Posted by Tigerlilly :: 8:54 AM :: 0 Comments

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

• Find out where you can buy organic produce. Completed. I have several options available to me - the Health Hut is just 5 minutes from my house and carries organic and local produce (and everything else you'd imagine a health food store would have). At work, I can go to Outpost, Whole Foods, or Trader Joes.
• Stop using electric blankets, and remove electric clock radios from the immediate vicinity of your bed. This is because of the harmful electromagnetic pollution. Completed. Moving the alarm clock is great ... now I'll have to actually get up out of bed to hit the snooze button!
• Make a conscious effort to eat an extra serving of fruits and vegetables with at least one meal this week. Completed!
• Eat fish at least twice this week. In progress.
• Replace at least one serving of meat with a soy food of your choice. In Progress.
• With lunch or your largest meal take 400 to 800 IU of vitamin E and 200 to 300 micrograms of selenium. In progress.
• Increase your daily walk to twenty minutes. If you do other aerobic exercise, consider cutting it back to two or three days, substituting an aerobic walk on the other days. Cut back on aerobic exercise, seriously? No problem! LOL!
• Do some simple stretching to improve your flexibility. In progress via yoga and pilates DVDs.
• Add 3rd breathing exercise to daily routine. In progress
• Ask friends and bookstore clerks about inspirational books they recommend. Make a list of some you would like to read in the areas of spirituality, self-help, poetry, biography, or any other category, and select one that you will begin this week. Okay friends, I wanna hear from you on this one!!
• Buy more flowers. Completed, thanks to M and K for Valentine's Day! Oh, and Dana too! :)

Dr. Weil has a very gentle approach so far, and I'm really enjoying it. The hardest part would be remembering to take the supplements/vitamins, but I've got that conquered - I bought 3 of those weekly pill organizers in different colors. One for am/breakfast, one for noon/lunch, and one for dinner/evening. I'm keeping the noon one in my purse so I always have it at work, and it seems to be working so far. I just open the compartment for whatever day it is, and whatever time it is, and I'm good to go!

My doctor appointment today went really well. I really like Dr. Kim, everything she said made so much sense. And it's awesome to know that we're working on the whole picture, not just symptoms like my conventional doctor. It was so eye-opening to see how everything is inter-related and affects each other, just like a dominos.

I've got a lot of change in front of me. The past 2 weeks with Dr. Weil really set a good foundation for the changes Dr. Kim has set before me, but it's great that both Dr. Weil and Dr. Kim's plans are combinable (is that a word?) and I can do it concurrently.

The three major symptoms we are working on are my high blood pressure, GERD, and fatty liver. Dr. Kim has put me on a therapeutic diet, which is a low-carbohydrate, moderate-protein, and moderate-fat diet focused on real foods. I have to follow this diet for at least 2 - 3 months to re-establish a normal hormone balance, including insulin sensitivity.

Sidebar - this reminds me - I'm actually becoming insulin resistant, which is a step away from having diabetes! And I would be the 4th generation on my mother's side to have diabetes. This was a big shock and has made me even more determined to make healthy changes!

Back to the therapeutic diet ... basically the things I am to avoid are:

• all animal milk, cheese
• potatoes
• processed foods
• all caffeinated teas, coffee
• all wheat, corn products
• grain-fed beef, pork
• fried foods
• alcohol
• commerical eggs
• peanuts/peanut butter
• all dried fruits
• sweeteners

Some of the other changes I'm making are ...

• Adding 1-2tsp of organic apple cider vinegar to 6-8 ounces of water and drink it 15-30 minutes before each meal. I'm going to be doing this as a sort of tea - hot water with a bit of lemon for some sweetness.
• Drink a breakfast protein smoothie every morning. Add 1/2 tsp probiotic powder to the smoothie daily. From Day 1 of TOM to Day 14, add 2 Tbsp of fresh ground organic flax seeds, and from Day 15 to TOM, add 2 Tbsp sesame/sunflower seeds to the smoothie. Dr. Kim suggested I buy the flax/sesame/sunflower seeds in bulk, and grind it fresh daily in a coffee grinder. I did a bit of shopping after work and have everything ready for tomorrow morning!
• Drink mostly water for the first 6 weeks of my treatment. I must drink at least 64 ounces of water per day.
• End my shower with a cool water spray, starting with the extremities and finishing with my lower back. This helps with circulation, and is a simple form of hydrotherapy. Dr. Kim suggested going as hot as I can then take it as cold as I can for at least 15 - 30 seconds. Yikes!!
• Every night before bed, do dry skin brushing with a loofah sponge. This also helps stimulate circulation, this is done on very dry skin, with short, very light, frequent strokes toward the heart for 45-60 seconds.
• Oooohhh, this one will scare you ... Castor Oil Packs. But it's not what you think! I need to take a piece of flannel and put castor oil on it, then place it on my abdomen, covered by another towel, and a hot pad, and let it sit for 45 minutes. While I'm basically immobilized, I need to do breathing exercises and relaxation therapy during the 45 minutes. I'm also supposed to alternate the pack between my abdomen and liver every other day. Dr. Kim said this sounds weird, but it really works to help heal my digestive system, plus I'm relaxing at the same time. Heck, as long as I don't have to actually drink the castor oil, I'm all good!
• I must do 30 minutes on the elliptical every day.
• I have to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Every hour of sleep before midnight is worth 2 hours after midnight. This will be a little hard, but I'm going to aim for bedtime by 9 (except for LOST on Wednesdays) and wake up at 5:30pm. This will be rough on the weekends!
• This is the best one!! Do something FUN every day! Laughter is essential for stress management and a healthy heart!

