Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?

Not too much time to blog—just finishing up my September issue. Yes, it's finals week again.

Here's what I emphatically have to say: Get off of dairy.

Stop it.

Stop it now.

I've been dairy-free for two weeks and I feel like a new person.

My skin is stunning; my mind is clear; my stomach is flatter; my step is springing.

The whites of my eyes are getting whiter—for real, folks.

Be sure to supplement with calcium-rich foods like peas and broccoli and start popping a good calcium pill (I am taking a combo calcium/magnesium/zinc one) and vitamin D (D3 is the D to take).

Don't go too heavy on the soy in reaction to the missing dairy either. Soy can mess with your hormones. I've been using rice milk, which is quite tastalicious.

So, mooooooove away from dairy and mooooooove into a healthier, happier you.

Just mooooo it!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Week Minded 7

Tuesday, July 10:

The Weigh-In: Da na na naaaaa: Four pounds. Okay, so four pounds in one week is great, especially considering that I had the July 4th afternoon and evening debacle and Saturday night wedding. I also look much more narrow and toned.

However, I know that some of the loss can be attributed to the colonics—I had another one yesterday late afternoon. (This one was much easier. It left me feeling fantastic. One more to go to complete the series.) As such, I know that the wine here and there, stolen bites of dessert and the such all added up to not being as successful as I could have been.

I'm not an over-achieving freakazoid. I know that I have to take things one step at a time and be grateful for little victories—which I do and I am. But this week was about strength of mind over matter and integrity of my word. If you don't have integrity of your word to yourself, then there's no way you'll have in other areas of your life.

I didn't have impeccable integrity of my word this week: I had a few more drinks than I should have; I had more sweets than I should have. I had gratuitous sips of coffee. Why? I was the one who chose to eliminate coffee, so why wouldn't I listen to my own advice/mandate. Interesting. Very interesting.

Anyway, psychoanalysis aside, I feel rocket-propelled. I feel lithe and alive. I feel even more committed to powering ahead on this path of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual awakening. I feel even more committed to aligning my actions with my words (intentions) and vice versa.

I'll continue to journal sans blog—so as not to bore the readers with such extreme tedium— as a way of keeping my eating, supplement-taking, working out, intentions and actions in check.

Thanks for obliging me in my week of strength. I know it was my ego/vanity/fear of being exposed as a failure that helped keep me in line. However, now all the good behavior has taken hold, allowing me persevere for the right reasons.


Stay tuned...

The Workout
5:45 am: Woke up psyched to get my arse to the gym.
6:15 am: Triceps, biceps, shoulders, chest, upper and lower back, 50 push ups, 50 dips, 125 sit ups on the bally ball, followed by 30 minutes of elliptical cardio at level 4. Just can't seem to move it up yet.



The Food:
7:25 am: Homemade low sodium, organic chicken soup from the gym cafe. One digestive enzyme pill.

8:00 am: Green tea.

8:30 am: One brown rice waffle, 1/4 tablespoon (or so) of low fat Smart Balance butter, dollup of syrup. I estimate the breakfast to be about 300 calories, aka the same amount that took me 30 minutes to burn on the elliptical.

Supplements: One acidophilus, 2 B, 4 D3 (the new way to D—apparently), one whole nutrient multi, one calcium/magnesium/zinc, one tablespoon of flax seed oil with Omegas 3, 6, 9, four ounces of active aloe.

12:30 pm: Portobella mushrooms sauteed in a little hazelnut oil and egg whites.

3:30 pm: Protein shake with water and a banana.

5:30 pm: Cup of roasted eggplant and tomato soup, salad with shrimp, tomatoes and asparagus. Too many of babe's fries and a bite of her chicken tender. In the words of Michael J :Who's bad?

Monday, July 09, 2007

Week Minded 6

Monday, July 9:

The Workout
6:15 am: Legs (quads, hamstrings, calves), including a killer squat set. 50 dips, 50 push ups, 125 sit ups and 30 minutes of cardio at 4.

The Food
8:00 am: Two non-wheat (brown rice) waffles, a dab of lowfat Smart Balance, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup.
Supplements: Flax seed oil with Omegas 3, 6, 9, 4 ounces of live aloe, one acidolphilus.

8:30 am: Green tea. You are supposed to wait one hour after eating before you drink. Today it was just luck.

9:00 am-12:30 pm: Tepid water

12:45 pm: One small chicken breast from last night's dinner. Held in a napkin and eaten while working—no wonder I have digestive problems.

2:00-5:00 pm: Tepid water

5:00 pm: Hunger mounting. Brown rice crackers and hummus.

5:45 pm: Half a piece of grilled chicken breast, a few slices of avocado, a spelt English muffin with a dab of soy butter (craving bread big time!) and a handful of Babe and babe's waffle fries. Even though they are organic and lower fat than regular ones, I really have no excuse. 4 ounces of white wine.
Supplements: Digestive enzymes, one calcium/magnesium/zinc, one acidophilus, one multi, 2 B.

8:30 pm: Green tea.

