Day 6 of Metamorphosis or getting back on track

I decided to count only the days of training. Hence, today was my day 6 with a rest day in between 5 and 6.

I dont know whether it is just the rest day, or a rest day spent in a not such a healthy manner, but it was actually harder to workout today. DC was a killer, and MS a murderer :) DC still gives me a great kick, I like it. I feel my calves muscles developing from all the jumping, and they look so good already - much more toned, and I feel them sore. I still have not perfected the MS, I still have to stop in between every 10th rep or so (for exercises 3-4 in particular), and I noticed that it is easier for me to do all the exercises on my left leg! Thats so odd - cos I have always been right-handed through and through! But all in all even though I went through it, I could not do as good as I did in day 5... And I am back to day 2 weight (:(), but oh well - I had fun these past two days, and the Chinese dumplings were oh so good! Today I am back to the diet, and all is good (feel much better too, as guilt is not killing me). But the experience of the last 2 days showed how much your progress can be hindered by couple of drinks and a party. Good lesson. :)

I am back on the train though, am training again, going to have salsa training later on, so thats good. As I am past mid-level 1, so I started dreading level 2 already - I read a lot in other blogs and in TA Community, that it is a killer, so lets see. I have some time to get both really scared and really excited :)

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Week 3 of ETL 6 Week Challenge

This last week was hard for me and I know that I did not get in as much fresh produce as I should have.  I ran into several situations where we were out with friends and there just wasnt anything to eat, so most of the time I didnt eat, or ate small amounts of acceptable items.  By Sunday morning after being out and about most of Friday and Saturday, I was so relieved to have a nice big salad going into my system.  Its funny how salads become second nature when you are on ETL.  My body and energy levels definitely change when I am missing my daily greens.  All the more encouraging reason to keep at it!

Breakfast on Monday
Leftover from our Saturday trip the
weekend before to Ocean Shores for the 4th.

• Monday
• Breakfast: apple slices and carrot sticks
• Lunch:  warmed kale and chickpea salad with sundried tomato dressing
• Dinner: steamed zucchini and Indian Mixed Dal
• Exercise: no exercise this day - my hip was sore from walking over the weekend
• Extras: apple after lunch

Breakfast on Tuesday
Peaches are so easy to throw in my work bag
and chop up quickly once I get into the office.

• Tuesday
• Breakfast: 2 sliced peaches
• Lunch: warmed kale and chickpea salad
• Dinner: I got busy painting and wasnt hungry for dinner.
• Exercise: painting my kitchen for 2 hours
• Extras: 2 dove dark chocolate pieces after lunch, glass of white wine in the evening

Lunch on Wednesday

• Wednesday
• Breakfast: 2 golden pluots, 1 peach, 1 apple
• Lunch: warmed kale and chickpea salad, Indian Mixed Dal
• Dinner: plain veggie nachos with extra beans (no cheese)
• Exercise: painting my kitchen for 1 hour
• Extras: 1 beer at trivia

Breakfast on Thursday
This was probably my favorite meal of the week.
The little bit of avocado was just right to
 fuel me through a busy morning at work.

• Thursday
• Breakfast: 1/2 avocado, 1 peach, 1 apple, and 1 golden pluot
• Lunch: steamed zucchini and Indian Mixed Dal
• Dinner: I got busy painting and wasnt hungry for dinner.
• Exercise: Finishing painting my kitchen for 5 hours in the evening.
• Extras: 2 dove chocolate pieces after lunch

"Lunch" on Friday
I got so busy painting and cleaning my kitchen I skipped a meal or two.
I had two handfuls of Brazil nuts to tide me over until I was able to eat
when we got to Seattle for a friends birthday celebration.

