It's called Beauty Redefined, and you should really really take a look.
Showing posts with label body health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label body health. Show all posts
Monday, July 1, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Lemons and Fruit Water
I've decided to try and add more lemon to my diet. It doesn't seem difficult at all and I've read a lot about the benefits of lemon.
It became really apparent to me today that I could do this easily because I'd made a pitcher of lemon water. I can't remember if I blogged about fruit water but it's something I've been trying this summer; making fruit waters (last summer I tried making your own fruit popsicles, which were nice but required a lot of cleaning and blending. I'd probably enjoy it more this year but I'm not really feeling it). I know the blogs I read talked about eating the fruit after the water was gone but I've found the fruit has gone sort of soft and flavorless by the time the water is gone so it just goes the compost. Some of them were good, like the melon water, others haven't been so good. Yesterday I chopped up a skinned lemon and half a skinned lime and tossed it in to make lemon water.
It's delicious.
Like, shockingly delicious.
I may drink the whole pitcher tonight.
Lemons aren't very expensive. Thus, Yay! I have found a way to incorporate more lemons into my diet.
P.S. The reason I don't use lemon juice is because a lot of the lemon juices have added sugars or flavorings or preservatives. It just seems better to use the real thing, you know?
It became really apparent to me today that I could do this easily because I'd made a pitcher of lemon water. I can't remember if I blogged about fruit water but it's something I've been trying this summer; making fruit waters (last summer I tried making your own fruit popsicles, which were nice but required a lot of cleaning and blending. I'd probably enjoy it more this year but I'm not really feeling it). I know the blogs I read talked about eating the fruit after the water was gone but I've found the fruit has gone sort of soft and flavorless by the time the water is gone so it just goes the compost. Some of them were good, like the melon water, others haven't been so good. Yesterday I chopped up a skinned lemon and half a skinned lime and tossed it in to make lemon water.
It's delicious.
Like, shockingly delicious.
I may drink the whole pitcher tonight.
Lemons aren't very expensive. Thus, Yay! I have found a way to incorporate more lemons into my diet.
P.S. The reason I don't use lemon juice is because a lot of the lemon juices have added sugars or flavorings or preservatives. It just seems better to use the real thing, you know?
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Update on Me and The Magic Eye Gift of Beauty
Sorry I haven't given an update on my garden. It's had its ups and downs but generally it's doing very well and right now I don't have to buy any veggies except maybe an avocado or an onion or some mushrooms from the grocery. Hopefully I will actually get around to giving an in depth garden update. I should be doing some very important other things so there's a fair chance I'll do the update instead.
I did my monthly weigh. I've now lost 31 pounds, from January 5th to June 11th. I no longer fit the medical definition of "obese."
I kind of want to discuss that.
I guess I'm not "fat" anymore, at least by a Southern definition. I know that the definition of fat varies incredibly. I feel like it should be a big deal, and for about an hour it was.
But... when I look in the mirror I see the same person I saw 31 pounds ago. I might catch glimpses of differences but overall she looks quite the same to me. No significant change of any kind. Other people see a change. I don't.
I've come to understand that about myself.
I don't expect to "see" a change.
I could lose another 31 pounds and I would still see the same person.
So, it's not about (can't be about) changing how I look, to look better, because my eyes can't see anything else. It has to be about health, about kindness to myself, because "better" is a result I will never be able to see with my eyes.
When I look at myself I always see the same "flaws" and the same body. I've learned that I can't create myself beautiful, I have to learn to see myself beautiful. Like seeing a magic eye picture, I have to learn to look differently, or I'll never see what I want, no matter how the picture changes.
I don't feel much different, but I can pull my knees closer to my chest now, and when I'm driving and I wedge my foot against the door (I know, if I get in a car accident it's going to break my leg) my knee doesn't touch the steering wheel now. Also, my clothes are loose and sometimes I can see some muscle tone in places I couldn't before.
The biggest change is my endurance. Work outs can now go 90 minutes. I can hold a plank pose for a minute (three minutes in a row with roughly a 10 second break in between), I can do 7 or 8 real push ups, the weights I hold while doing cardio are heavier. Those are the big differences.
Hopefully, one day I'll be able to look in the mirror and see a beautiful body, no matter the size or shape, and that once I can finally look with the right eyes I'll be able to help other people see with those eyes, too.
I did my monthly weigh. I've now lost 31 pounds, from January 5th to June 11th. I no longer fit the medical definition of "obese."
I kind of want to discuss that.
I guess I'm not "fat" anymore, at least by a Southern definition. I know that the definition of fat varies incredibly. I feel like it should be a big deal, and for about an hour it was.
