My Body Ecology Journey

Body Ecology Day 1: I'm on it... (Read Time: 3 min.)

2013-03-06T19:20:00.000-08:00

I'm back! I wasn't ready until now. It took a huge lightbulb moment for me to figure out why I was sabotaging my success... and the moment you realize you're giving your power away to someone else, you have a golden opportunity to take your power back. So I did... and I am. Back to Day 1 of Body Ecology...

I'm strategic so I'll use this space to tell you the steps I'm taking and then I'll use the other pages (feeling and healing, etc.) to go into the inner work that comes along with this journey.

Here's what today's meals looked like:

WAKE UP: 64 oz water & half lemon squeezed into warm water

BREAKFAST (10 am): kasha w/ almond milk & 3 stevia packets

BRUNCH (11:40 am): 2 eggs w/ 2 slices turkey bacon, 10 baby carrots

LUNCH (1:45 pm): quinoa & collard greens

AFTERNOON SNACK (3:20 pm): 1 egg & 1 slice turkey bacon

DINNER (7:00 pm): quinoa & collard greens, pinto beans (beans are not on the Phase I of Body Ecology but given a tight budget and no room to do grocery shopping at this moment, it'll work)

TOTAL CALORIES FOR THE DAY: 1,322
% Fat: 31%
% Carbs: 51%
% Protein: 17%

EXERCISE FOR THE DAY: (I have Achilles tendenitis so I'm banned from most extrenuous exercises for the next 60 days)
- 20 min. bellydancing
- 13 min. tai chi
- 35 min. yoga

90 Days of Body Ecology Begins Tomorrow (Read Time: 1 min.)

2013-02-12T20:09:00.004-08:00

90 days of Body Ecology begins tomorrow. I'm going to do my best to record a daily video EVERY night... can't promise that I'll get one done every night but I'd like a video record of the transformation. This isn't going to be easy. I've tried this before. I've failed this before. What I can say is this: it'll be interesting... so join me on the ride. Body Ecology Day 1 (tears as I think of giving up caffeine) starts tomorrow... Here we go!

Start Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2013
End Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2013

Day 8 Body Ecology: Finding My Way (Read Time: 3 min.)

2012-10-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

At 4 am, sharp stomach pains woke me up. Excruciating pain... It felt like the time I had food poisoning... and for a minute, I wanted to blame Body Ecology. I thought, "See? That's what I get trying to do this thing cold turkey! I NEVER had these pains when I was eating the other way." Truth be told, I didn't have these pains. But I also didn't have clarity of mind. I also walked around in a fog and a haze. I also felt sleepy by 3 pm and required a coffee by 10 am in order to wake up. I also craved sugar non-stop and had to run by 7 Eleven by 8 pm to be sure I bought one OR two Snicker bars. 7 Eleven hasn't seen me buying a Snicker bar in over a week.

So I had the pain and the only thing I can surmise at this point is that eating white cannellini beans and collard greens on the same day does not agree with my stomach. So I ate NO beans today (not even garbanzo) and my stomach feels fine.

Other epiphany I had today: I don't have to cut ALL sugar out.

My husband invited me out to Coffee Bean tonight to share our usual hot chocolate (like we used to) and, for a moment, I wanted to say no. After all, on Body Ecology, what the heck am I going to get at Coffee Bean? Expensive yucky tea? No thank you... But I decided to go anyway.

I've been craving something sweet all day. Not tea. Not a lemon/lime sparkling water spritzer. Something tangible, real and yummy. So tonight we went to Coffee Bean and I asked them if they could do hot chocolate with almond milk. No almond milk. Then I asked if they could do it with something that wasn't dairy based. They had some sort of non-dairy milk. I sampled it and it was good.

So we got to have our usual Coffee Bean date. I got to have a small hot chocolate (no dairy) with whipped cream (probably a little bit of dairy in that) and I brought my favorite gluten free/wheat free Montana's chocolate chip cookies into Coffee Bean and had 4 of them... and it was DIVINE.

Needless to say, Donna's recommendation on the first 90 days of Body Ecology is much stricter than what I'm doing but her unique principle speaks volumes about how I'm approaching this time on Body Ecology:

"We humans share many features, but underneath, we have distinct needs, different dreams, and changing situations. This applies to our health, too. Our bodies change constantly. They change with the seasons, with the temperature, with where we live, with our age, with our mood. This means that we need different ways to stay healthy depending on all the variables that affect our daily lives."

- Donna Gates, The Body Ecology Diet

Body Ecology Day 6: Time flies... (Read Time: 2 min.)

2012-10-25T21:50:00.002-07:00

I can't believe I'm finishing up Day 6 of Body Ecology... with relatively few withdrawal headaches. But here I am. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've started with Phase II of Body Ecology which means I eat fruits like apples, pears, and oranges. It also means I eat beans (which tend to be high in calcium). The proper food combining is going a long way (although the beans appear to be causing gas and other unladylike occurrences) but I'm figuring it out. I'm not sleeping 10 hours a night anymore and 7.5 hours of sleep is really doing the trick. I would like to get back to 6 hours a night but we'll see how the next few days goes. I've been waking up everyday and doing Tai Chi, bellydancing, and 30 minutes of Hatha Yoga. I haven't gotten back into a full workout regimen but I plan to reincorporate that next week. No scales and no weighings as of yet. I'm going for a full 30 days before I set foot on a scale. I want to see how I feel energywise around Day 14. Everything's supposed to dramatically improve by then. We'll see...

