20/126

Well, I feel like my little speed bump is in the rear view mirror and I'm back in the groove. This morning I got up and straight on the stationary bike for 20 mins HIIT. I did 10.6kms which was 0.6kms more than the last two sessions. I'm going to set a habit of exercising first thing. I think it's a great way to set myself up for the day and also... well, then it's done and I don't have it hanging in mid-air as something I have to make time for later.

Eating today involved quite a bit of venison, which is a beneficial food for Type O's. Yesterday I crock-potted a couple of venison shanks but we didn't eat them because we were invited to my Grandmas for takeaways. So, that accounts for the unusual first two meals.

Firstly, a picture of yesterdays smoothie. I forgot to blog it, in my late-night fuzzy brained state.

Breakfast today, post cardio, was some venison slices on essene bread.

Lunch was some chopped up venison with lots of steamed veges and a raw carrot. I drizzled a tsp of olive oil on this, it was ok. Average.

Mid-afternoon I was very snacky and had an apple, a raw carrot and some nut butter on essene bread. I made the stunning discovery that walnut butter is about 700 calories per 100grams. That's way more than chocolate and more than any other nut butter I've ever encountered. However, as I no longer eat it by the tablespoon (what? who hasn't done that at some stage?), I think I'm ok. Walnuts are super-beneficial on Blood Type Diet for Arthritis. They are also a nut that contains some Omega 3 fatty acids.

Um, I had some visitors late afternoon and 'may' have had an espresso and 25g chocolate. Possibly... but there is no photo to prove it, therefore it's just heresay.

I then made a pilgrimage to the health food shop for some more essene bread, but they were OUT (arrrgh!). I did get some more raw chocolate though and a bottle of organic wine for tonight.

As this was the only bottle that fell even remotely close to my price range, I was worried that it might be undrinkable crap, but it wasn't. It was not a 'big red', but it was what I'd call spirited and spicy. It was certainly popular with the other dinner guests. I know, I know, that's twice that I've broken my 'no drinking' rule. Pfft. I don't even know what to say.

The meal turned out to be roast pork (an 'avoid') and various roast veges, most of which were either cooked in butter or oil. I just made the best choices possible. It was really nice that, because they know I am on a knightshade-free diet, they cooked the potatoes separately from the other roast veges. Aw... group hug.

Tomorrow is the last day before my first weigh in, so I'll try to be perfect ;) It will be very interesting to see how my weight is behaving. I don't feel any thinner, however, as my jeans shrunk in the wash, it's a bit hard to be sure about it! I'm just glad to be at day 21, that's the hardest part done!

19/126

Whoops, look at the time! As I'm trying to get more sleep in, I'll make this a summary of the day.

Training: Upper body wii-fit workout and yoga

Eating:
1. Green omlette with lots of other veges - pumpkin, mushroom..
2. Smoothie made with Soy Protein Isolate, a banana and agave syrup
3. Sardines on essene bread with nut butter, a raw carrot
4. I was invited to my Grandmas place for a dinner that consisted of takeaways from the Chinese shop across the road. I ordered an egg fu yung, which at least consisted of protein and veges. It did have pork in it, which an avoid, and the salt level must have been horrendous, but it was the best choice. I added a salad and tried to keep the portion quite small. I think I did ok.

18/126

Yesterday I took a day off from study, work, blog, everything, just to relax and try and get my brain back. The main problem is that when I get stressed, I suffer insomnia. After a few nights of that I'm pretty useless and can't handle much. Today I'm much better and planning on getting to bed at a reasonable hour. Hopefully, with a bit of pre-bed relaxation, I'll be able to sleep!

Eating yesterday was fine, no problem. I didn't record it but it was a fully compliant BTD day. I've also just been reading 'The Paleolithic Diet' which has reminded me to eat far more veges. It's pretty easy really - avoid dairy, grains and starchy veges as much as possible. Eat lean proteins and lots of non-starchy veges and fruit.

Today I started with a green omlette (no feta) for breakfast. Then, a few hours later, I 'found myself' at Theobroma where I ordered a dark hot chocolate made with soy milk. That was at about 1pm so you could say it was lunch ;-/ About 4pm I had some sardines on essene bread, an apple and a raw carrot.

