Finally Made it to 2550 Calories!

I ate 20 bananas today.  20!  I guess that means yesterday’s banana feast didn’t burn me on the fruit.  It’s very interesting.  I wanted ease and simplicity and I’d say today I got it.

I drank 32 ounces of fresh squeezed orange juice first thing this morning and then about an hour later (so as not to mix the acid fruit with the sweet fruit and hinder digestion. . . its amazing what I’m learning) I peeled 9 bananas, put them on a plate and took them to my room where I was doing some work.  It took me probably an hour to get down 9 bananas, possibly a little longer, but I did it.  And when they were down I kinda thought I would not be able to eat another one.  I thought it would be the last thing I wanted.

A few hours later I made myself a smoothie with two large mangos and 6 more bananas. It was heavenly.  I love mangos. I think I’ve decided they are my current favorite fruit.  I wonder when they go out of season because that will certainly suck.  But then maybe by then I’ll have a different favorite fruit.  Who knows.

When it was “dinner” time I ate three more bananas.   And I was so close to hitting 2500 calories that a couple of hours later I ate two more.  20 freaking bananas.  In one day.  2550 calories!  Drank 2 liters of water and went for a walk/run/walk of 5 miles.  It was a walk/run/walk because I’m recovering from a car accident and my chiropractor only released me to run no more than 5 miles every other day.  Since I ran yesterday I was not supposed to run today, but I couldn’t help myself.  It’s like that for me, with running.  But I’d say total I only ran about a mile, and only when it was “easy” — I will really run tomorrow!!!

I know people who would tell me I was killing myself by eating 20 bananas in one day.  That eating this way is just wrong and not good for the body.  These are, of course, people who still eat meat and dairy and while I don’t judge them for that, they tend to judge me for NOT eating meat and dairy,  And now, well now, I’ve just gone off the deep end and have decided to survive on primarily fruit.

Thing is I do feel good. I don’t feel like I”m missing anything and I’m thrilled I’ve decided to give it an honest try.  I’m extremely good at listening to my body — so far its telling me all things are good — if that changes I’ll re-evaluate and re-adjust, but for now I’m going to stay the course.

Another milestone?  Tonight I went to the movies with my youngest son — we saw Lawless and I highly recommend it.  The milestone is that I didn’t eat any popcorn.  Movie popcorn is a downfall of mine.  Even when I’m raw I will eat movie popcorn — tonight, possibly because I was so full from 20 bananas, I wasn’t even tempted and my son was eating it sitting right next to me.  I did notice it smelled yummy, but I was never tempted to reach into the bucket.  Yay!

Off to bed! 🙂

September 1 — New Focus!

Well, it’s almost 8 p.m. here and I’ve completed the first day of September on Banana Island with great success.

I talked last week about keeping things relatively simple this week and I meant it,but today was too simple for my taste.  I ate a lot of bananas.  I lost count of just how many, but I’d guess around 20.  Yeah, that sounds about right.

I had a banana pineapple smoothie for breakfast and then I had errands to run.  Bananas travel easy so I just took them with me and ate them as the day went on.  Other than the pineapple in my smoothie, the only other fruit I ate was two tomatoes that I cut up for dinner.  Pineapple, tomatoes and bananas, that was my diet today.

Total calories:  2277.6

Water:  3 liters

Exercise:  Ran 4.3 miles and did a Pilates workout.

As far as the numbers are concerned today was successful.  As far as I’m concerned the day was successful, I just prefer a little more variety.  I’m pretty sick of bananas.  I hope that passes by tomorrow morning, however since it is the staple here on the island.

Short and sweet people.  Day 1 of the new focused me is done.  Yay!

I bought a dragon fruit today. It’s a scary looking piece of fruit but I’ve heard good things about it.

