Ramadan

Ramadan starts tomorrow. I have to make sure to drink plenty of water during non-fast times and eat plenty of fruits and veggies, no matter how bad my craving for carbs and sugars is. I expect to lose a few pounds at first then stabilize. 

Still plugging away

I had a delicious fruit smoothie this morning. Here's the recipe:


1 mango, peeled and sliced
1 peach, peeled and sliced
1 plum, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup of uncooked oatmeal
3/4 cups of milk
1 tbsp of honey

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth.

Tonight I plan on making baked fish, baked potatoes and salad. I violated my rule for not eating chips or red meat. I ate chips and I had hot dogs. I yelled at hubby for throwing temptation in my face and he was properly contrite. He vowed not to bring any chips in the house for at least a month. it will have to do.

A cool site

This site calculates the calories you burn doing over 200 activities:


http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/jumpsite/calculat.htm

I'm scared

I've been having little chest pains. They aren't isolated to one spot but seems to happen in various spots around my chest and ribcage. I strongly feel these pains have to do with clogged arteries and my generally unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle. In my search for healthier eating habits, I came across Dr. Dean Ornish and his Life Choice Diet. I'm going to paste this from a website I found:

Dean Ornish

The Life Choice Diet

The Life Choice Diet is a low-fat vegetarian way of eating with less than 10% calories from fat (for most people, this would be a diet with 15 to 25 grams of fat per day). The focus is on beans, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, with processed foods and nonfat dairy products consumed in moderation. Simple sugars and alcohols, like fat, are to be avoided.

Guidelines -- "all you really need to know"

You can eat the following foods whenever you feel hungry until you are full (but not until you are stuffed):

• Beans and legumes (lentils, kidney beans, peas, black beans, red Mexican beans, split peas, soybeans, black-eyed peas, garbanzos, navy beans, and so on)
• Fruits (apples, apricots, bananas, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, oranges, peaches, raspberries, cantaloupes, watermelons, pears, honeydew melons, pineapples, tomatoes, and so on)
• Grains (corn, rice, oats, wheat, millet, barley, buckwheat, and so on)
• Vegetables (potatoes, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, mushrooms, eggplant, celery, asparagus, onions, sweet potatoes, spinach, and so on)

You can eat the following foods in moderation:

• Nonfat dairy products, including skim milk, nonfat yogurt, nonfat cheeses, nonfat sour cream, and egg whites
• Nonfat or very low-fat commercially available products, including whole grain breakfast cereals, Health Valley chili (and many other Health Valley products), Kraft Free nonfat mayonnaise and salad dressings, Guiltless Gourmet tortilla chips, Quaker Oats oatmeal, Nabisco fat-free crackers, Fleishmann's Egg Beaters, Pritikin soups.

Read labels. Some of the nonfat or very low-fat commercially available products are high in sugar, so avoid these when possible. Ingredients are listed on food labels in order of the amount contained in that food. In other words, if the first ingredient is sugar, then there's more sugar than anything else in that food. Also, on most packages you'll find the number of grams of fat, the number of calories, and the amount of cholesterol.

Here are the foods to avoid as much as possible:

• Meats (all kinds, including chicken and fish)
• Oils (all kinds) and oil-containing products, including margarines and most salad dressings
• Avocados
• Olives
• Nuts and seeds
• High-fat or "low-fat" dairy, including whole milk, yogurt, butter, cheese, egg yolks, cream, and so on
• Sugar and simple sugar derivatives (honey, molasses, corn syrup, high fructose syrup, and the like)
• Alcohol
• Any commercially available product with more than two grams of fat per serving

I think I can integrate this with the My Fitness Pal. I had already concluded that the fruit smoothies worked wonders for me. This is further proof that I was on the right track. And it's not really a diet, so much as a way of eating. I'm going to try to eliminate the harmful food from my diet little by little. The first things to go will be soda, chips and fried foods. Hubby has bought groceries since my last post so there are munchies in the house. Whenever he buys groceries, he buys junk food. Last night I told him I wanted to eliminate junk food from me and the kid's diet and he was like well that's fine for you guys, but not for me. He was adamant. i don't care, he can kill himself if he wants but I am seriously going to try with this. I haven't had any soda in the past 2 days but I've had a lot of fried foods. I'm glad rice is on the list, but I think I'll keep honey, avocado and olive oil in my diet.

Looks like no meat. Well, I will try with that as well but gradually. For now, I'll stop eating red meat. So no soda, chips, fried foods or red meat. I didn't see pasta anywhere on the diet. Hmmm...

Also big news, I'm starting the Tao He, bentonite and psyllium cleanse today. I had oatmeal for breakfast with apple and peach slices. Wish me Luck!

ahh?

See that? Just being back here in Kuwait 2 days with us on strict rations of food has brought me down 5 pounds. And if the truth be known I weighed 235 before I left my dad's house and now I'm 226 to I lost 9 pounds. The same thing happened to my dad when he came here to visit. He said in 3 days time he'd lost 12 pounds, but not for lack of food. I think he was nervous so he didn't eat much.

I can even say proudly that this isn't water I'm losing since I've been drinking tons of water to quench hunger pains. In all honesty, I'm not suffering. I'm just craving munchies I had in abundance in the States, such as doughnuts, fast food, soda and chips. With all that cut out of my diet since Tuesday night it's no wonder I dropped a few pounds. I eat breakfast and dinner with nothing in between except water and, once, a few nuts I found on the microwave. As of now there is nothing to drink in the house except water so all those juice calories I used to have are gone.

I'm content.

Trying...

Ok, here's the deal. I've been leaving my computer off, because I just haven't had time to sit at it. That means I haven't been updating my food diary. Even though that's the case, I am still aware of what I eat and have a rough idea of how many calories I'm taking in. Still, it's not the same as seeing it daily or as encouraging.

My main thing now is exercise. I haven't been doing any and I need to get cracking on that if I want to lose weight. I really need to be more disciplined. Hopefully, this time next week, I'll be back in Kuwait and can then devote more time to the diary and exercise.

I have weights at home, but I want a stationary bike. I need to buy one as soon as my finances will allow.