Eating right again

So, as I've said before I did get totally off track when it comes to food. Not only did I eat wheat again (bad thing since I'm allergic to it), but also I didn't eat proper meals. So through snacking and wheat I packed ca. 5 - 6 kg on my small frame (1.62 m). 

Since I  got back from Leipzig after christmas I have turned this eating thing slowly around. Right now I've been for 2 whole weeks off wheat. Wohoo. And since Sunday I'm back to eating proper meals again. 

I'm positive that I will fit into my running clothes again by the end of January. 

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Swim-club it is...

Okay, so I've decided to join the swim-club instead, but will do so in September earliest. Two reasons for this: funding and summer break. The funding and my inability to swim freestyle was also the reason for switching to the swim-club instead. 


Weather is very nice at the moment and my hand is healing fine, so I'm confident that I will be back in the saddle by next week. 

Park in San Francisco in December 2008

Core training continues and I love to imagine how my stomach is getting flatter every morning. Sadly it's just this: my imagination. Oh well, at least my back feels better with.

I've also found out, that more veggies in my diet are favourable, so I'm working on getting in more of the green and colourfull stuff. Surprisingly this makes my diet cheaper. Love it!

Enjoy your weekend everyone and best of luck for those who race or train.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

This Talk by Robert H. Lustig, MD, is simply mindboggling.



KEEP MOVING FORWARD and stay away from any soda!

On day 14 incorporate core strength

I'm pretty proud on myself today. Because today I didn't procrastinate my push-ups, I did all 15 in one go right after getting up. Yesterday I started with core strength training again, since my lower back is relatively mad at me.

Also, yesterday was the Leipzig Marathon. Shame on me, but I had totally forgotten about it. Well, it doesn't come through street that I look upon anymore, so that's the reason. My parents live right on the track, so would I have been there, I wouldn't have been abled to escape it and probably would've had a day in mourning the fact that my knee is still misbehaving. But it is getting better, so I will eventually start with running again. And yes, I mean running. Not jogging! :)

Foodwise I'm still on Paleo with the occassional cheating, though I'm really strict when it comes to grains. Yes, I did eat chocolate (provided it is grain free) once or twice and on Friday evening, when I went out with friends, I had potatoe wedges with sour cream and a Cosmopolitan. From this outing I even got sore muscles! Because I wore "high" heels, the front muscles of my feet were quite unhappy on Saturday morning. ;)

And on Thursday I received my first postcrossing postcard. From the US. And it's a really nice card too. :D 

I wish all of you a great week, good training and if you have a race this week, best of luck for that, too.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Day 2 of my 101-Push-Up-Challenge

I hope all of you had an amazing time this weekend I certainly had and Sunday was bordering on perfection. Sleeping in, enjoying a tasty breakfast, switching the winter to the summer wardrobe, pondering things while switching the wardrobe and pampering myself, cycling to my parents for a tasty lunch (barbecued chicken and carrots in my case), during lunch I had an awesome idea, then cycling to the apothecary garden and spending the afternoon there pondering things and drawing, riding my bike back home an hour before the thunderstorm hit Leipzig, enjoying a nice dinner, reading Malcolm Gladwells "What the dog saw and other adventures" (great book by the way), after that I enjoyed reading some awesome things over at 1000 awesome things. Oh and did I mention that we had 23° C / 73,4° F?!! Like I said a truly awesome Sunday.

Now you want to know what my idea was? Well, easy, the 101-Push-Up-Challenge. I nicked the idea from the Burpee Challenge, which I didn't complete (I forgot all about it on day 4 or so. *Smirk* Yes, I'm a horrible athlete.) I chose 101 days, because it's a prime and I like primes. The rules are the same as with the burpee challenge. I start with one push-up on day one and then add one every day, so on day 7 I have to do 7 push-ups. I don't have to do them in a row (Though I did the two today in the row! Yeah, I know, I'm amazingly strong. *cough*). But admittedly I'm not doing real push-ups, I do "knee push-ups" meaning I have my legs up to the knees on the bed. Now, what I hope for is naturally that by the end of the challenge I'll be abled to do at least ten real push-ups and maybe one one-handed push-up. As a matter of fact, I've set my goal for this year to be abled to do five one-handed push-ups in a row. We'll see if I have reached that goal on December 31st!

