By now, I've missed several days of blogging due to a busy schedule - but have been holding my own nicely on the purification program - a testament to how easy good choices can become, once you start making them: a shake in the morning, berries for a mid-morning snack, a big salad at lunch, another shake (veggie) in the afternoon, and another salad at dinner, sometimes with fish or chicken.
I did my second weigh-in on Saturday - and actually gained a pound.... However, I lost another inch, so after two weeks I am at a net weight loss of 6 lbs and 5 inches.
I can't quite believe that I have three days left to go before I cross the finish line. What felt like a monumental task, even a slight impossibility, 2.5 weeks ago, seems easy today. Best of all, I feel great!
Ruth
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC
TRU Integrative Health & Wellness
Showing posts with label whole food diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label whole food diet. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
Day #14: TRU 21-day detox/weight loss program
Two weeks in - and one week to go! Tomorrow is my second weigh-in, so I'll be back online to share the results.
For now, though, I'm sleepy, five days into my six-day work week, and morning will be here very soon.
Good night!
Ruth
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC
TRU Integrative Health & Wellness
For now, though, I'm sleepy, five days into my six-day work week, and morning will be here very soon.
Good night!
Ruth
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC
TRU Integrative Health & Wellness
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Day #12: TRU 21-day detox/weight loss program
All is going well on the purification program - and I've realized why I skipped blogging for the second time in 12 days.
It comes down to habits - and mine are changing.
It used to be easy to hop online at night, and skip from watching Hulu to blogging and back again.
But now I'm not watching Hulu at night. I'm sleeping - a lot earlier than I used to - and tonight I was cooking, to make up for Sunday.
I made a butternut squash soup (which - OOPS - I need to go take off the stove!) and a salad that I discovered last year, and that I love:
Chicken Tarragon Salad
8 oz. diced chicken OR 2 cups garbanzo beans
1 pear, diced
5 large radishes, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 tablespoons fresh tarragon OR 1 tablespoon dried tarragon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1 tablespoon walnut oil
3 cups watercress, rinsed
Mix ingredients together and serve!
~ Recipe adapted from Ultrametabolism, Dr. Mark Hyman
Ruth
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC
TRU Integrative Health & Wellness
It comes down to habits - and mine are changing.
It used to be easy to hop online at night, and skip from watching Hulu to blogging and back again.
But now I'm not watching Hulu at night. I'm sleeping - a lot earlier than I used to - and tonight I was cooking, to make up for Sunday.
I made a butternut squash soup (which - OOPS - I need to go take off the stove!) and a salad that I discovered last year, and that I love:
Chicken Tarragon Salad
8 oz. diced chicken OR 2 cups garbanzo beans
1 pear, diced
5 large radishes, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 tablespoons fresh tarragon OR 1 tablespoon dried tarragon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1 tablespoon walnut oil
3 cups watercress, rinsed
Mix ingredients together and serve!
~ Recipe adapted from Ultrametabolism, Dr. Mark Hyman
Ruth
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC
TRU Integrative Health & Wellness
Monday, April 30, 2012
Day #10: TRU 21-day detox/weight loss program
OK, so if you are counting, YES, I missed Day #9. What happened, you wonder? Having started down the road to truth, I got a little distracted - the activities of the day overtook me! I emptied my refrigerator of all the odds and ends of the week, and sliced and diced whatever I could (bell peppers, celery, etc. etc.) Then I drew up a quick recipe plan for the week, made my shopping list, and went to Whole Foods - after which I came home, unpacked the groceries and did NOT cook (for reasons I won't go into) - and did not wrap up my day until well past my regular bedtime - which has me scrambling a bit now for meals.
However, this week's aspirations are:
Island Butternut Squash Soup
Carrot and Beet Salad
Yams and Steamed Broccoli
Salmon and Wild Rice
and lots of protein shakes, veggies and fruit. I'll share recipes as the week progresses.
It's getting easier and easier to trust that I won't go hungry, even as a temporary non-lacto non-ovo vegetarian (if there is such a thing) - that I will find food when I need it (and NOT at a drive-thru window!) - and that I will be, quite simply, happy.
Who could ask for more?
Ruth
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC
TRU Integrative Health & Wellness
However, this week's aspirations are:
Island Butternut Squash Soup
Carrot and Beet Salad
Yams and Steamed Broccoli
Salmon and Wild Rice
and lots of protein shakes, veggies and fruit. I'll share recipes as the week progresses.
It's getting easier and easier to trust that I won't go hungry, even as a temporary non-lacto non-ovo vegetarian (if there is such a thing) - that I will find food when I need it (and NOT at a drive-thru window!) - and that I will be, quite simply, happy.
Who could ask for more?
