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

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