but pick myself up back again. I don't need to go into the gory details and beat myself up but just get on with it.

I want to get to the place where I am constantly choosing nutritarian foods over SAD. Although I do love nutritarian food, I crave SAD foods also. So many long time nutritarians talk about never going back to SAD because they honestly don't like that food anymore. That's where I want to be.

I think part of my problem is I still have one foot in both worlds. Emily talked about this at the Getaway and emphasized that it's easier to fully commit and have both feet in the nutritarian world. Otherwise you are doing all the work but not getting the results. This really resonated with me. I am doing the work. But I still have a foot in the SAD-world. I won't be able to fully lose my taste for those disease-promoting foods until I completely abstain. I have to commit.

No surprises

2010-07-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

I've started to take an evening class and so far, the schedule is killing me. It's from 6-9 pm Monday evenings and I go there straight from work. Since I wake up at 5 am most days, it ends up being a looooong day. No time to report Beck progress today, but I did want to post a weigh-in: 119.6 lbs.

Same as last week. Oh well...

Beck - Day 24: Deal with Discouragement

2010-07-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

Beck's topic for today is how to keep the momentum going. She talks about how in the beginning of any diet, motivation is usually high but at some point, it begins to get harder. At some point, you will feel overwhelmed and discouraged -- which is perfectly normal, she emphasizes! She reminds you that you always have a choice and says that dieting does get easier (it does?). To help deal with discouragement, she suggests the following:

Read your Advantages Response Card more often. Really?? I feel like I already read this enough... I know all of the advantages I listed by now, in the exact order they're in. But maybe I need to re-write the card.
Add up the difficult hours. This is interesting. Beck points out that most people say that they've had a hard week or tough day but if they really sat down to think about how much time they actually struggled for, it wouldn't be that long. It's probably as little as 20 minutes and a couple of hours once or twice during the week! I'll have to remember this when I complain about my impossible day.
Focus on what you can do today. This is supposed to help from feeling overwhelmed. Instead of stressing out about the future, just focus on today, each meal, each choice.

The to-do list:

I am having a pretty good day today so far. The only thing on my checklist I didn't do was monitoring everything I ate in writing after I finished eating. Somehow I forget to do this more on the weekends. I think I need to put my notebook with my food plan where I eat so I can automatically check off the items after the meal.

I wasn't looking forward to riding 60 miles by myself this morning (it's going to be soooooo boring) but just said, "Oh well..." and did it. And surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. I also didn't want to run afterward, but used the same technique. AND I gave myself credit for doing so!

One good choice begets another... I am finding if I make the good choice of eating healthy foods, I'll automatically want to continue with the next meal. There is something about not breaking a streak with me.

Beck - Day 23: Counter the Unfairness Syndrome

2010-07-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today is another exercise in dealing with feelings of unfairness. Beck discusses how many dieters give themselves permission to eat unplanned food when faced with the sense of unfairness. She emphasizes that life isn't fair and it's important not to dwell on this negative thought and move on. She also offers some excellent tips to change your perspective:

Remind yourself why you decided to diet in the first place. This style of eating is always my choice and eating the ETL-way enables me to eat the healthiest food for my body. I might not FEEL like eating this way when I see other temptations around, but I have to remind myself that this way of eating will reward me more than any Girl Scout cookie could.
Make a mental list of the advantages in your life. When I compare my situation with so many others, I am really blessed. How lucky am I to have access to an abundance of fruits and vegetables when so many others in the world are starving. How lucky am I to even have the freedom to live the kind of life I want. Wow, this really does help me put fairness into perspective.
Create a response card. I copied the one from the book to read when I start feeling like this.

The to-do list:

It was pretty easy today since I had to work a ton of hours which surprisingly kept me busy and not busy eating in a recreational way. Since I had prepared food earlier this week, I already had my healthy meals ready for me at work.

Beck - Day 22: Say Oh Well to Disappointment

2010-07-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

Today deals with disappointment. Beck suggests just saying "Oh well" when faced with something you don't like. The idea is that saying that simple phrase helps you to move on and accept it. It may not mean that you like it, but you're going to move on and stop wasting energy dwelling over it.

Yes, dieting can be difficult and some people have it easier than others, but oh well, this is what I have to do to reach my goals so I'm going to accept it and continue.

I'm going to try to write out the checklists she puts at the end of each day to ensure I'm actually completing all of the tasks for the day.

Today was not great, but now knowing I'll be putting these up, you can bet I'll be trying harder:

Vacation poundage gone - and a recap!

2010-07-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

One week (mostly) back on plan and this morning's weigh-in looked better: 119.6 lbs. Still have more before I get to Dr. Fuhrman's "ideal weight" and these last will be tough, but I'll get there.

I had planned on being back to regular blogging last week but it's been go-go-go! lately for me. One of my team members left for vacation last week and my manager left this week so now it's just 2 of us left to fend for ourselves on my work project. I also started taking an evening class last week that is going to be taking up time (stupid homework!). But the most exciting thing that happened was that I was able to attend Dr. Fuhrman's Getaway last week for one day. It was really inspirational and motivating! One of the lectures he gave on Food Addictions and Weight Loss is available online for viewing at: http://www.drfuhrman.com/live/. Highly recommended!

Beck - Day 21: Get Ready To Weigh In

2010-07-12T21:11:00.001-07:00

Back to Beck with seriousness. I feel renewed and ready to get down to business.

Where we last left off, I was at Day 20. Day 21 talks about stepping on the scale and finding out how I did "last week." Seeing how I took a break and went on vacation, this isn't exactly representative of my Beck skills.

However, the point is to realize how important weighing in is, as a motivator and honest assessment of what is working and what isn't. Beck also makes a point of not wasting time getting upset if the scale does not show a number you like and emphasizing that you wouldn't view a friend less worthy or as a failure if she gained weight. She also has you construct a graph (with a 5 lb goal in mind) to track progress.

So I weighed myself (120.6 lbs), but I realize this week's weigh-in is not too accurate. I'll expect next week's to be more accurate.

Refreshed and renewed

2010-07-12T20:57:00.000-07:00

I had a fabulous time in Hawaii. I didn't overeat, but I didn't stay entirely true to ETL. I expected this, so I'm okay with it. I did manage to eat some very delicious vegan meals though:

fresh coconut!

