Break Time!

I've had a little break from everything - from work, from my food diary ... and from blogging too, it seems! So, a big update today. Things went really well over Christmas. I'm really proud of myself. I didn't once eat so much that I felt sick. I made sure I ate salad/veges at every meal as well as unhealthy stuff. I didn't drink too much.

(Well, I guess that depends on your definition of 'too much'. Enough to make me feel sick? Or enough to make me say things I shouldn't have? ..... )

Up until Christmas, things were not going too well exercise-wise. I was just too busy. Though running around the shops may have done some good, as B noted the other day that I look smaller from the back. Nice! That made me feel confident enough to weigh myself this morning and sadly, the scales and tape measure tell a different tale. Every measurement is higher! I've put on 1.2kgs since I last weighed myself in early November. I didn't have my last set of measurements to hand this morning, but I think they've gone up, too. More's the pity. But on the bright side, I put on less than 2kgs over the Christmas period! Last year I put on over 5kgs, and it took me all year to get them off again, so it's a win, really. Plus I don't feel terrible about myself like I did last year, either.

Not To Mention ...

Just before Christmas, Boy decided that we should have a blood pressure machine. Last time I went to the Doctor, my blood pressure was astronomical, though I'd been exercising right before I went to see him, so it could have been slightly skewed. (More than slightly!) I'd been a bit worried ever since, but not too much because of the skewed results. So then we bought the blood pressure monitor, which is made by a very reputable company that make ones for real-and-proper doctors as well. We took it home and measured ourselves straight away. Cos we love our new toys!
Well, it's still astronomical. Ahem.

So I have decided to Take Steps. Namely - 1) start putting an effort into exercising again (but building up slowly so I don't bust a vein); and 2) really making an effort to decrease my stress levels by meditating regularly.
And I have meditated every day since then. I find it really daunting, I just always get this idea in my head that I'm bad at it. So I've started with 1 minute per day. I don't time myself. In fact I do it in bed right before I go to sleep. And I find it helps me get off to sleep better. Some extremely stressful things have happened in the last few days, and I think it's helped me cope a bit better, in conjunction with the exercise. Now is time for me! I deserve it!
I'm also working on a list of goals for 2012, but I'll talk about that next time.

In Related News ...

Boy gave me what I wished for, for Christmas - the Zumba for Kinect game!



I've played it once so far and really enjoyed it. I can see myself playing it regularly - hopefully! I love dancing, and that's what this game is all about! I can't review it yet - 25 minutes of playing the most basic tutorials doesn't really give it justice - but we'll see.
Boy and I have been watching a lot of music videos lately to fill in time (while doing knitting or something like that, in my case) and I've been getting an urge to jump up and try to copy the dance moves! But I feel a bit daft and silly doing that, so I haven't ... yet!

Beauty Blather

Not much to say right now - could my obsession be waning? I'm really trying to save money at the moment, so I'm trying to cut back on the impulse purchases. I got an email just before Christmas from the Lust Have It mob, saying there will be no beauty box for January (and no charge). I was so disappointed I almost signed up with 'I Love This Box' (even lamer name!) as I heard some good reviews. But I've resisted so far! I'm not saying I'll resist much longer!
Writing up my beauty products inventory (see links in sidebar) has had another consequence that I didn't intend - it's made me realise how many things I have that are reaaaaalllly old. So I determined that I would throw away 5 items - and yesterday I did it! I sometimes have a tendency to hoarding, so this was in the Good Thing category.

And Finally ...

I'm absolutely obsessed with my new iPod Touch and all the apps I can get for it. In the last few days, I got a To-Do List, and one that I can use to track my exercise, weight and blood pressure (not actually measure them, just record them! ehehhe) and pretty much anything else I can customise into it. But I think my favourite one is LaoTzuLite, with wise quotes. I like to bring up a random quote every morning. Here's today's:

Health is the greatest possession.
Contentment is the greatest treasure.
Confidence is the greatest friend.
Non-being is the greatest joy.

