Eat to Live detox, day

Day 2 was horrible.  Woke up with a migraine- took some drugs and got ready for work, but when the vomiting started I aborted that plan and went back to bed.  Around 2PM I googled "caffeine withdrawal syptoms" and realised that probably I was going to feel like this for days and days if not *months*?  I'm really puzzled by this- I've quit smoking and it was agony, but the *physical* symptoms only lasted about 48 hours.  How can people still be fighting headaches etc after 9 *days*??  Maybe because they're still eating the Standard Diet of crap crap crap?  I do not know.  All I know is that a few minutes later I folded and made a cup of coffee.  About 10 mins after that I felt like a new person.

Now, I know this is weak, and I feel bad.  However I'm going to go with it- I'm quitting a ~4-6 litre a day (yes you read that right) Pepsi Max habit.  It's the first thing I look for when I open my eyes in the morning, and I cannot be. without. it.  So... I'm going to go with the philosophy that a cup of coffee or two in a day is an ok way to wean off this MASSIVE physical and psychological addicton I have to diet cola.   Not bending in any of the other detox rules.  I am drinking water, and our amazing homemade veggie juice.  I'm eating fat free, unprocessed, vegan Eat to Live compliant for any meals I eat.

It will have to do!

I do already feel thinner :-)

Eat to Live Detox DAY 1

83 kg

Today is day one of what I hope will be a month of eating Eat to Live style AS WRITTEN.  We have been more or less following dr Fuhrmann’s principles for a year now, but I have never given up artificial sweetners or caffeine.  My addiction to Pepsi Max is expensive and can’t be any good for me- so today is the day.

So far, I won’t say so GOOD, but I am alive and breathing.  Last night we broke in the new juicer by juicing ALL THE THINGS.  This morning I started the day with a big glass of the resulting juice- containing beetroot, pumpkin, broccoli, bok choi, apple, a banana... and loads of other things that I have forgotten.  It tasted pretty good.

Instead of drinking my customary Pepsi Max by the litre, I have been drinking green tea (I’m not sure if that’s allowed on ETL, but I seriously don’t care at this point), and water.  I mostly feel sad because my love for and addiction to Pepsi Max is strong!

Now it’s 11:30 and I am having a big salad- cos lettuce, tomatoes, capsicum and cucumber.  I put some balsamic vinegar mixed with mustard on it as dressing (Can’t remember if this is allowed, but don’t care).  

update: 9:11 PM
haven’t had Pepsi Max or coffee but just found out that green tea has caffeine!  Dang!  I have eaten salad, fruit, and a fat-free green stir fry for dinner.  I have consumed litres of water.  Now I am going to bed so tat day 1 can be over!

Rasedar Rajma (Curried Kidney Beans)

This recipe from the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen blog has been on my weekly "menu"/shopping list for months. It keeps falling off the bottom- I had the ingredients but hadn't cooked it, week in week out. Tonight I couldn't come up with any other idea- and decided to give it a try. WOW. This is a really delicious recipe! I am not even the world's biggest Indian food fan and I really like it and totally wish I had made more.

I served it with some "yogurt" on top- silken tofu blended with some salt, lemon juice and a dash of splenda. My 9 year old daughter who likes curries but is not a fan of tofu ate it happily, so I think it fooled her!As I usually do- in the case of the curry I did use the spices in the recipe- garam masala, fenugreek, coriander root, garlic, tumeric- but substituted caraway seeds for the ajwain seeds and used quite a lot more of all the spices than whatever quantities the recipe suggested. Maybe some of my spices are a bit stale as I think it would have been pretty bland otherwise. Oh- I used canned kidney beans (yay Aldi- feed a family of 5 for 4 bucks? Yes please) 4 cans. Next time I will probably make double as everyone loved it and I only have a tiny bit eft for lunch tomorrow!

So why are you Made from Bean?

So why another blog about food? Why another blog about exercise? In short because we are asked, regularly, "what can you eat?".
We feel like we have something to add to the conversation, even though the blogosphere is already well-stocked with really great vegan content (which we will be delighted to introduce, and hope you will join in and do the same.)

I (H) clearly remember being put on the Scarsdale Diet by my mother when I was probably about 8. Boy does that date me!

My weight has crept steadily up since childhood- starvation diets mixed with periods of regain with interest- to a top out at about 115kg. I would lose weight (and I do mean weight- not fat- because I whittled my lean body mass down to nothing, killing my metabolism even more with each cycle).

I did well on Atkins ( I did a very "clean" version, eating mostly unprocessed foods) but hated the meat-heavy way of eating. Palaeo diets made a lot of sense to me, but my inability to enforce any kind of portion control on myself made them healthier, but not a way for me to shed kilos.

I finally went on a major calorie-reduction campaign. Started with Optifast shakes ,and made major changes to portions and to my attitude towards hunger and deprivation.  Major lifestyle changes followed.

The first of these was that I began running. At about 90 kg I suddenly had heaps of energy, so I started the Couch to 5 km programme. Every day I expected to be the one that would injure me or be too hard, but I loved it and haven't looked back. Proud to say that I completed my first half marathon in November 2011.

Running led to reading about running, and I realised that many if not most endurance runners are vegetarian or vegan.

Skimming vegan health and diet books, I stumbled upon "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman and really that was the turning point for me. Evidence based, sensible nutrition that rang true with my own experiences as a lifelong dieter and on again off again vegetarian. The evidence implicating an animal-based diet in carcinogenesis scared me badly and made me force my friend K, a cancer survivor, who has her own weight loss journey to share- to read "Eat to Live" and "the China Study", which caused her

in turn to ditch Jenny Craig and start a new, vegan life! K is also working her way through C25k at the time of writing.

So here we are- two mums in their early (cough) 40s who are learning to run, and learning to be vegan. I reckon our combined weight loss to date is approaching 80 kg or so. Since we are both gigantic (but shrinking) nerds, a blog seemed like the logical next step.

That's my long introduction- I'll let K write her own as she has her own story to tell.