Vegan Epicurean

31 Days to Better Health - Day 27

2012-01-27T21:07:00.000-05:00

Happy Fridayeveryone! The weekend is here! *woohoo* I am very much looking forward to 48 hourswith my hubby. My plan is to try towrite as much of the posts for today, Saturday and Sunday’s as I can before Dancomes home from work tonight. Sincethese January posts have been taking me most of the day to write I am not surehow much I can get done today but I am going to try to write most of the nextthree. Wish me luck, since I know that Iam going to need it.

What did youthink of yesterday’s post? Until Istarted talking to people and their food choices and diets I didn’t realize howcommon it was for people to stick rigidly to particular diets. While it wasnice to not be alone, it was also sad since I had broken out of the trap butmany others had not. I hope somethingthat I wrote helped you to look at food choices differently. For those of you who are just joining us hereis the recap of what we have accomplished so far to remind us all of how muchwe have covered during the first 24 days of January:

Day 1 –Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 –Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion

Day 3 –Listed Our Goals for January

Day 4 –Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While

Day 5 – Lookedat Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition

Day 6 – PracticedConscious Eating

Day 7 – HaraHachi Bu

Day 8 –Taking the Stress Out of Meal Time

Day 9 –Acknowledgments

Day 10 – NoExcuses, Do it Anyway

Day 11 – Isit True?

Day 12 –Have You Really Connected With Someone Today?

Day 13 –Motivation is a Decision

Day 14 -Successfully Navigating Dinner at an Unfamiliar Restaurant

Day 15 -What Do You Want, Have You Asked?

Day 16 –Treating Others as You Wish to be Treated

Day 17 –Food as a Budget

Day 18 –Silence Your Inner Critic

Day 19 –Replace I Have to With I Want to

Day 20 –Identifying Your Rituals

Day 21 –Face Your Fears

Day 22 –Give Up the Diet Mentality

Day 23 – TheMeaning and/or Purpose of Food

Day 24 –Trigger Foods/Situations/People

Day 25 –Words Have Meaning

Day 26 –Lose All-Or-Nothing Thinking

Decide tolive as if:

This is oneof my favorite topics as well as being one of the most powerful exercises interms of making changes. Once youunderstand what I mean by “deciding to live as if” I think you will agree withme. I hope that you are willing to give it a try to see what happens for you.

People oftensay that they will do something once they get motivated. I wrote about this earlier in January,specifically on day 13 with my “motivation is a decision” post. However as weremember from that prior post you have to decide what you want and then putthings into action which is why motivation is a decision. Today’s post is also about decision,specifically about deciding to live as if your life is already exactly as youwant it to be. This means that we needto know precisely what we want first, and then the rest follows naturally.Since we will be putting together a vision board this weekend I thought thispost was a great lead in to that.

A few daysago (day 25) we began thinking about what we wanted our lives to look like. Weare going to take that idea even further today. Go back to what you wrote in your journal about what you wanted yourlife to look like. For those who didn’t do those exercises I am going toreiterate them here:

Visualizeyour life as you want it to be. Theimportant thing is that you picture all the details of your new life. Below are a series of question to help yousee the details:

· What do you look like in your perfect life?Are you slimmer or more fit? Do you dress the same? Do you carry yourselfdifferently with this new confidence?

· How do you feel in your new life? What is your attitude toward challenges now?

· What type of things do you do now? Have your leisure time activitieschanged? Are you home less often? Maybe you are going to the Caribbean for awinter vacation since you are comfortable showing ore skin. Really think about how life would change ifyou were truly happy with who you were.

· Do you have the same job or career? Maybe you don’t like your current job butdon’t feel confident to change it. Whatwould you be doing if you loved yourself?

· What do your relationships look like now? With this new confidence is your love lifebetter?

This isthe fun part; we get to write our personal slogan. This can be anything positive the sky is thelimit. Here are some examples ofempowering personal slogans:

· I can do anything that I set my mind to.

· I will make good choices for my health everyday.

· Life is a learning experience and I plan toabsorb everything that comes my way.

· Every day brings a new opportunity to grow andchange.

Now that youhave a mental picture of your life I want you to take it even farther. This is where we are going to live as if weare already that person which we pictured. If you were living that life now what would change about your day-to-daylife? If you have never lived that lifebefore then I want you to picture a healthy friend and imagine what they woulddo. Really think about the details ofyour life and get specific. Here aresome questions to help you out:

· How does healthy you start the morning? Are you getting up and doing yoga, Pilates orgoing to the gym? Maybe you have a morning date with a friend in theneighborhood to cover a few miles and then get a plain tea at the local coffeeshop. Possibly you have a friend thatyou meet the gym for a morning exercise class or swim. Imagine all the possibilities and write themdown.

· What does this new healthier you have frombreakfast? I am sure this person isn’tskipping breakfast or having a Danish, but what are they eating?

· Now it is lunch time for healthier you, what areyou having? Do you routinely pack your lunch so that you have control over thequality of your food and the ingredients or do you know all the healthy optionsnear your office?

· Are you getting outside with part of your lunchbreak to get in extra steps into your day?

· Speaking of steps are you taking the stairsinstead of the elevator? Healthier youwould do that right?

· Do you pick up the phone to talk to a colleagueor do you walk to their office to discuss the topic at hand? Maybe you suggest a walking meeting todiscuss the latest project you are working on instead of being stuck in theoffice or in a conference room.

· Are you working late or are you heading out ofthe office early enough to go to the gym, jog around the harbor, do somegardening, or some other healthy activity? Healthy you wouldn't go home and sit on the couch watching TV everynight do they?

· What types of food will you be having fordinner? Do you eat at a specific time ordo you wait until you are hungry? Do you have your meals planned for the weekor do you stop at the farmers’ market or grocery store on your way home to pickup what is local and in season that cook what looked good that day? When you cook are you making intentionalleftovers for lunch the next day?

· After dinner what will you be doing? Maybe you do a little yoga to wind down, oryou could be meditating. Are you readinga book, going for a walk, or catching up with a friend?

· Are you getting 8 hours of sleep now that youare healthy? Does this mean that youneed to get into bed earlier than normal? This may be required if you are nowgoing to the gym or exercising before work.

· What are your weekends like now? Do you make plans with friends to stayactive? What specific activities do you take regularly engage in?

Did myquestions give you an idea of what you need to think about? The goal is to think about every facet ofyour life and how it will change when you are living the life that you want. Ihope you understand the level of detail that you need in order to make thiswork. Please take time to answer the questions with as much detail as youcan. Really get into this exercise. If it helps imagine that you are an actor playinga role and try to get into this new healthy person’s skin. If you answer the questions with greatspecificity it will be much easier to put these things into practicetomorrow. Okay I just heard thecollective groans when I said “put these things into practice tomorrow.” You didn’t think we were going to stop atthinking about it did you? Thinkingabout this stuff won’t help you if you aren’t willing to do the work. Sorry,but life really doesn’t work that way though it would be if it did.

Today’sexercise which you will start today but will continue for at least a week andhopefully will become permanent:

1. Write the answers to all the questions abovein your journal. Add as much detail as you possibly can to make it easier foryou to follow through with the actions. It may take you a few days or a week to get all the details down onpaper, but it will be time well spent. The act of thinking about how you would live differently and thenwriting it down will help crystallize the actions in your mind. It will also help you with the upcomingvision board exercise.

2. Now start to “live as if” you life were alwaysas you want it to be. The only cautionthat I will give you is if you new life includes a lot of exercise and you arecurrently sedentary that you start slowly. If you are over 40 years old, or have more than 30 pounds to lose go tothe doctor for a physical to make certain that you are healthy enough to startexercising. However even if you are over40 or have more than 30 pounds to lose you can move more. Start with easy activities like walkingmore. You can start immediately makingdietary changes.

3. Before you do anything ask yourself what the“healthy you” would be doing? The ideais that you need to put healthy habits into place before you will gethealthy. There is nothing magical aboutbeing healthy it is the state that naturally results as an effect of a manyhealthy decisions and resulting actions. Did you notice that we are back to the law of cause and effect again? When you do healthy things you will becomehealthy. If you don’t like your healthas it is now that is a sign that you need to make some changes and only youknow how drastic those changes need to be based on your current physicalcondition.

I hope thatthis exercise caused you to get out of your comfort zone. The entire idea isthat everyone’s health (current condition) is nothing more than the result oftheir recent decisions. All of us havethe power to change our condition but to do that we have to be willing to makedifferent choices. You can make smallchanges or you can make big changes. The results that you get will be in directrelation to the amount of change you make. This is why I keep pushing you tomake big changes. The benefit of bigchanges is that you see results faster and that encourages most people to staythe course. Please know that gettinghealthy is very simple. All you need todo is consistently make good choices and before you know it life will start tochange. I know you can do it! J

Progress onmy goals:

1. Newsletters - Thursday was also hectic but I didget in 30 minutes working on the newsletters. Not as much time as I wanted but better than nothing. L

2. Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and Ihave gotten back into using it the way I had intended when I purchased it. Go me! J

3. Date with Dan – Dan and I have been going for awalk each night after dinner. Thursdaywe extended our walk and added a trip to the grocery store to the outing.

4. Measuringcalorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need tofocus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat solublevitamins.

5. Working on my business – I spent an hourattending a webinar Thursday evening. Itis always good to see what the competition is up to.

How are youfeeling about your progress so far? Ihope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month. J

RandomThoughts:

I just saw acommercial that caught my attention. The commercial was for Special K and theyare trying to tell people that you can lose up to 6 pounds in 2 weeks. Really? Let’s do the math on that shallwe. To lose one pound by diet alone youhave to reduce your intake by 3,500 calories which means 6 pounds equals 21,000calories. If you are going to lose 6pounds of fat in 14 days that would mean that you need to reduce your calorieintake by 1,500 calories per day. Unlessas a woman you are eating approximately double the amount of calories that youneed the math on this just doesn’t work from diet alone. Commercials like this annoy me because theyare misleading. *ugh*

Why is itthat time passes so slowly when we are younger but seems to speed by the olderthat we get? Does this happen toeveryone or is it just me?

Did you taketime to hug the people who you love today? I try to remember than I never know when or if I will be seeing peopleagain and that I want them to know how much they mean to me. I always hug people when I leave and I makecertain that they know how much I care.

If todaywere the last day of your life what would you do? When you look at life this way most of thethings on our to-do list would melt away. In my mind the only thing that matters are the important people andrelationships in our life. With this inmind I try to give something to others every day.

Acknowledgements:

Have youmade any progress writing acknowledgements? I hope you are working on this exercise and enjoying it. I find that ithelps me stay positive and recognize the things that I do every day. Here are my acknowledgements:

· We had a delicious dinner Thursday night thatwas also fast to prepare. It always makes me very happy that I can make healthyfood that my husband loves and it is even better when I can do it quickly.

· Even though today was busy I took the time tocheck on my parents and take in trash cans for one of my neighbors. None of us should ever be too busy to do alittle something for others. Life isalways better when we take time to be kind.

· I somehow managed to write almost three poststoday by staying focused on the task at hand. It is amazing what you can do when you put your mind to something.

Thursday:

My food on Thursday was not terribly exciting. I started my morning with a greensmoothie. There is nothing like rawkale in your breakfast to give you a jolt of energy.

I had grapefruit for a snack

Lunch was a bowl of mushroom barley soup which I pouredover raw baby spinach. I flavored thissoup with lemon and smoked paprika to give it a Spanish flavor.

Dinner was a quick “stir fry” (no oil) of red onion,garlic, minced ginger, vegetarian oyster sauce (which is basically mushroomsauce), a splash of mirin (Japanese rice wine vinegar) and touch of stevia,straw mushrooms, baby corn and shredded kale. I served this over black rice andtopped it with sesame seeds.

Happythoughts:

Have yougotten into the habit of writing your happy thoughts? I find it helpful to remind myself how oftenthings go well and that I shouldn’t take these things for granted. As always there are so many things to bethankful for that I almost don’t know where to start. Here are my happythoughts:

· Our weather on Friday was magnificent. It was 63degrees here by noon. I am amazed by thewinter we are having weather wise. It isdefinitely starting to feel like spring here. Last night at 10pm it was still 49 degrees. Is it really January in Baltimore? A girl could definitely get used to thisweather.

· Dan has been getting home from work a littleearlier all week. I think he has beenhome before 7:30 the entire week and that is a minor miracle at our house.

· You may not remember but I told you weeks agothat Dan bought me a new laptop earlier this month because my other one waslocking up when I had Dragon open. Yesterdaythe headphone adaptor arrived so that I can start using Dragon again. I am verymuch looking forward to less typing in my future.

· I received these great photos today from one ofmy friends at the marina. I love thephoto of the harbor in the morning fog at the top of the post. This photo is our boat taken from our friend’s powerboat.Since we haven’t been to the marina in a while it was very nice to see ourgirl.

· Today is one of those days when I am very happythat I overcame my frugal ways and bought the Vitamix. When dinner time arrived I had no idea whatto make but soon decided that a vegan crème soup was in order. Less than 5 minutes later we had a hot bowlof Crème of Spinach and Artichoke Soup. It is days like this when my Vitamix is priceless.

Signing Out:

Friday wasan extremely productive day and that felt really good. I didn’t get all three posts written but Idid get a lot Saturday written and part of Sunday so that was excellent. Ichatted with my buddy Louis for quite a while and we are going to try tocoordinate getting together tomorrow which will be great. Since Louis lives in Delaware we don’t seehim as much as we would like to.

I am so happy that the weekend has started. While I have no idea what we will be doing Iam looking forward to time with my hubby and seeing my buddy Louis. I hope youhave some fun planned for your weekend. Talk with you again tomorrow. J

31 Days to Better Health - Day 26

2012-01-26T23:15:00.003-05:00

HappyThursday! *woo hoo* We are getting very close to the weekendnow. Have you noticed that I loveweekends yet? LOL ;-) Are you as happy about the approaching weekend as I am?

FortunatelyThursday wasn’t overbooked like most of my week. I am very happy to have had a reasonably lowkey Thursday. The only must do on myschedule today was webinar in the evening. *yay* Unfortunately today wascool, grey and rainy. However you knowme, I didn’t let the weather dampen my spirit.

