06 May 2011

Realizations

My experiment to go without meat yesterday was a raging success. I did not eat breakfast, basically because I wasn't hungry, but I did have a banana around 9:30. Then at 11:30 I had lunch which consisted of a large salad with beans and beets and all kinds of good stuffs. Then around 2 I started to get hungry so at 2:30 I ate my apple. Finally for dinner I had burritos made with ground chicken. Actually, I had one with ground chicken and the other with refried beans. That was it, oh wait, I did have a handful of Fritos and some peanuts, but that was it. I felt pretty darn good and I was in bed by 9:30. Woke up at 4 when the alarm went off and realized I was awake so by 4:15 I was up and I feel good this morning.

The realizations? I think I've been eating way too much food. In spite of the fact that I eat pretty well, I think I've just been eating too much. Also, not eating meat during the day is a good thing. There are all kinds of other things that provide protein, and I'll have to look around to get back up to speed, so eating a little meat just at dinner is fine. I always try to imagine what life was like for the caveman since that's where our bodies come from. I just don't think animals were all that common in his diet. Neither were things like milk. I'm sure they "domesticated" some goats and cows and such, but prior to that animal products were probably pretty scarce. I imagine they even used mud soap since they really had no access to fat to make regular soap. So trying to think like that leads me to little animals products in most days. Of course, they might have access to things like eggs since those were left behind and didn't require hunting down an animal. But things like milk and meat were kind of scarce - at least I would think so. So I'm going to try and focus on eating like that. Meat only one meal a day and lots of fruits and veggies. When I did that before I felt awesome. I had tons of energy and hit my lowest weight, so it's time to give it a go again.

05 May 2011

Where do I go from here?

I'm at a point where I'm not sure what to do.  I plan every night to get up in the morning and workout but that just doesn't happen.  I'm eating pretty well, except for the Snickers and cake on Tuesday.  I feel like a behemoth and my pants are getting tight.  I'm really not exactly sure why as I haven't been going crazy.  Also, I'm tired. Constantly tired. So I'm not sure what to do, I'm really not.  It's the first time I've ever been so completely stymied.  In the past, working out and eating right has always brought me around, but this time it doesn't seem to be working as well.  So maybe it's time for something drastic.  Maybe I should consider some cheap adipex just to get the ball rolling.... IDK.......

In other news, there is a new movie coming out, Forks over Knives, that looks really interesting. The premise of it is that a plant based diet can alleviate many of the medical problems we have today; heart disease, diabetes, obesity, etc. Know I don't know for sure if that's really true, but what I do know is that for a long time I was a quasi-vegetarian in that I would go a few days a week without meat. I did it for health reasons and really liked the way it made me feel. I should clarify my views on vegetarians. I believe, beyond a reasonable doubt, that humans are supposed to eat meat. The teeth we have in our mouths and the digestive tract that we have indicate that we are supposed to be omnivores eating both plants and animals. However, I do not believe that humans should eat as much meat as we do. For most of human history meat has been very hard, or expensive, to obtain, so it was a rarity. Look at the cavemen, only when they killed something did they get to eat meat, and then only for a couple of days until it was gone or went bad. Also, the meat we get is horrible, full of fat and all kinds of gunk that wild animals never have. So eating meat everyday for every meal is completely unnatural - in my opinion. I believe that is also why meat keeps you fuller longer. The human body is not really "used" to eating it so it takes longer to digest and fills you up longer. So, what exactly am I babbling about? Well, I think it's time to go back to skipping meat once in a while. I'm going to try and center my lunches around vegetarian meals. I'm going to reduce the amount of meat I eat at dinner and some nights cut it out completely. Ultimately I want to reduce my intake of meat, sugar and processed food, and considering the way I feel now it's a good time to start.

01 May 2011

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breakfast

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Small steps

For just one day I am going to workout and track everything I eat. Every night I am going to make a to-do list of the things I will do the next day for just one day. No looking any further than the next day. No worrying that my workout calendar I full through most of May. No thinking about the things coming up. Only think about just one day. So for today, and today only, I will:
  • Follow the workout I have scheduled
  • Track everything I eat
  • Clean the birdroom
  • Do the laundry
  • Grade some papers
  • Get ready for school tomorrow
I'm not going to think about the rest of the week or anything. I'm just going to work on today and today only. Small steps.....

Goals

I really haven't set any goals in a long, long time. Of course looking back through the archives I realize that I did this in February. That didn't work out so well but I'm willing to give it another go.

Tomorrow is May 1st and I would like to have a plan for the month. My big goal is to, of course, lose weight but I'm really tired of focusing on that. I want to try it from a little different angle this time. My plan is to focus on the activity and let the eating take care of itself. There will be some limitations on the eating; dessert once a week, on free meal a week, use the small plate for dinner, and have a salad with every lunch. Nothing earth shattering, just some common sense stuff that will help me stay on track.

As for the activity part, I plan to attack that on 2 fronts. First, I really want to work out more and I want to start running. In the mail today I got my Women's Running magazine and I was leafing through it. They have a training plan for a beginner's 5k. Initially I thought that I would do the intermediate plan but I caught myself. I am not in the shape I think I am so I am going to pretend that I have never run before and start doing it like I'm brand new. The program is 8 weeks until a 5k but the first 5k I can find is 15 weeks away. So I'm thinking I will do the beginner program and then work my way into the intermediate program and be almost done with that before my race. Start slow and take it really, really easy.

For the working out part, I only have 5 weeks left of school. There is no reason why I can't get up at 4 am for the next 5 weeks and workout. I want to follow Bob Harper's schedule and see what happens in four weeks. I'm ready to give it a go. Here's what May starts out as:

It's only the first 3 weeks but it's a start.

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...