My Big Fat Orange Cat

My husband and I are trying the alternate day diet. Essentially it’s alternative days of fasting. I had some reservations about this diet, and I still do. It’s definitely not for everyone and it wouldn’t be my preferred eating/weight loss method. But if I can get more veggies into Dennis then this is a good thing.

The first few fast days (500 calories alotted). I was starving. I couldn’t believe I’d ever be able to maintain this diet for any amount of time. I’ve been feeling real yang deficient, more so than usual for me. I decided to moxa my lower abdomen. Usually it’s cold. I think my husband is ready to move out I used so much moxa, over three quarters of stick between the low abdomen and the feet (all kidney and spleen points on the foot).

I don’t usually think of moxa for sleeping, but I slept better than I have in weeks. Additionally, I’m not so hungry. I have noticed that when I over work myself I tend to be hungrier, but the argument is that I’m putting out more energy and so that’s normal. However, I’ve always kind of thought it had as much to do with low blood sugar–you know getting involved in something and not eating so then I feel too hungry. This makes me think that I’ve put out more qi than what I should and so my body is doing everything it can by replacing it with food–any food and preferable as much food as possible.

Most patients who are overweight are spleen qi deficient with damp. Often there are liver issues as well (if you get beyond the spleen qi deficiency). I wonder how much of the over eating that got them to the problem of too much weight had to do with needing to replentish qi stores quickly. Because of the hunger they probably chose foods that didn’t have much qi to offer (quick and processed) and thus started a downward spiral.

Well my goals for the new year are to get excited and organized and start really WORKING at all these things I do at home rather than just playing as a hobby.

I have started a diet my husband likes for him and am trying to decide if it will work for me or not.  It’s called the Alternate Day Diet.  While I’m skeptical as it doesn’t seem all that healthy to me, I do like the idea of having several days a week where you don’t diet at all–but eat what you want.  While the first fast day was REALLY REALLY Hard the second was easier.  I’m also finding that for me, I can’t just do those shakes, as the author recommends but rather I have to eat something.  I have about 400 calories a day.  I can fit a lot of leafy greens into that and chicken broth. Woo Hoo.

I’ll see if I loose any of the huge amounts of weight I need to loose.

I’ve been updating some websites and making them look prettier and re vamping others. I’ve also gotten serious about my SEO stuff on Google and am checking out what that looks like.

I’ll be moving a couple of other sites around this year too.  That’s always such a pain.

Just in a congratulatory mode–I have renewed my license and sent in all the taxes already!  Well not the IRS stuff for the refund but my business taxes.  Now I can get the paperwork together to do the other stuff!  And I moved some investment accounts to TIAA-CREF which is my favorite investment firm and they’ve got some products I didn’t know about so I now have stuff moved there.

I don’t know what’s gone on this year. I’m gaining weight like crazy. I’m not eating more–well okay maybe I am. I’m exercising more and I keep gaining weight. Mostly since September.

I’ve been trying to be mindful and I’ve noticed something–when I focus on eating healthy I tend to loose weight. I tend to gain when I focus on weight loss–I think I am so focused on not wanting to be fat that I don’t think about getting thin.

Also I notice that I tend not be hungry really when I eat when I start gaining, but then I’m never full either so I just eat because–it’s like something to do and has nothing to do with hunger. Nothing satisfies really but heavier things tend to be more so because they are sort of like being stuffed.

I am thinking I really want to do a cleanse after the first of the year and then perhaps do a low carb diet again. I did well on South Beach combined with the Breast Cancer Diet. Basically the BCD is eating a ton of veggies and high fiber which works well with SB. It just means I’m more mindful of avoiding breads–even if they have high fiber. It’s a healthy way of eating because I can eat so much and still get a ton of nutrition. It’s also the only time I’ve ever stuck with any sort of diet for any amount of time. I didn’t feel deprived really at all which was nice.

For now, I’m just trying to watch what I do. I am working on the focus of getting excited about weight loss.

I’m also wondering why is that we don’t focus more on weight loss in acupuncture school. I mean it is about health. It’s not about a quick fix. But it can help. And less weight will increase health but there isn’t a whole lot out there from a Chinese medicine standpoint about weight loss. Deepest Health just had an interesting discussion on this.

Something to think about.

I’ve been trying to think of ways to add more vegetables to my diet. I can eat them, but my husband, like so many isn’t really into them.  I’m tired of feeling like I have to come up with two separate diets or eat them on the sly, as if vegetables are wrong to be eaten.   He needs to stay healthy as well!

So last week I made lasagna.  I didn’t use meat. I used spinach and zucchini.  He wasn’t thrilled with the zucchini slices, but I’m thinking grated zucchini might not even be noticed.   And over all he enjoyed the meal. Today I did something similar with enchiladas.  I used rice and beans for the filling but I grated zucchini into the beans.   Additionally I made my own pico de gallo, given that the tomatos are growing beautifully this fall.

I love grated zucchini. I can be added to almost anything and it just makes things so moist.  A few years ago when one of my zucchinis got a bit overgrown because I didn’t notice that there was a hidden squash, I figured I’d just grate it up in everything. I added it to potato salad and about anything else I could think of.  Most things were just moister and probably had a bit more fiber and nutrition!

It’s vegetarian so will be healthful (and has only a little cheese).  Also it has a couple of servings of vegetables that he can get without really knowing it.  I did purchase one of those heat and eat trays from Safeway with broccoli and cheese and rice.  That was lunch and it was good.

I can always hope that by doing this I’ll loose a bit of the extra weight I’ve gained too!