What did youthink of yesterday’s post? I hope that somethingthat I wrote caused you to reflect on the negative self talk that doesn’t serveyou well. I truly believe that the wordsthat we use make a huge difference in how we process what happens each day. For those of you who are just joining us hereis the recap of what we have accomplished so far to remind us all of how muchwe have covered during the first 24 days of January:

Day 1 –Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back
Day 2 –Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion
Day 3 –Listed Our Goals for January
Day 4 –Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While
Day 5 – Lookedat Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition
Day 6 – PracticedConscious Eating
Day 7 – HaraHachi Bu
Day 8 –Taking the Stress Out of Meal Time
Day 9 –Acknowledgments
Day 10 – NoExcuses, Do it Anyway
Day 11 – Isit True?
Day 12 –Have You Really Connected With Someone Today?
Day 13 –Motivation is a Decision
Day 14 -Successfully Navigating Dinner at an Unfamiliar Restaurant
Day 15 -What Do You Want, Have You Asked?
Day 16 –Treating Others as You Wish to be Treated
Day 17 –Food as a Budget
Day 18 –Silence Your Inner Critic
Day 19 –Replace I Have to With I Want to
Day 20 –Identifying Your Rituals
Day 21 –Face Your Fears
Day 22 –Give Up the Diet Mentality
Day 23 – TheMeaning and/or Purpose of Food
Day 24 –Trigger Foods/Situations/People
Day 25 –Words Have Meaning

What did youthink of yesterday’s post about words have meaning? Did you enjoy the exercises? If you came up with a powerful personalslogan please share it with us. I am sure that I am not the only one who wouldlove to read it.

LoseAll-Or-Nothing Thinking:

This is atopic that is very meaningful for me because it used to describe how Iapproached most things in life including diet. I would be very gung ho and follow rules to the letter, no deviation.Then when I did something “off plan” (which I considered wrong) I would throwin the towel, blow my “diet” and say I would start again the next day, nextweek, etc. Needless to say this not thehealthiest approach. For years I thoughtI was the only one who did this. However based on the people whom I have talkedwith about food it is also very common which is why I wanted to address it onthe blog.

Why wouldany of us ever think that we needed to follow a program exactly? Where does this come from and why is it socommon? I blame diet books that demonizeother diets for the dogmatic way that most people follow a new plan orprogram. Life is not meant to be that rigidin my opinion. It would be wonderful ifwe could all eat perfectly all the time but that isn’t real life. Not to mention sometimes everyone needs alittle splurge to make life worth living. ;-) To understand how we got hereI am going to briefly review recent diet history in this country.

During thelow-fat diet phase everyone avoided eating fats which were considered “bad”. In response to this idea that “fats are bad”the food manufacturers developed fat-free baked good. Does anyone rememberSnackwell cookies? In the early 90’sthose cookies sold like wild fire and when you read the nutrition panel theyhad similar calories to cookies with fat the difference was they had moresugar. While this trend was bad therewas merit to some of it. Saturated fat is not healthy and oil provides nothingbut fat without any of the fiber or micronutrients which are present in wholefoods.

Fast forwardto the late 90’s and now we had the low-carb craze. Suddenly fats were fine and sugar wasbad. Now we had people eating steak,bacon, and eggs and staying away from fruit and tomatoes. The Snackwell cookies were replaced with onesthat were high in fat. These new cookieswere made with copious amounts of fat, nut flours, sugar alcohols rather thanwheat flour and sugar. Like the low-fatphase this one also had valid points. Consuming refined foods and foods which contain a lot of sugar is alsobad for you. However consuming wholefruit is not unhealthy. As I mentionedto one of my friends who was following a low-carb diet and was worried aboutfruit, no one ever got fat eating a piece of fruit.

Today wehave people who believe that raw food is the way to go. Now people think they can eat anything aslong as it is raw. This means that saturated fat, in the form of coconut oil,is fine as long as it is “raw”. In thisregime there is no concern about carbs in the form of produce. Like the other two plans this one also hassome merit. Most people don’t eat enoughraw produce. Since some nutrients areheath sensitive eating part of your produce raw is important. However it isalso important to remember that some nutrients are better absorbed when foodhas been cooked.

What do allof these ideas have in common? They look at nutrition from a narrow perspectiveand set up a distinction between good and bad. You can eat sugar but fats are bad. No, fat is fine but sugar is bad. Wait, raw is fine but cooked is bad. STOP the diet merry-go-round I am getting off! I am picturing some of you saying, “but waita minute you have rules”. Yes I absolutelydo have rules, but mine are based on a ton of research and that research wascombined using old-fashioned common sense. Additionally I also leave room for bending (but not breaking) thoserules from time to time which I will explain below.

When wechanged our diet and lifestyle the reason was to improve our health. Losing weight for us was a side effect ofimproved health but it wasn’t the reason we changed how we ate. When I followed the science it because clearto me what we should concentrate on consuming more: vegetables, fruits, beans, seeds, nuts andwhole grains. Things that weredetrimental for our health: meat, dairy,oil, sugar and salt were moved out of our food. Then we had the grey area which included processed foods like flour (yeseven whole wheat). When we are eating athome it is easy to avoid those things which are detrimental (and by that I meanthey are generally inflammatory) and include only healthy (anti-inflammatory)foods. However when you are eating outthis becomes nearly impossible even when you have a chef friend. We recognize that when we eat out we aregetting a little oil, some salt and sugar and that is okay as long as it is anoccasional indulgence. I now believethat your overall dietary pattern is what matters not any one specificmeal.

Since I amsure some of you are wondering I will explain the things that I try to rememberwhen I making food decisions, these are:

· Produce is always good, and I try to eat atleast half of it raw (or lightly cooked) and half of it cooked. Some nutrients are more easily absorbed incooked food, and some are destroyed by heat. By having some produce cooked and some raw you are covering yourbases. If you don’t like raw producecook part of it very lightly to minimize nutrition loss.

· Beans are a fantastic source of plant protein.They fill you up, contain a lot of fiber which binds to cholesterol in your GIsystem, and they are versatile. I try to include beans in our food every day. This won’t work for everyone since somepeople have trouble digesting beans. If this is you one approach is to cookthem very well (think super soft) and add them to your diet a little at a time. Your digestive system may do fine with themafter a little “bean training”.

· Mushrooms are another food that we try to eateach day. They help boost the immunesystem and have been studied for their ability to fight cancer. Not to mention I love the taste and textureof mushrooms which is a bonus. Mushroomsare a great whole food way to mimic meat which is nice.

· All foods in the alium family (onions, garlic, shallots,and leeks) have also been shown to fight cancer. They add a lot of flavor to food and work inevery savory dish that I can think of. We also eat these each day. Whenyou are going to cook them be certain to chop them and allow them to sit for 10minutes before cooking so that the chemical reaction has time to take place. If you are going to eat them they might aswell be as nutritious as possible. I always cut my alliums set a kitchen timerfor 10 minutes and come back when it beeps. This has become a habit and I don’t even think about it now.

· Add leafy green vegetables anywhere that youcan. I add raw kale to my savoryoatmeal, shredded kale goes into salad, straight raw kales goes into the Vitamixto be included in our morning smoothies. Basically if I can get a raw leafy green in I do. Cooked kale is also good, but some of thenutrition is destroyed by heat so I try to eat this raw or lightly cookedwhenever possible.

· Quinoa is a wonderful substitute for pasta orrice. I love that is cooks quickly. Additionally it is a complete plant protein(contains all 8 of the essential amino acids). Quinoa is something that I always keep in the house. If you of a friend belong to Costco they sell3 pound bags of organic quinoa for $9.99 and I always pick one up when I amthere.

· I know that I need to add nuts and seeds to myveggie meals to increase the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins and this somethingthat I am working on. We are all a work in process when it comes to nutrition. ;-)

I hope thathelps to give you some ideas of what I try to include in our meals. Our diet is essentially a whole food diet. You won’t see us eating things like soy hotdogs, commercial faux meat, and commercial faux dairy because these itemsalmost always contain soy protein isolates which we do not consume. Additionally we stay away from high fructosecorn syrup and agave since fructose is hard to digest. As I think of other things that I think youshould know I will include it in future posts but this gives you a good idea ofhow I make food decisions.

Today’sexercise is:

1. Go back to your food journal that you starteda few days ago and review what you have been eating. Does anything stand out assomething that needs to be changed? Ifit does make a note of it and put a plan into place to change what you aredoing.

When I looked at my food journal I can easilysee that I am eating too many grains and I am still not getting enough seedsand nuts. Additionally I know that I need to be eating more leafy greens andraw fruit. This is why it helps to have what you are doing on paper. I am going to make it a point to have a saladfor either lunch or dinner and to include seeds and nuts on that. Also since it is citrus season I plan to havea piece of citrus every day. These two changesshould crowd out the grains. If will reexaminemy eating habits in a week and if I am still having too many grains I will makeanother change then.

Progress onmy goals:

1. Newsletters - Wednesday was also hectic and thenewsletters didn’t get any time. L

2. Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and Ihave gotten back into using it the way I had intended when I purchased it. Go me! J

3. Date with Dan – Dan and I have been going for awalk each night after dinner. We are using this time to get away and talk aswell as to add some movement and fresh air to our day. One of our neighbors was out late thisevening and mentioned that we were making a habit of walking. J

4. Measuringcalorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need tofocus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat solublevitamins.

5. Working on my business – My schedule got in theway of this too. However, knowing that Iwill be sharing it with you on February 10^th has definitely moved itup on my priority list. I will beworking on this over the weekend. Accountabilityworks for all of us, including me. ;-)

How are youfeeling about your progress so far? Ihope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month. J

RandomThoughts:

Theinformation continues to come out about the resveratrol research fraud. I wonder if everyone who claims to be drinkingred wine for their health will now stop consuming it? Somehow I doubt that will happen. Worse yet it appears the problem goes beyond the first group. I still don’t understand why the researchersfelt the need to commit fraud. The onlything that I can think of is the research funding but it still doesn’t make anysense to me. I guess I am just not wiredthat way. *shakes head*

Dan and Iare continuing to go for out evening walk and talk through the neighborhood. Wealso stopped at the grocery store this evening and picked up kale, bananas,frozen cherries and arugula. The peopleat the grocery store only ever see us buy produce and tofu. They still must be tryingto figure out why we are “so granola” as Ian puts it. It is good to keep people guessing isn’tit? LOL ;-)

While wewere out walking I couldn’t help but notice our neighbors recycling whichincluded Whole Foods bags and organic packaging. I always find that odd since she also gets ChemLawn every few weeks from Spring thru Fall because I close up my house on thatside the days when they come to spray. Why doesn’t she make the connection that chemicals on your lawn is not agood idea since you kids and dog roll in the grass. Some people really aren’tgood at connecting the dots. *rollseyes*

Acknowledgements:

· I spent a few hours listening to RMT lecturesand taking notes. I am definitely a little out of my element but in achallenging way. At this time there is nothought of asking for my money back during the 30-day guarantee window. I lovea good challenge in case you hadn’t noticed. ;-)

· Dan is enjoying having tofu lasagna in his lunchthis week. It is so nice to see him sohappy about lunch. I need to make tofulasagna for his lunch more often since he loves it so much.

· I have been getting a little better at addingseeds and nuts to veggie meals. I am still not perfect but I am improving. J

Wednesday:

My food on Wednesday was stuff that I could make quicklysince I didn’t have much time. Everything that I ate you have seen before. Given my time constraints Irecycled pictures to save myself some time.

Breakfast for me was Italian savory oatmeal which is quick andnutritious. Love that!

Lunch was pizza veggies which is another favorite of mine. This isanother super fast meal. I use frozenveggies, top with red sauce, Italian seasonings, nutritional yeast and hulledhempseeds (or you could use pine nuts). You can use any frozen veggies that you have on hand.

Dinner soba noodles with veggies in black bean sauce. I cooked the soba noodles in a broth thatconsisted of dried mushrooms, thinly sliced red onion, sliced garlic, mincedfresh ginger and a little fermented black bean sauce. When the soba noodles were cooked I addedshredded kale and thinly sliced celery for about 30 seconds. I used tongs and aspider to remove the noodles and veggies to a bowl and topped the dish withsesame seeds. If you aren’t a fan ofblack bean sauce you could also use miso, vegetarian oyster sauce or a littlechili oil instead. This is one of thoseuse what you have on hand meals.

Happy thoughts:

Have yougotten into the habit of writing your happy thoughts? I find it helpful to remind myself how oftenthings go well and that I shouldn’t take these things for granted. As always there are so many things to bethankful for that I almost don’t know where to start. Here are my happythoughts:

· I am really enjoying RMT (Robbins-MadanesTraining) so far. It has definitelypulled me out of my comfort zone but in a very good way. I can’t wait to sharesome of the things I am learning with you. I love to share. J

· Both last night and this evening I may quick andhealthy dinners which Dan really enjoyed. It makes me smile just to think that Dan and I both have embracedhealthy food. I still am amazed by howfar we have come in our transition. Ifwe can do this anyone can.

· We are both still going for our evening afterdinner walks together and we use that time to talk, reconnect after being apartall day and get our heart rate up. It isgreat to spend some time outside after dinner. This evening it was still 49 degrees at almost 10pm. We are enjoying the nicest weather; it doesn’tfeel like winter at all.

· Yesterday we had a beautiful day with blue skiesand I even saw some spring flowers blooming. It was one of those gorgeous days where it just great to be alive. J

Signing Out:

Thursday wasanother busy day but it was also productive. I had appointments and quite a bitof study time. I love staying busy so itwas a good day.

Sorry thispost went up so late. I had a webinar from 8-9pm, then dinner, followed by along walk and a trip to the grocery store. After all that I had to finish thispost. I definitely waited until the lastminute to finalize this post. I hope tohave tomorrow’s post up much earlier in the evening.

Tomorrow isFriday! *happy dance* I am so happy that the weekend is almosthere. We don’t have any particular plansbut I am just looking forward to 48 hours of time with my hubby. I hope you are also looking forward to yourweekend. Talk with you again tomorrow. J

31 Days to Better Health - Day 25

2012-01-25T18:50:00.000-05:00

HappyWednesday everyone! Our morning startedoff much more peaceful than yesterday. There was no broken glass, smoothies on the floor or wet cat tails thismorning. After yesterday morning I appreciatedthe relative peace and calm of this morning much more. Gee, I wonder why. LOL

When we gotup this morning we knew that there was a lot to do today and the best approachto get it all accomplished was to divide and conquer. Dan and I had our “specificduties” today which made each of our respective days more manageable. We are both planning to find a little time torelax tonight before the day is over.