• Friday
• Breakfast: Skipped breakfast while deep cleaning my kitchen after painting.
• Lunch:  Two handfuls of Brazil nuts to hold me off until early dinner.
• Dinner:  Vegan sausage with grilled onions and sauerkraut in downtown Seattle. 
• Exercise: Cleaning in the morning, walking in the evening.
• Extras:  A few drinks out with friends

Us at a Mariners game on Saturday.  We got tickets from a friends work for free.
It happened to be Nelson Cruz bobblehead night AND they won!

• Saturday
• Breakfast:  Slept in and didnt eat breakfast
• Lunch:  Vegan mac and cheese
• Dinner: Chips and salsa out with friends
• Exercise: Walking around Seattle
• Extras: 1 beer at the Mariners game

Lunch on Sunday
This salad was super good!  I made berry poppy seed dressing (recipe coming this week).
The salad consisted of green lettuce from my neighbors garden, sliced radishes,
shaved carrots, sliced strawberries, diced avocado, hemp hearts, and ground flaxseed.

• Sunday
• Breakfast: Sliced strawberries
• Lunch: Large green salad with berry poppy seed dressing (recipe coming this week)
• Dinner: Whole wheat spaghetti with veggie loaded marinara sauce and chopped field roast vegan sausage
• Exercise: 20 minutes biking, 10 minutes stretching, 5 minutes arm exercises
• Extras: 1/2 glass of red wine with dinner, olives while prepping dinner

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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Week 2 of ETL 6 Week Challenge

I felt so much better doing the 2nd week of the ETL 6-Week Challenge!  I had the obstacles of date night with the husband as well as traveling out of town for the 4th.  In the end I did my best and was happy to get back into routine this Monday.  Last week I was also able to incorporate more exercise since my tweaked hip has just about recovered.  Here is what I ate and how I did:

• Monday
• Breakfast: large apple
• Lunch: large green salad with chickpeas
• Exercise: 3.15 walk outside after work
• Dinner: steamed sugar snap peas topped with Thai peanut sauce and raw sunflower seeds, big bowl of veggie soup
• Extras: homemade chocolate banana nice cream

• Tuesday
• Breakfast: sugar snap peas, cucumber slices, apple
• Lunch: large green salad with chickpeas, banana
• Exercise: 2.5 mile walk outside after work
• Dinner: water sauteed mushrooms, onions, and kale topped with sesame seeds, sugar snap peas
• Extras: glass of wine with dinner

• Wednesday
• Breakfast: cucumber slices, apple
• Lunch: medium green salad and leftover sauteed mushrooms, onions, and kale
• Exercise: no exercise today, some stretching before bed
• Extras: snack of some gooseberries and red currants on the way home, two beers out with friends
• Dinner: late dinner after we got home from trivia of corn on the cob and veggie soup

• Thursday
• Breakfast: peach and berry fruit bowl
• Lunch: large green salad
• Exercise: 1 hour at the gym with 30 minutes biking and 30 minutes lifting weights
• Dinner: corn grits and Cajun shrimp - This was date night with my husband to a Cajun restaurant he had been wanting to try for a long time.  I was hoping they would have red beans and rice for me, but no such luck, so I settled on the corn grits and Cajun shrimp.  This was about the only thing on the menu not fried.  I ended up eating only 1/3 of the portion and my husband was happy to have the leftovers the next day.
• Extras: one beer with dinner, raspberries after dinner out

• Friday
• Breakfast:  slept in and skipped breakfast
• Lunch:  green salad and 1/2 slice of whole grain bread at a deli
• Dinner:  Steamed baby bok choy with Thai peanut sauce and sesame seeds
• Exercise: 1 hour of gardening
• Extras: snack of roasted chickpeas and veggies while prepping food for traveling the next day, chocolate banana nice cream after dinner

Here is a picture from today (Monday) of the kale salad I had on Sautrday while at the beach.

