[MonicaC]

HELLO I AM HERE TO RECORD MY JOURNEY. I WAS SUCCESSFUL BEFORE WITH THIS PHILOSOPHY AND SO GOING TO DO THIS AT THIS TIME AS I HAVE ALOT OF WEIGHT TO LOSE AND NEED TO HAVE THE SUPPORT THAT I FOUND HERE TO DO IT.

[Leeney]

Welcome back, Monica. It looks like you're off to a good start. This is a wonderful group of people, and I'm sure you'll find the support you need.

[Sarah1466]

Welcome!
Good Luck!

[karolinakat]

Welcome back, you can certainly meet your goals with this dieta!

[MonicaC]

Hello Leeney, Sarah0628 and Karolinakat,
It is good to restart my journey after so many years of being away from this rice program philosophy. I am thrilled to have done a great day one! It was relatively good and I got my favorite fruits and am happy to reuse my rice cooker. I can tell you where I have been for the last few years
since 2003 alot of loss which led to being so disconnected from myself and mindless eating which has been the combination that led me to the 89 extra pounds. That was a hard realization to admit to myself. Yes, 89 I now making my goal just each day doing the rice diet and reclaiming myself again. It is with faith and this program that I did my first day and it went well. I thank you for the most warm welcome and I hope to make this journey as fun and enjoyable as possible. I am changing my mind set from "this is what I have to do", to "this is something I want to do" and I want to be thin again and most importantly I want to feel healthy and vibrant not numbed out on wrong food choices.
Thanks for listening. M

[MonicaC]

Had to correct my ticker tape. Here is the update now the first day is almost over 9:43pm. I can complete my first day well. In the home stretch. Nighttime is the most challenging for me so here I am in the forum to stock up on my resolve.

[karolinakat]

I'm a habitual nighttime eater too so I know what you mean!

[MonicaC]

Good Morning KarolinaKat and dear ricer friends,
Today is my second day and it feels great. I wake up excited and feeling good. In the past I would eat late at night and then the next morning
with dread would still feel overly full in my stomach even the next morning. Today I don't feel that way and now starting my day with a hot cup of water and a whole lemon juice as my morning beverage as this helps alkalize my system. I am combining the rice diet program phase 1 with the blood type diet which has helpful tips according to your blood type and I am doing the artist's way by Julia Cameron with a little Sark one of the funniest authors to read her inspiration books are so colorful and I need fun. One of the ways that I will be making this journey different this time is that I am going to emphasize fun in the daily equation, It is finding what is fun and emotionally nourishing to you that will help you unhook from the fun you used to get by eating and then overeating that was with fleeting satisfaction. Finding other ways to nourish your emotional self. I feel that grip of this issue slightly peeling back around the edges. I choose what I eat. I am prepared today. Fun thing today to do is make a collage, nice word for cutting out photos of inspiration, nature, fashion words and putting together a nice board as inspiration.
I am redesigning my life. What do I want it to look like? How do I want it to feel? I am your glue gun craft girl with magazine photos or newspaper or create drawings of your own artistry. It is fast and fun to do today and this makes me feel happy to put together. So that is my fun thing for today. Please let me know what your fun thing today is so that I can be inspired by your fun list. I hope that you find some moments of fun today for yourself to help nourish you on your journey. May love and light accompany you today.

[karolinakat]

WTG Monica, sounds like you have gotten off to a good start.

Fun thing to do on a Friday is wish the day over so I can get out of the madhouse that is my work life but I also plan to watch bears! On tv a documentary on a swiss gent who lives among grizzlies in the summer without fear. I saw one about him on Animal Planet last night and was amazed. He went to the area where Timothy Treadwell (the original Grizzly Man) and his gf were killed, and was so respectful of both them and the location, not to mention his respect of the the bears and nature, that I wanted to learn more.

