Day 6 Sugar Detox

Short post today - made it through day 6 of the Sugar Detox.  Today was a relatively slow-paced day.  Went for an hour walk (about 8 min of which was running.)  Made a turkey today because mom and dad had two turkeys in the freezer (Random!)  I had oatmeal breakfast w/ the jalapeno sausage before the walk; eggs and English muffin w/ cashew butter after the walk.  Snack was broccoli, cauliflower and cucumber w/ guacamole & a tea of course.  Dinner was the turkey w/ baked veggies, quinoa and some black beans.  I was VERY short tempered today - everything was getting on my nerves which was very evident when we went to Walmart.  After dinner we went to see Letters to Juliet.  It was a very good movie - mom cried a lot - I cried during one scene.  So now home and need to fold and put away some laundry.  Then drinking a coconut rum tea and going to bed.  Sorry for the short post - should have lots more to talk about tomorrow.  Hope you all have a great Memorial Day.

Day 5 Sugar Free & I think its finaly catching up to me!

Hey everyone!  Made it through 5 days!  Yesterday (day 5) we went to some Farmers Markets.  Arlington's was small but I got some Jalapeno Bison Sausage - I love spicy things - and some baby squash that I've never tried before!  Next we drove to Pantego but could not even find the Farmer's Market!  So, we went to Grand Prairie.  It was the best/biggest of the 3.  There we got Jalapeno Cheese Bread (which I have to freeze until after this detox because it has honey in it).  Also got some Pineapple Banana Dessert Salsa - also have to wait on that one b/c of the sugar.  Lastly we got some Coconut Soap that smells heavenly.  The salsa guy also gave us a Grand Prairie Farmer's Market "green" shopping bag.  Here is a pic of the goodies:

Next, we came home for some lunch - needed to use up the black beans and lentil mix so I made the following:

Spinach tortilla w/ guacamole, spinach leaves (for crunch), 1/4 c black beans, 1/4 c lentil mix, 2 bell pepper rings, and a few spoons of tomatillo salsa.  It was mmm mmm good.  I also had a cup of green beans on the side.

Then we went to Farmer's Branch to try and find the liberty fest but we only found the car show which I was not interested in and then we saw Sam Moon.  So, shopping we went.  Found some cute things (no pics, sorry) and tried again to find the Liberty Fest which was supposed to be at 5 different parks in the city.  Finally found one and parked and asked some people how it was and they said "there is not much over there and they are closing down."  We were already tired so we just got back in the car and came home.  It was near this point that I realized I had been pretty snappy all day and was pretty tired even though it was only about 330pm.  So, I think the lack of sugar is catching up to me.  I read the longer you go on the detox the more cranky/moody/etc that you will get.  Not really craving sweets too bad, but when I am tired I automatically thing "food, I need to eat food," which may or may not be related to the sugar detox.  Anyways, back to the day's events...

Dinner was chicken stir fry and we ate outside on the porch:

Then decided to check out Hobby Lobby.  Mom is an avid craft maker and I LOVE doing art of all kinds - we had a blast.  I got some pretty scrapbook paper, and silver and gold paint pens and a box for my teas, and a small water color paper pad.

That was it for the day - Really just woke up today about an hour ago.  Made the usual oatmeal breakfast w/ one of the sausages (which is REALLY Good) and have been sitting here blogging.  Not much going on today as far as I know, but us girls will probably go shopping again. Hope you all have a great day!

4 Days Sugar Free & A Day of Food Firsts!

Good morning!  Well it surely appears that I am going to be a morning time poster - the parents are keeping me up late (how backwards is that?) and I get too tired to post, so I just go to bed.  Yesterday was filled with lots of shopping - were trying to find swimsuits for our cruise!  Also, did a lot of food experiments yesterday!

 This is what I have for breakfast 99% of the time: Oatmeal.  In this particular bowl is 1/2 c old fashioned oats cooked with 1 c skim milk, 1/2 oz walnuts, 2 tbsp flax plus, and 1 scoop chia seeds.  It comes out really good now, better than in Korea - I think its the microwave that makes the difference.  And, always with a meal (if at all possible) a cup of tea.  Still drinking the Yogi Berry Detox Tea since I'm still doing the sugar detox.