Dinner was highly vegelicious, as you can see in the pic. It's mostly grilled veges. There's also some lean grilled beef in there somewhere. After dinner I had a fig and a banana. Calories were at 1000 before dinner, so the day will be somewhere in the 1600-1800 calorie mark. I've had a think about calorie counting and decided that I really need to take a more relaxed approach to it, maybe not even 'do numbers' every day. The reason is that more than one overeating episode has been triggered off by feeling deprived because I was hungry but was getting very close to my calorie limit for the day. Also, I've noticed that if I accidentally undereat because I wasn't ravenous that day, then I feel I should eat more to get closer to my calorie goal. I'd like to be a little less aware of the 'daily countdown' to the zero point. It's a work in progress, but my goal is to eventually have zero anxiety about eating or not eating. It's only food, no need to get crazy.

16/126 NCR

Bleh.. I think I'll just say that today started well, with an early morning and HIIT cardio on the bike, but ended kind of badly with an overindulgence in wine and essene bread - it may be healthy but it's still quite calorie dense. On the whole though, I feel like I'm moving toward where I want to be. I have not had a 5000 calorie mega-binge in ages and I'm not eating to the point of feeling ill or eating junk. It's all improvement. That having been said, I will die of surprise if I show a weightloss at the three week mark. I guess it all depends on how the next five days go!

In thinking about the last few days, it's clear that I've been under massive stress. Without going into it too deeply there has been a lot of emotion flying around regarding the liquidation of a family business and the associated loss of some family property. Also I decided to clean up my personal affairs by cutting a few business ties (financial) and this resulted in a highly abusive email from someone that I once was quite good friends with. As regards the family stuff, I've been getting it from all sides. In family situations I tend to be Switzerland, a neutral zone where everyone feels they can dump their high emotion without much consquence. Of course I love my family, but the influx of emotion and tension does take a toll, especially when it's a situation that I can't even do a single thing about - so I feel helpless. As regards the abusive email, people seem to percieve me as someone that won't be affected by something like that. I guess because I always handle it without becoming a mess, at least outwardly. I haven't been sleeping well either which does not do fabulous things for my appetite control.

So, I'm not entirely too sure what to do about my stress eating in these circumstances, but for now I'll just be aware of it and try to look after myself more adequately. Take action before I get to the state of completely overwhelmed and beside myself.

Foody pics for today:

Candied parnsips. Parsnips parboiled and then baked in a mix of agave syrup and olive oil. Mmm.

Dinner.

15/126

I started the day with a yoga and upper body session but half way through I was distracted by a phonecall from overseas regarding the aforementioned family crisis. All my zen and my daily plan kind of flew out the window, but I didn't crumble and dive into the rest of my organic chocolate.

Breakfast was a boiled egg on essene bread, which is my current favourite quick breakfast
At lunchtime I was rushing between bank and meeting but stopped by a kebab shop and got a salad with lamb and chicken. I managed to get them not to include anything tomatoey, but it did have cheese and hommous. Then I had a decaf, soy cappuccino. Not brilliant, but not a disaster either.
Mid afternoon I was feeling really snackish (is that a word?), so I grilled a lean lamb chop and boiled up some broccoli. I also had a fig and 2 squares of chocolate.

Dinner was my attempt to recreate a yummy salad I recently had at a restaurant. It's pumpkin cubes (baked to slight crispiness), grilled lamb, roasted pumpkin seeds and a little feta. I also added some herbed baked potato cubes and ciabatta bread to the knightshade and wheat eaters plates. They also got a whole lot more feta.

I think today was about 1800 calories. Not a bad effort for a crazy day.

14/126 - NCR*

I'm very sorry, but today I did not break out the foodcam. Today was one of those days where I did not quite get it together all day and then had a mad food craving and ate a couple of bowls of Oatibix in the mid afternoon. Then, not quite hungry for dinner, I snacked on pumpkin seeds and chocolate throughout the evening. It wasn't a great eating day, in fact, it was a fail, especially since the grain consumption was a bit excessive. At least I did not hit the alcohol or the caffeine, so not an 'E', maybe just a 'D' grade day, needs a lot of improvement.

