Joshi's Holistic Detox: Day Two

Good evening friends!

I'm extremely exhausted, so this may be a short post. And since I ate a lot of the same foods I ate yesterday, it may also be a boring post.

I had an early start to my day and rushed out the door at 6 am. My first stop was Tim Hortons. Not for coffee, but a large green tea! Apparently 6 am Katie has willpower of steel! :D

By the time I got to school, I was ready for another green tea. That stuff is pretty tasty! I ate the breakfast I had packed up the night before:


Bananas and yogurt! Boring but delicious. I psyched myself up to face another coffee-free day, taught a couple of classes, and then rushed home for my possible phone interview (which still hadn't been confirmed).

Somewhere in there I ate some Mary's crackers and hummus (another repeat from yesterday...)


The phone interview DID happen, after much nervous waiting on my part. I think it went alright? I was pretty sleepy by the time it rolled around (er... 3:15?), and I didn't have as much time to prepare as I would have liked, but I did the best I could!

Then I had to run some errands, so I stopped at the Big Carrot for reinforcements:


Then it was time for some dinner.


What's that peeking out from the casserole dish my mother made me? Why, it's green soup! And where have we seen that before?

Yes, yesterday.

Ditto the lumpy-looking (but yummy) lentil pilaf.

But there's also something new - some wheat free, yeast free, gluten free brown rice bread with vegan margarine! I'm undecided as to how I feel about this bread. The crust was pretty good, but the centre was kind of... not so good. I will maybe toast it more next time and see how it goes.

Now I'm curled up in bed finishing off some sleepytime tea.


Looking back, I can see I didn't eat very much today at all! I guess that's what happens when you're exhausted and on the go! (Although usually, those are my prime reasons for eating a pile of crap). I probably need more food, and I might have another snack, but I might also just fall asleep immediately after hitting "publish." We'll see!

Tomorrow, I'm meeting up with some of the lovely GTA bloggers at Spring Rolls. I will peruse the online menu beforehand to see what my options are.

That's all I have for tonight! But I will warn you to stay tuned over the weekend for the contents of this bag:


It was given to me by a teacher-friend today. Let's just say I'm excited to use what's in that big box. Any guesses?

Joshi's Holistic Detox: Day One

This morning, I had a nice long sleep-in before arising to...


...check my pH levels (chezjulie was looking forward to that picture, by the way!) . I would call my results slightly inconclusive. I think it's somewhere between a 6 and 7? I know it's impossible to tell from this picture... I'll measure again after the detox to compare, obviously.

I had the kettle boiling while attending to the pH strips, and began my day with some warm water and lemon.


It was rather enjoyable!

For breakfast, I had puffed rice cereal with soy milk.


When my sister and I were little, she was allergic to all kinds of things (including dairy). We would often have soy milk with rice puffs or rice krispies, so eating it now is like a nice childhood memory.

Then, I forced myself out the door and to the gym! I did 20 minutes of intervals on the stationary bike, then some lower body and abs exercises. Booyah!

To tide me over until lunch, I had some probiotic yogurt with a banana.


Then I had the brilliant idea to add some slivered almonds!


Delicious!

For lunch, I decided to try making some green soup. Green because of all the veggies, of course!


I softened a chopped onion, some garlic, about 10 chopped baby carrots, and one stalk of celery, in one tablespoon of olive oil. Then I added some kale, spinach, broccoli, and frozen peas. I threw in some chicken stock and brought it to a boil before letting it simmer a little while.




Then I blended it all with my wonderful immersion blender. I have to admit, I was frightened. This soup smelled maybe a little too vegetable-y for my tastes...

I made some hummus (sans tahini) to eat with Mary's Crackers and the (hopefully edible) soup.


The soup ended up being pretty tasty! Success!

After lunch, I checked my e-mail only to find that I have a phone interview! I applied for a full-time position last week, and I'm very surprised they got to me so quickly (and at all!) I think the interview might end up being tomorrow afternoon, so wish me luck. I hope I don't have to resort to coffee to avoid falling asleep during it...

For dinner, I tried a recipe from the Detox book: lentil pilaf.

It consisted of lentils, brown & wild rice, slivered almonds, green onions, and chicken broth.


While it was cooking, I tried some chamomile honey vanilla tea. Can you believe I've never had chamomile tea before?!


It was okay. Not as good as coffee. ;)

The lentil pilaf, on the other hand, was pretty darn tasty! Didn't look it though, I know.


All in all, I would call my first day a total success! No headaches really, but I was dragging all afternoon. And I'm feeling pretty anxious and stressed, but I think that might just be nerves about the interview. Honestly, if I'm dragging this much tomorrow, I might have a coffee so I can focus for that... but I'll try to avoid it!

I have to get ready for bed now so I'm at the top of my game tomorrow! Good night all!

Detox Prep

I had a bit of a headache this afternoon. I think my body was anticipating tomorrow's lack of coffee.

