I'm feeling sooooo much better eating on The Zone. I was really unhealthy living Low-Carb. Run down, developed mouth ulcers, irritability, and all those nasty side-effects you get whenever your body is out of balance.

And now I can eat fruit. YAY!

5:30am: 2oz Smoked Turkey ....

.... and the last of my 99% Swiss Chocolate. (3 pieces).

Scrambled microwave eggs ....

.... Greek Yoghurt (full fat) with Mango.

This was rushed down with a green tea as Dave had a time sensitive surprise for me and we were late.

It ended up being SURFING LESSONS! A lifelong goal of mine. 

After 2 hours in the water, surfing with sea turtles, I was starving. I ate a chicken breast, half a carrot with chili sauce and half a packet of salt and vinegar pop chips.

I grabbed an iced coffee with cream to restore my post-surfing energy. This is the first fully caffeinated coffee I've drunk in years. Our B&B owner says Kona Coffee farmed on the lower hills is less caffeinated than that higher up. I'm not sure how true this is, but I didn't feel too jittery after this coffee, so I'm not complaining.

We discovered a Hawaiian Farmers Market and bought some local Lychees and Mangos. We sat on the beach to eat the Lychees in the sun. 

I loved today so much!

I think I need to enjoy my Pre-neymoon now. This blog is taking up too much time .... I keep eating too much each day and writing it all down is not keeping me accountable. It's just frustrating the hell out of me.

If I decide to randomly add entires, so be it, but the most important thing now is for me to get back on track with my lower calories-per-day and more exercise.

Dinner tonight was pink salmon with avocado, mango, greek yoghurt and habanero chili sauce.

OK, I bit the bullet and stepped on the scales this morning. The damage was not as horrifying as I imagined, but I do have a bit of work to do. 

I now weigh 132lb.

If I'm in the 120's for my wedding I'll be happy. Below 125lb's will be ideal, but considering the stress I've been putting myself under to get there, I'm not sure it's worth it. My new game plan is to eat less, (preferably aiming for 1250 calories a day), stick loosely to The Zone with low-carb-higher-fat tweaks and to exercise every day. Whatever comes of that will  be.

Killing myself for one event will only lead to rebelling afterwards. That could end up in huge weight gain. I want to be a Trim 'n FIt Wife For Life!

5:30am - 1 Egg and 5 Mushrooms ....

.... and 2 pieces of 99% Cacao Chocolate.

I forgot to take a picture of our B&B breakie today, but it was a slice of local papaya with lime, a bite of banana, scrambled eggs with grated cheese and local avocado rolled inside corn tortillas. I ate 1/3 of one tortilla to avoid offending our hosts, then gave the rest to Dave. The rest was so delicious.

We're staying on an organic coffee farm so I had to try half a cup on their produce as well as a cup of tea with cream.

We headed off to hike a volcano today. I took a Smoked Turkey Salad with Pecans, Organic Butter and Habanero Chili Sauce, half a packet of Chickpea Chips, 2 low-fat String Cheese Sticks and a bag of fresh Green Beans I bought at a farmer's market on the way.

2 Boiled Eggs.

Here's me on the volcano eating a Cheese Stick and some Beans. This cheese sucks. It's extra low fat and tastes like dust. Give me more fat any day.

Lesson learnt. Dairy products should always be eaten with fat intact.

Roast Chook! I ate a leg before I had time to take this picture. Then I ate the other and left all the good bits for Dave.

I had a hand full of Green Beans in the car on the way home too.

After the dodgy nonfat Greek Yoghurt debacle last night, I went back to the store to stock up on Full-Fat Greek Gods. I ate 4oz with half a tiny local Mango. H-E-A-V-E-N.

Did I mention we're staying on a Hawaiian Macadamia nut farm? After dinner I gathered some fresh nuts, cracked 5 and ate them. Yummo.

I miscalculated my countdown and gained an extra week in there. It was serendipitous. I have completely gone off the rails during my week in the wilderness. So much so that I am too scared to weigh myself.

I spent 7 nights in a titchy little tent in the snow, with a bathroom block 250 yards away. Yosemite National Park was stunning, but I was over the cold weather. I am done with winter. This is why I'm heading back to Australia where the sun always shines and snow is a novelty.

The week in Yosemite was full of hikes, but never too strenuous and most were on pretty level ground. I just didn't have my usual pizzazz. (More on that later). 

During the week I ate a load of eggs, cream, canned salmon, full-fat cheese, 100% cacao chocolate, cacao nibs, gluten-free rackers, milk and far too many nuts. FAAAAR too many nuts. I don't even want to think about how many calories and how much fat I swallowed in all those handfuls. I have a built-in phobia of throwing away food and since I was carrying bags and bags of organic nuts of every variety, I couldn't bear to ditch them before Hawaii.