It is probably no coincidence that my mad snacking co-occurred with some family stress that I got dragged into as peacekeeper. This interefered with my study time which made me feel all 'grrrrrr', and I just didn't handle the whole situation in a very self-empowering manner - still I've had 13 good days and I don't feel like it's going to be a big deal so.. no need to bleat on. Let's see how things work out in a week when I do my first weigh in! *sweaty palms*.

I did make two foodie discoveries today:

1. Essene bread. I'd been estimating my essene bread calories at 130-150 calories per 100g, based on various sources from around the internet, including the BTD Typebase. Today I got an email from Thompsons, that make the Essene Bread that I buy, answering my question about the nutritional values of the wheat and rye 'cob' loaves. I plonked their document on the server here. As you can see, I was out by more than 100 calories per 100g, which adds up to quite a bit over a day, maybe up to 300 calories, which definitely puts me into maintenance intake.

2. The Loving Earth raw, organic chocolate bars to which I am so lovingly devoted, are, shall we say 'generously proportioned' (you certainly wouldn't want to call them 'large' in these PC times). I weighed one. Don't ask me why I weighed it. I was just standing by the scales, bar in hand and put it on there, absentmindedly. Then I raised one eyebrow, unwrapped the bar, and weighed it again. I don't want to say it too loudly, in case the Loving Earth people get wind of it and mend their wickedly wonderful ways, but those bars are all about 20g overweight. That's FINE BY ME, except it does mean that each bar is about 120 calories more energetic than I had thought, and that was an alarming discovery.

Tomorrow is another upper body workout and a day of zen-like calm attention to my work and study activities. Ohmm.

*The NCR is a report that we use in compliance to indicate a Non-Conformance. It stands for 'Non-Conformance Report' and I'm going to use it for Non-Conforming days. The NCR pairs with a CAR or Corrective Action Report, which also seems relevant to keeping on track. Perhaps I'll fill one out next time I do a NC and submit it to management ;)

13/126

Lucky day 13!

1. Blueberry smoothie with rice protein and agave syrup. This was surely up there on the health scale but the grittiness of the rice protein didn't work out that well in a smoothie. It was drinkable and tasted nice but the texture.. I'm not so sure about the texture.


2. Lunch. A meat, brocolli and fava bean casserole-type thing with essene bread and an apple.


3. My mid afternoon snack. This was delish. A mix of raw chocolate, figs and pepitas (pumpkin kernels). I put it in a wine glass for atmosphere, seeing as my wine glasses are not experiencing any actual wine right now.

4. I was in the middle of constructing a rather ambitious dinner when the Programmer arrived home and reminded me that we had to go to the hospital to visit his mum, whom had shoulder reconstruction surgery today. So I carefully stowed my half prepared food in the fridge and we got curry on the way home. On account of nightshades, I got the creamy mango curry again, which, as I've already discussed is frighteningly high in calories and contains dairy. I had been voting for a kebab instead but we went in search of one only to find that all kebab shops are closed on a Monday. Curry it was.


Training happened:

Wii-fit
Squats - 3 x 45 bodyweight. For some reason I got a fabulous score of zero on my first set. Sometimes on wii-fit if you are not standing still when it is taking the initial centre of gravity measurement, things go awry. It's so lovely the way the trainer tells you gently that perhaps you're not ready for this difficult exercise but he will always 'be there' when you want to give it another try.

He's just always there for me, any time of the day or night. I feel he really understands me and relates to my needs. Who requires unaccommodating real friends?

Shoulderstand - yoga move which also works the abs quite well if you do it correctly
Bridge
Reverse crunch on ball. This was a non- wii-fit exercise. There are not that many good ab exercises on wii-fit, unless you want to do a bazillion jacknives. There are 'planks' which is a nice hard exercise, but today I was in the mood to really feel the ab burn).

Yoga moves
Crocodile twist
Downward dog
King of the Dance

12/126

More than half way through my first three weeks! Today I was feeling quite lazy, I was planning on a lower body workout, but just couldn't get to it. I decided instead to go for a jog to the DVD shop to return a movie. Sometimes exercise with a real purpose is easier to get motivated for. It's not exercising.. it's taking that DVD back.

