Raw food

Photo courtesy Utopian Kitchen

Wow, I've been away so long this is almost a mupdate! (monthly update) This is partly because I stupidly started another blog... (which I am rethinking...), partly because work has been HECTIC and partly because my nutrition has been a little off. I hate to admit it but it's been less than stellar, in between social commitments and on and off bouts of fasting! Ugh. I think I need some consistency back and chuck the fasting out for now. My social life makes it too difficult to maintain and I keep cheating and restarting over and over. Wagon? Well there was one around here somewhere... I think it drove off about two hours ago!

Fasting is great for cleaning you out after a naughty weekend, but it is much to easy to use that as an excuse to eat badly. "I'll just have one glass of champagne and I'll detox on Monday with a juice fast." NOT a good pattern. I want to break the habit of reward and punishment and stop treating food as an emotional crutch. Easier said than done, right?

1. My first step is to start eating regular meals again. (No more fasting to fall back on!) I'm aiming to consistently eat nutritionally dense foods.
   
   
2. Restart my walking program. Nothing complicated, just 45 minutes every morning.
   
   
3. Cut out coffee again. Yes it has snuck up on me again, these days I'm having a cup a day!
   
   
4. Try eating a higher percentage of raw foods. Fresh fruits, vegetables, soaked nuts, raw milk and cheeses.
   
   
5. Save alcohol for once a week only - weekend or special occasion. I'll work up to stopping this habit, it's lovely to have a drink, but all my willpower goes out the window and I mysteriously find a chippie or pastry in my hands with NO IDEA how it got there!
   

I've stumbled upon a few interesting raw food sites (check here for a goodie) and am thinking of giving it a go! I'm against a totally vegan diet (I spoke about this here) but I'd be having my raw milk and cheeses and sometimes some raw eggs. There's another raw food diet called the Primal diet, but I'm not sure I could EVER eat raw meat (I'm a vegetarian). I like the idea of natural hygiene, preventing the causes of disease through nutrition and regular exercise. There is something very appealing about feeling and looking great even as you age.

So if anyone has any interesting raw food recipes they'd like to share, please do! I found an awesome (rawsome hehe) chocolate pie recipe....

Chocolate Avocado Pie by Anand

Serves 12, takes 15 min

Crust
1 cup pitted dates – soaked for 20 min
2 cups desiccated coconut

Filling
2-3 avocados
3 Tbsp of Agave syrup optional
½ cup of coconut butter
10 Tbsp of raw cacao powder
2 cups dates (pitted)
1 Tbsp zest of an orange (optional)
2 Tbsp raw cacao butter (optional)
1 Tbsp desiccated coconut (optional)

Directions
Process the crust ingredients until a sticky dough is achieved. Press the dough firmly into a 9 inch pie dish. Put in the fridge to set. For the filling, melt, dehydrate at 45°C, or double boil the cacao butter. Process thoroughly the remaining ingredients into a smooth creamy, unctuous mousse. Add the cacao butter. Spread onto pie crust and eat right then or place in the fridge for later. Decorate with desiccated coconut and orange zest.

I'm going to get some avocados from the markets to try it out this week!

I'll start exercising on Monday...

Bad habits. We all have them. From forgetting to floss to forgetting to let grandma out of the cupboard, they exert a negative influence on our daily lives.

They say a habit takes 21 days to form. So if you start now, by the end of the month you'll have new ones... right? Well... no. Most people sabotage their efforts before that happens.

When starting or breaking any habit we tend to tell our conscious mind we are going to change and it’s for LIFE. On the other hand, if you tell yourself you want to try something for a finite 21 days it seems a more manageable goal. It might sound a little strange to ‘talk to your conscious’... but what I mean is we all have conversations with ourselves inside our heads - should I go to the pub or should I not, should I go to the gym or should I not? There are a hundred conversations we have with ourselves every day.

Tell yourself (your conscious brain) that you are going to try it for 21 days. When you have completed 21 days, your neural pathways will have formed already and you will more than likely continue with your new habit. Just take it one day at a time!

So this sounds pretty straight forward... why do people fail to make the change?

Too difficult. People set out with a lot of ambition and enthusiasm, and start out with a big goal. “I’m going to go to the gym for an hour a day!” or “I’m going to run 30 minutes every day!” The problem is that the goal is too difficult to sustain for very long.

Too many goals. Often we set out to do too much. We want to stop smoking, and stop drinking coffee, and make healthy choices, and do our tax on time, and lift weights. Those are multiple goals, and you cannot focus on what is the most important if you’re trying to do all the others at the same time. Or you might start with one goal, but then get caught up in another goal (to stop procrastinating, for example), and lose focus on the first one.

