Posts by shakti411

Sodium is a poison to the body so it stores it in the tissues and then sucks up as much water as possible to dilute it. That's what causes the bloat. Regular table salt is highly processed to the point where it's not even anything you could call "food." Try switching to sea salt. It's much more natural, has lots of minerals in it, and tastes waaaaaay better!

Grapefruits help relieve water retention, too. Be sure not to brush your teeth with toothpaste right away after having grapefruits or lemon juice. That will cause the enamel of your teeth to dissolve.  I don't know how long we're supposed to wait before brushing.

What a great question! For me, motivation is the whole key to my weight and how I feel about myself. I'll start with the data: I'm 58 yo, 5'3", weigh 166. Motivation, for me, has a lot to do with the phase of life I'm in, or my age, I suppose.

For most of my adult life, I was a size 8 and weighed 135 lbs with a very fit body. I worked out with weights several times a week and walked fast for an hour while wearing ankle weights about 5 days a week. I danced ballroom, Latin and swing, and I bicycled. I hiked a lot, too. I was looking for a partner. That was always my motivation--to attract a life partner. I did enjoy looking good, altho I basically thought I was ugly when I was not at all!

Somehow, I never managed to find a partner and now I've given up on that. So I lost my motivation and have been struggling to find something to get me going again. I just mostly tell myself, "I"m old enough to be a grandmother so I might as well cut myself some slack and just let myself be." Nobody else cares how I look. So I've gained 8 more lbs in one year.

Things come along that should motivate me, like my 40th high school class reunion coming up this summer, or a trip I'm taking with strangers in a tour group to the Amazon rainforest in Peru this coming August. But even those things have not motivated me. I think I should want to look good for the reunion, but hey, I'm not going to see those people for another 10 years, if ever. I no longer live in my hometown. I think I should want to be in shape for the hikes through the jungle and to be able to handle the thinner air in that high altitude. But I've still been sitting on my butt eating every night in front of the TV while my exercise equipment collects dust.

HOWEVER! I received a letter from my doctor recently begging me to lose weight and exercise because I'm pre-diabetic. I am not one to be able to prick myself for blood testing every day, so I DO NOT want diabetes! And I got a letter from my 79-yr-old mother whose spine is deteriorating from arthritis. She now has a bone with a split in it that needs surgery. She's already had two surgeries, has a battery pack installed with electrodes up her spine to try to control pain, and she takes morphine every day now for pain. I DO NOT want to live like that--so I know how important exercise is for me! Now I'm motivated!

I've lost 3 lbs in 3 days on a raw/living foods diet this week and that alone is motivating me! If I can see some progress, I feel a whole lot more motivated to keep going. It feeds on itself. I see some possibility that I could actually look good again and feel good again! YAY!

But I hear ya, dangerdoug, motivation, or what it will take, is a constant conversation going on in my head!

Another great thing you can do on your own is to every morning in the shower when you're soaping up, put the flat of your hand under the opposite armpit and pull toward the middle of your chest going across the top part of your breast. Do it several times on each side. This will move the lymph and protect your breasts from breast cancer.

As others have stated, exercise is so important for keeping things moving!

I get Soy Delicious frozen dessert (ice cream) at Whole Foods. Some of their flavors are sweetened with fruits instead of refined sugar. I LOVE the raspberry one! The Mocha Fudge is awesome, too, though I think it has sugar. Their chocolate one is delicious. I like every one I've tried.

Hmm, polpot, my NordicTrack ellipse machine takes me about a minute to burn 10 calories when I'm running on it set on Level 6 (fairly difficult). So if I want to burn 333 calories, I have to go for 33 minutes! The last time I was in a gym and used a different brand of ellipse, I got about the same result, so I believe my machine is calibrated correctly. It's hard to believe you could burn 333 cals in only 20 min!

I make my own, too. It's a very good practice to avoid any processed foods at all! They are full of all kinds of junk that the body doesn't recognize and will just store away in the fat.

I use a bunch of parsley--yep the whole bunch. Rinse it good under the faucet, shake off the excess water, cut off about 2 inches of the stems, or not. Put the entire bunch in the blender.

Pour in 1 to 2 cups of water (I use just one but I have a powerful blender). Add ice cubes if you have to have things cold.

Add whatever fruit you love. Fresh cut pineapple is perfect with parsley! Mango is mouthwatering. Bananas, 2 medium ones, are bountifully beneficial! LOL!

So it's basically just 3 ingredients. Quick and easy, and so very healthful. Parsley is a blood purifier. It makes my skin look terrific!

I have permanent eyeliner--I LOVE it. The only thing is that it fades and has to be redone about every two years. I don't know whether that's common, or just me.

I don't think about setting endgoals. I think about a reason for losing the weight. This time it's a wedding this summer--my niece's. I already bought the dress to wear but it doesn't look that good. I need to rein in some flesh for it to fit without bunching here and there.

I guess I ought to look at more long-term goals to keep me going. I don't know what it would be. Clothes don't really do it for me. It used to be the hope of having a lover, who would then see me naked. But I'm 57 now, so that doesn't happen anymore. Hmmm, mull, mull. At each stage of life, I seem to need something different to keep me healthy and looking forward.

