Better 4 1/2 Months late than never

Ronnie started his New Years Diet yesterday. Finally! He and several friends put $300 each into a pool and have given them selves until September 1st to loose weight. They all weighed in and the one who loses the most wins the $2,400 pot. Ronnie was the fattest at 268 pounds, so we'll track it and see how well he does. Remember, last year, he lost 40 pounds in 75 days by becoming alkaline with alkaline water and alkaline foods.

He's pulled me off my diet many times in the last months by bringing home pizza and ice cream. Usually I resist, but too often, maybe one if four times, I don't. That has kept my weight hovering right around the same mark for a while now. I weighed in yesterday at 157.4, exactly the same as last week and only one ounce less than two weeks ago. Let's see how we do with eating right.

weighing in

Sorry I didn't get around to posting earlier in the week, I've been working 14 hour days. I only lost one ounce last week. Made it down to 157.4 pounds. Seem to be going around in a loop in that area. I've increased my walks to 5-6 days a week for 30 minutes each. I'm really enjoy extra energy, as yesterday I worked a very full day on 3 1/2 hours sleep. Other days I've gotten 4-41/2 hours of sleep. Personally I prefer more and was grateful for the 7 hours I got last night. But I've decided that rather than waking up and tossing and turning, I go a head and get up and start working. I'm not trying to get up and work at 3 am, but if I'm awake, why not work?

ARRRRRRRRRRRR 3.24.08 Weigh in

My weight has yo-yoed all weekend. I was down to 154 last Thursday and up to 155.1 a couple of days ago.
So just imagine my disgust as I weighted in this morning at 157.5!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am wearing sweats and long sleeves but come on. I ate about 5 pieces of bread over the weekend and 3 pieces of cherry pie, so clearly flour and sugar have had their way with me. Boy am I bummed. I was so glad after 3 months of dieting to finally have broken the 10 pound mark and then here I am, just heart broken. Well the, back to work at being serious about this. The amazing thing is that you will quickly see that when ever Ronnie gets around to joining me on this, he will lose 10 pounds in about 14 days and keep it off instead of my 14 weeks and yo-yoing!

Action equals results

Though you are not yet sure exactly how you will finish, go ahead and get started. Even the smallest amount of progress can motivate you to keep going. The big achievements begin with small achievements and the small achievements come from making the initial effort.No matter where you intend to go, there is always a first step to be taken. Take that first step now. Nothing can equal the sense of accomplishment that comes from getting results. Though it's great to have faith that you can do it, it's even better when you know from your own experience. Action is what will transform your faith, your hopes, your best intentions into real and undeniable results and now is the time to act.Take that first step, keep on going and don't look back. You can do it, when you decide that you will.

I weighed in at 156.5 this morning. Down about half a pound from last week. I've been walking for 30 minutes almost every day. My results have been very slow but at least are still moving in the right direction which right now is DOWN.

3.10.08 weigh in

Well I lost 2 1/2 pounds this week, although I seem to have lost and gained that same weight several times. I am now at 157.01 and am diligently working to lose more. For those of you wondering what happened to Ronnie, he literary dieted 4 days and quit!

March 3rd weigh in Results

Weighed in at 159.5 which is a 15 ounce loss.
I'm still discouraged with my results and have ramped up my exercise somewhat, but it's still mild exercise. I had lunch with a friend last week who asked me if I had measured myself since I'd started this plan. The answer was no, but it got me to thinking about a woman that I once met at a gym. This woman ran on the treadmill for 45 minutes at a time. Something I still couldn't do today, and she was in her late 40's early 50's. One day in conversation she told me that she hadn't lost a pound since she'd started working our 9 months before but that her body had totally been reshaped and that she was very happy with the results. I was very discouraged about that as I want to LOSE weight. In her case I know that we can over exercise which causes our body to become acidic with blocks weight loss.

Anyway, all that to say that I cam home and measured my waste and belly and found that I had lost a full inch off of each! I am VERY happy about that and bought some new clothes to celebrate..

Monday Weigh in and what I ate 2.4.08-2.17.08

Almost forgot to weigh in this morning.
Lost 8 ounces which is half a pound. Weighed in at 157.7
Ronnie isn't here for me to drag onto the scale. He didn't want to admit last week that he had gained a pound. I don't seem him embracing this with full enthusiasm yet, although he did exercise twice last week that I know of.

