Archives for January, 2008
Posted on Jan 28, 2008 under Health, Diet and Lifestyle |
I did another hour-long aqua aerobics class today, with a different instructor and boy, am I feeling it! She really made us work! But I loved it. Even though I’m tired (and quite sleepy!), I’m happy and satisfied.
While in the pool, I happened to glance up at where I normally sweat and groan on the treadmills. I saw a lady, who was probably about my size, jogging. Slowly and not for long, but jogging. And I knew that my day will come… It may not be graceful or pretty, but it’s not a spectator sport! It’s yet another person breaking free from the shackles of her weight.
I only noticed today that there is a whole bevy of new Healthy You Challengers. I’ve loaded everyone on my Google Reader and will see you around!
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Posted on Jan 28, 2008 under Health, Diet and Lifestyle |
No, you don’t have to brace yourself for another fanciful analogy. I just needed a snappy title and “He’s just not that into you” didn’t feel quite right.
Today I want to explore our relationships. More specifically our relationships with food and with our bodies respectively.
As overeaters, comfort eaters, emotional eaters, we have developed a very unhealthy love-hate relationship with food. The dieting experts tell us to change our relationship with food. What they’re actually saying is “Stop loving food. It’s just fuel for the body!” That is the whole premise of calorie counting. Energy taken in and energy expended. This is far from the whole truth.
Yes, we eat too much! Yes, people lose weight by limiting calories. But health and weight loss are better achieved by eating more calories of a higher quality, than fewer calories of poor nutritional value. And we’re doing this for health, remember! Everything you put into your body affects your body in some way. If you eat fresh, mostly raw, whole foods, you are enabling your body to heal on a cellular level. We are made up of trillions of cells, all of which get replaced on a regular basis, ranging from daily to every few years. These replacement cells are built by the nutrients from the food we eat. Are you building a healthier body, or are you creating the breeding ground for disease? Cancer cells cannot multiply unchecked in a body made up of healthy cells.
What the body can’t use is either being excreted via our organs of elimination - the bowels, the kidneys, the sinuses, the skin, the lungs and sometimes even the uterus. A rash is the body trying to expel something that it doesn’t like. Same with acne, eczema, mucus and a whole host of other “conditions”.
If the body can only eliminate 10 units of waste a day, but you’re feeding it 15 units, by the end of one week you are left with 35 units of waste. This has to be stored somewhere. Fortunately for the body it has a handy storage solution, known as fat cells. Where to the preservatives we eat go? Yup, you guessed it! They go and do some more preserving in our fat cells. This is why it keeps getting harder and harder to lose weight. And you’ll be surprised at what the body deems as waste! It has not fallen for advertising and doesn’t care a whit about “enriched XYZ”. It wants food made by God, not man!
Have you ever had a big steak for lunch? How did you feel afterwards? Energized? I didn’t think so! The fact of the matter is that some foods require more energy to be digested than what they contribute to the body. So clearly, eating for energy only works if you are eating foods that are easily digested, like fruit and vegetables. A calorie is therefore not the end all and be all of our existance.
Similarly, we’re not doing exercise for the amount of energy we’re expending. We’re doing it to get oxygen rich blood to the furthest reaches or our bodies, to build strength, to protect us against bone loss and disease, and to feel good. Did you know that exercise stimulates at least 16 different hormones in the body?
All our body functions are dependant upon hormones produced by our endocrine system. Temperature control, weight control, fertility, mood, water retention, appetite, metabolism, thirst, sleep patterns, insulin production, growth, digestion, etc. The endocrine system is a very complex and sensitve system made up of glands, like the gonads, the pituitary, the thyroid, the adrenals and a few more. These glands have to work together to balance the production of hormones. Everything you put into your mouth affects the endocrine system. Not surprisingly, the things that stimulate and promote the effective functioning of the endocrine system are fresh, whole foods. And the things that upset the endocrine system are refined foods, sugar, drugs, caffeine, alcohol and other fermented products, artificial sweeteners, animal products, heated fats and food additives.
