Here we go...

Here we go...jumping right into the new year.
Woke up at around 2 a.m. and could not fall back asleep. Felt kind of sick from what I ate over the weekend...
Finally got up around 5 p.m.

Here's the goal: lose 10 pounds before Costa Rica!

Morning training - start with a bang. =);
Walk to gym
Ran on treadmill for ariound 30 minutes. I had meant to do a 90 minute continuous run, but I got a stitch in my side. So I stopped then, walked for 5 minutes, and hit my favorite machine, the assited pull-up/dip machine. Did supersets of pull-ups, chin-ups, dips, push-ups (3 or 4 of these), and planks. Then did a few sit ups. I'm getting better at these - last week I could only do 4 full sit-ups in a set. This week I got to 8 or 9 in the first set!!!! Did a few of these, then went back to the treadmill to try again. This time I did speed intervals - slow jogging interspersed with speed intervals (7 mph) for one minute (or a little more) each - about 4 "sprints" total. Then I got a stitch in my side again, so I stopped, walked a bit to cool down, did one more set of sit-ups, and walked home. Stretched at home.

A good long workout!

Breakfast - some apple bananas (around 6?)
Before lunch, walked to millenium park and enjoyed some sunshine! Finally!
Lunch - really ripe fuyu persimmons
Mid afternoon - some citrus fruit salad at an office party (grapefruit, orange, kiwi) - 2 small bowls
Dinner - mangoes, followed by soup made from blended tomatoes, yellow pepper, and romaine lettuce. Mmmm!

I've been feeling sort of bummed out. It's been an emotional holiday time this weekend, and I definitely engaged in some emotional overeating of things I wouldn't usually eat. I'm finally starting to feel like a normal person again, physically. Hopefully the emotional aspect will follow suit shortly.

New Years Goals

Ah, the first of the year! What better time to take stock and figure out things that will take you to the next level and overcome challenges. Here are my thoughts.

-Love myself MORE.
-Continue to cultivate relationships with others.
-Exercise before the first meal of the day. Even if not feeling up to intense training, some walking or dancing or yoga will do. I want to get in the habit of being active every day. =)
-If it's daylight, I eat fruit
-Begin dinner meal with fruit
-Don't buy tomatoes during the day.
-In bed by 9 p.m., unless I truly (!) have something better to do.
-TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN! =)

I started today - 20 minutes dancing before breakfast.
Had a crappy day in general.

Went for a 2 hour walk in the evening.

Thought for the New Year

How much should I (we) love myself (ourselves)?

MORE.

Happy New Year.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday log

No morning training on Friday. I found out on Thursday that my friend had to have her gall bladder removed on Friday, and I was a little preoccupied about that, among other things, so I did not sleep well at all.

Friday food -
Breakfast - persimmons
lunch -oranges, persimmons
dinner - lettuce, persimmons

Saturday food
Breakfast - 8 lbs. valencia oranges
Lunch - apple bananas (after a run with Scott - 50 some minutes and some pull-up demos)
Dinner at Chicago Diner. Salty =P.

Study on hand-holding/human touch

Check out this article on women and hand-holding:
http://health.msn.com/womenshealth/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100150881&GT1=8816

Sadly, no morning training today. I stayed up late last night talking to friends, so I felt more like "rolling over" than "rolling out" this morning.

Breakfast - 1 bunch bananas, blended
Lunch - 1 bunch bananas, blended, seven or so fuyu persimmons
Dinner - persimmons, celery, mango, raisins, oranges

Tee hee hee...

Someone stole $50,000 worth of broccoli: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16383005/

Wednesday's Log

After overdoing it last night, I slept in this morning. Was pretty stiff and sore (both legs and arms!).

In the afternoon, ate some navel oranges
In the evening, ate some fuyu persimmons

Navel Orange Smoothie

Peel 4 navel oranges. Blend them. Delicious!

Back to work...

Went to bed early last night, but had trouble falling asleep...feeling some uncomfortable emotions. Nonetheless, I felt rested when I got up at 6:17 a.m.

Morning training - Strength work at the gym - all exercises no more than 5 reps to failure. By the end, some of them were only 2 or 3 reps to failure!

Alternated 2 sets assisted pull-ups (assistance set so that I could only do negatives, not full pull-ups) with 2 sets assisted dips, then 2 sets assisted chin-ups (negatives) with 2 sets assisted dips.

Then giant sets with a set of 15 pound weights - alternated flat bench flys with shoulder presses with biceps curls. 4 times.

Then some sit-ups on the sit up bench. First set 7 reps. Subsequent sets much fewer. Did 3 sets total.

