May 29, 2010
More technical info on my nerdy blog for those that don’t fall asleep to a few programming terms, but I’ve got a new job at Puppet Labs. Aside from the technology, I’m excited about the shorter commute to downtown, the insanely better food options because of all the food carts nearby, and of course the better salary right before the baby is born.
I’ve already been there two weeks now and have probably eaten at DC Veg food cart half the days. Sooner or later I’ll start bring my own lunch from home again rather than eat out in order to save money and not get fat eating out all the time, but for now all the delicious food options are just too much and my new coworkers like to go out to lunch together.
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November 29, 2009
We hosted Thanksgiving again this year, with the difference from laster year being that more people came. Dinner ended up being an even dozen people, and most of them were staying with us too! It was really cool that we could fit so many people in our house and that everyone got along and had enough space to sleep. My grandma even made it down.
Kim did an amazing job planning all the food, and we spent a few days prepping food prior to the big day. We didn’t have any meat at dinner which was awesome. I was very happy that my family was so accepting of not having turkey. Instead we had seitan sausages as the ‘meat’ course. Kim made a few kinds of gravy too, including a wild mushroom gravy that had chanterelles that we picked a few weeks ago.
We even had Tofu Phil from Small Planet Tofu with us for dinner. He runs a tofu company in Newport, WA of all places, and happened to be in Portland for Thanksgiving so we invited him and his girlfriend to dine with us.
I think everyone had a good time the day of, and even over the next few days. We played card cames, Taboo and Rock Band in between neighborhood walks and plenty of leftovers. And after everyone left there wasn’t even much to clean up since everyone chipped in to help with everything. Thanks for coming!
June 1, 2008
The fast is over! Now it’s time to get back to eating solid foods. To start the morning I just ate an apple. However, unlike other fast breaks, it didn’t fill me. For lunch we ate potato soup and I had more than I would have thought. Basically, my appetite returned very quickly, and by dinner the second day we were eating Mac and Cheese.
It’s more than a week since my low weight and I’ve gained back all the weight lost during the fast. Overall I don’t really feel all that different than from before I started the fast, except that I’ve been needing less sleep than before the fast. I’m not feeling tired when I wake up either. And I think my appetite has increased.
May 25, 2008
Day two was also easier than in the past. Perhaps I’m getting used to this. It also helps that we have absolutely no responsibilities right now and plenty of quiet. In the past I got a little grumpy fasting, but since I don’t have to interact with anyone but Kim and we have plenty of time doing our own thing there’s nothing to agitate me.
We did a lighter yoga session today, which was good. For juice we did some stuff with carrots today. We also have a cup of vegetable broth that Kim prepared with organic veggies. As far as cravings, there weren’t any that I remember. At one point I felt hungry, but I had a spoonful of honey and was immediately reenergized.
I again lost two pounds from the other day. I do wonder where that weight comes from since by now there’s nothing really coming out of my body except for water, and I’m replacing that with a lot more.
One more day! Of course, after that breaking the fast is gradual process. For example, the first day of solid foods all we eat is an apple and some potato soup. Even though I’m not having massive food cravings, I definitely miss just chewing something.
May 24, 2008
This first day of the fast was surprisingly easy compared to past fasts. I was barely ever hungry, although I think a large part of that is due to my decreased appetite eating raw for the previous five days. There were a few food cravings for bread mostly, but once again, I think that carries over from the previous days of eating raw.
To help the fast along, as usual, we took about a tablespoon of Epsom salt in a warm glass of water. It’s really disgusting to drink, but man does it empty you out. For juice we had beets, apples, spinach, and a few other assorted veggies. Later in the day we did a juice with watermelon (juice the rind too, there’s vitamins and stuff in there) and mint that was tasty. We did an hour of yoga which may have been a little too intense. We also drank some herbal teas and a ton of filtered water.
I’m always surprised how much energy and concentration I have while fasting. However, this is accompanied by occasional feelings of weakness and dizziness, especially if I stand up too fast. The first day I don’t usually feel crappy, like often happens the second day when the toxins are supposedly leaving en masse. Other physical symptoms include a lot more sweat than normal and a huge layer of guck on my tongue that I scrape off. Again, this is supposedly the body’s way of releasing those toxins. So far I’ve lost two pounds from my morning weight to my evening weight, although, again, the goal of the fast is not to lose weight. The weight lost during the fast usually comes back pretty fast anyway since when you start eating again your body stores calories like crazy.
On to day two!
May 23, 2008
In preparation for our current fast, Kim and I have been eating only raw food for the last 5 days. We were only planning on doing 4 days, but we made more food that we thought and had a lot of leftovers. Most people to prepare for a fast will go vegetarian or vegan for a few days, but since we’re already eating vegetarian we thought we’d try something new. Eating raw means that the food isn’t cooked above 105 degrees. The idea is that raw food has more nutrients and energy.
It turned out to be fairly difficult to stick to a raw diet, mostly because the food was incredibly fatty and left you craving carbs. Mosty of the food was made from a lot of nuts which are very high in fat. Examples of meals were partly what you’d imagine in cold soups (nut based), salads and dressings, but the entrees were pretty interesting. Kim made a taco with nut based meat and a cabbage leaf for the shell. After a few days of eating like this I started having a piece of bread with the meal and that helped a ton. Everything was very tasty, but it’s like trying to eat 6 avacados, it’s delicious at first but the fat just starts to get old.
Anyway, now that we’ve done 5 days of eating raw (mostly at least), we’re onto what will probably be 3 days of juice fasting. I’ll post more on how that goes this time. We might do more than three days, but three is usually our max because we tend to lose a bunch of weight in those three days (weight loss not being the overall goal, it’s just that losing too much at once isn’t healthy).
