The World According to Jennyfur

Friday is weigh in day and I’m not expecting to have shed any pounds as of yet, henceforth why I am posting the weekly recap tonight.  I did pretty well at sticking to my 24 points per day, but did burn through all 35 of my bonus points, plus a few activity points. That said, I managed to accumulate 40.5 fitness points. I think I was correct in correlating the increase in appetite to the increase in activity levels.

I’ve been diligently tracking my activity and I am on par to walk about 100 miles this month, which is about equivalent of walking from Philadelphia to New York City.  I wish I had more time to do yoga, but I fit it in when I can.

All in all, I think I did fairly well on my points consumption considering we went out to eat more often than not.

September marks my one year mark on living as a pescetarian. I can’t say I’ve missed eating meat at all. Plus it makes living with a vegetarian much easier to deal with in meal planning and shopping.

Its been a month since my last blog post.  I’m still enjoying my pescetarian/vegetarian lifestyle. It has been a little over two months now and I haven’t hit any major road bumps. Oddly enough, at brunch over the weekend I glanced at a friends breakfast sausage and my brain parsed the craving as that of wanting a Morning Star Farms or Boca vegetarian breakfast sausage. I can’t say that I actually miss meat at all or even crave it at this point.

My appetite has increased a little bit, but I am not sure if that has to do entirely with dietary changes or the change of seasons, its probably a little of both. My weight has been fluctuating a little bit lately, but I’ve been holding steady in the 158-163 range, which is perfectly fine.  I’ve been hovering on the high end of that weight range instead of in the middle. I’m not sure why its fluctuated up a little bit, but my guess its probably a combination of the change of season, allergies, adjusting to a vegetarian diet or other health issues. I’m keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t keep fluctuating upwards. I’ve probably been a little lax on keeping my eating in check, which is something I need to be more vigilant about.  I’ve just noticed that my appetite has increased a bit since making the switch to the pescetarian diet.  I’m sure it will level out over time and that I need to do more research on balancing out my daily diet. I’m trying not to obsess about it because obsessing about every pound can be an unhealthy practice in and of itself.

Since I last posted I picked up a couple more yoga DVD’s: Shiva Rea’s Yoga Shakti and Duncan Wong’s Yogic Arts Awakening Level. I really like Shiva Rea’s workouts and have yet to be disappointed by them. I’ve only had the chance to give the DVD a spin once or twice since I got it, but I really enjoy it thusfar and haven’t had too much trouble, well aside from my three problem areas: headstand, handstand and forearm balance. I don’t really have the adequate space to practice them at home without running the risk of damaging furniture or breaking a window. I’m thinking about seeking some private yoga training over the holidays on these specific areas. I’ve seen classes offered, but I’d rather be instructed one on one than spend two hours falling on my ass in front of twenty people. The Yogic Arts DVD is a bit different, it combines traditional yoga moves with some martial arts postures and movements along with elements of Thai massage.

I’m mostly vigilant in trying to workout every day. I do recognize that sometimes this just isn’t a possibility. I packed up my yoga mat over the weekend for an out of town wedding and threw in a few 20 minute workouts here and there during down time or before bed. This was my first time doing yoga while traveling. The rest of the week has been off, I haven’t been feeling 100% well with allergies and stomach issues. For the most part, I tossed in shorter workouts throughout the week. I’m still mixing in some abs/core work when I can using the stability ball.

Since this gets automatically posted to my Facebook, here is the link to my blog http://www.jennifervatza.com/2009/11/dietyogaupdate/

Namaste!

Since my last update, I have survived my first month as a pescetarian and have officially hit the 40 pounds lost mark weighing in this morning at 160 pounds.

Its kind of interesting to note some of the physiological changes that occur when becoming a vegetarian. My husband told me that  I would notice some changes with my hair and nails since vegetarians often get more protein than they actually need and apparently unused protein causes hair and nails to thicken and/or grow faster. Its been awhile since I’ve had biology classes and whatnot, but I can definitely say that after a month my fingernails have never been so strong in my entire life. I normally kept them short because they were really thin and bendy and would snag and split no matter what I did with them.  Also, seeing as I dye my hair, which is an easy way to actually measure your hair growth, that my hair has been growing insanely fast this month. I dyed my hair one week and the following week I looked in the mirror and said to myself  “What the hell? I need to touch up my roots already? There’s no way I could have missed that much area???” I was hoping to hold off on getting my hair shaped up until next month, but had to make an appointment for today. What my hair lacks in volume it makes up for in weight, which makes it hard to deal with sometimes.

