Yesterday I ate:
Apple bananas
Figs

I went to sleep by 6:30 p.m. Got up this morning at 5:52, and felt excellent.

Morning training:
Jog to gym
A treadmill 8K (5 miles), continuous running (no walking!). Took about 49 minutes, so averaged just under 10 minutes per mile. It was challenging, but I feel great!
Walked/jogged home.
Stretched a bit.

Food today:
40 some-odd fluid ounces banana smoothie.
9 or 10 small apple bananas
Friend over for dinner - persimmons, figs, tangerines, celery

Everything feels so good today! Fruit is high-octane, high-energy, feel-good fuel! Fat slows us down...

Look what's in my kitchen!

Yesterday I went to a potluck. It was great to see friends! But I definitely overate on things I hadn't planned on eating.

So I'm taking it easy today, as far as food goes. Also, I'm starting to be honest with myself and see that I'm starting to gain weight back. Everyone does this in the winter, I know. But I need to be honest with myself about things I'm doing that are not in my best interests.

I have tons of ripe fruit though...so I'm planning on making this week a no-overt-fat week, to get back on track! Should be absolutely delicious!

This is me

Sort of an unflattering photo, but hey, I took it myself. This is what I look like, having followed Doug Graham's program for 5 months.

That was me...

That was me in March 2006.

Friday Friday Friday!!!

Woke up around 4:30. Glad I went to bed early last night!

Morning training: Indoor cycling class at the gym. Wasn't the toughest class, but my legs weren't the freshest (still recovering from being blindsided by strength training the other day!), so it was all good. We did some sprints and some strength climbs. After class, I did a few flexed arm hangs (pull-up position - assisted, chin-up position - unassisted!!!) and sit ups (2 sets on the decline bench - didn't quite make it up), and a couple reps on the flat bench. That was all I could squeeze out.

Food today:
Breakfast - banana smoothie right after workout. then lots more bananas at the office.
Lunch - one head romaine lettuce. 5 bananas. lots of dried figs. 5 stalks celery
Dinner - lots of tangerines. 3 tbsp. cashew butter. 1 spoonful pumpkinseed butter. a few spoonfuls tahini. yeah....too much nut butter probably won't sit well tomorrow...

A recovery day!

(Overload and) recovery is a great thing! Got to bed last night around 8:30 p.m., and it sure felt good. Woke up this morning at 6:47 a.m. No morning training, just recovery. I've got sore quads, hamstrings, glutes from yesterday. Why didn't I do leg strength training sooner? My legs are going to be so hot. ;)

Food today:
Breakfast - bananas (5? 6? 7? 8? I don't know...)
Midmorning - 1 head romaine lettuce, 2 orange bell peppers
Lunch - grapes, iceberg lettuce (from a meeting), bananas
Dinner - 1 persimmon, persimmon-date ice cream, bahri dates, 1 head green leaf lettuce, a few tangerines.

Weak in the legs...

Didn't wake up in time for cycling class, so I trained at home this morning: 20 or so minutes bouncing around the living room to music, followed by push-ups, chair dips, leg raises, stair jumps, and walking lunges down the hallway, each repeated once or twice. And a couple of failed handstand attempts. Didn't feel like much...but my legs have been a bit jello-like ever since. =)

Food:

Breakfast - a third of a pineapple. about 3/4 of a papaya
Mid morning at work - some medjool and bahri dates
Lunch - 9 bananas, blended into a smoothie
Dinner - 6 lbs tomatoes, 2 orange bell peppers, 1 florida avocado

I couldn't believe how great I felt today - how energetic and happy and light and clearheaded. The program really works if you follow it ;).

Monday and Tuesday's Log

On Monday morning, I woke up before 4 a.m., still sleepy, but couldn't get back to sleep. Also felt a lot of tension in the front of my head. So, I didn't go to spin class as planned; rather, I stayed in bed until about 6:30. ("If you'd rather roll over than roll out..."). Once I realized the futility of trying to fall back asleep, I got up and started streaming some dance music on my computer, just to move a little bit. So, my morning "training" was nice and easy, but great fun! I enjoyed myself as soon as I started, just bouncing around my living room to music. I also did some ab work (crunches, oblique slides, leg raises). Total workout time: about 42 minutes. And all that fun from skipping spinning.

Still felt tired all day at work. And my hamstrings were still sore from Saturday's ashtanga class, but I did take a walk over lunch.

Food on Monday:
Breakfast - 1 pineapple
Lunch - 6 small-medium bananas.
Late Lunch - 48 oz. tomatoes. 2 oranges. a few stalks celery. 1 florida avocado.
That's it. Didn't want to eat after I got home. Went to bed early instead.