I had to go to the Asian Market to find it and it was expensive ($5.99 a pound – mine was a little over a pound so it was $6.05).  I will give it a try tomorrow. I think I’m going to put it in the refrigerator so its cold.  Since its new to me I need everything going in its favor — cold fruit sometimes tastes better to me so I’m going to start with that.  I saw some other odd-looking fruit at the market, but I’m not brave enough to try them just yet.  One thing at a time. .. .

Day 9, 10, 11 & 12

Work has been crazy, busy and oh so hectic.  It’s been back to back meetings, deadlines and craziness!  Adding to that is at home its been hectic back to school preparation!  (I am happy school is getting ready to start however!)

I’ve been eating a raw diet but I have not had the time to put my food into cronometer or even write down exactly what I’m eating.  I haven’t made the time to really plan what I’m eating.  Its been more of me just stuffing my lunch bag with fruit and veggies and running out the door.  Needless to say, I’m pretty positive that while I’ve been eating raw I have not come anywhere close to eating 2,000 calories a day, which is kind of freaking me out — I don’t want my body to go into starvation mode and have my hair start falling out!

Not only that my exercise has been non-existent!  UGH!  This is not good for a variety of reasons!  I’m training for an ultra marathon that takes place on October 27th — no exercise, no running, does not equal a successful finish — and of course I feel like crap when I don’t exercise, don’t sleep well when I don’t exercise, blah, blah, blah. . . it’s a vicious cycle!!!

So I’m looking towards tomorrow.  September 1, 2012.  That will be day 13, in reality, but I’m going to reset myself, take a deep breath and make the time to do what I need to do.  I’m pretty sure I’ve already made the decision that I like how I feel on Banana Island and want to continue with the Banana Girl lifestyle — my goal, however, is to make my calorie numbers consistently for the entire month of September so I can really feel the difference.

Wish me luck!!

Here’s to a lovely 3 day weekend (with minimal work!)

Peace!

Day 8 | Back on Track

I feel so much better today!  Yay!

I ate the way a true Banana Girl does, pretty much all fruit but I did not get to 2,000 calories.  I could have eaten a couple of dates, some raisins, maybe another banana, but I’m just incredibly full and the idea of food is not appealing.  It’s times like these that I wish I had sucked it up and bought the box of Valencia oranges for $50.  I could have squeezed some orange juice and gotten a quick and easy 1000 calories.

My 38 pounds of bananas are just about gone.  Amazes me really.  They got so incredibly ripe that I cut the last of them up and put them in the freezer so I could use them in smoothies. If I hadn’t done that they would surely have gone to water — they were that ripe.  I’m not sure I’ll make it to the end of the week with the bananas that I have.  I eat a lot of bananas.  Today, as an example I made my morning smoothie with 8 bananas.  And then my mid day smoothie was spinach and pears and that had 5 bananas.  I will have to buy another box of bananas, but I think I’m going to check with Winco for a price.  They won’t be organic bananas, but I’ve read before that conventional bananas are not as bad as say conventional strawberries, because of the skin.  I have to believe 38 pounds of conventional bananas would be less than 38 pounds of organic bananas.  But I’ll find out tomorrow.

It’s night and day how I feel after eating this way all day again.  I didn’t realize just how physically great I felt at the end of last week until I ate the cooked food and felt like crap.  I feel so much better today.  It is so easy to tell how much better I feel today that my commitment to this trip to Banana Island has grown stronger.  Excitement abounds.

My calories for today totaled 1858.2  Close, but no cigar.  I’ll do better tomorrow.

I didn’t get any exercise today other than walking around the grocery store because my legs were hurting a lot this morning and I chose to let them rest after the hiking I’d done on Saturday and Sunday.  Tomorrow I will run.  Its my birthday tomorrow and running makes me happy, so I will certainly run.

I’m off to bed,to try to get a decent amount of sleep.  While I was not successful in getting to my goal calorie number, I consider today a success because I got myself back on track.  And boy does it feel good!!

