AJ's Food Journal

I am just going to keep one long post & write every day in it.  That way our blog doesn't get clogged up with daily food journaling.

Saturday, August 17th, 2013

• Breakfast:
• 1 organic banana
• 1 cup of organic coffee, 1 tbsp of organic sugar, 1 splash of organic 2% milk

So I totally would have posted  more, but my internet has been down for two days now - Thanks Comcast! Let me start over again.

Sunday, August 18th, 2013

• Breakfast
• 1 organic banana
• 1 cup organic coffee, 1 tbsp of organic sugar, 1 splash of organic 2% milk

Monday, August 19th, 2013

• Breakfast
• Same damn cup of coffee
• Snack (Post Yoga)
• Strawberry/Spinach/Apple/Pinapple Juice
• Lunch
• Tuna salad from Field of Greens
• Iced Tea
• Dinner
• Greek Salad from Zoe's Kitchen (darnit-it has milk in it, but NO Gluten)
• Also, I did not eat the pita bread that came with it
• Iced Tea

Tuesday, August 20th, 2013

• Breakfast
• Strawberries
• Same cup of coffee
• Lunch
• Chicken Greek Salad

• Side note - It made me sick (I think it's the egg in the dressing)   
•  

• Snacks
• Strawberries                 

•  Dinner
• Veggie fried rice + Green Japanese Salad

Wednesday, August 21st, 2013

• Breakfast
• Strawberries
• Coffee
• Lunch
• Chicken Soup (I was SO PISSED about my lunch - it tasted like soap.  I HATE my dishwasher.  Either the pot I cooked everything in or the tupperware I warmed it up in had soap resin in it)
• Dinner
• Elevation burger with cheese, lettuce, onion, pickle & Ketchup.  This was not gluten free, but I really needed some food today.  I was feeling sick all day & needed something more substantial.  The cool thing is that Elevation burger uses all 100% organic grass fed beef.  Check 'em out! 

Monday, September 9th, 2013

• Breakfast 
•  just young thai coconut water
• snack was coffee with organic half & half & a tbls of organic sugar
• Lunch
• Two eggs fried in organic butter + gluten free clean breakfast sauage
• Dinner
• FOUND AN AWESOME RESTAURANT WITH PALEO MEALS
• I had the turkey bolognese with spaghetti squash & my hubby had their paleo hot wings.  YUM

The Tex Files: The Hunger Games

I find that I ask myself, "Am I hungry?" several times a day. I have have done my best to eat every few hours but every now and then there is a rumbly in my tummy and I ask, "Am I hungry?"

What I find odd is that many times I AM indeed hungry and it's during those times that I have to give myself permission to eat something. I have stood in my kitchen and said out loud, "Yes, Tex this is hunger. It's ok to eat." I think that is chock full of nuts and source material for LifeTime Movies. However I have done some poking around the inter webs and it's seems that you are SUPPOSED to ask yourself if you are hungry before you get your grub on! Who knew?

I have no idea if I have lost any weight. The stress of my life has kind of gotten to me. I will say this: being focused on my health has kept me sane and for that I am grateful.

Go get your health on!
Tex

Asian Jamaican: Revisiting Whole Foods

First of all, it's Wednesday & I still haven't had my 34 (I don't know why I didn't put 32) oz of water.  But, I am not going to kick myself for it.  I am going through everything that DJ & Tex have been talking about: Feeling a little entitled, getting off routine, not being prepared.  Oh Lawd, I need to get rid of the entitlement and get on my routine by being prepared.  I will say this, for once I am not beating myself up for what I would consider failure.  The magic is in my mental state of being.  Something really resonated & clicked for me in my call with Tex.  My energy levels have been surprisingly good.  I haven't felt good energy in a really long time.  I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to have her as a coach :)!  

I am getting back to eating whole foods.  I had about two cups of raspberries for breakfast & two bananas for my morning snack.  Dinner/lunch wasn't as healthy, but I felt really good with the whole food breakfast.  I am beginning to gravitate towards what my body feels it needs which is fruits & veggies with some protein thrown in there.  When I first started my journey to lose 50 lbs last year, I was strictly Paleo.  But now I feel like if it grows out of the ground, swims, flies or runs I eat it.  If I want a freaking banana I eat it.  Too much sugar?  Really?  A 32 oz coke is too much sugar!  I am wrastling with getting my eating down first.  That will come to fruition by this weekend - promise!!!

