Caroveggie's Training Journal

[Caroveggie]

By the way, I'd bought the cheapest pedometer and it has a big RESET button that seems to go off whenever it wants so I'd end my day with "0" which is not very inspiring. Since I'm without a car right now I don't feel like trekking down to Sportsmart to return it, so I'm considering it a loss and anyway I didn't see any I'd like as much as I like my sister's, which is small, flat, and without a big RESET button (and purple to boot)..but looks like she got hers from Weight Watchers. Oh well.

This morning I jogged (lightly) 2 miles and walked and jogged a little back (instead of taking the bus).

I'm going to have lightly curried lentils, potatoes, with a splash of lemony cilantro hummus for breakfast.

Somehow I lost 4 pounds overnight! Wow. Water weight.

[f1jim]

Go Carolyn go!!!!!!
f1jim

[Caroveggie]

"Go"?

I most certainly went!

I absolutely HATE my pedometer. I did a Halloween walk which was from 11am to about 4:30pm. Around the end of the walk I checked my pedometer (which I wore, giving it one last try to impress me) and it said something like 9,500 steps. So I kept it on, walked all the way to downtown from Van Ness, ate at Ananda Fuara's (which, by the way, although easily vegan, is not McDougall without tweaking), and then walked to Payless Shoe Source and bought some shoes. Then I took muni and walked from 19th Ave in the Sunset to my place in the Richmond, which is a decent walk in and of itself. So I walk in my room and check my pedometer and I get a grand total of 2 steps! GRRRRRRRRR!!!! Incredibly annoying.

So. Anyways..

At least I met some interesting people at the meetup walk and on the walk home I had plenty of time to do some thinking.

Since I got up so early this morning I'm ready to crash now.

Happy McDougalling. Get enough sleep

[Caroveggie]

I'm going to start writing down every durn morsel that enters my mouth. No more forays into dairyland. (That is my downfall.) Also stupid veg restaurants that aren't McDougall.

Tomorrow I'm buying organic potatoes from Fresh and Easy.

I'm going to watch Jeff's video and get the Longevity soup recipe right after I post this. Do you know how long I've been meaning to do that?

Today I had:

1 champagne mango
pomegranate arils
what must have been a high fat vegan burger from Ananda Fuara, along with tomato, lettuce, onion, pickles, wheat burger bun, their tamari veg burger sauce
a little bit of lemon tahini dressing on my Ananda Fuara salad
a 49¢ mac and cheese made with soymilk



So there. A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y .

Let's just say tomorrow's going to be the start of much, much better.

The only good thing I can say about today is that I did a ton of walking. My feet are still aching. But I'm disappointed in myself. Must do better.

[Caroveggie]

I finally watched the Longevity soup recipe on the Fast Food DVD. I'm so glad I got that DVD. Now I'm all inspired and tomorrow I want to go grocery shopping and stock up on frozen veggies. I also watched the tahini sauce one which I really like because that will be really good with quinoa, kale, and black beans, also known at Cafe Gratitude as the Grateful Bowl, which I love.

really sleepy now. I'm glad I watched that DVD.

[Caroveggie]

I'm reading The Heart Speaks by Mimi Guarneri, MD, which is really interesting. There's a description about the process of a heart attack that's very graphic and lots of info along the lines that most of them happen to people who seem to be (and often feel incorrectly that they are) healthy. Yet more motivation to really take what I've learned from Dr. McDougall and others and apply it to my life.

I'm awake super early again. I'll read a little more and then try sleeping again.

[Caroveggie]

This morning I printed out my weight tracking spreadsheet. It also tracks my fat %, BMI, etc. I think having it around and handy will keep me motivated. I can also write notes on it now and input them into the computer later.

My plan today is to make Longevity soup. I'm also going to do some walking, push-ups, and try to figure out my swimsuit situation. I bought a 10 pass for a swimming pool so I'm going to get ready for that. I'm still waiting for the tickets to come in the mail.

I want to finish Lessons 4-6 today also (from the memory course). They can be pretty intensive and long which is time consuming but good for your brain.

So. Going to snooze a bit and then get cracking.

[Caroveggie]

lovely day.

I slept in until 10:30 am -ish and then did some errands. I walked all the way to Safeway (sans pedometer) to get lots of frozen veggies, frozen collard greens, etc. (I have a cart with wheels for walking chores like this. It's very handy.) I also got the tahini from the health food store. I'm going to make Jeff's lemon tahini dressing to use as a salad dressing. That will really help me out.

Now I'm waiting for the brown rice to cook and I'll make the Longevity soup. I still haven't eaten anything all day but I got a late start and I ate enough high calorie items recently it's probably tiding me over. Although now I'm know I'm going to be good and hungry once the soup is ready. Yum.

Still have a bunch of tidying up to do, chores/errands/general stuff to do, and the memory lessons.

I'm really looking forward to that soup.

[Caroveggie]

The soup turned out a little bland. Maybe I didn't season it enough because I ended up with a huge batch. Luckily I have my secret weapon ~ shittake mushrooms sauteed in soy sauce. They make any bland soup better.

This soup might last all week. Next time I make it I might be a bit pickier about the veggies that go in from the frozen veg mix. I don't like green beans so they're out and celery chunks are possibly cut also.

Those shittake make everything better. Yum yum yum.

[Caroveggie]

more bland Longevity soup with soy-sauced shittakes to make it palatable. Note: definitely watch which veggies go into your soup. It would've been better if I picked through the frozen veggies and made it my own from the start.

Now I have a 2 big tupperwares of soup to get through. 1 is going into the freezer and the other one will be either potato topping or lunch in itself for this week.

