Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Girled


I recently wrote about being “ma’amed” and “babydolled” but neither of these bothered me much. I just thought it was odd since they were so different and were used to address me within minutes of each other. But I do have a pet peeve when it comes to a generic name for women. I don’t enjoy in a professional environment being ‘girled”. Is this considered acceptable now? I just finished a first contact professional work phone call in which I got an “ok girl” at the end…wtf? Then my doctor the other day who happens to be like 60 said “girl you’ve lost some weight since the last time I saw you”. I’m 42 so I’m just not sure the term girl is appropriate anymore. Would anyone call a 42 year old male a boy? Hmmm.

Cat “Woman” Cathy

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Resolution Bowl Challenge #1 - Healthy Eating


The Challenge:

My first challenge of the New Year was healthy eating. The plan was for a week of no sweets followed by a 48 hour fast and the remainder of the week eating high nutrient low calorie food. By this I mean things you would recognize from nature like an apple and raw nuts. The closer to the source the better. A nut for instance should be picked and packed. Not smashed, colored, added to something and whatever to make a Frankenut.

The Skinny:

I did well on the no sweets part of my challenge. I allowed myself fruit and honey but not chocolate cake and candy and donuts and the other items I usually gorge on after my meals. I even resisted the killer cake at Too Jays and I’m extremely proud of myself for that accomplishment. It seems to me that it’s all about mindset and discipline. Once I decided I wasn’t going to have sweets I just did it and it wasn’t that hard. I’m sure if I stuck with it soon it would be my normal MO to just skip desserts. I’m not sure I want to go that far since I like desserts and I think it’s good to treat yourself once in a while. The only problem for me is sticking to the ‘once in a while’ limit since the more sweets I have the more I seem to crave.

My success with the 48 juice fast and high nutrient low calorie diet wasn’t quite as successful. I was able to eat at vegan restaurants for several days and went 4 days without meat. I personally don’t think having some meat in your diet, even red meat, is a bad thing. I just ate vegan to up my veggie (high nutrient) count and since I thought it would be fun. The 48 hour fast part was hard. It turns out much of my social time involves meeting friends for lunch or dinner. I didn’t have a single 48 hour period in my week without some social meal planned so the fast kept getting postponed. Finally the fast was reduced to 29 hours to fit in my schedule. Although shorter than planned I enjoyed the fast. I always feel good and my mind seems clearer when I fast.

Results:

My weight may have dropped about 2 pounds from the challenge. It’s hard to know for sure since I weigh myself at the store and my weight fluctuates based on what I ate, what I’m wearing, etc. But a reduced calorie intake was a good idea since I’m not exercising as much due to my injury.

I’m not sure if it helped my health since I’ve had a flu/cold thing going on for over 3 weeks. I could say just imagine how sick I would be if I hadn’t done the healthy diet but I’m not sure that holds much weight.

Decision Time:

Would I continue on my healthy diet? I’d like to think so but not at this extreme level. I want to eat lots of fruits and veggies and less processed foods but I also want to allow myself to enjoy dessert a couple times a week just not every meal like my recent trend. I also plan on continuing the 24 hour fast on a quarterly basis using the change of seasons as my reminder. I enjoyed this first challenge of the New Year. It was fun, gave me motivation to stick to healthy eating and something neat to talk about with friends.

Cat “Veg O Matic” Cathy

Friday, January 7, 2011

Ouch!


My new sport has put me on the sidelines for a bit. About 6 weeks ago I pulled something in my aerial silk class. I actually heard a ‘pop’ followed by pain and realization of my dilemma that I was 5 feet off the ground wrapped in silk and needing to get down fast!

Thankfully my injury isn’t too bad. There’s been a lot of pain and I can’t do many sports but I’ve managed to still get out for social events and even some walking and light dancing. I’m nowhere close to my normal activity level but at least it hasn’t stopped me completely. I’ve noticed the pain not only keeps me from doing my sports but keeps me from my normal high energy level when I do other activities. It’s a slight source of constant pain and seems to wear me down a bit. Who would have thought that something so minor could be such a pain in the butt? So after 6 weeks of waiting for this to heal on its own I finally decided to get an MRI and I discovered I have a partially torn tendon in my gluteal region. So my pain in my butt really is a pain in the butt.

Although I miss the adrenalin rush, time outdoors, social contacts and sweating and raised heart rate I get from my sports I’ve decided to make the most of this down time. I will catch up on errands, go shopping, go to the theatre, plan dinners with friends, try pottery, play board games and other less active endeavors. Wow, that should be enough to keep me busy for a while and although it’s not extreme it should still be fun and different. I’ve decided I will make the most of this time while I heal but I’m still very much looking forward to being able to get the heart rate up and muscles moving again soon.

Cat “Trivial Pursuit Anyone” Cathy

Monday, January 3, 2011

The Resolution Bowl Challenge


It's the first week of my resolution bowl game and I've already cheated. My last blog explained how I put different challenges in a bowl and I was going to randomly draw one every other week. It seemed like a good way to mix things up and keep life interesting this year. My 'cheat' wasn't too bad though. I just got rid of the word 'randomly'. I remember one of my challenges was to do a juice fast followed by healthy eating for a week. Since I gained a few pounds over the holidays it seemed like a good way to start the new year and lose those pounds. Also I'm still recovering from an aerial silk injury (partially torn ligament) and I can't do many sports so this seemed like a good time to cut calories. So I just dug through the bowl and picked Juice Fast/Healthy Eating as my first challenge for 2011.

Now what exactly does this mean? It's not like I eat horribly all the time but I have been known to overindulge in sweets and bad carbs. Since this is just my warm up week I will weigh myslef, cut out desserts and read up on nutrition a bit.

Next week will be the real challenge. I will try to complete a 48 hour juice fast followed by a mostly raw diet of low calorie and high nutrient value. I will try to note any health benefits I notice, any cool new restaurants and meals I discover, and weight loss and anything else of interest.

Happy New Year to all and I hope you've been able to keep your resolutions!

Cat "Juicy Couture" Cathy