I'm also back to eating Paleo, after stepping off the wagon during my vacation. So here is another Photo Booth Pic, taken half an hour ago.

Have a great week everyone and

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Empowered and scared at the same time

I just realized, that literally every health issue of mine is rooted in my nutrition, every single one: allergies, skin, weight, etc. All of them are dependent on me eating the wrong/right food.

Realizing something like this is really empowering and frustrating and scaring at the same time. Because with every bite I take and also with every sip I literally decide if my body shall function at it's best or just get to stay "alive". Now, on a rational level we all would want the optimum of health, right? And naturally so do I. I want a lean and well functioning body. I want to burst with energy all day and have fun in life. So, what is the problem, you might ask.

For me eating healthy means: I have to eat natural foods and withstand the luring of literally everything sweet, the exception being fruits. My nutrition is from now on build of this: vegetables, meat, poultry, eggs, fish, fruit, nuts. There won't be any sugar, grains, potatoes or rice in my life anymore. Which means I'm going to eat differently then almost anybody else and certainly exactly opposite from my family and closest friends. Which led to squabbles before and will probably intensify.

As for the next two months I've decided to kick also chocolate and almost all dairy products (exception being butter and the milk in my Latte) out of my nutrition plan.
Why? Well, I want to finally get rid of all the inflammation in my body. I'm pretty sure, that I get this darned knee issue out and over with. So that I can finally run again.


KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Paleojourney - A Mac Photo Booth Diary - Week 8

Okay, I took this picture right out of bed at 8:28 AM getting ready for my swim training. Initially I already wanted to be in the water at that time, but I overslept. ;)
I got up at 8:17 put the electric kettle on, brushed my teeth and took this picture for you, still in my night shirt.

I swam for 45 minutes today and am really proud on myself to walk to the pool, swim and then eat my breakfast while walking back home. By the way the walk to the pool took 30 minutes, the walk back took 45 minutes, same route. Yep, the swim definitely took it's toll. So I'll go swimmning on Wednesday again.
Oh almost forgot, no eye candy at the pool. :( But candy in the vending machine, however I stayed strong and just enjoyed my paleo breakfast (2 boiled eggs and an apple) on my way home. Yes, I'm such a badass athlete. ;)

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

2 days in and already feeling much better

Yep, Paleo can work this way. And I'm really glad about it. My stomach is almost flat again and feels just fine. My skin is recovering slowly and I'm feeling better overall. Oh yes, my sleep is better and my anxiety has gone away too. It's really AMAZING what impact your food choices have on your whole well being. Just think about how much better so many people would feel, just because they start to eat real food. Think of the millions saved in health care. Oh wait, that's the reason why the pharma industry doesn't like Paleo and real foods. Whoops. Too bad for them.

I just found out that there is one food option at Starbucks that is "paleo-approved", their fruit salad. So should I be hungry, I now know what I can eat here. Yes, I write this post at my Starbucks. I just love to be here and ponder and plan things. Do some research and enjoying life in general. Did you ever recogize that their Vanilla Rooibos Tea has a really strong apple flavour?! I like it simply because of that.

Trainingwise I'm just walking and taking the stairs, since my knee is acting up again. But I'll check out the swimming pool schedule this weekend and will probably start swimming again next week. So this should get interesting since I found out, that one swimming pool is practically just around the corner and since it is one with cheap fees, I might just declare 2011 as the swimming year. Plus Tango, because I've decided to learn Tango. Now I just need to find a dance partner, since I don't live in Argentina, this might be a problem.

Why Tango you ask? Well, take a look at this:

Have a magical weekend everyone.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Paleojourney - A Mac Photo Booth Diary - Week 7

No other news.

Have a great week everyone.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Paleojourney - A Mac Photo Booth Diary - Week 6 - Rollercoaster ride

This past week was quite taxing for me. I've learned a lot in terms of the changes my body goes through at the moment, how I can help it and in terms of business.
Nuff said.

New week, new challenges, new goals.