Breakfast today was nut butter and cherry jam on essene bread. Cherries are one of my super beneficial foods for the type O diet. I use the St Dalfour jam that is sweetened with pear juice and is packed with actual, recognisable cherries. Fish oil and Glucosamine.

At lunchtime I was deep into the Food Code and didn't really want anything complicated so just threw some stuff on a plate. That's walnut butter on my apples, not some weird fungus.

Mid afternoon was more 'stuff on a plate' - figs, chocolate, essene bread. I'm not really getting points for originality today..

Dinner was braised beef, which is beef cooked in red wine, ginger and honey. Then I added some baked kumara and broccoli. It tasted a lot better than it looks. It's beautiful on the inside

11/126

I've more or less settled into a routine of four meals a day. Three meals at about 400 calories and 600 calories at dinner. That's just not difficult. I don't get toooo hungry between meals and I actually feel like I've eaten something when I do eat. Also, I'm not always thinking about food, as I was on the six mini-meals plan.

Today:

1. Leftover chicken on essene bread

2. Soy cappuccino, 2 squares chocolate (uh - was not decaf, mostly because I just forgot to ask)

3. Green omlette with 20g goat feta. The omlette had spinach, garlic and mushrooms in it. I sprinkled some turmeric in with the eggs.

4. Kumara and fish soup. This was delicious. I used cumin and turmeric as the spices along with a little sea salt with kelp. The technique is:

Cube and boil two large kumaras and a parsnip

Sautee the fish (about 200g) and a chopped up onion in olive oil

Let it all cool a bit then blend it in small batches, adding some cumin, turmeric, ginger powder and sea salt. Add water to bring it to the right consistency. My blender has a little valve on the top that can be loosened to allow steam to get out. You need to let the steam out somehow or you can get a scary and painful (and smelly) explosion.

Return it all to the pot for reheating.

Stir in some butter and soy sauce.

Butter is allowed 'infrequently' on the BTD, but I figured with all those awesome beneficial foods in there (ginger, turmeric, kumara, kelp, fish) I'd be fine. I've noticed that my taste for salt is reducing. I used to like salt on everything but lately I don't want it so much. Perhaps it really is true that the tastebuds return to liking a more natural flavour. I noticed last night that the chicken tasted naturally salty enough, even though everyone else was adding salt and condiments.

After dinner I had some more of that raw, organic chocolate. I think I'm going through an infatuation phase with it. *I *heart* my raw organic handmade chocolate from Australia*.

Calories: about 1700

10/126

This is officially yesterdays update, but I missed blogging last night because my mum came for dinner and, besides chatting on Skype to my sister for quite some time, she then exercised her terrible influence and fed me several glasses of red wine ;) Not too many, but at 1am when we finally finished up, my blogging mojo was M.I.A.

Yesterday I took some foody pics, a habit which I plan to keep up, and I trained:

Upper body Wii-fit training session:

You will notice some wii-fit exercises here which do require further explanation for non-wii-fit'ers. You can see videos of them here. Obviously, but adding dumbbells and so on, I am improvising beyond the original idea of the exercises.

3 sets each of

* 'Single leg extension' with bicep curl (5kg dumbbell)

* Pressups (I was supersetting these while my wii was doing it's between exercise faffing around). I don't like the pressup that is part of wii-fit because the board is not wide enough and it hurts my wrists.

* 'Sideways leg lift' with 45degree delt raise (5kg db)

* Reverse flye on the ball (2 x 4kg db's) - again supersetting

Yoga:

Palm tree

Sun salute

Half moon

Breakfast: Egg and walnut butter on essene bread

Lunch: Grilled fish on pumpkin and fava beans. Fava beans are a super beneficial food in the BTD for arthritis book. Luckily I don't hate them as much as I did when I was a child. And, 2 squares organic, raw chocolate.

Mid afternoon snack. I was rushing around madly and just threw a few things together. A cold boiled egg that I'd cooked in the morning, some figs, chocolate, a raw carrot. It all looks a bit odd there on the plate like that, but it was what I felt like eating.

