It's Just a Number

The meaningless number on the scale this morning was 149. A discouraging but well deserved 149. I’ve covered this before, (in the "Tell Me What You Eat" post) but I’m reconsidering the daily weigh-in plan. It is, after all, just a number.

I will not step on the scale numerous times a day. It’s just a number. I will not allow my moods to be altered by the stupid number. It’s just a number. I will not step on the scale every day. It’s just a number. I will only weigh myself once a week. It’s just a number. Once a week should be plenty. It’s just a number. I will judge my eating choices bases on my health and how I feel. It’s just a number. I will enjoy the slimming and strengthening effect of eating really well. It’s just a number. I am only going to weigh myself on Monday mornings!!! Starting next week... Or maybe the week after...

What I ate today:
B: green smoothie 

S: more of the same smoothie

L: big salad with walnuts, corn, avocado, cucumber, red bell pepper and salsa

S: blended veggie soup with cashew cream

PS I could weigh in every day as a reference point and just not worry so much about it. After all, it's just a number!

Too Much of a Good Thing

I ate a lot of food today. Although it was good, healthy food I went for both quality and quantity. I don’t remember too long a stretch today when I wasn’t shoving something in my face! If anyone on the planet could gain weight on a raw vegan diet it would be me. (It ended up not being a full raw diet today-more on that.)

Sadly, I did discover that my favorite coconut milk, chocolate and agave ice-cream is not actually raw. Vegan, yes. Delicious, yes. But not raw. Although I had suspected it for sometime now, I didn’t want to know the truth. It’s soooo good and soooo much better for you than any other commercial ice-cream out there. I can eat a whole pint without feeling sick and I can’t say that about Haagen Daz. I'm a teensy bit embarrassed to admit that I have this information on file in my brain because of trial and error rather than good old fashioned common sense.

Anyway,  I looked it up tonight on the internet (too much info out there) and decided to lay off for awhile, Naturally I had to finish the carton so there would be none around to temp me tomorrow. I can’t wait to see what the scale says in the morning. 

You've gotta try Coconut Bliss ice-creams. You can find the pints in health food stores and some well-stocked grocery stores. All the flavors are good but the dark chocolate is pure bliss!

Wednesday July 18th  woke up weighing 147 (down three pounds in two days)

B: apple, pear, banana, cucumber, spinach, and chia seed smoothie
S: More of the same smoothie
S: chocolate, coconut milk and agave ice-cream
L: Salad with walnuts, fresh salsa, raw corn off the cob and avocado
S: More of the same salad
S: chocolate, coconut milk and agave ice-cream
D: Strawberry, raspberry, mango and pomegranate juice smoothie (the Pom Power shake from The Orange Peel)
S: The last of the Coconut Bliss ice cream.

Raw, Raw, RAW!

Twenty years ago I was living on Lantau Island (Hong Kong) with my husband and two small children. I was sick, sick, sick. I had asthma, allergies and non-existent energy levels. I could barely make it up a flight of stairs without feeling faint. I was tired all the time but couldn’t sleep at night. I was convinced I was loaded with cancer or some other evil, yucky stuff and would most likely fall down dead in the near future. I even cried a few times thinking of how my two babies would grow up not knowing their mother. The doctor prescribed increasingly strong asthma and allergy meds which had their own set of side effects.

One day I took a ferry to the next island over, Peng Chau, to visit my friend Laura. I was explaining my mysterious health condition (most likely in a super whinny voice loaded with self pity) when she grabbed the book, “Fit For Life” off her shelf and told me to read it. Although I protested and argued with Laura about the merits of the diet, I was desperate enough to try anything.

A week later I felt like a new person. My invisible cancer had disappeared.  It was an Ahah! moment for me. I had never before made the connection between what I ate and how I felt.  Over the years I have found that eating a high raw or an all raw diet gives me super powers and rapid weight loss. So, here I go again in my attempt to blog about my raw food experiment. I will not beat myself up for less than 100 percent because I have found that pursuing perfection tends to back fire for me! 

I am also very inspired because my friend Laura is blogging about her raw food goal of losing 100 pounds in 90 days. She’s nearly half way there! For some laughs, insight and inspiration go to: hundredraw.blogspot.com 

Keep up the good work, Laura! 

Raw, Raw, RAW!

Independence Day

                      One of the fellow residents at Mom's home

I spent independence day among dependent people in a skilled nursing facility. Some of the residents were there because of accidents but most were there due to glitches in the aging process like the stroke that sent my mom to bed four years ago. The residents are dependent on oxygen tanks, tube feedings, wheel chairs and other people for everything from personal hygiene to entertainment. It’s hard to be there with my mom. It’s even harder to imagine myself living in a place like that one day. The staff is wonderful and treat mom with love and respect but the place still reeks of despair and broken down bodies.

Mom taught me how to be independent by example. She left her home country of Germany as a 17-year old and ventured off into a foreign land alone. She learned English by watching TV and was planning her next around the world adventure when she met my dad. Fast forward 50 years and five kids later. She’s an empty nester, socially active in her community, enjoying the peace and quiet she’s earned but trades in for time with her grandkids. 

Mom was an active, vibrant 70-year old when her life irrevocably changed in a matter of minutes. On 8/8/08 my parents came to visit us at my home in Panguitch. At 1:30 am my dad found her laying on the floor and was unable to wake her up. After a CT scan, Dr. Mooney told us she had had a stroke caused by a brain hemorrhage. It was humungous, he said in layman’s terms. The kind you don’t survive. She was suddenly dependent on machines to keep her alive. Terms like, “vegetative state” were thrown around with what I consider reckless abandon.  

But she showed them. A few months later she was speaking some, communicating much and slowly regaining some of the movement she had lost to paralysis. We were all planning the day she would be ready to walk out of the hospital, celebrate her recovery, and show the doctors that miracles do indeed exist. 

That day never came but humungous stroke number two did. Tube feedings, fresh tracheotomies and paralysis followed.

Although we all hear stories of 95-year-old lifetime smokers, common sense tells us they are not the norm. Based on our family medical history I probably don’t have the live-an-independent-life-till-I’m-100 gene. The thought of someone else having to wipe my bum one day makes me wonder: do I have any say so in the matter?

If I trade my junk food for greens will it extend my independence? Improve my quality of life? Allow me to keep enough functional gray matter to solve my sudoku puzzles? Will my food choices today keep me out of that place?

I do believe there is a critical link between nutrition and health. Unfortunately there is often a large gap of time between the two. As a senior in high school I had a pint of Baskin Robbins ice-cream every night for dinner on the way home from swim team practice. I’m feeling it now, thirty years later. Which makes me think that if I want to be a vibrant, independent 70 year old, I should prepare for it right now. 

                                 I love you Mom