Day 5, 6 & 7 | Lesson Learned

When I started this trip to Banana Island I forgot to take into account the fact that my birthday was going to fall square in the middle of week 2.  My birthday is next Tuesday and because I am blessed with many people who love me and want to celebrate the momentous occasion, let’s just say I should have planned better for the weekend.

Friday was a success throughout the day.  I actually came in at 2127 fruit calories (and ate 7 dates!), with 2.5 liters of water consumed.  After work though I spent some time with my boyfriend and while I had the best of intentions I enjoyed a glass of Sangria and some cooked Mexican food (my favorite) for dinner.  Vegan Mexican food, but cooked food all the same.  That does not constitute a success.

Saturday I drank a lot of water, went for a long hike with a girlfriend and ate raw most of the day, but I did not eat any fruit and I can’t even guess at my calories.  What I do know is with the little that I ate, I’m sure it wasn’t anywhere close to 2,000.  What’s interesting is the cooked food I had eaten the night before sat in my stomach like a brick and contributed to my lack of food intake on Saturday.  I just never seemed hungry.  Even after hiking 6.9 steep and challenging miles to the top of Dog Mountain on no food and a liter of water, I was only hungry enough to eat the veggie salad wraps from Whole Foods.  Saturday evening my boyfriend (still celebrating my birthday) took me to the movies at Cinetopia.  I had a hummus plate with olives, pickled red onions, cucumbers and pita bread.  That’s not raw, and it wasn’t much but it was all I could eat.

Sunday, I’ve had a lot of water and not much food, yet I still feel full.

I’m frustrated with the way I handled this weekend, but I’m not beating myself up over it.  I learned not to do that many years ago.  I just know what my challenges are and I have to be more conscious of them and plan appropriately.

I have a wonderful boyfriend who only wants to support me in this journey to Banana Island and had nothing to do with my slip ups.  I made the choices that I made and take full responsibility.  I will say, however, that I can’t wait to get back on track tomorrow.  Without a doubt I felt fabulous all last week until I ate the cooked Mexican food.  While it was certainly YUMMY going down (as was the Sangria) the way it hit me after was shocking.  Lesson learned.

I will likely go to dinner with my boys for my birthday on Tuesday, I have a birthday lunch on Wednesday and another birthday date Wednesday night.  I am certain that I will approach those dates consciously and eat large green salads.  And I am determined to make it through next weekend whole.

Have a great week people!

Feeling Good | Day 4

Day 4 on Banana Island .. . Complete!

I slept crappy last night, but I’m not sure it had anything to do with the food.  I was up later than I should have been and only woke up twice, but I think I got less than 5 hours of sleep total.  Hoping to make up for that tonight!

I didn’t run this morning, probably because I didn’t feel rested enough to run.  I always regret NOT running, I never regret running, but I was too tired this morning to remind myself of that with true conviction.  I did walk today, for 40 minutes, so I got a bit of exercise and fresh air.

I actually ate a date today.  In fact, I ate 4 of the them.  The first one seemed incredibly sweet, but after it was down I didn’t think it was really that bad.  Still can’t imagine eating 30 of them, but I did in fact get 4 down with out much effort.

My food:

4 Dates

13.10 oz mango

13.45 oz banana

58 oz watermelon (that’s a ton of watermelon by the way)

13.90 oz tomatoes

and 7 additional medium-sized bananas.

All of that fruit totaled 2084.9 in calories.  In addition to that I had a large green salad for dinner, so while I don’t think I hit 2,500 calories, I did manage to get 2,000 in the form of fruit.  High carb, low-fat, raw.  Mission accomplished.

So now my focus is on surviving the weekend.

Tomorrow after work I’m supposed to meet my boyfriend for happy hour.  I won’t be drinking anything more than water, that’s not the issue.  The issue is bar food.  My plan is to eat well throughout the day so I’m not hungry.  Hunger leads to problems and I don’t want any problems.  I want to reach Sunday night as successfully as I’ve reached every other night this week.  I know I can do it, I just have to plan appropriately and be proactive.

