Clairey's World

Monday 24th Vegan Raw Food – Diet Improvement Update

claireyfairey — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:47:01 +0000

Woke up still aching in my back and still a bit wheezy in my throat esp when breathing out through my mouth. Went to have the first lung function tests. My Peak flow was low at 320 but the lung spyrogram was normal. They want to use the reversibility test using Ventolin (sabutamol) to see if I had some bronchial constriction, I was reluctant as i hate the thought of inhaling something foreign ….but after a bit of persuasion from the nurse I did do it….how ever i would only take 4 puffs rather than the full 6 that is normally used for this test. That said, my peak flow even on the lower dose gave me an increase to 400 – which according to the nurse is conclusive of asthma. I still remain skeptic – though i did take a prescription for ventalin under protest with no thoughts of ever using but just in case i have a severe asthma attack as the nurse pointed out.

I got home from the appointment at 12.30 and up until this point had not eaten….i grabbed 1/2 an avocado. I then went to drop the children to a friends while Mark and I had a bank appointment – which ended up being quite stressful and i ended up with a headache not sure if this was because i hadn’t eaten enough. I popped home took some paracetamol and then headed over to my friends house. At this point i began to feel really awful again, feeling unsteady on my feet and a but nauseous – but ate an apple and that seemed to perk me up a bit. It was nice to see my friend and the children were playing so nicely we decided to stay for dinner. We made potato mach out of leeks, greens and potatoes and a separate dish of carrots and swede. We did add a little butter to this. Felt much better after eating.

Summary of Food for the Day

1/2 avocado
1 apple
veggi mash

xxx

Sunday 23rd August Update

claireyfairey — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:29:19 +0000

Well feeling really rubbish today…have a tight chest and throaty wheeze. No signs of infection…no swollen glands or temp. Back really aching – not sure if it is from coughing. Went to the Doctor today and he said it might be asthma and has ordered some tests. I decided it to semi fast as a response and to give my system a chance to sort itself out:

Todays Food:

banana and ground linseeds
banana
carrot and butternut squash home made soup
1/2 Avocado

August Update – the cycle continues

claireyfairey — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 22:25:01 +0000

Well, I’m back and the circle has gone around again but here I am again trying to finally get my health in order and to stop the merry go round which is my relationship with food.

Well in my last post i noted that i was finally sticking to a healthy diet…..well i was….pretty much raw vegan and really feeling great but I lost around 10lbs in 1 week. However I lost nothing by the end of week two and started to get twitchy and wondering whether I had reduced my metabolism because i was really eating very little. Still no further weight loss by the end of week 3 and that was it big blow out binge…..I mean why suffer… and control what i am eating if I am not going to see the rewards. Also i began to persuade myself that 5 small meals of carbs and protein….anyway and on it went……the cycle continues……

…..So where am i now, well eating chocolate and pasties, with bad skin, a tight feeling chest and generally feeling under the weather. Contemplating recent news of a close friends brother in law passing away in his 30s without any underlying medical condition, and just like me with a little one…..scary stuff and time to make some serious changes. Then i just read a comment from someone on this blog who said she lost someone at 51 who seemed to be exemplary in his food and exercise habit – which makes me wonder if there really is any point – and do you know what i think there is! Why – well i truly believe the universe will work out the way it is meant to be – but my responsibility to myself and to my family is to take the best care of this ‘home’ that i have been given to live in…..i mean without my body where am i going to live!

As some of you might know i am massively passionate about Latin Dance and am planning on teaching……..so i have given myself 8 weeks before my first class, time to get serious….the past couple of weeks I have been trying to workout (cardio) and hour a day….but just when i want to ramp it up a bit I have a sore throat and tight wheezy chest – dont really know why but I dont think it would be good to exercise….so will get the food in order tomorrow and hopefully that will get ne back on the right road,

I am hoping to write on my blog daily………so thanks for reading and write tomorrow…..

