Alina's Blog

I am continually surprised by this challenge.

Before starting the Thrive diet I rarely experienced that wonderful and apparently elusive feeling of fullness (the good kind) after eating.  Now it just happens all the time. 

I’m also eating a lot of food, more than I was before by a long shot, but I’m losing weight.  I’ve been concerned with my weight for a very long time so I’ve tried to eat “healthy” and exercise on a regular basis in an effort to lose those few extra pounds and bring myself to a more healthy weight.  Over the course of years though my weight has continued to increase little by little; once I was even working out five days a week and cut all my portions in half and saw no changes.  However, I’m only a week and a half into Thrive, eating way more food then I’m used to, and I’ve dropped 5lbs.  WHAT?! 

The idea is to eat lots of foods that are nutrient dense and easy for the body to digest.  That way your body doesn’t have to work so hard to extract nutrients.  You also end up eating a considerable amount of food so your body doesn’t go into starvation mode (like it might do when you cut your portion sizes back) and start storing food as fat.

That sounds great in theory but to have it happen, and in such a short time, is really cool.

Now, I said I was doing this on a budget but this first week has been slightly discouraging because I’ve spent over $200 on food. BUT like I said before, most of the things I am buying are bulk so they will last me a long time.  What I plan on doing then, to get a better idea of how big of a hole this is putting in my bank account, is to price out each meal and figure out what I’m spending per day and per week on food.  I have a feeling that it’s not going to be that much.  Considering the high nutritional quality of what I’m eating, I very okay with spending a little bit more than normal.  This is body I’m in for the next fifty-ish years, so I might as well treat it properly.  *I also plan on doing Triathlons when I’m 65+ so being healthy is a must*  J

Tomorrow is my “cheat day” and I’m heading to Toronto with some friends.  One of them works at Smoke’s Poutinerie so maybe I’ll go indulge myself with a little poutine.   I’ve made a few Thrive recipes in advance though because I’m staying there a few days and won’t have the things I need to follow the meal plan, but this little trip could prove to be challenging when it comes to sticking with my Gutsy Yoga Challenge goals.  I could always go to Fresh for a vegan meal as well; their food is sooooo good.

I guess that one of the things about being vegan is that it’s hard to do in public, outside of your home.  Veganism just doesn’t travel well.  I walked into a convenience store the other day and realized that there wasn’t a single thing, other than a bottle of water, that I could consume in the entire store.  When you go to most restaurants as well, it’s very unlikely that you will find a vegan friendly meal.  Okay maybe the salads, but who wants to eat salad every time they go out?!  Kudos to anyone out there who is 100% vegan all the time, but it must be a huge pain to go anywhere.  I’d love to know how you do it.

Cheers

Friday!  What a great day to start something new an exciting!  But changing things about your life usually goes hand in hand with a bit of pain and today gave me two reasons for it.

Reason #1 why I’m hurting:  I went food shopping… and spent a lot of money. About $150 actually.  *Bangs head against wall*  So much for being cheap.  There are a lot of oils and other things that you need in small quantities to make the recipes in the Thrive meal plan, but you use those ingredients enough that it’s cheaper to buy them in bulk, which makes it a bit expensive.  Then there’s something called Hemp Protein (a protein powder) which is just plain expensive.  Now that I’ve made the initial investment though, with a few more staples that I still have to get, it doesn’t look like this is going to cost me more than buying any other food would; so I take that head bang back.  

Reason #2 why I’m hurting:  I did a one hour Power Yoga class and two hours later went for a fifty minute bike ride.  I didn’t hurt myself doing either, but after the past two months of nearly no hard exercise I can feel that I’m going to pay for this tomorrow morning.  Note to self: do lots of stretching tomorrow.

It was a great first day though!  Dinner was almond and flax seed burgers with mixed greens.  It may not sound that appetizing, but it was soooo good.  I did cheat on the dressing for the salad though (I used a store bought one) because I don’t have a food processor yet.  After the fiasco that was trying to make the burgers with a blender and realizing that I was just going to have to chop the almonds by hand I decided that a “no food processor needed” dressing was a great idea.  All the anticipation made eating it that much better though.  :)

I barely even ate one whole patty too because I wasn’t hungry anymore about halfway through it.  I wasn’t full like that gross kind of full after you’ve gone to an all-you-can-eat buffet, I was satisfied; I just didn’t need to eat anymore.  It was a nice feeling, it makes you content.  It also makes you wonder what the heck you've been eating before this and why it doesn't make you feel the same.

Tomorrow I’m looking forward to the next round of exciting foods I get to try.  :D  I’m also going to attempt a 5km run.  Oh, and buy a food processor.

Cheers!

Vegan:  a strict vegetarian; someone who eats no animal or dairy products at all - that also means no fish (because yes, fish counts as a "meat" too), cheese, yogurt, and chocolate.  

Why would anyone in their right mind give up all of those wonderful things?!  Especially chocolate!  

Add to this giving up virtually all processed foods from my diet.

But let's back up a little bit so I can provide some back story.  Last summer I decided, much to the dismay of my parents who both grew up on farms eating meat and potatoes, to go vegetarian for a month and a half as an experiment/challenge to myself.  Having read lots of conflicting info on what was good to eat, what was bad to eat, and being mildly confused by it all, I thought that it couldn’t hurt to try it out for a bit and see what happened.

It made me feel great - not in truly definable terms other than that I had more energy, I just felt better.  After going back to residence in the fall though, I went back to eating meat because sometimes the veg options there just don’t cut it.

Now that my school year is over and I am living on my own for the summer, what should land in my inbox but an invitation to join this Gutsy Yoga Challenge.  Hooray!  I like doing challenges like this because it’s a fantastic way to get to know yourself better while doing something good for your body and having fun too.

My general goals for this summer were to start eating a healthy, balanced diet again (after having endless pasta, pizza and beer in Venice for the past month) and to get my body into good physical shape – good enough to do a Sprint Triathlon.  So for this challenge I’ll be making those goals more specific by following a meal plan (The Thrive Diet, this is where the vegan stuff comes in) and an exercise schedule.  Oh yeah, I’m also a jobless bum for the summer so I’ll be doing all of that on a tight budget.

Here’s the deal for the next month (and potentially the whole summer):

-       Follow the Thrive Diet – so no coffee, no alcohol, no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no gluten, no corn syrup, and no white sugar, white flour, white rice,or white potatoes. Phew!

-       Do yoga for 1 hour, 3 times per week

-       Bike for 1 hour, 3 times per week

-       Complete a swim workout (provided by a friend) 2 times per week

-       Run for at least 30min,  2 times per week, working up to a 5km

-       Take a rest/cheat day once a week, for my own sanity, to eat some forbidden food

And tomorrow it begins!  I have enough fresh veggies and things to tide me over for a few days but a trip to the local whole foods store is definitely in order.  My debit card is already trembling.

Cheers!