What a great start

for a new week.

Three good things in one morning:

1. I had an awesome apple-omelette for breakfast. It was made of 3 eggs, 1/2 apple and salt/pepper/"fine herbes" spice, baked/fryed in coconut oil. Yummy and quite filling, I will cut down to 2 eggs tomorrow. This is so much better than my chocolate proteine shake. I love it. Now I just have figure out different recipes and get faster.



2. I looked in the mirror before I left the house and thought "Wow, I look beautiful". This is a FIRST. I mean, the best I thought of me until now was: "Not bad". And this morning I've thought somthing this nice when I looked at myself. I'm making major progress here!!


3. I figured out how to stop sabotaging myself. You know until now I had some habits that were leading me away from my goals. These habits I had taken on, because of my rebellious nature. Now, I use my inner rebel to get to my goals! For example: Caring for my body. Most people don't care well for their body, they eat wrong, smoke, don't exercise, get inadequate sleep, don't groom themselves. So I'm a rebel and do all that and will look fantastic and live fantastic even at 90. You get my drift? Same goes for style and other stuff.
   

So all in all this is a fantastic start into a new week.

I wish all of you a magical week.

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!!

Friiiiiiiidddaaaaayyyyyyyyy!!!!

Wohooo. Only a few more hours and you can relax, so keep up your spirits. Only 24 days for me and I start out at my new company. I'm feeling great today. Isn't it wonderful, only one day of not talking to my mom lifts my spirits to this height. Good thing I'm not afraid of heights. Hihi.
Additionally the weather is pretty good, we have something that you could call sunshine and to fight the cold I have my amazing winter coat. So all is well.

Enjoy your Fridays.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

New team member

May I introduce you to my new team member: Mashimaro.


I bought him today. The reason? I need a physical reminder of my goals (learning fluent japanese and living in Japan for at least a year) and an ally battling Elliot (my dragon) and his stupid ideas (like not reading the assigned reading for my first masters classes).
I know, I know: Mashimaro is a korean rabbit, but this is good too, because during my masters class that goes along with my new job we will take a trip to China or Brazil. I'll take the China trip and then visit South Korea and Japan. Mashimaro is a good reminder for this goal too. And for starting with a Japanese class in Autumn. Besides that, Mashimaro is just really cute. From what I've read it is a really cool and cheeky rabbit, so he's just perfect to battle Elliott and his anxiety, complexes and procrastination issues.
Before you think I'm totally crazy, it's these little mind games that keep me moving forward. And yes, I know that Elliott and Mashimaro aren't real, they are just psychological tricks I use to accomplish my goals.

Yesterday was an odd day for me, I had another row (in lack of a better word) with my mom and then sank into a really bad mood, mulling things over until they looked bleak and horrible (moving into a dormitory in Stuttgart at my age and the major hook of the job, not the dormitory LoL). Thanks to that I did get only 2 hours of sleep last "night" from 6AM to 8AM.
Luckily, I've changed my thought patterns enough already to get back in positive territory by 3:30 AM. I realized a few thought and behaviour patterns and took some action to break them, like throwing away all advertising pens (I don't need them and I sure as hell don't want to move them to Stuttgart). Cleaning up at 4:30AM might be a bit weird, but it felt good and got me grounded.

So, one of the decisions I made is that I'll reduce the contact to my mom to the absolute necessary minimum. It's sad to do this, but necessary for me since she doesn't accept the boundaries I set and draws me down into negativity. I'm over 30 and capable of doing things on my own. She seriously questioned my ability to finish this master course successfully. Gee, thanks Mom, just what I needed when I start out. And that is exactly the reason for getting Mashimaro today and going to Starbucks, it's become my haven of sanity. Mashimoro will fight with me to get back to my real personality and get rid of the timid person my mom and former teachers/friends/colleagues made me. I'm different than the average woman and I'm proud to be different. (Never guessed that, huh? LoL)

I'm not sure if I have what it takes to be best of my class, but I'll strive for it. This is a first in my life, until now I never thought I'd be good enough or that it would mean something for me if I put in some effort and accomplished something. Now I know that it is definitely worth to put in the effort and strive for being the best. Even if I fail in this attempt, I will inevitably end up higher as when I put in no effort. And it will definitely pay off. Maybe not in money, maybe not in the near future, but it will pay off eventually.

Do you have allies in your battles? Even if they are only represented by a stuffed animal?!

Oh yeah, nearly forgot. Only 300 grams to go to my January weight goal. Might be that I reach it tomorrow. Wohoo.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!! If you need it, find yourself some allies.
...and stuffed anime charakters are just fine for this. (But remember: only talk to them in privacy! ;-)

My secret to weight loss is

sleep and magnesium. I just realized it again today.

Even though my sleep wasn't that deep, when I woke up my weight was down another 300 grams. So my January weight goal is certainly within reach. I just have to get to bed early and make sure that I get at least 300mg of Magnesium that day. 600 mg is better though.

Getting to bed early is also important because even though I tend to not sleep in (sleeping in = getting up after 10AM), I will have to get up 2 hours earlier in about a month, so I have to shift my sleeping time accordingly. This should get interesting, I will stay at a dormitory of my company for the first months (until I have found my new studio) and I always have had a different wake/sleep cycle than other students (going to bed relatively early, can be pretty annoying).

So, for the next month I train myself to get to bed early (10PM) and drink lots of magnesium (600mg), so that I fit into my old trousers and suits easily when I start at my new company. And I will keep my insulin levels on a low level, no spikes allowed. This should get interesting.

The weather is back to crap again, it can't decide between rain and snow and the temperatures are around the freezing point. So running is no possibility, but I do my stretching and some other routines.

Funny thing happened the other evening, when I layed down to read a bit before turning off the light and I layed on the side my legs felt weird. It took me a minute to realizes what was the weird thing, it was the fact that my legs layed bone on bone. I haven't had this in years! And my calves look like I've got tons of muscles and strength. They were always quite strong and now they look like it again, more and more definition. I love this.

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.

Finally: the YES

After another "No" I finally got the "YES"! You know what that means. I'll move again and won't bore you any longer with finding-a-job-talk. Wohoo. I'll move back to the "Ländle", meaning Baden-Württemberg, but luckily to a big city this time.

It's the job with the major hook and but I've decided that the rest outweighs the hook by far. After all it's an engineers dream job and it has everything that I'm good in and it gives me the opportunity to further develop my skillset and I "clicked" with my colleagues and boss, so there..

In any case it should get interesting, since it is a big company and they have some sport program, so as soon as I'll set my foot in there I'll find out about the training possibilities and then I'll restart my training. Until then it is leaning out and getting the food right and getting an appointment with a special doc for sorting out the knee issue.

And keeping Elliott at bay. This little monster of mine has gone into overdrive since yesterday, buy this, buy that. But I won't buy anything new yet, for several reasons. I need nothing new right this moment is a major one. I'm saving up for my Rimowa Topas Cabin Trolley and my iPod touch are two others. I'm getting rid of body fat so my body changes is the next. And then the shopping possibilities in the Southwest are better also. So there...


Okay, got to do my hair and then use the beautiful weather to get some things done, like shoes to the cobbler, public library, buying groceries, etc.

Hope all of you are well and enjoy your weekends.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!