Ruth
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC
TRU Integrative Health & Wellness
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Day #8: TRU 21-day detox/weight loss program
"There are moments when I glimpse another self swimming as if in a great watery world beneath all the definitions I have been given. It may be in movement, or meditation, wakefulness, or near sleep, and suddenly a door has opened as if into a vast room. I discover dimensions in myself I had not known before and yet recognize with some sorrow as if I had been separated from an old friend for too long."
~ Susan Griffin, "Being," The Eros of Everyday Life
I am amazed at the ease with which I've taken up this return to physical health. For years, I've been postponing a commitment to losing weight and being healthy again. There were always too many distractions, or too many demands, or too many temptations - in short, an army arrayed against my best intentions.
Now I am sensing a shift back to the health-conscious girl I was, once upon a time. Believe it or not, I was a vegetarian who wore birkenstocks, lived in North Oakland, and shopped religiously at the Berkeley Bowl! Fast-forward to the present: it is not as though I'm forcing myself to eat well, or missing the things I can't eat. I am happy with the many moments of fruits and vegetables that punctuate my days. I am delighted by the bright splash of an orange or the dense, tangled garden of a salad. It is satisfying, beyond simple nutrition. It is enough.
I got some very good news this morning: (without reference to the original numbers) in the first seven days of the cleanse I lost 7 lbs. and 4 inches overall (chest, waist, hips). Best of all, I still feel great - better every day, in fact!
I also got to experience the cleanse in the Real World for the first time: I went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner with friends, carrying a purse full of bell pepper strips, apple slices, and orange wedges - and hoping against hope for pure guacamole. I was able to sit in front of a bowl of chips without a single craving - without a thought about how I could maybe, maybe eat just one. It didn't even occur to me. I ate some guacamole with my bell pepper strips and then I ordered a salad with fajita veggies on it - and that was it!
Tomorrow, it's back to Whole Foods for re-stocking. I'm branching out to yams with coconut oil, and who knows what else? Stay tuned - more recipes to follow!
Ruth
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC
TRU Integrative Health & Wellness
~ Susan Griffin, "Being," The Eros of Everyday Life
I am amazed at the ease with which I've taken up this return to physical health. For years, I've been postponing a commitment to losing weight and being healthy again. There were always too many distractions, or too many demands, or too many temptations - in short, an army arrayed against my best intentions.
Now I am sensing a shift back to the health-conscious girl I was, once upon a time. Believe it or not, I was a vegetarian who wore birkenstocks, lived in North Oakland, and shopped religiously at the Berkeley Bowl! Fast-forward to the present: it is not as though I'm forcing myself to eat well, or missing the things I can't eat. I am happy with the many moments of fruits and vegetables that punctuate my days. I am delighted by the bright splash of an orange or the dense, tangled garden of a salad. It is satisfying, beyond simple nutrition. It is enough.
I got some very good news this morning: (without reference to the original numbers) in the first seven days of the cleanse I lost 7 lbs. and 4 inches overall (chest, waist, hips). Best of all, I still feel great - better every day, in fact!
I also got to experience the cleanse in the Real World for the first time: I went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner with friends, carrying a purse full of bell pepper strips, apple slices, and orange wedges - and hoping against hope for pure guacamole. I was able to sit in front of a bowl of chips without a single craving - without a thought about how I could maybe, maybe eat just one. It didn't even occur to me. I ate some guacamole with my bell pepper strips and then I ordered a salad with fajita veggies on it - and that was it!
Tomorrow, it's back to Whole Foods for re-stocking. I'm branching out to yams with coconut oil, and who knows what else? Stay tuned - more recipes to follow!
Ruth
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC
TRU Integrative Health & Wellness
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Day #1: TRU 21-day detox/weight loss program
“Want is a thing that unfurls
unbidden, like fungus, opening large upon itself, stopless, filling the
sky. But needs, from one day to the next, are few enough to fit in a bucket,
with room enough to rattle like brittlebush in a dry wind.” ~ Barbara
Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson
Welcome to my world: I’m on this 21-day cleanse designed to detoxify the
body and support weight loss. For the
first 10 days, we eat only Standard Process protein shakes, fiber capsules,
cleanse capsules, and unlimited fruits and vegetables (maintaining a 2-1 ratio
of veggies to fruit).
I won’t share any more statistics,
like how much I weigh or my body fat percentage. This is, after all, a blog, and disclosing that
kind of information seems akin to standing naked in front of a bathroom mirror
in a very public and dressed-up place, like the symphony on a Saturday night. Suffice it to say that thanks to a demanding
schedule and a delightfully permissive diet, I could stand to shed more than a
few inches.