So I'll watch that AND at the same time have my laptop on to see if the 3 bears at ltwc.org (hit the cam link) they have rescued as young orphans are on cam and hamming it up tonight. I've watched them rehab about 15 bears in 3 years, and to my knowledge, all but 1 of the 12 set free are still alive in the forests of Cali. That is impressive! These 3, Mendi, Rosie and Mark, all came in at separate times. Mendi was an orphan very young, at about 6 lbs of weight, so she quickly won the hearts of many. Rosie came in a bit later and a bit bigger, but for a while Mendi bossed her about. And Mark is from Markleeville. He was found starving beside his mother who they think was shot by pot growers several weeks earlier. The utilities workers that found him fed him their lunch and got Fish and Game to get him help. He's still shyer than the girls, but is also thriving. They have a 3-room rehab house. Only the playroom is on cam. It has shelves and a table to climb on, a cement pond to catch fish and swim in, and 2 tire swings to play on, along with scented apple balls and other things. Usually they play with the apple ball on the table and wrestle with each other. They look like big mice when sitting down, but when they stand on their lil back legs, they look just like teddy bears! As you can tell, they are a passion of mine, and LTWC is a center I support. I'm hoping to go out to the reunion they hold each July of the first bear that caught all our hearts, as he was badly burned and not able to play with others. But he recovered and we all still miss him, but are happy he's living life as a free bear.

Ok, back on topic, I keep a few inspirational phrases on my desk for when times get tough. And I find living life in regards to food one meal at a time is easiest for me. If I think too much on food, I'm likely to get a mental craving!

Anyway, good luck with the glue!

[MonicaC]

Thank you Karolinakat for sharing what is inspiring stories like the bears recovery programs. I too love animals and nature very much. My two dogs, cat and fish keep me company at home and they are my inspiration. My dogs are so giving and so kind. When they look into your eyes I know that they are transmiting love and devotion. We learn alot from our animal friends they know how to live in the present moment very well. I think that is key to success as well is to live in the day that you are in rather than going into what mistakes that you did yesterday. I think that is a good philosophy. I totally agree that just focusing on one meal at the time so not to get too food focused is a great idea. It is great to share this journey with other ricers such as yourself it makes this better with company. I was quite sleepy today so just rested and really feel alot better. I take the first phase as a detoxification phase and it is true. Getting off all the trigger foods is important for me. I know that wheat is my downfall and this is something that is great with the rice program I love rice and so it does take sometime to get the rice cooker going but it is alot better since I can easily stop eating rice however if it were pasta or bread forget it I can binge on this with the first bite and then it goes down hill. I am grateful that this program is so good for my blood type which is A+ as this is a basically vegetarian type diet. So that is great. Thanks for sharing again the wonderful bear stories, I am glad that you shared that with me that is a nice thought to get to your happy place with the love of animals. I am in the homestretch with day two. love and light

[MonicaC]

It is 10:30pm and I have to stay strong during this moment. So I am drinking alot of water to fill myself up. I am going to go to bed now as watching tv is close to the fridge and I can't do this to myself to give up. My second day is almost over I have 1 hour and 1/2 to hang in there.
It is interesting the temptation it is not all day but just moments, these moments that I have to hold on and not let go of the work that I have done. Do I really want to do day 1 over again. No, I don't I deserve to hold on and I am going to cut out some more photos for my collage in the safety of my goal. Just focus on this to get throught. Thanks for listening. It is just one little struggle that lasts a few minutes.
That is all it is. This does not define me. Good night see everyone tomorrow. love and light.

[MonicaC]

The water trick really helped me feel full. However as you can imagine it made me go to the bathroom mamny times during the night. I made it to day
three and it is exciting. I know when I have a good program in place that the next day I will be excited to wake up knowing that I made it through.
It is important to take your vitamin supplements. I take some extra vitamin D as I was very low last year and don't want to end up there again with always feeling tired. I love my hot lemon water in the morning it is energizing. Today going to the used book store will be my treat, just love books. See if they have any other Sark books. They are so much fun to read. Thanks for sharing this journey with me. Love and light.