I had a big problem doing downward facing dog in yoga recently!! I've been doing yoga most of my life but all of a sudden one morning, I put my right heel down in the dog pose and it felt like fire was rushing thru my heel. It felt like something was tearing loose all around the half circle of my outer heel where it touches the floor! OWWW! So for about three months, I couldn't put my heel down at all in the dog pose.

The weird thing was that was the only time it ever hurt. It didn't hurt to stand on it, to stretch it, to walk. It only hurt in down dog and felt like more of it was tearing each time. I'm committed to doing my yoga, so I just babied it for three months, then I started aiming it toward the floor VERY gently from then on. Now it's fine but I'm still very careful with it. I put it down very slowly each time.

I think my problem came from calf muscles that are too tight. The older I get, the tighter they seem to get. I used to be VERY flexible all my life.

I tell myself that it's time I grew up and faced facts--and I'm 57! LOL! But the older we get, esp. for women, the heavier we likely get. My doctor is concerned about my heart, even tho I'm not extremely overweight. I weigh 160 and I should weigh no more than 140.

So when faced with temptation, I visualize taking myself by the back of the neck and turning myself around so I'm not facing it. I tell myself to grow up and "get" reality as it IS. Then when I feel hunger, I tell myself that this is just a sensation and it's the sensation that means I'm losing weight. It's exactly what losing weight feels like. Yay! I'm losing weight!!

Once I actually see some results, I get excited and it's much easier to keep going. I start to feel so much better about myself and what I can accomplish that it's easier. I like the feel of my smaller body. I like how much easier it is to get up the stairs! I like being able to wear better looking clothes.

Discipline is like exercising a muscle. The more you do it, the more you CAN do it. It's self-reinforcing. You start to identify yourself as a person who can win in the face of temptation, you see yourself as someone you can count on, you see yourself as STRONG! Yay! And once you've reached your goal, you know from then on in your life that you did it and you can rely on yourself to do it again, if you have to.

I freeze mine solid. Then I thaw it out and squeeze all the water out with my hands. I crumble it up in a fry pan with some olive oil. I add some chopped onions, chopped garlic, herbs, and soy sauce to color it darker, and fry it like hamburger. It can be used exactly as you would ground beef--in spaghetti, in tacos, etc. Or you can mix an egg with it, add onions, sliced mushrooms, garlic, oregano, sage, celery, and a little oatmeal for a binding agent, then make meatless loaf out of it. Put it all in a loaf pan and bake it at 375 or so for as long as it takes to firm up and be slice-able.

There are just all kinds of things you can do with it. My stepdad HATES the idea of tofu but I fooled him with my spaghetti. He loved it and didn't know he was eating it. Tee hee!

I just make it a point not to trust any processed foods. These multi-national corporations are not looking out for you--they are looking out for themselves. The health-food brands are all owned by these multi-nationals, now, too.

So I'm sticking with my organic corn that I buy at Whole Foods in the bulk containers. It costs about 30 CENTS per pound. Then I pop it on my stovetop in a couple tablespoons of organic, cold-pressed olive oil. I sprinkle on a little garlic powder and a teensy bit of cayenne pepper!

I went raw for four months. I lost 30 lbs along the way toward it and once on it. The most difficult thing for me is eating with other people, which always means eating in a restaurant or at their place (I live in a tiny apartment). I got interrupted from the raw diet by having to be in court for 6 weeks and couldn't take raw food into court with me, plus eating in restaurants with my court buddies for lunch. It's been over a year now and I still have not totally gotten back on it, but I'm almost there.

When on a raw diet, all food cravings go away pretty quickly. But as soon as I eat something cooked or processed, I get all kinds of cravings back. I sometimes have trouble, which I never had before, digesting cooked or processed foods. This could either be because of being raw, or it could be because I'm 57 and just getting old. BTW, a raw food diet does wonders for my skin and makes me look much younger! It also gives me much more energy.

I just started tracking my foods in this website and I'm seeing how extremely high in fats this raw diet is because of all the nuts and seeds I eat. I don't think I'd get enough protein or be full enough without them. I'm getting an A score every day, but fat is 45% of my diet when I eat 1 serving of nuts, 1/2 an avocado, and regular salad dressing on my salad. I try to use 2 Tbs of ground flax every day, too, for the omega oils. I don't want to eat any processed foods, so I'm not going to eat those fakey low-fat or non-fat dressings!

I just want to say that every bit of raw, unprocessed food you eat helps your health a lot! If you eat 2/3 raw--say raw, fresh fruits for breakfast (which is when you should eat them) plus raw leafy green salads with broccoli, carrots, etc. on them, and some nuts for lunches, you'll be ahead of the game, believe me!

I recommend Victoria Boutenko's book on green smoothies. Look her up in amazon.com. Green smoothies are easy to make with a good blender, give you all the fiber and nutrients you can imagine, and are very tasty! Try blending any fruit with an entire bunch of parsley, stems and all, with a cup or two of water and you'll see what I mean. I especially like parsley blended with mango, or with banana, or with pineapple. Collard greens are mild tasting and make a nice addition, too. They are incredibly healthy.

There is a place where you can change your weight and/or by when date goals. I can't describe it right now because it's my first day and I don't know the system real well yet. But I managed to change mine a few hours ago. Poke around and see if you can figure it out. If I can, you can too!