Report: The Two Month Mark

I'm na start this post off with a confession.  I have NOT been following my diet for two weeks.  Yup, I went off plan for two solid weeks.  The first week it was my anniversary, a girls trip I scheduled last December (before the diet came into play), and the celebration of my brother-in-law's birthday.  The second week we went on our Hay-cation.  While I brought about 30% of my own food, part of the farm stay is eating breakfast and lunch with the farm family.  I decided that I didn't want to be fussy about listing my restrictions for our hosts, so I just rolled with it and ate what they prepared.  Because I haven't been careful I have erased any weight loss that I previously attained (but there will be a post speaking to that topic coming soon)

But, there are always lessons to be learned even when we go off course.  In the last two months, I have learned a lot about my personality, food preparation, and how my body reacts when I go off plan.

Lessons From the Last Two Months

• Apparently, I'm not all that attached to red meat.  I've had beef maybe 4 times in the last month.  Not sad.  I've had pork once or twice and it KILLED my stomach.  Sticking with turkey and chicken hasn't been much of a challenge. 
• Cod is gross and I will never make it again.
• Sprouted grain bread is pretty good.
• There's still not a vegetable that I've met that I didn't like.  Vegetarian-ish living has been easier than I thought.   The tomatoes and peppers tend to be the hardest to work around with regard to vegetarian recipes.
• Amaranth flour tastes green and can only be used in certain recipes. If you are an intuitive chef, you'll get that.  Spelt it very versatile as it brown rice flour. 
• I HATE STEVIA.  It tastes terrible and upsets my tummy.
• Restrictive diets require a lot more time and energy to plan and prepare.  I spend WAY, WAY more time prepping for meals than I used to.   This has been both rewarding and challenging.  I feel more connected to my food.  Additionally, I have learned that if it's hard to make, I appreciate it more (and am thus less inclined to overeat it).  Conversely, I've also learned that we are a fairly busy family and if I am going to stay on track (and not spend a billion dollars eating out) I have to have some easy, throw together, go-tos.  Rice and quinoa are always stocked in my pantry.  Costco rotisserie chickens are my new best friend.  Lettuces, avocados, deli turkey, peanut butter, sprouted grain bread, goat cheese, and black beans are also staples.
• I cannot have sugar.  Once the candida diet was done, the restriction on sugar was lifted.  While I still have a fairly limited amount of sugar, having ANY form of sugar at all leads to consuming MORE sugar.   Trying to avoid refined sugar, I experimented with honey and maple syrup.  Pinterest helped me find some alternative no bake cookie and granola bar recipes.  They were great...and I shoveled those bad boys into my mouth like Garfield with a lasagna.  Not good, friends.  Also, we've had the ingredients for s'mores (from a party) in our pantry for the last few weeks...I had to eat it...I couldn't resist.  So, the take away lesson for this situation is...NO sugar...NO sugar in the house...at all...ever. 
• My family spends an inordinate amount of time eating communally.  We probably attend pot luck dinners AT LEAST once a week...especially in the summer time.   Now, I can do my best to bring food that I know is good for me.  But...I can't control it all, people!  I can't demand that people bow to my diet needs (and frankly don't wish to).  We've already covered that I am a very needy extrovert...so I'm also NOT going to stop attending all of these delightful dinners.  This presents me with a quandary.  What do I do?  So far I've just tried to make my best choices and then not care after that.  I don't want to ruin a perfectly good opportunity for social interaction by being all tangled up in keeping my diet perfect.  This is still something I need to figure out so that I don't constantly find myself putting unhealthy food into my body.
• My depression has been well managed.  My anxiety has seen a little bit of an uptick, but not severely.  It's still unknown if the diet/supplements are the cause or if it's just a "high" point for me since it's summer.  Summer is full of sunshine and socializing, two things that are like medicine for me. 

Moving forward here's what's going on.

• I plan to get back on track with the Blood Type Diet.  It feels good when I eat that way, so I have to stay with it...get back on the wagon, if you will.
• My doctor ran blood tests a few weeks ago.  I also did a saliva test to check for some hormone stuff and track it through a typical day.  Our next appointment is in two weeks.  We'll see what comes up at that one and determine where I need to go from here.
• During my last therapy session, I chatted with my therapist about meditation.  She gave me some good pointers.  My homework for the month was to work up from 5 seconds of quieting my mind to 5 minutes.  She explained that people often quit meditating because they get frustrated that they get stop the barrage of thoughts that hits you when you try to "get quiet".  Since we had a busy two weeks, I haven't done much work with it. 
• I have decided to make a little spot for yoga on our 3rd floor (that is currently used, primarily, as storage).  I love yoga with my heart.  It's quiet and peaceful and challenges my body without yelling at it.  To create the sensuous environment I associate with yoga, I have arranged to room to manipulate lighting, chosen calming fabrics, purchased good quality incense, and found some soothing Pandora stations to stream while I exercise.  This space will also serve as a dedicated place for meditation.

That's the plan kids.  As soon as I have more info on my blood and spit test results, I will share those with you.  Again, I have some suspicions about what we will find...but, only time will tell.  The next report will be at 3 months.