Goals for this week:
1. Clear my desk. ;-)
2. Eat 100% paleo/primal/real food.
3. Wear a really cool outfit everyday.
4. Take the 9 flights of stairs to my flat everyday once. (Did you ever realize that there are easy and tough stairs? When I take the 9 flights to my flat I'm a bit out of breath, but I'm fine. Not so at the public library, there I'm out of breath when I reach the second floor and nearly had to stop for rest on the third floor. {Good thing somebody was walking behind me, so it would've hurt my pride to stop.})
5. Do at least one sprint in this week.
6. Do some strength training everyday. Today it's arms.
7. Stay scale-free the whole week. (Next weighing is planned for March 1st.)

Have a magical week everyone.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Paradigm Shift

Okay, so this morning I stepped on my scale out of a strong interest. What I saw let me do my happy dance. 59,7kg - 131,4 lbs Finally cracked the 60!

But in fact this isn't the start of the story or the paradigm shift. Those happened yesterday.

Yesterday, I couldn't eat due to mental stress. I won't tell you why yesterday was so stressfull. In any case not eating, because I'm under stress is a totally new thing for me. Before yesterday I usually ate (binging on sweets) when under stress, this was even so last Friday. But not yesterday. So I guess there really was a paradigm shift happening in the last days. Which is amazing!!

Today I'm back to eating normal, my normal = Paleo. Though the mental stress has lessened the reason for it is still there. Well, I'll hold strong and fight on.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Paleojourney - A Mac Photo Booth Diary - Week 5 - Success

You don't really see it in my face, but this morning brought some very nice surprises.
I don't need to buy new trousers this week!!
I thought I had to, because one jeans and slacks aren't enough, when you go to work. However, this morning I thought: "Well, your current jeans are sitting relatively loose and you know you are down to around 60kg, so let's try some of my old trousers."(I haven't weighed myself in a week!)
And lo' and behold they fit, all of them!!

The one in the following picture is a jeans I bought before I gained so much weight due to taking the pill in 2003! When I bought this jeans I was literally 5 kg lighter and now it fits!!! That's the reason for my expression.


So, I might not have lost so many pounds, but obviously my body changes for the better. And let's not forget: muscles weigh more than fat. So I'm quite excited and am more than happy to stick with the Paleo lifestyle. When I move in to weeks it will be a bit tricky to keep it up for two weeks, since I'm not sure where I will stay for the first two weeks and I have to find the right kind of grocery stores, but I'll prepare and stick with Paleo, because the effort obviously pays off. Wohoo.

Other things: I did two sprints yesterday, just for the fun of it. I also found that it's not worth cheating with any backed goods, even if it's just a bite. Just chocolate is fine, but grains are pure poison to me!

Happy Sunday everyone!!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Paleojourney - A Mac Photo Booth Diary - Week 4 + Whole30 Start

Okay, the first month of "fully" Primal is over. Frankly, I haven't reached my weight goal, which was an easy 59,9 kg. The reasons? My cold at the start of the month and the last week, eating a Lebkuchen (because my mom frustrated me to no end) and celebrating my new job this Friday with friends (2 Desperados beers, 1 coke, 1 salad with a side of baguette, Tortilla chips). So today I weighed 60,9 kg, which is exactly the same as on December 31st. At the start of this week I was down to 60,2 kg. Well, that's what I get when I don't keep my insulin low and eat wheat.

Since I still have my skin issues and I wasn't 100% Paleo and got the receipt for it, I've decided to do the "Whole 30" starting today. Which essentially means eating real food for 30 days straight. I'll "Cut out all the inflammatory, insulin-spiking, calorie-dense but nutritionally sparse food groups for a full 30 days." (http://whole9life.com/2010/12/whole30-2011/)

Here is what I won't eat for the next 30 days:

• added sugar of any kind, real or artificial
  

• processed foods
  

• alcohol

• grains
  

• legumes
  

• dairy

• white potatoes

This is essentially the Paleo Diet as proposed by Dr. Cordain and I won't step on my scale for the next 30 days (rule of the Whole30). Since it's all about the other changes and not my weight, though I will probably loose some fat. But most importantly I want my skin and health to improve, remember there is still my knee issue that prevents me from running (*annoyed sigh*). The real challenge will be when I move to Stuttgart around the 20th. I'll really have to dial my food usage and amounts in until then. Dormitary and a new job in a new city, quite the challenge.