I’m feeling good and happy with myself for making it to Day 4.  I’ll feel even better when I find myself at the beginning of  Day 8!

 

 

Day 3 Behind Me . . .

For all intents and purposes it was a success.

Last night with all the trips to the bathroom and what not, I got approximately 6 hours 40 minutes of sleep.  Not bad, but I should certainly be trying to get more.  The maximum length of time that I slept at one time was 2 hours.  I definitely want that to improve.  Definitely.

I ate a lot of fruit today, but I had a lot of meetings too, so I didn’t eat everything I brought with me to work.  After work I had back-to-school stuff to do with my kidlet and that threw me off getting home and preparing something, so I went to Whole Foods and got a salad, a rather large salad, and enjoyed that when I got home.  I could have certainly made myself a salad when I got home, but it would have taken more effort than I had in me, so Whole Foods did most of the work for me.  It was good.

I don’t think I made my numbers today, unfortunately.  When I input the fruit that I had into the cronometer it told me my calorie intake was 1670.4, that’s a good distance below 2,000 which is my lowest target, since ideally I need to get to 2,500 (but in 3 days I have yet to do that) — I think I probably had closer to 1900 calories with the salad that I ate, but I don’t for a second believe I tripped the 2,000 mark.  Ahh well, I will work harder at it tomorrow.

Another Banana Girl, Princess Raw Fruit Neet, has given me something to think about.  Today she posted a picture of her breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It was very simple.  Very simple.  Lots of people questioned her on exactly what it was and how the calories came out, because it just didn’t look like there was enough fruit/food there to get to the coveted 2,500 mark.  But apparently, we were all wrong.

This was her meals for the day:

30 dates (1800 calories)

2 liters of fresh squeezed orange juice (1,000 calories)

2 coconut waters (200 calories)

celery (80 calories)

So with that simple menu for the day she hit 3,000 calories.  It boggles my mind, but I think next week I’m going to work towards simplicity.  I could very easily drink 2 liters of orange juice for a meal. I love fresh orange juice that much — but I didn’t buy the oranges so maybe I’ll rethink that this weekend ($50 for 38 pounds burns me though).  And dates.  Hmmm, not sure I like them enough to eat 30 of them. I used them when I was doing gourmet raw food dishes because they are a natural sweetener and they are sticky (which helps hold stuff together), but I can’t say I’ve ever just eaten a date and they are so incredibly ugly (sadly, this matters with new food) I can’t say I want to.  But I will likely give it a try because I’m all about simplicity.  And what a coo if I like them.  However, just like the bananas, I’m pretty hard pressed to eat 30 of anything.  I like the variety of fruit I’ve been eating although today I kinda sorta surpassed my tolerance for cantaloupe.  I probably won’t buy any this weekend.

This is what I ate:

30 oz Cantaloupe

16 oz apples

15.45 oz of bananas (in a smoothy) and then an additional 5 medium-sized bananas by themselves

14.50 oz pineapple

Then I had my rather large green salad from Whole Foods.

I also drank 3 liters of water.  I’m trying to up that, but truthfully when I get to 3 liters I”m kind of like “enough already.”  But I figure if I keep trying I’ll get there.

Tomorrow I’m eating a large amount of watermelon and that makes me happy — I love watermelon, I just haven’t gotten home early enough this week to spend the time cutting it up and preparing it for the next day — until tonight, so I’m ready for tomorrow.

I feel good, physically and I’m getting used to my reflection in the mirror sans make-up (its been a week now without it).  All good things!!