But... when I look in the mirror I see the same person I saw 31 pounds ago. I might catch glimpses of differences but overall she looks quite the same to me. No significant change of any kind. Other people see a change. I don't.
I've come to understand that about myself.
I don't expect to "see" a change.
I could lose another 31 pounds and I would still see the same person.
So, it's not about (can't be about) changing how I look, to look better, because my eyes can't see anything else. It has to be about health, about kindness to myself, because "better" is a result I will never be able to see with my eyes.
When I look at myself I always see the same "flaws" and the same body. I've learned that I can't create myself beautiful, I have to learn to see myself beautiful. Like seeing a magic eye picture, I have to learn to look differently, or I'll never see what I want, no matter how the picture changes.
I don't feel much different, but I can pull my knees closer to my chest now, and when I'm driving and I wedge my foot against the door (I know, if I get in a car accident it's going to break my leg) my knee doesn't touch the steering wheel now. Also, my clothes are loose and sometimes I can see some muscle tone in places I couldn't before.
The biggest change is my endurance. Work outs can now go 90 minutes. I can hold a plank pose for a minute (three minutes in a row with roughly a 10 second break in between), I can do 7 or 8 real push ups, the weights I hold while doing cardio are heavier. Those are the big differences.
Hopefully, one day I'll be able to look in the mirror and see a beautiful body, no matter the size or shape, and that once I can finally look with the right eyes I'll be able to help other people see with those eyes, too.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Appetite is back?
Maybe I worried for nothing. I ate like a normal person today and was ravenously hungry when I tried to skip a meal. Maybe it just took a little while [more than a week] to lose the effects from the antibiotic? Or for my stomach to regrow? No, that doesn't make any sense, I wasn't forcing food on myself.
It could also be because I'm back to my normal workout routine plus I'm using 5 pound weights during my cardio rather than 3 pound weights and I added one new high intensity exercise for my abs.
On that note; you're not going to be hearing much about the specifics of my work outs because I think that's personal, and it's not up for scrutiny.
Anyway, I had a banana and toast and an egg and coffee with milk this morning, lots of water, an apple and greek yogurt and kimchi and a fruit leather and a cup of orange juice for lunch, then two servings of noodles and a serving and a half of beef and a serving of zucchini and 1 chocolate truffle from a student and another fruit leather and another banana. So, there you go, back to normal eating.
And, after the lunch my stomach was growling sooooo bad.
That's all.
Update:
My appetite was decreased the next day and now seems to be consistently low compared to what it was 3 weeks ago, but not non-existent. I am finding that I sometimes stink very badly when I sweat. I think this is ketosis.
It could also be because I'm back to my normal workout routine plus I'm using 5 pound weights during my cardio rather than 3 pound weights and I added one new high intensity exercise for my abs.
On that note; you're not going to be hearing much about the specifics of my work outs because I think that's personal, and it's not up for scrutiny.
Anyway, I had a banana and toast and an egg and coffee with milk this morning, lots of water, an apple and greek yogurt and kimchi and a fruit leather and a cup of orange juice for lunch, then two servings of noodles and a serving and a half of beef and a serving of zucchini and 1 chocolate truffle from a student and another fruit leather and another banana. So, there you go, back to normal eating.
And, after the lunch my stomach was growling sooooo bad.
That's all.
Update:
My appetite was decreased the next day and now seems to be consistently low compared to what it was 3 weeks ago, but not non-existent. I am finding that I sometimes stink very badly when I sweat. I think this is ketosis.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Eating
I'm going to post two entries today, because I feel they're pretty different topics.
First, eating. I'm convinced that I've been eating significantly less lately, since the spider bite (or there around). Let me tell you why, I didn't run out of food last week. In fact, I have about half of last week's food left, even staples like pasta and eggs and fruit and cheese.
You see, each week I only buy about as much food as I think I will eat for the next week (except for meat, which I buy two weeks' worth of, and things like olive oil and spices). So, if I'm eating about half of that in a week, that's a pretty significant decrease in food intake. I've also noticed that I'm tending toward eating only two real meals a day, with maybe a third small meal/snack.
Frankly, I'm not entirely sure why this is happening. It could be that my body is changing, it could be because I was sick. It could be because of the antibiotics, or maybe the topamax. But here's the thing, the bite is almost entirely healed, I haven't taken the antibiotics in two days, and I haven't taken the topamax in 4 or 5 (which is more days than I took it).
So, is the lack of appetite the left over meds in my system, or the left over toxins or just a change in my own body?
I don't know.