Clairey X

Yipee my first day of actually STICKING TO IT!!

claireyfairey — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:10:54 +0000

Whoow hooo my first day of actually sticking to the plan! I was very determined when i got up this morning – not really sure why it differed from any other morning. I didnt really have anything in that i needed to juice nor did i have my juice plan because i have lent it to a friend. So determined i found an old juice plan on the computer. I then bundled up the children and went off to the supermarket to stock up on 3days worth of juice supplies.

When we got home i realised the juicer need a rinse and i need to clear space in the kitchen. All in all it was 11.30 before my first smoothie. I then had a juice at 1.30 another smoothie around 4pm and a final juice at 8pm.

My mood has been all over the place to day sometime feeling elated and happy and at others feeling really low and grumpy. When the children went out with their dad and i was home alone the first thiing my brain went to was ‘mmmmm what can i sneak…mmmm some white fluffy bread and butter mmmmm’ Instead of arguing with myself and forbidding myself i said yeah yeah you can have it in a minute and then never got around to it. I also watched Gabriel Cousens 30 day cure for diabetes and this spurred me on.

I prepared norma meals for the family which was fine. I wasn’t really caraving any of it but i did feel a bit weak inside.

I am not sure how long i will juice but am just taking it each day as it comes right now.

I did 30mins walking / jogging and 30 minutes practising bachata.

Heres to tomorrow!

Friday Update

claireyfairey — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:05:04 +0000

Well, today started really great. I had a banana and ground flaxseeds, really really yummy. Noticed a rash on my neck shortly after breakfaast….wonder if I am allergic? I had an apple around 11am and still felt great. I got home from work around 1.20pm and had to be out by 2pm. The salad in the fridge had frozen and gone a bit offish. I ended up going for the leftovers of last night…..not vegan or that healthy.

We then went to a photoshoot and i spent some lovely time with my friends and chocolate was offered and I had 3 chunks of choc mint!

We retuned home it was dinner time. I had the leftovers again! Resisted the Ice- cream. I spent this evening watching the tennis and trying to decide what to do with my eating. I am planning to do some juicing. I am going to have warm water and lemon and then get off to the supermarket to get some produce to make some juices for the weekend.

Oh yeah when I weighed today I was 11st 3…..my gosh!!

Til tomorrow

Clairey XX

A Stuck Record!…..Another Restart….

claireyfairey — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:57:18 +0000

Hi…well if you are fedup with reading about my excuses and restarts i can assure you it is worse for me. My self esteem is on the floor at the moment! I don’t seem to be able to stick to anything! I don’t know what is wrong with me! I can be so self disciplined in other areas of my life.

The past few weeks i have been feeling awful. Lots of migraines, bad skin, grumpy moods, blocked sinuses and a tight chest feeling. I feel like i am in my fifties. I cannot even salsa one dance without getting red faced and puffy. My weight is still going up and up and I have reached an all time high of 11st 4lbs ( 158lbs) and as you will see from my stats I am only 5ft 1!! ERG I feel so guilty – my poor little ones need me to be in their lives for as long as I can yet I continue to make these life sapping decisions about food. Its like a slow suicide – I wish I knew why i do it. I do want to stop now though. I just dont want to do it anymore – although there is part of me that still feels compelled. I hope this makes sense to some of you…it is irrational i know!

Anyway – lets do this one day at a time! Tomorrow i will be eating fruit and seeds for brekkie, followed by fruit for snack and salad beans for lunch and a soup for dinner. I want to do a 30min walk a day maybe graduating to a jog as my fitness allows.

I will update my stats in the morning in will update at least daily but more if things are going awry!

Till tomorrow XX

Not Coping so I am Going to Modify the Plan – slightly

claireyfairey — Sun, 31 May 2009 08:50:53 +0000

OK – well its early and i have been like a bear with a sore head every since I got out of bed this morning. I couldn’t really face breakfast so between 7-9 I ate nothing then lots of thoughts kept on whirling in my head about a conversation that I had last night with my partner Mark. Essentially that this is a sorted of starvation diet and although one of my aims is to maintain lean mass while melting off the fat. I am concerned that this program will significant reduce my BMR and therefore make me gain massively if I return to a less rigorous diet. I know Dr Fuhrman would argue that that is the point and long term calorie restriction leads to decreased morbidity and mortality but how much would this give me over a ‘clean’ diet as advocated by body builders etc. The bodies that I admire are the fitness models – if they look that fit on the outside surely they are fit on the inside. and their body fat %s are out of this world.