Dinner was a roast chicken with kumara wedges, salad, green veges and several glasses of red wine. Starting today I'm having a little alcohol detox, probably a month. At least three weeks. This is more to do with the fact that even one glass of wine seems to drop my energy level the next day and I want to see what happens if I'm completely alcohol free. It's definitely not something I plan to keep up into infinity, but I do plan to master 'moderation' when I re-introduce myself to the Mr Vino.

Calories: About 1900.

9/126

I woke up today feeling absolutely shocking! I'd better backtrack a bit. Last night, after posting my daily update I had another glass of wine and then another half glass, and then a couple of bananas with agave syrup and some chocolate. I was feeling quite loose, but not really drunk and so I first thought that this mornings pounding head was a totally unjustified major food+wine hangover.

As the morning progressed. however, and I began to feel much worse, started to get the chills, an even worse headache and then nausea, I concluded that well.. it's not a hangover at all. I'm sick. Still. I cancelled my client appointment, took my anti-virals (Lysine, olive leaf, vit C, zinc) and went back to bed until lunchtime. Needless to say, training did not happen and food was average. Nothing bad, it was a compliant day, but I didn't count calories or record what I ate. At about 3pm I got a call from Piko to say my essene bread was in (yay!) so I made a quick trip there, trying not to breathe on anyone, and picked up some raw chocolate while I was there. The raw chocolate is heavenly and definitely perked me up.

Sickness seems to do strange things to my appetite and so I'm trying not to be hard on myself about the overeating last night. I mean, I can't really beat myself up for bananas and agave syrup. If I'd gone for the packet of biscuits in the cupboard then maybe I could feel guilty, but I didn't, and I don't. I think my body needed the extra.

Tonight I'm feeling a lot better, just a slight lingering headache. My nose is almost clear, my tummy feels ok, I think I'll be right tomorrow. I have made a decision though. I've got my mum coming for dinner tomorrow night so I'll allow a glass of wine, but after that I'm going teetotal until the end of my first 6 weeks. I feel like the break will do me good and also help with keeping the nutrition on track. Now that I've discovered raw chocolate I may decide to switch vices anyway! It's expensive enough to be a wine substitute, that's for sure.

8/126

Wow, one week gone by already!

today my flu is on the way out but I elected to not train. That has been four days without any real exercise, but I'm sure it won't hurt me in the long run. I'm a believer in resting if you are not well. The body is already working to fight the virus or bacteria and doesn't need to be further stressed.

Todays eating:
1. Cold chicken drumstick and a banana. I woke up early feeling hungry, probably because of the flu. I got up, ate the above then went back to sleep until a Jehovah's witness knocked on the door at 8.30am..
2.Kidney,mushroom and pumpkin casserole with garlic. Apple. This was at about 1pm
3.Grilled chicken, fig, chocolate
4. I had to go to the supermarket and was feeling hungry. I had a raw carrot and fig before heading out to the shop,just so that I was not weak in the face of chocolate.
5. I made my partner (The Programmer) a hamburger with all the trimmings for dinner but for myself I avoided the bread. I had a plate of green veges and two hamburger patties plus a baked kumara and glass of wine. Then when I was chatting on skype with my sister (currently soaking up the sun in Leichtenstein) I had another 1.5 glasses of red wine. I was celebrating the successful completion of two uni assignments and the acheivement of an 'A' in my first returned assignment. Sometimes, this will happen. It's probably not the best thing for my flu, but with an early night I expect to be 100% tomorrow.

Today was 100% compliant to the BTD for type O's. The wine consumption was a little OTT, but whatyagonnado?

7/126

I have ordered my essene bread. Three loaves, one wheat, two rye, roll on Friday!.

I have a confession. Ahem. Today I had an espresso,which is definitely in the 'back away slowly' category on the BTD for Type O's. It wasn't even that good. I think my caffeine gene might have gone into hibernation. Either that or my flu-invoked 'head stuffed with sand' state was just beyond the help of anything non-pharmaceutical. Actually I'm better today than I was yesterday, but I rested as much as possible, didn't train. I'm sure one little espresso in three months won't rustify my joints overnight. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Today was completely dairy free but did feature 20g dark chocolate and one glass of red wine. It went like this:

1. Green omlette (sans feta), 3g Omega 3

2. Grilled hoki (white fish), mashed kumara, brocolli, 3x 750 mg glucosamine

3. Apple, carrot, 2 chicken drumsticks - skin on.

4. Baked kumara and artichoke, rocket salad, steamed kale, glass of wine, 2 chicken drumsticks - skin off. I know that the Nourishing Traditions lady says saturated fat is all ok, but I'm not 100% convinced. High cholesterol runs in my family and when it's been there, so has heart disease, so I'm not all for recklessly munching down the animal fat.