Here's what I've been eating which will also help explain why my weight loss is so slow. I've been on quite a chocolate binge lately but am still grateful that I'm losing some weight even if slowly.


2.4.08
Exercise—15 minutes on the rebounder
Glass of fresh vegetable juice squeezed on my Champion juicer by my husband Ronnie
2 blueberry smoothies through out the day as I’m fasting solid foods for religious purposes.

2.5.08
Breakfast---Glass of fresh vegetable juice squeezed on my Champion juicer by my husband Ronnie
1 blueberry smoothies through out the day as I’m fasting solid foods for religious purposes.

2.6.08
Breakfast---Glass of fresh vegetable juice squeezed on my Champion juicer by my husband Ronnie
Lunch—Soup and Salad at El Torreto with chips and salsa and a glass of tropical ice tea sweetened with Stevia.
Dinner—Tuna fish and Doritos.

2.7.08
Breakfast-- Glass of fresh vegetable juice squeezed on my Champion juicer by my husband Ronnie
Lunch---Salad, watermelon, grits, 3 pork bar-b-que ribs and a hot link.
Dinner---My new Tortilla Soup recipe.

2.8.08
Breakfast—Don’t remember
Lunch---Cream of tomato soup, salad, 2 spring rolls, bread and butter
Dinner---Two things of ice cream probably something else too but I don’t remember.

2.9.08
Breakfast---Don’t remember
Lunch---Creamy green chili soup
Dinner—Cream of sun dried tomato soup
Snack—apple and orange

2.10.08
Breakfast---Chinese food
Lunch—Cream of sun dried tomato soup.
Snack—Bagel and cream cheese.
Dinner---Spinach salad with creamy green chili dressing, half a bagel.
Desert—A handful of chocolate chips.

2.11.08
Breakfast---Egg white salad
Lunch---Chicken Carbonera sandwich from Quiznos, chips and an Ice tea.
Dinner—Chips and Salsa, tuna on a bagel

2.12.08
Exercise—7 minutes on the rebounder
Breakfast 2 neat balls with cream cheese
Lunch---Salad
Dinner---Soup

2.13.08
Breakfast—Blueberry smoothie
Lunch,---salad and sandwich and cup of tea
Dinner—1/2 bagel with tuna, ½ bagel with cream cheese
Snack—Chocolate bar

2.14.08
Breakfast---Blueberry Smoothie
Lunch—Spinach salad with nuts and creamy Anaheim chili dressing.
Dinner—We ate out and had crab cakes, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and a steak dish as well as some bread and margarine.

2.15.08
Breakfast—Blueberry Smoothie
Lunch,--Leftovers from last nights dinner
Snack—Chocolate from Valentines Day.
Dinner—Soup and Salad

2.16.08
Breakfast—None
Lunch—hamburger patty. Found some grass fed beef at Trader Joe’s and wanted to see what it tasted like. Doritos, and Kale.
Dineer—Salad
Snack—Chocolate chips and fruit sorbet.

1.17.18
Breakfast—Salad
Lunch—At Trader Joe’s, I found some grass fed steak imported from Australia and wanted to see what it tasted like. It was incredible. It cost about $4 for one but was so thick I cut it in half. I had mash potatoes with butter, and some cooked chard with it. Wonderful. The chard was also washed, cut and packaged at Trader Joe'’ and I followed the simple recipe o n the package. I never ate chard before and really enjoyed this.
Dinner—Same as for lunch. Yummy.
Snack--- Doritos.

2.11.08 weigh in

Nedalee weighed in at 158.0 pounds this morning. a loss of 1 pound 2 ounces since last week and a total of 7.5 pounds over the last 6 weeks. Not a rapid weight loss, but respectable since I've eaten pretty much anything I wanted.
Ronnie hasn't weighed in yet this week, I'll follow up with that soon.