Breakfast - 4 navel oranges (about 30 oz.), blended into a smoothie
Midmorning at work - 8 ripe fuyu persimmons
Lunch - 8 ripe fuyu persimmons
Afternoon - 10 oz. blackberries
Dinner - 5 large tomatoes, 3 heads baby bok choy, 1 avocado
After dinner, craved sweets. Ate some mandarins.

Gotta listen to my body and eat fruit BEFORE dinner.

Also, late at night I ate more navel oranges, LOTS of brazil nuts (in the shell, but still ate about 3/4 pound worth - the krakanut makes it too easy!), and 3 oz. sundried tomatoes. I was not hungry for these things at all, but I ate them to "deal with" uncomfortable emotions that had been weighing on me all day. I'm a bit annoyed with myself, because I know from experience that this may screw up my digestion/elimination for days.

Went to bed really late (after midnight)...

Dave Klein on Raw Vegan Radio

Dave Klein talks about healing from ulcerative colitis: www.rawveganradio.com.

My own personal half marathon

Today I celebrated my day off from work by running 15 miles on the lakefront (including the warm-up/cooldown, it was probably about 16 miles total).

Lap 1 (probably about a mile, jogging to starting point to warm up) - 12.39.57
Mile 1 - 11.47.78
Mile 2 - 11.36.73
Mile 3 - 11.19.98
Mile 4 - 11.27.08
Mile 5 - 11.36.64
Mile 6 - 11.24.18
Mile 7 - 11.46.80
Mile 8 - 11.32.71
Mile 9 - 11.59.59
Mile 10 - 11.43.56
Mile 11 - 11.44.68
Mile 12 - 11.46.16
Mile 13 - 13.16.57
Mile 14 - 12.32.80
Then walked/jogged home (probably about a mile). It was a real struggle getting home, since my legs were too sore to run anymore, but I was too cold to walk!

Before running, ate 2 ripe fuyu persimmons
During run, had some date sports drink, and a few dates during the last couple of miles.
After run, ate a bunch of ripe persimmons
A couple of hours later, ate lots of banana-date smoothie.
Dinner - some mangoes (5? maybe 6, but I think 5)

One of my motivations for going for a long run was to work up the appetite to make a dent in some of that ripe, sweet fruit I have in my kitchen. It worked. =)

I behaved like a couch potato for the rest of the day. =P

What a Beautiful Morning!

What a great morning! Slept in a bit (until 8 a.m.!)...probably because I went to bed close to 11:00 a.m. last night. I stayed up watching the rest of the Organic Athlete conference DVD.

No training this morning (and my legs were still stiff when I got up), but I did a lot of walking/moving things. To enjoy some of the sunshine, I walked to the co-op and bought more of those persimmons that were on sale for 2 for $1.00 (too bad Dan G. is out of town...Dan, if you're reading this, we should arrange to have a persimmon dinner when you get back!). Also bought some mangoes. Then walked to Hyde Park Produce for lettuce. Carried everything home! =)

Took a car today to donate some old clothing to the ARK thrift store. Also bought running shoes, and stopped at Stanley's, where they were selling 4-pound bags of organic valencia oranges for 98 cents! Bought 10 of them!

While driving home from my errands, I just felt so happy and exuberant! A sunny day, great music, and breakfast/lunch awaiting me when I got home.

1st meal (around 1:15 p.m.) - 1 bag valencia oranges (13 oranges, cut into wedges and sucked the juice out of them). 7 perfectly ripe fuyu persimmons.

Later in the afternoon - more persimmons, 2 bunches baby bok choy, 2 large tomatoes

Dinner - 2 heads green leaf lettuce, 2 small orange bell peppers, dressing made from 1 navel orange, 2 tbsp. tahini. Then had some cauliflower (1 head), blended with 2 stalks celery, a bit of basil, and 2-3 tbsp cashew butter. Later, 1 satsuma mandarin orange.

I like the taste of that cauliflower mush....but it doesn't satiate me like fruit does! I'll try eating more fruit at the beginning of the meal.

Look what's in my kitchen! I may need a little help eating some of this...

The United Nations Says..

Livestock is more damaging to the environment that CO2 emissions from our cars:

http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/global_warm_c02.htm.

Got a lot done today

No training, but got a lot done...filing and laundry. Very good. It was a cloudy, dreary day. Didn't train. My calves are very sore from yesterday's training - it hurts to stand on my tip-toes.

Food-

Late morning - persimmons (8) and bananas (6)
Late afternoon - lots of tomatoes (2 pints cherry tomatoes, 1 large tomato), 6 persimmons
Dinner - big salad - 2 heads green leaf lettuce, 1 large tomato, 2 oranges, 2.5 oz. tahini
Later - 2 large tomatoes

I'm ready to train again...frustrating that calves are sore. Frustrated that I'm still not fit enough to train like a serious athlete...but I'm getting closer. It just seems like a long way away.

