Exercise:
One 40 second plank - goal is to get to one minute
Posture exercises
Foot and leg stretches
20 squats
Arms - 2 lb weights -- 20 reps each of overhead press, triceps chop, reaching row
Menu:
B: one green banana, small cube of Manchego cheese, coffee with MCT oil, honey, and coconut cream
L: 3 slices bacon, yams with caramel sauce, spinach and arugula salad with evoo and vinaigrette dressing
S: one green banana, handful of pecans
D: chicken and rice with a little butter
Last edited by magistra17; 11-26-2017 at 09:39 PM.
Didn't eat enough veggies today. Just feeling kind of tired from the long working day. Lost my favorite black linen sweater at the restaurant this afternoon and feeling like an idiot for leaving it in the booth. Oh well. The sweater doesn't matter. I was shrinking out of it anyway. I bought a cashmere sweater in a smaller size to replace it. Got it on sale for an incredible price. Feeling good about that purchase.
B: one green banana, Quest power bar, slice of Manchego cheese, coffee with MCT oil, honey, and coconut cream
L: 4oz wild caught salmon, roasted veggies with walnut pesto
S: hazlenuts, pistachios
D: small pressure cooked red potato with butter, chicken cooked in butter and evoo, rosemary, onion powder, thyme, salt and pepper
Last edited by magistra17; 11-27-2017 at 10:44 PM.
I keep forgetting to hydrate, so today I really focused on that.
B: one green banana, Iberico cheese from Spain, coffee with MCT oil, honey, cream
L: one whole avocado, 3 slices of bacon, big bowl of Southern greens, Iberico cheese, olives
S: pistachios, hazelnuts, medjool dates
D: another big bowl of Southern greens, one glass of red wine
Last edited by magistra17; 11-29-2017 at 10:16 PM.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,394
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
HI Magistra. I have been following along, and hope you have not given up on posting your progress. It is inspirational to me, so I hope you are just busy.
I do have one question about your green bananas. Do you buy your bananas often, or how do you keep them from ripening too fast? I prefer green or at least slightly green ones. Once they reach the all yellow point I'm done with them, and DH likes them after they become speckled.
Wannabehealthy Hello! I have been really busy this week and I just realized today that I haven't posted for a while. I am in So. California in the center of all the fires. We have high wind and we lost our power and our internet for a couple of days. That was so hard!
As to the green bananas, I do purchase them a couple times a week in order to be able to eat them green. I shop at several different stores in order to get a big variety of foods. So, it's easy for me to just look for green bananas at whatever store I'm at. If the bunch is too big, I break some off, so I'll only buy maybe 4 bananas at a time, and that will last a couple days. I have a daughter who likes to eat them when they are speckled. If they ripen too fast, I give them to her. I had always thought that I had to wait for them to ripen a bit before I could eat them. So when I read the Plant Paradox I was happy to finally have permission to eat them green, which is the way I like them. What I didn't know was that when they are green they work as a resistant starch, which has more benefits than eating them ripe, one being a natural fat burner.
This week I started putting a teaspoon of manuka honey into my coffee. For some time now I have been experiencing a little stomach ache after drinking my coffee with MCT oil and cream. Not a major stomach ache but enough for me to notice something was off. I wasn't sure which was causing the problem, the cream or the oil, so I experimented with different cream. I was using coconut cream for a while and that seemed to solve my problem. But I really like cow cream so I went back to it. In comes the manuka honey and voila! No more stomach ache. Bizarre. But happy!
I didn't know what was special about manuka honey except that it's really expensive. I found a small reasonably priced jar (but still expensive for honey!) at Trader Joe's and decided to try it out. When I discovered it took my stomach ache away, I looked into it further.
Apparently, manuka honey is named for the plant that the bees feast on. The manuka plant is related to the melaleuca plant; both are "tea tree" plants and are native to New Zealand and Australia. I have been using melaleuca oil for more than 20 years. It has wonderful medicinal properties. I use it for all kinds of things. It works really well as an antifungal.