On Tuesday, I woke up just before 5 a.m., feeling excellent and well rested! I haven't woken up feeling that good in at least a week! I was thrilled. =) I walked to the gym to train (too cold for outdoors):

Treadmill workout:
12 minutes warm-up jog/walk (10-12 minute miles), followed by 2.6ish FAST miles, with walking in between (the first was around 9 minutes per mile. for the second mile, I got a little ambitious and started at least that fast, and couldn't make myself finish, hence the ".6ish". took a few minutes walk, then talked myself into doing one more 10-minute mile. And boy, was that hard!) Total was probably around 4.2 miles? It was HARD today. Just getting back into it, I guess.

Pull-up training:
Used the assist machine for this. Did "negative" pull-ups (assisted), followed by "hold in the up position as long as possible, then negative" (assisted), followed by assisted chin-ups, and "hold in the up position". Don't know how many of each. Then 2 sets of biceps curls. Then 2 sets of posterior delt raises on the bench.

I'm excited though!!!!! I can hold chin-ups in the "up-position" for a few seconds!!!!!! I need some help getting "up", but once I'm up, I was able to take my legs off the pad and just hold myself in that position!!!!!! Even after doing all the "pull-up" work, I was still able to hold myself at the top of a chin-up!!!!!!!! This is a milestone!!!! =)

Was in a great mood all through the day...

Food:
Breakfast - 2 hachiya persimmons. 1 HUGE papaya
Lunch - 9 bananas, blended into a smoothie. a lot of celery
Dinner - Persimmon/date ice cream! Holy cow! so good!
Snack - 1 head green leaf leffuce. about 1/2 a pineapple

Weekend of catch-up

This is a weekend of my body catching up on all the junk I gave it to deal with over the past few weeks.

Felt really tired and had achy joints and slept a lot this weekend. Fruits only to eat - no overt fats. Went to an ashtanga class on Saturday, but didn't make it all the way through.

Finally starting to feel better on Sunday morning. By the afternoon, felt fabulous. Still a little tired, but fabulous in mood and clarity.

Breakfast - 1 pineapple, a few persimmons
Lunch - lots of banana smoothie
Dinner - 1 large papaya, 1 head romaine lettuce, 4 pints grape tomatoes.

Hope to be back up and running tomorrow! =)

Friday - Start all over again...

Didn't get to bed early enough last night, so I didn't wake up early enough to train this morning, and I'm still tired.

Breakfast - persimmons, dates, celery
Lunch - bananas, dates, celery
Snack - more dates

Went to bed at 6 p.m. and slept all night!

Wednesday - pick myself up, Thursday - dust myself off...

Wednesday I felt pretty gross, understandably. I didn't train in the morning. I ate during the day anyway, even though I felt gross (oranges and persimmons). For dinner, I had grape tomatoes, 1/2 a florida avocado, cauliflower/celery/cashew blend, with too many cashews, and some brazil nuts.

Thursday morning I felt a bit better, physically and emotionally. Didn't train in the morning, but instead spent some time cleaning and listening to a CD before work. Felt really good and optimistic on the way to work. Looking forward to feeling even better tomorrow and getting back into training.

I want to do another 8K on December 10. Time to get my butt into gear. =)

Breakfast - lots of persimmons
Afternoon - more persimmons, a few bananas, lots of celery and spinach
Dinner - 1 red bell pepper. bahri dates. followed later by spinach soup (spinach, lots of celery, lemon juice, a small bit almond butter, a small bit cabbage).

Thought for the day: Take care of the QUALITY of your foods, and the QUANTITY will take care of itself. True? let's find out...

Tuesday's log

Woke up early, feeling rested. Going to bed at 8:20 p.m. is always nice! =)

Morning training:
Jog to gym.
Treadmill - 30 minutes continuous running. Started at 6 mph, increased to 6.7 mph. So, the last 18 minutes or so was done at a sub-9-minute mile pace. It was really hard.
Jogged/walked home.
Stretched a bit more thoroughly than usual. Maybe I'll go back to yoga soon.

The morning workout really took it out of me. I moved a lot slower than usual getting to work. I was beat by the time I got to the office! Then, it was a really stressful morning at work.

During the morning/afternoon I ate tons of persimmons.
Late afternoon - 46 oz. tomatoes, more persimmons.
Evening - 1 florida avo, 1 pineapple, some nuts, the last of dad's salsa that he left (I know, I know...)....

Being gentle with myself. This time last year, I was backsliding into cooked. This is progress...

Monday 11-27-2006

Morning Training:
Jog to gym.
Some negative assisted pull-ups/chin-ups
Stationary bike easy 11 minutes
HARD(!!!) spinning class with Austin - 1 hour
Jog home.

Today I ate:
apple banana smoothie
all the persimmons in the world
cauliflower/celery/avocado blend
a few bites spinach

No calorie counting. =)

And by the way...

I'm done counting calories. =)

I'm going to be patient with my body and not force it to lose the last of the weight, but just listen to it. As I build my health to the point where I can burn more through exercise, all is coming. What's the rush, anyway? I'm doing all the right things...