I also had a small "oats and honey" granola bar and 2 smallish fig newtons. The oats and honey bar tasted sweeter than the fig newtons.

I didn't walk to work because I was up late last night and slept in.

Maybe I'll have a cool fresh salad tonight with lemon tahini dressing. I haven't made it yet, the kitchen was full of roommates last night.

Really busy at work today and dealing with just kidding...

is my favorite smily.

[Caroveggie]

I like updating a lot recently.

I made the lemon tahini dressing. I'll see how it is on salad pretty soon. I was thinking I could also add it as the lemon flavor for my hummus. I want to be careful though and not make it too much of a main food item, even though it's watered down. As Dr. McDougall says,

The fat you eat is the fat you wear.

And I have quite enough fat, thank you very much.

I'm "ok" with my weight but I don't feel like myself how I am, not fitting into most of my jeans. I'm now realizing that in the past my weight was really kept in check by activity/exercise and my (ahem) food indiscretions did not show. However I have also done really well McDougalling strictly in the past. I want to work on getting there and staying with the good eating habits. A lot of it had to do with preparation.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

That book I'm reading is interesting although I have some feeling it is not making the point enough about the impact of diet on health. It shoots off into other realms quite often. I am in agreement with Dr. McDougall that a healthy (by McDougall standards) eater could have a type A personality and deal with a lot of stress and still have clean arteries. For instance I am thinking of the difference between the Asian young men and the Americans during that study that took place after (during?) the Korean (? maybe it was Vietnam?) War. (Sorry I am fuzzy on the details.)

What's important was that the Asians, eating a plant-based diet, had arteries clean as whistles and the young American soldiers had signs of atherosclerosis. Now my belief is that no matter what side you're on, being a soldier in a war zone would be scary and stressful. So I feel Dr. McDougall's views hold and that by simply changing your diet, you will take care of your problem. Not that stress management won't also help, because the heart does have nerves and is affected by how you emotionally feel. But I think the greater effect comes from cleaning up the diet. And the more thorough the change (i.e. McDougall, Esselstein, T. Colin Campbell's recommendations, etc.) the better the cardiovascular clean-up will be. (Note that Dr. Ornish was not as strict as the other doctors I mentioned and his patients did not have the same impressive results as Esselstein's at least in the documentary I once saw about his -Ornish's- program a while ago.)

I put the soup in the freezer. 2 days and I'm sick of it. I bought potatoes, salad, and some orchids tonight to cheer me up. I have fresh broccoli in the fridge and an assortment of frozen veggies to get to. I also have brown rice ready (and it's a yummy kind, sticky brown rice. Very good.) Tomorrow morning I'm going to cook some mushrooms (cooked mushrooms are yummy in salad) and buy a red bell pepper on the way to work for my salad (which I'll try with the tahini dressing.) I'm taking potatoes too.. I love potatoes.

So the soup can wait. It just has too much in it for my taste. The best part of it is the shittakes. And I still have 3 big bags of the stew mix I'm not crazy about. Next time I'm taking out the big onions, the celery, and a handful of the carrots. Which leaves potatoes and some carrots I think. And for the smaller veg mix the green beans are going and possibly the lima beans. Which leaves carrots and peas, maybe corn. After all that work at least I'll enjoy my next creation more. No point in suffering.

I'm going to try to be STRICT like I used to be (except I'm allowing myself Jeff's tahini dressing) and look forward to reporting good progress.

[Caroveggie]

I forgot to say my swim tickets arrived!

Now I am going to go swimming right in the middle of my day!

There's a pool only 1 block away from my work. Well, down the block and 1 long block away. Very close. Back when I had gym membership and used to swim a lot, I never really swam for any great lengths of time anyways. So I'll have to be fast about it, since a timeclock has arrived at my work and we have to punch in and out. So my lunch hour is exactly 1 hour, no ifs ands or buts. No problem. I think I can do it. I may invest in a Razor scooter to help my little to-the-pool-and-back lunch commute along. I'm really looking forward to this. And by the way, it's not entirely my choice either. The pool has specific times you can swim laps, which are:

1pm-2:30pm
and
8pm-9:30pm

So..kinda don't have a choice about it. I don't see myself swimming that late at night and having to take a bus back home (about 1/2 hour, but even so..)

I also really like the idea that my work days will sometimes be broken up by a swim.

I'm going to limit myself to the 10 pass each month, which breaks down to twice a week mostly and some 3 times a week. That seems reasonable and is much kinder to my wallet seeing that most of my money has to go to bills still. But I decided I'd do this for myself even so.

is back.

[Caroveggie]

B ~ brown sticky rice, broccoli, mushrooms (white & shittake), soy sauce

L ~ brown sticky rice, salad, red bell pepper, mushrooms, lemon tahini dressing, soy sauce (mushrooms and rice) ~ very yummy

D ~ "can curry"

Can Curry
I Can Hurry 'Cuz I Like Can Curry

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can sliced potatoes, drained and rinsed
frozen peas
frozen collard greens
1 raw onion, diced
Madras Curry Powder

Just cook everything in a big pot for 5-10 minutes, except the onion.
Add the curry powder, stir. Serve in bowl and add some raw chopped onion on top.

It's really good. Next time I'm going to blend the tomatoes though before adding them to the pot. They're a bit acidic for me.

Walked to and from work. I didn't swim at lunch yet. I'm considering getting a razor scooter to cut down on my 1 block by 1 block commute to the pool and back at lunch.

[blondie]

Been reading your journal for a few days - -your swim plan sounds wonderful!

[Rosey]

Caroveggie's with the longevity soup try experimenting with seasons with it. Like Jeff says in the video make it your own.