A New Job

"You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others." ~ Dr. Phil

Seven days until I declare my independence from the most addictive drugs on the planet: sugar, oil and salt. I will do it for at least one year and depending on the results, most likely I will do it for the rest of my life!

I am debating on whether I want to record my journey and post it on YouTube. I would like to inspire someone but I hesitate because what if I fail like I have a thousand times? I don't want to give false hope to myself or anyone else. I think it may help me have some accountability, maybe. I think about the time that my weight was posted in the local newspaper every week for three months and that didn't motivate me much. Just think of your weight being announced to everyone in the community! I can't believe I did it, but it did take away my modesty of telling someone how much I weigh. I haven't been on the scales since my birthday in February. I weighed 314 lbs. My BMI was 53 along with my waist measurement.

I think seeing progress will keep me motivated, but I have to be consistent with clean eating and exercise first. I know this. I don't have to pay for some diet program to do what I know I need to do. I have spent thousands of my hard earned dollars looking for the magic formula when I knew the truth all along. It was a form of procrastination.

So, I'm doing the countdown until July 1st to begin my SOS (Sugar, Oil, Salt) free, WFPB (Whole Food Plant Based) journey. I'm not sure why I'm picking July 1st instead of July 4th, maybe to get a head start. Someone suggested I start "NOW". Been there done that. Failed miserably. Having a specific start time to count down to is more exciting to me. It builds up the momentum to push me out the gate of my comfort zone. It also gives me time to stock up on healthy foods and get the junk food out of the house. I totally believe what Chef AJ says that "If it's in your house it's in your mouth"! I really feel like I am starting a new chapter of my life. My job that I have been doing for what feels like forever ends next week. It will provide the perfect opportunity for me to start a new job at Take Care of Yourself Inc!

All or Nothing

A few years ago I took an online personality test. It was a simple game where you predict how many asteroids you can shoot down in a minute. You could revise your estimate after each round. I played several rounds without ever adjusting my goal. I wanted to get

them all. I don't remember the exact number of asteroids, around a thousand I think. I knew I could get them all if I just kept trying. Each time I took out a few more asteroids, but nowhere close to my goal annihilating of ALL of the asteroids. Still, I refused to change the number. At the end of the game a message popped up that said something along the lines of, 'Perfectionist tendencies. Try adjusting your goal.'

 

That brain game stayed with me. I was glad to know how relentless I am about pursuing my goals, but it also made me realize that sometimes you have to adjust your goal to win the game.

 

The game comes to mind as I try to stop eating ALL addictive processed food. I joined Chef AJ and John Pierre's Ultimate Weight Loss 365 day abstinence challenge and did okay for the first three days, but I have given in to the junk food cravings every day since then.

The personality game keeps flashing a signal to me, "ALL or NOTHING, game over! Try adjusting your goal."

 

So, what if instead of abstaining from everything, I pick the biggest thing. Instead of saying no more alcohol, sugar, flour, oil, and salt, I go for the biggest one and tackle it, then move on to the next one. Alcohol is no problem for me to abstain from, I barely drink it anyway, maybe a wine cooler or Pina colada a couple times a year. Easy one to strike off the list. SUGAR is a different story. It is by far the biggest obstacle in my journey from SAD to WFPB. Flour, oil, salt... those are tough ones too, but the

three combined aren't even in the same arena as sugar.

And what if instead of saying "forever" abstaining, I break it down to the next bite. It seems so much more achievable that way. 

 

I am learning how to play the mind game. I first must have a very strong why, which I do. The reasons I want to abstain from eating sugar is a mile long and includes not only for the sake of my health, but to be a positive role model for my family, especially those who are struggling with their own addictions. I believe that if they see me overcome a lifelong addiction to sugar and junk food, it may inspire them to keep fighting for their freedom too.

 

Win the mind game. Win at life!

 

#winwin

Kathy G

 

The Reading and Writing Diet

"If food is the barricade we put between us and trauma, 

words are what takes the barricades down." 

~ Julia Cameron, The Writing Diet

Have you missed me? I like to imagine that there is at least one person out there in the WWW (whole wide world) that looks forward to my blog posts. I originally was going to post every day, but decided I would rather post when I have something to say, quality over quantity or something like that. I am recommitting to posting at least once a week. I will post more often if something juicy comes up that just can't wait, but you can expect to see a new post from me every Monday. I like Mondays, that's when I start everything, especially when it comes to eating clean and exercise, might as well throw blogging in the Monday mix too!

Even though I haven't been posting every day I am still focused on my Vegformation - transformation from the SAD (Standard American Diet) and Junk Food Vegetarian Diet to a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) lifestyle. Some days are better than others, but when people who have been there done that say it's a process, I get it. There is no rushing this lifestyle. It's not a diet and cannot be looked at as something you go on or off. It's just an effort I make every day to eat enough veggies and fruit so that I don't cave to the junk food devils. Plus, there is a lot of mental and spiritual work necessary to recover from food addiction and get to a place where I am thriving with abundant energy - that's my goal.