After breakfast digested I put on my brand new running shoes (New running shoes makes me happy!) and went for a walk.  My body was cooperating so I was able to do a few short intervals (i.e. like run for 1 min), overall I was outside for 44 min.  I love being outside, even when its so hot that it makes you sweaty and gross.  I just like being in the sun, and I like taking walks.  I like running even more but my body wont allow me to do that yet!

Needed to fuel up before I left the house to see the chiropractor again and do some errands.  I have a lot of black beans I need to use.  Why do I have a lot of black beans?  Well, I was going to use them in a recipe but didn't start cooking them (they were dry beans) in time so they were not ready - thus I have like a whole lb of cooked black beans in the fridge!  So, I had the above creation which is an Alternative English Muffin (sugar free, gluten free, high fiber, only 100 calories for the whole thing!), 1 Breakstone's Live Active Cottage Cheese individual serving cup divided between the 1/2s, 1/2 c black beans (some of which could not fit on to the English muffin) and 10 cherry tomatoes.  I put salt and pepper on it and it was VERY good.  Off to the chiropractor I went.  He adjusted my hips, back, neck, my left foot and 1 toe!  Then I went to Target.  Let me say that when you are out of the country for over a year, places like Walmart and Target are exciting to go to!  I dint even really need too much, but I looked at EVERYTHING!!!  I tired on about 20 things at Target and was lucky enough that 3 items fit - I go some khaki capris, a turquoise skirt, and some pink shorts (the cheerleader style ones - at least that's what we call them - and they are for PJs and lounging around the house.)

Next I needed to go to WF (3rd day in a row - lesson learned, read recipes carefully and take notes so you don't have to go to the store 3 times) to get more lentils for dinner.  I was already hungry so I had some cucumber slices w/ jalapeno cilantro hummus.  God the lentils and some salsa and went home.  For lunch I had some baked veggies which included yellow squash, zucchini, red bell pepper, orange bell pepper, onion, asparagus and graffiti eggplant:

This is the graffiti eggplant, also called zebra eggplant or Sicilian eggplant, because it has those white "stripes" on the skin.  The mixed veggies were good - they were just chopped, placed in a cake pan, and misted w/ my Misto Spray (filled w/ EVOO of course) and then sprinkled with pepper and sea salt (right now I am using a red sea salt because it was pretty, but it tastes good too!)  Along with the veggies I had a baked chicken breast and some brown rice.

A snack later was also a first - Greek Yogurt:

Into this container I put 1/4 c grape nuts, some cinnamon and a sweet n' low - it was good!

For dinner I attemped a lentil salad.  I say attemped because it did not come out how it was on the TV show that I saw - even though I had a recipe.  Again, read your reciepe carefully because I did skip a step and didnt realize it until I was too far ahead.  One thing that messed me up was mom was in the kitchen and kept asking me questions "what is this for?" "what are you doing with that?" "is that going in here?" "are you sure you need this pan?" etc, etc - it was really causing me concentration issues!  Anyways here is the final product:

In this bowl is: Swiss chard (the green stuff), and the "yellow" stuff is - red lentils, corn, bell peppers, onions, carrots, cellerly, swiss chard ribs, and kale ribs cooked in chicken broth then drained.  At first it was kinda bland but I put a bit of salt and pepper and man it was good!  Then I thought it would be good with those black bean chips that I ate yesterday - so we tried it.  It was good that way.  Since the recipe feeds 6-8 people and we are only 3 people that eat like 4 or 5 (funny but true) we have a lot left over.  Ideas to use this are to put it in tortillas w/ the black beans or some left over hamburger from the beef roll ups, and to eat it again as dip w/ chips.  Do you have an ideas what we could use it for?  There is not much swiss chard left, mostly the lentil mix.  Along with dinner we had another first:

Golden Beets!!!  Sliced (this was quite difficult for some reason) and misted w/ EVOO and sprinkled w/ sea salt and pepper then baked.  Mmmmm - I'm not one for beets but these were good.  Tips for this - if you slice them thin they become crunchy and are better - it would be best done with a mandolin but we don't have one of those.

After dinner we went to JCP and Academy to try and find a new swim suit for mom - I needed new bottoms for mine also.  Success - she found one, and so did I.  That doesn't mean we are done shopping however ; )

We have a busy day planned again - at least I will have something to talk about next time!  