Here is how I envision my days as far as food goes:

     Wake up - drink water

      Make a juice or eat a ton of fruit

     Lunch will be a homemade chicken soup or something with good protein

      In between will be green juices

      Light dinner

I can survive on that.  Oh-I'll also eat when I am hungry.  I don't believe in starving myself.  

So I figured out what's going to get me on routine.  I have to have my place of serenity in my home.  The reason I haven't gotten everything down at the moment is I am busy cleaning up my condo & creating a sacred space for me to be in.  I am about 95% done & plan on being finished by this weekend.  SO EXCITED.  Then I can just focus on cooking & prepping for my days!!!  

I have to wait til the 15th to sign up for yoga because that's when I get paid.  One thing I am excited about is I am taking a trapeze class in September!!  I contacted one of my friends who is already taking from this place & she said she wanted to pick up another class.  So lo & behold we will be trapeze artists <insert mad giggling>!

I got my stitches out today & have to go back to the periodontist on October 16th.  That's two months from now & I want to make a dent in my goals by then.  Good health = good healthy gums, eh?

Ok, sorry I tend to ramble.  I am so glad to see Tex & DJ Meli Mel forging ahead.  That too makes me want to push ahead.  We are so going to go forth & conquer!!!  xo Asian

Dj Meli Mel: Support

I have to confess. Today is the first day I have felt the support that writing this blog is all about. I'm not saying the support wasn't there, because it was. I just fully felt it today: twice.

First, I've been in a migraine fog since last night. I wasn't able to do my workout this morning because of the headache. All day I have been tired, a little grumpy, and just not myself. My typical solution to a day like this would be with food. My thoughts were hovering around a cupcake all afternoon. It was because of this blog and my goals that I stayed strong and chose to have a protein shake instead. This is a big step for me. I would normally just eat the damn cupcake. Lol

Second, I sat down to write my blog today and was reading through Tex and Asian Jamaican's posts and comments. I finally felt like I wasn't in this all by myself. I felt their struggles along with their hugs of support. The three of us don't live right around the corner from each other. We all have very busy lives. This blog is pretty much my only form of communication with them, aside from a random text here or there.

Maybe I should re-title this post to "Thank You" because I owe Tex and Asian Jamaican a big one. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for including me in this journey. Thank you for your encouraging comments. Thank you for your support.

The Tex Files: My Body Is A Wonderland

I have been doing pretty well with the eating every few hours. (Yea Me!) I am still recovering from having blood clots in my lungs and tend to forget that at times.

I worked my part time job on Saturday and did a little too much. Took me all day Sunday and half of Monday to recover. Monday afternoon I popped in a workout dvd and was winded after the warm up. It made me sad. As I told my doctor a few weeks ago, "I may be a big girl, but I DO lead a very active lifestyle!" Or at least I did. Up until the blood clots I did Night Club Cardio,  I rode my bike, I could climb stairs and wash my hair without being winded and just went about the business of being Tex.

I was about to get frustrated when it dawned on me that my body has been put through the ringer and it's still here. It's. Still. Here.

I. Am. Still. Here.

It's been less than eight weeks since I was in the hospital. Am I slower than before? Yes, but who cares. I am still here. Do minor pains and aches pop up at unexpected times and places? Yes, but I am still here. All the hatred I had for my body for not looking or feeling how I feel it should is all just bullshit. My body is a wonderland, even if I am not the subject of epic poems or pop songs.

I think I finally get it.

So this was my Oprah, "A ha" moment. What was yours? When did you finally get it and started getting it together? Share and stuff!

Asian Jamaican - "How in the World are you Goin' to See, Laughing at Fools Like Me?"

I'm starting this post without a title per say because I have so much to say.  I hope everyone has carb loaded because I think this may be a long post.