After dinner: 1 fig, 20g dark chocolate. This was totally delicious. I've become very attached to dried figs. Eaten with a square of dark chocolate (85%) there is nothing better. I'm looking around to see if I can find an 80% or higher chocolate that's made with raw cocoa. I feel a bit of raw foodism creeping in, who knows what sort of yoga-loving, student hippie I'll be in a few months.

Calories: 1750

I don't feel like I've lost any weight, but I'll do a weigh in on day 21 and, if it's not going in the right direction I'll adjust calories down slightly and turn the activity dial up. Tomorrow is an upper body workout and I'll get some yoga in too. Two days of concentrated writing (it's assignment time!) has driven my shoulders up into my ears and I need to fix that by getting my stretch on and letting my mind drift to that happy yoga place.

6/126

I woke up feeling a bit stuffy in the head, but got on the bike for 20 minutes cardio before I could really register the full extent of it ;) Pretty soon after that I realised that I'm definitely in the grip of some sort of flu, hopefully not the swine flu. I haven't noticed any oinking yet, just lots of sneezing, but I'll be sure to stay inside, just in case.

Todays eating was pretty good, almost completely compliant apart from 20g feta cheese in my omlette and the mayonnaise on my salad. I thought the mayo might be ok, but having checked in the Typebase, I see that soybean oil is an 'avoid' for type 0's. Feta is actually ok occasionally on the BTD, but it's an avoid on the BTD for arthritis and I've been having it nearly every day.

Meals today
1. Green omlette
2. Lamb and kidney casserole with onions and mushrooms, fava beans (super beneficial)
3. Half homemade protein bar, 30g dark chocolate, 1 fig
4. Lamb and kidney casserole (again - I prepped enough for two meals at lunchtime), pumpkin, salad, mayo, glass of red wine
5. late night munchies - 2 figs

Calories: 1750

Now it's time to down some sudafeds and hit the sack. Hopefully tomorrow will be less snotful and more productive.

5/126

Today I was quite tired, a situation which generally does not bode well for eating behaviours. Mid afternoon I was feeling especially hungry but got through it. Dinner tonight was a bit irregular as I was at a curry house after a movie. I chose the Mango Chicken, which had the dreaded description of 'creamy'. That means it's horrendously high in calories and of course, contains cream, which is a no-no on the BTD. It seemed to be the only thing on the menu which I could be reasonably sure did not contain peppers or tomatoes though, which was the basis of my choice. I picked out the chicken bits and left what I hope was most of the sauce in the serving pot.

The rest of the day went like this:

1. Green omlette, same as yesterday.
2. Venison shank, fava beans, raw carrot, fig. I also put a tsp of nut butter in with my fava beans.
3. Half a meat patty, pumpkin, some dark chocolate
4. Mango chicken curry. a few lettuce leafs (I ordered the salad but it was mostly PEPPERS which are a nightshade), a little white rice. When I got home I ate a raw carrot.

Considering that I suspect dinner was a calorie bomb, I think today was still around 1800 calories, but it's a wild guess really. Tomorrow I have some cardio planned and some yoga. Today I rested. I seem to nursing a very stuffy, sneezy sort of head cold that came on overnight.

4/126

Day four had two big challenges... an unexpected 'away from home and hungry' moment and a big party.

Breakfast was a bit trickier than usual due to the lack of essene bread. I grabbed a homemade protein bar and half a meat patty from the night before (unorthodox, but .. well, I was in a hurry). We then headed out to get such things as silver hairspray and white eye makeup for the 'winter wonderland' party. This took longer than expected and at about 1.30pm I was in Starbucks feeling really growly in the stomach. I decided to try their 'Perfect Oatmeal' with the dried fruit and nuts. Oats are not a recommended food on the type 0 diet, but you can have them 'infrequently' and in this case I think it was the best choice, even if I got a few funny looks... 'doesn't she know it's lunchtime??'. I also added a decaf, soy cappuccino because I'm supposed to be avoiding dairy products. I'm also supposed to be avoiding all coffee, even decaf. I never claimed to be perfect.