Tomorrow's the last day of my Week Minded challenge—and yet it's just the beginning.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Week Minded 5

Sunday, July 8:

The Workout
No 6:30 am today. Even though I was up, I just couldn't get it together to go—alcohol was still coursing through my veins. Waiting for Babe to return home from baseball game so I can go—looking forward to it greatly.

12:30 pm: Slight hangover is looming, but I decide not to let it stop me. Triceps, biceps, back, shoulders, 100 sit ups, 50 push ups, 30 minutes of cardio at level 4 (still).

The Food
8:30 am: One small organic spelt pancake, a dab of soy butter and dip of organic syrup. Three sips of coffee with rice milk. Worked through the litany of things I was craving: a pumpernickel bagel with lox and chive cream cheese; eggs with American cheese; anything but the things I could have. I methodically intellectualized my way through it though and immediately got over the craving.

11:39 am: Green tea. Not hungry at all.
Supplements: Tbsp of flax seed oil with Omegas 3, 6, 9, 4 ounces of live aloe juice, 2 ounces of prune juice.

1:30 pm: Starving. Should have grabbed a few almonds or something before I went to the gym. Apres workout: one cup of homemade chicken soup and grilled turkey, asparagus and brown rice (just a few forkfuls) from gym cafe. Water.

5:00 pm: Want chips. Eat five brown rice crackers and hummus. Don't want the chips anymore.

6:15 pm: Grilled chicken in Mediterranean marinade, half of a corn on the cob, tomato and arugula salad with splash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and ground flax seeds. Water.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Week Minded 4

Saturday, July 7:

The Workout
6:30 am: Legs (quads, hamstrings, calves), dips, 100 sit ups, 50 push ups.

The Weigh-In: Lost two pounds since yesterday—must be mainly from the colonic.

The Food
8:00 am: A few pieces of cantaloupe—because my Daree, the lovely woman who gave me the colonic, reminded me that you're not supposed to eat fruit with other food, only before. Fruit wants to be digested in 20 minutes, while other foods take up to four hours. As such, if you eat fruit after or with a meal, it winds up getting backed up in the digestion process and turns rancid. In order to derive the maximum nutrients from the fruit and work with your body's natural digestion process, you must eat fruit at least 20 minutes before eating anything else or at least four hours after. Here's something I didn't know: melon should be eaten alone verses with other fruits. There's something about the makeup of melon that makes it not as digestable when eaten with other fruits. Apparently, many spas actually have separate melon bars and fruit bars and forbid a cross-consumption.

8:25 am: Frozen Asian vegetables, sauteed in hazelnut oil, and egg whites.

Supplements: One tablespoon of flax seed oil with Omegas 3, 6, 9, one acidolphilus, 2 B, one whole nutrient multi, one magnesium.

9:00 am: Greet tea—because Daree reminded me of what a former accupunturist used to avow: never drink while eating. Daree explained that liquids put out the fire of digestion. Interesting!

12:00 pm: Brown rice sushi sans most of the brown rice.

5:30 pm: Apres my girlfriend's gorgeous royal-ish wedding ceremony at St. John the Divine in NYC, we went for a drink to kill time before the reception, which started at 7. One glass of white, one crab cake, one bite of cheese, olives and cornichons. Let the destruction begin.

7:00 pm: Hors d'oeuvres are relatively healthy, though not so great for my ailing stomach. Ate a lot of little: shots of vichysoiss, bean salad, crab cakes, two mini gourmet BLTs (like the size of a Hershey's Kiss). Abstained from cheese and overly wheaty and dairy-seeming things. One glass of wine and one glass of water.

8:30 and beyond: Lobster souffle, salad, snapper, couscous. More wine—hard to tell how much really because the servers just fill up your glass. I could have stopped it. I didn't. I must have had another two glasses at least and a few sips of champagne.

11:00 pm: One sip of Shawn's coffee, lemon meringue on a cookie thing. No cake though.

Fortunately, the food was clean-ish and healthy-ish overall, but I could have been stricter. My stomach felt like it was in a vice by the time we left. If I had strengthened my intention, I would have kept to my word. But the reality is that I went in knowing that I'd cheat, so, of course, I cheated.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Week Minded 3

Friday, July 6:

The Workout
6:30 am: Triceps, biceps, back, shoulders, 100 sit ups, 50 pus ups. 30 minutes on elliptical at 4. Ready to go next cardio level.

Weigh-In: One pound since Tuesday morning. Pretty good considering the late Tuesday debacle.

Extras: Colonic. Yup. Been wanting to do one for years and decided that now is the time in lieu of my recent GI problems. It was great—not so comfortable, but great. I was mentally and physically exhausted afterwards, which is normal.

The Food:
8:30 am: Half bowl of oatmeal, splash of rice milk, blueberries and strawberries. Green tea.

Supplements: One acidophilus, one whole nutrient multi, 2 B, one magnesium, one tbsp of flax oil with Omegas 3, 6, 9. Water.

11:30 am: Starving. Onion soup (no cheese), broth questionable (meat-based? veg-based?). It was the lesser of all evils since the rest of the soups were cream-based and I was craving soup. Water.