• Saturday - 4th of July and day trip to Ocean Shores, WA
• Breakfast: large apple as we arrived at Ocean Shores
• Lunch:  1 grilled baja taco, celery, carrots, apples
• Dinner: kale and chickpea salad with sun dried tomato dressing, veggie dog
• Exercise:  tons of walking around the beach (over 12,000 steps this day)
• Extras: dark chocolate covered almonds and cashews, two beers on the beach

So sunburnt! :(

• Sunday
• Breakfast: raspberries and blackberries
• Lunch: veggie dog sauteed with onion and mushrooms
• Dinner: not hungry, skipped dinner
• Exercise: no exercise this day - we woke up very tired, dehydrated, and sun burnt from the day before :(
• Extras: chocolate banana nice cream later in the evening

HOPE EVERYONE HAD A SAFE AND FUN 4TH OF JULY!

Overall, I think I handled the harder situations of dining out and traveling fairly well.  Was it a perfect week?  No, but I made very conscious decisions to include as many veggies as I could while limiting my not-ideal foods to a minimum.

Over the weekend while we traveled I got pretty dehydrated because using the restroom on the beach on Saturday was extremely limited.  Im looking forward to staying very well hydrated in the heat this week, as well as incorporating more beans into my daily diet.

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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Week 1 of ETL 6 Week Challenge

So, last Monday I started Dr. Fuhrmans Eat to Live 6-Week Aggressive Weight Loss Program.  I talk more about specifics of how and what I eat on this page here.  Back when I first read Eat to Live in January 2011, I went through this 6-week program... for 4 weeks, and then I met Kevin (my now husband) and gave a little here and there tweaking the program to fit with my life better at that point.

In the years since then I have had ups and downs of following a Nutritarian lifestyle through huge changes in my life including moves, marriage, new jobs, etc.  I have gone through a personal struggle with weight following hormonal complications with birth control I took when Kevin and I first got married.  I dont believe Ive mentioned this much on the blog, mostly because I would start to write a post and delete it thinking it wasnt right or good enough.

Long story but, when we first got married in 2012 I went on a pill for birth control.  Several months later I was noticing that I was having extreme fatigue issues (my iron, Vitamin D, and B-12 levels were fine).  One day I went home from work with what I thought was the start of an ear infection.  While driving one side of my face went partially numb and I had a panic attack before making it to a health clinic.  It was probably the worst day of my life.

The clinic doctor attributed the pain and part of the numbness to a migraine onset by TMJ muscle issues, which were aggravated by excessive caffeine from coffee I had that day.  He suggested I go home and relax the rest of the day, and take ibuprofen daily for my TMJ issues whether I was feeling pain or not. (Thanks doc... super helpful.  I didnt follow this advice with the medication BTW.)

If you have ever had a panic attack, you will understand how helpless and out of control I felt.  After this incident I continued to feel an awful overhanging feeling that something was about to go wrong... all the time.  When you have had one panic attack, your "emergency" hormones and chemicals in your body are going crazy, and your body reacts to those regardless of what the mind tries telling the body.  Because of that and an incessant fear of having another panic attack, it took me over a year to feel normal again.

After the panic attack, I went off of my birth control pills and went with something that did not mess with the hormones in my body.  During this time of feeling unlike myself and constantly anxious, I gained close to 20 lbs.  Since then I have slowly released some of those pounds while practicing a very loose nutritarian diet.  Now that I feel like my mental and hormonal health are under control, I wanted to complete what I didnt quite do over four years ago: the 6-week ETL challenge.  Last week was my first week and here is how it went (These pictures are from a great food tracking app that I use called Two Grand.  If youd like to join me on there, the app is free and you can search for my username, "amynutritarian".):

Monday Dinner: Sauteed Asian Veggies with Butter Lettuce
(I used the lettuce as little wraps to eat the bowl of veggies with...
yep I ate that whole head of lettuce!)

