Monday, March 30, 2009

Slowly But Surely

I skipped today! Yippeee! I did not think I could do it yet, but I was so bored with doing my regular workout, that I decided to take a risk with the skipping rope. (At this point in time I must give a fantastic shout out to Nike Air's, without which I might have incurred another 3 or so months of immobility. I thought it was all hype, but wearing Nike Air is like walking on air.) Thanks to my former workout I didn't know when I went to 80 skips, in a few minutes, and without pain. The feeling was/is exhiliarating. So much so that I shall begin my diet blog again.


Chili!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Yes Retreat, No Surrender

I'm taking a break for a little while to reassess my raison d'etre. if you've been reading this blog you'll see that my diet has been anything but. I need to look inwards, before I relapse totally, so I will stop logging for a while and just write whatever 'the spirit leads'.

Chili!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Keeping The Faith

I got this story in my mail and I absolutely had to share. It's an incredible and inspiring story, at least for me, and it makes those of us who just want to lose that 10kg or that 20kg, see that it is not that difficult .

Anyway, here's today's log:

Fat day

1 00pm
excuse-busting workout

2:30ish
eba
okro soup
1 piece of chicken

4:35pm
fried plantain
fried egg
malt

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Sunday, 25th March

11: 55pm
excuse busting workout

1pm
oatmeal
2 apples

3ish
one mango

3.30pm
rice with dried fish
one boiled egg


Monday, 23rd March

10.30 am
Excuse busting workout


11.11 am
Oatmeal
1 apple


6.30 pm
Noodles stir-fry
2 cans of malt


10-ish
excuse busting workout



tuesday, 24th March

1.30pm
Excuse-busting workout

2-ish pm
8 pieces fried plantain
Fried egg


5-45pm
eba
Okro soup
2 pieces of chicken




In truth I am definitely not keeping to my diet but I know why. I am going through a lot of stuff now, and like before, food serves as a comfort to me. I know that's what I should be kicking against and trying to overcome, but right now I don't have the energy, interest and werewithal to fight it. I have bigger fish to fry, and fry I must. However, I am still writing down what I eat so that when I am able to retrace my steps I can see where I am coming from. But instead of beating myself up about where I have failed diet-wise, I have decided to focus on the milestones I have recorded on this journey to a smaller me.

The first one would be that I now try hard to eat a healthy breakfast, whatever time I wake up. before I saw it as a sign of strength to go until lunch, but now I realise that that can ruin your whole diet plan. People wonder why I eat oatmeal for breakfast almost everyday. The answer is simple: I love it. The way I eat it is healthy; I don't put any sugar or milk. And I make it very thick. I just love the consistency and taste of the grainy oatmeal in my mouth accompanied by a tart fruit, like apples or pineapples.

I can actually resist coca-cola now. Before that used to be my meal, or my meal accompaniement. I would have it for breakfast, with lunch, as a snack, etc. My joy was unlimited the day I went to a friend's office, was directed to the fridge and I took a bottle of water without a second glance at the numerous varieties of soda in the fridge.

I can also resist choccolates. You will not understand how big a deal this is. when I made a food shopping list chocolates were always a part. and in large quantity. I remember once when my closest friend went shopping for me, and I gave her my list. She thought I was joking when I she saw that I had written chocolate as the first item, and beside it I had written a large amount of money to be spent on it. When she realised I was serious she couldn't believe it.... I no longer put chocolates on my list, and I don't miss it anymore.

I actually love eating healthy. I cringe when the only option I have is to eat something unhealthy. I feel happy when I am eating something healthy primarily because I know what it is doing or will do to my body. That's also how I manage to stay away from unhealthy choices. I go online and google any food I eat to find out about its nutritional value and calorific content.

I exercise more now. and I am beginning to like and accept my body


Chili!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Bad day, bad day


3-ish pm

fried plantain,moi moi, fish


9ish

1 50 cl coke
2pkts biscuit
2 slices pineapple


yeah, yeahh. My fridge is bad, I had to buy all the stuff outside. what can I say?

Friday, March 20, 2009

12:23pm
oatmeal
1 apple


3:30
3/4 bottle coke
1 cupcake (I went out)


5.30pm
one pkt noodles
1 large piece chicken

Thursday, March 19, 2009

I realised that I always speak of the excuse-busting workout but I never quite said what it was. Well, this is another thing that I am indebted to Oprah for.

I actually hate exercising, but I realise how important it is. There have been times that I wake up feeling very overwhelmed with the problems that I had but after exercising I had a 'can-do' feeling. Also, I am scared of growing older and finding that I have this illness or that illness, just because I neglected my well-being. While exercise is not the 'cure-all' for all illnesses, its effects and benefits are undeniable. And that's not even counting the aesthetic gains.

But despite knowing all these I still had several reasons not to exercise. One of them was the fact that I could not afford the time - and sometimes the money- to join a gym. Also, I love, LOVE to swim but I have been to some nightmare swimming pools that had no running water in the showers and were unkempt, that I was put off. Imagine making the long drive to the club only to find that you cannot swim that day. Then I bought a skipping rope, and I would have used it had I not had the ankle injury, so I never exercised, but I knew I needed to.