Back to our relationship with food… Clearly, we need to start seeing food in a different way. Not as a calorie or a point. But as something that will either promote health or disease in our bodies. The question to ask when we eat is not “How many calories/points does this have?” but rather “What is this going to do to my body?”. In time we will start loving the foods that nourish, hydrate, alkalize, build and cleanse the body. We will be loath to put anything into our bodies that harm them.
Slowly but surely, our focus will change from a relationship with food to a relationship with our own bodies. Trust will be built. The fear of regaining weight will disappear. We will exercise because we love ourselves. There will be new respect for the wonder and the miracle that is our bodies. Eating will become an act of thankfulness and worship.
May all be fed!
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Posted on Jan 27, 2008 under Juice Feasting |
I’ve had an “Aha!” moment again today. I have to be so careful that I don’t see my weight as my health problem. My weight is merely a symptom of a body in crisis. Sure, the crisis has been brought along by eating too much of the wrong foods and not exercising. My weight is the alarm bell that is sounding, telling me that my system cannot cope with the poor diet and lack of exercise. Therefore, I should be grateful for my weight, provided of course that I heed the warning.
Before you march me to the stake and strike the match, consider this: thin people also have heart disease, cancer, arthritis, infertility, diabetes, osteoporosis, dental caries, acne, lupus, MS, eczema, asthma, chronic sinusitis, indigestion, varicose veins, stomach ulcers, gout, acid reflux, etc. If fat was the problem, thin people would be healthy. But they aren’t. They’re just thinner.
Fat is the symptom. Just like infertility is a symptom. Infertility is the body’s way of saying, “I cannot conceive or carry a child at this time. Please restore the balance in the body and try again later.” The body is infinitely wise. If your health is threatened, it will temporarily shut down “non-essential” functions, like reproduction, until health is restored. And health can never be restored by taking a tablet or a hormone. Health can only be restored by eating natural, whole foods, getting enough exercise and sunlight and avoiding substances that the body finds toxic.
I want to be healthy. I want to be fertile. I want to be free of my eczema. I want to be at the right weight for my body. I want to be physically fit and active. I want to have boundless energy. I want to see better.
I am not on a weight loss journey. I am on a journey to gain health.
These last few days I have been newly inspired by a group of bloggers who are on a 92 day Juice Feast. And I have decided that I am ready to feast too. I have many books and resources on the subject and have just never been able to get going. I will prepare myself by eating only fruit and raw vegetables for the next four days and starting my feast on 1 February. I am committing to feasting for the month of February, but holding my options open for continuing into March and beyond.
Juice feasting serves to cleanse, rebuild, rehydrate and alkalize the body. It is not a diet. Health cannot be achieved by dieting. After the feast, we will continue on The Natural Way, which is how we want to live our lives and raise our kids.
Get ready for a blow-by-blow account!
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Posted on Jan 26, 2008 under Health, Diet and Lifestyle |
Yesterday at gym I saw a girl that took my breath away. I was completely smitten. Not because I want to do her (I’m 100% heterosexual!), but because I wanted to be her. There was just something about her that made me think “I could look like that”.
First of all, she had a beautiful, feminine face and boyish short blonde hair, exactly like I used to wear my hair when I was young and thin. She was probably in her early thirties. Her body was exquisite. Tall, big-boned and strong. Very strong. This girl was ripped. Very defined back, arm and shoulder muscles. Toned legs, flat stomach. Neat chest.
I’m guessing that she must be a professional sportswoman. (I work out at the Sports Science Institute, where a lot of professional athletes and international sporting celebs go. I once had Australian National cricketers on treadmills on either side of me!) She obviously does weight training, but she’s not overdone like those ridiculous women with their orange tans, big peroxide hair, tiny bikinis and weird poses.