• Monday
• Breakfast: banana and strawberries
• Lunch: Large green salad and 1/2 bowl homemade bean chili
• Dinner: Lettuce wraps with water sauteed Asian veggies
• Dessert: watermelon
• Exercise: Actively walking around work, first day at our new gym with a 1 mile walk, stretching, and arm lifting exercises

Tuesday Lunch: Large Green salad topped with hemp hearts and ground flaxseed,
along with leftover chili and two golden beets that were sliced and steamed.

• Tuesday: 
• Breakfast: apple and peach slices
• Lunch: Large green salad, 1/2 homemade bean chili, 2 sliced steamed golden beets
• Dinner: Steamed kale with water sauteed Asian veggies
• Dessert: watermelon
• Exercise: This day I went home early from work because I tripped up on the treadmill the day before and badly strained my hip, so no exercise this day.

Dinner Wednesday: Water sauteed onions, garlic, mushrooms, and kale
with a peanut sweet and sour sauce, topped with hemp hearts.

• Wednesday:
• Breakfast: apple and peach slices
• Lunch: Large green salad and an apple
• Dinner: water sauteed garlic, onion, mushrooms, and kale
• Dessert: watermelon
• Extras: 1 beer at weekly trivia
• Exercise: Again, my hip was injured and I was unable to exercise this day.

Thursday Dinner: Lightly steamed collard green leaves wrapped up with hummus,
cilantro, red onion, carrot, mushroom, and celery.
Steamed green beans with cilantro hemp dressing topped with raw sunflower seeds.
This was by far my favorite meal of the week!

• Thursday:
• Breakfast: apple and peach slices
• Lunch: Large green salad and two red plums
• Dinner: Collard green veggie wraps, steamed green beans with hemp seed dressing
• Dessert: watermelon
• Exercise: I went home early from work again this day from an onset of nausea and just feeling unwell.  I thought the nausea might be from detoxing.  That evening, my sinuses stuffed up with what I think is a reaction to some chemicals they sprayed in my work building due to some flooding of a water fountain (I have to remember, this is just my body protecting me, but I sure felt miserable.)

Friday Lunch: Large green leaf lettuce salad (lettuce from my neighbors garden)
with chickpeas, red onion, carrot, ground flaxseed, hemp hearts,
sundried tomatoes, and cilantro hemp dressing.

• Friday:
• Breakfast: banana
• Exercise: Mid morning I met with a trainer at my new gym.  She kept it very easy on my hip that was healing and stuck to arm exercises.
• Lunch: Large green salad
• Dinner: Small green salad out at a restaurant (I ordered tomato soup, but it was far to salty and I didnt eat more than a few bites)
• Extras: sampling beer at a brewery

Saturday Lunch and Later Dinner: Collard green vegetable soup flavored with
black pepper and Mrs. Dash no-salt seasoning.
This was the day that I was feeling the worst,
so a nice mild bowl or two of soup was just what I needed.

• Saturday:
• Breakfast: Skipped, did not feel well from my sinuses and cough
• Lunch: Plain vegetable soup
• Dinner: Indian chickpeas and brown rice while out running errands with my husband
• Extras: more vegetable soup later at night
• Exercise: Walking around running errands

Sunday After Lunch: A big bowl of delicious red raspberries!

• Sunday:
• Breakfast: Skipped, did not feel hungry in the morning
• Lunch: Lettuce wrapped bean burger with sugar snap peas, bowl of raspberries
• Dinner: Grilled potatoes and whole wheat toast with preserves while out with my husband at a breakfast food place
• Dessert: homemade chocolate peanut butter banana nice cream

Summary:  I feel like I had a good rhythm to the week despite generally falling apart from an injured hip and having respiratory issues.  Places Im looking to improve on this week are increasing my exercise now that my hip is feeling better, making dinner a smaller meal so that I am truly hungry for breakfast the next morning, and limiting my consumption of beer to one on Wednesday and one on Friday or Saturday.  Overall, I am down 3 lbs, and am hoping to progress more this week without as many hurdles as last week.

