Cohen's Lifestyle Fornight - Health Journey

Prefix for Cohen's Lifestyle
Fornight- Congratulations on getting through the hardest week of all. I'm pleased the headache has gone & that you are feeling a bit clearer in the head. It gets better all the time. That's nice that your mum is being supportive. If you struggle any time just take it hour by hour, day by day & before you know it it's second nature. Cheers, cate
 
i thought I had already went through the hardest week and apparently I have not. i just realise that I am entering into my "PMS" week. This is the week where I will feel the strongest urge to eat starchy and sweet stuff. I was wondering why am I feeling the urge to eat nasty things when I am completely not hungry at all.

I took Cate's advice and try to take hour by hour so I have not fallen yet.

I tried to take a can of diet soda just now - a small attempt to satisfy sweet craving....amazing, I find the soda too sweet!!! I did not feel like drinking it after taking two sips and I had to force myself to finish the whole can so as not to waste it.

Since this is my 2nd time in cohen, my mother is able to cook the meals with much experience. Day after day, I have to compliment her because they are soooooooooooooo DARN GOOD!!!! Initially I suspect that she was deviating from the rules because they taste too good to be true!

Today she cooked squids with a type of water vegetables (Kang Kong - our local name). Curry powder and a dash of chili powder was added to it. it is soooo good that I cannot describe. I have a spicy tongue and this dish really satisfy it.
 
Oh yum! I wish I had a mum in my house cooking for me!

Yeah, the PMS weeks are horrible, but you get through them eventually. I have about 2 days of crawling the walls, then it's all over.
 
I think I have passed the worst PMS days. I am going to mark it in my "woman cycle" calender so that I can be prepared for these 3 terrible days in future.

I went to office earlier than usual today so I had my breakfast earlier too. I think around 5.15am. I got really hungry when it was only around 10.30am. I don't want to eat early because it will screw up my dinner timing. I hate to eat my lunch early and in the end have to travel back home with very empty stomach. Who knows how big temptation will get when you see them empty-stomach? I am glad that I managed to eat my lunch and dinner at reasonable timing. Lunch at 11.45am and dinner at 6.30pm.

I just receive an email today from the office manager that the office is having a BBQ on 26 june 09. Geez......things just like to roll in your face and test you! I am supposed to have my 2nd blood test on that day too. I have to keep telling myself I will only chit chat with my colleagues and drink diet soda during the BBQ. I might even arrive late in the BBQ so that everyone is occupied with eating and not bother whether I eat or not.
 
Hello. Im new to Cohens and thought I would stop by and say hi :waving: Im glad that you got through the first week. It seems the first week is hard. And not to mention that my second week will also be that time of the month :willy_nilly: >tears<
But if you made it through hopefully I can as well.
Well I wish you all the best and I know you can do it. :biggrinjester:
Have a good one >.<
 
here i am now sitting in my office staring at the computer. It is already 7pm! I have an overseas tele-conference to attend so I need to stay back for it. I did brought my dinner with me today so meals are not a problem.

I had the full impact of dizziness today. I was squatting in the supermarket looking at the different types of salt. When I finally got up, my heads are spinning. I need to hold on to the shelves and stop for a while before I can gain my focus back. I knew about this so I was not worried. It just caught me by surprise just now.

If anyone is reading this, can you let me know what kind of salt are you using? I am thinking of switching to sea salt but the sea salt I see in the supermarket are sooooo white and it makes me wonder are they really better than table salt? I read that some chemicals might be used to whiten the sea salt and in the end, their nutritional value become as bad as table salt.

I am hoping to find something that is low in sodium as well as potassium. My father has too much potassium in his body and it is tiring his kidney.
 
I'm no salt expert, but it's sure white when they are harvesting it from the salt pans - having been up there and watched it done. However, it probably does get a bit of other stuff mixed with it. It is blindingly, glisteringly white in its pure form, so I wouldn't worry too much about the colour. At least, that's how it is in Australia.

I use just a bit of ordinary salt if I want it, but I have a grinder with sea salt rocks in it, so I know it's fresh and I'm doing it myself. You can adapt your taste buds to eating less salt overall - they get used to it! I went off it completely for many years, but now use it again. The jury seems to be out on how much is good/not good and every few years there's some new headline saying it's good or it's bad or whatever. But if you have family history, maybe just wean yourself off needing too much of it.