I drank the coconut water inside and then a child who couldn't have been older than 12 whipped out a machete and went to town on it, scraping out the meat to eat.

vegan tofu wrap (tofu, brown rice, vegetables) - this was probably my fave lunch on the island

I also managed to cook a few times in our condo so I had plenty of veggies and beans.

The last day, I made an orange-pineapple-banana smoothie from fresh fruits I picked up. The blender was no Vitamix but it did the job.

Kauai is awesome for hiking and this we did do! We managed to fit in part of the Kalalau Trail (to Hanakapiai Falls), 8 miles RT, the "Sleeping Giant" hike (4 miles RT), and the Nualolo-Awaawapuhi loop (11 miles).

I checked this morning and I gained... but only 1/2 pound!

It'll be gone before the week is out.

Taking a brief respite

2010-06-30T21:12:00.001-07:00

I haven't been progressing with Beck as I should be because last week I was focused on a triathlon I did over the weekend and next week I'll be on vacation. So because I feel that my Beck skills could use some honing (can anyone say "Make time for dieting"?) I am going to focus this week on improving my skills, enjoy myself on vacation next week, and hit it full force when I return.

I'm not saying I will be giving myself a free pass to let myself eat whatever I want and overeat while on vacation. I just won't be able to sit at a computer, log food, and give the program my attention like I would back home. I fully expect to come back from vacation the same weight when I return.

Beck - Day 20: Get Back On Track

2010-06-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

How ironic, since yesterday I was decidedly OFF-track. I am having a hard time staying motivated. I go through what seems like motivation spurts... super duper motivated for days -- usually a week -- and then the next week, I want to give up. I'm not sure why but I've noticed this distinctly this month. First week of June was great and on track. Second week not so much. Third week was strict and back on track (until Sunday) and now I'm feeling less motivated again. What gives?

Yes, I'm reading all the reasons I'm doing this and I know all of the health reasons for doing so as well, but I really want to eat SAD food. I keep thinking about it. Even though I know how horrible it is for me. And even though I love eating this way too.

So yesterday I struggled and ate pretty well for most of the day, including dinner, but blew it in the last couple of hours before bed.

Since today's task is to get back on track, that's what I'm going to do.... whether I want to or not. So far, I haven't been very hungry. I couldn't eat breakfast even after my morning workout because I was still bloated and full from last night. I went to the gym again at lunch and even after that, I wasn't very hungry. I finally ate a small salad around 2 pm and felt normal hunger around dinner time.

And now I'm going to give myself credit for getting back on track and making my "get back on track" response card.

I still have to figure out this motivation problem...

Beck - Day 19: Stop Fooling Yourself

2010-06-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

I had a jam-packed weekend and was home for just enough time to shower and get ready for the next thing before heading out again. No time to do any Beck. Ironically, I probably could have used the skill highlighted in today's task throughout the weekend! I got off track and now it's time to get back on. No guilt, just moving on so this doesn't become a streak of off-track meals or days.

Today's task is to answer back to the voice of temptation. It's that little voice inside you that reasons, "It's okay to eat this [off-plan food] because ... " Lots of seemingly logical reasons are listed but the ones that I use the most are:

it's a special occasion
it'll go to waste
it's just this one time
I'm upset/happy/angry/lonely/tired

I "fool myself" all the time so this is something that needs a lot of work. Every time I think I can eat something not on my food plan, I need to read the response card I just wrote ("It's not okay to eat this food because...").

I think this may have actually helped today. I'm not feeling particularly motivated since I was so off-track yesterday and was having feelings of "What's the point? I might as well give up now." I even went so far as to get some unplanned food out with the intention of eating it and starting a binge right there.

But I didn't.

I thought about how I was just fooling myself and that I needed to step away and strengthen my resistance muscle.

Whew, that was close.

Beck - Day 18: Change Your Definition of Full

2010-06-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

Building on the skills from the last few days, today's task is to monitor your fullness and stop before overeating and feeling overly full. This is good timing for me since this is something I struggle with. It's interesting that infants intrinsically know when to stop eating and will refuse food when they're full. When did I lose the ability to do that? At some point, eating to the point of feeling stuffed was "normal." It was comforting and felt right.

The great thing about ETL is that I'm finding this is an easier skill to master. I'm not sure why, but it seems easier for me to recognize when I am satisfied on ETL food. Perhaps because the food doesn't contain the addictive qualities of sugar, fat and salt? I admit that I still go into a small panic though. It is odd to be getting full on what seems like not very much food at all. I haven't tallied the calories, but I can't imagine there are much in a large salad of raw vegetables and dressing (ETL-friendly).

Another good day down!

Beck - Day 17: End Overeating

2010-06-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

Today's task is to leave some extra food on your plate that is not on your daily food plan and eat your food while leaving the extra food untouched. Sounds easy enough right? This is for the clean plate eaters who were raised to always finish all of the food on their plates. I know I'm guilty of this. I can remember being reminded constantly of the "starving people" in some country to get me to finish my food. I've gotten better at this over the years though it is something I do have to still think about. I find that a lot of the time, the food tastes so good that I want to keep eating, despite being satisfied.

I practiced this skill today at lunch by overloading my bowl with additional cherries that I planned on eating. There were 5 additional ones that I wasn't supposed to eat. I didn't think this was going to be difficult, but it was interesting to observe the mental thoughts that raced through my brain:

These cherries are sooooo good. I want to keep eating them.

There are only a few more left, I should just finish them off.

Stop staring at me delicious cherries!

I left them on my desk for a while before putting them away and of course, giving myself credit.

I practiced this today at dinner as well, by serving myself some extra food and putting the rest away when I felt satisfied. This is a skill I've only recently begun to exercise. I'm so used to shoving food in my mouth. But it really helps to pause and ask myself what my hunger level is.

Beck - Day 16: Prevent Unplanned Eating

2010-06-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today I'm to write a NO CHOICE response card (done!) and firmly make it a rule to NOT deviate from my food plan (written out last night). We make rules in all areas of our lives (e.g. "I will brush my teeth every day") and the idea is to make sticking to the food plan a "rule." This is supposed to take the internal struggle away from contemplating eating something off the food plan. How many times do you struggle with yourself over whether or not to eat something??