Initially, the list of foods allowed on this cleanse worried me. It's not that it seemed too short - it just seemed to be missing a few items. I’m no stranger to elimination diets, but I’ve never been without meat or nuts or tofu or something that seemed filling, in a pinch. Now, unless I cheat, I am going to have to forsake all those familiar safety nets. However, when I open my refrigerator, I see a formidable garden! I think I may have gotten a bit carried away at the store. Asparagus spears are elbowing the bell peppers for space on the bottom shelf, crowding in front of three bowls of baby greens. The top shelf is arrayed with seemingly every variety of melon known to humankind. It’s becoming abundantly clear to me that I'm not going to starve, or be hungry, or even feel deprived. Every time I turn around, it’s time to eat more vegetables!
I did feel a bit foggy today, unmoored from my habit of morning tea and whatever at all I want to eat, whether a virtuous bowl of oatmeal or a big Southern breakfast. I spent the morning running errands and mentally cataloging every eating establishment on my route, fast and slow and in-between; I never realized just how many restaurants lie in wait, like sirens in a rocky cove. However, I made it home safely in time for lunch, and this is what I made:
East Indian Curried Cauliflower Soup
½ small onion, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
1 lb. cauliflower
2 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (optional garnish)
Cook the onion in the oil in a saucepot over medium-high heat until soft. Add the curry powder, turmeric, paprika, salt and pepper and cook for an additional minute. Add the cauliflower and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and let cook about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool; Puree. Put the coriander seeds in a small cast-iron skillet on medium-high, stirring occasionally until they brown.
Serve chilled or warm with coriander seeds as garnish; makes 3-4 portions.
~ Recipe adapted from Pulse it up! Your guide to unlock the power of food
Delicious, if I do say so myself. Whew. 20 days to go.
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC is a psychotherapist at TRU Integrative Health & Wellness in Atlanta, GA. Ruth works with individuals and couples; her therapeutic focus involves helping clients gain insight into limiting self-perceptions and behavior patterns to manage stress, create new meaning, and achieve the clarity, balance and interpersonal effectiveness they are seeking. Ruth approaches therapy collaboratively, using mindfulness and meditation as central tools for awareness-building and transforming moment-to-moment experience.
Ruth practices under the direction of Kathryn Truax, LPC and the clinical supervision of Annie Kelahan, ATR, LPC.
Initially, the list of foods allowed on this cleanse worried me. It's not that it seemed too short - it just seemed to be missing a few items. I’m no stranger to elimination diets, but I’ve never been without meat or nuts or tofu or something that seemed filling, in a pinch. Now, unless I cheat, I am going to have to forsake all those familiar safety nets. However, when I open my refrigerator, I see a formidable garden! I think I may have gotten a bit carried away at the store. Asparagus spears are elbowing the bell peppers for space on the bottom shelf, crowding in front of three bowls of baby greens. The top shelf is arrayed with seemingly every variety of melon known to humankind. It’s becoming abundantly clear to me that I'm not going to starve, or be hungry, or even feel deprived. Every time I turn around, it’s time to eat more vegetables!
I did feel a bit foggy today, unmoored from my habit of morning tea and whatever at all I want to eat, whether a virtuous bowl of oatmeal or a big Southern breakfast. I spent the morning running errands and mentally cataloging every eating establishment on my route, fast and slow and in-between; I never realized just how many restaurants lie in wait, like sirens in a rocky cove. However, I made it home safely in time for lunch, and this is what I made:
East Indian Curried Cauliflower Soup
½ small onion, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
1 lb. cauliflower
2 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (optional garnish)
Cook the onion in the oil in a saucepot over medium-high heat until soft. Add the curry powder, turmeric, paprika, salt and pepper and cook for an additional minute. Add the cauliflower and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and let cook about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool; Puree. Put the coriander seeds in a small cast-iron skillet on medium-high, stirring occasionally until they brown.
Serve chilled or warm with coriander seeds as garnish; makes 3-4 portions.
~ Recipe adapted from Pulse it up! Your guide to unlock the power of food
Delicious, if I do say so myself. Whew. 20 days to go.
Ruth A. Cochran, MS, LAPC, NCC is a psychotherapist at TRU Integrative Health & Wellness in Atlanta, GA. Ruth works with individuals and couples; her therapeutic focus involves helping clients gain insight into limiting self-perceptions and behavior patterns to manage stress, create new meaning, and achieve the clarity, balance and interpersonal effectiveness they are seeking. Ruth approaches therapy collaboratively, using mindfulness and meditation as central tools for awareness-building and transforming moment-to-moment experience.
Ruth practices under the direction of Kathryn Truax, LPC and the clinical supervision of Annie Kelahan, ATR, LPC.
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