For those ofyou who are just joining us here is the recap of what we have accomplished sofar to remind us all of how much we have covered during the first 24 days ofJanuary:

Day 1 –Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 –Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion
Day 3 –Listed Our Goals for January
Day 4 –Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While
Day 5 – Lookedat Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition
Day 6 – PracticedConscious Eating
Day 7 – HaraHachi Bu
Day 8 –Taking the Stress Out of Meal Time
Day 9 –Acknowledgments
Day 10 – NoExcuses, Do it Anyway
Day 11 – Isit True?
Day 12 –Have You Really Connected With Someone Today?
Day 13 –Motivation is a Decision
Day 14 -Successfully Navigating Dinner at an Unfamiliar Restaurant
Day 15 -What Do You Want, Have You Asked?
Day 16 –Treating Others as You Wish to be Treated
Day 17 –Food as a Budget
Day 18 –Silence Your Inner Critic
Day 19 –Replace I Have to With I Want to
Day 20 –Identifying Your Rituals
Day 21 –Face Your Fears
Day 22 –Give Up the Diet Mentality
Day 23 – TheMeaning and/or Purpose of Food
Day 24 –Trigger Foods/Situations/People

What did youthink of yesterday’s post about trigger foods, situations and people? Did you learn anything about yourself throughthe exercises? Remember once you haveidentified your problem areas then you can develop strategies to manage them. However none of us can change what we don’tknow. It is important for everyone todetermine the areas that they need to be mindful of.

Words HaveMeaning:

Today’stopic was inspired by a conversation that I had with a friend. That interchange has been rolling around in myhead for days and I think it is very important which is why I wanted to writeabout it in this post. Have you evertalked to someone and knew immediately that they had a “black cloud” followingthem? Frequently these people see everythingas a battle or a struggle rather than a puzzle which is similar yet verydifferent. Everything we think andeverything we say has meaning not just to others but more importantly toourselves. We each choose how we viewthe world. We can see life as an adventure, something to be enjoyed, or a fight. There are many other options but I think youget the idea.

What we tellourselves about the nature of life matters. My friend sees most things in life as a hardship. Work is difficult, soand so is a jerk, the stylist is incompetent look at what she did to myhair. When you look at the world and arewaiting for a fight your attitude will be very different than if you seeapproach life as if it a challenge that you can and will overcome.

This samemindset applies to how you view your health. We had a choice after the cancer diagnosis. Most people allow the doctors to take controland they become passive in their care. We decided that we wanted to play anactive role in the process. When we makedaily food and lifestyle choices it is with the idea in mind that what we domakes a difference in our overall health. One way to look at it is to say our personal slogan is that “lifestylematters and we will consistently make decisions that our in our best interest.” Interestingly you can have cancer and be muchhappier than someone whose only “real complaint” is that they don’t like theirjob. It boggles the mind what humans do thesethings to themselves doesn’t it?

This sameattitudinal approach also works with how you view your weight. If you tellyourself that have always been overweight and there is nothing you can do tochange that you are probably going to remain overweight. Words have meaning for everyone. What we tellourselves impacts what we do and how we behave. Let me show you what I mean by this. I am going to use weight loss as an example but this could apply to anychange that someone is trying to make. I could have written about giving upalcohol, cigarettes or an abusive boyfriend just as easily. Weight seems to be most pertinent to thisblog given the food tie in.

We all knowpeople you have difficulty losing or controlling their weight. When you listen topeople who are struggling with their weight you will find that they similarattitudes about their situation. Hereare some of the common things I have heard or noticed.

· They say things like “everyone in my family isoverweight, or being heavy is genetic it runs in my family” are common phrasesyou will hear.

· The list of things/changes they can’t do (oraren’t willing to do) is longer than what they are willing to do.

· More than a few people have told me thatdiabetes runs in their family and they are destined to get it eventually.

· The phrase I have heard more times that I canremember is “I have tried everything to lose weight and nothing ever works forme, I am a hopeless case.”

· The idea that frightens me the most is whensomeone says “I know a person who had weight loss surgery and lost a lot ofweight quickly, maybe I need to do that too.” They say this as though surgery is less drastic than a strict diet.

When peopleare constantly telling themselves that they can’t do something (or that theyare stuck with something) they are setting themselves up failure. How can anyone expect to lose weight withdefeatist thoughts ingrained into their brain? Think of it this way, if you tell a child long enough that he can’tsucceed he will eventually stop trying. If you put up enough roadblocks (I won’t or can’t give up……) you makethe problem impossible to solve. Let’sflip that on its head and tell ourselves the opposite. We can do anything that we set our mind to ifwe want it enough!

In orderachieve lasting success you need two things:

1. You have to believe (really believe) that youcan and will improve your situation.

2. Be willing to make long term changes if you wantlong term results.

Once we arewilling to believe that we have some amount of control over a situation andthat we are committed to making changes possibilities begin to open up.

The firstthing to reflect on is what do you want? What is your goal? I want you to really think about this. How do you want your life to be? Picture everything about how you look, howyou feel, what you will do. Get as manydetails in your mind as you can. Whatsort of things will do you when you are happy with your physical condition? Maybe you want to be confident wearing abathing suit and going on vacation to the tropics. Possibly you will ask the person out who youhave been afraid to approach. Beinghappy with you appearance may give you the confidence to ask for a raise or putin for a promotion. Whatever you have beenavoiding due to your feelings of inadequacy now is the time to get those onpaper.

Now let’slook at how we talk to ourselves about making changes. I have a good friend who is “desperate” tolose weight. He has been diligently workingat it and has lost a lot of weight, at least 50 pounds and feels tons better.However his weight loss has stalled and he “doesn’t know why”. He asked me what he could do and when Isuggested eating more vegetables and few animal products the response was “Icould never give up cheese or even a good steak every once in a while.” Okay, I didn’t say you had to give up cheeseor steak just because I have but since you brought it up do you think theremight be a problem here? He went on totell me that he “couldn’t possibly cook without oil or give up salt”. Then came the “you don’t understand my wifecooks junk because my kids will only eat pizza, fried chicken, burgers,etc.” Now I realize you weren’t here forthe conversation but I bet you already see the problem? While he wants to loseweight all I heard were all the reasons why he couldn’t do this or couldn’t dothat. Do you think he is going tocontinue to drop pounds with that attitude?

What happens when we want to make changes but we tell ourselvesall the reasons why we can’t do this or we can’t do that? Are we empowering ourselves to make thechanges that we need? NO! We are giving ourselves excuses why we aregoing to fail. I call this “evidencebuilding” and it doesn’t do anyone any good. Sure all of us have reasons whysomething is difficult for us to do. If we rely on those reasons as our excuseswe will never move forward. Instead ofcoming up with all the things you can’t do why not focus on what you will do. In my friends case I was trying to get him toeat more produce, beans and whole grains and less meat, dairy, oil andsalt. Instead of focusing on what hecould do he focused on what he couldn’t do.

I really hope that I am wrong about this, but I suspect thatmy friend isn’t as committed to losing weight and getting healthy as he saysthinks. I would say that he is moreinterested than committed. He is stillat the stage where he thinks that practicing “moderation” will get him where hewants to be. Losing 50 pounds was enoughto convince him that consuming smaller portions of pizza, burgers and steakworks. However my friend still has more to lose and it isn’t coming offnow. Instead of being willing to try tomake additional changes he is clinging to what has worked so far even though ithas now stopped working. I don’t knowabout you but when something I am doing stops working I look for something elseto try. I believe that life is too shortto be stuck in a place (or physical condition) where you aren’t happy and don’tfeel good.

Whenever we have a problem to resolve we need to approach itas if it has a solution. If we think something can’t be solved (my weight isgenetic, I have tried everything, my husband or wife won’t go along with it, thehouse is full of junk food for the kids, etc.) then guess what, the problemcan’t be solved. I know that I keeptalking about this in different ways but it is because I see or hear it everyday. People seem to be desperate to improve their health or their weight butthey don’t want to give up anything they “love” and they already know why theirchanges won’t work (their genetics, etc.).

Let’s look at a different situation to see if that helpsthis to make more sense. Imagine thatyou are looking for a new job. You havebeen diligently sending out resumes but you aren’t feeling very hopeful. When you do get an interview you tellyourself that this will be like all the other interviews and that you won’t getthe job. Do you think you will do your best in the interview with that thoughtin your mind? Our thoughts are powerful,they can help us or they can hurt us. Now imagine the same interview but the person goes in knowing that theyhave all the skills and experience required to do the job. Can you see how that interview will go verydifferently? Since thoughts arepowerful doesn’t it make more sense to use our thoughts to help us to attainour goals?

Now you should have an image in your mind of what you wantyour health and weight to look like. Youcan see yourself living life as that new person. If you can stop and spend sometime thinking about it so that it becomes real for you. We will use this imagine next weekend when wework on our vision boards. I want you tocome up with a personal slogan that you can use to direct your behavior. This slogan can be anything the onlyrequirement is that it is positive and makes you feel good. I will give you more ideas in the exercisesbelow.

I hope that you now see how you view the world and yourability to make a difference in your life is very important. I have found that by focusing on what I cando gives me hope and pushes me to be the best that I can every day.

Today’sexercises are:

1. As you go about your day pay attention to yourinner thoughts. Each day are you upbeat,optimistic and ready to conquer the world? If you are CONGRATULATIONS! However if you have an inner voice that isundermining you write down the negative thoughts as you have them.

The negative thought that always comes up forme is “what if I fail?” Being perfectwas drilled into me as a child. Eventhough I know being perfect isn’t possible it is still my knee jerk reaction toany new situation or problem. But we allknow that demanding perfection causes fear and pushes people not to try. However now I also know this about myself soI have built in responses for my inner voice that go like this: What if I do fail? Failure isn’t the end of the world. Failureis a learning experience and it will teach me what to do differently in thefuture. Ultimately I will only fail whenI stop trying.

Do you see how I try to turn the negativevoice into a positive reaction? Can you do the same thing with your negativethoughts? Try to turn your negativethoughts around. Write down your answers in your journal and refer to them whenyou need to.

As more negative thoughts come up for youwrite those down in your journal and find responses to turn them into positivestoo. After you have done this for awhile it becomes automatic and you don’t even think about doing it, it seems tohappen without any conscious action on your part. Love that!

2. Visualize your life as you want it to be. You can stay with the weight example that wetalked about today or you can focus on any other aspect of life. The important thing is that you picture allthe details of your new life. Below area series of question to help you see the details:

· What do you look like in your perfect life?Are you slimmer or maybe you are more fit? Do you dress the same? Do you carryyourself differently with this new confidence?

· How do you feel in your new life? What is your attitude toward challenges now?

· Do you have the same job or career? Maybe you don’t like your current job but don’tfeel confident to change it. What wouldyou be doing if you loved yourself?

· What do your relationships look like now? With this new confidence is your love life better?

3. This is the fun part; we get to write ourpersonal slogan. This can be anythingpositive the sky is the limit. Here aresome examples of empowering personal slogans:

· I can do anything that I set my mind to.

· I will make good choices for my health everyday.

· Life is a learning experience and I plan toabsorb everything that comes my way.

· Every day brings a new opportunity to grow andchange.

I hope thatyou were able to identify the thoughts that have been holding you back. Once you see them clearly then you can turnthem around and use them to your advantage. Picturing how you want your life to be is very helpful. I call this “living as if” and we will have aday devoted to that before the month is over. Did you come up with a great personal slogan? If you came up with agreat slogan and want to share it I would love to read it. J

Progress onmy goals:

1. Newsletters - Tuesday was a little hectic withappointments that had to be rescheduled so I didn’t work on the newsletterstoday.

2. Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and Ihave gotten back into using it the way I had intended when I purchased it. Go me! J

3. Date with Dan – Dan and I have been going for awalk each night after dinner. We are using this time to get away and talk aswell as to add some movement and fresh air to our day. Dan wants to get a little caught up at workbut then we will be getting back to our date plan during the week.

4. Measuringcalorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need tofocus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat solublevitamins.

5. Working on my business – Monday spent some timeworking on my other website. Knowingthat I will be sharing it with you on February 10^th has definitely movedit up on my priority list. Accountability works for all of us, including me. ;-)

How are youfeeling about your progress so far? Ihope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month. J

RandomThoughts:

Dan and Iare still going for our evening walks after dinner which is a great way toconnect after being apart all day. Thebenefit of walking is there is no television, phones or felines to distractus. While we walked we talked about mynew business and what I need to work on in the next 30 days. Dan is a fantasticsupport system and I have no idea what I would do without him. He is great at calling me out when I need toalter my focus and sometimes I need that and appreciate his insight since I knowit comes from a loving place.

Is ongoing learningsomething that is important to you? Asyou have probably noticed I am a big believer in lifelong learning. If you have any books, courses or webinarsthat you would enjoyed I would love to hear about them. Please feel free to share either bycommenting or emailing.

Acknowledgements:

· Tuesday I was not in the mood to work on theblog. It was very difficult to stayfocused and get it done. I used every excuse in the book to avoid thecomputer. However I managed to get itwritten and it felt good to live up to my commitments. Some days I just need topush through and not let my “excuses” get the better of me.

· Even though I was extremely busy I still managedto accomplish all my critical tasks today and that was an accomplishment.

· I love that as busy as our Tuesday was that Danand I still made time to go for a walk and to talk about our day and our plansfor the following day. I know so many couples who come home and turn on the televisionand don’t talk. I love that even aftermore than two decades Dan and I still want to connection with each other everyday. Go us! J

· It was tough for me earlier this week when Danwent back to work. I was worried that something would happen and that I wouldn’tbe there to help. I tend worry about myhubby a little more than I need to. However I am happy to report that everything has been fine and that Iwas concerned for no reason. I love tobe wrong in situations like this.

Tuesday:

My food on Tuesday was not the least bit exciting. Everything that I ate you have seen beforeand most of it was leftovers. Given my time constraints I recycled pictures tosave myself some time.

Breakfast for me was savory oatmeal.

Lunch was leftover French market bean soup.

Dinner was tofu lasagna.

Happy thoughts:

· Sometimes I love being busy and other times Iwant to be a slug. I was so busy onTuesday that I didn’t have time to think about much of anything. However once I sat down to reflect on my dayI realized that being busy means that I was productive and that is a very good thing.

· The weather was gorgeous on Tuesday and weactually reached 59 degrees. Who wouldbelieve this is January weather? Springreally is starting to feel like it is just around the corner.