This girl had the most amazing presence. She was calm, neat and very precise in her movements. I liked the matter-of-fact way she got on the bike and started cycling with total concentration. She moved gracefully and purposefully. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.
The best part of her was her totally gorgeous ass. One would expect a rock hard butt from someone like her, but she had the most feminine derriere I’ve ever seen. Soft and rounded.
Some people have dreams of losing weight and getting fit so that they can wear bikinis, run marathons, whatever. I just want to look like that girl! And I’m going to work for it!
Today I attended my first aqua aerobics class. It was awesome! I tried really hard and did well! My arms and shoulders are quite sore now, but tomorrow is my rest day, so I’ll be fine to do it again on Monday. I have mapped out next week as follows:
Monday - 1 hour aqua aerobics
Tuesday - 1 hour pilates, 30 minutes cardio
Wednesday - 1 hour aqua aerobics
Thursday - 1 hour pilates, 30 minutes cardio
Friday - 1 hour pilates, 30 minutes cardio
Saturday - 1 hour aqua aerobics
The week after that I will start 30 minutes of weight training on the days that I do aqua aerobics.
Here’s some motivation for the week:
It’s your constant and determined effort that will eventually break down all resistance and sweep all the barriers before you. Persistence means taking pains to overcome every obstacle, to do all that’s necessary to reach your goal.
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Posted on Jan 26, 2008 under By The Way... |
We have a winner! Lidian guessed correctly! I most certainly did not have a pet snake in high school. I have an extreme and irrational fear of snakes. In fact, if I turn a page and see a snake picture, I will hurl the book across the room and not touch it again. I always joke that a snake won’t even have to bite me to kill me!
This means that the rest are true!
1. My mother tongue is Afrikaans, a local language that evolved from Dutch, although it is said to closely resemble Flemish. It is one of our 11 official languages. The others are English, Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Tswana, Swati, Venda and Tsonga (I had to look it up)! My husband is English speaking, and we converse in both English and Afrikaans at home. I don’t speak any of the native languages, but used to be fluent in French and could get by in German. I still read French, but would speak it quite badly now - another case of use it or lose it!
2. Shudder!
3. What can I say, we moved a lot when I was a kid. Then I went to university and dropped out after two years (doing two different courses). When I got divorced I started yet another course, completed one year and stopped. Then I did a year of Bible College. And stopped. So after 4 years of tertiary study, I actually have no qualifications! And I really don’t mind.
4. He invited me on a dinner date two days after making contact online. I said “yes”, and I haven’t said ”no” since! He is the best thing that’s ever happened to me (with some stiff competition from my best friends, Lizana and Charlotte!) and I love him dearly. He really is my second chance.
5. So six of you doubted my ostrich riding skills! If I didn’t currently weigh over 300 pounds, I’d be most offended! This is in fact true. When you don’t have any qualifications (see #3), you get to do a lot of menial jobs. After my au pair stint in France, I got a job on an ostrich show farm. The job entailed taking groups of tourists on a tour of the farm and educating them about ostriches. The last bit was a physical “show and tell” with a tame ostrich. We’d pull the neck around, open the beak, lift the wing, etc. Then we’d demonstrate that it one can in fact ride an ostrich, if you weren’t too attached to going in a specific direction. One stops by pulling the neck back, like a hand brake. We would demonstrate this and then we would let the tourists try. I attribute my still youthful appearance to all the laughing I did in those six months! If you had a particularly obnoxious, loud mouthed yob on your tour, you’d make sure that he got one of the more unruly birds. And you’d send him off to the dirtiest (read shittiest) part of the enclosure! By the way, the photo at the top is me (looking great, if I may say so myself), loading a German onto the ostrich. The one below is also me, showing off the “fan”.
6. Yes, I am a natural blonde, although I have strayed to red in the past. These days my hair is mousy, so I have to help it along a bit with Clairol Nice ‘n Easy. But here’s the proof! (And Dee, I’m not offended!)
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