Breakfast in America

It has been a while since I have posted anything, but sometimes life just demands more time.  This year has seen a lot of snow in Connecticut and I have been doing quite a bit of shoveling.  Because Rae is working nights, I try to get the driveway shoveled before she comes home in the morning so that she has a place to park.

One of the things that I have been trying to do for the last couple of months is to get some exercise every morning prior to breakfast.  With my heart-rate monitor, I have been fairly consistent incorporating Dr. Mercola's Peak 8 philosophy at least a couple of times per week.  On the other days, I have simply been utilizing my Wii Fit Plus along with some dumbbells.  On days when I have had to shovel I considered that as my exercise for the day.  Of course, I took a break from exercise in order to let my body recover.  For the last couple of days, though, I have been somewhat out of commission.  I seem to have a pinched nerve in my back - or something similar - that is causing pain every time that I turn my head or lift my left arm.  While it isn't a significant pain, it is enough that I don't want to aggravate it by exercising.  Today, it is feeling much better so I will likely get back into the swing of things tomorrow - just in time for the next predicted snow storm!

Today's post is named for Supertramp's song (and album), Breakfast in America.  I chose this title because I wanted to talk about my new, favorite breakfast!
For quite a while now, I have been reading quite a bit from Mercola.com - a website that focuses on holistic health.  Dr. Mercola and other regular contributors talk about ways to maintain and recover a healthy state through proper nutrition and exercise.  Rather than promoting a carnivorous, omnivorous, or vegetarian diet, Dr. Mercola thinks that each of us will fall in to one of three categories.  We, as individuals, will either be a protein type, carbohydrate type, or a mixed type.  As such, some of us will thrive on an Atkin's-type diet while others will thrive on a primarily vegetarian diet and others will do better on a blended diet.  Essentially, he encourages us to take clues from our bodies to determine what suit us best.  To interpret those clues, he provides a questionnaire.  For more information, visit HERE.  According to my results, I am a Mixed Type - somewhat of a surprise to me.  Given my thorough enjoyment of eating meat and my previous success with following the Atkin's Diet, I fully expected to land in the Protein Type category.  As a Mixed Type, it is recommended to consume proteins along with vegetables and carbohydrates.

Breakfast is definitely one of my favorite meals.  I can eat eggs prepared just about any way and be happy!  About the only thing I am a bit leery of is eating eggs raw.  Unfortunately, the more that things are cooked, the less beneficial they are from a nutrition aspect.  To compromise, I decided to cook my eggs in a way that would allow me to eat them but still be somewhat closer to raw - poached!  As a kid, I always loved poached eggs over toast, so it only made sense for me to revisit this.  As such, my new (or, at least renewed), favorite breakfast is two poached free range eggs on one slice of toasted Ezekiel bread.  While this is not a lot of food, it really does satisfy me and makes a great start to my day.

Talkin' Bout A Revolution

Today marks day four of my new year's revolution (song link this time: Tracy Chapman - Talkin' Bout A Revolution.  I have been preparing for my next session with the Master Cleanse.  I still need to get to the store to buy some lemons, but that should happen in the next day or two.  I already have a good supply of maple syrup - though I will need more by the time the cleanse has run its course - and I should have enough cayenne pepper, so it is really just the lemons that I am waiting on.

As of today, I am out of kefir.  In keeping with my revolution, I have been drinking about 6-8 oz. of kefir each morning.  I purposefully didn't make any more kefir, though, so as not to let it go to waste when I start on the cleanse.  I am also running low on milk to make it from!  I haven't been able to get to Deerfield Farm to get more.  As with the kefir, though, this has not been a priority.  I want to get enough for the family, but without me consuming any milk during the cleanse, our needs are considerably smaller.

As planned, I have begun each day with some exercise.  Prior to eating anything, I have been spending about 30 minutes following Dr. Mercola's Peak 8 principles - though with my own twist on it.  Essentially, Peak 8 is interval training - after a warm up, alternate 90 seconds of lower intensity exercise with 30 seconds of high intensity exercise for 8 cycles followed by a cool-down.  The principles are based on heart rate zone training.  During the high intensity periods, you push your heart rate into (or close to) the anaerobic zone.  As the session progresses, your heart rate will peak 8 times - hence the name - and recover somewhat between the peaks.  Though he uses a recumbent cycle for his program, Dr. Mercola doesn't specify any particular type of exercise for the Peak 8 program, just so that your heart rate is elevated effectively.  For my purposes, I am using the Wii Fit Plus as my activity.  One of the fitness 'games' is the 'free step' which can be set for 10-, 20-, or 30-minute durations.  This activity simply counts your steps on and off the balance board and keeps the pace for you.  You can select 80, 90, or 100 steps per minute as a pace.  Note that each footfall on or off the board counts as one step.  I have been using an eight pound medicine ball in addition to the 'stepper' program.  My routine has been to simply step for 90 seconds at the highest pace while carrying the medicine ball (after a warm up, of course) followed by a 30 second bout of faster stepping - out-pacing the Wii pace - while raising (above my head) and lowering (to my waist) the medicine ball.  I go for a full 30 minutes and complete anywhere from 8 to 15 cycles.
Tomorrow's session will be fun!  I found my heart rate monitor today!  I have actually acquired several monitors over the years.  When I worked for NordicTrack - before they filed for bankruptcy and were purchased by ICON Health and Fitness - I purchased one of the Polar heart rate monitors that we sold.  That was my first experience with heart rate training.  I used it religiously!  A good heart rate monitor is an amazing tool to use when exercising.  Though you can find companies that make/sell monitors that don't require a chest strap, I don't recommend them.  Using a chest strap frees up your hands to do other things.  As well, the chest strap will usually communicate directly with the equipment that you might be using for exercise.  Many treadmills, elliptical trainers, and stationary cycles have the heart rate technology built in.  Lacking a chest strap, you will need to grasp a handle on the machine to read your heart rate.  In the case of the watch that doesn't require a chest strap, you will need to touch the watch with your fingers to activate the reading.  Either way, your hands will need to otherwise be empty to get a reading.  This seems counter-intuitive on a machine like the elliptical trainers which are designed to incorporate your whole body in the motion - something you don't get when you are holding the stationary handle to get a heart rate reading.  Mind you, using any heart rate zone training is still better than not using it so if all you have access to is the hand-held monitors go ahead and use it!  You'll be amazed at how hard you are working when you don't really need to!
I am really looking forward to tomorrow morning!