I find myself doing this often, and the struggle was in full force today. The period between 3 pm and 7 pm was especially difficult. I had to read the "NO CHOICE" card at least 3 times! But it did make it easier. I went shopping at the market after work and where usually I would fight with myself over whether or not to buy a little "snack" for the road or something I shouldn't be letting into the house, I just told myself "NO CHOICE" and moved on.

NO CHOICE.
"Stick to the plan. No matter how you feel. No matter what. No excuses."

Beck - Day 15: Monitor Your Eating

2010-06-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

Today's task is to have your food plan written the day before and monitor your food as you eat it. You're supposed to check off the items you ate and write down any unplanned items, circling them for emphasis. This is supposed to happen right after you've eaten, since it is not unusual for people to under report the food they eat. It's easy to forget the bites of your child's food, samples, etc.

This was an easy task for me today and I didn't have any problems. I ended up substituting two items but they were minimal and the calories/nutrients were the same anyway. I think I'm supposed to continue to do this though and I'm not sure for how long...?

Also, it still amazes me how much easier it is to stop eating when I'm satisfied if I'm eating ETL nutrient-rich food. I'm also finding I am getting fuller faster on what seems like not much food.

Did I just jinx myself?

2010-06-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

I wrote that optimistic post last week and then proceeded to have a very bad week where I fell short on my goals.

I think it's time for me to start writing about my progress with Beck. I was trying not to move past a day unless I had mastered the skill for the day, but I find that I'm procrastinating. And, although the first week in June went well, last week was anything but. I knew what I needed to do but was having a hard time staying motivated. I was rebelling and not doing a very good job of keeping myself motivated and talking back to the negative thoughts. I need to get back on track.

Day 14 is about writing down your food plan for the day. I am doing this using a handy iPhone app called Lose It. I like it because I can easily enter meals from the previous day. Since I eat a lot of the same things days in a row, this makes entering food fast. The only thing I don't like about the app (so far) is the lack of options when entering in food. I can look up black beans for example, but the measurements are in 1/4 cup increments. I would prefer they offered the ability to enter in other units, such as ounces or grams. My Net Diary has that feature but I'm so attached to the "previous meals" option that it hasn't been enough to get me to switch over.

I wrote my food plan for today and tomorrow out. It's pretty easy doing ETL. Breakfast? Green smoothie. Lunch? Salad with beans +/- fruit. Dinner? Salad +/- cooked vegetables +/- fruit/sorbet

I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible now.

Oh, and a weigh in

2010-06-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

I weighed in this morning at 118.4 lbs. I'm not sure that I quite believe it and am going to continue weighing daily to see if the number sticks around.

Unfortunately, the body fat number is still quite high.

Something is working

2010-06-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting regularly but am surprisingly doing very well. So well that I'm getting nervous.

After a big holiday weekend filled with social events and two nights of bingeing, I decided on June 1st I was going to kick this awful habit once and for all. That's my #1 goal for the month of June.

It's June 7th and I'm 7 days into being binge-free. I haven't made it past 10 days in a very, VERY long time.

I am still working through the Beck book, but am taking it at a much slower pace. Sometimes I don't have the time to read the next day's assignment and I also want to feel that I've mastered the concepts of the current day before moving on. I am probably at day 13. But a very successful Day 13. I am reading my ARC 2x/day, giving myself credit, and trying to talk back to those negative thoughts as much as possible. I am working on mastering distinguishing between the desire to eat and truly being hungry and using the behavioral techniques to combat cravings.

I think it's working.

On track

2010-05-25T21:16:00.001-07:00

I had a slight slip up on Sunday and Monday night but I didn't let it derail me and I'm back on track. I felt bloated and "off" today from the high intake of salt.

Still doing Beck, although I haven't been detailing the steps here. I've been through these initial steps before so I didn't want to repeat my thoughts. I'll probably start soon though, just as a form of reinforcement.

The coach sent out an interesting email yesterday and then reiterated some of the points today after the workout. It was essentially about how (triathletes) look for answers in the wrong places. They look for external things that they can change easily: a different coach, different bike fit, lighter bike, new gadgets ... but those things are only 10% or less of the equation. It's what we do everyday that really counts. It's putting in the quality workouts, eating a proper diet, getting enough sleep and keeping our stress levels down. That's what will really produce results.

His talk resonated with me because I know I've been there before. I neglect the daily things (especially sleep!) and think about how getting a new bike will make me faster. But I really need to put the time into myself first.

Just Say No

2010-05-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

Five days into Beck and I'm already feeling better. I'm using it in conjunction with ETL and so far, I've been able to talk back to those negative thoughts. Yesterday I did a club race which is always fun but they also always have TONS of food afterward. Not just any food either... it's loads of gourmet pizzas, pasta dishes, and salads from yummy local restaurant. Usually one of the members brings some homemade desserts as well. I can usually resist store-bought desserts (I'm a food snob, ok?) but homemade dessert? It's tough to resist temptation when it is sitting right in front of you.

But I did the race, packed up, and left immediately so I wouldn't be tempted to eat anything. Luckily I wasn't very hungry anyway and I just made myself a healthy dinner when I got home. Today I went to the usual bagel shop with some swim buddies and also managed not to have any bagels. At lunch time today, I skipped the usual pizza (my company always goes out for pizza -- on the company dollar -- on Fridays) AND resisted an invite from coworkers to join them at a nearby sandwich shop.

And then at 5 pm, when I started feeling genuinely hungry, I resisted eating and buying junk food while at the market, even though it meant making dinner at 7:30 and eating at 8 pm.

I am on a roll!

And I'm also giving myself Credit a la Beck. :)

green smoothie: 2 oranges, 1/4 lemon, 1 T flax, 8 oz bok choy
salad: romaine, baby carrots, 1/2 cup black beans, cucumber, green velvet dressing + 1 banana
salad: broccoli, napa cabbage, carrots, sweet pea dressing + fava beans (SO good!) + 1 cup cherries
run: 0:45, weights: 0:45

I need HELP.

