Fertilehealthy

Have I mentioned that I love Eat to Live?

After two weeks I have lost 4.7 kg (10.3 pounds).  That is without breaking into a sweat!  I will definitely start getting more active this week as the dreaded lurgy abates.

My loss this week is a respectable 2.1 kg (4.6 pounds).  I’ll take that, thank you very much!

I was in an elevator with mirrors on three sides on Saturday and saw myself from behind.  Talk about taking a punch in the solar plexus!  It was not a pleasant sight.  I felt like throwing myself out the window on a high floor or stuffing my face with a large portion of lasagne.  I did neither. I took the stairs on the way down, came home, made a fruit salad and had a good chat with myself.  The choice is entirely mine - look like that for the rest of my life, or work my ass off, literally!  I’m opting to do the work and a year from now my body will look completely different, even though I won’t be at goal yet.

As for my cold, it’s much better.  I’m not well yet, but I’m not streaming and feeling awful.  At least I can now do my thing around the house.  There’s a load of washing on the line, the house and the yard have been swept, the kitchen is spotless and everything is in its place.  Quite a productive morning, and it’s only 9:45 am!  I still have to go out for groceries, deal with the few items that need ironing and then I can relax for the day.

I’ve written a lot about health and weight these last few months and virtually nothing about fertility.  Of course, it’s not really a separate issue, but this week I’m going to focus a bit on how our weight, diet, lifestyle and general health impact our fertility and the need to prepare our bodies for conception, pregnancy and childbirth.  If you know people who want to start a family, or have fertility problems, please urge them to read this series of posts.

When we feel the first stirrings of hormones during puberty, our taste in men (boys!) is undeveloped and very immature.  As long as he’s cute, right?  We’re not worried about substance.  And if he smiles in our direction, we are excited and tingle all over.

Some men are deliciously ”dangerous” and very sexy.  They are never good for us in the long run, but it takes us a long time to realize that we’d be better off staying away from them.  And even longer to stop missing them and wishing that we could have tamed them.

Some men are glamorous, but shallow.  They’ll string you along, but never bring anything meaningful to the relationship.  They’re just not that into you.

Some men are real bastards.  These are the jealous, controlling, abusive types.  Getting away from them can be tricky.

Then there are the true gems.  The good guys.  The ones who may not take your breath away at first glance, but get more interesting as we get to know them.  The ones who make us feel good about ourselves.  The ones who don’t enslave us, but work with us towards a brighter future and a greater goal.

As we get to know the good guy, all the other men in our past fade into insignificance.  

We, the overweight, often talk about our unhealthy relationship with food and our need to change that relationship. Our relationship with food can be compared to our love life (for the sake of convenience, I’m going to assume we are all female and attracted to men).

Just as we love men, we love food. And we should. Both are there for us to enjoy and find sustenance from. But neither are here to fulfil us or define us.  They are part of our lives, but they are not our whole lives.

Just as there are bad, addictive, abusive and dangerous men out there, there are foods that harm us.  Sure they taste wonderful in the moment, but they don’t sustain us.  They don’t add value beyond their taste.  In fact, they cause us to gain weight and compromise our health.  What we don’t realize is that they are deliberately addictive, but we have been conditioned to despise and blame ourselves, instead of the food for our compulsions.  Just like in any abusive relationship!  They exert power over us.  The relationship is not one of love, but one of master and slave.  And we are the the slaves!

This is not a healthy relationship and we cannot nurse it to health.  We need to walk away and start looking for the good foods.  The ones that don’t addict us, compel us and damage us.

Like the good guys, the good foods may not immediately catch our eye.  They are not aggressively marketed and don’t come in garish packaging.  They may even seem a little bland and uninteresting.  But as we get to know them, our lives change for the better and we fall deeply in love.

These are the foods that satisfy us.  Not only do they protect us from harm, but they bring vibrant, sustained health.  And they make us lose weight and keep it off.

And just like the unworthy men in our past, the foods that we thought we could never live without fade into insignificance.

If you are ready for a mature, healthy relationship with food, read this excerpt (kindly forwarded to me by Diana) from Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book Eat For Health.  It’s the first 55 pages of his new book, so you may want to bookmark it and read it when you have time.  It includes several pages of testimonies from people who have not only managed to lose large amounts of weight at a similar rate than people who have had weight loss surgery, and keep it off, but have healed themselves from lupus, heart disease, acne, headaches, infertility, arthritis and many more debilitating conditions by following Dr. Fuhrman’s plan.

