It's been a bit since I completed the challenge, and what has happened? (this might get long)
1. This is the first time in 3 years that I am back down to my pre surgery weight. I've lost over 10 lb during the challenge. I used to run a LOT. then had surgery on my ankle. and couldn't run for almost an entire year. I was depressed, gained 15 lb, and could barely fit into my clothes. When i was able to run again, I did it with gusto but continued to eat immensely. three years later, I still had only shaved off 5 lb of the surgery weight. Even when training for the marathons, I never reached my pre surg weight despite running 30+ miles a week. I felt great, but I thought I had settled into my new "normal weight" and lived with it. After the challenge, I practice yoga more frequently, don't run nearly as much due to some tendinitis but i'm more careful about what i put in my body.
2. I felt good. My sleeping seems to have improved. I still have some trouble staying asleep the whole night, but there have been improvements in the quality of the sleep I got. I woke up less tired and was actually able to get out of bed and start my day with less agony.
3. I was not as tired. The 2 oclock afternoon slump reminds me of those 5 hr energy commercials. And I used to hit it hard. The lab would frequent the local coffee shop and we'd all go for our mid afternoon pick me up coffee break. During the challenge, I didn't have to do this. 2 oclock coasted by with no problem, 3 oclock coasted by with no problem, and I found myself also cutting back on coffee. My morning coffee is a habit. It's a part of my routine. Whether or not i actually finish my coffee depends on how deliciously it is made. On a normal day, I would have my coffee in the morning. Maybe one with lunch, and of course the obligatory afternoon coffee break. I gave myself a limit, however-- no coffee after 5 pm. I have enough trouble sleeping as it is. That rule helped me sleep. But with the challenge, I would make my morning coffee. It would become unpleasantly cold before I could finish it. I might have some coffee with lunch. Again, it would become unpleasantly cold before i could finish it. and if i ventured for an afternoon coffee, I would hardly touch it. I found that drinking the afternoon coffee made my uncomfortably jittery so I would just use this opportunity as an excuse to socialize. I still enjoy my coffee, but it's become more of a ritualistic gesture of a former life than a necessity.
4. I was not hungry. Even though I didn't snack, I never felt the desire to snack. I used to reach into my snack drawer and grab something to munch oh, but I found that i didn't need to. Our conference room was always loaded with cookies and chips and brownies but I had no desire to eat it. It was easy for me to just say no. there was no craving to eat things. But when i ate, I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of what i ate.
5. I felt happier and more stable. Maybe it was because i wasn't hitting the hangry lows and maybe because I actively made yoga an integral part of my life, who knows. But something was working.
6. I saved a lot of money by not going out and not drinking. need i say more?
So what am i going to do now?
My first weekend liberated of the challenge has been almost shameful in acts of gluttony! I celebrated with wine, cheese and a chocolate. decadent. I probably overdid it with the mega deluxe chipwich ice cream cookie sandwich. and felt sick to my stomach for the entire night. yeah. lets not do that again.
I think some lasting changes will be cutting down significantly on refined sugar and processed foods. I won't make an effort to make it 100% cut out sugar because that just seems sinful, but I will probably not go out of my way to purchase those kinds of processed foods.
I am eating A LOT more vegetables and fruits. i think that is a good thing to continue.
I am not eating breads and gluten containing foods as often. I never really ate bread to begin with, so it wasn't really much of a big change for me. Even with pastas, I'd only eat them on occasion. So that probably won't change much.
I will cut down on the meats. It's too hard eating that much meat. I haven't found an appropriate protein source to replace all the meats. I can't decide if i'll go back to all pescatarian or if i'll occasionally indulge in the warm blooded.
I haven't been smart about reintroducing things into my diet, but i have sneaking suspicions that peanuts and yogurt do not agree with my body. i'll have to continue exploring this. I've also noticed that my mood has been dropping since the end of the challenge but I'm not sure if this is because of the change of foods i've been putting in my body or due to external things or both. So I should stay mindful about these things.
All in all, the challenge was a great experience. It was fun and I learned a lot. Would i do it again? maybe. if i had a chunk of time to dedicate to really doing it right. :-)
til next time.
cupcakes
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Day 14 of 30- Curry marinated chicken
Today has been exhausting. For a lot of reasons externally and internally, so less blab, and more recipes!