Body Ecology Day 1 (Read Time: 2 min.)

2012-10-20T20:11:00.003-07:00

"Beginning The Diet is similar to climbing a mountain. When you're at the bottom, at the first step, you can't see the health, happiness, and prosperity that may await you at the top. But as you progress up the mountain, the top reveals itself more and more. As you start The Diet, some things may not be clear, but as you become stronger each day, step by step, your understanding and clarity increase. When you master the principles of The Diet, you'll be at the top of the mountain-- vital, knowledgeable, and healthy."
- Donna Gates, The Body Ecology Diet

I'm climbing the mountain. I expected it to be rough. It is rough. The withdrawal headache is in full blast and I'm tired. Not sleepy but tired. So I have all of these things that need to get done and I have no energy with which to do it. The only thing I can do is rest.

On a positive note, I woke up this morning and did Tai Chi, Yoga, Bellydancing, and my hour of power. I got those done early because I knew how I'd be feeling right now... and I'm tired. So, Body Ecology Day 1, a little more cooking to do. A little more eating today and then bedtime.

I wish I could say I'm looking forward to this... not so much (Read Time: 3 min.)

2012-10-19T22:10:00.004-07:00

Beginning this 90 day process is the right thing to do but just because you know it's right doesn't mean it always "feels" that way. I'm a few hours from starting Body Ecology and I'm scared. Scared that I'll fail. Scared that I'll succeed. Scared that I won't know how to live without sugar or caffeine in my life. Scared that I'll sleep too much and get nothing done. Scared that I'll be like a zombie with no energy and no life... Scared that I'll discover the person I'm meant to be... and kick myself for not becoming her earlier.

I can feel all of these emotions rumbling and tumbling around inside of me, ready to come out... only I'm not ready to deal with them. So as I get ready to end today and begin a whole new life tomorrow, I'm scared... and I'm doing it anyway.

In The Body Ecology Diet, Donna Gates says the following:

"As your physical body cleanses itself, you may feel inexplicably weepy, on edge, or angry... Without warning, you may feel like lashing out at someone verbally or even physically. Or you might start crying about something seemingly small. This is all part of the elimination of stored-up emotional toxins connected to the physical toxins in your body- just know that these feelings are normal, and it's beneficial to release them in a safe environment."

Time to let the toxins go...

The 10 hours of sleep got me (Read Time: 3 min.)

2012-10-09T11:30:00.002-07:00

BED Day 2 hit and I slept 10.5 hours that night. I woke up with one thought:
"I'm building a business, working full time, and I have ALOT to do! Sleeping 10.5 hours is not something I can afford."

And I fell off the bandwagon... and had coffee and cookies... and two days later, I feel like crap. Welcome to the vicious cycle. But now I'm choosing to get back on it... like RIGHT NOW... like I'm not going to call today a lost day. I'm simply going to recommit and begin again.

I'm opening up Donna's book and here are 2 of the passages I came across:

"Women have a particularly difficult time with sugar cravings just before their monthly cleansing. Most unknowingly allow their bodies to become too contracted by eating too many contracting foods (salt and animal protein) or from too much stress just before this monthly event. They crave sugars as their bodies attempt to "open" or relax enough to shed the lining of the uterus. Furthermore, production of the hormone progesterone increases (as it should), causing an increase in the blood sugar. The yeast feed off this increased sugar, multiply, and demand more sugar rich foods..."

And my monthly cycle is due any moment now... This explains A LOT!

2nd Passage from Donna:
"Can you trust your intuition about what your body needs to eat? If you drank breast milk as your first food; then graduated to vegetables, fruits, and grains; properly combined your foods; and ate lots of cultured foods, the answer would be yes. But with a body-ecology imbalance, you can never trust your intuition to tell you what your body needs. Billions of yeast and other unwelcome visitors living inside you are sending messages about what they want to eat (always a form of sugar). They do not care in the least about the needs of the body they live in."

Needless to say, if you're thinking about doing Body Ecology, buy Donna's book. I've read it many times but every time I open it, I find reminders of why I need to be on this journey.

A few things I'm figuring out:
1) Preparation of foods IN ADVANCE is key!
2) Staying hydrated is also key!
3) Not eating too much salt is key to not craving sugar!

So here it is, Day 1 AGAIN... Okay, I'll report back in 2 or 3 days...

Body Ecology Day 1

2012-10-07T18:54:00.002-07:00

Body Ecology Day 1:

Today was a good start. I properly combined foods, haven't felt too too hungry, and the caffeine withdrawal headache didn't kick in until 4 pm PST. Here's the end of the day video:

The Night Before Body Ecology 10/6/12

2012-10-06T21:00:00.003-07:00

Thoughts on the night before I start Body Ecology: