Day 35

Quick post before going observing (I'm an astronomer...).

My oatmeal (see yesterday's preview) turned out awful.  The food warmer must be hotter than a slow cooker, not colder.  The oatmeal was burnt!  yuck.  so I threw that out.

I nibbled on carrots, sugar snap peas and a little fruit while making lunch and dinner.   Oh, here's something that turned out great:  I took some beans and grains from the freezer--a batch of just beans and some kamut, barley and wild rice cooked up, bland on it's own--and added a mashed baked sweet potato (which I decided later probably wasn't needed), some curry powder, cinnamon, and sliced grapes.  This was great!   curry powder, cinnamon and grapes is a great combination and will turn a bland dish into a yummy curry dish.

Then had big salads with the usual local and garden produce:  massaged kale, cabbage, lettuce mix, spinach mix, jicama (okay, that was from Mexico), yummy yummy asian pears! (from California), yummy kiwi berries (from California), red bell pepper, sunflower, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, d'angou pear vinegar.  okay, that wasn't such a local salad after all except for the greens.

gotta run, see you tomorrow!

Day 34 of the Challenge

wow, only 8 days left!   Then we start a new one because I'm in a groove and want to stay there!   I'm not perfect, but I'm doing pretty good.   Today's foods were similar to yesterdays.  I made a big salad from kale, cabbage, salad mix, spinach, D'angou pear vinegar, sweet red pepper, jicama (part of one), 2 nectarines, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds.  That was divided into 3 bowls for the 3 meals.  Then two small bowls of beans and greens from the freezer, and a baked sweet potato and baked beets.  Then I had some carrots and part of an asian pear when I got home.  Oh my gosh, asian pears are yummy!  I heard someone rave about them on the Fuhrman forums so I bought some and they have a very interesting flavor, almost honey like or vanilla like.  I put the rest of the asian pear into tomorrow's oatmeal.  Check out my new toy!  And it was only $10:

Here it is next to a coffee mug for scale:

I was thinking for a while that it would be nice to find a small slow cooker to cook oatmeal in.  Well, I was shopping the other day and came across this cute food warmer.  It's meant for dips and things and it says it's not a slow cooker, only a warmer.  But you don't really have to cook oatmeal so I figure it will work.  We'll find out tomorrow!  Oh, I should add cinnamon to it.  It's got a little under 1/2 cup oats (41 g), 4 chopped walnut halves (9 g), and a small handful of raisins (10 g).   But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Today's food totaled 1503 calories; protein 53 g (11%), fat 22 g (13%), carbs 298 g (76%), fiber 75 g.

Time to get some shut-eye.  I exercised hard today and I'm sleep deprived.

some useful tips from PeerTrainer

I thought these PeerTrainer daily email tips were useful:

How to Eat Healthy at a Party
Creating an Environment of Thin
The Three Bite Rule

Actually, I think I will add to this post as more come up, so I don't make a new post each time.

day something

wooey, life is busy when you return from vacation!  I gotta go to bed and get up early so this will be quick.   I took a picture of today's food but I'm too tired to download and post it, sorry.

Today I had a baked sweet potato and some small baked beets spread over 3 meals, salad spread over 3 meals, and a beans and greens meal spread over 3 meals.  The beans and greens were some cooked beans and grains from the freezer, added to that garden produce:  collards, leeks, broccoli, eggplant, mushrooms, basil, rosemary, parsley, tomatoes.   The salad was massaged kale, cabbage, red peppers, nuts and seeds, D'angou pear vinegar.    We went to a favorite store to buy frozen fruit for housemate's smoothies and I always snack on the many fruits they have available to snack on.  It amounts to about 1 serving of fruit because it's just tiny samples.  It's fun.  I also ate a plum that I bought.  Tonight I overate on carrots.  I have many weaknesses and one of them is eating during food prep.  I just really like to do that.  Rather than fight that battle right now, tomorrow I will just reserve a bunch of carrots to eat during food prep.  Since I'm gone all day, I prep my food the night before.