Part of me is happy about this. The upside is that I'm not hungry as often. Not being hungry is nice as being hungry is unpleasant. Also, if this persists it means I might actually be able to keep within my food budget when I move. That's a nice prospect.
Part of me is uncomfortable with this. First, your body needs food to provide itself with vitamins and nutrients, if you're not eating much, you're not getting those important vitamins and nutrients. Second, I hope I've made this clear in previous posts, but I think that our culture/country's obsession with cutting calories is absolute bullshit. In fact, I think that cutting calories can cause the metabolism to slow and can cause malnutrition. I believe that it's our intake of "artificial" foods and specifically of processed sweeteners (both caloric and non-caloric) that have cause the "obesity epidemic." I think that the entire "obesity epidemic" campaign is a giant fucking red herring to redirect blame at the subjects suffering rather than at the businesses and policies that support produce and peddle and distribute the products causing the suffering.
Additionally, and especially, I believe that if you are physically active, exercise regularly, get enough sleep, love yourself, are socially proactive, as psychologically healthy as you are presently able to be, practice stress reduction techniques, and eat a diet largely free of processed foods and sweeteners than you are healthy. Healthy and beautiful. And you have a right to live in light of that knowledge. It doesn't matter what weight you are. If you're living like that and your weight drops, great, if your weight stays the same, great, if you weight goes up, great (maybe you're building muscle, maybe you were too skinny). I think that body-hatred and self-hatred is far more destructive to a life than extra weight is to health.
Soooooooo, when I look at my own body and see that I went 10 hours without eating on Saturday and was fine with it, I'm not sure I'm fine with it, but it's definitely keeping costs down.
P.S. This is a link to a really great infographic about the average calories someone in a variety of countries consumes in a day (the results will surprise you, particularly considering that the diet industry is telling women that they should eat between 1200 and 1500 calories a day for the rest of their life) that I think everyone should look at and a lot of the comments are quite good as well.
First, eating. I'm convinced that I've been eating significantly less lately, since the spider bite (or there around). Let me tell you why, I didn't run out of food last week. In fact, I have about half of last week's food left, even staples like pasta and eggs and fruit and cheese.
You see, each week I only buy about as much food as I think I will eat for the next week (except for meat, which I buy two weeks' worth of, and things like olive oil and spices). So, if I'm eating about half of that in a week, that's a pretty significant decrease in food intake. I've also noticed that I'm tending toward eating only two real meals a day, with maybe a third small meal/snack.
Frankly, I'm not entirely sure why this is happening. It could be that my body is changing, it could be because I was sick. It could be because of the antibiotics, or maybe the topamax. But here's the thing, the bite is almost entirely healed, I haven't taken the antibiotics in two days, and I haven't taken the topamax in 4 or 5 (which is more days than I took it).
So, is the lack of appetite the left over meds in my system, or the left over toxins or just a change in my own body?
I don't know.
Part of me is happy about this. The upside is that I'm not hungry as often. Not being hungry is nice as being hungry is unpleasant. Also, if this persists it means I might actually be able to keep within my food budget when I move. That's a nice prospect.
Part of me is uncomfortable with this. First, your body needs food to provide itself with vitamins and nutrients, if you're not eating much, you're not getting those important vitamins and nutrients. Second, I hope I've made this clear in previous posts, but I think that our culture/country's obsession with cutting calories is absolute bullshit. In fact, I think that cutting calories can cause the metabolism to slow and can cause malnutrition. I believe that it's our intake of "artificial" foods and specifically of processed sweeteners (both caloric and non-caloric) that have cause the "obesity epidemic." I think that the entire "obesity epidemic" campaign is a giant fucking red herring to redirect blame at the subjects suffering rather than at the businesses and policies that support produce and peddle and distribute the products causing the suffering.
Additionally, and especially, I believe that if you are physically active, exercise regularly, get enough sleep, love yourself, are socially proactive, as psychologically healthy as you are presently able to be, practice stress reduction techniques, and eat a diet largely free of processed foods and sweeteners than you are healthy. Healthy and beautiful. And you have a right to live in light of that knowledge. It doesn't matter what weight you are. If you're living like that and your weight drops, great, if your weight stays the same, great, if you weight goes up, great (maybe you're building muscle, maybe you were too skinny). I think that body-hatred and self-hatred is far more destructive to a life than extra weight is to health.
Soooooooo, when I look at my own body and see that I went 10 hours without eating on Saturday and was fine with it, I'm not sure I'm fine with it, but it's definitely keeping costs down.
