The fast is over, but my body isn’t ready

I realize that I haven’t update my progress in the last few months, and now the fast is over! I can’t believe I went an entire 6 months eating this way, but I can attest that it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. Yes, I realize I’m not even 23 years old, but I think that I’ve learned at a young age that what you put into your body is super important and can make huge differences if we don’t focus on the instant gratification of how good a Muddy’s cupcake tastes. But, man, Muddy’s cupcakes are so freaking delicious.

I figured I could give you guys an overview of what I experienced over the entire 6 months and also how I been doing these last 3 weeks since I have been off the fast.

During the first 3 months is when I lost the majority of the weight that I lost overall. I think it was my body leveling out it to its natural state, meaning all the extra weight I didn’t really need. I didn’t change my exercise habits until about 2 months ago, which showed me that you can be generally healthy by just changing your eating habits. Of course I’m no doctor and you probably shouldn’t listen to anything I’m saying, but I found it easier to change one thing first and then the other. By mastering good eating habits first and then moving on to exercise habits, I didn’t feel like a constant failure. If I try to change a lot of things in my life at once, I always fail. Everyone always fails. Start slow.

Other than weight, I felt my energy levels change and I even felt less groggy and bloated. You know what it feels like after you eat a bunch of bread and cheese and you wanna throw up because you hate your life and you feel like you may explode? Maybe I’m the only one who ever did this, but anyway. While I could eat a lot of food on the Daniel fast, the kind of food I ate never gave me this affect. I just felt better! Boo bread and cheese and all other dairy!

So, basically, I just felt so much better. I can’t give you many tech specs or medical terms, but I can tell you that taking the time to eat healthier will pay off.

“But, Chelsea. You said that the fast ended 3 weeks ago. What have you been doing since then? Did you go back to your old eating habits?”

Funny you ask, curious reader. For the most part, I have been keeping the habits I picked up during the Daniel fast. I’m still cooking a lot and choosing the healthier options when I do eat out. But you KNOW I had to eat some of those things that I had done without for so long (i.e. bread and cheese, aka pizza). The first thing I quickly realized is that I somehow developed a lactose intolerance during those 6 months. I don’t wanna go into details, but it was BAD. Some of my friends have told me that adults can develop this later in life, so I think my body decided it didn’t want dairy any more after going so long without it. I’m trying to listen to it, but I just love cheese. But as I sit in agony writing this post after consuming an ungodly amount of Mexican cheese dip last night, I guess it’s no more cheese for Chelsea.

I plan to keep up these habits as I have seen the reverse affects of going back to all that terrible food. Why poison your body with things that it doesn’t want or need? You’re not helping yourself or your friends that have been waiting on you at the Mexican restaurant for an hour.

Peace and good eatings to you all.

“I miss you, Cheese…”

“Fasting” Woes

Geez, this whole fasting/limited-eating thing is hard. I know I sound whiny for someone who has been on this eating plan for over three months already, but it has been especially hard these past few weeks. I think it’s a combination of school starting back up (meaning less time to plan out my meals) and not wanting to be in my apartment, ever. With a restricted eating plan, its harder to find things at restaurants that are compliant, therefore eating at home or preparing food at home is crucial. Honestly, this sucks in my eyes because I get stir crazy so easily. Also, I live in a small apartment with two other roommates (whom I love dearly), but it’s hard to cook in a kitchen the size of a bathroom with two other people who are also constantly using it. There are literally too many cooks in the kitchen. Also, I just really like to eat out because it’s easy and less time-consuming. I am a regular at Republic Coffee and Otherlands, but many of their (delectable) menu items do not comply with my eating plan. Hopefully my frustration is understandable, but it is okay if you still think I’m being whiny, because I am.