4 Days Sugar Free!!!!Biggest lesson learned so far - sugar is in everything - even things that say "sugar free."  Its kinda frustrating because I will see something and it says sugar free and then I look at the ingredients and its got honey or agave so I cant eat it.   But I am seeing that my blood sugar is much more stable over these past few days of not eating sugar and that is a good thing.  Usually when my blood sugar takes a dive I eat, eat, eat which only causes the cycle of rise and fall to occur again - and is definitely not good for the poundage!  So, here begins day 5 of no sugar...I'll let you know how it went soon enough! Have a great day.

Sugar Detox Day 3

Hey guys!  Apologies for not writing last night but I had a busy night!  Yesterday I saw a chiropractor for the first time - he adjusted my hips, pelvis, back and neck - anyways, long story short its a decent price and I figured that it was worth a shot; if I don't notice any thing worth while after a few visits I just wont go back.  After the Dr. I went searching for a massage place between Dr.'s office and next destination to get this knot out of my calf - I was unsuccessful in finding a place.  Went to Barns and Noble and spent WAY TOO MUCH on books and magazines.  I admit, I am addicted to magazines; I have subscriptions to Women's Health, Shape, Runners World, and Oxygen.  Also a gift subscription to Health, and every time a new issue is out I buy Clean Eating Magazine (subscription to follow as soon as I move to N.C.)  On top of that I buy other ones that catch my attention - some examples are Cooking Light, Women's Running, Natural Health, Fitness RX...see?  Addicted! 

Last night was water aerobics night with mom.  I went but my leg was hurting so I couldn't really do everything - I still got a workout though!  After class I made Pasta w/ sweet tomato basil pesto, green beans, and roasted tomatos. 

This is a picture of mom's plate - I didn't have the bread, and she didn't have the tomato's!

Dinner was good.  Then dad asked me if I wanted to go see Iron Man 2 with him, so we went at 910 and the movie lasted till 1123.  By the time we got home I was too tired to do anything but go straight to bed!

Yesterday's new food was black bean chips:

 They were pretty good - I ate them with cottage cheese, but they would be good with guacamole, salsa or hummus as well.  The taste reminded me of black beans (of course) and also re-fried beans. 

So I have made it through 3 days of the detox now.  Its not so hard if you make sure you always have a snack with you.  So, I take broccoli (raw), baby carrots, celery, cucumber, peanut butter, hummus, ETC ETC and that way I know I have something to eat when I get hungry (which is about every 3 hours - not b/c of the detox but that's just how my body works.)  I am thinking I can stretch out this detox longer than a week, but also I know that the longer I go the more tired/grump/moody I will get.  Primary Goal - 1 week; secondary goal - detox until its time to go on the cruise (6 June.)

Today's going to be busy - so I should have plenty to talk about tonight.  Plus, I'm making a hot lentil "salad" for dinner! Have a great day!

Sugar Detox Day 2

Wow, today was a really long day.  I seriously just sat in here with my dad on the phone with tech support for like 2 hrs trying to fix this internet - come to find out he doesn't have his wireless routers plugged into the modem - I told him and the lady both I am done with it for now, I don't even care that much to have the wireless working anymore. 

Was pretty sore still when I woke up so decided not to do anything to crazy today.  Went to 1/2 price books and go The Green Food Bible; I'll let you know how it is when I am done with it.  Visited WF again because I realized I needed more swiss chard for the recipe I want to make.

Did a lot of stuff in the kitchen today.  Chopped/cut up a lot of veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber and celery for snacks.  Did even more for the cooking.

Homemade Guac to go w/ dinner and for lunch tomorrow

Dinner was spicy beef roll ups w/ Brussels spouts and broccoli - tasted great but the picture didn't look good at all!  After dinner made some homemade protein bars:

Had one right before the internet madness began; it was yummy.  So, now I am completely worn out - I'm going to bed.  Good night!

Sugar Detox Day 1

Hi everyone! I ment to post last night but I was just way to tired (jet lag.) I went to sprint, Whole Foods and Walmart yesterday. Then I went to water aerobics with mom and cooked chicken florentine for dinner. I made it the whole day without sugar - go me!

Yesterday while doing all my grocery shopping I realized how easy it could be for someone with dietary restrictions (no sugar, no carbs, etc) to fall into a nutritional rut. It seemed like everytime a meal idea came to me it was pasta or meat or cheese. I challenge you to look at a label of some random food that you eat and see the sugar content. Sugar is really in EVERYTHING - even those things that say "sugar free" have sugar in them. This detox requires I dont eat any sugar - so normally when people elminate sugar they still use things like agave nectar, honey, molasses, maple syrup, etc - I cannot eat any of those things so finding things to eat that are not meat, cheese, pasta, or veggies is SUPER HARD.