Later in the afternoon I muched a re-heated meat patty, had some raw carrots and figs and then got into my outfit. That's when I started to have a 'fat day' and felt that dangerous fathead mindset coming on. You know, if you put on a white velveteen dress, there is a fair chance that you might show a) vpl and b) a tummy bulge. It was messing with my head. No matter what I did with my hair I didn't feel pretty. I was getting a bit funky and felt like I'd rather not go because, in that head space, I'm very prone to either drink a lot or munch a lot because, what the hell. Instead I made my plan, had dinner (venison shank and veges) before we left and, once we got there, made a point to involve myself in the activities (dancing and wii-snowboarding) and talk to people. As soon as I got there I made a toilet break to calm myself and, in the different lighting, suddenly I looked quite slinky and felt better. Maybe they have a magic mirror in that room. It's amazing how much feelings can change just from a change in perception. I had three wines over the evening, which was borderline too many, but by the end of the night was drinking soda water and feeling like I'd made a success of it.

Calories for the day were bang on 1800. No training, just dancing and shoppercise.

3/126

Oh no! Piko Wholefoods have run out of essene bread and won't have more until this time next week! I'll be in there, first thing Friday morning, maybe I'll camp out on their doorstep.

Today I was 'head down, bum up' finishing an assignment,but I did take a break to do a lower body workout which included 90 lunges and some yoga poses.

Eating is still going well, I think the calorie level must be about right for me at the moment, and of course I've cut back drastically on concentrated foods like chocolate so that I'm eating more bulk. Vege consumption is on track.

Todays eating:
1. Green omlette - spinach, garlic and a little feta. All dairy is a 'very infrequently' food on the Type 0 diet. Spinach is ultra beneficial.
2. Grilled lamb chop, essene bread, veges, 10g chocolate
3. Essene bread with nut butter
4. lean beef meat patty, fried egg, pumpkin, mushrooms (grilled large flat mushies), Er.. two glasses of wine - well it is Friday night!

Calories at 1800 which surprises me because it felt like I ate a LOT today. I seem to be adjusting to the four meals a day routine and wasn't tempted to munch between meals, although I was staring longingly at the coffee machine. Lots of Green Tea did the trick. I get a little buzz out of GT, but it's just not coffee ;( How sad to be such an addict!

2/126

Simplify, simplify. That's my new mantra. I'm thinking that a healthy life should really be quite natural and simple, not complicated and planning intensive, so I'm practicing that. Relaxercise.

Today had a lot in it, but it didn't feel stressy. I took a break when I felt my mind beginning to buzz, managed to hold my cool when my webcam spat the dummy and ate my meals without needing to mindlessly nibble in between. I was tempted to head for the chocolate about 3pm but distracted myself and, surprisingly, got through to 4pm without starving to death (lunch had been at 12.30).

Today was like this:
1. A boiled egg on essene bread with nut butter
2. Grilled lamb chop with baked kumara and parsnip, broccoli
3. More essene bread and nut butter with cherry jam, a fig
4. Grilled fish, salad, green veges, more essene bread.

It was a bit of an essene bread heavy day, mostly because I managed to ahem - overcook the kumara that had been planned at dinner. I think that's what it means when it turns black.. overcooked.

I've temporarily stopped taking Glucosamine because it's been giving me a stomach ache. I'm still taking Hyaluronic Acid, B3, Vit C and Omega 3's.

Calories at just under 1800 again. No training today although I can certainly feel yesterdays effort in my muscles.

1/126

I've been lurking over at zenhabits.net and the more I read, the more I realise that I've been living my life in a state of stress and pressure, which is not a healthy lifestyle, nor is it a fun one. Every day I try to squeeze in as many tasks as I can and get incredibly wound up if I fall behind schedule. And, every day I do fall behind schedule because I'm always wanting to do too much. So, I'm trying to be more 'zen', starting with decompressing my stupid schedule. I'm going to allow some more space in my day, I'll probaby get just as much done, but without the 'grrrraaaaagh!'. My goal is to lighten up, literally and figuratively. I'm aiming to develop a more carefree, playful attitude toward life and especially myself, much as I used to have when I was younger, before the whole body image issues kicked in and sucked the vitality out of my soul.