12:00 pm: Egg whites cooked in hazelnut oil—because olive oil should never be heated.
Water.

1:30 pm: Four pieces of turkey with a dot of mustard and a pickle—craving salt today.

5:00 pm: Brown rice crackers (practically no calories or fat...or taste) and hummus.

6:00 pm: Turkey burger, corn on the cob and baked julienned sweet potatoes, a few dips of organic ketchup (as if the organic nullifies the sugar), 4 ounces of white wine—which led to a slight sliver of Babe's homemade key lime pie.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Week Minded 2

July 5:
The Workout
No usual work day 6:30 am workout. Too tired. Had to be the junk food. Will workout today at some point though.

3:42 pm: Think about going to gym at 4. Realize I'll have to go after dinner, bath, book, bed.

9:10 pm: Just got back from the gym—ya-huh! I can't believe I went. Scratch that, I knew I I'd go because I prepped for it from 3:42 on. Knowing beats believing by a landslide. 30 minutes on the elliptical at 4 (tried 5 for a hot minute). 100 sit-ups on the ball. 40 push ups.

The Food:
8:00 am: Green tea
10:30 am: Portobello mushroom and barely soup. More green tea. Met with fitness and nutrition guru to the mom stars Lori Sawyer for half an hour to talk business. Just seeing her made me recommit.

12:30 pm: 3 almonds

1:00 pm: Brown rice sushi (salmon and avocado) with most of the brown rice taken off. Three sips of tomato basil soup. Three bites of babe's chicken. Water. One piece of dark chocolate (non-dairy). Rationalization: I need the anti-oxidants.

5:00 pm: Two flaxseed crackers—no wheat, no dairy, no taste—dipped in hummus.

6:00 pm: Salmon in Mediterranean marinde, arugula and tomatos in olive oil and balsamic, two (Britney) spears of broccoli. Two tablespoons of brown rice. Water. Poured myself a glass of gorgeous Rose from the fabulous CH Wines. Took one sip and poured it out. One glass would equal no nighttime exercise.

6:40 pm: Supplements: One magnesium, two B, one whole nutrient multi, one acidophilus, one tablespoon of flax oil with Omegas 3, 6, 9.

6:41 pm: One non-dairy, non-wheat, oat-y chocolate cluster thing from Whole Foods, eaten while doing dishes. Rationalization: they were there. Water.

9:15 pm: Shot of aloe, shot of prune juice (gross). Kava tea is brewing.

Opponent .25 Jillian .75

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Week Minded 1

Because my brain is a sieve and my mind is illusional, here goes one week of diary-ing my eating and working out habits.

The goal: Workout every day. No coffee, no dairy, no wheat, no sugar, very little alcohol.

Calling anyone out there who's on his/her way to accomplishing something: start journaling.

Whether it's losing the 27 pounds of baby weight you gained and never lost, getting ahead in your job or finding spiritual harmony, integrity of your word will get you there.

Tuesday, July 4:
The Workout
6:45 am
Triceps, shoulders, back, abs (100 crunches on the ball), 40 push-ups, 30 minutes on elliptical trainer at 4 (only).

Did what I've been meaning to do for months now: cardio apres weights—finally, I felt something. I started off saying I'd just do 10 minutes of cardio. At 15, my endorphins kicked in. After 30 minutes I could have kept going, but I felt pressure (from myself) to come home to see what was up. Nothing was up. Babe and babe were sleeping. Babe had a late night of work and babe had a late night of identifying every noise outside her window.

Back later to report on the food.

The Food
8:30: Three egg white omelette with mushrooms and spinach. Had to order some salsa. Underestimated the role that cheese plays in making things taste good. Hot green tea. Ate half only—it's definitely not a trigger food. Had stand-off with babe's freshly baked blueberry muffin. I won. (Hear: Shot down in a blaze of glory)

9:00: Supplements: One acidophilus, one whole nutrient multi, two B, one magnesium, one tbsp flax with Omegas 3, 6, 9.

10:38: Not hungry.

1:00: Patron Silver margarita (it is July 4th), four shrimp, salad with chicken and tomatoes. 1/4 of babe's French fry. Patron Silver margarita (did I mention it's a holiday?)

4:00: Realize I should have started my week tomorrow. Corn chips and salsa. Lots. Weak.

7:00: One slice of flat bread pizza, three sips of Coke, four spoonfuls of ice cream. Am I crazy?
I never drink Coke and I rarely eat ice cream. What the hell happened?

Opponent 1 Jillian 0

Sunday, July 01, 2007

A Hot One

THE RED, WHITE AND HOT ISSUE IS ONLINE NOW
WE PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE GROOVE

Hot Grill Gear and Tips
Throw the Best Parties of the Season
Summer Gear You Want Now
Clothes That Go From Beach to Bistro
Summer 'Dos and Don'ts
Our Favorite Online Shopping Sites
Acid Reflux and Your Child
Healthy Ideas for Fun in the Sun
Get In Shape At Home
Do Something Important: Support Healthy Child Healthy World
And So Much More