it was so worth it

i went to meet my friend alison for pre-wedding nails and girls night out dinner. her wedding is in two days. on our walk from the nail salon to the restaurant we walked by a bunch of food trucks at the entrance to golden gate park. the only one to truly catch my eye - creme brûlée. love that stuff...the cream combined with the smoky crispy top.
dinner at bia's - super healthy yummy vegetarian dish. then on the walk back  car had to pass by food trucks again. before i knew it, i found myself standing in front of the creme brûlée truck.  $4.00 later i was holding the double chocolate. delish.
if i am going to break down and indulge while on this food journey it better be with something i love. i loved every scoop of it.
eat what you love. love what you eat.
right on.

eat good...feel good

so simple right?
i am always reminded that when i pay attention to what i eat my yoga practice improves. sure it is fun to have cakes, cookies, chips but then yoga practice creaks along. however when i fill the tank with items that nourish me, i feel great. i feel better, i do better.
so for now i will continue on this path of no junk treats and just enjoy the benefits of healthy eating and one of those is a nice strong yoga practice.
namaste.

results are in

i was right...early eating and no cooked food (salad instead). better sleep. no tummy problems.
so today that means...only raw food. will share results tomorrow. oh that is except for my cup of coffee!
cheers.

tummy problems

the last few nights i have tossed and turned. in the morning awakened by upset stomach. the only common denominator is that in all three instances i have had a cooked meal and i have eaten meals later in the night. hmmm. many people have told me that i don't eat enough meals that are warm in temperature. the one thing that i seem to crave in the morning...apples. hmmm.
ok tonight...no cooked food - salad. time of eating - hours before bed.
stay tuned for tomorrow's results.

monday monday

new week. what will i make of it?
i wrote that first line this morning...and then had nothing. turned off my computer...thought i will get to that later. now it is 10pm and i am ready to go to sleep.
new week...what will i make of it...not sure. it is a work in progress.
good night.

so don't feel like it

john went away for the weekend so i just grazed on the remaining food items left in the house. and now today sunday...well we have a few things. but not much. that means...yes, i need to go grocery shopping. don't feel like it. don't want to. i should just go back in my posts and remind myself of how beneficial the outcome will be. amazing how difficult we make things for ourselves. i know i am fortunate that i can buy groceries but safeway just seems so far away. wah wah...woe is me!
well at least i have my morning coffee and a banana to eat.
happy sunday.

feeling light is nice

i am not sure but i think i should be in the mid twenties for days of my food experiment. the first time i did this food experiment, i always knew what day i was on. now this round, for some reason it feels different....a little more natural. perhaps i am getting the hang of it.
one thing i do notice is that i feel lighter. this feeling is not physical like i have lost weight but rather in the feeling of lightness in movement. that may sound all hippy dippy yoga talk but it is the best way i can to describe it. i definitely like a loose flowy feel to my clothes and granted it could have to do with the outfits i have been wearing but everything is feeling very light and breezy.
ok i just read what i wrote. yes hippy dippy talk and i don't care. it feels damn good.

simple meals can some time be the best meals

sometimes the most simple meals are just the best. i wanted to eat something quick, cooked (meaning warm food) and yummy. solution: fried egg with slices of avocado. boy that was good. it hit all the categories and much more. so simple and so perfect.
perhaps this is also a good life lesson...simple is best.

emotional eating

i had a bummer morning yesterday which left me feeling pretty down. fast forward 8 hours later and i am at courtney's market (think salads, fruit, sandwiches made daily) picking up my regular items...bananas, apples, nuts, salad and then i witness my hand holding a loaf of freshly baked bread.  my thought process was "john might like this for his drive to tahoe". yeah right. who are you kidding andrea. put it down. buy your items and walk out the door. yes we turn to food so many times to fill up those area feeling emotional. of course that never works. the feelings are still there and now add feeling not good about the food choice.
that was interesting for sure.

who are you?