· I spent a few hours on the Robbins-MadanesTraining so far and it is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone but in agood way. I am definitely enjoying thechallenge of looking at life differently.

· I think it is so cute that my cats come to tellme when the electric blanket in the bedroom turns itself off. My fur children really are littlegeniuses. As Dan would say they reallyhave me trained don’t they? LOL

· Speaking of fur children it was nice of mine don’tto create morning chaos two days in a row. Also one of the benefits of experiencing chaos is that when there ispeace you appreciate it so much more. Gee, I wonder why? ;-)

Signing Out:

Wednesdaywas another busy day. I think I spent about 5 hours learning/studying which wasin addition to my normal activities. Ilove to learn so this was a great day for me. However it does mean that quite a few tasks moved to the back burner.Clearly I will need to work on my time management skills soon so that I don’tburn out.

As soon as Iget this posted I must get into the kitchen and do some cooking. The closest Ihave come to cooking today is reheating and making tea. Clearly that is not going to work for dinner.I hope you spent a little more time in the kitchen today than I did.

Wow can youbelieve the week is already more than half way over? Time really flies when you are busy doesn’tit? I hope your week is going well and thatyou are finding some time to relax and enjoy yourself. J Talk with you again soon!

31 Days to Better Health - Day 24

2012-01-24T18:26:00.000-05:00

HappyTuesday, I hope the week is still going well for you. We managed to get through Monday without anydrama or crisis which was extremely nice. I could use a little dullness in my life for a while so that I can relaxand recharge. In fact I used my downtime to get in a little meditation time. It was a very relaxing way to spend acold, dreary and often rainy Monday.

(Luca looking innocent)

HoweverTuesday morning was not smooth sailing at my house. Sometimes I think if itweren’t for my cats I would have nothing to do. Luca was in the kitchen with me this morning when I was making Dan’ssmoothie. I headed to the freezer to stash his smoothies and just as walked byshe swished her tail. I didn’t want to step on her and lost my balance droppingone the glasses of chocolate smoothie which smashed on the floor. She stoodthere looking at me indigently like “why did you do that”. Then Luca decided that she wanted to leavethe kitchen and go through the broken glass and chocolate. *ugh* I got the cat out of the kitchen without getting any chocolate on herand had to close all three cats in a room while I cleaned up the mess. Poor Dan only got half his normal breakfastthis morning and now my slippers are covered in chocolate. By the time Dan had finished getting readyfor work and had come downstairs for breakfast all evidence of the chaos hadbeen removed.

(Nicco....under that white fuzz is a little brat, but we love him)

After I gothis lunch packed I decided that a nice bath was in order to chill out. I had planned on relaxing but Binky jumped upon the edge of the tub and slipped into the bath with me. His back feet got wet as did the end of histail. When I called for Dan Binky dripping wet tail and all ran out of thebathroom and met Dan in the hallway. Dan had to corner him and dry him off withone of my towels. Yes this is what lifeis like at my house in the morning. Whosaid life is calm and peaceful when you don’t have children in house? Fortunately Masi was sound asleep in our bedbecause we had turned on the electric blanket for him. At least one of our catswasn’t a problem this morning. ;-) It definitely pays to have a sense of humorat our house.

Now that youhave a vivid picture of morning at my house let’s get back to the work ofimproving our health. For those of you who are just joining us here is therecap of what we have accomplished so far to remind us all of how much we have coveredduring the first 22 days of January:

Day 1 –Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

What did youthink of yesterday’s post about the meaning and/or purpose of food? Did you learn anything about yourself throughthe exercises? If you don’t like how youview food and want to change it but don’t know how let me know either byposting a comment on the prior post or by sending me an email. I changed how I view food and I know you cantoo. Once you begin to view food as fueleverything else is easy. J

TriggerFoods/Situations/People:

This ideawas inspired by Christy’s comment about not being able to stop eatingchocolate. I remembered her commentyesterday when I was writing about my addiction to Italian comfort foods(bread, pasta and pizza). However forsome people it goes beyond specific foods and triggers also include particularsituations and sometimes people. I thinkmost us have foods that we find difficult to control ourselves around. Do you know what those foods are for you? Do you know if you also have situations andpeople who are problematic for you? Doyou have strategies to handle these foods, situations and people? That is what we are going to talk abouttoday.

I am going toassume that you don’t know what foods you crave because I didn’t always knowwhat those foods were for me. However there are some easy ways to figure it outbut you will need to use the food journal that we set up yesterday. Look at your journal and see if there wereany foods that you ate when you weren’t hungry. If there were foods that youate even though you had a hunger level of 0 it is a good bet those are yourtrigger foods. If there were no foodsthat you ate yesterday when your hunger level was 0 either this isn’t an issuefor you, or it shows up differently. Werethere any foods that you over ate while you were keeping the journals. Thesewould have showed up as items you ate that resulted in your being full on thescale of 2 or 3. Reaching the 2 scalemay mean that you need to eat more consciously and slowly or it could be theresult of consuming trigger foods. Ifyou reached a level 3 on the fullness scale I would say you have found yourtrigger foods.

The nextquestion is do you have a problem one food or more than one? My trigger foods all involve high carb itemsthat are savory in nature. I can easilypass up cookies or desserts but fresh baked bread is a killer for me. I also have difficulty with pasta, pizza,potatoes, anything starchy as you can see.

Now that wehave identified the foods that trigger us to over eat what do we do aboutit? For me the answer was very simple Itake the easy way out and keep those items out of my house. However I also know that I can have them in moderationwhen we are out and that is enough to satisfy me. The problem comes when Dan wants pizza orbread. Since I know that I have nearly zeroself control around these things, but I don’t want him to be deprived due to myissue I make certain that he is home when I make them. I know myself wellenough that I wouldn’t even consider preparing these during the week when hewas at work. Fortunately Dan and I talkabout everything so he knows my weaknesses and understands that I need hishelp. Can you do something similar withyour trigger foods? Maybe your familycan have them when they go out, or they can be a special weekend meals instead.

I alluded tothe situation that I have difficulty with above. I am much more likely to eatsomething that isn’t in my best interest when I am alone. I think this is because being around peopleholds me accountable to myself. Myhusband knows me as well and sometimes better than I know myself. We talk about everything and he is alwaysthere to give me a gentle nudge when I need it. Having a built in support system works very well for me. What about you, do you know what types ofsituations are problematic for you? Ihave talked to many people who have the same issue that I do eating things theyshouldn’t when they are alone. However I have also heard from people who havedifficult in the opposite situation. They are extremely disciplined when theyare alone but you put them in a group and they feel like they need to fitin. Other people have problems when theyare eating where there is a buffet; parties are a common danger spot forpeople. I have also talked to a fewpeople who have difficulties staying on track when they go out to a bar.Apparently having alcohol reduces their discipline. As varied as these situations all they allhave solutions. The important thing is to identify what your specific issue isso that you can do something about it.

For exampleif being alone is a problem then keeping the trigger foods out of your houseworks well. If you know that you havedifficulty sticking to your plan when you go out due to peer pressure then youneed develop phrases and strategies that you can use. You could eat before you go so that you canhonestly say you aren’t that hungry and salad is enough. Alternately you couldexplain that you are watching your weight (or are concerned about yourcholesterol) and you need to stick with a salad. In this situation all that is required isthat you have thought about how you will handle things so you areprepared. If you have difficulty withbuffets at a party I have a few suggestions. You can do what I do and scan the buffet before picking up a plate. This way I know what looks healthy and whatdoesn’t. Another tip that works well forme is to eat before these events so that I am not hungry when I arrive. I alsolike to carry a drink (usually club soda with lime) so that I don’t have a freehand. Most people are too busy doing their own thing to notice that you aren’teating. The last suggestion I have forbuffets at parties is to go in telling yourself that you won’t get somethinguntil a certain time (near the end). This way you have delayed eating and even if you get something thatisn’t in your best interest there won’t be much of it. If you problem is eating the wrong items whenyou are at a bar (or are drinking) this one is a little more tricky. I could give you the obvious answer of don’tdrink because it isn’t good for you but that probably isn’t what you want tohear. The only thing I could think of forthis was to eat before you go out. This will do two things, a full stomach willkeep the alcohol from be absorbed as rapidly and that should help you makebetter choices. Also a full stomach will mean you have less room for unhealthybar food. If you have any othersuggestions for this situation please share I would love to hear them.

The finalarea where I have heard people have difficulty with being around specific people. I was surprised the first time I talked withsomeone and they told me that they make healthy choices all the time exceptwhen they are out with a specific person. However after I heard this a few times I realized this was much morecommon than I expected. The commonalityin what people told me was that they had a specific friend where food was theirbond. They would go out and eat unhealthy items like pizza, maybe they would gothe bar and have beer and wings, or meet at Starbuck’s cappuccinos. If you have this issue I have somesuggestions. You can find a restaurantthat has both the healthy fare you want and things your friend will enjoy. Our chef friend Ian fills this needbeautifully for us. I am sure there areplaces near you that can do the same. Alternately you could get together at your home instead and that way youhad complete control over the food. Whatabout meeting for a picnic and you both bring your own food? My favorite idea is to get together for anon-food activity. You could meet an exercise class, a run or a walk. What about a movie, or a concert? There are many options here to get away fromunhealthy food gatherings with this particular friend. If they are a close friend you can confide inthem that you are watching what you eat and ask them for their help. Most people want to help and when you sharesomething that you are struggling with usually they are more than happy to dowhat they can to be of assistance.

Today’sexercises are:

1. We are going to return to the food journal thatwe started yesterday to identify the problem foods, situations and people. You will need to keep track for a littlewhile in order to identify the areas that you need to be aware of. For some people a week may be enough time andothers may need a month. After you have collected at least a week of datareview your results. Does anything stand out as being a problem? The important thing is to identify the thingsthat are problems for you so that you can develop strategies to deal withthem. If nothing jumps out as a problemcontinue to keep the journal and come back to it in another week and lookagain.

2. Once you have identified your problem foods,situations or people now it is time to brainstorm how you will handle thesesituations. Write down as many possiblesolutions as you can think of. Put theseideas into practice at each opportunity to determine which ones work best foryou.

Were youable to identify the situations that are problematic for you? I hope that you were. Knowing what the problem is in 90% of thebattle. Remember that everyone hasthings that they struggle with, you are not alone. Now that you know what youneed to work on the rest is easy. J Like always ifanything that I wrote is unclear or you think that it requires clarificationplease don’t hesitate to let me know either by commenting or sending me an email.

Progress onmy goals:

1. Newsletters – Monday I took the day off to get afew other things accomplished.

2. Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and Ihave gotten back into using it the way I had intended when I purchased it. Go me! J

3. Date with Dan – Dan and I have been going for awalk each night after dinner. We are using this time to get away and talk aswell as to add some movement and fresh air to our day. Dan wants to get a little caught up at workbut then we will be getting back to our date plan during the week.

4. Measuringcalorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need tofocus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat solublevitamins.

5. Working on my business – Monday I took the dayoff from working on the business. TheJanuary posts are taking me many more hours to write than usual. As much as Ilove these posts I will be happy to see February arrive since I really need alittle time back to work on other things, the business being one of them.

How are youfeeling about your progress so far? Ihope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month. J

RandomThoughts:

When we wentfor our evening walk last night we got on the topic of meditation. I told Danhow much I have been enjoying the meditation course from The Great Courses andhow surprised I am that I feel somehow connected to Buddhism. It is very strange for me since I was neverinterested in Asian religions in the past. If you have read any books on Buddhism that you would recommend pleaseshare. I would appreciate anysuggestions you wish to share.

Anothertopic that we discussed during our walk was not sweating the small stuff. It always surprises me how often someone willtell me about seeing one of my recipes on someone else’s site without anycredit back to me. The funny thing isthat I could really care less about this. I know that anything that I put on the web basically fair game forplagiarism. I share my recipes freely to help others to cook more healthfullywith the hope that they will be able to improve their health. Is it annoying that people will blatantly ripoff my work? Of course it is. However in the larger scheme of life it isnot significant. If they can live withthe idea that they stole there is nothing that my anger will do to them. This is something else that I have learnedfrom meditation. The only thing that anyof us can change is our behavior. We can give othersinformation but in the end they are the ones that need to want to change. Inthe case of someone blatantly stealing they are obviously not concerned withwhat other people think. There is no reason to waste my time being upset. Is there anything that upsets you that maybeyou need to let go of?

Speaking ofrecipes I noticed this weekend that my vegan mayo has over well over 10,000hits now. You have no idea how much thisbothers me. When I figured out how to make this I was very pleased and wantedto share it with everyone. About 6months later I stopped using oil and haven’t made it since. I really wish that people weren’t going to thisso often because it makes me feel like I am contributing to theirunhealthiness. I considered taking it down for that reason but decided that Ishouldn’t since it is a least a tiny bit better than regular mayo. I have aquestion for you; if I can come up with something similar without oil would yoube interested? How many of you still usemayo with oil but would like a no-oil product? I haven’t used mayo is so long that I don’t miss it but if there is aneed for a healthy product I would be happy to work on a recipe. Just let me know what you think by commentinghere or emailing.

How many ofyou were surprised by some of the things we used to eat? I thought twice about writing that butrealized that most people haven’t been vegan their entire life and it is partof who I am. There are many things thatI have consumed in my past that I wish I could undo. However I choose to view those as learningexperiences rather than mistakes. I hope that you are starting to understandmore about the experiences that shaped who I am. As I have told you many times before I havenot been healthy all my life, or even most of my life. I truly believe that if I can get healthyanyone can do it.

Acknowledgements:

Have youmade any progress writing acknowledgements? I hope you are working on this exercise. I find that it helps me staypositive and recognize the things that I do every day. Here are my acknowledgements:

· It was nice to spend a little time in thekitchen on Monday. It felt good knowingthat I had a jar of bean soup in the refrigerator for lunches. I love having cooked beans in the housebecause I feel so much healthier when I eat them every day.

· Monday was a little busy and I almost didn’tmake a batch of lasagna for Dan. Howeversince he hardly ever asks for anything I stopped studying and got the lasagnaprepped and into the oven at about 6pm. When Dan was enjoying his lasagna I was very happy that I make it forhim. He liked it so much that he had oneand half servings. When I see himenjoying it that much I am reminded that one of the reason I like to cook isthat it makes Dan happy to eat. It iswonderful knowing that I can make healthy food that he loves enough to have anextra helping.