My daily mantra before I eat goes something like this: "I love food and all the flavors of it." and today's dinner was no exception. It was another chicken + salad combination. But I've become highly proficient at making salads go from bland to GRAND!
Curry marinated chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
curry powder
olive oil
pepper
anise seeds
garam masala
a splash of lemon juice
1. marinate the chicken in all of the above. I made mine the day before and it was sitting in juices for quite some time before I cooked it up.
2. Preheat the oven to 425, preheat a cast iron skillet (if you don't have a cast iron, any baking dish is OK too), heat up a standard frying pan and rapidly sear the chicken a few minutes on each side.
3. Transfer the chicken to the cast iron skillet, skin side down if it has skin
4. Bake for 20 min at 425
When the chicken comes out of the oven, it is crispy, juicy and delicious! slice it up and serve it over a bed of greens. My salad portion consisted of a heaping pile of boston red lettuce, a hard boiled egg, olives and sliced sundried tomatoes. delicious! so many colors, so many flavors! drizzle with olive oil and splash on some balsamic vinegar and there you have it. DINNER!
I was thinking about what my first meal would be at the conclusion of this challenge. And I have no idea what I would eat! (well, first i would grab a nice cold beer or a glass of wine.... ). At the start of the challenge, I craved sweet things and starchy carby fatty salty things, but now it's easy.... easier.... to turn it down. I might continue a modified and less stringent version of the Whole 30, but I'm still not even half way through (almost but not quite!) so we'll have to see what happens later.
Til next time, eat well and BE WELL!
Let thy food be thy medicine, and they medicine be thy food!
My daily mantra before I eat goes something like this: "I love food and all the flavors of it." and today's dinner was no exception. It was another chicken + salad combination. But I've become highly proficient at making salads go from bland to GRAND!
Curry marinated chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
curry powder
olive oil
pepper
anise seeds
garam masala
a splash of lemon juice
1. marinate the chicken in all of the above. I made mine the day before and it was sitting in juices for quite some time before I cooked it up.
2. Preheat the oven to 425, preheat a cast iron skillet (if you don't have a cast iron, any baking dish is OK too), heat up a standard frying pan and rapidly sear the chicken a few minutes on each side.
3. Transfer the chicken to the cast iron skillet, skin side down if it has skin
4. Bake for 20 min at 425
When the chicken comes out of the oven, it is crispy, juicy and delicious! slice it up and serve it over a bed of greens. My salad portion consisted of a heaping pile of boston red lettuce, a hard boiled egg, olives and sliced sundried tomatoes. delicious! so many colors, so many flavors! drizzle with olive oil and splash on some balsamic vinegar and there you have it. DINNER!
 |
| A delicious and filling salad. Just look at that crispy skin! |
Til next time, eat well and BE WELL!
Let thy food be thy medicine, and they medicine be thy food!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Looking forward
I'm trying something new. well, i'm trying a lot of things new. some of it scares me and it's out of my comfort zone. we'll see if i can keep them going.
the first thing-- vermicomposting. worms freak me out. they're gross and scary and when they're in a huge pile they make this weird noise that sounds like death crawling under your skin. i also don't like the way they frantically crawl up onto the cement gasping for air whenever it rains and the soil floods. they squish under my shoes and bike tires and it makes me sad that i killed something. but i think i need to do this. both for myself and for my garden come spring.
I generate a lot of organic waste. tons of scraps from fruits and vegetables, grains, egg shells, coffee grounds you name it. and it fills my garbage can and it made me so sad to see all that good stuff go. I'm getting some worms from a friend and i'm excited to see how it goes. i will ahve to touch worms. i might throw up, but whatever. there are grosser things in life.
the second thing-- the whole30. food, eating, and nutrition and have always been a passion of mine. i will admit i love food and i love eating it and making it and looking at it. i have a strange emotional attachment to the things i make, watching people eat, the action of eating, and i love food for the flavors of it. last semester, i was talking to a colleague about nutrition and she suggested i read this book. "it starts with food." i'm giving it a whirl because why not. i should give it a try before i bash it. if you google "whole30" usually what comes up is a lot of paleo recipes and foods. but rather than think of it as a diet, i think about it as a means of building a healthy relationship with eating and helping my body manage its insulin spikes, reduce cravings for processed foods and sugars yadda yadda. i don't want to think of it as some weird pretentious diet even though some may think it is. "it's just 30 days" is what i'm telling myself. i'm on day 4. and so far, it's going ok.