each day as i publish my entry i see an itemized list of my number of readers.  i typically imagine this as a solo journey and am surprised to see 3 or 4 as the number. who are you? do i know you? what is your story? i hope so how my words can inspire you. happy healthy yummy eating to you.

making better choices

went downtown after a long day's work (2 very physically exhausting jobs) to meet an old high school friend. it was a lot to motivate to go but i did it. he is down and out after a very difficult break up - basically he is heart broken. so after leaving him i headed home and realized i had not eaten. well i thought i will just pop in to the chinese place and get some kind of sautéed vegetables as i also remembered how bare the refrigerator was. and then i thought...no andrea make a better choice - when you get off the train safeway is right there - restock your home with good food. so now i sit 30 minutes later in bed enjoying some cut up fruit, with nuts and a little cottage cheese. yum. and even better when i wake up tomorrow i know that the coffee is ready to go and i even have a perfect banana to eat. it may sound simple but it makes such a difference.
oh how i love when i make the better choice.

i'm back

spent the last four days in santa barbara celebrating a friend's wedding. and as we know, travel, hotels, weddings are all recipes for challenging eating. but having done this drill before i know the importance of preparation. so as soon as john and i arrived we headed to the local organic produce market. score. it was an overall success with my eating plan. that was no big deal and the weekend was awesome. i was able to focus more on the importance of the weekend...the wedding. congrats to the happy couple.

shopping for birthday cakes

my brother adam turns 50 next week so i decided to send him a surprise birthday cake. sounded easy...that is until i actually looked at the various cake sites. oh my gosh, if someone rang the doorbell right now and had a cake in their hands...well let's just say it would be devoured. i have never wanted cake so badly in my life. note to self...step away from the pictures of cakes. that is some dangerous stuff.

oops

as i was just falling asleep last night, my last thought was i don't think i posted on my blog. oops.

oh well. what can i say? the food experiment continues. got two classes in and a long walk in yesterday. feeling good. well all is good then.

happy monday people. here's to a great week.

it is really not that hard

i don't know why i make this so difficult. looking in my refrigerator and seeing it full of yummy healthy food makes me so happy. i realize that i just need to commit to grocery shopping on a regular basis and truthfully how hard is that. not much. when i have groceries i eat well. simple.  instead my norm is to consume everything in the refrigerator until all the food is gone. then i have nothing in the house to eat which then leads to meal time becoming a pain in the ass. part of my brain has this compulsion that i must complete things. by that i mean when i buy groceries i want to use them all up before i shop again.    i don't know where that comes from and it just doesn't serve me well. i need to change it up so that i get to the point where i always have food in the house.
this is a learning process that continues...

hello friday

hello friday and wow it is certainly a beautiful day....laundry done, house cleaned and it is not even 9 am!
what a great week this has been and i feel super excited about my food plan goal. i did so well on thursday and felt so great that i ended up taking a night yoga class...i am more of a day time practitioner. then got home around 8 felt so good that my dinner was a delicious green juice - cucumber, celery, apple and lemon. that's it!
oh and on top of that - i am finding my yoga practice again.
in addition to all of that great stuff i have added a couple new awesome clients and have a list of people that i will being doing initial consultation with...thank you craigslist/yelp.
nice...healthy yummy diet. awesome regular yoga practice. enjoyable and meaningful work.
life is good. thank you.

hello thursday

i think as of today that i have completed 10 days of no processed foods...no bread, rice, pasta or sugar. wow. that happened pretty fast this time. yes, i still have 90 more to go but for now i feel like i am just cruising along and enjoying this journey. 

one thing for sure is that when i pursue these kinds of goals i am always more prepared for meals then my normal "what am i going to eat today" and that is nice. i heard recently on some oprah show that food is love. i am not completely sure what that means but for now i will settle with the idea that i am loving myself. 

i know it can be hard

i know that having a restricted diet can be challenging. i certainly have my ups and downs with it. but i also know that even after a few days in i feel excited and reenergized. there is something exciting about creating a plan and a goal and then working towards it that feels empowering. it is so true that the journey begins with the first step. and after a few steps the aches and pains go away and i begin to enjoy the walk.

