Day Four

Week 1: Day 4

I had an almost perfect day today: usual smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch and some rice noodles for dinner. Again, I know I'm not meant to be eating grains, but we went out for dinner and it was the healthiest thing there.

AND I ran for my longest yet. I think it was only about 500 metres, but that's still good! Better than 250!

P.S. Saw Eclipse today, loved it! Thought Bella was annoying though, she's so friggin useless.

Day Three

Week 1: Day 3

Hello again.

As I said earlier, I didn't post yesterday because I spent the evening making mum watch bits of Twilight. We're watching New Moon tonight, and then going to see Eclipse tomorrow night, which is exciting. Actually, I never got into the hysteria surrounding it, so I'm not all that invested in the movies but I still want to see it. It's fun to be in on the secret. It has to better than the books at least, they were complete drivel.

Oh, and I received a MASSIVE metaphorical kick in the shin yesterday when I actually read the Eat to Live book properly and it listed pumpkin as a starchy vegetable which should be avoided along with potato and so on if you dieting, which eliminates my faaaavourite meal, Thai Pumpkin Soup. I honestly thought it was my saviour, it was going to carry me through this 6-weeks on it's kind, delicious back and deliver me in a blaze of nutritious glory to my bathroom scales on September 12. But no, it seems that I'm going to have endure something else, an inferior soup, perhaps asparagus. I can't even replace the pumpkin in the recipe, because I'm only allowed to eat cooked green vegetables. My brain must have been doing laps in the swimming pool or chasing the cat or something when I read this. I've been living in a fantasy world where I'm allowed to eat all these delicious steamed, pureed, soupified, disguised, cloaked vegetables. No, no, says the diet. You may eat raw veggies of any colour, and you may eat cooked green vegetables. Diet, f*%# you.

So as of yesterday I had to revise my daily thing. You know the thing, here it is:

5.30 am: 5km walk/jog

1/2 hour stretches and toning exercises

Breakfast: Fruit smoothie

Frozen berries

3 pieces of other fruit

1 tsp Flaxseed Oil

30g Mixed nuts and seeds

1/2 Lemon, including rind

1 cup Water

Lunch: Salad

2 Cups of lettuce

Vegetables

50g Avocado

Squeeze of lemon juice

Dinner: Grilled/Steamed Vegetables

Vegetables

Chilli

Lemon Juice

Garlic

6.00 pm: 90 minutes of Yoga (Mon-Thurs only)

1/2 hour toning exercises

at all th It was fine yesterday. I had my delicious smoothie, with all the berries, banana, pear, the nuts and seeds, and the flaxseed oil.

For lunch I had a massive salad with baby spinach, snow peas, broccoli, mushroom, cauliflower and kidney beans. Seriously, it was massive, but I ate it all. I couldn't get enough of it.

For dinner I had some veggies, which is too boring to mention.

And then I got up today and weighed myself, and joy of joys! I had lost 900 grams.

I had my green coffee, which I have every morning without milk, and I made my smoothie with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, rockmelon (cantaloupe), a bit of apple, flaxseed oil and nuts and seeds.

I was doing great. Then I came home for lunch and I made the salad again, except this time I replaced the broccoli with cucumber. And I was hating it. I had to force it down, it was misery. Staring into that bowl was like staring into the depths of hell itself. Not even the balsamic could make me want to chew on that bloody cauliflower. It seemed to be a bottomless bowl. Like the Horn of Amalthea, the vegetables were just replenishing, or breeding, or whatever it is that those evil things do. Eventually, though, I saw the light and determinedly stuffed the last mouthful in.

I'm starting to worry about dinner, I'm feeling a real need to eat something more substantial and hot. Anything. Even a piece of toast. What am I going to do????

UPDATE

No post yesterday, I was too busy getting my mum up to speed on Twilight so she'd be ready to see New Moon tonight. Actually, all I had to do was show her a few key clips from the first movie and she knew what it was all about. I wish someone had done that for me instead of wasting my life watching Kristen Stewart stare at trees.

But I wanted to do a quick entry this morning because I lost .9kg since Sunday! For those Americans who are reading this, which is a grand total of none, that's almost 2 pounds! Huzzah! Actually, I'm going to make a little ticker thing for pounds as well, because it makes me feel like I've lost even more when I say 2 pounds.... then again, I weigh more in pounds...

My first day

Week 1: Day 1

Weight: 98.5

Measurements

Calves: 48 cm

Thighs: 80cm

Hips: 120cm

Waist: 116cm

Chest: 111cm

Arms: 38cm

So, today was my first day on the Eat to Live diet, and the first of my weekly measurements. I have to say that I really like the idea behind this way of eating. I've had a sneaking suspicion recently that veggies and grains are generally the way to go, but the Eat to Live book articulated it for me.