Okay, now I'm off to Starbucks (I'll drink a tea {it's not only cheaper but also sugarfree, so ten times better then the Chocolate Mocha I had these past weeks} and water, I'll bring Brazil nuts should I need a snack), after all I still have a lot of reading to do until 23rd and I simply can't stand it to stay at home all day anymore. Which is an interesting change of pace, I've had no problem with it a few weeks ago.

Enjoy your Sundays and have a good start into the new week.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Paleojourney - A Mac Photo Booth Diary - Week 3

I know, I'm one day late. I simply forgot it yesterday, since I was half asleep the whole day. Today I'm fine though. One more week and the 1. Paleo month is over, I hope that I reach my weight goal, but I don't think there'll be a problem.

Have a magical week everyone.

At the end of my latin

First the positive news. I'm still on paleo and the cold is almost gone. And even though I gained a little weight back, due to my cycle, I feel that I'm making progress.

Can't say that jobwise. I got another few "No"s back, though nothing dramatic and for jobs that weren't exactly what I am looking for. In one case I was even wandering what took them so long. However my selfconfidence is bruised (because of a no to a practical training, that I asked for on a whim in a store in Leipzig yesterday, they looked for trainees, I knew I probably wouldn't fit, they were nice and totally reasonable, I probably would've done the same, nevertheless, it was a blow).
I'm the perfect job candidate on paper but somehow I never get an offer. I've done my fair share of improvements (communication training, reediting my CV after I've shown it too HR experts, some testing, additional training, etc.), it didn't help.

(my happy place: Mauna Kea Observatories. Unfortunately the University of Hawaii has no need for me as it looks...)

The problem is that nobody seems to be abled to help me. Even my friends that are also engineers are totally clueless of what is going wrong, they don't understand it either and don't know how to help me, except for listening to my "tantrums".

Yes, I know I just have to apply until I get yes. I KNOW THAT! But try to write a compelling application when your selfconfidence is hiding in the cellar and won't come out, even when you try to lure it out with a Starbucks chocolate mocha (I know it isn't paleo, but I love it and on some days I simply need a treat). Darn it.

Well, enough of that, I have to write a few applications. Starbucks and McKinsey here I come.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Paleojourney - A Mac Photo Booth Diary - Week 1

Hi there. Yesterday my nose was really sporty, it ran a 50 mile race. Today it is luckily sore and therefore just stuck. ;-) Anyway, due to the sickness I also gained some weight back. The reason are those darned cough drops, they send my insulinlevels on a rollercoaster ride, which is something that I try get out of my system with the paleo eating. Insulin spikes are the culprit for diabetes 2, since I really can do without diabetes I eat Paleo, it is one of the many reasons.
Luckily my throat is almost back to normal, so I don't need those cough sweets anymore and my goal for this next week is to keep my insulinlevels on a relatively steady low.


Today it is weekplanning, cleaning my flat and some much needed pampering myself. Oh and lunch at my parents: veal. Yumm.

Remember to take part in my Giveaway, Ladies!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!!

Paleojourney - A Mac Photo Booth Diary - Week 0

I've got back on the Paleo / Primal track last week, as I've told you and I thought it would be fun to track the changes in my face via my Macs Photo Booth. Because I will probably not recognize the incremental changes when I look into my mirror. So from today on I will take Photo Booth pictures of my face every Sunday. No make up, no photoshopping, just plain Photo Booth.

So here are todays "Starting" pictures. One week into Paleo eating.



Interested in the Paleo lifestyle and it's benefits, here are some links: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/, http://robbwolf.com/, http://www.thepaleodiet.com/ and for the fun part http://evolvify.com/.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Happy New Year!

I wish you all the best for 2011! May this be a very successfull year in all areas of life for all of us.

I was successfull already in avoiding the NYE stress, I stayed at home and enjoyed the fireworks from my window. It was amazing, as if the whole city of Leipzig was making this firework just for me. ;-) I live on the ninth floor and the sight was perfect yesterday, so I could enjoy 6 hours of fireworks. After midnight it was naturally the most and went on for about 45 minutes. I was bored after 15 minutes and went back to bed! Yes, "back to"! I was tired even before midnight, but since I couldn't sleep in right away, I got up for the "main show" and had a look at what my three fortune cookies said about the next year. I had bought 2 of them and got one for free. The cashier in the asia market was giggling, because every customer bought fortune cookies yesterday and they gave one for free to every customer too.