I also came to the conclusion if I dont want to go crazy this week I need to eat some processed foods (like crackers) so that I can have variety. I am not however eating any processed foods that contain un-natural ingreditents; so everything in the crackers is easy to pronounce and the ingredient list is not very long. Its quite hard to eliminate fruit - I absolutely cannot wait until this sugar detox is over and I can eat it again. I'm not even sure if I will stay within the limits of fructose recommended in The Sugar Fix (which is 25-35g per day.) Today I am going to look for a book called Sugarrettes; it compares sugar to ciggarette addicition and I'm very interested to see what it has to say.

So here is a list of all the interesting things I got yesterday:
1. Fresh ground peanut, almond and cashew butters - I already knew I liked the first two so I just got a teeny bit of the cashew butter. I tried it on a piece of toast and it was very tasty.

2. Jalapeno hummus and sundried tomato hummus - Had the first one as a snack with raw brocolli and some crackers.

3. Golden beeets - I have never tired these!

4. Heirloom tomatoes (1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow) - they look sooo good, I cannot wait to make them.

5. a 16oz "tub" of spinach - I had no idea they sold spinach in this size of a container & surprisingly we ate almost all of it in one day (I sautaed a bit for lunch, used some for the green monster, and used some more for the chicken florentine.)

6. Yogi Berry Detox Tea - I got it for the "detox" but it tastes pretty good.

7. Chia seeds - got these for the green monster; did some reserach on the seeds and you can eat them as seeds, grind them up like flax, or mix in water or juice - but there is no specified way to eat them it depends on what you want to do. Also you can cook them and it wont changed the nutritional content. They supposidly do the following: Help weight loss by preventing some of the food you eat from being absorbed, reducing cravings, reducing blood pressure, aid in hydration, good source of omega-3 to reduce inflamation and help control blood sugar. Additionally they contain good amounts of fiber and protein.

8. Got some sample packets of Amazing Grass for the green monsters - the containers are like 20$ so I didnt want to make that investment without sampling it first!

9. Red Hot Gouda and Jalapeno Cheddar cheese - I found tiny pieces of these cheeses and they looked good so I figured why not test them out. I've never had Gouda so it will be a new experience which is one of my goals for the rest of the year - to keep trying new things!

10. I got the following from the bulk bins at WF: black beans, Quinoa, red lentils (a new food for me), raw almonds, and amarath (another new food for me!)

11. Swiss Chard - this is for a "lentil salad" I saw on Emeril Green

12. Almond Milk - for the green monsters

13. Black Bean Chips

Most of the rest of the things I got were normal (carrots, celerly, etc) things. Going back today because I need more Swiss Chard and want to get baby carrots and raw brocolli for snacking. This weekend we are going to go to the Farmers Market and I am really looking forward to that because we should find some interesting stuff to make!

Ok, so enough food talk. I woke up this morning at 3am with a migraine (another reason to eat healthy, to hopefully prevent these from happening) and got up and took some Zomig. Went back to sleep till around 730 and decided it was gone enough for me to get up and function. When I stood up however I realized my leg was being disfunctional again! My calf is very tight and I've got the nerve pain/sensitivity on my thigh. The plan was to go to step aerobics or go for a walk but I've decided to take it easy today due to the leg. So, groceries, book store and hydration is the new plan. I know I said I would get pictures posted but I am waiting on someone else - so please forgive me! Dad says that he will get it fixed today (here is the issues - they have a wifi network at the house but its password protected and they dont know the password! And I can use their computer to blog but it wont pull up the correct format to post pictures with!) Ok, so I guess that is all for now. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Home Coming & Sugar Detox Starts

Hi guys! I'm home finally. Traveling was rough! I travled for aproximately 24hrs - add to that the couple of hours before hand I had to get ready and make the trip to the air port. Here are the highlights:

2 AM (Korea)- Wide awake, couldnt fall alseep so got up and started getting ready.

330 AM (Korea) - Super hungry, I have oatmeal w/ PB & J and 1/2 a banana w/ a veggie sausage (this is what I call Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Sausage Patties) for breakfast.