2010-05-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

I keep sabotaging myself. I do a couple of days well and then blow it. When I blow it, it becomes a few days of "blowing it" before I can get back on track. I'm so tired of doing the same thing over and over again. Although I understand it a lot better, I haven't actually solved the problem. I have to get tough. I have to work through my issues.

I've decided to go back to Beck. I was in therapy years ago and cognitive therapy helped get me through the tough situation I was dealing with back then. I believe it can help me now. I tried the Beck plan a couple of years ago when I first read the book but didn't follow through. This time, I am going to DO the exercises, whether I want to or not. I am going to talk back to my sabotaging thoughts.

May 11

2010-05-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

My smoothie this morning was bitter and I didn't enjoy it. I wonder if a seed got into the mix. I am feeling much better today and more positive. I was feeling retched Sunday and a little yesterday. I have to remember that I won't be perfect but I can try to do the best I can. This is hard for the perfectionist in me.

I know ETL says "no snacking" but I am having a hard time dealing with the time between lunch and dinner on days that I have a second workout. I typically get hungry around 12-1 pm for lunch but I can't get to the pool until after 6 pm to do the workout, which usually means dinner isn't until 8 pm. I've been having a small snack around 5 pm because of the psychological need but I also wonder if I really need this. 8 hours seems like a long time to go without food and especially when you throw in having to do a workout near the end.

green smoothie: 1 large orange, 1 small apple, 1 T flax, 8 oz kale
salad: romaine, baby carrots, 1/4 cucumber, 1/2 small avocado, dijon pistachio dressing
trail mix
salad: spinach, kale, carrots, with green velvet dressing + 2 servings berries/cherries blend
bike: 0:50, run: 0:30, swim: 1:00

Weekend Update: Camping

2010-05-10T19:41:00.000-07:00

I went camping over the weekend, which was a first for me in many, many years. I was pretty worried about what I'd be able to eat during the trip, especially since I already knew what everyone else was bringing: burgers, sausages, chili (with meat), corn bread, cookies...

I'm pleased to say that I did okay while at the campsite. I brought vegetables to cook, canned beans, chopped salad and fruit. I got some strange looks while eating the chopped salad but I didn't mind. I ended up having some SAD food but it wasn't horrible.

I should have felt good about staying on track (I did) but I have to admit that I messed up shortly after that. On the way back from the campsite, we stopped at a diner-style establishment and had lunch. I don't know what I was thinking but I didn't order well at all.

And then when I got home, it just spiraled downward. I started snacking and eating and eating...

In retrospect, I think I was just TIRED and I was eating to "do something" and stay awake. I was also avoiding doing the chores I had to do because I was tired and didn't have energy. So I ate.

What I should have done is taken a nap and then reassessed when I woke up. Maybe I would have felt more energetic if I had done that. I'm sure I would have at least been thinking clearly.

I'm glad I recognized this (even if after the fact) but today I am feeling physically terrible. I am bloated from the sugar and salt and slightly nauseous. I am not even hungry for food.

May 7

2010-05-07T23:43:00.000-07:00

It's way past my bedtime. Just typing this up briefly before I turn in for the night. I did great today. The big challenge was to not overeat AND not eat non-ETL foods at the work potluck today. I mostly succeeded at that. I had a very small piece of fish that one of my coworkers caught locally. But I didn't eat: burgers, pizza (seriously - who brings pizza to a potluck?!), chips, potato salad, deviled eggs, cookies, pie ...

And - I got in my second workout this evening... usually it's tough to get mentally focused to workout Friday night.

green smoothie: 1 orange, big handful of strawberries, 8 oz mixed collards and romaine, 1 T flax seed
salad: romaine, baby carrots, 1/2 cup pinto beans, 1/2 cucumber, 1/2 small avocado, dijon pistachio dressing + frozen grapes
(work potluck): 1-2 oz white sea bass, edamame, (thank goodness for the veggie platter): snap peas, grape tomatoes, baby carrots
salad (HUGE): broccoli, cabbage, spinach, carrots with 1/2 serving sweet pea dressing + 1.5 cups pinto beans + 8 oz mixed berries and cherries
bike: 1:00, bike: 1:10

Motivating Reason #4

2010-05-06T22:03:00.000-07:00

I got side-tracked when my posts disappeared and I want to finish off these motivating reasons... so here is motivating reason #4:

I'll practice what I believe and prove that ETL works.

I have been trying at ETL for about a year and a half now but haven't completely succeeded. I have had hiccups along the way. I am not the epitome of health. I am overweight and weigh more now than I have in any period of my life. I have high cholesterol. I catch colds frequently. I try not to be "preachy" and tell people why I'm eating this way but when those close to me question my motives I can't help but throw a few things out there... how eating animal protein could lead to cancer, that there is ample calcium in vegetables, that dairy is not a health-promoting food...

I am usually met with either denial or disbelief.

That's fine and I'm not trying to convince anyone, but what really gets me are the persistent observations about myself:

If this is the optimal way to eat then why are you highest weight now?
Why do you have high cholesterol?
Why do you get sick so often?

Because I haven't been doing it 100%! Because I have issues with bingeing! But I can't say that. I am working on those issues.

One of the worst incidents was when someone very close to me -- a meat-eating, fast-food lovin' fan -- pointed out that his cholesterol is the same as mine and that his stomach is flatter. Ouch. Clearly, he was skeptical about ETL.

I am going to prove them all wrong. ETL works.

