Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Day Eleven, Very Tired...

I have to confess that today has not been a great day --although signing in to the blog just now has boosted my morale (more on that shortly).

On the down side, I am so, so tired right now.  Had to get up yesterday at 5am to do some travel for work, worked all day yesterday out of town until 7pm, then up again this morning at 4:50 am to make the trip back to the city I usually work in.  I'm kind of wired because I have so much to get done this week that can't wait, and I am just not sure that I'm winning the battle.  I had hoped to get to the gym today and it didn't happen.  Veggie consumption didn't make the target, although on the positive side I made up a nice healthy stir-fry for dinner tonight, so my total servings for the day came out to roughly four.  Did not stay within my weight watchers points targets --had a bit of a binge on some yoghurt-covered almonds, and am feeling slightly ashamed of that.

The morale boost came when I signed in and saw that some people are reading --and that many of you have accomplished some great things so far.  It makes me feel less alone in this journey --and inspired.  So thank you for reading, and for just being out there! 

This will be a short post tonight because I really need some time to unwind.  I am home tomorrow night, and will post again then.  Hope everyone is doing well.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Day Ten - Couldn't Resist...

In an effort to be kind to myself during a very tough week, I said that I wouldn't post again until Wednesday.  However, a friend sent me a link to a health website where I found a wonderful article on happiness - and what stops us from getting there. 

What does this have to do with eating vegetables as medicine?  I tend to see the world in a very integrated way; and I truly believe that there's a multi-directional relationship between self-care (of which vegetable consumption is now forming a key part in my life) and happiness.  Times of stress --like this week-- make me reflect on both topics.   

The enclosed link starts off as saying some basic things that I've heard many times before (e.g. simplify your life); but other ideas are somewhat novel.  Once you get through the full thing you may start to think of happiness in some new ways.  I found the comment on despair particularly insightful.  It reminded me of a conversation with a friend who spoke of despair as a sin.  At first I was puzzled by her remark, since the word "sin" wasn't a typical part of her vocabulary.  But then she explained that she considered despair a sin because it's a huge insult to yourself and to God / the Universe/ whatever or whomever you believe to be the root of all creation.  Despair essentially means that you aren't appreciating what you've been given (in terms of your own talents and who you are as a person), because you have let too much negative external stuff crowd out that understanding.  You're essentially refusing the gift of yourself.    And as I write about despair, it makes me reflect a tiny bit about the gifts of myself that I am refusing whenever I despair about my eating habits and just give in to eating garbage for instant pain relief.  Hmmm... something tells me that I have some fodder for another post when I have time to be more philosophical...

Anyway, enough rambling.  Here is the link--hope it's helpful!

http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/why-youre-not-happy?ecd=wnl_wmh_092809

ps.  Three vegetable servings today so far, four more to go for my current target of seven.  Think I'll have a vegetarian stir fry for dinner tonight...

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Day Nine - Where did she go?

Sunday September 27, 2009 --well, it's been a while! 

When I started this blog my goal was to post daily on the value of vegetables as medicine.  Clearly my lack of daily posting represents a failure of sorts.  Or does it?  Is a smug rationalization for my performance (or lack of) about to follow?  Yes and no.

First of all, let me recap what's been happening for me this past week.  In earlier posts I talked about defending my doctoral dissertation on Sept 21st.  While I passed, I was asked to make revisions (not uncommon).  My timeframe is very short --I should have these in to my advisor some time tomorrow, and finalize by the end of the week.  I have also been working full time except for Monday.  My job is in another city from my home, plus I had urgent meetings Thursday in yet a third town and... you can imagine the time crunches and the chaos.

In this context, my failure to post has been, in some ways, emblematic of my failure to take proper care of myself as the stress levels mount.  On the negative side, this type of failure definitely gets the excuse machinery running in high gear (weird metaphor, I know, but my father was a mechanic and I grew up with a lot of those expressions).  Over the past month I've been listening to a CD of Dr. Wayne Dyer's Excuses Be Gone, and it's sensitized me to the counter-productive nature of excuses.  So this failure has been informative in that it's got me thinking in a more immediate way about my abuse of excuses.

On the positive side, through all this stress I do have some successes to report.  While I definitely went over my Weight Watchers' points target on 3/7 days this week, I did get in a minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, often having as many as eight (beyond my Day #1 triumph of ten).  It's the wrong time in my cycle for the scale to show progress, but I think I may have lost a half a pound.  And I went to the gym two more times (Thursday and yesterday).

The whole experience this week has also helped me think more about the connection between vegetables and junk food, and junk food and stress in my life.  On extremely high stress days with no free time, my junk food consumption was higher and my vegetable consumption lower  Vegetables have been filling me up, but in high stress moments even where I could get veggies easily (e.g. pre-washed and cut single serving carrots at a grocery store), I would sometimes still opt for the junk food just for the sugar rush to keep myself going.  That is not a good pattern.