In the morning I made a smoothie with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, pear, banana, some almonds and cashew, a little flaxseed oil and some water. It was yum. I've been making fruit smoothies for a few weeks in the morning and the only thing that I did differently today was omit the two spoonfuls of passionfruit yoghurt that I would normally have, so it didn't make too much of a difference. I also usually sneak in the odd vegetable so that I know I'm eating it, but I can't taste it. Not that vegetables necessarily taste bad, they can just be really boring. I'm pretty much one of those mums who has to think up creative ways to force vegetables into a stubborn child, except I'm the child, so I know the sly manouvres I'm pulling on myself. I don't have any fruit during the day other than what's in my smoothie so that I know what I've had and I'm not tempted to replace the vegetables I'm meant to be eating with a piece of fruit, and knowing me, which I do, I know that this is something I would sneakily do to avoid eating boring old broccoli and those stupid salads. Sounds like a band, actually- Boring Broccoli and the Stupid Salads. They would probably be an Enya cover band or something rubbish like that.

Then, since it's Sunday, I sat around and read the paper and steadfastly refused to think about exercise. I was actually planning on Sunday being my 'exercise optional' day, but since it was my first day I was thinking maybe I should make a token gesture of it, but then I quickly thought of better things to think about, like why it is that your internal organs never feel itchy. You never feel like you've got an itchy pancreas, do you? Or maybe you do, but it's diabetes. Which is something I have to look forward to if I don't get up in the morning and go for a walk.

Then I had Thai Pumpkin Soup for lunch, which is also something I've been eating recently anyway because it's absolutely delicious and perfect for the winter weather here in Australia. I made it from a recipe from the four ingredient people, and I was so impressed with it. You just get a kilo of pumpkin (they say butternut but I prefer kent, but I'm probably just imagining the difference between them, pumpkin is just pumpkin really), chop it up and chuck it in a saucepan over medium heat with two tablespoons of red curry paste, stir it up a bit, pop in a 270ml can of light coconut cream, stir it for 1 mins, then throw in 2 cups of water, bring it to the boil, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 20 mins. And then throw it in the blender, after it cools. It makes a fair bit. Actually you probably could've read the proper recipe quicker than it took to read that. It is important to remember to use the light coconut milk, because right now it's a delightful, low-fat, healthy meal but the full fat milk drastically increases the calories. Another important note, don't try to blend anything hot. All the mums out there probably already know this, but it took a pumpkin splattered ceiling for me to figure it out. Even the blender had a sticker on it telling me not to, but, you know, I don't pay attention to that sort of stuff. I like to live on the edge.

I would normally have had a piece of grain toast with butter with my soup, but, since I've committed myself to only eating the fruit, veg, nuts and seeds for now, I only had the soup, but that's ok, it was still awesome. I'm going to make another batch tomorrow but I'll throw in other veggies with it- some cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, maybe some squash... it's all transformed into something that actually won't make me drop dead with boredom and disappointment by the coconut milk and red curry paste, and I'm getting a dose of vegetables. It's all really very sneaky, this whole tricking myself into eating veg. Maybe one day I won't feel quite so murderous towards them. I'm fine when they're accompanied by something- like bread, or pasta, or meat, but they just suck by themselves.

I wasn't that hungry by dinner. My body was probably so appalled by what was going on that it went on strike, and my appetite sat like a sulky teenager in the corner by itself, texting its friends and plotting ways of escaping so it can go drink alcopops in the local park. My mother very sympathetically cooked an elaborate roast dinner on my first day of dieting (she really is the best- she was also the one who kindly pointed out my cankles. Thanks Mum! Oh, what was that? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. I was distracted by your unsightly, hideous wrinkles. I think your neck is winking at me.), so I had a little bit of potato and greens.

It was after this that the extent of my mother's villainy was revealed. She had made sticky-date pudding for dessert. I'm not proud to admit that I succumbed to 'maybe just a bit'. Woe of woes. But if that's the worst that I did, then all is not lost. I increased my fruit and veg intake, and I didn't eat any meat.

Afternoon/nighttime is when I usually face problems sticking to a diet, and that's certainly proven true tonight. Tomorrow, though, I'm going for my morning walk, which I've been doing a few days a week recently, and I'll hopefully I'll be able to be stronger tomorrow night. I'll just have to do my best to distract myself.

Altogether, it wasn't an unsuccessful first day. Let's call it my transitioning period. Just don't let me elongate it.

Until tomorrow,

Penny x

A message to the masses (i.e. no one) on the eve of war. Dieting war.

Welcome to the eve of my 10-Week Healthy Eating Challenge. My name is Penny, I'm 22 and I weigh 98kg, which is why I've decided to make a drastic change in my way of living, starting with 10 weeks of the Eat to Live diet. This pretty much consists of fruit, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts and seeds. Meat, sugar, dairy and fruit juice (except for a few squeezes of lemon juice to dress salads and add flavour to cooked veggies) are a no-go. The extreme version also eliminates grains in the first stage, reintroducing them in the maintenance stage, which is what I have decided to do. I have also committed to walking/jogging 5 km every morning, each time increasing the amount of jogging and decreasing the amount of walking so that, hopefully, by September 12 I will be able to jog the whole 5 km.

