When Life Throws a Curve Ball - What Happens to Your WeightLoss Goal?

As some of you know, 12 weeks ago today the most beautiful and loving person I have ever known past from this world suddenly and without warning.  Although she had 4 paws and a big fluffy tail, to my husband and I she was our daughter, the substitute child for the human kind we never had.  Having her collapse and subsequently die in our arms was an experience fraught with such deep helplessness and pain of the likes I have never experienced in my life before.

The love that left our lives on Sept 23 has left a void in my heart that is indescribable and on some days completely debilitating. It has been said that “Until one has loved an animal, part of your soul remains unawakened.”  The part of my soul that awoke because she was here and because she loved, was that part that has allowed me to love and support so many others over the years through their journeys to health and happiness.

When Life throws a curve ball that shakes you to the core, that makes you question your deepest desires and sole purpose for being (whether that curve ball be an illness, a death, an accident of self or someone that you love dearly) what happens to your now seemingly insignificant desire to lose weight.  Do you give up or do you keep going?

For the first 10 days I was numb.  Couldn’t eat, didn’t want to eat, felt like I didn’t deserve to eat.  Only for a fainting episode did I make myself ingest some food.  My precious Green Smoothie that had become a staple of my Raw Food Regime became my saviour.  Loaded with Live Foods and Superfoods my Green Smoothie gave me the energy I needed to come out from under the blankets and face the world.

Once the numbness subsided and the pain of living with such a great loss threatened to engulf my life I found myself wanting to consume everything in the fridge and pantry (and everybody elses’ fridge and panty) to fully ensure I felt nothing.  I have to say once again .....  Thank God for the Green Smoothie.  Full of Live Foods and SuperFoods  I managed to get through my days satisfied and stable enough to constantly question my desire to eat for hunger or for comfort.

Twelve weeks on and where in the past I would have increased in size 10fold (due to eating to quell the pain) I find myself getting on the scales with not one kilo (pounds for my american friends) heavier and not one kilo lighter.  Ready to face the world again and my goal of ditching my remaining study kilos I take with me the knowledge that my choice to embrace a Raw Food Lifestyle has been a good one and a successful one.

In Loving Memory of my Beautiful Sira and all the pooches that I will help from this day forward simply because you were here and because you loved.

Coffee and Weight Loss

For those that are following my Raw Food Weight Loss Challenge, Week One ended with some promising results.  Not as great as I have had in the past with 100% focus on perfect eating on cooked non-vegetarian fare but in reflecting upon the breakdown of Fat, Proteins and Carbs across the first week I feel the Fat Burning results or lack thereof could be due partly to the High volume of Seeds and Nuts in so many of the dishes I created.  Way too much fat, way too many calories.  With a changeup of some of the Proteins that I have eaten in week two, results have been much more consistent with the commitment I have put in.  My biggest challenge in all has not been the prep, it has not been the fact that I’m eating raw while being surrounded by hot food eaters,  but rather my BIG challenge has been Coffee. 

Oh I just love coffee.  I use it to get my day started, I use it when I study, I use it when I write, and I use it as a way of relaxng and sharing time with friends.   Long blacks, short blacks, caffe lattes.  I just love coffee.  But just as much as I love it, it has been bothering me that this habit was not aligning to my desire to eat 100% Raw.   I recognised I was clinging onto my daily coffees like a child holds onto its favourite blanket, for comfort and support, as one little last thing in my diet that was familiar and safe.   In reflection I admit, that am not actually a coffee lover but in fact I am a coffee user.

This got me thinking about the role of coffee in Weight Loss.  From my time spent in both the Fitness and Wellness Industries there seems to be quite contradictory points of view around the use and effect of coffee and weight loss.

The fitness industry has always promoted coffee as non problematic and in most cases advocates its usefulness in increasing both mental and physical performance and assisting fat loss through enhanced lipolysis.  However, when coming from a wellness perspective coffee is always something a naturopath will encourage their client to refrain from.   Caffeine acts on your adrenal glands by stimulating the production of adrenalin. When adrenalin is released your blood sugar elevates and when your blood sugar elevates so does your insulin response, causing your body to store excess carbohydrates as fat and stopping the use of already stored fat as an energy source.  The other compounding effect coffee has in relation to fat loss is the cortisol response.  When your adrenals are under constant and long term stimulation, cortisol will ensure your long term survival by storing whatever fuel it can no matter how well you eat or how much you exercise.

So on this one I am choosing to take the more complete picture of how coffee affects our bodies hormonally and my challenge for the next 16 weeks is to refrain from my coffee habit not only to stay in integrity around my decision to eat 100% Raw but to see if that too also makes a difference to my weight loss and wellbeing.  So if you’re a coffee user/abuser how about you take the challenge also, let me know how you go, I’d love to know.

Raw Food Weight Loss - Is it Possible?