So, what have I been doing while I was away these past couple weeks? Well, I was sick for a few days. Some flu bug decided to set up residence in my body, but I evicted that blood sucker by nursing myself. As soon as I came home from work I went to bed for three days straight in a row. I also drank lots of water with lemon and local, organic honey. That's my protocol every time I get sick, which isn't often, and it works like a charm. After the three days I started feeling better. I added a couple extra days of taking it easy just to be sure. I often see people (like my daughter) still go hard with their workouts once they get sick. Then they are down for two to three weeks, sometimes longer. I just nip it in the bud right away by getting plenty of rest and a couple key elixirs.

While resting, I caught up on some reading with two very enlightening books:

1) Mind Your Body: 4 Weeks to a Leaner, Healthier Life by Joel Harper

2) The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size by Julia Cameron

Both of these books opened my mind and helped me tremendously on my wellness journey. I am a big fan of Julia Cameron and her book The Artist Way. I have done morning pages off and on for years, but got away from it after all my journals burned up in the fire last August.

I vaguely remember hearing about The Writing Diet when it was published, but had forgotten all about it until Joel Harper mentioned it in his Mind Your Body book. Joel's book has an extensive mental exercise that woke me up to my "real" problem areas which surprisingly have very little to do with food directly, but a whole lot to do with overeating and emotional eating. Just becoming aware of it seems like a giant leap forward in my progress. I feel like Joel and Julia's books go hand in hand. Joel is making me aware of the underlying issues and Julia is encouraging me to write about it.

In The Writing Diet, Julia goes right to the heart of the matter too when she says, "If food is the barricade we put between us and trauma, words are what takes the barricades down." I have known the power of words to heal my soul for many years, long before I wrote about my childhood traumas in Break The Cycle. For some reason I never thought of journal writing as a working solution to get past the barriers that have kept my weight in the danger zone for two decades.

So, along with my blogging commitment, I am recommitting to morning pages. I like that Julia refers to them as "mourning" pages because it's where you can release what's eating at you, go ahead and spill your guts on the page. It's an ever ready friend.

The Writing Diet is my kind of diet indeed.

Write on!

Kathy G
facebook.com/vegformation

P.S. More on Mind Your Body in a future post. It is well worth the read and deserves an in depth review!

P.S.S. By clicking on the links to purchase books on my blog posts, you help support my writing through Amazon's affiliate program, which costs you nothing extra to do. If you use my affiliate links, THANK YOU, I appreciate your support.

Julia Cameron talking about her book, The Writing Diet

Common Denominators

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." ~ Michael Pollen

Raw or cooked? Juice or the whole food? What about oil?

Since becoming vegetarian three years ago, I have studied and followed a lot of plant-based doctors and vegans. Some say you should cook your food and some say you should eat it raw, some say olive oil and coconut oil is good for you, others say no way, some say juicing is the way to go, others say eat the fruit whole... the list of contradictions goes on and on.

Rather than focus on the confusion, I focus on the commonalities. What do they all agree on? Drink lots of water, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, especially leafy greens and exercise.

Currently, I am following FullyRawKristina as she does her 21 Day FullyRaw Challenge where she is challenging her followers to eat one fully raw meal a day. That's an easy challenge for me since I usually drink a green smoothie for breakfast or have fresh fruit.

This morning, I'm eating oranges for breakfast. I love the smell when I first peel them. It puts a fresh citrus scent in the air around me which gives me a little boost of energy. It's almost like when you first walk outside on a bright spring day and the feel the warmth of the sun kiss your skin. Yeah baby! That's the life force I'm talking about.

I am also working with Katherine Nilbrink, a plant based nutritionist and holistic health coach, who was my instructor when I took the plant based nutrition certification course at eCornell University a couple years ago. We made a connection and stayed in touch after the course. Katherine has been a big supporter of my plant-based journey and is helping coach me through my transition from a junk food vegetarian to a whole food, plant-based lifestyle.

Katherine supports eating a variety of cooked and raw plant-based foods. Kristina recommends fully raw. Instead of getting bogged down with the differences, I look for what they both say. The common denominators. Katherine recommends eating three meals a day to give your digestive system a chance to do it's job. I notice that when Kristina is doing her "what I eat" videos, she also shows three meals. They both say to drink lemon water first thing in the morning and to exercise. They both also recommend creating a vision board. 

So, that's how I follow two different plant-based lifestyles without getting confused. Nothing is set in stone, we all just have to find the common denominators that works for us!

Kathy
www.facebook.com/vegformation