Don't forget that on Cohen's, because you don't eat canned and processed food (not to mention fast food!), you get MUCH less salt overall than on a "normal" diet.
 
Niyah - Thanks for your advice! I think I know wat to do now.


I am extremely tired today. i left the office at 11pm last night and only managed to get to bed after midnight. then I tossed and turned for an hour before I fell asleep.

I initially planned to go to the office late today so that I can catch a coouple more hour of sleep...but my body automatically woke up at 6am. I was so tired that I was practically life-less the whole day. In addition, the air-conditioning in my office was blasting so strong today. I was tired and freezing the whole day.

i did manage to get a small pick-me-up from my favourite comfort food. Cohen friendly of course. spicy prawns with spinach!!!! They are cooked with Szechuan crushed chilli and therefore super duper spicy!!!! I added an extra dash of it. :willy_nilly:

I am going to go to bed early today and that is for sure. I really hope I can get a really good quality sleep tonight and enjoy a huge dose of HGH working in my body.
 
I did a midnight job last night as well! (I was working on a production for school.) Hubby went out to a meeting, and then forgot he'd left me at school. I sent him a text message, but he didn't check it till nearly midnight. Never mind, I'd got my "second wind" by then and then had trouble falling asleep at home!

I've heard the losses are good when people eat seafood. I don't really like seafood that much, although I did have fish last night. Husband would love me to make MORE seafood dishes though! I'm a chicken addict.

Hope you have a good sleep!
 
Hey fortnight

Hope your still on track and enjoying those spicy prawns!!! I love making a prawn stir-fry with chilli, ginger, corriander, capsicum, onion, zucchini and prawns of course! It is super yummy and it is one of my fave cohen's meals to boot! I find that you can make the food really enjoyable and it's a way to live in the future- instead of getting pre-made sauces and dressings! I love the fact that we know exactlly what is going into our bodies and we are in control of it :)

Take care and can I encourage you to stick to the plan 100% and you will loose the weight with ease!

xxnicole
 
Hi Fornight, Slow reply I know but I meant to look this up & then let you know. I use Celtic salt. Here's just one link that may help explain why it's meant to be better. It's a very moist salt & I use it in my water bottle in Summer & in cooking

I have to go as have a visitor. cheers, Cate
 
Niyah :- Lucky for me because I am a seafood lover!!! Lucky for me that Singapore is surrounded by water so we can get almost all kinds of seafood for a reasonable price. The thing about seafood is they need to be fresh in order to taste good.

Nickychick:- Thanks for your encouragement! I really hope I will stay till the end this time!

Cate:- Thank you for recommending Celtic salt!! I read about the link and it is the first time I heard of light gray sea salt. I google it and found out that it can be bought in one of the organic shops near my workplace. I will go over there and take a look tomorrow.


Finally I reach the last day of my 2nd week. I am officially 2 weeks in Cohen. I am giving a pat on my own shoulder for not weighing myself. I knew I will get cocky if I see huge loss. That was exactly how I ended the last time. I saw huge losses and then decided to add a little bit more on vegetables...slowly become add a little bit more on the protein.....when all these deviations start to make me plateau...I blamed the diet for being too strict and inventing my own diet plan. then you know what happen.

This time round, I am going to stick to once a month weigh-in. I need to constantly remind myself to put my head & feet on the ground and tell myself my ability to move around is dependent on this weight loss. I must complete the course with total commitment and dedication.
 
I agree about the seafood. We used to live on the south-coast and went fishing a lot (I love the fishing part!!). But - when you catch it and take it straight home to cook it, it's much nicer. But I preferred it crumbed, and haven't really got into making Cohen-ish nice tasting seafood, so I'm tending to avoid it now. I like squid, but not much else - hate crab, prawns and all that, which is weird because lots of people really like them! I think with crabs it's mostly the smell of them cooking that makes my stomach churn.
 
Yummo. Seafood. Any seafood! I love it. It does really make a difference with my weight. It is so well digested & so good for us. I'm glad that I love it but wish we could eat fresh seafood more often. We live inland & most of our seafood in Tasmania gets exported. Well done Fornight on getting through 2 weeks on Cohens. Well done for not weighing again and for realising the dangers. We all learn as we go. Cheers, cate.
 
