gone mobile

I do virtually EVERYTHING else from my phone, why not blog? It will most certainly mean 2 things.
1. These mobile posts will be much shorter.
2. Posting will be much easier and thus much more frequent.

So here is today's 6 week reboot challenge update. I, as of this morning am down 2.6 pounds. Whoohoo! I also just ate 3 mini Reese's PB cups and a Corona Light for dinner.........

How ya liking THAT transparency? I'm not here to write my perfection. I'm here to be honest about the journey. So, at the moment I feel like the best description is "epic fail".

Tomorrow? Tomorrow promises to be joyfully full of broccoli, baby spinach, and green beans.

Also, stay tuned for Phase 2. Coming next week!

good read

Here is a quick list of the books I've read (semi recently) and roughly the order that I read them in, probably.

The Eat Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno  (this is where it all started, got me interested in WHAT I eat)

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (pretty fascinating)

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (loved this book)

Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald (really more for athletes who work our A LOT, lots of talk about nutrient timing...ehhh)

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell (excellent read for the most part, very scientific)

Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman (more like The China Study in application for everyone)

The Thrive Diet by Brendan Brazier (currently reading)

There you have it. Have you read any of these? If so, what are your thoughts?

menu

Several people have been asking what exactly it is, that I am eating. So here is a recap of the last two days. Don't worry, I won't do this all the time, but at least you'll get an idea of where I'm starting.

Sunday:
Breakfast: fruit/health optimizer smoothie
1/2 frozen banana (peel and slice ripe banana in half, wrap in foil and throw in freezer for at least 24 hours)
3-4 whole frozen strawberries,
small handful frozen blueberries,
1 fresh kiwi (if I happen to have some),
2-3oz simply orange juice,
5-6oz cold water,
1 heaping scoop Vega Health Optimizer (created by Vegan Pro-Iron Man Triathlete Brendan Brazier, this provides protein, fiber, nutrients, enzymes, etc in a whole food blender drink),
2 heaping Tbsp ground flax seed.

(this is actually something I have been doing for breakfast for a while now. I love it. It is such an energizing and filling way to do breakfast, especially since nothing usually sounds "good" but I know I need to eat.)


Snack: (if hungry) usually a veggie. I particularly like a can of french cut green beans heated on the stove top

Lunch: LARGE salad
mixed baby greens,
baby spinach
green and red bell peppers
purple onion
cherry tomatoes
cucumbers
carrots
3/4-1C lentils
salsa

Snack: large apple and handful of raw almonds, 1 piece of valentine's day chocolate

Dinner:
brown rice (with soy sauce sometimes)
ton of steamed broccoli
half of apple (that Addison didn't eat)
(After the kids went to bed, I did drink the last glass of wine I had, you know, so as not to waste... )

MONDAY:
Breakfast- fruit/health optimizer smoothie
no snack, was busy at play group
Lunch- LARGE salad with lentils, PLUS 1 slice of homemade whole wheat bread, with homemade pizza sauce and chopped white onion, red and green bell pepper baked at 425 for 10ish minutes
Snack- apple and almonds, 1 piece of valentine's chocolate
Dinner- brown rice, broccoli, TON of steamed green beans

There you have it. I'm definitely not starving. I do get hungry, but not too bad and if I am hungry I eat a snack. I just make sure it is either a fruit or a veggie. Also, I drink water all day, when I feel thirsty.

recalculating...

Quick! Re-read the title of this post out loud in your very best GPS computer lady voice! No really! That's totally what I did while typing it!

Recalculate. Reboot. Recalibrate. Call it whatever you'd like, but the idea remains the same. A good old fashioned back yard do-over.

As my knowledge of food and nutrition continues to expand, it seems that I am in need of a little recalculating. The last 29.5 years of my life have probably, as a whole generalization, been tantamount to self inflicted abuse and I really want to hit 30 this summer in not only great shape but optimal health. So how do I get there? The stock answer is: 'eat sensibly and exercise', right? What the heck does that even mean? Sensible. My eating sensibility, if I am to believe one third of the recent books I've read is about as sensible as playing chicken on the highway at night with a broken leg while also wearing an eye patch...and just for kicks, make it approximately half an hour after popping a couple sleepy time Advil....

Seriously.

I had no idea. Of course, all this is based on the assumption that these books are based on solid science and fact. You'll have to decide that for yourself. (I'll list the books I've read in the past year or so in an upcoming post.) I think, for the most part the books make sense and seem pretty grounded. Sure, I disagree with some of the books, but as a whole? Good food for thought. (HA!!)

Okay, so back to the reboot. Starting today (Februrary 13) I am going to do what I will call a 6 Week Reboot. The goal is to do my best to rid my body of the gross stuff, feed it what it needs and let it heal and repair itself. Meanwhile, I also want to just put the authors of those books I've been reading to the test. Do I feel better like they purport? or worse? Do I have more energy? Improved mood? The whole bit.

So. How do I reboot? What should I eat? Or not eat? When? Where? Wearing which socks? Should I switch to brushing my teeth with my left hand? Maybe. Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've been mulling this for a while, and as such sort of half started last week. I quit all caffeine and processed sugar (except for my beloved wine) last week. This week alcohol and animal products are hitting the no-no list. So really, the plan of action is a WHOLE FOODS, PLANT BASED DIET.

Of course, I don't expect to be PERFECT at this for 6 weeks. Heck, it's day 1 and I caved and ate one piece of chocolate out of the box that the Hubs gave me for Valentines Day. But, I'm going to stick as close as possible to it. One thing going for me in this little [half]crazy experiment is that I don't have a lot of outside temptation way out here on the Rez. There isn't anywhere worth eating out at and as long as I continue to exercise a reasonable measure of self control at the grocery store, I should be good.

Now before you start typing your angry anti-vegan comment, chew your hamburger and wait. I'm not advocating this diet (yet). I'm TRYING it. The one recurring argument I keep hearing from the friends I have mentioned this to (hypothetically of course) is:
"Well sure MB, it probably is great and a lot healthier, but it's just to hard/unrealistic/impossible/unsustainable for people to really do, you know, in real life."

Maybe it is. That's one of the things I'd really like to know. Is something like this doable for the average person in the US? (I won't go into the fact that what we ARE doing diet wise in the US is obviously not working for us; see our obesity and disease rates. I'll save that for another day.) And really, almost all that I have read says that animal consumption can be as high as 10% of total calories and not seriously begin to affect your risk factors for disease. I mean, come on. I don't know that I'd even want to think about going ALL summer without a hamburger off the grill!! But, for 6 weeks? Okay. I'll give it a shot.

So there it is. A 6 Week Reboot. I plan on scheduling a full physical for after (sorry, can't do two to see any differences, I doubt our insurance would cover that) and will share the results. I will spare you the daily "what I ate today" posts, but may occasionally share. I will write a post this week about what I do plan on eating everyday. Don't worry. I am not jumping into this without having done some research. Besides, I am doing this to IMPROVE my overall health, not hurt it, so if I think the opposite is happening I will jump ship. Promise.

Also, you might have noticed I started a Twitter account yesterday. (@halfcrazyrunner) I will use that as an outlet for the what I ate vs. what I WANT to eat, diet, all things blog outlet and keep my facebook to personal, family, kids, type stuff. So follow me on Twitter to laugh with/at my daily challenges as my system (hopefully) reboots!

Happy (vegetable) eating!