· It felt wonderful to have a little time tolisten to another two lessons on the meditation DVDs. So far this is definitely my favorite DVDfrom The Great Courses.

Monday:

There was no exciting food on Monday, sorry to disappointyou. I had my Asian savory oatmeal for breakfast. You have seen it so manytimes that I didn’t bother to photograph it. The picture above is one of my prior ones.

My lunch was what was leftover of the kale and walnutsauce. It was still delicious even as aleftover.

Dinner was Dan’s favorite lasagna the one that I posted here.

I also made a big pot of the French market bean soup whichI documented here. The version I made today did not include any seitan sausage.

Happythoughts:

· I get excited each time we add a new follower tothe blog. Since January 1 when we started the 31 Days to Better Health serieswe have picked up 24 new followers in 23 days. *woo hoo* Thank you to all of you who take the time toread. If you ever have any questions orsuggestions please let me know. I amhappy to share any tips or tricks I have learned with you and I love it whenyou share your tips with me. It is mygoal that we all change our health for the better. I want all of us to end 2012 healthier thanit started. Each of us is strongertogether than we are alone. J

· It is 5:20pm as I am writing this and the sun isjust staring to set, and it is still 54 degrees I might add. *woo hoo* I can remember not long ago when it was completely dark before 5pm. I love that the days are getting longer. Comeon spring, hurry up and get here I have a sailboat calling my name.

· Tomorrow is the first teleclass for RMT whichshould be fun. I am looking forward togetting started with the next round of training. Thankfully I can do trainingthrough my smart phone since the class ends just about the time we are due at adoctor appointment. Isn’t technologywonderful? What did we do before we hadmobile technology? Sadly I am old enoughto remember life without PCs if you can imagine. LOL

· Our weather has been lovely today. Thetemperatures were back up in the mid-50s, the rain disappeared last night andall the snow from the weekend is gone. It definitely felt and looked a lot more like spring today. The weather people are predicting this warmspell will stick around through at least Saturday. Nice!

· I got a nice email from Lauren at Hopkins earlythis morning. We are going to try to gettogether next week. We thought lunch would be nice and I want to introduce herto Ian. He will want to kill me I am sure since he claims he doesn’t dovegan. Oh well he will get over beingmad I am sure, well at least I think he will. Wish me luck, I may need it. Youknow how temperamental artistic people can be. LOL

Signing Out:

Tuesday was another busy day for me. I still marvel at how many things I have onmy to-do list given that I don’t work “outside” the home. How did we ever get things accomplished whenI did? *scratches head*

The emailsabout IIN continue to come in daily. Icertainly had no idea so many of you had even heard about the program let alonethat you were interested. If you havespecific questions email at veganepicurean@gmail.complease don’t be shy I promise that I don’t mind answering any questions thatyou have.

I hope yourweek started well and that you have some nice things to look forward to thisweek. At the very least take time toenjoy the little things in life. J Talk with you again soon!

31 Days to Better Health - Day 23

2012-01-23T16:15:00.000-05:00

HappyMonday, assuming there is such a thing as a happy Monday that is. I hope the week has started off well at yourplace. As always I wish it were stillthe weekend, but I am trying to make the best of it. While it has warmed up here it has beenraining and/or dreary all day. There isnothing like a yucky grey day to keep me inside where it is warm and dry. ;-) Onthe bright side I have gotten a lot done because I wasn’t able to spend as muchtime outside as I would like. As Ialways say there is an upside to everything in life if you just look for it.

Don’t youjust love that the days are getting longer? *woo hoo* It will be spring and then summer before we know it. *happy dance* I am seriously looking forward to spending spring, summer and fall onthe boat. There is nothing more relaxingto me than hanging out on the boat. Ican feel the boat gently bobbing now. ;-) Come on spring! I would rather be looking at the scenery in the picture above then at the cold, dreary rain that is outside now.

I am happythat you guys are starting to speak up a little even though most of thecomments and questions are coming by email. Thanks to everyone who wrote. Itis much easier for me to know what to write each day when I know a little aboutwhat you are interested in, what you are trying to accomplish and where you arein making healthy changes. For those ofyou who are just joining us here is the recap of what we have accomplished sofar to remind us all of how much we have covered during the first 22 days ofJanuary:

Day 1 – DefinedSuccess and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 –Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion
Day 3 –Listed Our Goals for January
Day 4 –Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While
Day 5 – Lookedat Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition
Day 6 – PracticedConscious Eating
Day 7 – HaraHachi Bu
Day 8 –Taking the Stress Out of Meal Time
Day 9 –Acknowledgments
Day 10 – NoExcuses, Do it Anyway
Day 11 – Isit True?
Day 12 –Have You Really Connected With Someone Today?
Day 13 –Motivation is a Decision
Day 14 -Successfully Navigating Dinner at an Unfamiliar Restaurant
Day 15 -What Do You Want, Have You Asked?
Day 16 –Treating Others as You Wish to be Treated
Day 17 –Food as a Budget
Day 18 –Silence Your Inner Critic
Day 19 –Replace I Have to With I Want to
Day 20 –Identifying Your Rituals
Day 21 –Face Your Fears
Day 22 –Give Up the Diet Mentality

What did youthink of yesterday’s post about ditching the diet mentality? Do you think that there is any validity to mycomments? Was there something in that post which you are going to try to applyto your life? I really would like tohear your thoughts if you aren’t too shy to comment.

The Meaningand/or Purpose of Food:

It came tome this morning that what food means to any of us is the crux of what happensin terms of health. What does food tomean to you? Why do you eat? What need are you trying to satisfy with food? Sounds like simple questions right? However I can almost guarantee that there aremany answers to this question because I would have answered this differently atvarious stages of my life.

What do youthink, what does food mean to you? Atthis stage in my life food is the fuel that I use to nourish my body. Food is what I use to provide my body withall the macro and micronutrients that it needs to be as healthy as possiblegiven my life conditions. I know thatthe food which I eat is broken down into the building blocks that become me. Literally this means I believe that I am whatI eat. This is why I am able to decideto eat savory oatmeal, green smoothies or seaweed. It is also why I reach for green tea insteadof coffee, or fresh vegetable juice instead of a V8. I know that my body needs as much nutrition asI can possibly cram into it to hopefully eventually offset the horrible ways Itreated my body in the past.

In the pastfood had many different meanings, none of which were good (healthy) and I willshare those now in case your see yourself in any of these examples.

Food can beseen as entertainment. In the past Danand I loved to get together with friends and go out to dinner. We would order the wildest thing on the menubecause we wanted the experience. Someof the things we have eaten in the past were “way out there” to say theleast. We have had things like vanillacotton candy wrapped smoked eel, and grilled baby octopus with bacon air. As you can see I wasn’t kidding when I said wewanted to be entertained and experience life to the fullest. Given that we both loved fancy restaurantfood you can guess the rest I imagine. We ate too many calories and we bothcarried too much weight. Viewing food as entertainment is not good for anyone’shealth and we were a testament to that. The funny thing is that we thought wewere happy, right up the crisis that is.

Food canalso be used to numb feelings. This issomething that I hear a lot when I talk to people. They tell me that they eat when they are sad,angry or just about any other feeling. In the past when I was sad or upset I would also reach for “comfortfood” which in my case was anything made with flour like pasta, warm bread outof the oven, pizza, etc. I equatedItalian carbs with love and when I felt sad or upset I instinctively reachedfor those foods. I still do this but nowI recognize what is happening so that I can stop myself before I eat too muchwhole wheat pasta, vegan pizza or hot warm bread. It isn’t that my cravings for these foodsdisappeared but rather that now I understand why I am craving them and that makesit much easier to not over do.

Food can beused to celebrate. When I was growing upwe went out to dinner to celebrate birthdays, holidays, graduations, etc. Foodwas the way that we communicated as a family. I am not sure if this is an Italian thing but all festivities revolvedaround food. We had the feast of the seven fishes for Christmas Eve, cassatacake on New Years, panettone for Christmas and Easter, you get the idea. Ifthere was a holiday we had a food (or more than one food) that we used tocelebrate it. Everyone got to choosewhere we went out to dinner to celebrate their birthday. Food was an integralpart of our family life, mind you most of this food was eaten out of the house,but food was how we connected as a family.

Food canalso be seen as love. I separated thisfrom the emotions above because I think it is a little different and I didn’twant it to get lost when you were reading. You can see food as love in twoways: either preparing food as a way ofshowing love to others, or as a way to give yourself love that you don’t feelyou are getting enough. I grew up in ahome where my mother did not cook. My mom still hates to cook to this day soshe doesn’t do it. We ate out a lot, myfather picked up food on his way home (lots of reheated restaurant meals), andsometimes my dad would cook. I alwaysfelt that my mom didn’t “love me enough” to cook dinner and this was probablybecause my grandmother was an amazing cook. I loved spending my summers withher and we would shop for food and cook together every day. That always felt like the way the worldshould be to me. When I was about 10 Istarted cooked at home. My father lovedhaving real food in the house and my mother enjoyed not having to think aboutfood. Cooking became the way that Ishowed people that I loved them. Howevergiving food this meaning can be healthy or not healthy depending on how you doit. If you prepare the unhealthy foodsthat your family wants are you really giving them love? I would contend that while they are happy nowthey won’t be later when they suffer from cancer, heart disease or diabetes. I still equate food with love but I usehealthy food to show love now.

Food canalso be seen as a necessity. Thisdescription may sound similar to food as fuel but it was different for me. In the past when my career was my priorityfood during the week was required but I didn’t give much more thought to itthan that. I would grab anything that satisfied my hunger, it could have beenChinese carry out (too much sodium and fat), pizza (bad on so many levels), orburgers. Literally the only functionfood served during this stage of my life was to stop my stomach from growlingand I didn’t think about it any further than that. In retrospect I can’t believe that I everthought this way about food, but I did.

I am surethere are other meanings for food; these are just the ones that it has had forme in the past. Now I am going to askyou to think about what food means to you. I have designed a series of questions to help you to figure it out incase you don’t know immediately.

Today’sexercises are:

1. Do you think you know what food means toyou? If you do write it down in thejournal. We will come back to this later after you have done the exercises.

2. For today write down everything that you eat. This includes things like coffee (even black),candy from the office candy bowl, if you consume right it down. Youdon’t need to measure or weigh the food that doesn’t matter. But I want you towrite down the following information:

· What time you got out of bed

· What were you thinking or feeling before youate?

· Time of day you ate

· How hungry were you before you ate (0-neutralneither hungry nor full, 1-a little hungry, 2-very hungry, 3-starved)

· What you ate (describe the food)

· Who was with you when you ate (were you alone orwith friends)

· Where were you (at home, at work, at therestaurant, etc.)

· What were you thinking as you were eating?

· What were you thinking of feeling immediatelyafter you finished eating?

· How full were you after you ate (0-neturalneither hungry nor full, 1-satisfied, 2-uncomfortably full,3-Thanksgiving fullmiserable)

· What time did you get into bed

3. Look at the list you complied in item two above. Does anything stand out for you? Did you eat immediately upon waking up or waslunch your first meal? Do you wait untilyou are hungry to eat? It is common forpeople to feel sad, angry, frustrated, lonely, bored, happy or tired beforeeating. Does this describe you or wasthere another emotion that was coming up for you? Did you eat all day long, or did you eat mostof your calories at the end of the day? Eating a lot at night often leads to not eating breakfast which then setsup the cycle to eat a lot at night the next day. Just write down anything you notice bylooking at your list. Maybe you werefrustrated at work and grabbed some chips. People who are angry do tend to reach for crunchy food. The benefit of keeping a log for a few daysis that you will start to see the patterns around your eating. Remember wecan’t change what we don’t identify!

4. Now look at your feelings after you ate. Did your feelings change? Did the change lastor was the feeling back before the next meal. Did eating make you feel worseand not better? In the past I felt goodwhen I was eating but after I ate I would feel guilty because I knew that I hadeaten food that I should not haveconsumed. Also how full were you aftereating? If you went further than level 1 (satisfied) you should go back and rereadday 7.

5. After reflecting on what was going on for you aroundfood today do you still agree with what your wrote in item one about what foodmeans to you? Maybe you still don’t knowwhat food means to you. That is okaybecause this is a tough question for a lot of people. Just continue the stepsabove for a few days and see if what comes up for you. I suspect that many of you will need to dothis for a while to figure it out. Ifyou had asked me twenty years ago what food meant to me I would have thoughtthat was a ridiculous question and probably would have said something like“food is food.” Yes, I was in denial fora long time. As I often say, if I can figure this stuff out for me I know youcan do it because I was one tough nut to crack. ;-)

Were youable to figure out what food means to you? Do you like your answer or do you think that you need to change yourrelationship with food now. Did Iexplain this in a way that makes sense? I hope that I did. Like always ifanything that I wrote is unclear or you think that it requires clarificationplease don’t hesitate to let me know either by commenting or sending me anemail.

Progress onmy goals:

1. Newsletters – Sunday I took the day off fromworking on the newsletters. Sometimes we all need a little break from work.

2. Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and Ihave gotten back into using it the way I had intended when I purchased it. Go me! J

3. Date with Dan – The hubby and I have spent a lotof time together this week. With theweather we have stayed fairly close to home but we can have fun anywhere homeor out. ;-)

4. Measuringcalorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need tofocus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat solublevitamins.

5. Working on my business – Sunday I took the dayoff from working on the business. TheJanuary posts are taking me many more hours to write than usual. As much as Ilove these posts I will be happy to see February arrive since I really need alittle time back to work on other things, the business being one of them.

How are youfeeling about your progress so far? Ihope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month. J

RandomThoughts:

Writing thismonth about the emotional side of health has definitely been a labor of love me. I believe that anyone who has ever struggledto lose weight knows that there is more to the issue than calories in andcalories out. If the weight lossequation were that simple very few people would struggle as they do to loseweight. Additionally anyone who has evertried to give up cheese knows that there is “something” intoxicating about it. I also know that most men and many womendon’t understand that the problem of eating healthy is more mental thananything else. When I thought about thisseries I realized that there was a chance that many people would think I hadlost my mind. However I also knew that I had to stay true to what I believewithout regard to how people reacted. The funny thing about this is that while I wasn’t sure about writingthis series now I am very glad that I did. It feels wonderful knowing that I stayed true to what I believe in nomatter how people react to it. J

Do you taketime to smell the roses? Of course thisis a figurative question since there are no roses in bloom now but I think youknow what I mean. ;-) There were many years of my life that I wasso busy running between my home and office that I didn’t notice much ofanything that happened around me. Itwasn’t until I left healthcare that I began to actually see things. I do this by slowing down and taking ineverything that happens. I realize nowthat this is the opposite of how I used to live. The funny thing about slowing down is thatyou realize that there is as much joy in seeing the light spark on the icewhich formed on a branch as there ever was in getting a raise or apromotion. There are beautiful thingsaround all of us every day. Please slowdown for at least 5 minutes each day and take time to “smell the roses”.