I often joke that I snack on vitamins and supplements like some people snack on candy during their work day.  I even have a small bowl I keep them in on my desk so I remember to take them. I revamped my vitamin regiment a little bit over the past couple months and I have to say I absolutely adore GNC’s new line of  wellBEing vitamins and supplements for women. I’m usually fairly ambivalent to marketing, branding, product packaging and other gimmicky things. But, I have to say, as a creative minded person their vitamins and supplements are so pretty. Its hard to get excited about sucking down a pile of yellow, white and beige pills on a daily basis… but with the wellBEing line, the pills are in bright colors with opalescent or shiny finishes, which makes them more visually appealing.  I haven’t tried out the entire line as of yet and doubt that I will, but as far as my daily regiment goes… I take the be-Whole multivitamin. I have had a hard time finding a multivitamin that I can tolerate, most make me feel sick or upset my stomach. I haven’t had any problems with this one regardless of when I take it or what I have eaten.  I also take the be-Restored Antioxidant Stress Formula (I think this is only available in stores and not on the website), which I like a lot despite the fact that it makes my pee kind of a neon goldenrod color. I take a few additional supplements to support my fitness endeavors. The only one I don’t like is the be-Energized, any type of  “energy” pill  like this tends to make me feel kind of cracked out. They are great on days where you have low energy and even then I only take one instead of the recommended two per day. I think I am just sensitive to something that is in these types of pills. The three supplements I really like are be-Flexible, be-Defined and be-Enhanced. be-Flexible is great if you have stiff joints. While I don’t have any major flexibility issues, I do, however have some hip joint issues and my right side is definitely less flexible than my left side. I’m hoping that I will start to see some improvements over time. I just started taking this supplement last week, so its hard to tell. be-Defined is a toning and sculpting supplement that supports lean muscle and be-Enhanced complements weight loss programs.  Since I’ve been focusing more on toning and sculpting my abs/core and other problem areas I welcome a little supplemental help in the interim.

I have to say that I have been missing my daily yoga ritual while focusing on my abs/core work. I still close out an hour long work out with some restorative and yin poses. I’ve become an avid fan of always doing a 5 minute shoulder stand on a daily basis. I’m starting to see more definition in my abdominal region, but the skin is still loose.  I am probably going to be working on that for quite some time. I picked up one of the Skinny Bitch workout DVD’s from Netflix this week. Aerobic workouts are weird. I find I lack coordination to do moves with multiple sequences where one leg is kicking one way, one arm is raised in one direction, you twist this way, and then punch the sky twice and then squat and then recite Ayn Ran’d Atlas Shrugged from memory… I like the work out all in all, its broken down into 20 minute segments focusing on different areas of the body. I’ll have to give it another whirl. Its so different from the yoga dvds I have and love.  Although, I do like the brunette, she reminds me a bit of Eliza Dushku. I really enjoyed the Skinny Bitch book. Its a little over the top, but it gets the point across and hey it helped forge my decision to become a pescetarian.

Since my blog posts get dumped into Facebook notes automatically I am adding a link to the original blog post: http://www.jennifervatza.com/2009/10/milestones/

Post Meat Consumption Update
I’m two weeks into pescetarian mode and haven’t run into any major obstacles yet. Although, I need to rethink my work lunch strategy, since going pescetarian it eliminated probably about 90% of the frozen lunch/packaged crap options since each brand has a very small amount of vegetarian/fish/seafood options. I’m not saddened to be leaning away from that stuff since even though its low calorie and low fat its still processed to hell and back and loaded down with sugar and sodium. I defaulted to the pre-packaged option since I lack any preparatory wherewithal in the morning hours to make something… heck sometimes I barely have the time to throw a diet soda, frozen lunch, yogurt & muffin into a bag and go. I also am terrible with leftovers so I rarely make anything beyond the meal at hand. Although, I did whip up a pot of vegetarian chili over the weekend, which should be good for a month or so.

I think I need to start planning in advance, which is a complete contradiction to my mood based decisions. If I am not in the mood to eat something no matter how much I love it, it will be a wholly unsatisfying meal. I usually try to balance out my meals into categories. I rarely will sit down and just eat a large quantity of one thing. Trying to pre-plan a significant portion of those options is mind boggling to me.