ah yes, besides eating correctly there is....

besides the eating component there is the also commitment to moving aka exercise that i must acknowledge.
with this re commitment to my food experiment i am also committing to daily exercise. thankfully i have some experiences with this. i am taking this one more step. if i don't have an organizing job to do during the week then i have to take yoga class. right now i have 10 yoga classes under my belt in 8 days. yes, when i decide to do something...well, i really do it!
high five to me!
i am reconnecting to my yoga practice.
yes, all good results coming from this.
goals and plans are good for me.

that was close

i came within in nano seconds of a melt down last night..a food melt down that is!
started off the day strong...coffee, banana, yoga class, orange, nap, another yoga class...get home at 8 pm...bam...hunger hit and it hit hard. thankfully at the onset of that hunger feeling on my walk home from yoga i was already planning what to eat. yes, i bought some good staples for the week and one of them was cans of tunafish.
by the time i walked in the door, i had one mission and one mission only...food. that is an incredible crazy ass feeling. so frazzled. thankfully in my frantic urge to slice and dice celery and onions, i didn't slice off the tops of my fingers. and then amazingly a couple bites in and a few drinks of coconut water i was calm cool and collected. just like that i went from mania to peace!
i think it is from that frazzling feeling to that immediate need to have food instantly that the fast food service industry was invented. i mean my tuna salad has never tasted.  change that tuna and coconut water to fries and a burger well you have a billion dollar industry!
i am so glad i now make other choices but i understand completely why the golden arches is a preferred choice for many.
happy monday people.

sunday

as i come to an end to this first week, i ask myself what were some key things that made this week successful.  i would say having the following items made recipes quite easy - sesame ginger salad dressing, the crumbles soy product and potatoes. those three items made up the core of a variety of simple easy dishes.
that leads me to my next questions...what will be the key ingredients of recipes this week? in the past i have just repeated key items week to week and that always leads me to burn out.
hmmm.... i gotta think about this for a bit.

eating at home

when i prepare my own meals i always eat healthier meals. why is that? because when i go to the grocery store i shop the outside aisles of the market that have only fresh ingredients...mostly the vegetable and produce. and those ingredients combined make for healthy tasty meals. i think it is the middle aisles of the grocery store that is what makes the middle of our stomachs grow!
overall i think that this has been a pretty good solid first week. so far so good.

ok i am feeling like i am getting in the groove

it took me a few days but i think i am getting back in the swing of things with my food experiment. i remember this requires attention and focus. in a nut shell get groceries and plan meals! as of this past sunday i was feeling a little lumpy, bumpy and now 4 days later i am feeling lighter and brighter. each day moves me forward to feeling GOOD.
and with all that i came up with a new simple recipe. sautee onion, add crumble (vegetarian version of ground meat), add left over half baked potato. mix together. YUM. i love new recipes.
i am getting in the groove and feeling fine. happy weekend.

relearning

ok i am relearning everything. another key to success of my food experiment is to have food ready to eat before i am hungry. and if not make sure there are simple things that are quick to put together into a meal. because once i hit that wall of hunger....well, all bets are off! yesterday i got home from yoga and i hit the wall. uh oh...nope, i knew what i had - cottage cheese, almonds, blueberries. it took me a nano moment to throw it in a bowl. had that and grabbed a bottle of coconut water. ahhhhh. relief. i think that is probably an essential component for successful weight loss as well...easy food that is ready to go!
ok now time for me to have my morning cup of coffee, followed by green juice (cucumber, lemon, apple), breakfast of banana with handful of nuts...and i will be ready for the day.
woo hoo!

and to the market i go

it is time. if i am going to do this food experiment AGAIN and do it right then i need to go buy groceries. did i not learn anything the first time i attempted this food challenge? i must have healthy, yummy groceries in order to be successful. so i am off to the market! geesh, it only took me 3 days to figure that one out. off to safeway i go.
ciao...chow!