So here is what the fortune cookies said:

1. You will meet an old friend on Friday.
   
2. You will always be surrounded by true friends.
3. Good news will be yours at your next medical.

Sounding good, huh? Well, I can guess already what the good news at my next medical will be. Probably that my ferritin level has gotten significantly higher or that my liver is happy, now that I eat low carb and therefore it doesn't have to produce triglycerides anymore or that my bodyfat percentage is significantly less then last year (my scale showed 60,7 kg this morning!). By the way, Januarys weight goal are a stable 59 kg showing on the scale. Less is fine though. Going by the daily movement of the last days I will accomplish this goal without any struggles. Wohoo.

Other goals for this year in no apparent order: getting a fantastic job (alright this is one of utmost importance), getting my bodyfat down to 15% (it hovers currently around 30%, I really have to reprogram my scale!), gaining lean muscle and strength, leaning out my closet even more, running a 10k race (preferably in one hour, but for that I need more strength first), finishing tasks and projects, learn japanese, buy an iPod Touch with 32GB within the first half of the year (I need it for the japanese learning), eat Paleo for 90% of the time, surprising the hell out of my docs.

(San Francisco December 2008)

To achieve all this, I already did some week planning for the next two weeks, including swimming and pampering myself on Saturdays and cleaning on Sundays (not that there is much to do, somehow I have become pretty organized since I moved into my own space). Should be interesting if I adhere to my own schedule or not.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

My lowest in 5 years

Just a few minutes ago I weighed myself and I'm amazed at the nice number that showed up.

61.1 kg

That is my lowest in about 5 years and a whole pound since yesterday! Okay, I know, it's probably mostly water that my body let go due to the fact that I just finished my cycle. Nevertheless, I haven't seen such a low number in years! What I think is funny, is that I always seem to get rid of more weight on days that I don't move a lot. Yesterday did nothing but surfing the net, preparing and eating gorgeous food and resting. Mmmh, maybe my cortisol was too high for getting rid of the fat on the other days? Well, I'll probably never know, so I go with the flow.

Yesterdays dinner consisted of this:


Plus 3 clementines and 1 apple

Today, I will move a bit more, I need to buy groceries and get some stuff to the post and friends. So there will be a lot of walking and listening to Robb Wolfs podcast. I don't know why, but these days I really enjoy trudging through the snow and listening to this podcast, before that I "never" listened to podcasts. I mean, I just learned of a way to get around another surgery, thanks to Robb and Mark, which is so AWESOME I can't even describe how lucky I feel to be abled to have listened to this podcast and get the solution for one of my health issues for free. Who would've thought, that it's so ridiculously easy as changing my diet?!

Okay, enough of this for today, I need to get going. Literally.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Taste Bud Adventures - or my lunch

SALMON WITH ZUCCHINO, BELL PEPPER, TOMATOES AND COCONUT MILK

Aaaahhhhhh, I just love eating Paleo Style. This is what I came up with for todays lunch:


It's easy and fast and sooooooooooooo DELICIOUS and healthy.

Ingredients 1 person:
Salmon filet (fresh or frozen)
1 Zucchino
1/2 bell pepper
several cherry tomatoes
coconut milk (without any additives, just coconut and water should be listed)
coconut oil, freshly grounded sea salt and pepper

Method:

1. If you use frozen salmon, then thaw it (in oven at about 50°C for about 15min)
2. Clean and peel the zucchino, and cut to big dice, all should have roughly the same size.
3. Clean and cut the bell pepper and tomatoes.
4. Heat the pan with some coconut oil.
5. Cut the salmon to bite sized bits and sauté it in the coconut oil lightly and then take it out on a plate.
6. Now put the zucchino into the pan and sauté it, till it's mostly soft and then add the bell pepper pieces, again until the bell pepper is mostly soft and then add the tomatoes.
7. Sauté the mixture for 2 or 3 minutes at some coconut milk and then put the salmon back in.
8. Cook like for 2 or 3 minutes, season to taste and there you have this love meal.

Enjoy.


KEEP MOVING FORWARD!