How My GreenBowl Life Began!

HOW MY GREENBOWL LIFE BEGAN
I've been dieting since I was age 12. By the time I was 35, I gave up! Diets work but you can't stay on them forever. After my 2nd child, I ballooned up to 250# ( I was 5'2") and stayed there for almost 20 years- eating pretty much whatever I wanted although over the years I'd managed to cut out a lot of the sugar, all of the trans fats and never ate fast food or drank pop (which is a killer for most people). I didn't weigh myself regularly either. If you're fat and not going to diet why bother??? Any way one day before Thanksgiving 2009 I stepped on the scale just for grins, expecting to see my usual 250 and almost had a heart attack when I saw 275 in gigantic digital numbers between my feet!! DO YOU KNOW HOW CLOSE THAT IS TO 300 POUNDS????????!!!!!!
So I knew I had to do something but what?? Nothing in the past had ever worked permanently. I didn't know what to do. So I as I lay in bed one night thinking about my dieting dilemma, I decided to visualize getting thin. I saw the fat melting off my body layer by layer. That felt pretty good! Then I found a book I had stashed somewhere called "Think Yourself Thin". I must be on the right track... It all starts in your mind, right? So I read and visualized every night. Then I found another book called "The Writing Diet". I can think and I like to write so maybe I'll find the solution somewhere other than in my kitchen or on my plate! I kept reading and visualizing. Then right after Thanksgiving 2009 I was goofing around on Facebook and in the right hand column of ads which I usually ignored I saw an ad for a free PDF of a book called" Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Now you know how many dieting ads and weight loss gimmicks and just plain nonsense there is out there and I know that dieting doesn't work but in desperation I made that "click". Downloaded the PDF and started reading. I tell you I got excited. This guy was on to something. His plan took everything I knew about nutrition (did I mention I was a Home Ec. major and studied nutrition) and real life dieting and my personal relationship with food (I kinda hate that phrase but it is what it is--maybe I hated it because I felt food was the Alpha dog in our relationship!!) and put it together in a way that gave me hope that it could/would work. So on December 28th 2009 I started my Eat to Live journey.
I made the huge commitment of staying on Fuhrman's 6 week plan for 2 weeks then I would evaluate how I felt and decide how to proceed. I was hedging, of course, because I still had doubts that it would really work and that I could make it my lifestyle for the next 50 or so years (I'm going to live to be 100+). I mean giving up MEAT (are you kidding??? I'm a farmer girl) and DAIRY (forever?? how will I ever get enough calcium??? My grandfather ran a dairy, both my parents had jobs as young adults in the dairy business!! I was raised on raw whole milk for Pete's Sake!!). But I plunged ahead. I knew I wasn't going to make it to a healthy 100 weighing 275 lbs with nowhere to go but up! So I was committed to making the 2 wk trial with total integrity no matter how hard it was! Much to my surprise and delight by the end on the first week I'd lost eight pounds and was feeling p-r-e-t-t-y good! That was plenty of motivation and inspiration to stick with it for week two! Easy Peasy! End of week two another 7 pounds gone and I was feeling so good and had so much energy I couldn't sit still. I felt just downright ornery! After that I never looked back. I stayed on the 6 week plan for 52 weeks and lost a total of 92 pounds. I will be writing more about my experiences in the weeks ahead so stay tuned!!!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

I'm kind a bummed that my before and after pictures were not used on Dr. Oz yesterday but for everyone who was as excited as I was about the prospect here is what you missed.  And if it got you to watch Dr. Furhman and learn something about improving your health then HOORAY!  it was worth it. Hope you will join me on an Eat to Live journey of your own.  After 40+ years of dieting I finally found a way to eat that is sustainable for the next 60 years. (oh, yes 110 here I come!!!! years and maybe pounds too--who knows)



 This must have been Christmas 2004-- I didn't even notice until I uploaded this--Bob(my husband is sitting beside me! Yikes)
 
Summer 2006
 
  April 2010




 October 2010

 January 2011 Get Fit Council Bluffs
 January 2011 I used to fill those pants OUT!!
 
Fall 2011

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Tuesday- Exercise

I'm still walking a mile just about every day with our dog, Zonda. However when I think about exercise that I would like to do the images above are what come to mind.  But thinking about doing yoga is not the same as doing yoga.  So let's do some Yoga this week!
J
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This is the GOAL of Greenbowl Living as set forth by Dr. Joel Furhman.
 Is your food pyramid set on a base of vegetables, beans, legumes and fruit? Mine has been for over 2 years now.  At age 55 soon to be 56 I can honestly say that I'm the healthiest I've ever been in my life!  If you would just try it for 2 weeks and see what I mean you will be amazed at how good you will feel!  For tips and recipes visit The GreenBowl Project website at www.thegreenbowlproject.weebly.com
Me 2010 after 1 year as a nutritarian.

Me 2009 before I knew what a nutritarian was.




What is a nutritarian? by Dr. Joel Furhman
Simply put, a nutritarian is a person who strives for more micronutrients per calorie in their diet-style. A nutritarian understands that food has powerful disease-protecting and therapeutic effects and seeks to consume a broad array of micronutrients via their food choices. A nutritarian is a person whose food choices are influenced by nutritional quality.
The secret to a long life and disease reversal is to eat a diet lower in calories but higher in nutrients. It is all about nutrient bang per caloric buck. This is illustrated by my health equation. Your health expectancy is predicted by your nutrient intake divided by your intake of calories or H = N / C.
This simple mathematical formula forms the foundation of nutritional science and nutritional healing. For you to be in excellent health your diet must be nutrient-rich (micronutrients) and you must not overeat on calories (macronutrients). When your body’s cells have adequate micronutrient density and diversity, the body’s ability to self-repair and resist disease is heightened. The uniqueness of my approach also centers on the concept that micronutrient adequacy also suppresses the desire to overeat, naturally reducing your caloric drive.
An important consideration in understanding this formula has to do with micronutrient diversity, not just the absolute number of micronutrients. Micronutrient adequacy (numerator) means we achieve enough of all beneficial nutrients, not merely higher amounts of a select few, while other micronutrient needs go unfulfilled. So focus on the nutritional quality of what you eat, but also on the proper spectrum of foods that supply the full symphonic orchestra of human requirements. This means that certain foods such as onions, seeds, mushrooms, berries, beans and tomatoes aid in achieving micronutrient quality.
The key of this high-nutrient approach is this: You achieve superior health and permanent weight control by eating more nutrient-rich foods and fewer high-calorie, low-nutrient foods. It works because the more high-nutrient food you consume, the less low-nutrient food you desire. Since the desire for these unhealthful foods will naturally diminish, what you need to do is focus on learning how to enjoy eating more high-nutrient food.
Are you a nutritarian ?
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Sunday, January 8, 2012

Sunday: Meditation

Eating foods with the highest nutrient content is the #1 thing to being successful in weight loss and living the GreenBowl Life. Positive self talk is a close second, especially for us who have been chronic dieters since we were teens. I need to tell myself over and over that "I'm the kind of person who eats healthy". " I'm a nutritarian." "I only eat what promotes my good health and vibrant energy."  Your mind has to get thin and healthy before you body does and it's a little disconcerting.  Believing is becoming!  Thoughts become things.
Find some positive affirmations and use them daily!  Read some good books to "get your mind right".  You can start with mine if you want... "Think yourself Thin" by Debbie Johnson and "The Writing Diet" by Julia Cameron.






or what I'm reading now:
 and




I'd like to hear about any books that have helped you think right about food and health and body image and your progress in the plan.
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