I did some grocery shopping on my way home from work to prepare for the detox. I started off at my fave bulk store, Better Bulk (at Danforth & Woodbine). I picked up some wild and brown rice, Mary's Organic Crackers, chicken broth, slivered almonds (stay tuned for their appearance in tomorrow's lentil pilaf!) and cardamom.

Not pictured: the chocolate-covered coffee
beans I am snacking on while I write this post.

Then I went to the normal grocery store to get a few more things.


Look how happy my fruit bowl is!


I'm actually really excited to get this show on the road! But I can't help but wonder how excited I'll be when my morning coffee is replaced by my morning warm-water-with-lemon.

Tomorrow: Day one of the detox, including an attempt to measure the acidity of my saliva (using pH test trips). I can hardly wait, can you?

Experiment.

Hello bloggies!

This semester has been off to a busy start, which is my excuse for my lack of posts. Do you forgive me?

I've been proud of my activity levels since the new year, but my eating habits still leave a lot to be desired. My tracking has been sporadic, and my weigh-ins have reflected that.

It's time for something radical.


When I read about Kerry's experiences with Joshi's Holistic Detox over at Skinny Me Coming Soon (she describes the detox in this post), I remember being very intrigued. Last week, I went back and re-read her entries, and decided to pick the book up. I read the book over the weekend (in between grading about a billion math tests), and decided to give it a try.

Now, I'm not a fan of extreme diets, but I think this detox is mostly sensible. The main things I will be eliminating over a 21-day period (starting this Thursday) are:

• red meat
• dairy (except Greek yogurt or Bio yogurt)
• fruit (except bananas)
• wheat, gluten, and yeast
• alcohol
• coffee and tea (except herbal tea and green tea)
• sugar

The main goal of the detox, to my understanding, is to reduce the acidity of the body and make it more alkaline.

I personally do not think it's absolutely necessary to eliminate all these foods to be healthy or get rid of "toxins." I am trying the detox for the following reasons:

• Eliminate cravings. Over the past few months, my relationship with food has felt like an addiction. I feel compulsions to eat certain foods to excess, and my cravings often feel uncontrollable. If I cut out these foods (mainly sugar and refined carbs), I think my cravings will eventually go away.
• Increase my motivation. I have hardly been cooking at all. I don't feel that old excitement to make a new, healthy dish or plan out my meals. I've been eating out WAY too often and haven't been tracking regularly at all.
  
• Try new foods. If I follow this detox, I won't be able to eat the way I have been lately (which has consisted of a lot of convenience foods and take-out). This will force me to cook and discover new healthy foods and meals that I can incorporate into my everyday life after the detox is over.
• Yes, lose weight. I'm still around 20 lbs higher than my lowest weight. If I stick to healthy eating for the 21 days of the detox, I will likely lose a few pounds. This will hopefully make me feel more like myself, help my clothes fit a little better, and motivate me to continue tracking.
  

I am planning to track my Weight Watchers Points Plus values throughout the detox. It's not going to be a crash diet or anything like that - I will make sure that I'm not eating too much or too little.

In order to keep me on track, I have borrowed a camera from my parents that is much nicer than my own. I will try to photograph as much as my food as possible to share with you all.

I am also receiving lots of support from my boyfriend. He has offered to give up chocolate while I'm on the detox (and he loves his chocolate!). Since I'm going to be blogging as often as possible to tell you how I'm doing, he's challenging himself to blog every day, too. Not only that, it was all his idea! I'm one lucky lady. :)

I don't want to let him down, or let you down. I'm afraid I will go out in a blaze of caffeinated glory around day 2, but I won't let that stop me from trying. Publicly. Because I really just don't want to let myself down anymore.

In the groove?

The past few months, I've had many frustrating moments just trying to get dressed in the morning. I feel very discouraged because my clothes aren't fitting the way they used to (obviously - I've regained 20 pounds!). Sometimes, I go through a ridiculous number of outfits before I find one I feel comfortable enough in to wear in front of a classroom.

Thankfully, the past couple of weeks, I've been doing a better job of focusing on the positive. Instead of being discouraged by snug clothing that used to be too loose, I am using it to motivate me to stay on track and reach my goals. After all, this clothing is proof that I can do it! I've done it before, after all. :)

I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm back in the swing of things. Even though last week wasn't "perfect" (I had a couple of evenings where I didn't track everything I ate), it was still pretty good, and I worked out four times. At my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday, I was down 2.2 lbs! I still haven't gotten to where I was before Christmas, but at least I'm going in the right direction again.

This week is off to a great start. I made it to the gym yesterday and today, and I've tracked all my eats thus far. I've also been sticking with one of the strategies I discussed in my new year's resolution post - drinking enough water. I've been tracking my water pretty faithfully and have definitely increased my intake.