What I ate 2.1.08- 2.3.08

2.1.08
Exercise 10 minutes on the rebounder.
Breakfast---Neat Balls
Lunch—Two wonderful avocado tacos made by my wonderful husband.
Dinner—1 slice pepperoni, sausage and sausage pizza, 3 cheese filled ravioli, 2 bread sticks with honey. I would have made better choices if I hadn’t had outside influences but Ronnie decided that after 4 days of healthy eating he needed a "cheat day."
8 16 ounce glasses of alkaline water, I think that’s a record for me but I was actually that thirsty.
2.2.08
Glass of fresh vegetable juice squeezed on my Champion juicer by my husband Ronnie
Breakfast—Neat balls.
Lunch—2 of Ronnie’s wonderful veggie avocado tacos.
To be honest, I forgot write down what I ate for dinner, but I remember having about 6 cookies. I’ve had a lot of loss this past week and a half and was depressed over the weekend.
2.3.08
Breakfast---2 of Ronnie’s completely none diet, but very delicious breakfast burritos.
Lunch—Neat Balls, about 6 chocolate mint no sugar but non-diet cookies.
Dinner—Cornbread muffin, 2 chocolate chip cookies, and a lot of bar-b-qued meats.

Ronnie didn't remember to keep a food journal this week. I know that he mostly dieted 4 days and ate junk Friday through Sunday, and still had better results than I did.

Nedalee's and Ronnie's Results:

I weighed in at 159.2 pounds this morning which is actually a 1 pound gain for me. I was depressed over the weekend and ate a lot of junk.

Ronnie on the other hand ate a lot of junk over the weekend and lost 1 pound 9 ounces weighing in at 267.1.

I lost my great-uncle to a peaceful death on the twenty-first of January the same day that Heath Ledger died, and had two acquaintances take their own lives in the last week. I'm going to talk a little about that and how it relates to nutrition in my next post.

What I'm Eating

1.7.08

Breakfast--Blueberry Smoothie

Lunch--- 1 Baja Burrito

Dinner--- Raw Chili

Snack--- 2 Raw donut holes. A great sweet snack. Mine have been in the fridge for about a month and still seem to be fine. I eat one now and then.

8 ½ 16 ounce glasses of Ionized Water

I was really jonesing for something sweet last night and will try to find a new, healthy raw dessert since I’ve been eating the donut holes for a while and because I want you all to know that that they exist.

1.8.08

No formal exercise but I passed out 300 flyers and got pretty winded.

Breakfast--- Blueberry Smoothie ---Sorry guys, your not going to get much variety from me there. I like this, and I don’t normally eat breakfast. I like that I can make up three days worth at a time and grab it on the run.

Lunch---2 pcs. Onion Herb Bread page 78 Living in the Raw Gourmet, with humus, sliced tomato, ½ avocado salted.

Snack---Fresh fruit cup

Snack---Carrot Dill Crackers—page 72 Living in the Raw Gourmet, it’s a bread recipe but I made it thinner into crackers. Spread with store bought humus. Plus Trader Joe’s Chicken salad—not diet, vegan, vegetarian, or raw, just what was left over in my fridge and about to expire. I’m going to Newport Beach tonight and was hoping to eat light so Ronnie might take me to my favorite restaurant.

Dinner--OK, it worked, but that means I ate too much. 3 Bar-b-ques beef ribs. Mash potatoes and some really great peanut coleslaw with spinach and cilantro in it. I ate all the peanut slaw first to fill up and the rest last. Didn’t even enjoy the ribs or potatoes and brought most of it home to my sons. The Bar-b-que sauce and the slaw both probably had lots of sugar in it.

5 -16 oz. Glasses of Ionized Water

Another snack---3 Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies very good and easy to make, will publish the recipe soon.

Week 1 Diet Results

Week 1 Diet Results

Started 1-1-08 at 165.5
Weigh in 1-7-08 results 160.2
Result 5.3 pound loss in one week. YEAH!

I have to tell you I really step on that scale in fear because of the high fat content in the new style of eating. I will be posing an article about that soon called Fear of Fats.