So, my mornings for the last 4 days have looked like this:

• Walk Ginger - due to the temperature, this just consists of letting her take care of 'business'
• Exercise
• VIDACELL
• Kefir
• Breakfast

What is different now when compared to 2010 is that I have added in the exercise step where I would previously have gone back to sleep.  After walking Ginger, I would usually do some deep breathing which, more often than not, would lead me to fall asleep.  While I realize that I generally fall asleep because I NEED sleep, this kind of sleep is not terribly beneficial.  Now, I am making better use of that time and improving my sleep cycle.  I have known for a long time that it is more beneficial for me to exercise in the morning than at any other time of day.  I have always been interested in fitness though I was never truly fit except for a relatively brief period in my life.  It was during this time when I was getting out of bed at 5:30 AM and jumping on my NordicTrack skier with my heart rate monitor.  I used my skier so much that I actually wore it out - twice!  It actually would have cost me more to repair it the second time than it would have to replace it.  It was due to 'right-eating' (or, at least what I believed to be right eating at the time consisting mostly of highly processed 'health' foods) and proper exercise at the right time of day for me.
It is never too late to learn and grow.  As such, I am always open to learning new things.  This time around (revolution), I have learned more about what 'right-eating' really means and I now have the stamina for the first time since the onset of my symptoms (March, 2006) to go back to what works for me - early morning, heart rate zone training before breakfast.  Sure, things are not quite the same as the first time around - I have limitations that I didn't have and no longer have my NordicTrack - but I have no doubt that I will see some amazing results.  Weight loss is still not my primary goal.  There are many other benefits to be had that I am focusing on.  Better health and being symptom-free are at the forefront of my mind.

New Year's 'Revolution'

Yup, that's right.  I said Revolution instead of resolution.  Of course, the song I am referring to is Revolution from The Beatles, but that isn't currently available through amazon.com, so I linked to the cover version by Stone Temple Pilots.

Personally, I am not a big fan of New Year's resolutions.  They don't tend to be kept for very long periods of time.  Resolutions are too often made and forgotten before even a week into the new year.  Instead, I would rather start a revolution.  Revolutions keep coming back.

In this case, I am going back to the basics for several things that I began this year.  I began 2010 with a whole new eating plan.  The Maker's Diet became my diet.  Throughout the year, I read more and more information regarding the principles of The Maker's Diet and I am more convinced than ever that it was the right choice for me.  In addition to the research, I am definitely feeling better because of the diet.  Removing processed, packaged food from my diet has been great.  Food just tastes better!  I am spending more time in the kitchen, but the rewards are worth the effort.  Sure, I haven't been perfect in following the diet and it took the better part of the year to improve my food choices, but progress has been made.  My New Year's revolution regarding The Maker's Diet involves starting with phase 1 all over again.  This time, having better food sources than I had the first time around, I am hoping for even better results!

During the year, I also embarked on The Master Cleanse.  This was an absolutely amazing experience.  The master cleanse essentially 'resets' the body.  It helps purge the body of all toxins and waste.  Thanks to the purge, the body is able to focus on healing.  I am going to start off the new year with another session with the master cleanse.  Because I was unable to get to the grocery store to buy some lemons, I won't be able to start drinking the lemonade on the first day of the year, but I will be able to start the ease-in phase in preparation for the actual cleanse.  Phase 1 of the Maker's Diet will begin after I finish the master cleanse.  Additionally, I plan to revisit the master cleanse at least two more times throughout the year.

Like 2010, I intend to strive towards a symptom free life.  I will continue to use my daily serving of VIDACELL except during my master cleanse sessions.  Since beginning (almost) daily VIDACELL use in October of 2008, I have experienced some major improvements in health and mobility.  To my daily regimen, I intend to add daily consumption of kefir that I make myself from raw whole milk.  Kefir is a relatively new addition to my foods.  It is similar to yogurt, but considerably easier to make.  It is one of the foods that is recommended on all phases of The Maker's Diet.  While I had the raw milk for my first foray into phase 1, I did not have kefir.  Sure, I could have purchased some from the grocery store, but the only varieties I could find were pasteurized and low-fat - some even had additives like fructose and other artificial ingredients.  Now that I have the ability to make my own, I am hoping for even better results.

Physically, I intend to be more regular with fitness activities.  I plan to start my day with some sort of physical activity.  During the warmer months, this might consist of taking Ginger for a walk.  One thing that I am planning on incorporating at least a couple of times per week is Dr. Mercola's PEAK 8 program.

So, with that - my plan for a revolution - I say good bye to 2010 - a relatively good year - and hello to 2011.  I can only hope that my progress is as good this coming year as it was over this past year.