So what am I going to do to move forward?  Well, I have to get through today and those pesky (yes I'd like to use another word here but I won't) revisions.  Monday will still be a bit of a scamble, and I will try to be kind to myself, Tuesday I'm out of town again for work purposes, but I will focus on healthy rather than unhealthy foods.  Wednesday and Thursday I'm in my usual work city, and I will go to the gym on at least one of those days and aim for seven servings of fruits and vegetables each day, with no chocolate on either day (because chocolate seems to be a trigger food for me in stressful times) and staying on target for points.  Friday I'm back home, and will also shoot for those same goals.  I will also give myself a break --this week-- with the blog postings.  I won't post again until Wednesday, but will make sure I succeed because accounting for my choices in this way seems to be helpful.  Again --if ayone else is going through similar challenges and wants to share, I'd love to hear from you!

ps.  Not sure of its accuracy, but the following link is a article touting the benefits of various vegetables --check it out if you're looking for more reasons to eat healthily!  http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art51113.asp

Monday, September 21, 2009

Day Three

This will be a short post as I'm still out of town.

Just wanted to report that the rest of Sunday went well as far as my vegetable project was concerned - I got in eight servings of fruit and vegetables and the Pad Thai my friend made was fabulous and healthy.  It was great to hang out with her, although I was very nervous about my impending doctoral defense.

Today was my defense which also went well - I passed with minor revisions which I have to complete by the end of the month.  So far today I have had four servings of fruits and vegetables, and will try to squeak in another four before the day is over.

I promise tomorrow's post will be more interesting! 

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Day Two

Yesterday was a great success - but then what can you expect from a first-day keener? 

I didn't waste any time in getting started with my vegetable-filled day.  My first meal was a plate of sliced roma tomatoes and english cucumber with balsamic vinegar drizzled on top and a dash of salt.  Don't worry --the point of this blog is not to agonize about every morsel of food that goes into my mouth.  But the tomatoes and the whole dish made me thing of Italy, one of my favourite countries to spend time in.  I've been there three times --well, four if you count the one day on a family camping trip when I was fourteen and got as sick as a dog, prompting my parents to opt the next day for a cheap hotel in Switzerland.  On my more --ahem-- successful Italian sojourns I've learned that pizza an pasta aren't eaten as often as we North Americans would believe.  I've enviously inspected the choices of slim well-dressed Italian women at lunches in a piazza or two, and noticed that most of them opt for a gorgeous salad withcolourful vegetables, olive oil, perhaps dotted with some small portions of buffalo mozzarella, but no bread.   The starches seem to be reserved mainly for dinnner only.

Vegetables can be beautiful --and make one beautiful.  That's what I have to tell myself, at any rate.  Truth be told, I do like vegetables.  My problem has a lot to do with lifestyle and priorities.  So yesterday being Saturday --a day when I was home and did not have to work-- I made looking after myself a priority, including a trip to the gym (Curves), a walk in the woods with my husband and dog (an exercise-obsessed border collie named Gromette), and whipping up some large batch recipes involving mega-doses of vegetables, including a yummy low-fat Brazilian Black Bean Soup from the Moosewood Vegetarian Cookbook.  Bottom line for yesterday: I stayed within my weight watcher's point limit AND got in TEN --count them TEN-- servings of fruits and vegetables.  Even this morning I still feel full, which is another good reminder of the value of fibre.

Today, of course, will be a bit more of a challenge.  We're going out of town, and travelling brings out the junk food temptations.  The purpose of our trip is also stress-inducing.  One of my excuses for not looking after myself properly over the past few years is that I have been working on my doctorate in urban planning --and for the last two of the years I have also been holding down a full time job in another city two hours away from my home.  Today we leave for Vancouver where, on Monday I will do the final defense of my dissertation --the magnum opus every doctoral student is required to complete.  If I pass or pass with revisions, I will likely be able to wrap up the whole program by the first week in October, and bring to a close five years of suffering.  We'll likely stay in a hotel tonight, but before that a good friend is inviting us over for a dinner of  Pad Thai (los of noodles and grease, pretty scant on the veggies).  I'll have to figure out how to work in my vegetable servings before hand, and then just have a small helping of dinner.  Wish me luck --with the vegetables as medicine project and with the defense!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Day One - What I'm Doing and Why

From the age of 25 onward, I have struggled with my weight my entire adult life.  I've done Weight Watchers, the Atkins diet, LA weight loss, and I've also had gastric banding.  While the latter has enabled me to make a dent in the problem, I've hit a plateau for the last six months.  It's been a frustrating journey --and while I can make all the excuses that I want for the current state of affairs (and believe me, there are many) I can't deny that I still have a weight problem.  Excuses won't make it go away.

The one time I did successfully lose weight I was following the advice of a dietician who underscored the value of making vegetables a priority.  Her rationale was that if you consume the required number of vegetable servings first, you'll have gotten an important dose of valuable nutrients, and the high fibre content will fill you up so that you'll simply crave less junk food.  While I am no longer a client, and no longer living in the same city I'll give them a plug: http://www.eatingforenergy.com/.  My problem today is that junk food is a real addiction for me, and I have used my stressful lifestyle to justify this addiction.

So what will this project entail?  Every day for a year I am going to blog about how I have made vegetables a priority in that day's food consumption.  I am hoping that by the end of the year I will be fifty pounds lighter.  I would also love to hear from anyone else who is doing something similar.