i think the most difficult thing so far is the fact that as an ovolacto vegetarian for nearly 7 years, processing and digesting meats these past couple days has been a little hard. also, the whole 30 recommends that for the 30 days of metabolism managing, you should avoid the following: snacking, gluten, grains, dairy, added sweeteners (like sugar, honey, syrups, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeterns....basically anything that's sugar or tastes sweet), beans and legumes, alcohol, and obviously drugs. at first this was a huge pain because beans and rice were a large part of my diet. i also love to bake which makes it hard for the gluten and sugar part. i also love to drink and snack.... a lot. so................. yeah. complete overhaul. after your body adjusts to this basic diet, they say you can begin to add things back to see how you respond to stuff. so if dairy doesn't bother you, then go for it. if grains don't make you feel terrible, then go for it. and drinking in moderation is A-OK!
these restrictions on what you can eat and when you can eat (three meals a day spaced like, what.....4 hours apart?) it seems like there would be nothing to eat at all, but the idea is to have a protein source and build your meals around that using vegetables and some fruits. fats are encouraged in moderation and many recipes seem to love the coconut milk which is cool with me. i'm just wondering when it'll get boring and/or frustrating. but there are a multitude of tasty vegetables out there. and tons and tons of different herbs and spices..... and a variety of animals that i am readjusting to eating. i also have tons of chips, crackers, cheese, wine, candy, chocolate, jams, jellys, sauces, and everything around my house. and maybe i just i want to eat that one piece of dark chocolate raspberry frango..... but i walk away.
they say it's going to help you feel more energized, you'll go longer without feeling hungry because you're forcing your body to switch to fat metabolism over sugar metabolism, and they say you'll sleep better and your skin will clear up and whatever ailments you have will somehow become more manageable. i can see how this would be helpful for a lot of people who have autoimmune, food sensitivities, weight problems, and insulin resistance.... i'm curious to see how it'll work for a relatively fit younger individual.
i really believe in the words of hippocrates: “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” so i'm game to give the challenge a chance. maybe it'll be life changing. or maybe i'll hate myself forever. who knows. only time will tell.
the third thing: yoga. i've been practicing for a couple years, but never really pushing myself to make it a lifestyle. it was fun and exciting and then it plateaued to just the standard routine. a few months ago, i started attending classes with a different instructor and man, she really pushed us to our limits mentally and physically. and it was a fantastic change of pace. i feel like i've grown a lot since then and i'm ready to make it a regular part of my life. i just need to build more confidence in my body and the way it carries itself. i want to be more comfortable doing inversions and i want to be more limber and more calm and more balanced. so here's to a new mind body relationship. here's to more confidence, strength, and will power. i'm also excited to have befriended some fantastic yogis around town who i'm sure will push me to limits i have never imagined.
the fourth thing: languages. i just want to learn languages. i think languages are fascinating and i wish i was better at them and knew more. i want to brush up on the spanish and korean. learn some german, some french, and....... maybe italian. but we'll see how that goes. here's to being more worldly.
the last thing: read more books!!!!!! i love reading. this just gives me a reason to put down my computer and all electronics (except maybe the kindle) and let my imagination take me somewhere away from science and classes and research. i've always been happier when i've had time to unwind, when i get caught up in a fantastic book, and when the fantastic books always lead to more fantastic books.
yes..... i was that kid who would never leave the library or the book store...... and yes, i *might* have cried a little when borders died.
and in the mean time, i think i'll write about my journey with food for the next upcoming weeks. we'll see how a life without baking treats me.
til then, happy eating.
the first thing-- vermicomposting. worms freak me out. they're gross and scary and when they're in a huge pile they make this weird noise that sounds like death crawling under your skin. i also don't like the way they frantically crawl up onto the cement gasping for air whenever it rains and the soil floods. they squish under my shoes and bike tires and it makes me sad that i killed something. but i think i need to do this. both for myself and for my garden come spring.