530 AM (Korea)- Finally time to go. 15 min car ride to Hotel Castle, then 1 hr 15 min bus ride to Incheon Air Port. Ate a PB&1/2 Banana Sandwich on the bus a 0545 cuz I was hungry again. I asked for an exit row seat since I frequently need to re-adjust my sitting position to keep my hip from locking out. They gave me one but it was a window seat and the exit door was VERY oddly shapped (I should have taken a picture but I didnt, sorry!) and therefore I was actually MORE cramped than usual. Walked through the air port looking for fresh fruit but couldnt find any so I settled on getting a subway sanwich (& a cookie) which I ate at about 8am (told you I would be extra hungry!!)

1000 AM (Korea) - Finally Borded the plane! About 1130 I had an Odwalla Bar Plane food was ok - Will edit this post and put pictures of it later!

This was a pretty good snack.

Plane meal #1 - No clue what that "dessert" was - I did not eat it, I did however mush it up to entertain myself.

Plane meal # 2 - That grey stuff is "chicken" lol...otherwise pretty good.

1230 PM (Atlanta) - So EXCITED to be back in the U.S. Had enough time to grab soup & salad at the TGIFridays. It was good (didnt get a picture.)

150 AM (Atlanta)- Boarded plane to DFW. Got stuck in the very back of a tiny plane next to a very nice man who was unfortunatley stuffed into his seat. I didnt care - I was going home!!!

316 PM (Dallas) - Finally HOME!!!!!! Realized when I go up to exit off the plane that this last flight had caused some swelling in my legs. Mom didnt cry which was good, we went home to drop off suitcaes. In the front yard were welcome home signs (pictures later!) and a lot of the neighbors had yellow ribbons on the trees for me!

We cleaned out the fridge and freezer. Let me explain a bit. My grandmother stays with my parents Monday-Friday to do insurance work in the Metroplex and often goes home on the weekends to Cooper, TX (the middle of nowhere!) Anyways, she LOVES to buy lots of things on sale at the store and then not eat them. She brings expired products, weird things no one else will eat, etc. into the house. Then, she doesnt eat them and the fresh stuff spoils and the processed stuff expires. Anyways, so we emptied half the fridge (everything we threw away was expired) and some random things out of the freezer to make room for the healthy stuff that I will buy later today.

We went to dinner at Cracker Barrell, which is one of my favorite resturants. Although you can eat very healthy there I choose not to since it was my last meal before the sugar detox! I had country fried steak with green beans, fried okra (which is akin to sin because of the "fried" part but I decided to do it anyways) and mashed potatoes. It was a great tasting meal. By this point my legs were hurting really bad because of the swelling, so we just went back home. I organized my stuff - which is a lot of stuff because I had been ordering things online and had them delivered here, and I sent back a box as well, and I had left 3 tupperwear bins (large ones too!) last year. Anywyas, organized that stuff and went to bed!

So, here we are today! Got up at 6ish when mom was getting ready for work. I'm trying to adapt to the time change ASAP. I made Oatmeal w/ flax and walnuts fro breakfast. Also got to try out a new tea flavor - CoConut Rum:

.It is the first green tea that I have enjoyed. It smells more like coconut than tastes like it but it is a good flavored tea. BTW unless am having tea at a resturant (which would be unsweet ice tea w/ a sweet n' low) then I drink the tea Hot w/ no sugar and sometime a squeeze of lemon (if the tea is unflavored.)

Today I've got a lot to do - I wont tell you all of it because then what will I blot about tonight? But, I am starting the sugar detox today, so NO SUGAR FOR ME!!! "See" you later tonight!

Last Day In Korea

Not much going on today - it was rainy all day just like yesterday. I am feeling much better & mostly recovered from the sugar hangover! I cleaned the room one last time, I packed some more, and I thew some things away too. I hope I am able to go to sleep tonight - I am so excited about returning home! Tonight I will pack the computer up so considering I will be traveling for about an entire day it will probably be a bit before I blog again. Don't worry though, I will take lots of pictures and tell you all about the adventures!

I have packed the following snacks for traveling: PB&J Sandwich, PB&Banana Sandwich, 2 Odwalla Bars, Almonds, Crackers, Tuna fish Lunch Kit. I am sure I will also pick up some fruit (pineapple!) in the airport and hate to admit it but probably a pastry and/or chocolate. My body really hates it when my schedule is off, esp. when I have to wake up super early - the result is always extreme hunger, so even though I have snacks I will probably eat them all and want more!