On another note, I had a disturbing thing happen today that upset me on many levels and I haven’t quite processed it enough to write about it with clarity.  Briefly, however, I had occasion to offer some encouragement to some fellow runners on the waterfront today and the comments returned to me by two of the women runners were harsh and dare I say mean.  Runners in general are some of the nicest, kindest, encouraging human beings I’ve had the pleasure to spend time around — and I was (and still am) confused by what happened.  I think I need a couple of days to really process it, and certainly a good run (which I get to do tomorrow!  Yay!) will help with that, but I know I will have to write about it, if simply to let it go.

Overall, though, the day was good.

Day 3, a success (minus a few calories!)

Cool, Casual, Slightly Hectic | Day 2

 

Last night I was in bed at 8:48 p.m.  I woke up at 9:29 because my oldest son phoned me.  I was still not back asleep by 9:50 because I was thinking about what he’d told me in the call.  It was 9:50 when I decided to set it all aside and get back to sleep.  I’d guess it was 10 minutes later and I was out.  I got up again at 12:27 a.m., and 2:18 a.m. to pee.  Probably didn’t take me more than 5 minutes to fall back asleep and then I got up at 4:25 a.m., so I slept a total of 6 hours 57 minutes, with my longest block of sleep being 2 hours 27 minutes.  I felt relatively rested when I woke up.

And then I went for a run.  Yay!  I love to run.  While my doctor has not released me to run my regular 5-8 weekday morning miles, I’m grateful and happy I’m able to run 2-3 (every other day) with his blessing.

I ran a very pleasant, casual 3 miles this morning and it felt great.  After coming across the Running Haiku blog last night I was inspired to work on a Haiku while I ran.  It was an awesome distraction.

Here is my first attempt (since grade school) at Haiku:

• Predawn quiet run
• Morning dew along the road
• In my happy place

**

I realized when I returned from my run that I’d failed to post pictures of me on day 1.  So I took some to post on day 2 (today).  Since its summer time my kidlet was sleeping.  He’s generally my photographer at times such as these, but since he was unavailable I attempted to take pictures in the mirror as all the kids seem to do so easily for Facebook.  I’m not sure exactly how they do it, because my attempts were not easy, or very successful, but I did get a few pictures which will be sufficient for my purpose here.

I don’t look “fresh” because I had just returned from running.

Front

Side view

Back, clearly the toughest picture to take!

So that’s me at the beginning of this journey.  I haven’t been able to run or lift for 5 weeks in this recovery process and I blame all the excessive jiggly stuff on my body on that fact.  All in all, however, I’m happy being me, as I am right now.  I always, however,welcome improvement.  I post these pictures in case there is severe improvement (or, I suppose, failure) I need photos to document the progression.

I managed to drink 1 liter of water before I left for work and was through 2 more liters by 10 a.m.  Not bad, and it didn’t feel forced.  Nice.  I didn’t drink any more than that, though.  It was probably because the day was kind of busy, a little hectic, let’s say.

Food was a little tricky today.  I had lunch with a girlfriend at my favorite raw vegan restaurant, Prasad.  I ordered a salad with greens that was heavenly and did not use the nut cheez they brought with it.  Of course I have no idea what the total calorie content of that meal was, and well, I’m okay with that.  It was extremely healthy, totally raw and YUM.  I also had some fruit at a morning meeting I was a part of and I didn’t count that either because, well. . . . I didn’t bring my scale with me to work.

With respect to the fruit I ate from home, it is listed below and when I plugged it into the log it told me my calories were at a weak 1223.5.  Far from the goal of 2,000 – 2,500, but I think, in reality I’m quite a bit closer than that.  Given my lunch and my dinner, which I also didn’t count.

I took my youngest school clothes shopping after work and when that was done I did not really feel like coming home to cut up fruit before I could eat, because I really need to get in bed soon.  My solution was going to Jamba Juice and get the only thing I ever order there.  An Orange Carrot Karma smoothy.  It’s heavenly (to me).  Fresh squeezed orange juice, freshly juiced carrots all blended nicely with frozen bananas.  Totally raw (their only drink that does not include some pre-made “juice” from a concentrate) totally yummy.  That was dinner and of course, as I said, I did not count it.  Below is what I did count, that came out to a measly 1223.5 calories.