Not worth it...

Wow, salt and spices may taste good, but so does fresh, unseasoned food, and the seasoned stuff just isn't worth it when you suffer from a splitting headache the next day, all day!

Yesterday was spent with a headache from the store-bought guacamole and salsa. Didn't eat until around 4 p.m. (2 large containers cut up pineapple at Whole Foods).

Later in the evening, after I got home from the symphony, I had a bunch of persimmons.

Went to bed around 11 p.m.

Today, I woke up at around 8 a.m. Was going to go for a bike ride, but by the time I got dressed and ready, all I felt like doing was resting. So I'm spending the day resting today.

For breakfast, I had some apple bananas.

Listen to Tim Trader

Steve Prussak interviews Tim Trader:
www.rawveganradio.com.

Check it out. I love Tim!

Setbacks are just that.

The goal is still in mind.

My insight about tomatoes the other day turns out to be true, every time. If I eat tomatoes during the day instead of sweet fruit, I end up overeating by A LOT in the evening.

Yesterday I ate 12 persimmons in the morning.
In the afternoon, I ate about 5 pounds of tomatoes.
Then in the evening...oh, dear. two bowls banana ice-cream with raisins. 2 bowls leftover cabbage salad. 1/2 an avo. 3 oz. sundried tomatoes. 3 handfuls cashews. Then some of the fresh salsa and guacamole that Dad brought home from the produce shop (complete with salt/onions/hot peppers that I haven't eaten in months).

Talk about combo-abombos. ;) This morning, my body is working hard to deal with all of it. I've got a slight headache, and I'm still working on digesting it all. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself - my body will make me sorry enough, I'm sure.

Maybe I should stop counting the calories and just start really listening to my body....eat fruit during the day and don't worry about the rest.

I've felt like my body's needed a rest from the constant eating for a while now. Maybe I'll wait to eat today until it tells me otherwise.

The hard thing can be to discern "body needs" from "emotional needs"....

Thanksgiving day, sans turkey, but with turkey trotting.

I had a really nice thanksgiving holiday. My dad and I started the day with a Turkey Trot 8K race. The weather was beautiful, and so was the course. Of course, energy and excitement were high. My goal was to get as close to 50 minutes as possible, and I did it in 49:45! Excellent! 5 months ago, doing it in 60 minutes would have been a real stretch. So, my average mile pace was 10:01. I ran 6 minutes, walked 1 for most of the race, since I've never run that far, that fast continuously in training. Worked out really well, I'd say. What a way to start the morning! I jogged for 15 minutes to warm up right beforehand, and walked for 25 minutes or so to cool down.

Food for the day:
Before the race - 2 bananas (in smoothie form), some medjool dates (maybe 6???)
After the race - some raisin soak water, more medjool dates (not sure how many), a few halawi dates on the way home.
Lunch - once home - persimmons, banana ice cream with some soaked raisins mixed in (VERY good!!!!)
Thanksgiving dinner with dad - Pineapple chunks, pomegranate arils, raw veggies (bell peppers, celery, tomatoes) with dip (sundried tomatoes blended with oranges and a bit of fresh basil - excellent!), cabbage-lettuce-orange-tomato-cuke-avo slaw. Some avocado. Very good. Overate just a bit....but I won't be too hard on myself - doesn't everyone on Thanksgiving?

Dad ate what I had, and loved it, before eating some cooked foods. He only ate like 3 bites of turkey, though, because he was so satisfied with what I served beforehand! Good for him!

I'm thankful for the people I love, for my ever-increasing health, and for the fact that my life is my own and keeps getting better and better...

It feels sort of wrong to list calories/ratios here today (being a holiday and all), but I can list the approximations:

Total calories/caloronutrient ratio: 3080 total calories, 84% carb, 6% protein, 10% fat

Wednesday's log - A recovery day

Yesterday I felt very underslept. Went to bed at 8:30 p.m. last night. Woke up this morning at 6:00 a.m. feeling much better. It's a recovery day, since I was underslept yesterday and will be running an 8K race tomorrow. No morning training, but since I was up early, I did a bit of shopping before work. Went for a walk with Dad - walked about 1.75 miles, so I got a little bit of daylight/fresh air.

Was in an excellnt mood all morning. Felt very well rested.

Breakfast - 14 apple bananas (about the equivalent of 7 8-inch bananas)
Lunch - 7 apple bananas (about the equivalent of 5 7-inch bananas)
Afternoon - 3 fuyu persimmons
Dinner - Big salad - spinach, green leaf lettuce, yellow pepper, tomatoes. Dressing made of blended cucumber, pineapple.

Dad's been eating my raw vegan food and liking it!

Total calories/caloronutrient ratio: 1970 caloronutrient, 91% carb, 6% protein, 3% fat