Looking at recipes online today, trying to find something for Memorial Day, I wonder how am I ever going to get through this sugar detox. We are going to make hamburgers (I found a homemade ketchup recipe today that I am going to try - store bought ketchup's tend to have added sugar) but I also want to make a healthy dessert option. I want strawberries so bad! Mom did mention that Walmart has a good sugar free angle food cake, so that's probably going to be what I go with. Ill just have to take it one day at a time I suppose. Well, that's all from Korea, next time I "see" you I'll be stateside in the DFW Metroplex and lovin life for sure.

Sugar is the Devil

Within the last few weeks I have drastically cut my in take of sugar - namely processed sugar as I was still allowing myself to eat fruit on a daily basis. Then I read The Sugar Fix by Richard J. Johnson, MD, and realized that eating 4 or more fruits a day was still too much sugar (in this book's opinion at least.) The book recommends a sugar detox of no sugar (no fruit at all!) for 2 whole weeks. Sounds like a good experiment to me; what harm could it do? It might possibly be good for me as well. In contrast to the excited "do it, do it" voice I was hearing in my head was the one telling me that I had a very limited food supply to last me the next week and a good majority of that food supply was fruits! So, I settled on eating fruit until return to the U.S. and then beginning a sugar detox (most likely only week long instead of two.)

Well sometimes even the best intentions are not enough! Wednesday I woke up with ZERO energy. I had to drive my boss to the air port which was a 2 hour drive each way. I knew I wouldn't have the energy to do it. I desperately wanted a Diet Dr. Pepper (which I had not had in a VERY long time), but here in Korea our choices are VERY limited. I ended up choosing a regular Dr. Pepper and some Weight Watchers CoConut candy - Sugar + Sugar! Well I was slightly upset with myself for such a bad choice but decided to start over anew the next day.

Thursday brought its own challenges. I learned at 1400 hrs (2pm for you non-military people out there!) that the travel office would be closed on Friday and therefore Thursday was my last chance to pick up my ticket for Monday morning. Panic set it! I immediately ran to get keys to our truck (we don't have our own vehicles here in Korea, but luckily I am in a section at work that has a truck for business purposes!) I got the keys and drove like a mad woman to the travel office which is an hour away on a good day. I made it just in time, picked up my ticket and realized I needed a snack. In my rush to get down there I had not brought a snack so I got one at the PX (post exchange) - another bad choice on my part, I got peanut M&Ms. I rationalized that one little sugary thing a day would not hurt.

Friday was my last out processing appointment so I could be done with the paperwork to leave Korea. My friend and I decided to eat lunch at a res truant that was nearby. It was a salad buffet with shrimp and baked fish available. It was so good. I ate a bit more than I should but was perfectly fine with that! A few hours later I got a call from a co-worker inviting me to go out with him and two other people who had just got here to Korea - they wanted to go explore the city that is one train stop away. Better than being bored alone in my room, so I said yes. We walked around and decided to try out a random Korean Restaurant that we noticed had some English on the menu. We all agreed that spicy was fine, so we ordered spicy chicken with rice. The food was so spicy it burned our mouths - but it was so good we kept on eating it. The guys started to sweat - literally! - and one guys eyes were watering. Well little did I know the guys wanted to go find some bars and have some beers. It sounded innocent so I went along. I decided back in March, the 28th to be exact, that I was going to stop drinking alcohol because of how terrible it makes my body feel. I have not had a drink since then, but last night was difficult to be out with people who were drinking and be the only sober one. I ended up eating all the little bar snacks that they put out - pretzels, banana chips, corn chips, peanuts w/ peanut brittle pieces in it - SUGAR! and I didn't drink enough water either. A few hours after dinner they still wanted to walk around and drink - I gave in to a craving and got an ice cream cone - sugar again. Finally got them to agree to head home at around 1030 (which sadly is the latest I had stayed out since the decision to not drink had been made!). Upon arriving home I had a pasty with more sugar. Not too happy with myself I said I would start anew on Saturday morning.