12.75 oz plums

11.5 oz pears

11 oz peach

24.85 oz banana

28 oz honeydew melon

1 cup frozen berries

Water consumption:  3 liters

Exercise:  3 mile run, 1 mile walk at lunch, School clothes shopping with the boy.  That has to count, right?

While I intend to give this voyage to Banana Island my all, lean into it and see where it takes me, I am not an extremist.

The first time I went raw I was over the top neurotic and beyond extreme.  I’ve matured since then, thankfully, and while I love the raw lifestyle, love raw food, feel the difference and know what it does for my body, I also know that living in the extreme causes undue stress and I’m not about unnecessary stress.  Life is simply too short.  All that to say I may not have made my numbers today and I possibly may have eaten more “greens” than a true Banana Girl would, but I still consider today a success!

At the end of the day I feel pretty good.  Ready for bed, looking forward to a good nights sleep with little distraction.

Peace, Love & Running!

The Journey Begins | Day 1

I didn’t keep track, but I think I slept incredibly well last night.  It might have had something to do with getting to run after 5 weeks off.  It was only 3 miles, but after no miles it’s reasonable to think it took a little something out of me (in only the best way possible!) and made me tired.

One of the guidelines for living on Banana Island is drinking at least 2 liters of water every day, more is even better.  I have two containers that hold 2 liters of liquid.  One of them I keep at work so I can try to at least drink 2 liters while I’m there.  For the last couple of days I’ve taken the one I have at home up to my room at night so when I get up in the morning I can attempt to drink 1 liter of water right off the bat, not immediately, but if I drink it while I’m getting ready I’ve found it rather simple.  This morning I actually managed to drink 2 liters of water before I left for work at 6:30.

It’s strange.   When I drink a ton of water I can go a couple of hours before I have to pee.  But once I pee that first time, I have to pee every 10 minutes for at least an hour.  And I’m not talking about a little pee, I’m talking a full minute of pee (or so it seems).  Like some sort of internal damn has been broken.  Okay, enough of the pee talk.  Sorry.

My stats for Day 1 are as follows:

• Age: 45 (for 8 more days)
• Height: 5’8”
• Weight: 139.4
• Chest: 31” (measured beneath my boobs – a technical term. . . . boobs)
• Waist:  28¾”
• Hips:  37¾  and 36” (first #: across the biggest part of my rear; second #: right under my rear)
• Thighs:  22”

About 5 years ago I spent a year training with Cathy Savage for a figure competition.  I didn’t really want to do the figure competition, but I wanted to look like I was prepared to do the figure competition.  It was an amazing and awesome experience but for a whole year I counted every gram of fat, protein, and carb that went into my body.  When that year was over I swore I would never do that again.

Guess what?  To some extent I’m doing it again.   I’m not counting carbs or protein, or even fat.  I’m basically just counting calories and really I’ll only do that religiously for the first month (assuming I decide to stay on Banana Island when the first month is over) to make sure I’m getting at least 2,000 – 2,500 calories a day from fruit.

I’m starting this post around 3:00 p.m., to finish later, and let me tell you, I’ve eaten a butt-load of fruit.  I use Cron-O-Meter to log what I’m eating and it works amazingly.  I cannot access Cron-O-Meter from work so I have no idea how many calories I’ve eaten in fruit thus far, but I sure hope I’m close to the mark because I can barely stand the idea of choking down any more – and its only 3.  My hope is that if I need more calories I’ll make myself a berry/banana smoothie and throw in a couple of dates – they seem to add a lot of calories.

I have not been hungry all day.  Probably because it feels like, no wait,  I’ve actually been stuffing my face with fruit all day.  It’s great, however, not to feel guilt with respect to eating constantly.  I don’t feel guilty.  I just feel full right now.