Good night, sleep well, have a great day tomorrow.  Have a great goal, obsess about it, be proud of it, plan to achieve it, enjoy the journey.  :)

Total calories today 1641 (more than enough), protein 68 g (12.3%), fat 24 g (12.5%), carbs 327 g (75.3%), fiber 84 g

Day 32 of the Challenge, and Napoleon Hill

I got home from vacation and the vita-mix is here!  I wish I didn't have to open the box but there is probably a receipt I'll want to keep.   Now I realize most of you won't win it and I'm sorry about that.  But as you make continuous improvements to your health, you will be winning the most valuable award of all!  And for those struggling, I've been inspired by this audiobook called "Napoleon Hills Keys to Success."   I'm actually surprised by how much I like this.  It's kind of old-fashioned in values and a bit "American-centric" so non-Americans might be a bit put off sometimes (but only sometimes I hope).  and yet, well, I did grow up with these values so it does speak to me.  Plus it presents some very positive values that were missing in my upbringing and that makes it much more appealing to me and adds some healing to some old feelings.   Anyway, getting to my point, here is a quote from the audio tape: "Every adversity carries a seed of an equivalent or greater benefit....Defeat may be a stepping stone or benefit."   Look at your obstacles and defeats, not as failures, but as the seeds of even greater success!  Seriously.  This is absolutely true.  You will learn more, you will have more insight, and by solving your problems, you will discover new things.  So if you have not done so well on this challenge, take that as an opportunity to benefit, yes, benefit from this experience and sow the seeds of success.  (Plus, you can do better on the next challenge!).

In fact I will have some learning and future successes to sow based on my modest overeating today.   On weekends I tend to let myself eat in a less ordered way to provide contrast with my more structured weekday meals.  I think that's okay, though perhaps I should revisit that.  

This morning I had yummy oatmeal wtih oats and raisins soaked overnight, heated in the microwave, let sit while showering, then added frozen cherries and blueberries and heated again.  Yum!  

Then I just ate haphazardly from about 11 am until 5 pm.  I was doing major food prep, 6 frozen smoothies for housemate, freezing lots of garden collards, and fixing tomorrow's meals for me and housemate.  oh, I did make a nice salad:

This had fresh local spinach and cabbage, really good local red sweet pepper, edamame, nuts and seeds, and D'angou pear vinegar.  Just a simple salad but very yummy because of all the fresh local ingredients.

Then I ate a ton of carrots, and also went crazy with the frozen mango which I love, and nibbled on the smoothies.  I also had some kiwi berries.  Those were yummy.   and some sugar snap peas.  Those were not great.  They haven't been great for a while.  It's not the prime season for them I guess and I should stop getting them.  I did keep track of everything I put in my mouth and it came up to more than my usual amount of calories.  But tomorrow's meals will be less than my usual amount--not on purpose but my fruit isn't ripe yet so tomorrow is lacking in fruit.  Today made up for that so I guess it just averages out.  I will go shopping tomorrow at a store with lots of fruit samples so I plan to score some there.   I will post tomorrow's food tomorrow so I don't confuse myself or you.  Here's today's summary:

Total calories 1762,  protein 52 g (10%), fat 28 g (14%), carbs 359 g (76%), fiber 74 g.

The NEXT Challenge

Okay gang, tell me what you think of this.  Our challenge ends after day 42, or Oct. 13 at midnight.   I will send a vita-mix to the lucky winner.  

Here's the thing:  I want to keep going.  I'm going to the November immersion and want to continue the streak.  Then after that we have the holidays.  I want to get through those with as little harm as possible.  We're talking  Oct. 13-Nov.24 for the second one, and then Nov. 25 - Jan. 5 for the third.  Then in the new year, everyone else will be dieting and it won't seem so hard to eat healthy.  Plus after 3 challenges, we'll have such great habits, maybe we won't need more (ha, I wish.  I think we'll always need extra motivation since we're going against the society's grain).

Here's an idea we came up with on the Fuhrman forums.  How about everyone who wants to join contributes a small chunk of change ($5?  $10?).  Once we know how many entered, we decide on a gift or just pool the money and give it to the new winner?   Or divide the cash between 3-5 winners?   I know in this challenge I will have a hard time deciding who the winner is!   If we do a money pool, who should decide who wins?  I don't mind doing it, and I'm happy that it's hard to choose because it means a lot of people are making great progress!  And of course, the best reward of all is your health!   Alternatively we could have a small jury decide but I don't want to pile on the work for myself or others.  Please send in your thoughts and ideas!

Back from vacation!

I returned home to a healthy garden.  woo, lots of collars, kale, brussels sprouts, eggplant, and broccoli!  Lots of overgrown green beans too.  The green beans were extremely productive this year.  We even have some bell peppers now--they got off to a slow start.  We had lots of over-ripe cherry tomatoes and some ripe ones too which I ate right there.  I also ate some frozen cherries as a treat.  So I updated my calories.  Tomorrow I'll get my food logs in synch with my daily report so I'm not editing the next day.  I'll have to figure out what to prep and what to freeze tomorrow.  I don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen but I do need to prep a lot to make the weeknight prep easier.  I want to go on a bike ride too.  or maybe a swim.

How are you doing?  It's day...31 today!