I want to start this evening with my Goals - Weekly & Long Term.
  -This Week's Goal: My goal this week is to drink 34 oz's of water a day
                      -I don't drink enough of anything, so getting in 34 oz's is going to be a bump up for me
  -Long Term: My goals long term are....

1. Overall Health 
2. Drop Body Fat - Actually MELT it off my body
3. Strengthen my muscles
4. Lean Out

I'm sure my Long Term Goals will evolve & change, but I am just working for the Yoga Body!  Moving on...Friday I went to my periodontist because the stitches in my mouth were acting wonky.  He told me I am healing well & actually took the stitches out of the roof of my mouth which in turn released a lot of pressure in my mouth & my gums are finally stopping to ache.  The swelling went down significantly and I am finally feeling like a normal human being.  However, since my body was multi-tasking with healing, detoxing & being flooded with medicine my taste buds have gone bland.  Everything tastes very weird.  More about that in a later post.

So something else I want to talk about is the mental aspect of losing weight.  I was at one point in time a personal fitness trainer & a good one at that.  I had some really shitty experiences throughout my working experience and got very disillusioned with the industry & just quit.  Having said all that, I never experienced the mental aspect of weight gain/loss until I gained weight.  Since around February of this year, some crazy shit went down in my life which turned out to be one of the best things that happened to me - BUT I don't handle stress/life's surprises very well and I started gaining weight again.  I call it survival, but it's not an excuse.  Anyway, I am grateful for the friends I have because if it weren't for the close friends I do have I think I would be stuck in a perpetual state of <in the words of Tex> cock blocking my blessings.

This past Friday, Tex & I had an amazing coaching call.  Did Y'all Know TEX is a Law of Attraction Coach in training?  And a Really Really GOOD one at that.  I don't think she realizes her talent to its fullest extent because it just comes naturally to her.  I asked her if we could talk a little bit before she started recording my call & Boy HOWDY did the tears flow from eyes.  Poor Tex - I don't think she's ever heard me blubber on like that.  I was having a really hard time with processing disappointment coupled with expectations because I am by nature a sensitive person & sometimes I feel all alone because no one really understands that I feel 10 times more than the average person.  The feelings I go through is in all aspects for me mentally, emotionally & physically.  She helped me center myself and then we started our call.  We did an exercise with scripting where I scripted out how I am to reach my YOGA BODY status :D.  What we came up with is I need a routine.  I remember DJ Meli Mel talked about that & I am getting right on board with her.  Without it, I am ALL over the place.  So we ended our call & I felt so light, calm, LOVED and a sense of direction.  I am so grateful that our call happened.  So grateful...

The BEST PART OF MY CALL WITH TEX is the dream I had that night.  Instant Karma by John Lennon was playing & I kept seeing flashes of people achieving their goals making the world a better place.  Then towards the end of the song I walked into a huge classroom setting & John Lennon was standing there circa 1980 with longish hair & a beard and he smiled at me.  Full eye contact and smiled.  I woke up smiling.  I can't remember the last time that happened.  I think this was twofold because remember when Nike used this song for their commercials?  Just Do It Man...Let's all get off our asses & Just Do It!  (By the way, did y'all know I am a High Maintenance Hippie Princess?)

I hope this wasn't too long.  So the Title of this Post is a lyric ripped from John Lennon's Instant Karma.  Anyway - Peace & Love & Don't forget to Smile!  Asian

DJ Meli Mel: Blah

I have been very blah for the past week. I got two workouts in and did ok on my food but still not great. On the bright side, I haven't given up yet. Gotta celebrate the small victories.

I have noticed my biggest struggles are with dinner and weekends. I do good with my food all day but then I get to dinner and I want to eat junk. For some reason I have the mindset that I "deserve" to eat junk on the weekends. I'm not sure where this feeling of entitlement has come from but it's really fucking me up!

Next week I want to really try to get daily exercise. This is tough with an almost 4 year old but I have to stop making excuses. I only have a couple more weeks before my little guy goes back to preschool. He only goes three days a week but it will be amazing to have that time to workout with no worries.

I will find my way!

DJ Meli Mel