[MonicaC]

It's 9:20pm and thus here to check in to recommit to the program through checking in. I went to the mall today and had a orange blossom white tea as my treat from the teavana shop. It was very flavorful and i love the hot tea on a cool day like today. feeling better and enjoying day 3.
love and light.

[MonicaC]

Yeah on day four of my journey! Needless to say feel very happy to wake up early and start my day knowing that I ended the previous day well. This is a reward onto itself that as each day goes by you are on your journey to goal and it is exciting. Bought alot of books and got some style books about different body types and one on tea ceremonies. So this is fun to read. I am very fond of tea and love to have the tea house teavana in our local mall. There is something about hot liquid and the aroma that I just love. This will be helpful in getting through the day with some acceptable flavored water. It is very exciting. I feel that I need to concentrate on the having a good day on the program then jumping on the scale each day as you need to concentrate on the journey and the results will take care of itself. The scale may not always record how much effort went in doing the program well. Better to focus on the days on the program and then weigh in once each week. I tend to get too results oriented with the scale as opposed to process oriented of doing a good program day. Anyway, happy to start my day with hot lemon water.
Love and light.

[Leeney]

Thanks for sharing your wonderful journey with us. I totally agree with you that the scale makes me too results oriented. I think my mini goal will be to focus on having a good day on program instead.

Isn't Julia Cameron wonderful. I was off work for a while with a broken foot and did her book during that time. So rewarding.

[MonicaC]

Hi Leeney and fellow ricers, Thanks for the support leeney with your post. Yes, I love Julia Cameron the Artist's Way and I am doing the 3 pages a day journal. It is helping me get clarity. Yes, the scale can make me too result oriented and so just the sheer feeling better in my body with not all the processed foods that I was eating is alot better for me. I already feel alot more positive like I can do this and that it is possible to set out my goal and achieve it. I am enjoying my days. I go to the mall and look at all the styles that I will be able to wear when I am at goal again. I know what it feels like to enjoy getting dressed rather than wearing just what fits and covers my figure flaws. I can get rid of the figure flaws as it is by doing this program that I can achieve it. What a sense of emancipation I will feel to put this issue of weight behind me and be free of it. That will be better than anything I could put on my dinner plate. I have alot of clothes that I have im my closet that I would like to wear. You know the "motivation" dress that you buy to encourage you well let's just say I have alot of these in my closet.
Here is to day four. May just leave the house so as not to be tempted.
Love and light

[MonicaC]

Hi Everyone, here I am at 9:30pm since this is the bewitching hour of staying on task. I just made myself a hot cup of herbal tea that I bought at wholefoods it is cranberry flavor from traditional medicinals brand and is to help promote weight loss. My dogs are next to me and they are helping me by having me pet them. They are so very cute. I love them so. Especially my old dog she is just the sweetest and gentle soul. I thank this forum for giving me a place to connect and feel supported by allowing me a space to write out my feelings here. love and light

[MonicaC]

http://www.youtube.c...iologyinstitute
When you are vulnerable and tempted by stuff that you should not eat, you can do EFT Emotional freedom technique which is very helpful to destress.
I just remembered this technique and thought if anyone else needs help there is a little video to follow so that you can through your tough moments.
Love and light.

[karolinakat]

MonicaC, on 01 November 2010 - 02:11 AM, said:

http://www.youtube.c...iologyinstitute
When you are vulnerable and tempted by stuff that you should not eat, you can do EFT Emotional freedom technique which is very helpful to destress.
I just remembered this technique and thought if anyone else needs help there is a little video to follow so that you can through your tough moments.
Love and light.

Cool, thanks!

[MonicaC]

Hi Kat, I do hope that you try it, any little ounce of encouragement on this path will help. It is tremendously helpful to have this space to come to when it is new and still requires that the new habits take form. Love and light