I'm happy that I tried out manuka honey. It is good for the digestive system and the immune system. When I put it into my coffee, in addition to eliminating my stomach discomfort, I am also getting the benefit of a prebiotic and an immunity booster. I just wish I could find it for a little lower price. I wonder if anyone is making it here in the US?
They actually say that bananas should be stored and ripened in the refrigerator! I've always heard NEVER put them in the refrigerator. Mine sit out on the counter.
Life gets really busy in December and it's a little hard to keep up. I'm going to post my meals as I eat them and just edit my post all day long. If I wait to post in the evening, sometimes I can't remember everything I ate.
B: coffee with MCT oil, a teaspoon of "regular" honey, cream; 1/2 a can of sardines in olive oil; a full plate of arugula with evoo and vinaigrette dressing; small handful of pistachios, 1 1/2 squares 78% dark chocolate.
L: two apple muffins (these were out of this world!), handful of pecans
D: 2 meatballs (grass fed beef), gravy, white rice cooked in pressure cooker, half a plate of Brussels sprouts (these were sauteed in butter with chopped onion and fresh chopped basil - delicious and I had to have seconds)
Sundove Hi! omg, I love my new cashmere sweater. The last time I owned a cashmere sweater was in the 80's. I forgot how soft they are. I wanted to sleep with it the first day, but decided I had better not. lol! It's good to hear from you! I have been following your posts and it makes me happy to see you posting. December is so hard. At around 3pm the long shadows make me feel like the day is over and then I feel a little anxiety. I can't wait for the days to start getting longer again.
I've ditched the arm weights for now. I did them for about three days and my neck and shoulders got really sore. Maybe I overdid it. So, for now, I'm just sticking to a plank, squats, posture exercises, foot and leg stretches. Good enough for now. I really want to get in some slow walking, but I'm just not finding the time. I have to work on that.
Menu
B: coffee with coconut cream, coconut oil, and honey; leftover brussels sprouts reheated with slivers of blanched almonds; two pastured eggs scrambled with a little cream cooked in evoo
L: a handful of pecans (didn't really have lunch)
D: two tacos made with grassfed beef, shredded cabbage, sour cream, avocado slices, sriracha sauce and homemade tapioca and almond flour tortillas
Last edited by magistra17; 12-11-2017 at 07:08 PM.
Magistra, Enquiring minds want to know, what color is the sweater?? It's a well-earned reward for you! I'm with you re the short days. In less than a month, we will be gaining daylight. Keep up the great work, you are very inspiring!
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,394
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
Do you believe, in all my many years on God's green earth, I have never owned a cashmere sweater? I think I should add that to me list of things to acquire before I die. Being retired, I don't buy many clothes anymore, so I think I can splurge on one thing. And it's not as if I won't get enough wear out of in our PA winters.
Magistra, I recently bought a contraption I love for arm exercises. It is called an R-Horse Arm Exerciser and is sold on Amazon. It is exactly like the Wonder Arms they advertise on TV but much cheaper. I like it because I can use it while sitting watching TV and I once used it while riding in the car on a trip. (Passenger, not driver. LOL)
Today's menu:
B: one green banana, one whole avocado sliced up with iodized sea salt, coffee with MCT oil and cream
L: leftover taco, tortilla, shredded cabbage, sour cream and more avocado slices, 2 squares of 78% dark chocolate.
D: grass fed beef stew with fennel, carrots, thyme sprigs, mushrooms, vegetable broth, red wine
Sundove The sweater is black. Since I lost my black sweater, I just went with black again, but it comes in other colors and I would love to have a second one but can't spend the money. I did put a berry colored cashmere shawl on my wish list for my husband. Maybe he'll get that for me. We will see!
Wannabehealthy oh, I think you should definitely splurge on a cashmere sweater. You won't be sorry! Thanks for the tip on the arm exerciser. I will definitely look into that. Do you do any exercises that work your triceps? i would love to get rid of the underarm flab!
Keep up the great work, you are very inspiring!