I generate a lot of organic waste. tons of scraps from fruits and vegetables, grains, egg shells, coffee grounds you name it. and it fills my garbage can and it made me so sad to see all that good stuff go. I'm getting some worms from a friend and i'm excited to see how it goes. i will ahve to touch worms. i might throw up, but whatever. there are grosser things in life.
the second thing-- the whole30. food, eating, and nutrition and have always been a passion of mine. i will admit i love food and i love eating it and making it and looking at it. i have a strange emotional attachment to the things i make, watching people eat, the action of eating, and i love food for the flavors of it. last semester, i was talking to a colleague about nutrition and she suggested i read this book. "it starts with food." i'm giving it a whirl because why not. i should give it a try before i bash it. if you google "whole30" usually what comes up is a lot of paleo recipes and foods. but rather than think of it as a diet, i think about it as a means of building a healthy relationship with eating and helping my body manage its insulin spikes, reduce cravings for processed foods and sugars yadda yadda. i don't want to think of it as some weird pretentious diet even though some may think it is. "it's just 30 days" is what i'm telling myself. i'm on day 4. and so far, it's going ok.
i think the most difficult thing so far is the fact that as an ovolacto vegetarian for nearly 7 years, processing and digesting meats these past couple days has been a little hard. also, the whole 30 recommends that for the 30 days of metabolism managing, you should avoid the following: snacking, gluten, grains, dairy, added sweeteners (like sugar, honey, syrups, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeterns....basically anything that's sugar or tastes sweet), beans and legumes, alcohol, and obviously drugs. at first this was a huge pain because beans and rice were a large part of my diet. i also love to bake which makes it hard for the gluten and sugar part. i also love to drink and snack.... a lot. so................. yeah. complete overhaul. after your body adjusts to this basic diet, they say you can begin to add things back to see how you respond to stuff. so if dairy doesn't bother you, then go for it. if grains don't make you feel terrible, then go for it. and drinking in moderation is A-OK!
these restrictions on what you can eat and when you can eat (three meals a day spaced like, what.....4 hours apart?) it seems like there would be nothing to eat at all, but the idea is to have a protein source and build your meals around that using vegetables and some fruits. fats are encouraged in moderation and many recipes seem to love the coconut milk which is cool with me. i'm just wondering when it'll get boring and/or frustrating. but there are a multitude of tasty vegetables out there. and tons and tons of different herbs and spices..... and a variety of animals that i am readjusting to eating. i also have tons of chips, crackers, cheese, wine, candy, chocolate, jams, jellys, sauces, and everything around my house. and maybe i just i want to eat that one piece of dark chocolate raspberry frango..... but i walk away.
they say it's going to help you feel more energized, you'll go longer without feeling hungry because you're forcing your body to switch to fat metabolism over sugar metabolism, and they say you'll sleep better and your skin will clear up and whatever ailments you have will somehow become more manageable. i can see how this would be helpful for a lot of people who have autoimmune, food sensitivities, weight problems, and insulin resistance.... i'm curious to see how it'll work for a relatively fit younger individual.
i really believe in the words of hippocrates: “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” so i'm game to give the challenge a chance. maybe it'll be life changing. or maybe i'll hate myself forever. who knows. only time will tell.
the third thing: yoga. i've been practicing for a couple years, but never really pushing myself to make it a lifestyle. it was fun and exciting and then it plateaued to just the standard routine. a few months ago, i started attending classes with a different instructor and man, she really pushed us to our limits mentally and physically. and it was a fantastic change of pace. i feel like i've grown a lot since then and i'm ready to make it a regular part of my life. i just need to build more confidence in my body and the way it carries itself. i want to be more comfortable doing inversions and i want to be more limber and more calm and more balanced. so here's to a new mind body relationship. here's to more confidence, strength, and will power. i'm also excited to have befriended some fantastic yogis around town who i'm sure will push me to limits i have never imagined.
the fourth thing: languages. i just want to learn languages. i think languages are fascinating and i wish i was better at them and knew more. i want to brush up on the spanish and korean. learn some german, some french, and....... maybe italian. but we'll see how that goes. here's to being more worldly.
the last thing: read more books!!!!!! i love reading. this just gives me a reason to put down my computer and all electronics (except maybe the kindle) and let my imagination take me somewhere away from science and classes and research. i've always been happier when i've had time to unwind, when i get caught up in a fantastic book, and when the fantastic books always lead to more fantastic books.
yes..... i was that kid who would never leave the library or the book store...... and yes, i *might* have cried a little when borders died.
and in the mean time, i think i'll write about my journey with food for the next upcoming weeks. we'll see how a life without baking treats me.
til then, happy eating.
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