Changes--- I notice that I'm not needing to eat as many snacks. My new bathroom habits which I will spare you the details, are evidence that all the new fiber in my diet is cleaning me out. I have much more energy. As a matter of fact, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and started writing this at 6:13 a.m.. A big change from when I met Ronnie 41/2 years ago, I hadn't gotten out of bed before 8:30 a.m. in many years. Lastly, five days into this new diet, I've noticed a significant change in my skin. I had beautiful, almost perfect skin in high school, but have had some acne from my 20’s through current 40’s. I've always said that it’s unfair to have pimples and gray hair at the same time! Anyway, I've had a couple of zits the last tow days, but the rest of my skin is brighter and smoother and softer. I think it’s because of all the healthy oils in my new healthy living diet. Many people say t hat they see changes in their skin after drinking alkaline water. But for me it’s taken the water and the diet.
By Nedalee Ruiz
Nedalee is the author of The Desperate Parents Handbook http://www.desperateparent.com/
Nedalee recommends http://www.healingwatermachines.com/ for more articles on health and healing.
Copyright © 2008 By Nedalee Ruiz Permission granted to reproduce in entirety only including links and author credits.

The Tortoise and the Hare

Well, I've stated eating healthier and making better food choices. Already my energy has increased. So Like the Hair in the fable, I'm out of the starting gate. The holidays have been hard for Ronnie, he seems to have been hit hard by depression over the loss of his Mother. He's putting off his New Year's resolution diet for a few days and comforting him self with food. I saw him eat an entire pint of ice cream last night which is not unusual. So having lost my guinea pig for the blog, I will have to step in and post my own fat pic. To summarize some of my last posts for those of you who haven't been following along, Ronnie lost 40 pounds last year drinking alkaline ionized water and eating a more alkaline diet. He gained it back eating comfort foods after he quit chewing tobacco and lost his Mother in the same month. He's vowed to lose it and more this year, but hasn't started trying yet.

My effort will include mild exercise, a more alkaline diet, and lots of alkaline ionized water. I am going to explore Vegan, Alkavarian, and Raw foods, but have not committed to eating them exclusively as I'm still an omnivore who loves Bar-b-que. Like any wise dieter, I will try to avoid the dreaded white foods, Rice, Potatoes, Sugar, Milk and Bread. But again, I not going to say never. As you will see from my food posts which will follow, I had Cream of Ham and Potato soup for dinner the first night of my diet and may have some more since the pot isn't finished. What I am doing is a very public TEST diet. Raw fooders eat lots of high fat items like nuts and avocados but burn the fat and lose weight. I'm going to see if a fairly inactive over 45'er can get weight loss results.

So here are the current stats: On January 1, 2008 I weighed 165.5 up about 3 pounds from before the holidays. I swear the new weight feels like it's all in my butt. It feels like I have a caboose waddling after me for the first time in my life. My weight is also up almost 30 pounds from my after baby weight from the second child who is now 23. I kept that weight for almost 20 years. My weight can fluctuate even if I weighed 3 times a day, so I'll only weigh in once a week or so.

My measurements, (don't tell anybody) Are a ghastly 41 - 35 1/2 - 38 1/2

What I ate: Jan. 1, 2008

Breakfast- Blueberry Smoothie

Lunch- Fresh broccoli florets dipped in store bought humus. (Broccoli is high in protein.)

Snack Trader Joes Spicy Ranchero Egg White Salad -Low fat, high protein, low carb, cholesterol free and only 50 calories. Tastes like cottage cheese with taco seasoning. Defiantly not raw, not vegn, not alkaverian. I bet that if you soaked almonds in water and chopped them in a food processor with the other ingredient you could make a vegan/raw version.

Another Snack- Store bought salad

Dinner 2 cups Cream of ham and potato soup.

Jan. 2, 2008

Exercised 20 minutes on a rebounder. (I've worked my way up from only five minutes.)

Breakfast- Blueberry Smoothie I buy my blueberries frozen and organic at Trader Joes for under $4 a pound which will make me about 6 smoothies.

Lunch- Tuna wrap because my last avocado was rotten so I couldn't have the avocado wrap that I had planed.

Snack- Apple Dinner- Pomegranate Salad- Don't freak out, it's not complicated, the pomegranate seeds were just a garnish on a purchased salad from Trader Joes. It had some goat cheese too so it wasn't vegan.

Snack- Celery with tuna and humus

By Nedalee Ruiz Nedalee is the author of The Desperate Parents Handbook http://www.desperateparent.com/

Nedalee recommends http://www.healingwatermachines.com/ for more articles on health and healing.

Copyright © 2007 By Nedalee Ruiz Permission granted to reproduce in entirety only including links and author credits.