Enter, Oprah Winfrey and Dr Oz, with some show on 'extending your warranty'. The idea was that a few changes in your lifestyle can make you live a longer, healthier life. Part of this plan was the excuse-busting workout. For me it was a dream come true, because it busts all excuses. It takes just 20 minutes ( you can extend it if you like), requires no equipment, and strengthens you. I actually credit it for the rapid healing of my ankle, as it contains some ankle strengthening exercises. Check it out here and see if it's for you.


Another site I have discovered is this great recipe site. Now there are any sites that give you recipes but this one is very practical because apart from breaking down the nutritional content, including the calorific content, of the meal, you can actually type in how many people you want to serve the meal and it gives you the measure of ingredients you need to use. Also- and this is my favourite thing to do- when you have certain ingredients and have no idea what to do with them, you can just type them into the 'search' area and you are given up to 10 000 ideas. It's brilliant especially if you like something exotic, once in a while. Here's a link to the site.

Bon Apetit

Chili!

Thursday, 19th March

1pm
medium bowl of quaker oats
1 medium apple

3 10pm
slightly large (for a diet) bowl of rice
2 pieces of chicken

7 02pm
rice
2 pieces of chicken



ps.

my fridge has broken down so I've had to fry what can't keep (chicken), and cook everything else. And even though I have given out food to my maiguard and everyone else who comes in contact with me, i still have a lot sitting on my cooker. Also , I'm not exercising right now because I am on my period and I feel like the flow is more when I do. Just so you know why my diet sounds so 'un-dietlike'.

Chili!

My Still Small Place

I am so ashamed to tell what I ate for breakfast. I will say it eventually, but I cant now. Anyway, the good news is that I have found out why I was craving sweets and food so much. My period is imminent. But on another note I need to go into that still, small place soon, to resolve some lingering emotional issues. I am noticing that I am negotiating with some personal issues that I should have let go.

As a matter of fact, this post will be about how I came to begin this journey of healthy eating, and why. It's a journey I must retrace because I have to plot the route ahead.

This was the last post I wrote before my computer crashed. But I just realised that even though my resolve to lose weight does seem to be waning, I can almost certainly say it's because my period was approaching with alarming, hormonal alacrity. LOL. Well, deo veolente, I will start afresh tomorrow. I feel better now, and I really would love to reduce my dress size.

So where was I?

Yea. I was going over the reasons I decided to embark on a diet, apart from the obvious. I was watching- or was I reading?- an episode of Oprah, when she spoke about the fact that she had gained weight again. Now, I'm not one of those who bow down in worship when Oprah is on the air, but I do have a healthy respect for her achievements and the depth of some of her topics, so I take advice that I like from her show, on board, from time to time. So, anyway, she had lost quite a lot of weight a while back, I think about two years ago, and she was looking quite svelte. She actually celebrated this because it seemed ahe was finally free of the struggle. But ccome this yearr, and all the weight just came back, in full force. To get back on track, she decided to work through the issues that were making her eat, with the help of her friend, and nutritionist, Bob Green. She made this walk paticipatory by turning the sessions into a series of interactive webcasts. Now, I always heard that over eating and weight are external signs of an internal problem, but I never really took that seriously. I mean, if the thing you overeat is delicious what other problem could you possibly have? However, Oprah's resolve caught me at a time when I was aching for a physical, emotional and psychological make-over. So I signed up for the webcast and attended. And oh!, what an epiphany.

I can't quite recall everything I learnt there right now, but I remember the 'circle of life'. Bob asked everyone to draw a circle and then section it into at least 6 segments, kind of like a pie chart. Then, we were to label each segment, according to the areas of our life, eg, health, finance, romance, career, etc. if you are doing good in any area and you were satisfied with how it was going you were to put a '+' sign in it. If you were doing bad, you were to put a '_' sign. At the end of the exercise, check those areas that you have the '-' sign aand write at least one thing that you can do to make it better, everyday. I tell you, that exercise opened my eyes to what I was really battling with, and in dealing witn them I have begun to eveolve into a person I actually like.

Other than that, I felt very unhealthy and unattractive. I was addicted to chocolates and sodas, I was just not living out of the centre of myself. I knew I had more to offer, to myself and the world but I felt I was being hindered by my weight. (I now realise that my weight was just a reflection of how messed up I was, inside.)

It's not over yet, but now I am more conscious of why and what I eat, it's the when I am still fighting to contain. i also deliberately,and happily make healthy choices not for cosmetic reassons but because I like myself enough to do that. And I can forgive myself, when I have slipped up.

If you think I'm speaking gibberish, maybe you should read the transcript of the webcasts, to get a better perspective. I hope you get as much illumination as I did, or even more.



Chili!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I'm back!!!!!!

I got my laptop back and I AM BACK!!