P.S. This is a link to a really great infographic about the average calories someone in a variety of countries consumes in a day (the results will surprise you, particularly considering that the diet industry is telling women that they should eat between 1200 and 1500 calories a day for the rest of their life) that I think everyone should look at and a lot of the comments are quite good as well.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Having a Gallbladder Sucks or Why I Will Never be on Man Vs. Food
Yesterday I ate potato chips. Have I mentioned that I hate potato chips? Not only are they fake, but they're high in calories and non-existent in nutrients. It was the first time I had more than a single serving of potato chips in over...5 months? I also had a piece of fried chicken (I can't even remember the last time I ate that), a serving of Ben and Jerry's vanilla ice cream, two candy canes, and six blueberry muffins. It's not even like I like muffins that much, or chips, and fried things make me want to gag. I'm fairly certain it's the most junk food I've had in a singe sitting in over a year. I woke up and my stomach was hurting a big, ate an apple and a blueberry muffin and that was it.
Gallbladder attack. The first in over a year. I hate American food.
It started out like heart burn, but the pain spread out into my back and crawled down my spine. I noticed my stomach was swollen as well and I couldn't see any definition (I may not be a skinny chick but I can probably kick your butt in the Captain's Chair). As the pain went my sides and stomach started to swell more and my intestines hurt. It didn't start like the last gallbladder attack I had (or it may have but I was asleep). Luckily I'm staying at my mother's house today with my sister and she had some gallbladder meds. I took them right away and only had to deal with about 15 minutes of that pain that freezes your spine and turns your breath into short little pants.
Now, I'm in fairly good shape. I usually eat very very well. My family considers me a food and exercise example (my brother might be more of an exercise example but he eats what he wants when he wants, and doesn't have a bad gallbladder).
Why haven't you gotten yours out?" You might ask. Well, firstly my sister got hers out and she has explosive diarrhea every time she eats anything with fat. I like not pooping all over myself, thanks. Also, I don't normally have problems with my gallbladder and considering the stressers from this week I think they contributed to it significantly. Third, do you have the money to get my gallbladder out? Because I'm a girl without a job and that means any insurance I technically have is only there because I haven't tried to use it. But, hey, you want to drop some $5000 dollars for me to get that pesky gallbladder out? Feel free.
Anyway, after that I went to sleep and woke up with a migraine. The light's felt like strobe lights or spot lights or something really harsh and blinding and I was crazy dizzy. I went back to sleep; it was the only reasonable thing to do when my stomach, while not feeling like it was about to spill open and drop my bleeding guts on the floor, still hurt. Now I'm alright, but tender, and my spine feels like the joints are stiff.
So, I see this as a wake up call. I need to drop back down to my 1300 calories a day thing, because I can't do 1500, it ends up being 1800 or 2000 (or like yesterday, gosh, 2000+, ick)
Yep, and that's why I'll never be on Man Vs. Food. Oh, but what fun would that be.
It started out like heart burn, but the pain spread out into my back and crawled down my spine. I noticed my stomach was swollen as well and I couldn't see any definition (I may not be a skinny chick but I can probably kick your butt in the Captain's Chair). As the pain went my sides and stomach started to swell more and my intestines hurt. It didn't start like the last gallbladder attack I had (or it may have but I was asleep). Luckily I'm staying at my mother's house today with my sister and she had some gallbladder meds. I took them right away and only had to deal with about 15 minutes of that pain that freezes your spine and turns your breath into short little pants.
Now, I'm in fairly good shape. I usually eat very very well. My family considers me a food and exercise example (my brother might be more of an exercise example but he eats what he wants when he wants, and doesn't have a bad gallbladder).
Why haven't you gotten yours out?" You might ask. Well, firstly my sister got hers out and she has explosive diarrhea every time she eats anything with fat. I like not pooping all over myself, thanks. Also, I don't normally have problems with my gallbladder and considering the stressers from this week I think they contributed to it significantly. Third, do you have the money to get my gallbladder out? Because I'm a girl without a job and that means any insurance I technically have is only there because I haven't tried to use it. But, hey, you want to drop some $5000 dollars for me to get that pesky gallbladder out? Feel free.
Anyway, after that I went to sleep and woke up with a migraine. The light's felt like strobe lights or spot lights or something really harsh and blinding and I was crazy dizzy. I went back to sleep; it was the only reasonable thing to do when my stomach, while not feeling like it was about to spill open and drop my bleeding guts on the floor, still hurt. Now I'm alright, but tender, and my spine feels like the joints are stiff.
So, I see this as a wake up call. I need to drop back down to my 1300 calories a day thing, because I can't do 1500, it ends up being 1800 or 2000 (or like yesterday, gosh, 2000+, ick)
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