• Breakfast – usually a diet soda, tea, Weight Watchers muffin, or English Muffin with egg, cheese & vegetarian Canadian Bacon or any kind of cereal or granola, meal bar. I really don’t stray too far beyond those basics.
• Lunch – a beverage (water, soda etc), a main lunch item (sandwich, frozen thing, packaged thing), some sort of side dish, which can vary in combination’s of fruit, yogurt, veggies, cottage cheese and/or occasionally a starch item and some sort of dessert (perhaps a piece of dark chocolate, any of the Weight Watchers desserts, fruit leather, 100 calorie snack packs etc)
• Dinner – a beverage, main dish, side dish(es) and dessert
• Snack – varies, but usually defaults to popcorn, nuts, sorbet, Weight Watchers products, or cereal

Otherwise, the conversion is going well, I haven’t had any major meat cravings or longings. If anything, it is forcing me not to be a lazy ass in the kitchen and to be more creative with my options.

Abs & Core Galore
Seeing as over the course of 2009 that I have lost nearly 40 pounds and have gotten into pretty darned good shape for the first time in my life, my abs & core sorely need more attention. I carried the bulk of my weight from hips to tits. When I lost that weight I ended up with a lot of loose skin and poorly developed abs/core muscles. Looks can be deceiving when I am standing upright I have a relatively flat belly, but as soon as I lean forward the skin just hangs there. Think about it this way try on your regular bra size, then try one on that is a few cup sizes too big, the same principle applies to skin elasticity. Its very common to have to redevelop more extensively certain problem areas. My biggest complaints are the stretch marks on my chest, hips and thighs;  and the loose skin around my waist and chest. All are easily correctable if you have the means to afford plastic surgery. Otherwise, its a daily regiment of skin firming lotion, stretch mark lotion and toning exercises to target those problem areas.

I picked up a copy of Prevention’s Flat Abs special magazine. It is still on the shelves in most of the local supermarkets and booksellers I have seen in the area. I highly recommend it, more for the workouts than anything else. I’ve been doing 3-4 of the workout segments on most nights coupled with some cool down yoga poses and have really been enjoying the workouts. I highly recommend, whether you pick up this guide or not to invest in a stability ball. I picked up one from ACE, which is fine, but the workout DVD it came with was horrible. I swear it looked like it was filmed on a crappy home video camera in 1988 and was transferred poorly to dvd and as if it had been filmed in the lobby of some office. The exercises were pretty basic and some where just stupid… like I really don’t see how dribbling a stability ball does anything other than making you look silly, but I digress.  Otherwise the stability ball is fine.  I’m trying out some various stability ball work out dvd’s.  Balance Ball: Core Cross Train is pretty decent. It has three 20 minute workout segments focusing on upper body, lower body and back/abs. In general, I like the fitness and yoga dvds under Gaiam and Acacia the best.

In one of the recent issues of Yoga Journal, they had a feature on abs & core yoga with a series of  maybe 10 poses for increasing core strength. As much as I love yoga,  its not as core developing as pilates and other workouts. There are some poses that are a fusion of yoga, pilates and other core strengthening exercises. I usually do the sequence of poses from the article in addition to the core work from the Flat Abs workouts.

The main reason I have been focusing on so much core work for the past couple weeks is, not only for physical purposes, but my lack of core strength impacts my yoga practice in terms of balance for certain standing poses and doing any sort of inversions (headstands, handstands, forearm balance) Although, I did manage a forearm balance by leaning off the side of the bed since I have a hard time hoisting my lower half upwards. Even after a couple weeks, my balance has improved dramatically, I can stand effortlessly in Tree pose without looking as if there was a tornado approaching.  I can even glide effortlessly into Warrior 3 and Half Moon Pose and other standing leg balances.  I still have a way to go before my core is strong enough to attempt the full inversions properly. I have the arm & upper body strength and the leg strength, but in between is lacking.

Change can occur over time and sometimes you just wake up and the change is there waiting for you to notice it.

Last Friday, I began a new journey on the road to health and well being, I decided to give up eating red meat, pork and poultry and to become a pescetarian (a vegetarian who eats only fish/seafood) or more aptly put a post-meat consumer. Now seems as good of a time as any to make the transition seeing as my dietary habits have changed remarkably over the past year. I’ve gotten away from so many bad food choices and my palate has changed so much since then.