Well, here we are on Saturday. I woke up in such pain I could hardly convince myself to get out of bed. Every single part of my body was hurting. Why? I really don't know for sure, but my best guess is all that sugar! I didn't do anything to physically demanding yesterday so I am not sore from working out. I did however overdose my system with sugar after going a few weeks with relatively low amounts of sugar. So, am I re-thinking that sugar detox? Of course. I fly home to the U.S. on Monday so I am starting that detox on Tuesday or Wednesday. I still might not do two whole weeks, but I think I will know after 4 or 5 days if its worth it to keep going. I am going on a cruise on the 6th of June, so if I started on the 25th of May I could fit in 12 detox days before we set sail. I know I am going to want to eat fruit on the cruise to help me stay away from all the much worse selections that will be available.

Well my friends that is all for now. Today my plan is to drink a lot of water and tea to help my body re-balance after yesterday. Hopefully the pain will go away!

All about me

Hello there! I've really been reading a lot of food related blogs lately because it is something that interests me. So, I thought to myself, why not do your own food blog? After thinking about it, and even creating a blogger account, I thought perhaps it would be better to include other areas of me as well, but I have no idea what to name the blog.

With that being said, let me introduce myself: I am 28 years old and currently on Active Duty with the United States Army. I am from the great state of Texas but live wherever the Army sends me. I was a vegetarian for 5 years before joining the Army; I was under the impression that I would be unable to maintain that lifestyle in Basic Training so I voluntarily began eating meat again a few weeks before training started. I have struggled with self esteem, food choices, weight loss, exercise/physical fitness, etc since high school (just as a reference my weight topped out at 217.75lbs my junior year.) It’s a long story so let’s cut to the last year just to get you familiar with the current stuff.

Last year I moved to Korea with my unit. Upon arriving in Korea I went through a really bad breakup. It took me a good 6 months to function normally after the breakup, and sometimes I still have issues about it after almost an entire year. This really impacted my self-esteem and body image because he used my weight as an excuse to break up with me (which I know was just an excuse and I shouldn’t have taken it to heart, but its hard to do when someone you care about says that what you hate about yourself is what the hate about you too.) Anyways, that is what started off my year in Korea but a lot more has happened.

After struggling with a nagging injury for about 8 months an orthopedic specialist finally diagnosed me with Hip Femoral Acetabular Impingement. What is that? Well that means that the ball and socket of my hip joint did not fit together properly and that is why I was having so much pain in my hip and leg. I was diagnosed in July/Aug and underwent surgery on Nov 19th. During the surgery they shaved down the ball and socket to make it fit together and screwed in the soft tissue that goes between the two. In order to do this they had to cut my hip flexor and move over a nerve. The surgery went very well in that my hip no longer hurts like it used to; pre-surgery I could hardly even walk 1/4 mile without pain. Sadly though, it’s been a full 6 months and I am still having other issues. I have nerve damage - sometimes my leg (from hip to knee) is hyper sensitive and anything that touches it hurts - sometimes it goes numb. Additionally, I am still not very strong where they cut the hip flexor - that muscle gives out very quickly and limits a lot of the exercise that I do. Another problem I am having is that I have a very temperamental sciatic nerve which often limits the physical activity I can do.

Now, here we are in the present day. I have been eating healthy and working out to my max ability for over a month now and have gained weight (last time I weighed I was 160lbs.) I am completely frustrated with my low self esteem and body image and feel that it’s ridiculous to do so much work for no return. I’ve been reading about other people’s struggles lately. Also over the past few months I have been researching clean eating (eating all non-processed foods.) I am set to return to the U.S. on the 24^th and I could not be more excited. I have decided that I am done with counting calories I eat, or calories I burn. I am going to eat good portion sizes and healthy choices. I am going to try to be more mindful of my eating and not over eat. I am going to try to make exercise fun and not just a requirement because I am afraid of gaining weight. I have shipped all my belongings (excluding my luggage of course!) so I no longer have a scale. So, at least for a while I will not be able to weigh myself.

When I get home I want to concentrate on really incorporating more clean foods – more natural foods that are not processed. I want to learn new recipes and try things I have never tried before. I am very excited about all of the possibilities. I think it will be a great learning experience and that it will improve my health a lot as well.

My initial idea was to write about my experiences with the new foods, and how the journey is going. Then I thought I am going to go through a lot in the next year (finish my art portfolio (I am in artists!), taking the GRE, applying for Grad school, etc.) So, why not include those things as well? Ravenous Rae is the name of the blog for now because I was concentrating on food – and anyone who knows me knows I love to eat and I eat a lot so ravenous is pretty fitting. However, if you have any clever ideas for names I would love to hear them!!!