Today's workout was extra-fun: I took my mom to a Zumba class! She liked it so much, that she wants us to start going regularly! I'm really excited about this, because I'm much more likely to stick to a workout if I have a buddy.

Before I go unwind and get ready for bed, I need to share with you some very rude yoga behaviour I witnessed yesterday:

I was trying a yoga class at my gym for the first time. There were three girls sitting up at the front beside me. Before the class started, one of the girl's cell phones went off. She reached for it, and I assumed she was turning it off... nope! It continued to go off repeatedly (at least 4 times) throughout the class. I think she may have actually been texting at one point.

Not only that, all three girls were constantly whispering, chatting, and giggling at everything. It made it super difficult to actually focus and try to meditate. Towards the end, when we were lying on our backs and trying to clear our minds, they very noisily gathered up their stuff and left.

Those same girls were at Zumba today, but that's a much different environment. Hopefully they stay away from yoga in the future!

That's all I have to report today - I hope you all have a great week!

In 2011.

In 2011, I will reach my Weight Watchers goal weight and become a lifetime member.

No more messing around. I know I can do this! This is my most important resolution for 2011.

How will I do it?

Well, tracking, going to my Weight Watchers meetings, and exercising regularly are definitely part of the plan. I'm also going to choose one or two healthy habits to focus on each month.

For the month of January, I will focus on the following:

• drinking enough water each day and tracking it
• finding time each day to meditate, even if only for 1 minute (inspired by one of Angela's "Eleven in 2011")

These are simple things, but I think they will make a huge difference.

To help curb night-time eating out of boredom (I hope!), I plan to spend more time on activities that de-stress me and make me happy. Which brings me to my second resolution:

In 2011, I will knit a sweater.

I love knitting, and I love starting projects (including sweaters)... the problem is finishing them! I don't want to think about how many times I've started a knitting project and not followed through. I think it will be totally rad to have a sweater that I've made all by myself! I'm pretty sure I'll tackle this one.

And my last resolution, which is hopefully not too vague:

In 2011, I will get organized.

I love my apartment, but right now it looks like a tornado swept through it. I plan to set up some new shelving and have a place for everything!

I also need to get my finances organized. I'd like to continue to pay down my insane student debt and help get a better handle on my pocketbook.

One thing I think will help is to go grocery shopping only once a week. It's not an exaggeration to say I love going to the grocery store! I'll often stop in several times a week to pick a few things up. I'm very good at only buying healthy groceries, but I find myself throwing out food that's gone bad much too often.

By planning my meals (at least partially), writing out a grocery list, and shopping once a week, I will keep my kitchen organized, save money, and help my healthy eating efforts.

So far, I think I'm off to a good start! Today, I went back to the gym after a hiatus of over two weeks, and I got a bunch of healthy groceries and cleaned out my fridge!

I'm really excited to see what I can accomplish this year. :)

Looking back on 2010

I started this blog last January with a post about New Year's resolutions. I mentioned two of them on this blog - how I wanted to reach my goal weight and become a Weight Watchers Lifetime member, and how I wanted to eliminate artificial sweetener in my coffee...

One out of two ain't bad, right??

I used to take three sweeteners in my coffee.... gross!!! I can't imagine how much aspartame my poor body has had to deal with. But I'm very proud to announce that, in a relatively short amount of time, I was able to cut that number from three down to ZERO. So at least I met one health-related goal in 2010!

As for reaching my goal weight: Nope, not even close! I gained weight instead. But instead of dwelling on that fact, I will treat the new year as a fresh start (like I always do).

2010 was a year of changes, including some difficult ones. Some significant events that come to mind are:

• Trying Booty Camp Fitness, joining the gym, and trying yoga. I'm still not in as much of a routine as I'd like to be, but I definitely put the tools in place to become a fitness machine!

• Going through a difficult break-up & dating someone new for the first time in years.

• Reaching my Weight Watchers 10% goal in May.
  

• My father suffering a fairly serious heart attack and being diagnosed with congestive heart failure (he is also a diabetic) - on the bright side, he has quit smoking. :)

• A fairly stressful job interview process for a full-time teaching job - I didn't get the job, I'm still "just" a contract teacher, but I learned a lot from the interview, and was very proud of myself for getting one in the first place.

As is evident by my weight gain, eating is definitely my number one coping mechanism for stressful situations.

Over the past couple of months, I have also been doing a lot of knitting! I don't think I've mentioned it here on the blog, but I love knitting and fancy myself pretty good. ;) In fact, for my mom's birthday (right before Christmas), I knit her a milkweed shawl that I consider my best work ever. I didn't manage to get a good picture of it yet, but here it is during blocking (I soaked it in water and pinned it in the shape I wanted it to take):


Knitting is definitely something I want to do more of in 2011 - but I will talk about my aspirations for 2011 in a post tomorrow (yes, I'm planning two posts in two days... after a hiatus of over a month...)

So stay tuned for tomorrow's 2011 post, and have a lovely Saturday evening!