Week One- Done!

Step and I have been on the, take charge of our health track for 9 days now. Some days have been super hard. Some days have been glorious. Over all I can report that eating healthier has made me feel much more in control and upbeat. 

Thursday was our prearranged relaxation day. We would eat a healthy breakfast and lunch, but would have pizza for dinner. I wound up have three pieces of pizza and 6 wings. Then we played. Then I had a maple chiller, donut and some doritos over the course of the evening. 

I was up that night with heartburn and spent the next day feeling hungover. Lesson learned. 

That said, we will still have a once per week meal that we can splurge with. We don't look at calories, fat or nutrition- we just have what we like and savour it. For us, this is the best way to make better choices the rest of the week. 

While I'm not focused on scale numbers, I am keeping track to make sure that I'm getting enough food, I don't want to lose weight too quickly. I am down 4.5 pounds over the week. It's a bit much for one week, but the first week generally has a greater number loss than the rest will. I will keep an eye on this. 

Step is still going strong on his Soylent, though now he will be eating dinners with me, and keeping to the liquid when he meals alone. 

In other news, I was hoping to have some new videos up, but my six month old phone died. I have a loaner right now, but the camera isn't great. Not sure if or when I'll have my phone back. If LG doesn't agree that it's the motherboard and not the tiny chip on the screen (which happened the first week I had the phone, and has no baring on it's death), it will be either $500+ to fix or $150 for a new one, under our warranty, neither of which we can afford. Here's to hoping LG are decent chaps and just sends me a refurbished one. 

I've decided to do Camp Nanowrimo this year. If you don't know what it is, Nanowrimo is "National Novel Writing Month", where you attempt to write 50K words in a months time. I usually do the November session and have had 2 novel completed this way. This years decision to do the Camp session as well is because I'm feeling super creative. I have a rough idea for a story and I don't want to wait till November. Now I know that I could just go ahead and write it, but I love the support and yes- pressure that comes with this format. Wish me luck. My working title is, "Beyond the Mist". 

Well I hope everyone is having a great week! 

~Tams

Soylent: Day 2....or not.

Hey everyone.

I am somewhat embarrassed to report that I only lasted one day on Soylent. By the time dinner rolled around I was so filled with anxiety, I was much happier being hungry, than drinking any more of it. The taste, combined with the texture was just too much for me to handle.

I've spent last night feeling like a failure, feeling like I've let Step and myself down. Then I asked myself, why were we doing this to begin with? To detox from sugar and the less than stellar patterns of eating we had fallen into. To get healthier. Step wanted a kick start. A way for him to really regulate what he puts into his body. To stop the snacking and to learn what it's like to eat when hungry, but not have to worry about food.

For me, Soylent put too much pressure on food. On the fact that I wasn't getting anything solid. On the fact that what I was getting, was making me feel nauseated. I found myself falling into past disordered eating patterns of thinking, "OK...well I'm hungry, but I don't want that stuff. That's OK. I need to lose weight anyway, so I can just skip dinner and try the other stuff in the morning.". That is not healthy for me.

So while Step is continuing on with his week of liquid nutrition, I'm spending my week making only healthy choices. Deciding what is best for my body. Getting plenty of movement. No sugar. No junk food.

Here's a look at what I've had today so far:

Breakfast: 
-2 eggs and a piece of whole wheat toast

Lunch:
-homemade tabbouleh with quiona, parsley, tomatoes,
cucumbers, green onions, garlic and lemon

-a banana

Snack:
2 cups of popcorn








Dinner:
-Strawberry almond salad with balsamic vinegar as dressing

-homemade spit pea soup with carrot 











I've drank lots of water, and spent the day cleaning, gardening and recording auditions. I'm feeling pretty good about myself right now.

I will interview Step at the end of his journey for the podcast , to see how it was for him. I will keep you guys updated here on my progress as I go.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

`Tams

Soylent: Day One, Meal One

I woke up this morning feeling amazing. I had the first good nights sleep in a week, so after a quick shower I meandered into the kitchen to make my tea and see about a veggie omelet for breakfast. This is what greeted me like a mallet to the face.

Right. Soylent. Today is the first day of our new 'eating' plan. Looking at it sitting there, basking in the glow of the morning sun I thought to myself, "This won't be so bad. Think of all of the upsides. Fewer dishes to wash. Saved time. Saved brain power trying to decide on dinner."

Step mixed my jug for me and I poured my first 250 calories.

Doesn't look TOO bad. Kind of like a beige milkshake.

After letting it get cold in the fridge for a while, I took my first sip.

Gritty. Thick. Very strong wheat flavour. It is advertised as a delicious neutral flavor. I call bull. There is nothing neutral about the flavour. It's like drinking a bag of wheat. Pretty unpleasant.

I managed to gulp down the first glass. I think the worse part is the burps it gives you later. And the reliving that amazing wheat flavour.

We also need to blend it more. Here is my glass when I finished.

It's now 12:48 and I last ate at 9:30ish. I'm feeling hungry now. The shake mostly satisfied my hunger until now.

The problem now is, I have to have another one and I really don't want to. I'd rather stay hungry.

That said, I will go get another one. There are suggestions as to how to make the flavour more pleasant- peanut butter, cinnamon... I think I'm going to add some frozen strawberries.

OK. I'm going in. Wish me luck.


*UPDATE: Adding strawberries turned the beige to a delightful pink colour. It did not change the taste one bit. Ugh. Not sure how I'm going to get enough calories into me today.