Acknowledgements:

Have youmade any progress writing acknowledgements? I hope you are working on this exercise. I find that it helps me staypositive and recognize the things that I do every day. Here are my acknowledgements:

· While the house looks empty without the Christmasstuff it was nice to get it all down and put away over the weekend. Typically Iput the stuff up and Dan takes it down but we worked as a team this time andgot it finished much more quickly. Everything goes faster when you work together, a good thing for all ofus to remember.

· We have gotten into the habit of going for awalk after dinner. It reminds me of being in Italy since everyone seems to walkafter dinner; in fact it is so common there is a word for it, la passeggiata. I loved the tradition of it when we were inItaly so I have decided to try to add it to our life at home too. For now Dan is going along with me onthis. Let’s hope he doesn’t startworking too late for this to be an option.

· Some days things just come together and thiswas one of those days. The dinner I madewas out of this world delicious. I loveit when I get just the right combination of ingredients. I have been trying to encourage all of you totrust your instincts and to cook without a recipe which is why you haven’t beenseeing many recipes from me lately. Anyone can follow a recipe but when you learn to cook without a recipethen you can feed yourself no matter what you have in the house. I think thisis going to be an upcoming series on the blog. What do you think of the idea?

Sunday:

Breakfastfor both of us was a cocoa, cherry, banana, kale and walnut smoothie. Thesethings really are like drinking dessert for breakfast. Since I typically only make them for Dan Iforget how much they are like candy. No wonder Mr. Sweet Tooth asks for them sooften. LOL

Betweenbreakfast and lunch we worked on packing up the end of the Christmasdecorations. Binky was a big help dismantling Christmas for anyone who iscurious. That little guy gets into everything at our house. He is a cat after all and he knows that wehave to be supervised otherwise we would never get any job done correctly. It is a good thing that we love that littlefuzzy man because he can be a handful.

Lunch todaywas the end of the split pea soup with smoky ‘shrooms. Since we try to eat beans each day I askedDan what he wanted me to make next. Healmost never has an opinion but suggested something made with 16 beans. Perfect! French Market Bean soup will be on the menu tomorrow. I have beensoaking my beans overnight with a little baking soda after Dr. Greger confirmedthat this does reduce the raffinose thereby reducing the gassiness. Thanks again for sharing the recipe Sue!

Dinner wassomething that I whipped together and it far exceeded my expectations. Dan toldme to write it down before I forgot what I had done. Of course I didn’t measure but I will explainthe concept. I cooked some quinoa andwhile that got started sliced an onion so it could stand for 10 minutes beforecooking (it enhances the nutrition which you are probably tired of hearing fromme). Then I “water sautéed the onion inwater, a splash of red wine vinegar and pinch of stevia). When the onion was soft I turned it off tofinish once the quinoa was resting. While the quinoa finished I shredded a bunch of kale to add to the onion. The kale only cooked for about two minutes, Ionly wanted it to soften slightly. Theentire meal was: quinoa topped with thesweet and sour wilted kale and onions, smoky ‘shrooms, walnut sauce withsriracha and finished with sesame seeds. Darn was this good! I can assure you that I will be making thisagain and measuring because yes, it was that good. That walnut sauce with sriracha is deliciouson just about anything I have decided. LOL

I also havedried mushrooms and almonds soaking in the refrigerator. I plan to make some flavored mushrooms forsalad and some vegan mozzarella if I can find the time on Monday. *fingers crossed* Dan has asked me to make some of my wholewheat pizza dough since we haven’t had any in probably a year. Sincehe asked so sweetly I couldn’t say no. Now I need to buy flour and yeast so Dan can have pizza at home.

Happythoughts:

· We went for a nice walk Sunday evening. Thesidewalks were icy but the scenery was fantastic. I love to see the street lights shine on theice covered bare branches. I am sorry that I haven’t been able to get any decentpictures for you. The light was dancingon the ice and it was a bit like walking in a fairyland. What a wonderful way to end the day. I never get tired of going for a walk afterdinner. J

· I had the epiphany today about the meaning offood. As soon as it popped into my head I couldn’t believe that it took me solong to look at it that way. How any ofus view food is huge in terms of what it means for our overall health. I am so glad I finally made the connection sothat I could share it with you.

· It was great to have time to watch two episodesof the meditation DVD from The Great Courses. I have almost finished all theDVDS. I want to watch it twice before Ireview it for you. But as you can probably guess I am really enjoying it. These DVDs definitely made me think about myreaction to things and I love that.

· We have bean soup in the refrigerator again. *woo hoo* I know that this wouldn’t make many people happy but I love it. Beans are such a healthy food and I feel somuch better when I eat them every day. If you haven’t tried eating beans daily I hope you will. They don’t agree with everyone’sgastrointestinal system but if they agree with yours you will miss them whenyou don’ teat them.

Signing Out:

Life Mondayreturned to normal at our house. Danreturned to work and I went back to my usual routine. I even managed to find time to get back tothe meditation DVDs from The Great Courses. There was also a little time in the kitchen, though not as much as I hadhoped for. There really never seems tobe enough time in the day to get everything accomplished.

The emailsabout IIN continue to come in. Icertainly had no idea so many of you had even heard about this let alone thatyou were interested. If you havespecific questions email at veganepicurean@gmail.complease don’t be shy I promise that I don’t mind answering any questions thatyou have.

I hope yourweek started well and that you have some nice things to look forward to thisweek. At the very least take time toenjoy the little things in life. J Talk with you again soon!

31 Days to Better Health - Day 22

2012-01-22T18:21:00.000-05:00

I have beenhaving the best weekend though I have no idea why. All weekend I have been in the mostincredible, upbeat and happy mood for no reason at all. If I could bottle thisand send it to you I would. Who knewthat a few snowflakes could have such a profound impact on my mood? ;-) Actually I don’t know that the snow had anything to do with my mood butit was a change and I do love snow so maybe that was the reason. ;-) Ihope your weekend has been equally good or better than mine.

As I amwriting this I noticed that the days are growing noticeably longer now. It is after 5:30pm and the sun is justsetting. Mother Nature is putting on aninteresting show this evening. The sky is cloudy but with the prettiest red/purplepopping up between the clouds. Sorry that my photos didn’t do it justice. It was fascinating to watch as the fastmoving clouds were changing the sky quickly. I get the biggest kick out of watching the sky change colors. Itfascinates me that the older I get the more easily pleased I am with the littlethings in life.

What haveyou thought of the posts so far this month? Do you have any favorites yet? Thereason I am asking is so that I know what topics you would like me to writeabout in future posts. If you have something that you would like me to writeabout don’t be shy. For those of you whoare just joining us here is the recap of what we have accomplished so far toremind us all of how much we have covered during the first 21 days of January:

Day 1 –Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

What did youthink of yesterday’s post about facing your fears? I hope seeing my fears caused you to reflecton your own and to make a plan to tackle at least one of yours. Please try to remember that we all need tocontinue to learn and grow or we will start to wither inside. If any of us continue to do what you havealways done then we really shouldn’t expect anything in our lives tochange. I have tried many diets during my life,probably more than I can count. It took me years to figure out what works and moreimportantly what doesn’t work. Once Igave up dieting then my health dramatically improved and I want the same thingfor any of you who are looking for change.

I realizethat many of the things that I have written about recently may be too close tohome for some of you. My reason for writing these posts is to shake you out ofyour comfort zone because I know from personal experience that this isnecessary to get results. Everything Ihave been writing this month comes from a place of love and wanting to help andI hope that you all know that.

Give Up theDiet Mentality:

Today’stopic was inspired by a conversation that I had with a friend. That interchange has been rolling around inmy head for the last 48 hours and I think it is very important which is why Iwanted to write about it in this post. There is definitely something that all of us can learn from thisconcept, me included.

January isthe time when almost everyone tries to make changes to improve theirhealth. We are all conditioned to makeresolutions on January 1^st. Iimagine many of you are either looking to lose weight or to improve yourhealth, this is what we do each January. Most of us start off the month with a new diet or heading to the gymevery day. However as gung ho as we areall early in the year most people fall off the bandwagon by the end of themonth. Why does this happen? I have spent a lot of time pondering this andI think I know part of the reason why.

I am surethat each of us has a friend who struggles with their weight or we have orcontinue to struggle with our own weight. If you listen to people who arestruggling with their weight you will find that they have a few things incommon.

· They are always going on or off a diet.

· Each new attempt at dieting starts with a bangand somehow fizzles out.

· We seem to believe that the current quick fix(diet) will solve our problem right up until it stops working. This is driven in large part by the diet bookindustry IMO.

· Diets are seen as something that we do until weget the result that we want.

When youread this list do you see the problem? Ithink that it is always easier to see a problem when it isn’t ours (when youare on the outside) but much tougher to see when you are inside. When any of us pin our hopes on the latestdiet we have set up a temporary situation that may work in the short term butwon’t work in the long term. In order toachieve long term results you have to willing to make long term change. No onewants to hear that but it a fact of life. The problem with any diet (it doesn’t matter which one) is that mostpeople view them as a short term solution, I will eat this way until: I lose20 pounds, after the wedding, after my class reunion, etc. We plan to go back to our old habits once wehave lost the weight. In order achievelasting success you need to be willing to make long term changes. The specific changes are not what it isimportant, what matters is your commitment to long term change.

The firstthing to reflect on is what is the result that you are trying to achieve? Do you want to be a healthy weight for lifeor do you want to lose weight for an event or situation? Many people think they can lose weight on adiet and then go back to eating the way that they used to and yet they expectto keep the weight off. I refer to thisas having their cake and eating it too. However how many of us has either been on thatdiet roller coaster or know people who have and we all know it doesn’t worklong term. This is the reason that thestatistics are so horrible for people losing weight and keeping it off. Here is the bottom line; if we aren’t willingto make permanent changes we won’t see permanent results. This is not difficultto see in other people or with other situations however for some reason most ofus want to believe that diets are exempt from this law of cause andeffect. Diets don’t work specifically because we seethem as a “short term” solution. Howeverno other long term problem has ever been solved by a short term solution and whywould weight be any different?

Let’s lookat some of the specifics to help this make more sense. This time of year diets are everywhere.Almost every magazine that arrived in my mailbox this month has had a diet init. Grab one of those magazines and flipto the diet. What do you notice? The plan tells you what to eat for breakfast,lunch and dinner. What is wrong withthat? None of us can live our liveseating what and when someone else tells us to. Life doesn’t work that way. Whatif you are not home and don’t have access to tuna and whole wheat pita forlunch and that is what you are “supposed to eat”? There is also the obvious problem of what ifyou don’t eat tuna, or if you just don’t feel like tuna that day forlunch? Do you see how this isn’tsustainable for the long term? No matterhow disciplined any of us are we will grow tired of eating what someone elseprescribes for us.

In order forany of us to improve our health we need to be able to make decisions forourselves in the moment. We need to learn which foods are good for us and whichones are harmful. The idea is to eatmore of what is good for us and less (or preferably none) of what is bad forus. The goal is to learn to consistentlymake good decisions when it comes to fueling your body. This sounds complicated to anyone whostruggles with their weight/health but it is actually very simple. I have very few “rules” around what I eatwhich probably surprises many of you who think the way we eat is veryrestrictive (I hear that from many of you by email BTW). Here is the only thing that I keep in mindwhen deciding what to eat:

What is thehealthiest thing that I want to eat right now?

That doesn’tseem very complicated does it? At somemeals the healthiest thing that appeals to me may be a big salad, savoryoatmeal or a green smoothie. Other times the healthiest thing that appeals tome is veggie sushi, whole wheat pasta with red sauce or tofu chocolatemousse. I recognize that my mood changesand that some meals are healthier than other meals and that is okay. Overall I am happy with my choices and feellike they generally serve me well.

However thisis not to say that I don’t reevaluate my choices often because I do. I monitor my results and make adjustments allthe time, but these adjustments aren’t big so you would not necessarily noticethem. I will give you an example. When Dan was in the hospital my food choiceswere not as healthy as usual (veggie subs) and as a consequence I put on a fewpounds. Once we were both home I made afew adjustments so that those extra pounds came back off. This is the reason that I find it helpful toget on the scale every morning. It isn’t the absolute number that matters; itis the trend of the numbers. Example if the scale is rising I know that I needto make changes immediately. Otherpeople may need to make changes if the scale is not falling or if it is fallingdepending on your baseline and goal.

While I amnot a fan or diets I am also not a fan of the concept of moderation. One of the reasons that I always rail againstmoderation is that the concept is incredibly vague. No one actually knows what moderation meansyet everyone claims that the practice it even Paul Deen. Really? *scratches head* This just doesn’t make any sense to me. If we all think that we practice moderationand over 65% of this country is overweight or obese how any of us can actuallythink that moderation works? Is it justme or do you see the same problem that I do?

Moderationis all about having your cake and eating it too. Another way to look atmoderation is that we are giving ourselves permission to eat food that we knowisn’t good for us, because we are eating it moderation and we want to believethat somehow makes it better. Would youeat arsenic in moderation? Would you use heroine in moderation? Would you giveyour children alcohol in moderation? Do you see the inherent problem withmoderation? Can you tell that I reallydon’t think much of moderation?

I hope thatwhat I wrote about the diet mentality and moderation causes you to ponder theseconcepts. I used to believe in bothdiets and moderation too. However givingup on both these has improved my health and happiness and I think that it willdo the same thing for you.

I am sure afew of you are thinking, okay so diets don’t work and neither does moderationbut what should I be doing? Easy! The next time it is meal time just askyourself what is the healthiest thing you want to eat now. Continue to makeeach meal decision with that thought in mind and you will improve your health.

Somethingtells me that some of you still want more suggestions. Here are things that you might want to keepin mind.

· Fresh (raw) produce (vegetables and fruit) arealways good. Any time that you can addfresh produce to your meals you should. Raw produce is low in calories, high in fiber and high inmicronutrients. Go produce!

