Starting for good

Yesterday I began another attempt at getting this ol body into shape. And healthy.

So here's how it goes-
Last week my friend posted on her Facebook page about a lesson she is going to  be teaching in Relief Society in March. And asked if anyone would like to take on a challenge for the next 45 days. This friend is a naturopathic doctor. I know she knows her stuff. Well- she actually started out by asking if anyone would like to have more energy and loose a few pounds as well. Of course I would! So I posted that I would take on her challenge. Along with a few other people. THEN she told us what we would be doing, and I have to admit I wasn't very surprised by what she told us. Just because I know her.

Here's what we do:
Omit the following:

• Milk....you can substitute coconut milk, almond milk, or rice milk.  But to be totally honest, when you omit milk, you also omit the cereal, which is empty carbs, tons of sugar, and salt.

• White sugar: you can substitute with honey, or organic sugar.  Organic raw sugar will cost more, but as you will find, you will not be baking as many goodies!

• White flour.  The only way you can have white flour, is if you substitute it for organic unbleached un-processed flour, or whole wheat flour.  Organic flour is 49 cents a pound at most retailers.

• candy, soda, alcohol, coffee, tobacco; don't even get me started on these 5 evils.....just kidding, seriously, there is a long list of studies i could site that backs me up on this.

• Anything in your pantry that has more than 6 ingredients on the label.  Can you even tell me what half of those ingredients are?

• velveeta, spam, cream of chicken, cream of mushroom and cream of anything else, cookies, sugar cereals and cream cheese.

• Normal cheese is fine, as long as it is real cheese.  Meaning it should only have 3 ingredients; milk, salt and enzymes

Introduce the following:

1. A salad with lunch and with dinner.  One of the salads needs to have spinach
2. Real butter, no margarine or "i can't believe it's not butter"
3. Real cheese.  It should only have 3 ingredients.
4. Oats and other grains.  We all have enough wheat in our diet, but what about other grains?  Amaranth, quinoa, and others
5. Brown rice, rather than white.
6. whole wheat bread
7. seeds, nuts and dried fruit
8. fresh fruit, and fresh raw veggies
9. Olive oil rather than other oil

She emailed us a bunch of recipes and guidelines. She also said that "Cheese is acceptable in my diet, but not everyday with every meal. Treats are ok, but not everyday.Meat is okay, but not every meal."

And so you get the general idea. I am actually SUPER pumped about it! And I had an OK day yesterday, considering that I didn't get the emails until after 5:00pm yesterday. So I kind of self regulated. And did alright. I also weighed and measured myself. So I would like to, for the next 45 days, use this blog as a food journal, and also keep track of weight and measurements. I think I'll just put that on the sidebar with the date they were taken.

So for Jan 31, 2011 I ate:
Breakfast: 2 fried eggs
Lunch: 1 5oz fish fillet
Dinner: pasta and vegies
Snacks: 1 lg apple
              1/2 c grapes

Hopefully by the time the 45 days is up it's just a way of life and not something I even have to think about. It really is a lifestyle change. And I also hope that soon I can get the desire to put exercise with this and really benefit myself! But until then I will eat right. Now I just need to go grocery shopping. However it's no money until Friday. So I will do what I can until then and then really stock up on all the great things I will be eating!