It's so good to be here.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Tuesday , 10th March

12-ish
excuse busting workout

1:23pm
oatmeal (fistful) with 3 tablespoons evaporated milk

2:46pm
1 carrot


4:08pm
Rice (about 1 cup)
stewed vegetables and chicken (made by frying chopped chicken breast in very little oil and adding carrots, green pepper, red pepper, tomatoes and onions with a little chicken broth, to simmer)



7:43pm (sue me)
3 little cubes of sweet potato
remaining sauce from lunch


10-ish
excuse busting workout

If there's anything I've learnt it is to eat wide. before my diet consisted of chocolates and soda (coke) but now I've healed that. And I learnt that confronting your eating issues starts with confronting your issues. I may not have lost a lot of weight physically, but believe me I have lost baggage mentally, and counting. Once my ankle heals, I'll up the exercise, because I also realise that I cannot totally embrace hunger, until about 8pm.
The thing is I like food. My favourite channels are cooking channels. I love to cook and to taste different foods. How will I lose weight? And I don't understand why I should stay hungry. I know, I know, I'm making excuses for the crap I ate today. But when you have nothing to do all day at home, what do you do? I found this delicious food blog, quite by accident a while ago, Nigerian chef, and a lot of Nigerian food. You can check it out here.

here's today's rundown

12-ish
Excuse busting workout

3pm

Beans (made with ground peppers, onions, crayfish, dry fish and little oil)
8 pieces of fried plantain


1 bottle of malt
2 pkts of butter bread biscuit

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Sunday, 8th March

12-ish
excuse-busting workout

1:00pm
small bowl of oatmeal
1 apple


5:00pm
1 pkt noodles with 3 carrots, 1/8th onion, half a green pepper, 3 chilis (was gonna do beans but it got late)
1 large drumstick

6:00pm
1 medium apple

9:00pm-ish
excuse- busting workout

930-sth pm
one large slice of watermelon

Friday, March 6, 2009

Ok, I now realise that I maay be eating healthy but I am certainly not on a diet anymore. I cant seem to starve myself anymore. I eat to fill my hunger. And my back fat is the better off for it. I have to retrace my steps


10: 00 am
1 apple

2pm
Excuse-busting workout


6pm
Stir-fry noodles with carrots, green pepper, chilis, onions and prawns
1 large drumstick
1 amstel malta (c'mon it has only 198 calories, and no sugar)

10: 15pm
half an apple

I've been binging for days, I don't know why. There's definitely no psychological reason, that's for sure. I think that I need to eat earlier as when I eat late I eat anyhow. But the problem is that I sleep late and I wake up late. I'm a bit of an insomniac. I guess I should try to sleep earlier, that would be the solution. And oatmealwith fruits for breakfast will help keep me in check. If I cant exercise as much as I want to I can still reduce the junk I eat.

On a brighter note, I've discovered sweet potato! I always knew about it but I dismissed it cos I thought it was just another source of carbohydrates. Turns put it is packed full of nutrients and it has much, much less calories than yam, and, it can be used the way you use yam. (Well except for pounded yam anyway, which I dont care too much about.) And for those who can't stop boiling their yamm with sugarr this tastes like the effect you want to achieve. So here's to sweet potato which will now be in my salads, alongside my beans, with vegetables, etc. Yay!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

I have to write down the reasons why I embarked on a this diet and exercise program cos I'm running out of steam.

Coke made me addicted, bloated, eroded my teeth, gave me a cough and of course made me fat.

My real age test added 10 years to my present age!

I developed a large, potruding, ugly stomach

I can never find clothes my size

My feet became swollen

I am tired and lazy all the time.

I am angry and moody

My nails were brittle and cracking


3.30pm

1 pear



5:09pm

A few spoonfuls of rice
1 chicken wing
half chicken breast
1 apple

8:10pm
1 50cl coke
1 pkt of Butter bread biscuits

Monday, March 2, 2009

Monday, the 2nd

I did my excuse-busting workout at about 12 noon today, and then had what is supposed to be my meal for the day:

Time: 1.05 pm

Meal: 21/2 ladles of jollof rice
1 liver piece
1 piece of goat meat

Time : 5pm
1 whole roast plantain

Time: 6:03pm
2 cherries (agbalumo)

Time: 7:00pm
Half cob, boiled corn

Time: 7:1opm
the other half, boiled corn (I read that corn is nutritious)


Time: 9:50sth pm (i know,i know)
1 small cherry

Time: 11pm
1 ear of boiled corn

Observations
If I am not full I cannot shut down at a certain time (8pm as I promised myself). I will do well to practice my former, one meal a day technique cos I don't measure the things I consider snacks, and that's not good. Also, the trick I used to practice before of telling myself I would eat whatever I craved tomorrow, doesn't seem to work anymore. I wonder if it is because due to my present circumstances I do not believe I will have it tomorrow.

I wish this leg would heal. I could skip and go swimming. On the plus side I actually am excited at the sight of fruits now. It's unbelievable. I feel the same rush I used to feel over chocolates and coke. Plus I instinctively make healthy choices now. I wish I could find a recipe that makes beans taste like rice to me. LOL.