· Increase the amount of protein that you get fromplant sources. The beauty of plantprotein is that it comes without saturated fat and with fiber. Whenever you canadd beans to a meal instead of animal products you are doing your health afavor. I try to eat beans in some formeach day.

· Concentrate on eating whole unprocessedplant-based food. Try to eat at least50% of each meal as whole unprocessed plant-based food. Once 50% is easy to achieve increase thepercentage. I try to eat 95% of my foodas whole food but I didn’t get here overnight. Examples of processed foods for me include: anything made with flour, sugar, oil, as wellas things that come in packages. Whenyou eat mostly whole unprocessed plant-based foods everything about your healthstarts to improve.

· Drink more water. Our bodies are predominantly water and theyneed water to function properly. MostAmericans are chronically dehydrated. Instead of reaching for a diet soda or a cup of coffee drink water. If you don’t like water make it green tea, oryou can add cucumber, fresh herbs or citrus slices to your water for flavor.

When you putthese ideas into practice you will naturally crowd out the unhealthyfoods. If you don’t think you can makeall these changes at one time pick one and concentrate on that. Once thatchange becomes a habit add another change.

Today’sexercises are:

1. Record what you eat today in your journal. Atthe end of the day review the list and reflect on your choices. Are you happywith your choices? If you are happy withthem wonderful! If not identify thechoices that you would like to change in the future and think about healthysubstitutions so that you are prepared the next time. Write those new choicesdown too. Here is an example to give youan idea:

Veggie subs from Subway could become freshfruit and nuts from home or hummus and crudités (both of which I did after awhile at the hospital but not initially).

2. Select one of the items above to add to yourdiet. Most people find it easier to addthings that to take things away. Howeverby adding more nutritious items you are less room for the unhealthy stuff. Look carefully at your diet and start withthe change that will have the biggest impact for you. For example if you eat alot of pasta substituting quinoa might be the right choice and would definitelybe a great way to reduce your processed food impact.

I know that I need to eat more mushrooms. Wegot out of the habit of having them when Dan was in the hospital. In order to make this easier to incorporate Iam going to get back into the habit of preparing flavored mushrooms a few timesa week to have on hand for salads. Sorry that I couldn’t come up with a better example here but I have beenworking on my food choices for a while so there isn’t much left for me tochange in our dietary habits. ;-)

What did youthink of this section on ditching the diet mentality? Did I explain it in a way that makessense? I hope that I did. Like always if anything that I wrote isunclear or you think that it requires clarification please don’t hesitate tolet me know either by commenting or sending me an email.

Progress onmy goals:

1. Newsletters – Saturday was another productiveday for me which feels great. I lovebeing able to see the progress that I am making. *woo hoo*

2. Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and Ihave gotten back into using the way I had intended when I purchased it. Go me! J

3. Date with Dan – The hubby and I have spent a lotof time together this week. With theweather we have stayed fairly close to home but we can have fun anywhere homeor out. ;-)

4. Measuringcalorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need tofocus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat solublevitamins.

5. Working on my business – Saturday I took the dayoff from working on the business. TheJanuary posts are taking me many more hours to write than usual. As much as Ilove these posts I will be happy to see February arrive since I really need alittle time back to work on other things, the business being one of them.

How are youfeeling about your progress so far? Ihope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month. J

RandomThoughts:

When didpeople stop cooking in this country? Iwas looking at a recipe on Real Simple today for samosas and it called forrefrigerated or frozen mashed potatoes. What? People buy prepared mashedpotatoes. My first thought was this wasa joke but no they really exist. When Ilooked up the ingredients I was surprised that I couldn’t find itdetailed. Hmmm, I wonder what is inthere that they don’t want us to know about. Is it any wonder that people in this countrystruggle with their health? *sigh*

One of thetoughest things in life for any of us to do is to be true to ourselves. Human nature means that we all want toconform, to be included in the group, basically to be accepted. However when you have beliefs that arecounter to what the rest of the world believes it is difficult to “fitin”. This was one of the scariest thingsabout changing our diet initially. Iknew that on some level everything about life would change. Many of our social activities would change(cooking class for example), and friends would not understand why they saw usless. However we both knew that we had achoice to make, do what we believed was in our own personal best interest healthwise or compromise ourselves for others. I think you know us well enough by now to know what we decided todo.

If you are worried about how eating more like us will impact your life I won’t mislead you it is difficult at first. People will not understand your choices andthey will try to convince you that “a little bit of ……” won’t hurt you. My question is where do you plan to draw theline? Is one unhealthy meal a weekokay? What is the point at which youhave gone too far? Dan and I follow adiet that most people consider extremely restrictive. The funny thing is thatneither of us perceives it that way. We both think of food and fuel and mostpeople don’t. When your focus is on yourhealth making the best choice is very simple.

Acknowledgements:

Have youmade any progress writing acknowledgements? I hope are working on this exercise. I find that it helps me staypositive and recognize the things that I do every day. Here are my acknowledgements:

· We have had a very good weekend. We got out of the house for exercise eventhough it was icy. I took this pictureto try to give you an idea. Sorry it doesn’t really do it justice. I waspleased with us for getting out despite the weather, that is when you know youare committed, is should that be you should be committed? LOL

· The split pea and barley soup that I made onFriday was a bit hit this weekend. Isthere anything better than a thick bean soup when it is cold and snowyoutside? *pats self on back* ;-) Idescribe the soup in more detail below in case you want to make something similarat your house.

· We finally took all the Christmas decorationsdown. We had planned to take them down the evening that Dan ended up in thehospital. While the decorations were upmuch longer than usual, and longer than they should have been, at least we wereable to enjoy them more this year which was nice. I can almost always find a bright side toeverything you know. LOL

· Other than to check the weather we haven’t hadthe TV on in days. I love that we areable to talk, read and enjoy the other persons company without the distractionof a TV set. J I am one lucky woman to have married my bestfriend. I guess this proves that goodthings are worth waiting for.

· My hubby is such a sweetie. He walked to thestore on Sunday, just to get out and move around, and called to see if I neededanything. He came home with a beautiful bunch of kale (better than flowers) andbananas. J

Saturday:

Breakfast for Dan was wild blueberry oats with gojiberries, a few cranberries, cinnamon, powdered ginger, nutmeg, stevia, rawpumpkin seeds, raw sunflower seeds and hempseeds. Can sweet oatmeal get much healthier thanthis? Probably not much healthier LOL. ;-)

You will not be surprised to hear that I had savoryoatmeal. This time I flavored it withnutritional yeast (to make it cheesy), cumin, paprika and no-saltseasoning. I add in frozen organicveggies (corn, peas, carrots and green beans) and stirred in some fresh organicspinach right at the end of cooking. I topped it with a little of the leftoverred sauce with mushrooms and finished it with a few of the smoked mushrooms thatI made for the split pea soup. Deliciousif I do have to be the one to say so. ;-) I never get tired of savory oatmeal in case you hadn’t noticed.There are so many different flavor combinations yet to explore. LOL

We took our time getting breakfast so I ended up skippinglunch. Dan polished off the remainder of the healthy tofu chocolate mousseexperiment so that I could work on the next batch and get the recipe “right”. Dan is just a giver isn’t he? LOL

Dinner was a bowl of the split pea and barley soup toppedwith the smoked mushrooms. It was theperfect cold weather meal. J For those of you who are curious I pressurecooked a pound of beans, then added the ½ cup barley and cooked that normallyuntil the barley was soft. I seasoned thesoup with bay leaves, a touch of Dijon mustard, dill, caraway, onion, garlic andno-salt seasoning. The smoked mushrooms were even easier. Take dried mushroomsand rehydrate them in water, then squeeze out the excess liquid and move themto a sheet pan. Add a little liquidsmoke (maybe ¼ - ½ teaspoon, some no-salt seasoning and toss to combine. Bake the flavored ‘shrooms on 350 degreesuntil they are just starting to get chewy. The exact time will depend on your oven and how dry the ‘shrooms werewhen you started to bake them. Mine were in about 30 minutes.

Happythoughts:

· The mystery fever has been gone for almost aweek now. We are both convinced that whatever caused it is now gone. Good riddance I say. J

· The ice covered tree branches were beautifullast night when we were out. I am sorrythat I couldn’t get a good picture of it with me phone. The trees seemed to be covered in diamondswhen the street lights shined on them. Itwas definitely a gorgeous sight, but one that I was happy to walking in ratherthan driving in.

· Saturday our friend Jackie (Walid’s wife)stopped for lunch and saw Ian. I am not sure how it came up but she mentionedthe trip to the hospital and not long after that I had an email from Ian. Are you starting to see what a small group weall are? It is sweet that everyone atthe restaurant worries about us but I wish that they wouldn’t. *ugh* While it is nice to have so many people care about you but it also comeswith responsibility. I hate to causepeople to worry. Looks like I need to goout to lunch one day this week and fill the gang in.

· Sunday morning I received a nice email fromLauren (the very sweet nearly vegan nurse we met at Hopkins). We hadn’t run into each other on the streetand she wanted to let me know that she was definitely interested in gettingtogether for lunch. It is always nice tomake new friends isn’t it? Who couldhave imagined that I would find a new friend from literally around the cornerwhile at the hospital? Life does seem towork in mysterious ways sometimes.

· Have I said recently how nice it is to be eatingmy own food again? I feel so much betterthen I eat things that I had made from scratch. The weight I picked up while Dan was in the hospital is almost gone (it shouldbe completely gone by tomorrow), and I feel fabulous.

· Next week we are expecting temperatures in the low50s all week. *woo hoo* You know I willbe spending as much time outside as possible right? I love getting outside to breathe the freshair. *happy dance*

· Binky was adorable today as we were taking downthe end of the Christmas stuff. He had to get into every box and investigateeach item we were putting away. I love that our cats still act like kittens thoughthey will all be 11 years old this year. Our three fur children certainly bring a lot of love and laughter intoour house.

Signing Out:

I haven’teven thought about dinner yet. It needsto get off the computer and get my behind into the kitchen soon otherwise wewill starve! Okay we would never really actually starve because we both likefood too much, but I tend to have a flair for the dramatic. ;-) Since Dan brought home a big bunch ofkale that may make its way into dinner tonight. Then again I am fickle so I am sure another dozen ideas will flowthrough my head before I actually make dinner. Who knows what we will end up eating. See why I don’t bother to pretend that I am going to write a menu forthe week? There would be no point since I would never stick to it. LOL

I have beenshocked by the flood of emails that I have gotten about IIN. I had no idea somany of you were interested in this. Ifyou are interested and you yet sent me an email at veganepicurean@gmail.com please don’tbe shy I promise that I don’t mind answering any questions that you have. It would probably be easier for us to talk byphone so that you can get all your questions answered if that works for you.Send me an email so that we can exchange phone numbers and set up a time tochat. However if you are shy and wouldrather communicate by email that is fine too, whatever works for you is okaywith me.

Enjoy therest of your Sunday. I hope you had afabulous weekend and are rested and ready to start your week, assuming you dothe 9-5 thing like my hubby that is. ;-) Talk with you again soon!

31 Days to Better Health - Day 21

2012-01-21T02:30:00.000-05:00

Aren’tweekends always the best part of every week? I don’t even mind that our weather is icky. I hope you are having an equally upbeatweekend too.

This morningwe woke up to a light blanket of snow. I would guess we got about an inch offrozen precipitation, mostly snow. It was just enough to be pretty but notcause any serious problems. Howeverthere was also freezing rain in the mix so we still opted to stay home since weknew the bridges would be slippery and many of the sidewalks in theneighborhood would not have been cleared. Tomorrow the temperatures are supposed to climb so all the white stuffwill be gone.

Speaking ofwhite stuff, I heard from Christine at the marina this morning and she wantedme to know that she and Tim had shoveled our pier and specifically the smallerfinger pier leading to our boat just in case we came to the marina today. Wasn’tthat incredibly thoughtful of them? Itis good to remember that there are a lot of nice people in the world. It really is a shame that the people thatmost of us focus on are the jerks. *shakes head*

What haveyou thought of the posts so far this month? Do you have any favorites yet? Thereason I am asking is so that I know what topics you would like me to writeabout in future posts. For those of youwho are just joining us here is the recap of what we have accomplished so farto remind us all of how much we have covered during the first 20 days ofJanuary:

Did the postyesterday help you to identify your unhealthy rituals? I used to have manyunhealthy rituals back in the bad old days. I hope seeing all the things that I used to do wrong gives you hope thatyou can change too. Sometimes I get the feelingthat many of you think I came out of the womb healthy and nothing could befurther from the truth. I used to be the average American just like you. If you ever have any questions about mytransition to a healthy plant-based whole food diet please ask. I am happy tohelp you any way that I can.

Face YourFears:

We all havethings that we are afraid of and that is good because fear is also what helpsto keep us alive. If we didn’t have fear we would do stupid things like walkalone in bad neighborhoods or picking up strangers who were hitchhiking. Feardefinitely serves a healthy purpose in life. However as useful as fear is it can also limit our growth if it stops usfrom trying new things. I am going to use my life as an example so that you canlearn from things I have done, both right and wrong.

About a yearago I signed up for a nutrition program which was very different from anythingthat I ever thought I would do. In caseyou hadn’t noticed I am extremely analytical (probably partly due to my educationin finance). Attending a program whichwas holistic was the last thing that I ever thought I would do and actually Iwas afraid to do it. My husband knows mewell and encouraged me to break out of my tight little analytical box. He knows just what to say to me to get me tomove. His words of advice, “What is theworst that could happen that you don’t learn anything?” Okay so I couldn’t actually argue with thatlogic so I signed up 2 days before the session started in January 2011. In early December 2011, just before all themedical chaos starting swirling, I graduated from the Institute for IntegrativeNutrition (IIN) and now I am a health coach. What am I going to do with this? Actually that is not fully defined yet but Iam working on the specifics each day and when I know I will let you know. But one thing I do know is that I am moreconvinced now than ever that I want to help people improve their health. I know that here in the US we need to makeserious lifestyle changes and if I can help anyone to improve their help I willbe thrilled!

Earlier thisweek I signed up for Robbins-Madanes Strategic Intervention Training(getrmt.com). I decided to do thisbecause I believe that where people need help making lifestyle changes isn’t asmuch with the specific dos and don’ts but it is putting those strategies andrules into practice. Like I have said onthe blog many times I think we all have a general idea what we need to do butwe don’t know how to make it happen. This was also something that Dan had to push me to do because again Iwasn’t sure given how different this is from anything that I have ever studiedbefore that this was going to work for me. Are you starting to see the fear pattern in me?