As I cleaned today, I've been watching the Organic Athlete 2005 Conference DVD. So very, very inspiring...and shows me that I have such a long way to go!

Ruth Heidrich is amazing...and what is really encouraging to me is that she didn't start running until age 33, and she does Ironmans! Gives me hope. =)

I want to be able to train intensely every day! Then I'll probably lose the rest of this weight...right now, I can eat like an athlete, but I can't train that hard yet.

Fitness is free!

Went to bed around 8 p.m. last night. Woke up at 5:45 this morning. It was raining, and I didn't feel like going out to the gym, so...

Morning training:
Warmed up by dancing around to music for 25 minutes. Then hit the hallway for some training! Did lots of sideways shuffles down the hall, interspersed with stair jumping (started with 1 flight at a time, worked up to 3) for about 12 minutes. Took a water break, and then did it again for about 15 minutes, this time including skips down the hall and jumping 3 flights at a time. It really got my heart rate up, and my legs felt like jello from the jumping.
Did some stretching to cool down.

Gym-free fitness!

Breakfast - lots of persimmons (fuyu and hachiya!)
Lunch - 6 red bananas. most of a bunch of celery. 1 bag red grapes. some leftover melon from a meeting.
Dinner - persimmons (fuyu and hachiya) and lots of tomatoes (5 pints grape tomatoes). A bit later, had 2 or 3 navel oranges, and a salad (one pint grape tomatoes, 1 head of green leaf lettuce, dressing made from 1 navel oranges and 2-3 tbsp tahini. That's one of my favorite salads in the world!!!) So delicious!!!

Almost Friday

Went to bed a bit later than usual last night (10 p.m.! Wow!), and woke up today just after 7 a.m., so no morning training. Probably needed the extra sleep because I ate so much yesterday. The dried food doesn't really agree with me. The extra before-bed snack probably didn't help. =P

Breakfast smoothie - 3 mangoes, 4 navel oranges, 1 fuji apple
Sort of grazed throughout the work day - 1 bunch celery (I'm eating that stuff like it's going out of style!), 3 plates salad and some melon at a meeting, some medjool dates, some frozen apple bananas. As soon as I had the bananas, I felt better...

No dinner at home...felt like I had eaten enough and wanted to give my system a rest. I went out and bought lots of bananas.

Strategy note: must buy bananas twice a week, at least! Must keep bananas on hand! I think that's why I ate too much yesterday...not enough sweet fruit. The grapes aren't very sweet this time of year.

The good news...

...is that tomorrow is the shortest day of the year! Pretty soon, the days will be getting longer. Maybe I'll get to see the sunshine soon!

I still wasn't caught up on sleep yesterday, so I went to bed very early last night (before 7 p.m.). Probably fell asleep around 7:30. Got up around 4:45 this morning.

Before morning training: 2 medjool dates.

Morning training: indoor cycling class at the gym. We did some sprints today.

Breakfast - An excellent sunshine smoothie: tangerine juice, mango, navel orange. Yum!!!!!!!! =)
Later in the morning - big bag grapes, some medjool dates

I'm noticing that I feel good physically, but mentally, I'm not feeling very patient with people today.

Afternoon - lots of dried figs, sundried tomatoes, celery....was feeling really cranky!
Evening - soup made from dried tomatoes, fresh tomato, navel orange, bell pepper, boston lettuce, a small bit of fresh basil, and a bit of cashew butter (about 3 tablespoons).
Later in the evening - 1 pineapple, 1 pound grape tomatoes.

The dried food really bothered my teeth. Always better to stick to fresh...

Building today

Went to bed by 7 p.m. last night. Woke up at 3:15 this morning...still a bit tired, but couldn't get back to sleep. Got up just before 4 a.m., caught up on a bit of e-mail, did some dishes, and then off for morning training.

Walk to gym/warm-up on cardio machines.
Strength building (several sets of 2-5 reps each, to failure):
assisted pull-ups/negatives
assisted chin-ups/negatives
walking lunges
assisted dips
deadlifts
pushups
sit-ups
biceps curls
triceps extensions
lateral raises
rear delt raises
oblique roman chair extensions

Whew!

Breakfast - 3 large cavendish bananas, 6 small apple bananas, 4 or 5 medjool dates, blended into a smoothie.

There was a yoga class this morning at work, so I participated. It was REALLLLYYY gentle...just stretching, no exertion involved. But nice.

Lunch - lots of apple bananas
Dinner - 1 bag red seedless grapes. 1 plate leftover salad from a meeting at work. 1 pound grape tomatoes.

Smart Kids Go Veg...

Kids With High IQs Grow Up to Be Vegetarians
The smarter they are, the more likely they'll shun meat as adults, British researchers contend
By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter

http://health.msn.com/pregnancykids/kidshealth/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100150383&wa=wsignin1.0