I am very disturbed today. Not because of Cohen but because of something from office. There have been some office politic saga initiated by a certain person. Although it did not implicate me, I am very upset with the way the office culture is heading. I am not a religious person but I believe that one should live with integrity. It is ironic that this scheming person just happen to like to broadcast herself as a religious christian who go to church every sunday without fail but yet ruthlessly set up trap to make people leave their jobs in this bad market.

The news make me so disturbed that I have decided to pull out my "almost forgotten" mantra beads to chant mantra for peace.
 
People with no integrity can often win because they are prepared to do anything to get their own way. People with integrity will do the right thing even if it disadvantages themselves.

But no-one can take away your integrity from you, so hold your head high and determine you will not be like them.

Here's a quote to inspire you, from Viktor Frankl, a man who survived great horrors in a concentration camp:

“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given circumstance.”

It's not pleasant, and not easy. Look after yourself, so at the end of the day, you can be a survivor too.
 
It is 3.48am here in singapore and i could not sleep!!!

I am sick with worry. I just found out that my insurance company rejected my last claim based on reason that the invoices are not originals. This is ridiculous because I am sure I did sent originals. In fact I asked the insurance company to return the originals back to me after they micro-film them for their records. I logged into their website providing information to them via their web chat. The officers that corresponded to me were very helpful. I also found out that they mixed up the figures in my claim. I am very sure I calculated all the invoices (there are only TWO) on my letter to them. How can they miscalculate???

The officers told me they will sent the claim for reassessment and it will take another 5 to 10 days. That means I must dig into my savings to pay my credit card bills first. It is quite a fair bit of money. I am mad and stressed.

My first instinct was to rush to the office in the middle of the night because I kept copies of my insurance correspondence in my office. I stopped myself. Then my next instinct was to find food to eat!!!!! I managed to stop myself too. I am serious. I really have an urge to eat some high carbs and high sugar stuff to calm myself.

now I am cool down a bit. In order to make sure the claim go through successfully, I am going to ask my doctor to issue me a "certified true copies" set of those invoices. Then I am going to use courier services to send them to the insurance company (in UK). I am willing to pay a little bit courier charges for this huge claim.

I don't think I can sleep even after I have the above planned.
 
Fornight-Well done with resisting the cravings under stress. It would not have calmed you down one little bit. It would only have added to your stress. Same for rushing to the office in the middle of the night. Same with stressing over someone who is seemingly self-righteous & sanctimonious, but lacking real integrity.
You will get through this. You are strong and capable. Take one thing at a time. Don't worry about everyone else for the moment. Try to be calm & write a list of what you need to do & then work your way through it one by one, ticking off what you achieve. Add-
Got through today without eating one thing off plan- Well done Fornight!Tick!
Took some time out to try to relax.Tick!
Just writing things down that you need to do & then crossing them off when you do them can give you a sense of achievement.
Take care of yourself Fornight. Try to sort your insurance claim out sure but then try to find a little time to do something nice for yourself. It can be as simple as ringing a special friend, reading a good book, going for a walk or having a nice, leasurely bath. You have to really try to look after yourself. Problems come & go forever. It's how we learn to deal with them that makes the difference to our mental health & well-being.
Got to go.My YS is on FB, cheers, Cate
He's in Equador & wanted his brother's home phone number. What are Mum's for?
 
Last edited:
Fornight good job on resisting. You are strong and have alot of will power. Im working on it but its getting harder with bad days but hopefully things will settle down.
I hope that the insurance claim gets done so that it is not stressing you out. I hope today is a better day for you as well. Keep it up your awesome:spam:
 
Thank you for all your thoughts.

I finally managed to sleep at 5am but I woke up again 2 hours later to have my breakfast. I have decided that it is best for me to be strict on this diet, no only restricting to simple list of ingredients and weigh-in monthly, it includes maintaining proper meal times.

I managed to have my breakfast around 7am, read the newspaper and the sandman got the better of me. I crawled back to bed to sleep for another 3 hours.

After all the incidents that happened, I realise that I really need to spend some time to reflect on how I deal with stress. I can deal with work stress but when it comes to non-work related, I get frantic and think the worst. It must be my personality.

I decided to pick up my mantra beads and start chanting mantra daily. My friend told me if I focus on the mantra, the state of mind is as good as meditation. I sucks in meditation so I think I can deal with chanting mantra.

Cate: You are right about to do something nice to myself. I told myself I will treat myself for a session of medicure and pedicure next week after I dealt the insurance claims.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top