Signing upfor both IIN and RMT was way outside my comfort zone. To say that I was afraidto do this was an understatement. However I also realized that if I didn’t do Iwould remain afraid of doing things that were different from my experience todate.

These arenot the only examples of things that I have been afraid to do there are manymore these are just fairly recent. Whenwe first made the jump into veganism I was also afraid. How would I know what to make for us toeat? Would be get enough protein? What do you vegans eat? Will our friends think we have lost our lastmarble? Will be ever be able to dine outagain? The funny thing is that otherthan learning to cook like this everything has been fine. Now that I can make healthy food as easily asunhealthy food we have no difficulty eating at home or in a restaurant. Sure our friends think we have gone over theedge but I am okay with that. All I needto know is that we both feel good and other than the recent emergent medicalevent everything has been going well for us health wise. I still chuckle at theidea that I ever worried about getting enough protein. I swear that we have all been brainwashedinto thinking we need to consume animal products. I often wonder if the beef or dairy councilis behind it.

Every time Ichanged jobs in the past I was afraid. What if I hated my new boss? Maybethe staff I was inheriting would all quit to follow their prior boss. What if things were too messed up for me tofix? As you can tell I was very good atmaking stuff up? Why do humans do thingslike this to themselves?

Many yearsago I was afraid to get into a relationship with Dan. What if he was like myex-husband and I ended up hurt again? Ittook both of us years to actually commit to each other, we lived together butwe didn’t marry because we were both afraid that this marriage would end poorlylike both of our first marriages had. Inretrospect I can’t imagine my life with anyone other than Dan and I have noidea why it took me so long to stop being afraid of commitment the second time.But this is a great example of the problem with fear. Had I never taken the risk I wouldn’t bemarried to my best friend today.

Do you seehow fear can limit your choices if you let it? Like I said earlier, fear definitely has a purpose but most of the timeit isn’t our friend because it stops us from taking any risks even ones thatcan be good for us. If we want to moveforward in life, to continue to grow and learn we have to be willing to takethe risk and face our fears.

What I wantyou to start thinking about is what are you afraid of? I know there is at least one thing (probablymany more) that you want to do but that fear is holding you back because to beafraid is human nature. I have designedsome questions to help you figure out what you want to do and why you aren’tdoing it. I will answer them too to giveyou an idea of what I am trying to get you to think about.

Today’sexercises are:

1. What is something that you have wanted to dofor a long time that you haven’t done because you are afraid of a possible badoutcome? Maybe you want to lose weightbut you think you have tried everything, except a diet like ours, and you knowthat you can’t do that because it is too limiting for you. (Are you sure it is true? – you may want toreread day 11 of this series)

Since I began taking courses at IIN I havebeen talking starting a business helping people to improve their health. As youall know health is something that I am extremely passionate about so this seemslike a natural fit for me. But fear of not being perfect has been holding meback. Today I decided to tell you allwhat is going on in my head in the hope that it will inspire you to breakthrough your fear too. Believe me when Itell you that sharing this part of me on the blog is definitely scary and nowthat is it “out there” all of you can, and hopefully will, hold me accountable. *eek* ;-)

2. Describe at least 3 other times that youpushed through the fear that the situation turned out well. If you want to describe more than 3 evenbetter. The purpose to remind yourself that the little voice (the fear) isfrequently wrong. Don’t let fear hold you back from becoming the best youpossible. You can use a lot more detailthan I did I was just showing you some examples of things I was afraid of thatworked out well.

· Marrying Dan – that is an obvious one and Ican’t imagine what life would be like now if I had not done this. *shakes head*

· Leaving healthcare finance – This was terrifyingwhen I did it but one of the best decisions that I ever made. Now I have no idea why I waited 2 decades todo it.

· Starting the blog – Yes I was even afraid tostart the blog initially. I am not techsavvy like my husband so I felt like a fish out of water. Also I couldn’timagine that anyone would want to read a blog about healthy cooking,particularly healthy vegan cooking. I amvery glad that I was wrong on all counts.

· Taking course at e-Cornell, IIN andRobbins-Madanes – I can’t speak for the last one yet but I am happy that I didthe other two. Part of me thought I wastoo old to learn new things and I am happy that this was not true. Additionally taking the first two coursesclarified for me that I really do have a very good grasp of nutrition and thatwas huge for me. Not to mention that IINis pushing me out of my comfort zone and into business which I know that I willlove once I break through my fears.

3. How would your life be different if you pushedthrough the fear and did what scares you?

Darn I hate this question! Since I have thought about this so much I cantell you all the possible pit falls and many of the benefits. However since it does no good to continue tofocus on the negatives I am only going to look at the potential upside which is:

· I could help people improve their health and Ican think of nothing that would be more meaningful to me.

· I would be able to show people that they caneat a very healthy diet, inexpensively and easily and could tell them first-handabout the health benefits of such a change.

· Knowing that I was helping others to avoidcancer, heart disease and diabetes through lifestyle change would make me feelas though I was making a positive impact on the world. After all none of us want to think that ourtime on earth is for nothing.

· I would like to be an active financialcontributor to the family again. Most ofour relationship I made as much or more income than Dan so not contributing hasbeen rough on my self-esteem. I don’tthink anyone wants to feel like they are a net drain.

· I believe that I am fairly good at helpingpeople to identify what is holding them back from making change and I think thisis at least as important as giving them recipes, menus or lists of things toeat and to avoid.

· I would feel better about myself if I knew Iwas helping people. Although I think that I am helping people with the blogwithout the interaction I am never certain. It would be nice to have the one-on-one contact with people and to seeand hear about their progress.

4. Whatever you identified in item 1 above nowyou need to commit to taking the first step. In order to hold yourself accountable I want you to tell someone whatyou have committed to do and when you will do it.

· I have been working on a separate website formy new business. I will be sharing that link with you on February 1^0th. That will force me to get it finished and toput it out there for everyone. I hadoriginally planned to share it with you on February 1 but with all the time Iam putting into writing the 31 days to better health series I don’t know that Ican get if finished and be happy with it. Wish me luck on this one. With startingclasses at RMT I have no idea how much time I will have. Can you tell I am feeling pressure already? LOL

Are youready to tackle one of the things that you have been avoiding because of fear? Just pick one thing that has been on yourlist for a while and jump in. As myhusband would say “what is the worst thing that could happen?” In my mind the worst thing is always failure,but I am working hard to see that mistakes are nothing more than learningexperiences and when we stop learning we also stop growing.

Good luckon taking your first step to breaking through something that scares you. I knowyou can do it. If you want to share herewhat you are committing to do I think that would be fabulous.

Progress onmy goals:

1. Newsletters – Friday was another productive dayfor me which feels great. I love beingable to see the progress that I am making. *woo hoo*

2. Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and Ihave gotten back into using the way I had intended when I purchased it. Go me! J

3. Date with Dan – The hubby and I have spent a lotof time together this week. I am alwayssurprised that after more than 2 decades we never run out of things to talkabout.

4. Measuringcalorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need tofocus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat solublevitamins.

5. Working on my business – I spent a little timeon my other website yesterday. I am making progress on it but I know that Ineed to just let it go as is at some point and stop trying for perfection whichisn’t possible.

How are youfeeling about your progress so far? I alwaysfeel like my progress is slower than I would like it to be. However I trying tofocus on the fact that there is progress and that Rome wasn’t built in aday. ;-) Are you starting to see how my little inner perfectionist creeps intoevery facet of my life?

RandomThoughts:

I am alwayssurprised by some of the Google searches that bring people to the blog. Onethat I saw last night seemed particularly relevant so I wanted to write alittle something about it. The searchwas “how long after going vegan do you see results”. Since I am not certain which specific resultsthis person was wondering about I will simply tell you about our experience.

We made thetransition from omnivore to vegan but it wasn’t vegan like we are now.Initially when we went vegan we still ate oil (but in moderation), salt (againin moderation) and we consumed a lot of starchy carbs like pasta, bread,etc. Even with this less healthy dietthere were tremendous results in three weeks. My husband total cholesterol dropped from approximately 260 to 160 in literallythree weeks. I would have thought thiswas a fluke but Dan’s cholesterol has remained at this level or lower eversince.

In additionto the rapid drop in cholesterol there were other changes which we experiencedthese included: blood pressurereduction, elimination of seasonal allergies, weight loss and dramaticimprovement in our gastrointestinal health and all of them happened in a matterof weeks not months. The first couple ofweeks there were headaches and an increase in skin problems (rashes and acne)but those went away in less than a month. None of these side effects were badenough that I wouldn’t go through them again. The headaches were mild and did not impact my ability to function. I am not certain but I suspect the headachesand skin problems were how my body was eliminating accumulated toxins. I hope that gives you an idea about what youcan expect from dietary change like ours.

Acknowledgements:

· Friday was productive at my house and that feltgood. I got a little cooking done whichwas nice. I also spend some time studyingand I love to do that so it was a very good day all around for me.

· Yesterday (Friday) was the first day Dan was outof my sight other than when he was sleeping at the hospital and I washome. I was surprised that I was able tostay as calm as I did. Apparently my meditation has more of a calming influenceover me than I ever expected.

· I was very happy to see the comment from Susanyesterday about sticking with her healthy eating goals this year. I love to hear that people are makingprogress and I am thrilled to play a small part in that progress. Thanks forsharing that with us Susan. You can expect me to write a post about cheese verysoon just for you. ;-) I used to ADORE cheese and considered myselfa “cheese-aholic” so I can definitely relate to your dilemma. Trust me you can give up cheese as impossibleat that seems. I never thought that I couldand I have gotten to the point that I not only don’t miss it but I wouldn’t eatit unless there was literally no other food on earth. How is that for a turnaround? There really ishope for you too. J

· I made smoky mushrooms yesterday without anindoor smoker and they turned out fine. I love it when I take a recipe andsimply the method so anyone can make it. Go me!

· It is wonderful to know that we have a big jar(literally 64 ounces) of split pea soup in the refrigerator. There is nothing more comforting that beansoup on a cold snowy winter day. Yay mefor planning!

Friday:

Breakfastfor Dan was his favorite smoothie with frozen banana, frozen cherries, rawkale, walnuts, ground flaxseeds, cocoa, cinnamon, stevia and enough water forit to process. As cold as it was outside I was surprised the he wanted this buthe did.

I mademyself a salad that was very similar to the pasta dish we had for dinner thenight before. The salad included: babyspinach, shredded carrot, walnut sauce with sriracha, and cilantro.

Lunch for mewas leftover veggie sushi which Dan brought home from Jesse Wong’s. My hubby knows how much I love veggie sushiso he brought it for me even though he didn’t know that I wanted it. Dan is a good husband. J

Beforedinner Dan and I went for a nice walk through the neighborhood. It was great toget outside and enjoy the fresh air. Ialways enjoy how different the neighborhood looks by foot instead of bycar. Here in America I don’t think thatmost of us spend enough time walking.

Dinner forus was a very simple meal of whole wheat pasta, frozen organic veggies (corn,carrots, peas and green beans), topped with tomato mushroom sauce and finishedwith pine nuts. This meal came together in the time it took to cook the pasta.Sometimes even I am not in the mood to cook. ;-)

Happythoughts:

Have yougotten into the habit of writing your happy thoughts? I find it helpful to remind myself how oftenthings go well and that I shouldn’t take these things for granted. Here are my happy thoughts:

· Dan’s temperature is still normal and hecontinues to feel more like himself. He was even out shoveling the sidewalk thismorning after our overnight “snow event”. Things are definitely returning to normal around here. When he came infrom shoveling I did make him a triple earl grey green tea with fresh orangejuice to help him warm up. I wanted togo outside and do the shoveling but he wouldn’t let me. Sometimes my hubby can be as stubborn asme. ;-)

· Dan really had a good time with Dan Jr. atlunch. The boys are going to try to gettogether for lunch at least once a month going forward which I think soundsgreat.

· I am also happy for sushi for lunchyesterday. It wasn’t only because I lovesushi but because my husband proactively thought to bring me sushi. I really did marry the right guy for me didn’tI?

· I have been enjoying the first four videos onthe RMT training. They are definitely outside my comfort zone but I think thatis great. I was telling Dan last nightthat I will need to watch them a few more times so that I can “embody” whatthey are trying to teach me. However I love to learn so I don’t mind a bit.

· I am also looking forward to part 2 of the IINtraining starting in March. Yes I willbe doing two programs at once (RMT and IIN Immersion), daily exercise, dailymeditation, daily uplifting reading, staying current with nutrition research,starting a business, continuing to work with my current clients, taking care ofmy family (Dan, fur children and my parents), working on the blog, developing newrecipes and getting in some much needed boat time for R&R. You did know thatI was a glutton for punishment didn’t you? If anyone tells you that retirement is boring don’t believe them! I have heard it said before that if you arebored it is because you are boring and I think there is a measure of truth tothat. I hope that seeing what I do every day willinspire a few of you to get into the kitchen and cook a little more often. While I may not have a “traditional’ 9-5 jobI am definitely not lounging around either.

· Dan is going to work on putting together awalking desk for me so that I can study and get exercise. Isn’t he a sweetiepie? I really do have the best husband inthe entire world. Of course I am not theleast bit biased. LOL

Signing Out:

I love how snow makes everything look so cleanand bright. Snow is really beautifulespecially when you can enjoy it from inside the comfort of your warmhouse. I thought we weren’t going to getany measurable snow this winter so I was happy to see it finally arrive. Winters here are always late. We tend to get most of our snow in February sothere is still time for us to get a little more. I would like to see that happen but I wouldprefer it to happen on the weekend so that I didn’t need to worry about hubbytrying back and forth to work in it.

If any ofyou have any questions about IIN be sure to ask. You can send me an email at veganepicurean@gmail.com or you cancomment here. It would probably beeasier for us to talk by phone so that you can get all your questions answeredif that works for you. Send me an email so that we can exchange phone numbers andset up a time to chat.

For now Ihave to run, I have lots to do. It istime for me to get productive. As you now know I have many things on my to-dolist and there never seems to be enough time in the day to get to all of themthe way that I would like to. I thinkthere is truth to the saying that if you need something done give it to thebusy person since they always find time for things.

Enjoy therest of your Saturday! If you have anythingfun planned I would love to hear about it. My weekend will be a lot of work. Talk with you again soon!