It was by birthday on the 9th, so I even bought myself a slice of cheesecake from our campsite cafe. (I ate it minus the gluten base). Then the next day I decided to have another slice, and a Lara Bar (which are so healthy if you're not carb-sensitive like me. They're made of dates and nuts and chocolate. Mmmm).

I learnt a big lesson during this week. Low-carbing does not work for me. I just didn't have the energy and buoyant moods I usually live with when I eat on The Zone. Eating all that fatty meat and cheese and nuts left me feeling lethargic, depressed and bored. At first I was excited at first to have free reign over the cheese cabinet. By the end, walking into a gourmet cheese store made me feel queasy. And I cheated. I was so starved of food choice that I'd eat all those high-fat foods but then add in too many carbs on top. Not good.

I also had a quick look back over this blog. In the beginning my meals were bursting with color and variety. I was excited about new recipes and made an effort to fill my days with a range of vitamins and minerals.

Compare that to lately. Low-carbing has been all organgy-browny-beige in color. I get clogged up thanks to a lack of fiber and my energy has been at an all time low. I have decided to get back on track with The Zone, whilst switching it up with perhaps a little more fat and a little less carbs in some of my meals and snacks.

When we got to San Francisco after a day of bus and train travel yesterday, I ate far too many meals and snacks all day and then settled for a Salami Sandwich on gluten-free bread and a gluten-free Spiced Pumpkin Choc-Chip Muffin. It must've been sweetened with nasty agave as my belly swelled to pregnant proportions and I was in a world of pain all night and half of today.

I'm now in Hawaii, by the way. Staying in a gorgeous ocean-view B&B. Today I was up at 4am in San Francisco's time-zone, and it's now 6:45pm in Hawaii's time-zone, (or 9:45pm in SF). I've eaten too many meals today, but couldn't help it as the day has been extra long and I'm subsisting on 3 hours sleep. I am exhausted but excited to be in the tropics and almost home after 2 years away.

Here was my food for the flight.

Breakfast: 2% Fage with 6 Organic Strawberries, 1/4 Avocado and a Roma Tomato.

Morning Snack: Cucumber, 2 Eggs, 1 String Cheese, 1/2 Red Bell Pepper.

Snack: 1/4 Avocado and 1 String Cheese Stick.

I also had a Decaf Coffee onboard with 1 Tbs Cream and a Black Tea with 1 Tbs Cream.

We found Hawaii's version of WholeFoods and bought some Grass-Fed Roast Beef and a Vegan Beet Salad. I ate half of this for lunch, then the other half a couple of hours later.

We drove to a coffee farm and taste-tested a few sips of Black Coffee, 1 Choc-coated Macadamia Nut, a few bites of weird local bitter Fruits, and a bite of a Coconut Macaroon. (Naughty).

I also had 2 pieces of a new 99% Chocolate I bought in San Francisco. The remaining 1% is Fructose. It has a nice creamy mouthfeel but is not worth the $8 I paid for that tiny bar.

And 1 Tbs Cacao Nibs to follow.

Dinner (my second dinner in a 2nd timezone?) was a can of Sardines in Olive Oil and an Organic Salad.

Pre-bedtime I had a 6oz tub of Nonfat Greek Gods Plain Yoghurt. This is the stuff I positively raved about last month, with one difference: it was Full Fat. Hate to admit it, but the nonfat doesn't cut it. How can you enjoy food without fat?

I added 3 Pecans to boost the flavor but it was all wrong. Still, I can't argue with a mere 60 calories a tub.

Off to Yosemite today. Internet may be sparse this week.

Here's an example of the way Dave and I ate for the week. This was my birthday lunch for both of us.

Scrambled Microwave Eggs with 1 Tbs Cream.

Decaf Coffee with 1 Tbs Cream.

3 Brazil Nuts.

1oz of Manchega Cheese while waiting for the bus.

Same as breakfast. I'd cooked up the remaining eggs (2 whole + 2 whites with 1 Tbs of Half-and-half), and I ate them on the ferry from Vallejo to San Francisco.

Plus 10 Raw Organic Cashews ....

.... and 1/2 Tbs of Raw Organic Cocoa Nibs.

We went shopping at Wholefoods for hiking meals. I found these awesome gluten-free, raw, low-carb crackers to have with pouches of salmon and nuts.

I had to try the crackers before we hit Yosemite, so I ate 3 with a mini Cucumber. 

I also sampled a few cheeses for some protein and fat.

Dave and I hot-footed it over to the Mission District to track down some serious Calexico food. We ate at El Toro Taqueria. Maaan, I don't know how Mexican food can taste so damn good on the West Coast, a little less good on the East Coast and then absolute shyte in Australia.

I ordered a burrito without the burrito. Also without the rice and beans. It was all Carne Asada, Guacamole, Sour Cream, Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato and loads of yummy fresh Salsas. Too good!

I needed a bit of sweetness when I got home, so I ate 2 Tbs of Unsweetened Dried Coconut.

I'll get back to you in half a day .... traveling from Napa to san Francisco today!

Weight is 130 lb.