Source:  Weheartit.com

My last several months have been dedicated to several study projects, some heavy career research and my passion for animal welfare issues. The Outdoor “On the Go Girl” Part of Me unfortunately has taken a back seat to all of this workload and helped along by two hilarious foot injuries in the past six months (Stories for another day) my gradually expanding butt has now alerted me that it has had ENOUGH!!!

So this week I have committed to an 18 week experiment, using myself as the Test Case.  Combining my passion for Vegetarian (Raw) Food and my need to remove these extra “Sitting on my Butt Study” Kilos,  I am embarking upon a journey to discover whether Eating a 100% Vegetarian Raw Food Diet can actually help a person Lose Weight.
Working with my knowledge of how the body uses fuel and how it processes dietary Fat, Protein and Carbohydrates I question whether or not it is actually possible to effectively burn Body Fat and Stay Strong using a Diet that is traditionally high in Fat and Carbohydrates and comparatively low in Protein to most other Weight Loss Regimes. 

The food is delicious; aromatic coriander and basil pestos, rich vibrant greens sparkling with golden nuts and seeds, deeply flavoursome vgetables marinated in exquisite oils, not to mention the outrageously delicious raw chocolate desserts and cashew nut creams.  This food so alive, so colourful, so vibrant, that one probably wouldn’t even question how it could not be good for you.  
I adore this way of eating not only because the food is fabulous but because it seems so ethical to eat this way;  not one single animal gets hurt, not one single animal suffers when I choose to eat this way.    But the down side of "Raw" is that this food is loaded in fatty calories and it is very easy to consume way more of the good stuff than you should.

So here goes folks, follow along it you wish.  I dare say I am about to create some magical new recipes and discover many of the mental, emotional and spiritual obstacles that you will also face when choosing to change your food choices for the better.  Whether it be 100% Raw Food or simply just a cleaner, lighter version of your own preferred style of eating.

Why Monday is a GOOD Day and a BAD day to start a DIET

Source: Weheartit.com

Monday is the beginning of the traditional working week.  We get focused and are usually excited about the possibilities the week may offer, and at the same time, we are conditioned to returning to the routine a working week offers.  Committing to a diet on a Monday seems easy as the decision to do so aligns with this new focus and excitement.  And as eating becomes just one of the many routine things we do to get through our week it seems feasible that our new diet regime should carry us through to Friday neither imposing itself nor distracting us from what else needs to be done.

However In a recent survey by Cornell University it showed that 31% of people who started their diet on Monday had failed miserably by Tuesday night.  It got me wondering why that was.  What is it, that makes our best of intentions to change the way we eat dissolve within 48 hours of starting.  What happened to all the renewed excitement we felt just 48 hours before?  It was suggested in the Cornell study that the concept of deprivation might be to blame for our lack of sticking power.

Perhaps a better way to look at the Monday diet change is to consider the idea of adding value to our eating regime rather than depriving value.  Think about what good healthy food habits you can add to your daily routine rather than focusing on what you must delete.   

What is it you can add today; right now, to make your healthy lifestyle more of a reality?  Is it an extra piece of fruit, an extra serve of vegetables, a raw food meal or an extra glass of water?  It is my experience that over time a healthy food choice will always and easily replace an unwanted and not so good food choice.  In taking this approach you successfully reward yourself and deprive yourself of nothing.

So my question to you (and myself) is why wait until Monday?  ANY DAY IS A GOOD DAY and ANY MOMENT IS A GOOD MOMENT  to start giving to ourselves. 

THE GOLDEN KEY to HAVING EVERYTHING you’ve always wanted

Why is it that some people appear to have everything they want in life, while others continue to struggle year after year tying to achieve their goals and dreams?   The perfect body, the perfect bank account, the perfect relationship.  Wouldn’t it be fabulous, if there were a key, that if you turned it into motion, it would automatically eliminate all the thoughts and behaviours that sabotage our goals and therefore allow us to have what it was we truly wanted in our lives?

On a recent quest to answer such a question for myself I was reminded of a concept that R Buckminster Fuller once presented.  The concept that .... “Integrity is the essence of Everything Successful”.   The Oxford Dictionary defines Integrity as “the state of being whole and undivided”.

Imagine for a moment what your life could be like if every thought you had, every word you spoke and every action you took were whole and undivided.  There would be no division between your thoughts, words and actions, but instead complete congruency and honesty all the way from the original thought to final action and result.

Eating Well, Exercising Regularly, Saving Money, Investing, Sharing our Love and all those other great things we constantly want and know we should do to get our goals, if we practiced integrity would never again be a struggle.  Never again would we be distracted by thoughts or behaviours that were contrary to our goals.  By practicing integrity you will stay congruent and true to your original thought no matter what distraction, negative thought or old behaviour surfaces as an obstacle on your path.

Integrity I believe is the essence and the Golden Key to getting and having what you truly want in life.

 Lynda Pugliese