I’ve given up red meat and pork before. I gave up meat in the mid-90s after getting ill every time I ate it. I did fairly well only consuming poultry and fish for awhile. Eventually, an Italian hoagie called my name and I gave in to temptation. Seeing as I have spent almost a decade living with my vegetarian husband, I never got into the habit of overindulging in meat. Sure, I loved my steaks, bacon and whatnot… but it didn’t bother me one bit to brew up a delicious pot of vegetarian chili or to use veggie substitutes in lieu of meat in other dishes.

I’ve always been in an ethical conundrum when it comes to meat consumption.  Its gotten harder and harder to balance my feelings about factory farming and animal cruelty versus my love of meat. I could justify it in perhaps if I could be guaranteed that any meat I consume was not born of mass produced horror and cruelty via the factory farming industrial complex. In this day and age, one cannot be guaranteed of this and many places that claim things like “free range” and “humane slaughter practices” are often guilty of absolutely horrible shit too.

Amongst friends, we’ve had many conversations about knowing and understanding in no uncertain terms “where your meat comes from”. While I would like to remain woefully ignorant and keep on believing it grows on meat trees in neatly cellophane wrapped packages… its just not the case.  I know and understand and just cannot make excuses for myself anymore. I have no problems with other peoples habits, but I think we should all be knowledgeable to our impact on the world around us.  I’ve never really been adventurous about straying beyond the traditional mainstays of beef, pork,  poultry, fish and seafood. I’m sure bunnies and duckies are tasty, but I would never eat something that I would coo over and want to keep as a pet.

Why am I continuing to eat fish, seafood, eggs and dairy? I’ve learned that I process change better over time and can be overwhelmed by too many changes at once. I feel slightly less guilty about eating fish and seafood than I do about mammals.  Factory farming of dairy and eggs is also problematic and I am researching alternatives to it. I actually discovered that Veggie Slices soy-based American cheese is quite good actually. I was expecting it to be horrid and was pleasantly surprised. I’m willing to revisit soy milk. I guess more to the point, I am trying not to delve directly into the vegan extreme. Not that I have a problem with veganism, I think transitioning that quickly would spell out an easy counce bounce back to being a carnivore. As a tried and true Gemini, I often tend towards the “all or nothing” mode of thinking. Some times you have to find the middle ground, which for me is some uncharted territory or mythological place like Atlantis.

Over the past week I started asking myself questions…. do I actually like meat? or do I just eat it because I eat meat and that is what meat eaters do?

Chicken and Turkey are so mild in taste and texture that you can pretty much make anything resemble it.  If I get a hankering for something prepared like that I am perfectly fine using any type of soy, seitan or other style of meat substitute. I can’t say I’ve ever craved Turkey or Chicken. Its just something I ate because I ate meat and things sometimes come made with chicken in them or I bought chicken for variety because that is what you do when you go to the grocery store, you buy meat, poultry and fish.

Pork products…. well now there is a loaded and problematic category. When I think of pork, I tend to think that I don’t like it all that much. I can do the occasional pork chop marinated in honey Dijon sauce, but lately the taste and smell has been grossing me out.  I will say though that losing bacon and lunch meat is tragic, but I’ll live… hopefully. To be fair, the last time I gave up meat and pork, it was an Italian Hoagie that lured me back. This was before there was a decent variety of vegetarian products. I still remember to this day the first time we made tofu hot dogs at my aunt and uncles house, maybe in the late 80s. They were so gross… the dog wouldn’t even eat them…. and dogs eat their own poo!!!

I will mourn the loss of a good steak like the tragic death of a good friend. Other than that I’ve already gotten so far away from using ground beef that it doesn’t really bother me beyond that. I have had the same ground beef in the freezer all year and couldn’t tell you the last time I actually used it at home. Since, I’ve been on Weight Watchers, I’ve probably had maybe 3-4 cheeseburgers this calendar year and am perfectly fine tossing a veggie burger into the mix.

I’m curious to see how this goes… if I stick with it… progress further into vegetarianism… regress to meat eating… or find some happy medium. I’m excited to learn new cooking techniques and recipes. I’m excited to not have to cook two separate dinners every night or fend for myself while my husband eats a plate of veggie sausage. I thrive on change, no matter how scary it is… wish me luck!