Not enough motivation. It’s not a lack of discipline, it’s a lack of motivation. You need to find your reason to keep going!

So how does one combat these hurdles...? There are four tools in your artillery.

1. Set one easy, specific, measurable goal

Write this down. If you don’t write it down, it’s not important. Don’t set a difficult goal. Set one that is super, super easy. Five minutes of exercise a day. You can do that. Work your way to 10 minutes after a month. Make it easy to start with, so you can build your habit, then gradually increase. Be specific, what activity are you going to do, at what time of day, and where? Don’t just say “exercise” or “I’m going to walk”. Make it an appointment you can’t miss. Stick to one goal for at least a month. Two months if you can bear it. Don’t start up a second goal during that 30-day period. If you do, you are threatening the success of your original goal.

2. Keep a daily journal

As you record each day, you will start to see your progress, and it will motivate you to keep going. And you have to make it a habit to log it right away. Don’t put it off, and say you’ll do it before you go to bed. As soon as you’re done working out, log it. Just the date, time, and what you did.

3. Tell others about your progress

Do it on your blog, an online forum, with your spouse, friends, family, a workout partner, a coach, a group or a class. However you set it up, make it part of the process that you have to report your daily workout to other people. It could be through email, or the phone, or just by telling your co-workers what you did this morning. But be sure that they know your goal, and that you are going to report to them every day.

4. Motivation - Keep it up!

If you miss two consecutive workouts, you need to look at why, and add a new motivation. Rewards, more public pressure, inspiration, whatever it takes. Think of ways to reinforce your new habits in a positive way. I read of a woman who would take her own extra soft luxury towels to the gym and put on her favourite scent as soon as she finished her workout and stepped out of a hot shower.

What are my goals?
• Get up every day (besides Sunday) at 6:30am and do some form of exercise before anything else. Even if it's only a walk. Every second day, weights.
• Consistently make healthy food choices for the next 12 weeks.

What is my motivation?
• I want to wake up and feel great at the start of each day
• My dogs get a nice walk
• Each day I'm getting fitter
• I'll have more energy to get through the working day
• I want to achieve a goal and be disciplined enough to see it through
• Feel great in my own skin
• Do something healthy that's just for me

Don't wait until Monday to start hitting your targets, start today!

Day 4... PHWOARRRR!

Oh yeah, I can't believe I'm halfway through week 1 already! So far so good, my nutrition is stellar and I've not skipped an exercise session yet! I'm so proud of myself. (Pats self on back)

I'm really looking forward to my free day, not because I can eat whatever, but because I can have a well deserved sleep in! Yawn, 6:30am... arrrgh. My NEW habit will form soon, right? On sunday I'm not going to go crazy, I'll keep it clean, but I will have a glass of champagne and a baby cup of rich chocolate icecream.

This whole thing has made me so focussed, I have a goal in mind and I want to smash it! I've got a gorgeous lingerie model stuck on my fridge at the moment (my hubby is not complaining!) and when I complete the 12 weeks, I'm going to get a shoot done with exactly that pose, in similar underwear to show how far I've come. I can't wait! Rain, hail, shine, I'm going to do this!

Day 2 BFL Challenge

Well the hard part is over. Starting. Now all I have to do is take one day at a time for the next 83 days and I'll reach my goal.

Getting up today was traumatic. 6:30am is when NIGHT SHIFT workers arise! Arrrgh. I DID get up though, had a little pity party and then just did it. Took the dogs for a big long walk and made myself a leisurely breakfast before work, omlette with feta, tomato, basil, parsley and red onion, as per yesterday. Do you know what? I actually enjoyed it once I got moving. It was very pleasant, not many people around and sunny and warm, not hot. Beautiful.

They say habits take 28 days to form. 2 down, 26 to go!

Eating all of this food is a bit confronting, you start feeling really hungry, even though it feels like you just ate! I'm thinking of taking photos of my meals and posting them here, so I can remember them when I'm stressed or busy and can't think of anything to have. Not that I'm a food stylist, but I do like to think I can cook well, Donna Hay watch out!

Cardio tonight, I'll have to go off to bed a little bit earlier I think! I have to avoid as many negatives as I can so that I keep it going. Positive association. I read somewhere that a lady uses extra soft scented towels for her workouts and makes sure to have a relaxing bath afterward as a reward. Subconciously, we need thing like that to feel good when we are cultivating new habits.