I recently read Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle by Tom Venturo and I am going to switch to a modified version of this as I cannot but up wiht my low energy and grumpiness – with the two little ones I just cannot cope with no energy.

I will place the refined food plan in my food plan

I was so tempted to delete this blog and start again but I want this blog to be a true reflection of my experiences – not some perfect blog of the perfect journey. In addition I am mostly blogging for myself – so when i read it back I might notice some trends etc and you never know that might help me too.

Lets see how I go ……I am still accountable to getting the results at the end of each week!

Will post later

End of Day 1 Summary

claireyfairey — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:28:42 +0000

Well a peculiar first day. I started the day with some berries and flaxseeds. I didn’t eat agin until 12.15pm at which point i did feel incredible hungry. I threw together some salad leaves, a red pepper, 1 cup of flageolet beans and a very small drizzle of oil. About an hour after lunch i began to have that strange feeling where i was hungry but i wasn’t really satisfied either. I felt icky and a little headachy. My mind was telling me that this is no way to eat and that i cannot sustain eating like this for ever. Then I reminded myself that its ‘just for today’ and I am going for the 6 weeks and will make my decision then. Bu mid afternoon I was feeling really hungry so I had half an ounce of cashews. For dinner i ate steamed brocolli, leeks and brussel sprouts along with 1 cup of steam wholegrain rice. Also lots of water along the way. Going back to the gym was a bit odd, my legs were really heavy and my calves where cramping by the end – hopefully it will all improve in time. When i got back from the gym i was feeling hungry so had some cherries and to be honest it is 8.20 pm now and i am still feeling hungry. I think this might be a process of getting used to eating less. I doubt I will eat more tonight. I definitely did not feel great today but sticking to it and will see what will happen tomorrow. I will update my stats and

Introduction

claireyfairey — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:50:22 +0000

Hello Claire here. I am a 33 year old mother of two. I am pretty average really. I work in the NHS and am a qualified Occupational Therapist. I also run and online website for pregnant women suffering from morming sicknesss and have written a book based on how to use EFT to cure morning sickness . I absolutely love to dance and at the moment am enjoying salsa.I am really passionate about self improvement and self development and regulary wish there were just a few more hours in the day.

I have been dabbling with raw foods on and off for quite some time. I will not lie to you though, I am either raw or scoffing chocolate by the caseload and it seems I am off more than I am on this diet. This is such a shame, because when I stick to juicing and raw foods i find that I feel fantastic, my skin glows and I feel like I am buzzing with life. It all goes slightly wrong though because I use food not only for nutrients but as an emotional crutch. It seems when i feel happy, sad, lonely, frustrated or bored my answer is food, and not of the wholesome variety.

As a consequence my weight is continuing to spiral out of control and no doubt although not apparent right now I am absorbing health consequences. A series of serendipitous events have happened recently which have made me realise that I really want to pursue following a high raw diet for the purposes of weight loss, health and vitality. Also I believe by actually sticking to a goal it will have a positive impact on my self esteem. In the past i have also noticied that my children often mirror me in my food choices, so it’s time to be a more positive role model.

While researching the best and most nutritious diet I stumbled across the vast library of health articles. I came across Dr Joel Fuhrman and his Eat to Live program. I had read this book before but perhaps I was not ready for it. While now however I feel like I have reached that time when I really want to make a change. I have decided to blog my journey to an anonymous audience to both help me with accountability but also to maybe help anyone else going through the same as me I have decided to commit to the Eat to Live program for the next 6 weeks with no excuses then review where I am .

You can find out why I want to follow Eat to Live here

You can see my daily food plan here

You can see photos of my progress here

You can see my weekly statistics here

May the recovery begin