First of all, I just wanted to thank all of you who sent prayers, thoughts, energy, and/or vibes to my childhood pet, Rose. Unfortunately, she didn't survive her illness, and passed away last Tuesday. But I know that she felt those wonderful thoughts from all of you, and for that, I thank you. This has not been easy for me, since Rose was my best friend for 15 years. I'm working towards getting back to regular blogging, and I thought I'd start with an update on Eat to Live.
I started Eat to Live almost a week ago. Today is the final day of week one. I've been pretty good at following the rules, with a couple of exceptions.
1) One day I wasn't hungry for vegetables, and instead ate a big bowl of fruit for dinner. This is not technically against the rules, since Dr. Furhman says in ETL that fruit is unlimited and that if you aren't hungry, you don't have to eat all of the veggies. But it still felt kind of iffy, so I put it in the list.
2) I'm still not completely off of caffeine, and I never plan to go completely off of artificial sweetners. This is because I am a gum addict, and pretty much all gum has sweeteners in it. I've cut waaaaay back on caffeine, and I've done this by switching to caffeine-free diet sodas. I know it's not the ideal solution, but it's working for me so far. I figure that I'll switch completely over to caffeine-free (I'm still drinking one or two regular diet sodas a day) next week and then will work to wean myself off of the caffeine-free stuff.
3) I had a little more than a cup of potatoes today. One of the rules says "up to a cup of whole grains or starchy vegetables a day", so this was definately a no-no. But otherwise, I stuck to the rules.
4) I've been having one small snack every day.
So, as you can see, I'm still not perfect, but I'm pretty close. ;-)
I didn't weigh in today, but Saturday's weigh-in had me having lost about a half pound a day so far. I'm excited to see how my weight continues to respond to the plan throughout the six weeks.
Here are some awesome things that I've noticed about Eat to Live so far:
1) I had NO period pain last week. I had no bloating or cramps, and I usually have at least one day of each when I'm on my period. I don't know if that has anything to do with my new way of eating, but it definately could. I'm eating WAY less salt than before, and absolutely nothing processed.
2) I'm almost always 100% satisfied between meals. Even though I was on spring break and was dealing with a personal tragedy, I was never tempted to snack when not hungry, because I was so satisfied. I have been eating a small snack most days, though.
3) I'm still tracking on My Fitness Pal, and have noticed that the calorie count is anywhere from 1000 to 1400, depending on what I choose to eat. But I'm always equally satisfied. Dr. Furhman said to not calorie-count, but I just couldn't help myself. I will wean myself off of this, too.
Okay, that's all for now! I am going to do a Tasty Tuesday (Eat to Live style) tomorrow, so look forward to that. :-)
Thanks for your patience; it's good to be back.
5 comments:
That's great, Leah! Sounds like a good learning experience so far. Calories sound a little low (sorry, had to say it, it's in my blood!! lol) but it is so true you feel more full and satisfied on whole foods. Imagine how satisfied you'll feel when you manage to eat even more veggies. I'm always trying to eat more veggies, which is a lot more fun than trying to eat LESS of anything else!
Glad this is working out so well for you, but I strongly urge you to make sure to eat at least 1200 calories every day for the sake of your body. Especially since you are active most days. I believe nuts are allowed, so that can help you some with that.
May have to look into incorporating some of these concepts, particularly the ones involving veggies and fruits.
Proud of you for cutting back caffeine (that would be so hard for me, but something I have tried to do before and will try again once the school term ends for me) and I don't think a diet soda or two is an issue for most people. Sounds like you are making great changes and ones that are liveable. Keep it up, sounds like a vegan version of the old WW CORE plan.
You are both right by most standards about theh calories! I'm trying out ETL hard-core, and he says that 1000 calories is perfectly normal. It still feels wrong to me, too though. I'll try it out for 6 weeks and see how it goes. :-)
Most days I'm at about 1400 calories. Those are the days that I eat a lot of fruit and nuts.
I know I'm behind but I'm so sorry to hear about Rose. I hope you are doing okay.
Hey Leah. I have been behind on reading blogs and I didn't know about Rose. I am so sorry. I have 4 dogs myself and would be heartbreaken so I feel your pain.
Take care. XOXO
Kim
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