May 5, 6

2010-05-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

I was at the Boy's house last night and got back too late to log. Definitely some mindless eating yesterday shortly after lunch though. I didn't get enough sleep the night before and I can tell I wanted to eat even though I'm wasn't really hungry. I was just looking for something to do to keep me awake at work. I had also found a fruit and nut bar in my desk drawer around 11 am and quickly consumed it because I was feeling hungry again and wanted something before going to the gym at lunch. I don't feel too guilty because of course it could be worse and I am proud that I still went to the gym. Often, I would have given into temptation and then think that I've already blown it, and continue down the wrong path for the rest of the day (and not exercise)... here's yesterday's food:

green smoothie: 1 orange, big handful of strawberries, 8 oz mixed collards and parsley, 1 T flax seed
fruit and nut bar
salad: romaine, baby carrots, 1/2 cup pinto beans, 1/2 cucumber, 1/2 avocado, dijon pistachio dressing + 3 loquats + 10 Chinese dates
small 1.5 cup salad: broccoli, spinach, cabbage with rest of the orange-peanut dressing; then at Boy's house: 1 can kidney beans + 1/3 bag frozen spinach + 1/2 beer
swim: 0:50, weights: 0:30

We had to run a 5K for the track workout today. That was very tough for me. I got lapped not once but TWICE by the fastest guy. My time was too horrible to even mention. I had a heart-to-heart discussion about it later with the coach. He told me it's all in my head. He thinks I'm not mentally where I should be and that I don't believe in myself. He says he's seen me run fast at practice but I'm not racing like that. I am capable of more. When he said that, I felt like crying.

He wasn't being mean, just honest and trying to be helpful. He gave me some things to work on. Our training group is small so I feel like a lot of times there is no one for me to run with. It is either the older, heavier men or the super fast girls. There are super fast guys as well but they are so far out of my league I hardly see them (except when they lap me more than once!). Coach thinks I should be able to run with the super fast girls. Or at least TRY to. He wants me to chase them down and hang with them as long as I can, even if it means burning out later. So that's the goal... run fast to get fast.

Today's food was not great. No bingeing, thankfully, but lots of snacking and not the right kind. I definitely overate as I feel very full now.

green smoothie: 1 orange, big handful of strawberries, 8 oz mixed collards and parsley, 1 T flax seed
salad: romaine, baby carrots, 1/2 cup pinto beans, 1/2 cucumber, 1/2 avocado, dijon pistachio dressing + 10 Chinese dates
clif bar
Great Greens + 1 cup fresh fava beans + soy crisps (1/2 bag!!!) + a lot of dried fruit
run: 0:50, swim: 0:30

May 4

2010-05-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling much better today but I'm still not sure what happened to me yesterday. I was mostly ETL today, except for the 4:30 pm bagel. I was very hungry and knew I still had to workout and probably wouldn't eat dinner until after 8:00 pm. Part of it was probably psychological... I just don't know if I can wait that long without food. It's silly really. Of course I can wait! And then the other part of me is wondering how I am ever going to be able to exercise while hungry. Another silly thought. I had plenty of food for lunch and should have been fueled.

When I think about it longer though, I probably could have used a little more fuel at lunch time. Maybe a cup of bean soup or some fat. The healthy slaw is just vegetables and an apple.

green smoothie: 1 orange, big handful of strawberries, 8 oz mixed beet greens and parsley, 1 T flax seed
big serving of healthy slaw, about 4 cups
whole grain bagel
salad: romaine, broccoli, carrots, with orange-peanut dressing + Great Greens
bike: 0:50, run: 0:25, swim: 0:45

May 3

2010-05-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

I felt really off this morning and more so in the afternoon. I almost threw up a few times (dry-heaving) but I'm not sure what's wrong. I ended up sleeping immediately once I came home and had a nice 2 hour nap but when I woke up at 9 pm was hungry. At least I feel a lot better. Hoping that was just a weird fluke.

green smoothie: 1 T flax, 1 orange, strawberries, 8 oz bok choy
a large serving of healthy slaw
(very late) at least a lb of cauliflower, cooked with salt-free seasoning
swim: 1:00

Try, try, again...

2010-04-30T18:24:00.000-07:00

I lost/gained nothing in the month of April, even though I didn't plan it that way. I know why and fully accept responsibility. I hate that I am stuck in neutral but it's my own fault. I joined in again on the forums at drfuhrman.com for another month to lose 10 lbs. It won't be 10 for me but I'd be happy with half of that. These are the things I'm going to do:

Post food logs daily. I might not get to it at the end of the night but will definitely update the next day. I will be accountable.
Participate more in the online support groups. I read and lurk a lot but I'd probably do better as an active participant.
Have a daily plan. I generally know what works for me and do well for breakfast and lunch but after work, all bets are off. I am going to make more of an effort to know what "the plan" is for dinner and stick to it.
NO eating at the computer anymore. I keep fooling myself and saying it's okay to eat when it's healthy food, but I still mindlessly eat, which leads to overeating.

It's just 30 days. Who can't do these things for 30 days?

Oops, my posts disappeared

2010-04-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

I didn't intend the break in posting, but was frustrated with blogger when I had drafted some lengthy notes and then poof! Gone. It is my own fault but I didn't feel up to writing everything again so I took a break.

That was a mistake. I ended up off-track. It started on Saturday afternoon and didn't stop until last night. I feel like I keep going through the same good/bad cycles. I am frustrated and discouraged. I'm not sure how to keep momentum going. I know what to do and typically feel motivated enough to eat well for a few days and then... I'm not sure what happens. But once I've gone off-track, I end up thinking I've blown it and should just go ahead and eat everything I've been thinking about for the past few days now. And only when I'm filled with self-loathing and have hit rock bottom am I able to pick myself up again.

I need to work on my mental skills. It's not helpful to let myself spiral downward into despair. I have to catch before it gets to that point. Maybe time to incorporate Beck again?

green smoothie: 8 oz kale and cauliflower stems, strawberries, orange, grapefruit, 1 T flax seed
salad: romaine and kale, 1/2 cup pinto beans, 1/4 large cucumber, 12 baby carrots, 1/2 lg avocado, orange-peanut EFH dressing
green smoothie: 8 oz kale and cauliflower stems, strawberries, orange, grapefruit, 1 T flax seed
swim: 1:00

A Long Day

2010-04-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

I tried to do something nice for a friend by organizing a birthday breakfast this morning for her. The usual gang was invited but NO ONE SHOWED UP! I am somewhat irritated, especially at the two people who told me they'd be there but then bailed at the last minute. Oh well. I had a lovely breakfast with just the birthday girl and myself. She had brought leftover chocolate mousse cake (her actual birthday was earlier this week) from a high-end bakery to share. Fortunately, I was able to get her to pack me a piece to go (which I won't eat) but I wasn't quite able to escape her making me taste a bite of it before she cleaned the knife. It's not a big deal, but I'd rather abstain since things like this only keep the sugar addiction alive.