Dr Fuhrman is a medical doctor who have been helping his patients get off their medication and regain their health for the last sixteen years using the principles in both Eat to Live and Eat for Health.  The difference between the two books is that Eat to Live is dive-right-in-and-go-cold-turkey approach, while Eat for Health is a more gradual way of changing one’s diet.  But the principles and the objectives are the same.

True health, like true love, is within your reach!

I am very pleased to report a loss of 2.6 kg (5.7 pounds) this past week. This is despite the fact that TOM arrived this morning.

Who am I kidding? 

I’m freaking delighted!

See!  That’s me jumping for joy!

Craig had to leave quite early this morning, so last night I made a big fruit salad which we had for breakfast instead of oatmeal. It was delicious! I even had some left over for lunch.

We visited my folks yesterday afternoon and I had some rooibos tea. Then I realized that I hadn’t drunk anything other than water (and my twice daily Barleylife* of course) since Thursday. I just have no desire for other drinks, but I go through at least 3 liters (about 3 quarts) of water per day. I consider the extra trips to the bathroom exercise…

* Juice made from the leaves of young barley plants, available here.

I feel like a new person.  Not only physically, but emotionally and mentally.  Eat to Live is really improving my life!

My husband reports that my snoring is much softer.  I’m happy for him.  But seriously, snoring actually disturbs the sleep of the snorer too, which means that with the diminished snoring,  the quality of my sleep has improved.  Which would explain why I jump out of bed with alacrity each morning and hit the ground running.

You have no idea how empowering this is.  I must have dragged myself through my days before this, while carrying a lot of guilt about being “lazy”.   I’m at home all day and I get a cleaning lady once a week who cleans the whole house, sweeps the yard and does all the laundry and ironing.  Once in a while I ask her to bring someone to intervene in the jungle that is my garden.  Despite feeling guilty for being so “useless”, I admit that I loved the arrangement, since I hate housework, especially ironing.

But on Thursday night Craig and I were talking and I told him that I was going to let her go.  I feel that I can handle the house by myself, provided that he doesn’t treat me like a maid.  And I am actually looking forward to it!  Well maybe not the ironing so much, but surely we don’t have to iron everything everytime!

Currently we tend to let the house deteriorate over the course of a week, so that by the time the cleaning lady comes on Thursdays, it’s quite a mess (although not with loads of dishes standing all over the place - we have a dishwasher).  But if I clean up and tidy up every day, the house will be clean week in and week out.  I’ll only need to spend an hour per day on the house and garden.  And I can do the ironing after every load of washing, which will now be done more often instead of once a week, so that I’m never faced with a huge pile. 

We’ll be saving a lot of money, I’ll feel useful, the house and our clothes will be clean and I’ll be physically active.  And I’ll get into the swing of things, because of course when we move to the States next year there will be no cleaning lady.

A week ago the thought of letting her go would have horrified me, but now I know that I can handle it.  Of course I’ll be going to gym too, so my body will be working.  Yes!  Thank you Dr. Fuhrman, you have given me back my lust for life!

As for the actual plan, we are both loving it.  Our food is tasty and filling and I’m finding loads of interesting recipes, like this one for Mediterranean Lime Rice and Beans from Evita over at Evolving Wellness (a site well worth visiting for its product reviews, great recipes and meticulously researched articles).  I’ll just exchange the feta cheese for tofu and we’ll be good to go!

Our adventures with oatmeal continue…  Yesterday’s wasn’t so good.  I added some frozen raspberries, but didn’t like the sour taste with the oatmeal.  Today I hit the jackpot though!  Cinnamon, honey and coarsely grated apple.  That was absolutely delicious!  I could have it every day.  But I fully intend to try Jenna’s (from Eat, Live, Run) recipe.  She adds cinnamon and cooked pumpkin and peanut butter, which I’ll exchange for tahini.  Sounds great!

Thanks for the advice regarding the salt substitute.  I’m going to get the local product today and have a tip for one to use in the USA.

Oh yes, I have added a text-box in the sidebar with what I eat every day.  It helps me to keep track, but it also shows you what foods will change your outlook on life and attitude in FIVE DAYS!  And if you’re wondering about what the scale says… I’m not telling!  You’ll have to wait for Monday.