So, I bet after reading all this, it sounds like a lot! I agree with you! The great thing is that Dr. Kim said I'm not expected to do everything all at once, and can implement changes gradually if I want. Of course being the person I am, I'm jumping right in. Again, it's easier because of the past 2 weeks with Dr. Weil, but I just don't want to waste any more time, ya know?

Dangnabbit! It's 8:59, gotta go to bed! I hope everything has a great day! I'll be visiting blogs tomorrow morning! Woohoooo!!

Labels: February Challenge, Michelle

Posted by Michelle @ The 2007 Challenge :: 7:56 PM :: 3 Comments

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Wednesday, February 14, 2007

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

I wanted to wish all my fellow challengers a "Happy Valentines Day", I hope you all get to spend some time with your loved one and are spoilt today.

My husband is taking me out for a nice meal tonight but it is a set menu which includes desert, I don't know if I will be able to resist desert! Is anyone else in the same predicament as me? Is anyone thinking of taking an evening off because of Valentines day?

Anyway I'd like to update you on my February Challenge which is to exercise 3 times a week!

It is only Wednesday and I have hit my target for this week already. YIPPPEEE Joining the Health Club has been a help as I want to get my money's worth out of it and need to go 3 times a week for it to pay for itself. I feel motivated and it isn't a chore going any more. I know I only swim but honestly I am not fit enough to go to the gym and go on the treadmill, bike etc - I would have to give up after 5 minutes and don't want to get disheartened. Hopefully when I lose more weight I will have more confidence and am a bit fitter I will hit the gym but until then I plan on sticking to my swimming/walking regime!

So glad to hear everyone is doing so well! What would we do without each other to spur each other on? I know I would have given up long before now so THANK YOU to everyone for supporting me - hope I have returned the favour!

Lets keep it up guys! Have a wonderful Valentines Day.

Labels: February Challenge, Joy

Posted by JOY :: 2:47 AM :: 1 Comments

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Monday, February 12, 2007

February Challenge - Day 12 for Michelle

Egads ... I can't believe we're almost halfway through the month!!!

I've been in a bit of a funk lately, ever since I decided not to pursue my Biggest Loser Season 4 auditions, and really wanna just kick myself in the butt for letting myself sink into a low period. I know, everyone is entitled to feeling down every now and again, but I've wasted 12 days of doing nothing. I think Morgan or Cory blogged about this last month ... how the way you can tell if someone is going to succeed is not how they are when they're accomplishing goals, but how they behave when faced with a plateau or down period or bad mood or challenge, etc .... a true winner will just stick their head down and keep on going. Me on the other hand, I stopped full in my tracks and wasted time feeling sorry for myself. What a loser, eh?

So, I'm back, whether I want to or not, I'm back and I'm going to give it 100%. I'm officially in Week 2 of Dr. Weil's 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. Now there's one bright shiny moment of goodness during my weeklong pity party - I've been following his plan and sticking to my goal of following his program.

Week 2 brought the following changes into my lifestyle:

• Test my drinking/tap water and research a water-purifying system for my home. Completed, but saving $$ to implement the system in my home. I have a private well, and the results came back very good, everything was in normal range. I was told that my water is actually better than the city water in my town.
• Continue to eat fish once a week and broccoli twice. Completed
• Increase my consumption of whole grains, and try a new food item made from soybeans. Completed - this is something that I've already been working on, but am making an effort to do more.
• Buy some Japanese or Chinese green tea, and substitute it for some or all of my coffee/soda/caffienated beverages. Again, already completed/something I already do.
• Increase my daily walk to fifteen minutes. I'm completely slacking here, will do better!
• Visit a park or other favorite spot in nature. Spend as much time as you can there, doing nothing in particular, just feeling the energy of the place. Not completed, it's been colder than heck here, not exactly good "park" weather. But I will try to figure someplace indoors that I can do this.
• Try a one-day "news fast". Do not read, watch, or listen to any news for a day. Not completed, I'm a news junkie and am reading the news on the net all day long. Will attempt to do this tomorrow!
• Continue with Breath Observation for five minutes a day and add a second breathing exercise. In progress, this is one that I really like, reminds me of my self-hypnosis, and I really like meditating/relaxing this way.
• Start taking one capsule a day of mixed carotenes (25,000 IU of beta-carotene with related compounds including alpha-cartoene, lutein, and lycopene) with breakfast. Completed/in progress.