My goal: to lose 20kg in 10 weeks.

My daily plan is as follows:

5.30 am: 5km walk/jog

1/2 hour stretches and toning exercises

Breakfast: Fruit smoothie

Frozen berries

3 pieces of other fruit

1 tsp Flaxseed Oil

30g Mixed nuts and seeds

1/2 Lemon, including rind

1 cup Water

Lunch: Salad

2 Cups of lettuce

Vegetables

50g Avocado

Squeeze of lemon juice

-or-

Vegetable Soup

Boiled and pureed vegetables

1/8 Cup of light coconut milk

1 tsp of Red curry paste

1/2 cup of Water

Dinner: Grilled/Steamed Vegetables

Vegetables

Chilli

Lemon Juice

Garlic

6.00 pm: 90 minutes of Yoga (Mon-Thurs only)

1/2 hour toning exercises

This is pretty ambitious, since I currently do not exercise and frequently eat junk food. I am, however, determined, and hopefully by writing a blog entry every day I will stay motivated and see steady results over the next ten weeks. Even if I don't make my target (which I will) I know that I will at least have improved my health to some degree, which is only a good thing. I also just can't wait to fit into my old jeans. I'm not used to it, only having put on an alarming amount of weight over the last 18 months. Prior to that I weighed about 65 kg and I was gorgeous- now, men don't look at me and I look awful in clothes. I'm not quite sure why the weight gain began, but it quickly turned into a perpetual cycle of not wanting to go out because I thought I looked too fat, so I would stay home and eat instead, which obviously only exacerbated the problem. But the past is the past, and I have to look at what I am now and what I can do to ensure my own happiness in the future, and that is to be able to lean forward in the bath without a mound of stomach fat blocking my way. I have actually enjoyed being fat- it's quite funny to see the largeness of myself in the mirror, to know the ridiculousness of not being able to touch my toes because I'm farcically overweight and to wander down the street in the anonymity of my excessive jolliness, knowing that no one pays attention to people who are too big to be attractive but not big enough to be a spectacle (which isn't far away if I don't get a grip).

It has also been good for me in a different way, namely in the huge learning curve it delivered to the back of my head with a great thud. I have been, I confess, quite awful in my time. Up until the weight gain I was beautiful and attractive, and I knew it. I had a group of girlfriends that I was close to at school and after we left and started going out, I began to get a lot of attention from men, while the other girls didn't because they themselves were large at the time. I started to get quite an ego and began subtly flaunting it in the face of the girls. I started to go out with different people, the people who I thought I wanted to be associated with rather than these fat, unattractive girls. I still hung out with them when we weren't in public, though, and I made my disapproval of their appearance quite clear. I thought I was better than them because I could fit into a size 8 (Aus) dress and I bad-mouthed them to my new, better-looking friends. There were plenty of men who were vying for my attention. If I were to see those girls while I was in the company of my current boyfriend I would avoid them and pretend I didn't know them, because I was so ashamed of them. I was an absolute little whore-bag brat, and I don't know why they put up with me instead of kicking me to the curb like I did to them. Instead, after years of maltreatment, they welcomed me back into the fold as if I had never been the stuck-up, arrogant bitch with an attitude that I had been. I now know what it is like to be so big, unattractive and invisible. I will never, never, never again look down on my friends for their appearance, as long as they are kind people and true friends. While I certainly don't condone obesity or unhealthy eating and exercise habits, I now know that I should have been more supportive to them and tried to encourage them to develop better habits by asking them to join me for a jog or a swim, and cooking healthy meals together. I appreciate them far more now than I ever did, and unsurprisingly I have not been contacted recently by any of the 'beautiful' people that I met during my wayward time. But, again, it was a learning experience, and I know that I don't want to be slim and gorgeous and convinced of my own superiority, but I also know that I don't want to be so obese, unfit and unhealthy that I am too ashamed to leave the house, even though I'm desperate to go out and have fun. No, all I want is to be healthy and strong, and surrounded by my gorgeous, forgiving, fun, dynamic, intelligent, creative friends. I want to be beautiful, yes, but beautiful with health and happiness, not with the stench of arrogance that I reeked of before. I am actually quite desperately grateful for this experience now that I have been able to reflect on the person that I had become, which is so far from who I want to be.

I will never again allow myself to make another woman feel ugly in my presence. Instead, I will do all I can to make every person around me know that my glow of beauty is only a reflection of their own loveliness. That is my promise to myself and to the men and women on this fine planet, and with that, I welcome you to join me on an adventure that not only involves a physical transformation, but, more importantly, a mental and spiritual liberation.

Game on.