Sunday, 22 August 2010

Oh no, it works!

So I've been having this on/off thing with raw food over the past couple of months but I'd pretty much fallen out of the habit until last week. The vegetarian thing is going well. OK, pescatarian really, but that's only because I'm not organised enough to work out the correct nutrition for being totally veggie and anyway I do love fish. Maybe I should do some more scuba diving - every time I come back from diving I feel guilty about eating fish - its hard to eat someone when you've just been swimming with their cousins!

Anyway, back to raw - I'd been feeling a bit creaky - well, OK feeling my age would possibly be more accurate, although some days I felt more like my mother's age!

One day, I kid you not, one day back on raw and I woke up the next morning feeling like a 15 year old! I had so much energy I didn't think I would sleep that night but in fact I had the best sleep I've had in ages! Last week was about 70% raw and I feel fantastic and lost two kg! Effortlessly!! This raw thing really works! The trick is to keep it going, not fall off the wagon at every possible excuse and remember that it is actually less complicated than cooking - there's about the same amount of preparation involved but then you can eat it immediately! And I'm pretty sure wine is raw!

I found a great website called Wild Health and they have this fantastic recipe for beetroot coleslaw which is so delicious I ate it all last week. The great thing is you can keep it in the fridge and it matures and actually gets better, and better for you, as the week goes on. It makes a fantastic base for all sorts of tasty salads and salting the cabbage means its not so noisy to eat!
Here's some other great books on raw "cooking"! I'm hooked!

Thursday, 5 August 2010

The weekend

So the weekend is almost here and as usual I have a plan! Not sure I'm going to stick to it but hey, rules are made to be broken! It's been a reasonably good week - about a kilo down so I'm happy. So here's the danger, happy = excuse to slack off!! I'm going to see if I can get through a weekend without pissing off all my friends and be accused of being boring and still either lose or maintain! Wheat free AND meat free! Wish me luck!

The big change in my life is that a couple of weeks ago I was challenged by my coach to do something new and challenging for the next 100 days, I had all sorts of good intentions commit to exercise every day but guess where they went....? I even thought I would commit to getting up one hour earlier every day - ha ha ha, not a chance, 6am is for the birds! And I didn't even think of giving up wine!

But I did commit to giving up meat for 100 days and now, 20 days in, to my surprise I'm actually enjoying it. Giving up bacon is the hardest, but other than that I'm surprised how easy it is to make meat free choices and even more surprised that my weight is dropping with much less effort than usual. I'm not sure I will ever be able to give up meat completely - a meat free barbecue doesn't sound that appealing, but I'm open to seeing what happens.

But PLEASE don't wave a bacon buttie under my nose or you just might lose your hand!

Monday, 2 August 2010

The ONLY way to lose weight...

...is to completely ignore people who tell you that the ONLY way to lose weight is to do EXACTLY what they tell you!

In reality these people will keep you fat and unhealthy forever, and I'm beginning to think maybe they like it that way - because then they can keep on selling you books, CDs, magazines and really crappy food that perpetuate their myths. Maybe the last thing they want is for people to actually succeed in their efforts because then their market will disappear!

I'm fed up of well meaning (and not so well meaning) people telling me I should eat this and NEVER eat that. What do they know? Have they lived in my body?

I've lost 40kg so far. I think I'm entitled to call myself an expert! And I can tell you what works for me, but I have no earthly idea if it will work for you! But I'm happy to share ideas in the spirit of awareness.

I know what works for me is building in flexibility. Its never making something totally forbidden, its being able to make conscious decisions about what I want to eat with full awareness of the consequences. Its knowing that Kathy's chocolate cake will probably add a kilo over the weekend but knowing its worth it! Its knowing that raw vegetables are delicious and energising so I don't need to choose a pizza but if I really really want that pizza that's ok too... but there will be consequences. Its about knowing that I do actually prefer More Cafe's pumpkin and feta salad to their burger or fish and chips and I don't need to have fish and chips just because I can. In fact the reason I don't need them is because I can! Its about taking total responsibility for my health.

Losing weight has almost nothing to do with what you put in your mouth and everything to do with what you put in your mind!