In the past couple of months when these moments of frustration arise, I just start looking for easy recipes online that would potentially motivate me to cook and eat at home. Some of my favorite websites to check out are Vegan Yum Yum and Fat Free Vegan, although I have been using the new phenomenon known as Pinterest to find recipes. Soups are my absolute favorite because they are ridiculously easy to cook, and I can eat on them for almost a week. Also, I can easily alter the recipes to fit my eating plan (i.e. veggie stock for chicken stock). This past week I found a turkey chili recipe on Pinterest that was sooooooo delicious. (Side note: I don’t know if I mentioned it in my last post, but since I am participating in the Daniel fast study with the Exercise and Sports Science department, they have different control groups in the study. One group follows the traditional Daniel fast strictly while the other follows a modified version that allows 3 oz of lean meat and a cup of skim milk each day. I am on the modified fast, therefore I CAN have some meat.) I’m not a complete vegan, but honestly it’s sometimes easier to just not eat meat instead of portioning it out and cooking it. Except when it’s in turkey chili! Totally worth it.

As you can see, I refrained from using the suggested toppings of sour cream and cheese… but I am humble enough to admit that I had to prayerfully ask for the Lord’s help on that one. Man, I miss cheese.

On a side note but still on the topic of healthy lifestyles, today I signed up for a 5K that will be taking place on March 24^th called Miles for Mercy. I am for sure NOT a runner, but this race is sponsored by my church, Second Presbyterian, and I really love what it’s supporting (and the girl who is organizing it, my good friend Katherine). So, I decided to give it a go. It is 8 weeks from today, which is ample time for training, AND Katherine is offering a training class for it, which started this morning. I thought I would let you guys know about it in case anyone would be interested in running the race or participating in the training class. No running experience is necessary! Feel free to contact me about this, or check out their website.

Hello! And welcome!

Hello everyone!

I hope to use this personal blog to share my everyday thoughts in hopes of finding a more refined topic one day. I have an array of interests and things that consume my life, like graduate school, music, knitting, reading, thinking of funny tweets to post, learning Portuguese, un-learning Portañol (Portuguese+Spanish), watching 30 Rock, etc…

There is a newer aspect of my life that I’d like to share with all of you because it’s one of the more dominant and frustrating things that I deal with daily. I promise, though, it’s not as dramatic as I’m making it sound with this intro. This past September I agreed to participate in a Daniel fast study on campus with the Exercise and Sports Science department concerning the overall affects it has on the human body. I committed to do the fast/diet plan for 6 months. If any of you have heard of this fast or done it, then you know how crazy this probably sounds. For those of you who are not familiar, it is a biblical fast from the book of Daniel that prohibits any kind of animal products (i.e. meat, dairy, eggs, etc), added sugar, preservatives, solid fats and alcohol. So, it’s basically a vegan diet, minus sugar, margarine and alcohol. This website has a ton of info on the fast if you’re more interested (or feel free to contact me about it).

That sounds hard, right?! Well, it is. Being someone who almost never cooked before and had the most unplanned and inconsistent eating schedule, it was a huge challenge initially (and still is). Granted, I had done the fast previously for spiritual purposes for a 3 week period, but making it a lifestyle has been extremely difficult. Although, the difficulty has been almost completely undermined by the positive results that I have seen. I’ve lost excess weight, I have much more energy, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are wonderful, and I can cook! My mother is so proud and is now convinced I won’t be single for life.

I still sometime suck at planning out my meals ahead of time, but I use the excuse of taking 12 graduate hours a semester as an excuse. And working part-time for my assistantship. And being lazy. All in all, I am thankful for this experience, and I am begging God that some of these habits will remain in my lifestyle after I finish the study in March.

I hope you all enjoy reading my future posts, and I hope to be positive. When I am negative, I hope to just make fun of myself (which I’m very good at doing) because it makes light of those depressing moments that we all have and reminds me that my life isn’t ending over the fact that I can’t eat that Hershey kiss that has been staring me down for the past week at my office.

-Chelsea

Check out my About Me section to learn more, well, about me.