Have a great weekend!  Be good to yourself!  You deserve it.

Today is Day 4 of my Eat To Live program.  You’re probably wondering how it’s going.  So, here’s an little update.

I am loving every moment!

First of all, I’m losing a pound a day.  I know of course that it will slow down eventually, but for now I’m very happy with that trend.

The best part is that I don’t feel hungry or experience any cravings.  In fact, I’m not even eating all the food I’m supposed to eat every day simply because I am satisified all the time.  None of those awful, nagging, hollow feelings in the belly.  According to both Dr. Fuhrman and Mary-Ann Shearer, true hunger is felt in the mouth and back of the throat.   The rumbling-tummy feelings are caused by addictive foods.  In other words they are withdrawel symptoms.  The best way to get rid of those feelings is to stop eating those foods.  Trying to cut back will only keep the addiction alive (same as with smoking).

What I didn’t bargain on was experiencing an increase in energy so soon.  I really thought it would take longer to manifest.  I was up at 6am this morning!  Craig normally wakes me when he leaves for work at around 8am, so this is amazing.  I also find myself moving with a lot more purpose, instead of shuffling around.  I’d even go so far as to say that there’s a spring in my step.  That may or may not have something to do with the fact that my husband’s energy levels have also suddenly improved, making life around here rather… um… interesting. 

My digestive system is also loving the Eat To Live program.  I’ll use the words ”odorless”  and “copious” and leave it at that.

This morning I boldly went where I had never gone before.  I ate oatmeal.  Gasp!  There are two things I would never in the past put in my mouth (I mean food!). 

This was the first one:

A paste made from anchovies that is spread on toast or sandwiches.  May be a South African thing only.  Imagine being in a hot school bus on the way to an outing when one of your classmates opens his lunchbox and releases that odor…  Gag!  Fortunately no eating plan that I would ever adopt would even consider recommending fish paste.

The other was:

I have nothing against porridge.  I grew up on porridge.  Nice mieliepap (corn meal porridge).  With milk, butter and sugar.  But I could never even look at oatmeal… it just grossed me out.  Maybe the consistency.  I don’t know.  But this past year, I have heard so many endorsements from you, my oatmeal-eating fellow-bloggers, that when Dr. Fuhrman strongly suggested eating oatmeal as part of the Eat To Live plan, I decided to give it a try.  I bought it yesterday and this morning Craig and I had us some oatmeal with honey, banana and cinnamon.  And it was fine!  I’m sure I’ll come to love it, given more time and maybe more salt.

Unfortunately, I’m supposed to be cutting down on salt.  This is quite hard for me, because I like my food salty.  I’ve been using a sea-salt-and-herb mix for years, but I do use quite a bit of it, so I’m not sure where to go from here.  Any advice will be appreciated!  Even if the product is not available here in SA, I will be able to buy it when we move the USA next year.

Now for the other good news.  Our satellite decoder died yesterday and we are not replacing it.  We promptly cancelled our subscription.  Given the quality of the four public channels, we now consider ourselves without a TV.  Thank goodness the US presidential elections are over!  I will be able to watch the inaugeration at my parents’ house.

I realize that for some being without TV would be a disaster, but we’ve always known that we wouldn’t have a TV set in the house when we have kids (because we will be doing Waldorf education, where TV is not allowed).  Craig’s parents don’t have TV.  I didn’t have a set for years.  We’ll be fine.

What we may do though is to get a DVD contract, similar to Netflix (here called Pushplay).  This is much cheaper than the satellite subscription and, as you know, we’re all tightening our belts these days (and not from weight loss alone).  Since we love movies, but don’t like going to the cinema, this seems like a good option for us. 

But the best part is that we will be going walking in the evening after supper!  We normally eat just after 6pm and these days it gets dark only after 7:30pm.  So, some evenings, if the wind is not too strong, we can drive to the beach for a walk at Sea Point or Mouille Point, and other evenings we can walk on Rondebosch Common.  And Tuesdays and Sundays, when Craig is home all day, we will be walking the trails in Newlands Forest.  This will be in addition to me going to gym… (from next week).  I’m really pleased, because Craig works hard all day and needs to be outside getting some exercise.

And then, when we get home we can have a relaxing soak in the jacuzzi, read a little bit and go to bed.  I have it all planned.  I’m so efficient.  And modest.

Mouille Point with Signal Hill in the background.