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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Foods in weeks what is it 6 and 6 5

So I finally have time to talk a little about food... Yes, I am not using "diet" on purpose right now, as...  well I wasnt so good following Tracys diet in the past 2 weeks. All the roller-coaster of life started in the end of Week 5. Which was already past 30-day-diet-trial-period I set for myself from the start. I have to say, I almost arrived at my desired weight, so now I am concentrating more on keeping it and not gaining more. Though I would still not mind to lose another 1-2 kilos. But... well, I had some things going on, so it was pretty hard to stick to the diet to the T. 

In the end of week 5 (Nutrient Boost...) my sweetheart was visiting from Prague - and hey I just cant resist going for a nice dinner out with him (or two! :D) So we again went to the wonderful Le Gril place on the Weser river bank (definitely recommended to anyone visiting Bremen!!!) - I tried to stick to the grill and salad, and nothing more, and as before Le Gril didnt disappoint us - it was yummy-amazing! :)

With a little bit of dry Martini... romantic atmosphere... great company... What else do you need?!

Beef steak and some salad

Breakfasts - I decided to stick to a sort of Body Reset Weeks breakfasts: with eggs and fruits. A little variation of this - with some cheese and tomato on the side... And sweetheart loved it too - wonderful huh? I find it really great when the loved ones support you and you may not change only your own life, but get into more healthier habits the people around you. Everyone can do without breads, but fruits and veggies are vital. Here we go...

Poached eggs, cheese, tomatoes, pineapple. Some green tea with mint as well - but not on the picture. Great start of the day!

The next day we dined in a nice traditional restaurant situated directly in the Bremen Town Hall!!! Just for a side remark - Town Hall is THE building in Bremen, originally built in 1410 (YES, Bremen is THAT old - and even older!!!).  A huge basement-located restaurant, the wine was AMAZING! Ratskeller (in German the name of those basement places in Town Halls - directly can be translated as something like "council basement or cellar") have traditionally stored lots of different wines, and the one in Bremen apparently have  had one of the biggest collections!  German wine is not that bad, people! Thats a great discovery! Since that  time I already brought a visitor there for some wine and cheese. Very nice! 

Great red wine... 

Cant say that the food offered a lot of healthy choices though. Well, its traditional German and North-German-Bremish cuisine, so a lot of dishes with something fried and deep-fried (which is a definite and absolute no-go for me - anywhere I go, and was long before TA). The menu is though very tradition and impressive, quite a few vegetarian dishes and cheeses, and they offer their suggestions of wines for all dishes - which I think is a great help :)! But - oh well - I did take something not so healthy, but it was pretty good, and nothing fried (phew!).

Some backed meat with celery-potato mash and some backed carrots and parsnip. Not that bad, but - I know, I know - not very "diet-ish"... :)

In week 6 I did relatively well. Did the normal Body Reset Week with eggs for breakfast, some chicken or tuna for dinner, lots of fruit and veg, one protein bar a day, and topped it up with more fruit and a little bit of nuts if I was hungry. As I was busy with driving school and other things, couldnt start the TA week 7 properly (will try to do so next week - we will see how it goes), so this week I am somewhat repeating week 6, with adding a little more food and nutrients. Also, have some cheese, but still sticking to lots of fresh fruit and veg. My breakfast for example one day:

Some Edam cheese, olives, tomato and rucola. Yum!!!

So I call the current week "Week 6.5" - as I am still trying to eat little and somewhat follow the week 6 diet, but add some changes. The most important point: keep it healthy! I love the feeling of lightness and energy I get from all the fruits I eat. I am seriously starting to think of getting a juicer finally to get some power juices going! May be this month.

OK, talking about all this food made me pretty hungry. So Im gonna go do the MS and have a dinner. Have a great day everyone, and keep it healthy! Remember to listen to your own body, and dont forget - your well-being is most important, so if you really really want a chocolate, have some (dont torture yourself!). And simply kick it up a notch in the DC! :)

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