Today I inserted a few more carbs into my day and also ate four larger meals instead of six mini-meals. This worked because I was eating less often and felt more full after eating. Win-win. It went like this:

10am - Spinach omlette
1pm - Homemade PB, boiled egg
3pm wii-fit
4pm - Essene bread with nut butter
7.30 - grilled lamb chop with a red wine reduction (interesting exercise.. I think my technique needs refinement because it became more like red wine jam, but still tasted ok), mashed kumara, brocccoli, salad, essene bread, glass of wine.

Cals: about 1800 which is what I'm aiming for.

It's now nearly 11pm and I'm feeling just mildly like I could eat, but I think I'll live. I rad today that essene bread (ingredients: sprouted rye or sprouted wheat, nothing else) contains no gluten because it is destroyed by the sprouting process. I didn't know that. I knew that the starches break down to sugars but this is new information. That's true even for the sprouted wheat one. I'm going to look into it, pester the essene bread people relentlessly until they tag me on their caller i.d. and stop answering. I already made them roll their eyes (I believe) by asking about the nutritional info.

Drinks: heaps of Mate Tea, Green Tea and Sabtu tea. I know that Mate has some caffeine in it, but I'm telling ya, it's NOT like coffee (unfortunately).

Oh.. Saturday night I'm going to a fancy dress party. A 'winter' party and, I'm wearing WHITE LEGGINGS with silver 'stripper' boots under a weensy white dress. If that doesn't make me laugh at myself, well, I'm probably dead. I shall post a pic. It can be a progress pic.

Prequel - I want my Herbal Tea

I've had three out of the last four days as 'very relaxed eating days' (read: ate pretty much anything I felt like) and after that little visit to the dark side, I'm more than ready to repent, for the following reasons:

* I feel really chubby, waterlogged and .. er.. fat. I know I'm not, but I feel squishier and it doesn't please me.
* My joints are aching. My hip, knee, neck and big toe joints are aching. I remember being like this before I started the blood-type diet for arthritis, but had forgotten how bad it feels to be rusting up. I don't actually know which food group causes this, but it's probably a combination of inflammatory things.
* My lower back and muscles around the left hip (the non-arthritic one) are aching too.
* I'm tired and having trouble focusing. Very 'unmotivated'.
* I've got a SORE THROAT, arrrgh. Having stayed well for the past few months while everyone else got sick, I'm convinced that this is due to the increased sugar consumption. What a dumb thing to do!

It's funny how just a few months of healthy eating made me forget how bad I used to feel! Now I remember, but I want to forget again. So, tomorrow starts the first three weeks, then I'll do a weigh in and see how it's going. I'm also raising my goal calorie average to 1800 because perhaps I was aiming too high (low?). I'm not aiming for quick weightloss, just a steady progression. I want to get my weight down by about 5 or 6kg over the next six months to a year, so it's not necessary to cut calories dramatically. I'll see how it looks at day 21 and every three weeks after that. This morning I was 61kg, 30.3% bodyfat.

As per the last attempt, I'll be tracking for 18 weeks (126 days) then I'll see how it goes. I might go for one year. I found this paleo diet blog which went for a year and then the blogger decided he had said enough. I might do that, it's open ended right now, let's see how it goes.

Fresh Start

I decided to make a fresh start with recording my health and fitness journey. There had been so many 'fell off and got run over by the wagon' incidences and restarts that it was getting a bit confusing! For newbies I've archived the most recent shambles here. The older posts I just deleted but realised that I should have kept the first one where I had a pic of my starting weight in July '08. That was at 63kg exactly and 30.3% bodyfat. Since then, in the last year I have lost about 5kg, gained back 2kg and now sit at about 60kg.

Tomorrow I will post my forward plan. ;) I'm no longer looking for a short term fatloss plan, but a longterm workable lifestyle. That's why I've changed the name of the blog. I've begun to realise that being healthy is not about fatloss, it's about life.