Saturday, August 15, 2009

Regaining Control...on a Raw Food Weekend

Hiya Folks,

I'm actually in a crappy mood, but i'm trying to mentally talk myself out of it!

I'll do a quick overview of what's causing the crappy mood rather succinctly because the more i talk about it, i fear, the worse i'll feel. Suffice it to say, physically, i'm feeling unwell, extremely bloated, mucousy and hoarse. Why? For the last two days at work, I ate a lot of salty, nutty things, not waiting for hunger. Just kinda havin' fun. Well, it don't feel so fun right now.

I did take the betaine, but, you know, that whole routine seemed to work like a charm when i exercised and was burning up the food. I overdid it overeating and without exercise, the whole internal digestive system becomes a mess.

As i have mentioned, there seems to have been a dynamic change in the way i eat at work. This has still held true. What hasn't held up so well the last two days is the newfound control i gained, where i was so in tune, checking in, waiting for hunger, eating sitting, feeling and doing generally great, really overcoming my binge and overeating issues.

So, if i spin this in a positive light, I can say that this slip backwards....is now an amazing opportunity to work on my healthy eating habits again next time i work!

For now, it's just time to repair and move on.

For repair, i will wait until i am hungry to eat. I will not overeat. I will drink alot of fluids to help flush the system. I will exercise now. I will not 'diet' as much as i'd like to. I might if it were a different weekend, but i have two dates for raw gourmet lunches over this weekend. It is God's way of saying i need to learn how to control this food, eat small portions and get my body back to digesting better.

As for exercise, yesterday, I was busy chosing to do dishes and practice my opera role and never did make it out for my walk. We all make choices. We all suffer the consequences of those choices.

This morning, Cliff and i are going to return to our team-exercise routine. He gets on his bike and takes off, and i go for a walk. We cellphone each other and meet up somewhere for a cooling drink. It's so nice to have a goal of a kiss and an iced tea. I feel happier already!

Tonight we are driving to Schwenksville to the home of our friends, Eve and Jeff, opera singer friends of mine, and their adorable son, Evan. It promises to be a lovely day today weather wise, so we are bringing our swimsuits for an evening dip in their pool. For dinner it will be a test of moderation for me. We will have many raw gourmety items. I'm making a raw chocolate pie, some kind of yummy pate, i have raw crackers already, i'll bring a block of the raw cheese, (I haven't had any for days), and i'll bring dressing fixings. Eve will supplement with cooked items for Cliff and her family and some raw salads, and we'll have a big feast. We'll see how i am with the mucous if i chose to have any of the cheese.

I'm particularly concerned about the mucous i woke up with (and the hoarseness, a symtom of reflux laryngitis) from overdoing nuts/salt because i sing an opera rehearsal in about 17 days, and 2 weeks after that is the performance. If i take care of myself well, daily, until then, and get this body system functioning better as it was, move the food through me and respond to hunger better, i should be fine. The mucous will recede, the reflux laryngitis will stop. I need to be practicing vocally daily for this opera. If I do like i did the last 2 days, without exercise, waking up mucousy and hoarse, overeating at work and eating extremely salty foods when i'm not hungry, i will get myself sick in a matter of days and probably will come down with some kind of a cold, which would be the body's way of saying it needed a rest. That would be an opportunity for rest, but bad for my rehearsal period because an opera singer can't sing when they're sick. So, i have to get myself well.

On Sunday, we have another raw event. Lunch with our crazy wonderful friends, Tim and Leslie Arnold. I have mentioned them many a time on this blog. They are serious new runners. Never were, but now are. They are in their 50's and just raw about a year. They are incredibly inspiring. Tim runs at least 10 miles a day now and Leslie usually about 5. Tim's lost 145 lbs, amazing, and Leslie, is so tiny and petite now. She's lost 30 and is a petite little thing. They are tan, raw forces of nature, just unstoppable. So, we'll have lunch together at their place. It will be an all raw meal for Cliff and me. I'll bring some pate' and i'd like to make a zucchini salad and bring that along, Leslie will have raw bread and her amazingly famous blueberry pie, and then we'll go to see the new Meryl Streep film about Julia Child, "Julia and Julie." Excited for that! I hope Cliff likes it.... ??

Many blessings to all of you. We'll just keep truckin' on. There are bad days. There are good days. But at any moment, we can choose to turn things around. A new choice is only a second's decision away. now. or now. or now. or now. At any moment, we can decide not to react to what was, get discouraged and depressed and do worse. We can choose to make better decisions. Do something good for ourselves. Stop feeling sorry for ourselves. And actually get better. Turning our mental or emotional state around is as easy as recognizing we feel bad, and watching it, from the inside, until the observation makes it dissappear. In that state we are being non-reactive, and in that state, we can move on in our lives....live NOW...and stop living in the past...reacting. It's a beautiful thing.

OXOXO MICHELLE JOY

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