The changes Dr. Weil's has suggested so far have been fairly easy to accomplish and integrate into my lifestyle. I've made an appointment with a naturopathic doctor for Thursday, and hope she can give me further guidance and support to my more holistic and organic lifestyle. I particuarly hope she can help me to heal my "fatty liver", and detox all the processed junk and toxins from my body.

In any case, I'm happy to be back and am putting a stop to my pity party immediately! I can't wait to catch up on all your blogs and see how you're doing :)

Labels: February Challenge, Michelle

Posted by Michelle @ The 2007 Challenge :: 6:29 PM :: 3 Comments

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--------------------oOo-------------------- Laptop Lunchbox

Hey y'all,

Some have already stumbled across my newest posting, but the laptop lunchbox came in this weekend and was put to its first Paige test. I did a quick review for those interested.

Also, I got the 'Laptop Lunch Times', their online newsletter and they mention that prices of the lunch system will be going up soon, so now might be a time to get for the cheaper price.

Labels: February Challenge, Paige

Posted by Paige :: 12:26 PM :: 0 Comments

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--------------------oOo-------------------- Laptop Lunchbox

Hey y'all,

Some have already stumbled across my newest posting, but the laptop lunchbox came in this weekend and was put to its first Paige test. I did a quick review for those interested.

Also, I got the 'Laptop Lunch Times', their online newsletter and they mention that prices of the lunch system will be going up soon, so now might be a time to get for the cheaper price.

Labels: February Challenge, Paige

Posted by Paige :: 12:26 PM :: 0 Comments

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--------------------oOo-------------------- UP & AT IT!

Hi everyone,

As some of you know I haven't been doing too brilliant with my exercise challenge for February! I came up with excuse after excuse but this morning I thought right here we go - start of a new week!

We got our membership through for the Health Club on Thursday but I made excuses not to go at the weekend - today was a different story!

I got up early this morning and hit the swimming pool at the Health Club - I am useless at exercising and swimming is really the only exercise I enjoy! I was nervous going in, wondering if everyone would be looking at me and my bulges but thank goodness there was hardly anyone there - I think I saw 3 other people in total which was great!

I swam for 45 minutes before getting out and am SO proud of myself for getting up and doing this and do you know something else - I FEEL GREAT!

Overall I feel as though I have lost weight, some people are starting to notice now and comment which is great and spurs me on! I do feel heaps better and have more energy! I am determined to keep it up!

By the way is anyone doing the CORE diet with Weightwatchers? I would be interested in your views! I started last week but am too embarrassed to go to the class so have borrowed the literature. Wondering if anyone else is doing this diet?

Keep it up everyone!

Labels: February Challenge, Joy

Posted by JOY :: 3:11 AM :: 1 Comments

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Sunday, February 11, 2007

New addiction...

I have found a new addiction! Exercise! OMG.... Yeah.. I'm a doofus. I feel so energized. I don't know why I haven't done it like this before. I woke up this morning and all day I've felt kinda tired. Well, I decided on the way home, that I was going to get on the elliptical machine again. I got on it the other day and was only able to stay on it for about 10 minutes before I was in great pain. My legs have been sore, but I didn't want to wait til the soreness went away because it would be just as hard the next time. So I pulled on my shorts, grabbed a bottle of H20 and went to it. I put in a movie (Sum of all Fears with Ben Affleck (HOT!) ). I thought to myself I would go 10 minutes and let that be it. NO! It got to 10 minutes. 'YOU CAN DO 15!' I told myself. It got to 15 minutes. 'DO 20!' So I went to 20. Then I said I'd do 1/2 mile. NO! 'GO FARTHER!' So I did. 25 mintues. 'GO!' .8 miles... 'YOU GO GIRL!' I wasn't really paying attention to the movie by this point. I kept pushing and pushing. I was almost at a mile. I was cheering myself on. "You can do it!" "GO GO!" LOL. I wasn't actually having fun. So I did 1.01 miles. Burned 278 Calories and 48 Carbs in something like 32 minutes. Yeah I know that 1.01 miles in 32 minutes is sad, but hey, don't ruin my victory. I got off and my legs were feeling a little weird so I did a little jog in place to get my legs to feeling right. Then I just went ahead and walked outside and walked around the house twice. I feel so great!! My mom has been telling my to exercise and everyone else has to. So yeah... I've found my cure for my tiredness. I think I could get addicted to this feeling. I know how some people can make exercise an unhealthy addiction, but I don't think I'll have that problem. So anyway.. have a great day!!

Labels: February Challenge, Keri

Posted by Keri :: 4:05 PM :: 1 Comments

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--------------------oOo-------------------- Day 11

So... Today is the 11th day that I have not had any sodas. I think this may be the longest I've ever went without them. It's all good though. Instead of drinking a mountain dew or pepsi with breakfast, I enjoy a glass of milk or orange juice. I think coming off the caffine has had a somewhat bad effect but in the long run I think it will be good.

Labels: February Challenge, Keri

Posted by Keri :: 8:56 AM :: 0 Comments

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