I made a fruit smoothie for breakfast and I made a green smoothie for mid-day and then I’ve eaten pears, kiwi, cantaloupe, tomatoes.  I still have plums, another tomato and another pear staring at me.  Maybe later.   Because I’m full.   Seriously!

Ironically, after drinking 2 liters of water this morning before I left for work I have not been able to drink any more.  It’s here sitting on my desk, but I’m too full to drink any of it.  That’s an interesting situation.  Possibly I’m water logged from the fruit.  Who knows.

I know it sounds as if I’m complaining.  Maybe I am, but I don’t mean to.  This diet [on Day 1] is incredibly easy, probably because I like fruit and I’m all about simplicity.  During my previous months at a time as a raw foodist I was compelled to be creative and “create” lots of cool raw dishes.  They were amazing and yummy and my non-raw food eating friends were always impressed, but damn did it take work and it was incredibly nut dependent.  I love nuts, but gourmet raw food involves TOO MANY nuts, in my humble opinion.  So this?  What I’m doing here?  This is easy.  And yummy.

Although I do worry (and if you’ve read my other blog you know I like to worry) that if I like this lifestyle and decide to stay on Banana Island indefinitely, when winter rolls around I’ll be forced to eat 30 bananas a day, like Freelee because nothing else will be ripe and worth eating.  But I know I’m ahead of myself.  It’s only day 1.  I need to live in this moment, not a moment that will come in 4 months.  [Be patient with me, I’m a work in progress.]

***

So now I’m home and I’ve eaten “dinner” which was a green salad (romaine, onions, tomatos, no dressing), I’ve worked out with Cathe (MMA Boxing) and I feel pretty spectacular.  Although I am tired, and its only 7 o’clock.

So this is how my food looked for the day:

Food | Monday, August 20, 2012

14.50 oz. pineapple

40.85 oz. bananas

35 oz. cantaloupe

11.35 oz. apples

3.05 oz. spinach

1.25 oz. lime (the fruit, not just juice)

12 oz. pears

21.25 oz. tomatoes

5.40 oz. kiwi fruit

1.15 oz romaine

1.15 oz onion

Total Calories:  2189.1  – (Hallelujah!  I don’t have to eat any more fruit today!  I don’t have to eat anything more today!  I’m so full, I’m so thankful!)

Water Intake: 3 Liters

At the end of the day I’m feeling pretty good.  I don’t feel bloated anymore, I had the energy to workout with good strong effort and aside from having to pee every 20 minutes or so, I have nothing to complain about.

I will call this first day on the slow boat to Banana Island a success.

Yay!

Last Day on the Mainland

So here it is, the last day before taking this journey.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited.  I am excited.  I’m always excited to try new things, to push my body in different ways and see how it reacts.

After almost 5 weeks of no running, due to a car accident, I got to run today.  It was incredibly satisfying and I can’t wait to do it again on Tuesday.  I can’t wait to see how I run on this diet.  I’m SO excited.

So I took pictures of my face tonight because I want to see if this diet does anything for my complexion.  Its been 4 days since I’ve worn makeup (and two of those days I was at work!!) and I truly do love the freedom of it.  I realized as I looked at these pictures, I have a real problem with my reflection and I’m sure that’s a deeper issue than just what I eat and whether or not I wear make up.   I’ll have to dig a little deeper with respect to that issue.

So here are my three “starting” face shots.

Here is this side of my face . . . .

And here is the other.  I put the Bondiband on because I noticed in the first one you could see my grey hair and I thought it was distracting. . . (told you — it’s an issue)

And finally, here is my front face shot.  I almost didn’t post this picture, but I do want to be able to look back and see what I can see so I am following through on my intentions.

Today’s diet was pretty fruit heavy, however, I did eat cooked food again, as I figured I would since today I can.  Tomorrow its a different story.

Did I mention how excited I am?

The journey begins tomorrow and I can’t wait!

This is going to be fun!