Book Review: Foods That Fight Cancer

Recently finished reading Foods that Fight Cancer by Richard Beliveau and Denis Gingras. I'll just do a quick summary. The first section explains what cancer is, how it happens and how the nutraceuticals in certain foods can prevent or lessen the risk of this happening. This section is comprehensive, but written in an easy-to-understand way, with plenty of diagrams to help explain.

The second section looks at the specific foods or groups of foods that're the best, discusses the particular phytochemicals they contain and how they're beneficial. The authors run a laboratory and most of the information comes from their own research. (You might think, wow, that sounds dodgy, but I'll discuss why I don't think that at the end.)
Just quickly, the foods listed are (I've left out some I don't like or can't eat):

* cruciferous vegetables - best are brussels sprouts and collard greens. Also very good are broccoli, cauliflower, kale and bok choy - best cooked lightly and chewed to release compounds - at least 4-5 serves per week.

* garlic - at least 1 clove per day - best if crushed or chopped - also onions, shallots and leeks are good.

* soy products - best are soy flour, soy beans (edamame), miso - also good is tofu (not soy sauce!) - 40-60g per day, or equivalent 25mg of isoflavone (for miso soup this would be 3 serves) - suggests to increase quantity gradually and don't eat more than recommended.

* turmeric - apparently this stuff is especially good! - 1tsp a day, must be eaten in conjunction with 1/2tsp pepper (preferably black).

* green tea - preferably best quality, from Japan rather than China - 3 cups per day, equally spaced throughout the day, steeped for at least 5 minutes and no more than 10.

* berries - best are raspberries (make sure to eat the seeds), strawberries and blackberries - also good are blueberries, bilberries and cranberries - frozen and dried are fine, juice is not quite as good.

* Omega-3 fatty acids - you can get them from oily fish, blech! I prefer to take capsules instead. I take them for my eczema anyway, so there's no need to change anything there.

* Citrus fruit - oranges, lemons, mandarines, grapefruit.

* Tomatoes - best thoroughly cooked, in conjunction with an oil (olive oil is best) - fresh is better than canned - tomato paste is also good as it's more concentrated - 2 meals per week

* red wine - up to 2 glasses per day - wine from a cooler, more humid climate is better

* chocolate - dark, 70% cocoa or more - 50g per day

* cinnamon and cocoa powder (minimum 2tsp per serve) - the only problem with these is that it's hard to eat enough to get the benefits. Plus adding milk cancels them out.

Other foods with benefits are:
* carrots, potato, squash, cabbage (white and red), soymilk, pecans, cherries, plums, avocado, peaches, mangoes, apricots, red beans, artichokes, potatoes (russet), asparagus, sweet potato, radishes, spinach, alfalfa, barley, basil, rosemary, black tea, capers, celery, chilli, clove, eggplant, fennel, aniseseed, coriander, ginger, lentils, lettuce, parsley, mushrooms (esp. shiitake), thyme, wheat bran, wakame.

The third section discusses how best to go about things. There are 3 main principles:

1. Diversity - make sure you eat a variety of foods, as there are different essential phytochemicals in different foods.
2. Regularity - it's important to eat some or all of these foods every day.
3. Effectiveness - consume the food or drink in the correct way for it to be most effective, e.g. steeping green tea for at least 5 minutes, or eating turmeric and pepper together.

They point out that it pays to look at certain traditional diets: the Mediterranean and Japanese (and to some extent, the Indian). All the above foods feature heavily in one or all of these cuisines, and people from those areas have very low rates of cancer. So if you're not able to go into detail analysing what you're eating, for whatever reason, if you stick to those cuisines you should be fine.

They point out very strongly that you shouldn't substitute supplements for fresh food, and they go into detail about why. This was the part of the book that really sold me. In other books I've read, they go on and on about what you should/shouldn't do, and then at the end they say, "and guess what? I have the perfect diet/multivitamin/drink/workshop to help you out with that!" So this book was a breath of fresh air. They're not trying to sell you anything. That's why I've taken so much time and effort to take note of what they've said.
It's an extra reason to feel good about eating those brussels sprouts! And you have to eat chocolate and drink wine every day. I can cope with that............ ;)

This post was transferred from calorieking.com.au