I wasn't planning on doing a swim workout today but decided to go the pool anyway in hopes of persuading more swimming buddies to come to breakfast. Obviously, I was unsuccessful. Because I've been on a streak this week with getting in all of my planned workouts, I didn't want to break it by swapping a swim and skipping the planned bike workout. So I got up extra early (4:30 am!) to get in both the bike workout and the later half of the swim workout. I am tired. And the only reason I am still awake now is because I'm supposed to pick up friends from the airport tonight. Their plane arrives at midnight.

It was a fairly good day of eating. I was truly hungry around 5 pm and knew I had to go home and do a second bike workout so I ended up rifling through my gym bag to find a snack size clif bar. Not ideal but it did the job.

Starbucks oatmeal with nuts + 1 bite chocolate mousse cake
salad: romaine and Russian kale, 8 baby carrots, 1 cup garbanzos, 1/2 cucumber, orange-peanut EFH dressing + 20 grapes
snack size clif bar
salad of raw veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, 1/2 beet) with sweet pea dressing + rest of the Great Greens
bike: 1:10, swim: 0:30, bike: 1:10

Pseudo-Panics

2010-04-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Gaggia broke down today at work and people were freaking out. It was an all-out panic I tell you. "What am I going to drink?!" "Where's my coffee?!!" For humor, someone removed the machine and replaced it with bottles of Tylenol and Advil. It was funny (to me, at least) but also interesting to see how addicted everyone is.

I slipped a bit yesterday and had a few cookies (whoops) but am back on track today. It was pouring rain this morning so the group run was canceled and I was left to do the written workout Coach had given me. It sounded pretty innocent (simulated "hills" on the treadmill) but after the first set, I was wondering if I'd make it through the whole thing. Also, my iPod's battery died during the warmup which meant I'd be stuck staring at my goofy face in the mirror during the hard part. Usually the only thing that keeps me going on the treadmill is music. What now?! Now who is panicking?

But stuff like this is good for me. It's not like I listen to music during a race. And I got through it just fine.

green smoothie: 1 orange, 5 strawberries, 8 oz mixed cauliflower stems and bok choy, 1 T flax
salad: 1/3 lg romaine head, slice red pepper, 1/2 cup garbanzos, 13 baby carrots, orange-peanut EFH dressing
+ 2 lemon treats
salad: cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage with sweet pea dressing + Great Greens

run: 1:00

Motivating Reason #3

2010-04-22T19:23:00.000-07:00

I'll run and bike faster.

I always think about this as I suffer up hills on the bike and always, ALWAYS during a painful run. Trying running with 2 5-lb dumbbells or a weighted vest. It's a huge difference. The more I ETL, the closer I'll get to my ideal weight, which I'm fairly certain is at least 10 lbs lighter (though probably closer to 15).

I can't wait to be able to keep up better with my training buds.

Motivating Reason #2

2010-04-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

I want to improve my cholesterol.

My cholesterol numbers are not good. I could make the argument that it runs in my family (my mom has high cholesterol) but I don't ever remember having it as a teenager or young adult, and I know diet has a lot to do with it. I ate a somewhat clean heavy-veggie/little sweets diet as a girl/teenager/college student, but somehow after I started working, I developed a sweet tooth -- a strong one. I had been dating a guy at the time who looked fantastic (very athletic) but who also loved his chocolate and sucked me into Sugar Land. In retrospect, I think he had his own body image issues.

Years later and though I'm over him, I am not over the sugar addiction. I also learned how to cook and bake along the way. This has been hard for me since I'm known as "the chef" amongst my family and friends am currently abstaining from those pastimes. I won't even try to cook ETL gourmet items for myself at this point because I'm afraid I will overeat them. I just want things to be SIMPLE right now.

Oops, that was a bit of a ramble. The point is, I can improve my cholesterol eating this way.

Motivating Reason #1

2010-04-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

I don't want to get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, the list goes on...

I want good health! Let's just get the obvious out of the way first. These ailments are serious and they are scary. If there are things I can do to prevent them, why wouldn't I do them?

I refuse to give up on April

2010-04-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

Did I say I was going to start logging my food intake again? I meant starting today. :) Sorry, I was suffering from not-enough-hours-in-a-day syndrome. I get support from two different online groups plus try to blog here which does take some time. But if it will keep me on track, it is worth it.

I can't say I had a good weekend. I binged. I won't go into the details but it wasn't good. Onward though... as of yesterday I'm back on track. I got my workouts in today which is a big deal. I have been living in Slacker City for the past few weeks, skipping workouts and sleeping in. That is very unlike me. I missed 4 of them last week! But now I'm three days in a row of being on track with my workout schedule.

There were a lot of temptations today at work. People bring in food occasionally, but today three different people brought something! And I work in a small company! There were 2 boxes of doughnuts and two different cakes. I was early enough to see the sugar mess. I have to admit that I was very tempted for a moment to take a piece of something. I quickly left the room and didn't come back until everything was gone. My willpower is not that strong but hopefully one day it will be.

I've also decided this week is motivation week. When motivating is waning, it's important to remind myself why I'm doing this. So every day this week, I'm going to list one reason I'm eating this way.

Food for today:

B - green smoothie: 1 orange, 5 strawberries, 8 oz mixed cauliflower stems and bok choy, 1 T flax

L - salad: 1/3 lg romaine head, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 cup garbanzos, 13 baby carrots, orange-peanut EFH dressing + 1 pomelo

D - salad: cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, strawberries, grapes + small serving of Great Greens

Lemon Treats

2010-04-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

I made a bunch of these today and they are excellent. Slightly sweet and crunchy, with a nice lemon flavor. I'm thinking these will be great as hiking or maybe even cycling snacks.

Lemon Treats
(from Whole Foods Market)

1 cup chopped pitted dates
1 cup raw walnuts [I used raw almonds]
1 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut flakes

Place dates, walnuts, sesame seeds, lemon juice and zest in a food processor. Pulse and blend until completely mixed. The mixture will be slightly sticky. With dampened hands, roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls. Roll in coconut and chill until ready to serve.

