Saturday, March 1, 2008

Day sixtyone

It has been five days since my last blog. OK, must do better on this.

The last week has been amazing. Having said that, I have not lost any more weight. I weighed this morning and was 237.8. Still 21 pounds lighter than 1/1/08. But still. 8 pound more than the low of 229.9 from post-fast.

I took 5 days straight of Bikram yoga last week, on Monday through Friday. I spent the bulk of the days doing meetings with Oracle, VMware and the like. Once those meetings were done, I would knock out a yoga class, and then go have dinner, either by myself or with one of my co-workers or colleagues at Oracle and VMware.

This turned out to be a very good pattern for me to follow.

Not only did I get a lot of exercise, and the very best form of exercise, but Bikram made me tired, which helped me to sleep. Further, Bikram yoga is having an impact on my effectiveness and ability to focus. It is difficult to be stressed out and fractured in your thinking after taking yoga. It centers you and calms you down. As a result, you think clearly. I was able to be amazingly effective in several of the meetings this week, so much so that the folks keep asking for me back.

There is something great going on here. I need to maintain that energy.

I also ate very well. I was in California, which is a place that definitely gets it in the area of vegan diet. I found some excellent places to eat.

For example, La Fiesta in Mountain View, California is one of the finest Mexican food restaurants for low-fat vegan eaters I have found. I highly recommend this place. I had vegan enchiladas with grilled vegetables, verde sauce, and black beans. Amazing.

Another outstanding example was Cafe Soulstice in San Mateo. Wow! That is an incredible place.

Cafe Soulstice is part of a new wave of restaurants I call ethical fast food. This restaurant serves only organic, raw, vegan food. Nothing dairy or meat is served there, period. Everything is absolutely fantastic. I had the following:
Soulstice Salmon Breakfast Sandwich $7.50
Soulstice Salmon on our sprouted sunfl ower-almond bread with tomato, cucumber, and dairy-free cheese spread. Served open-faced, topped with fresh herbs and honey mustard dressing (Add avocado for $1)
I asked for the avocado, but they forgot it, so they gave me two of the following:
Superfood Clusters $2.25 Raw chocolate energy nuggets made with raw cacao, coconut, coconut oil, goji berries, raisins, live nuts, Inca
berries, spirulina, maca powder, agave nectar and raw honey. Try one and you’ll be addicted!
I definitely lucked out here! I got an amazing treat for a measly dollar. On top of that I had the following as well:
Raw Decadence Crème Pies $7.00 Chocolate, Pumpkin, Banana, Mango or Berry Made with organic coconut-avocado filling on a date and nut crust topped with whipped coconut crème
I had the chocolate, which is of course dairy free. This sounds like a lot of food, and it was. However, I felt great after eating this meal. Not too full, lots of energy, no swelling or inflammation. Just right.

This is an amazing restaurant. I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the San Mateo area. It deserves your consideration and support.

I hit a bit of a speed bump on the way home. I came through DFW, and found it to be a desert in terms of diet. Barbeque, fast food Chinese, Taco Bell, McDonalds, Wendy's, you get the idea. There was absolutely nothing edible there.

Contrast this to SFO where there was a wonderful soup and salad place with exceptional vegan split pea soup.

Anyway, I did the best I could in DFW. The best I could do in Terminal C was Au bon pain again. I discussed that on my last blog and ended up in a similar state by the time I got home, i.e. swollen, inflammed and with a splitting headache. I have been working this off ever since.

My plans today are to relax, get caught up on my clothes and packed for my trip tomorrow. I will be heading out tomorrow for Boston at 2 p.m.

More later.

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