let me introduce.. Ruth Heidrich

Photo from Ruth's Website

  I thought everyone should meet the lovely Ruth Heidrich. If your familiar with vegan books or watched Forks over Knives (if you haven't~ take the time it is eye opening) you will know the name. This photo is Ruth at 73 in 2008. She is still going strong in 2012.

  I love Ruth's story so I thought I would share her story from her website and this current article on Vegan Mainstream . Ruth was a very healthy women at 47 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She ran marathons ate really well and was in disbelief when her doctor told her she had breast cancer.

     So she fought back with the help of John McDougall's program helping her fight her cancer with a low fat vegan diet. She trained for her first Ironman after her surgery. Ruth has been Vegan for 30 years and has never looked back. She had the belief in her heart and from Dr McDougall that the change in her diet would and HAS helped fight her cancer. I love her spunk, her determination and her drive.What an amazing lady.

Two funny and lovely ladies from the HBO series "The Weight of a Nation"

  I personally believe that food plays a HUGE role in our state of health and our children's. I have been watching the HBO special " The Weight of a Nation" and it is quite scary the situation that we will all be in if we don't change. My biggest concern that our kids are the ones paying the price.I shared with John the information that the two main things that shocked me why our kids are getting so big. TV's in there rooms and the heavy marketing campaigns that the food industry is assaulting our kids with. That blew me away!!

  I am still learning and continue to be challenged everyday by the call of sugar, bad beverages and watching TV instead of getting outside. My pledge to myself and my son is that I am going to get outside every day. I will continue to add more veggies and fruit to my families daily diets. Nothing but water in his lunch kit. I am giving up coffee, pop and wine (except for a glass if we go out). I know that my weight loss is stalled by the drinks I consume. In the program from HBO they stated teenagers consume an entire meal in drinks a day. I thought lets be honest with myself .. " I do this". I have loved teas for years so in with tea and water. Yummy!!

  Is there a challenge you want to do for yourself or your family this summer?? Post in comments if you want or write them down for yourself. Lets all make this a healthier summer.

  On a fun note the countdown to my guest post on Tosca Reno blog is in 8 days. MAY 29th!!!

The PLAN !!!!

 So today I took the time to plan my food for the next little while.I am going to stay very close to what the design is here. I do follow a plant based diet but, I do have the occasional eggs.I may bump up the eggs as I weight train more. This is trail and error for me I haven't done a ton of hard core workouts and followed my plant based diet. I will get more advice from my magazines, Tosca and various blogs.I can tweak along the way.

Okay so water, herb teas ( I have tons of David's Tea's) and green tea. I am going to try to get tons of lemons in the water for the liver. I have to recommend a new David's Tea Mulberry Magic. Yummy!!!



Food

Breakfast...protein smoothie or oatmeal

Snacks.... Almond or peanut butter w whole grain crackers or celery
                 Fruit
                 1 tbsp raw almonds
                 protein shake
                 Coconut or soy yogurt w fruit

Lunches....soups (lentil and bean) w salad
                  Salads w beans or tofu
                  Fruit 1 cup

Dinner ...tofu and bean main meals
Quinoa or brown or wild rice ( this is every two days)
2 veggies of some sort


 My plan is to eat 5 times a day and also cut out sugar. I have Tosca's new Veggie Cookbook and I plan to make meals from that as well. So it's simple and that should help.

 Workouts-  So this is the workout right now. I am working to get this hip flexor injury fixed.

Weight training 5or 6 times a week...chest, back, triceps, biceps and shoulders.I am working this on rotation. This is working fabulously I am finding myself more focused.
 
 Walking with running intervals. My physiotherapist...who is amazing. She is recommending running.I was shocked!! She wants me to warm up REALLY good then start shocking the muscles. Forcing them to work differently. 

 Right now no legs...but a wall squat Keri has me doing.Mama mia!!!. It not really a squat and super hard. It is forcing those buttocks to do some more work.And butt squeezes all day long.

 Abs right now it is ALL about the core. Keri has me thinking 24/7 about the pelvic wall. Pulling it in with EVERYTHING I do.Everything I do requires me thinking about my core. Kegels..  ladies I cannot tell you how important this is!!! And side planks I am getting better every day.

I am going to get rid of 40 pounds......... it's time.

Meet 50!

    So in this post I want to introduce you to a woman who has inspired me.Now her journey began at 40...yep 40.The picture you see below on the left hand side is Tosca before.The picture on the right is Tosca now...ladies take note she is now in her 50's !! I wanted to write this post so maybe you will check her out. I am doing a guest post on her blog May 14th.This post is personal and not connected to that post. I want you guys to know about this women because she is inspiring and I think that by knowing her story you might feel inspired to Eat Clean and lift some weights.

  So Tosca was unhappy, overweight and miserable.She wanted to make her life better so she entered...the gym. Now I know from reading her story she began running on the treadmill. Then when she introduced weights she found her body changing.She wanted to share the information she had learned and began the "Raise the Bar" column in Oxygen magazine.I loved her from the moment I read her first column. I still collect her columns in my binder.What I love about the column is Tosca continues to share struggles and challenges.She rants... some of my favorites. She also is passionate about making changes for women, kids and getting people to eat better. I think the columns I have really loved through the years is when she has been critiqued and  people have said negative things about her and she has handled it with grace. She stayed positive, stated the facts and didn't let it bring her down.Classy!!

   Tosca's journey led her into the Eat Clean Diet series.  They all have fantastic information.My favorite is Your Best Body Now. This one speaks to me as I am in my forties and has the information going into your fifties.

     I was reading Oxygen magazine and I was so excited to see that she was bringing out the new Vegetarian Cookbook. I seen last month on her blog she was looking for guest bloggers and you would get the cookbook early~ for free!!!!! I thought I am going to take a chance.Well to my shock I was picked .I had my moments of self doubt...my mind saying "your not good enough". Then I pulled back and thought I am going to enjoy the moment and damn Tosca's sending ME a cookbook. I can't wait to share what I think and share the new book with all of you.

   So I have decided to let Tosca be my inspiration to remove these pesky thirty pounds .I am going to  really clean up my diet this year. Eat smaller meals more often and really watch my beverages.

      I have more appointments for my hip flexor injury this week. My xrays came back great but hearing that this type of injury can plague me for years is kind of overwhelming. I am meeting a new physiotherapist this week and she sounds really great. We are going to work on things I can do. Hopefully work on things I want to do this summer.Like WALK...lol. I know there are things I could be doing. Yoga keep me flexible. More weight training for the upper body.

I love this photo look at those arms.

     There are a few ways Tosca can inspire your journey.  If you want to check Tosca out, I have The Eat Clean Badge on the right of this post. Click it and it will take you to the Eat Clean Diet website.

    The Oxygen magazine...I know the women can be intimidating on the front but it has great articles on eating, working out (at home and the gym)  Tosca's column and one of my favorite sections the success stories.

    Check out her books and cookbooks she had one for the family, men and workouts.

    I was not asked to do this post in order to do the guest post. As you know I like to share things I LOVE and Tosca is a women I think you should get to know. It is important to have wonderful role models who only get better with age. And Tosca is defying age!!!!

    I thought I would include Tosca doing her 7 Citrus Salad from the cookbook. All this month they are doing videos from the cookbook. She has other videos to check out too. So I will post here when my guest post goes up. Until then check out Tosca and her Eat Clean Diet website. The Kitchen table has some amazing recipes and real people sharing their results. Check her out for some great advise and inspiration.ENJOY!!!