The recipe says it makes about 18, but I must have rolled mine smaller because I got about 25 20g balls with one extra 15g ball that I sampled. I used an organic meyer lemon that I had which really had an intense lemon flavor.

Stay the course

2010-04-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm doing "okay" but things could be better. While I haven't binged (hurray!) and am "mostly" sticking to the plan, I've been allowing myself little "cheats" here and there. A few jelly beans, a couple of chocolate-covered raisins, some multi-grain chips -- you get the picture.

I did go the the track workout this morning, which is the first one I've been to this month. It was painful. Then again, when is track NOT painful? As D passed me on the run, I mumbled to her, "D, I hate Coach." She laughed and replied, "KJ, I've hated him for YEARS!"

There is nothing like a painful workout to make you swear you won't ever eat any junk food again. I kept thinking there was no way I was going to ruin all this hard work (and pain and suffering) with crap food! Unfortunately, several hours later during the after lunch coma, I had a few of the above-mentioned chocolate-covered raisins.

I think I need to start logging food again for accountability. Boring and tedious -- but it works.

Not a good start to April

2010-04-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

The first part of this month have been hectic with travel and a lot of events going on. Not that those are excuses, but my eating hasn't been as good as I would have liked it. To make things worse, after having finished the race, I haven't been training hard at all and have been taking it easy. I can't remember a weekend that I didn't do at least SOME form of exercise and that describes my entire weekend!

But I'm finally back into the swing of things this week... eating vegetables again and getting back to a normal routine. I didn't weigh on Monday for fear that it would discourage me, but I'll weigh again next Monday.

Curried Eggplant and Peas

2010-04-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Eggplant was on sale for 50 cents each! I dug through pile of "to-try" recipes and found this one from Everyday Food magazine.

Curried Eggplant and Peas
3 medium eggplants, about 1 lb each, cut into 1" cubes
1 10 oz package frozen peas
3 T fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
1 t curry powder
1 t ground pepper

Roast eggplant: Preheat oven to 475. Spread on a baking sheet and roast in oven, stirring a few times in between until golden and tender, about 30 minutes. (The original recipe said to use oil and salt but I simply sprayed with a little cooking spray and they were fine).

Cook 1 package frozen peas (10 oz) according to package. Rinse under cold water and set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (2 limes) with 1 tsp curry powder and ground pepper .

Add Roasted Eggplant from above.

Add 1/2 cup chopped cashews, and 1/2 cup fresh cilantro. Toss and serve.

Toor Dal with Tahini and Parsley

2010-04-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

I found some toor dal the other day at the market at a discounted price. $1.19 for a 2 lb bag. Since dry beans are generally around $1/lb this seemed like a deal! I picked up a bag but had no idea what to do with it. The internet is my friend though and I found this lovely recipe from a blog that looks like it has some fun recipes.

Toor Dal with Tahini and Parsley

I followed the recipe mostly, except I didn't add any salt, pepper, oil (just water-sauteed the onion). I'm not sure what I did wrong, but my dal never thickened to the point of looking like the picture. Oh well, it was still tasty.

April 2

2010-04-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

I started out well today, but didn't do so great in the evening. This morning I was invited, and then pressured, to go to breakfast with my friends after swimming, but they were going to Coco's and I wanted to skip the questions and comments about what I was eating (most likely oatmeal would have been the only choice) while everyone else had eggs and pancakes.

It's hard sometimes because most of my friends are athletic and consider themselves healthy, but their healthy breakfasts are still not what I would eat. For example, in my "healthy", pre-ETL days, I would order an egg white veggie omelet but that obviously has animal protein in it, the vegetables are mere afterthoughts, and it was most likely cooked with oil and salt. I am not at the stage where I feel comfortable bringing my own food or making special requests (maybe one day though!).

For breakfast I had a green smoothie. I didn't enjoy it as much today - not sure why. For lunch I had a huge salad of hardly anything (lots of romaine, baby carrots, 1/2 small avocado, and a lot of a pea dressing (contains seeds)).

Then for dinner, I had another salad, a lentil-based soup, and then proceeded to snack. I had some baked corn chips and a few whole wheat fig bars. They are now out of the house!

I'm determined to have a good weekend - Easter and all.

Garbanzo Bean Salad with Lemon Dressing

2010-04-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

This recipe was printed in the paper recently and when I read it, I realized I had all the ingredients. How often does that happen? I made the salad this past weekend. I ate it during the week, on top of a big pile of lettuce. Here it is with my changes:

Garbanzo Bean Salad With Lemon Dressing
Modified from a Sunkist recipe
4 servings

SALAD
3 (14-ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
5 to 6 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch green onions, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 red bell pepper, chopped,
1 (28-ounce) can green beans, drained and rinsed
Chopped fenne

DRESSING
1 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon cumin
1/4 cup red wine or cider vinegar
Pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine the salad ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients. Toss dressing with salad.

It was good, but I felt like it was missing something (probably salt!) - maybe more lemon or vinegar next time?

Also, it says it makes 4 servings but with that many beans and since I added extras, it was more like 8!

April 1

2010-04-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

It's a new month and I've joined in a thread at the forums at drfuhrman.com to lose "10# by May 1" - although for me, my goal is just 5. Since I don't have as much weight to lose, I don't think it's possible for me to lose 10 that quickly. I'm excited and hoping the accountability and support will really help.

Although I've made a lot of good changes, I still don't feel that I'm there yet. The truth is that I STILL haven't conquered this bingeing problem and have bouts of huge sugar and salt intake. I know that it's mostly a habit for me and that this is the way I've learned to "de-stress" and cope when I'm dealing with hard emotions. Why do I still do it? Good question. I'm still figuring that part out. I think I haven't figured out a better substitute. So part of what I am going to try now are breaking the habit and replacing it with something else.

I weigh in "officially" on Monday.

What I've been up to

2010-03-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

It's been crunch time at work and between that, night classes, and training for Oceanside, blogging took less of a priority. The good news is I had a pretty good race on Saturday! For once, I didn't have any real nutrition issues. I cut my bike time by 8 minutes and my run time by about 12 minutes (I walked a lot last year) and cut my overall time by almost 18 minutes!! I'm glad I shaved off time, but what matters the most is that I felt good and felt I was finally putting my training to use! Hurray!

And the big news is...

I signed up for my very first Ironman!

I am really excited but also nervous!

I've never run more than 13.1 miles in my life and now I'm going to run a marathon? AFTER having biked for 6+ hours? Hmmmm...

I feel really good lately and I'm sure nutrition is playing some part in that.

6 Weeks Completed

2010-03-10T20:45:00.000-08:00

I officially ended my 6-weeks of ETL today, though I can't say I was as strict as I wanted to be. I would say adherence was a mere 75% and that's being generous. I really want to be closer to 95%!!

The calorie-counting experiment has been interesting. I screwed up a bit the first week (binged) but this past week, I was very good at inputting everything into the counter. Plus I weighed myself everyday. I feel like it helps because I am more accountable, having to enter every little thing in. I suppose that's the point of a food log right? :)

Anyway, I must be reporting something wrong - either I am burning more calories than I realize or not eating as much, because I have the program set to lose 2 lbs/week and according to the software I was "over" my calorie budget by 1257 calories last week (yes, I binged 2x last week)... and, I lost 3 lbs last week!!! Sooo, yeah, something is off.

I am FINALLY under 120 again (I'm 119 this morning). This means I lost a whole 5 lbs during the 6 weeks of ETL. Not much, but I also don't have much to lose and I did make plenty of mistakes.

So what now? I never want to be over 120 again. I'm going to keep using the program and counting calories because it seems to be working right now... I'm going to keep plugging away and trying to get my ETL-adherence closer to 100%. I'm going to get closer to my Fuhrman weight goal... AND - I want to stop bingeing once and for all!

Day 39 / 42

2010-03-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

Last two weeks of hard training before the half-ironman race. Today was one hard ride. I was only supposed to ride for 4 hours but because most of the people I rode with today are training for IM Utah, they needed to do a 4.5 hour ride.

"Is it ok if we ride a little longer today?" they asked.

"Sure - if you don't mind waiting for my slowness..."

Everyone I ride with is much faster than me. This is discouraging to me, because I feel bad that I am holding them up. They have to stop and wait for me at specific points. I've told them to go on and that I feel bad that they wait for long periods of time occasionally, but they (well, one of them at least) has assured me it is not a problem. When am I going to get to a point when I'm not the slowest? I just want to be faster than ONE person!

Anyway, today's ride was challenging. We managed to avoid the rain predicted for today, but it was still very cold. We ended up going over our projected time as well which put the total ride time around 4:40 instead of 4:30. Around the 3-hr mark, I almost felt like I was bonking, even though I had been eating the same amount I usually do on this ride. D informed me that we need more calories when it is cold because we're burning more trying to stay warm... hmmm... never heard that one before (anyone know?) but eating at that point did seem to help.

And of course we ran afterward... because we can. :)

One other note - yes, still using processed crap during exercise because it seems to be working for me and I'm scared to try something new this close to a race. But next month, I want to make all intake -- including exercising intake -- ETL if possible.

B - (during ride): 3 GUs, 2 odwalla bars, 1 diluted juice + electrolytes drink

L - green smoothie: 8 oz bok choy, 1 T flax seed, 1 orange, 2 pears, handful of blueberries

D - salad: romaine, 1/2 red pepper, 3 oz carrots, avocado herb dressing + dried persimmons

E - bike: 4:40, run: 0:30

Day 38 / 42

2010-03-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

I had a coupon for a free oatmeal at Starbucks this morning and ended up using it for breakfast. I was worried that it wouldn't fill me up like the green smoothies usually do since there wasn't any vegetables in it (although I have heard of people mixing spinach with their oatmeal, but that is another post...). I'm not sure if it worked because I ended up eating a lot of kumquats and was fairly full. However, I also started feeling a little light-headed around 11 am which was odd. It felt reminiscent of symptoms I used to get when I felt hypoglycemic (I don't get these anymore since being on a nutritian diet).

Also, the other strange thing I've noticed since yesterday is that I haven't been as hungry as I usually am. Yesterday's workout should have definitely made me fairly hungry but I didn't have that ravenous feeling I usually have after a long workout. Unfortunately I still ate the same amount (or more) out of habit, boredom, or [fill in lame excuse] but at least I am more conscious of it now. I will try to make more of an effort to stop eating when I am satisfied.

This weird decrease in hunger happened to me another time when I attempted ETL. I got to a point where I didn't desire as much food. A lot of people on the Dr. Fuhrman forums who are longtime ETL-ers say this has happened to them too. The idea is that your body is flooded with nutrients and doesn't needs as much food... interesting! I hope that is what's happening with me... and I hope I have the sense to heed the signals to stop eating.

B - Starbucks oatmeal with nuts package + 14 kumquats

L - salad: romaine, 1/2 small avocado, 1/2 red bell pepper, 13 baby carrots, 1/2 cup garbanzo beans, casinera's caesar dressing

S - 4 dates before second workout

D - cabbage, peas and green onions + 1/2 frozen banana

E - bike: 1:10, bike: 1:10 (1 in the morning, 1 in the evening)

Food fight: kumquats versus muffins

2010-03-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

This morning there was a pleasant surprise waiting in the work kitchen... a bag of brightly colored, happy-looking kumquats! They smelled heavenly. Posted on the bag was "FREE - from Dave." I took several and ate them with breakfast. I love kumquats! They are tart and sweet and are a great treat.

I emailed Dave to thank him for the kumquats and his response was, "So that's what they were?" I talked with him later and found that his wife encouraged the family to subscribe to a CSA this year because she feels better about supporting a local farm. But they are wasting some of the produce items they don't like and "can't possibly eat that much lettuce." Bring some my way, I say! I'd love to get into the CSA they are in but when I checked back in December, they are full and putting people on a wait list. He says he is entertaining his wife's idea for now but in secret feels it's "rubbish" and will quit as soon as the subscription is over.

About an hour later, someone brought in a huge tray of blueberry muffins into the office. The kumquats and muffins sat next to each other on the kitchen table. Can you guess which choice won out? Within 45 minutes, the muffins were gone and the kumquats were still there.

Oh well - more for me!