Deanna Rabbeni

Somatics
December 11, 2014
Daily Practice Project
For my daily practice, I am continuing to keep a food journal, but go more in
depth with the food journal. I am not only tracking what I eat, but I am also tracking
what effect the food has on my emotions or mood as well as my dreams. I am also
tracking who I am eating with or if I am eating alone. Then from week to week I am
going to change my diet and see how the different eating habits has on my mood as
well as my dreams.
The hardest part of this daily practice is having the discipline to keep going
with it and to remember to record all the information that I gather. I actually had to
start over because I completely forgot to do for a whole week and I didnt realize we
were suppose to start our projects. I have however, been keeping a food journal for
about a week. This part of my project is eating what I normally eat and making
observations about what I eat and the effect they have on me.
So far, I have made many different observations about my diet. The first
observation that I have made is that I eat out a lot during the week. Also, when I eat
out I dont eat very healthy and I stuff myself. This is definitely something that I
need to change. This is where a lot of my money goes to because I am too lazy to
cook. Another factor in going out to eat is that I dont really have a lot of time. I feel
like I am so much busier during the week then I am on the weekend, so it is really
hard for me to make time to cook a meal when I could just have it made for me. I feel

very full and sometimes even uncomfortably full, which is not a good feeling.
Another observation that I made was that I do not have a lot of variety in my diet. I
eat a lot of grains and dairy, but I do not eat a lot of vegetables and fruits. When I do
eat vegetables and fruits, its usually the same kinds of fruits and vegetables. I
definitely think I need to get a little more variety in my diet and experiment with
other foods that I wouldnt normally eat.
I feel like a big factor in what I eat has to do with when I work out. I find that
during the day I am not as hungry and it is easier to eat smaller healthy meals
because I am on campus and there are a lot of different options. However, after I
work out I am starving and all I crave is bad for me food or just any food as long as it
is fast and I can eat it quickly. This is usually pasta because it is so easy to cook or I
will swing by a fast food restaurant on my way home from the gym. It is really hard
to have self-control after working out because it is hard to fight off the cravings of
bad-for-you food. I also have a problem with eating way too much after I workout at
night. Dinner is supposed to be your smallest meal, but in reality dinner is my
biggest meal. I think the best way to change this is to balance out how much I eat
during the day. I think I need to start eating a little more during the day so I am not
starving by the time I get to the end of my day.
Another factor that affects what I eat, is whether I am around certain people
or if I am by myself. I am definitely more willing to eat and drink when other people
are eating and drinking. For example, my roommates and I have a tradition that we
do every week. On Wednesdays, we go to tAPP Room and get tacos and margaritas.
We all normally eat and drink the same amount because we always order more

drinks when other people at the table order more. So every Wednesday, we have
three tacos, one margarita and three coronas. I also eat when I am bored, but I
usually have somewhat healthy snacks that I can munch on. Surprisingly, I did not
have any dreams this week, or at least none that I can remember. I also did not sleep
very well this week. All throughout the night I would wake up constantly. I have no
idea whether this has to do with what I am eating or whether it has to do with
something else. I did however find that everyday I would wake up tired, no matter
how long of sleep I got and no matter how early I went to bed.
The next week I had to change my diet a little bit and eat foods that I would
not normally eat. One of the new foods I ate was salmon, I actually really liked the
salmon that I made. I baked it in the oven with salt and paper, red onions, oil, and
jalapeno peppers. This was probably my favorite new kind of food that I tried. I
found it very interesting how much I liked the salmon because I really do not like
seafood. The only type of seafood that I will eat are crustaceans, but only if they are
loaded with butter and do not taste like fish. I just have a problem with eating things
that taste like the ocean.
Another type of food that I added to my diet was raspberries. I have never
really like raspberries or raspberry flavored things. We tried them in class one day
and I really liked them, so I decided to add it to my diet. I tried many different kinds
of raspberries and I found that I liked the organic raspberries the best. I started just
eating them as a healthy snack because I do not have very many options for healthy
snacks.

The last food that I added to my diet was Brussels sprouts. I do not like too
many vegetables, but I thought I would try them because I have never liked them. I
found a simple recipe online. The recipe just called for oil, salt and pepper and to
bake them in the oven. I thought the recipe was too simple to be good, but I ended
up really liking the Brussels sprouts. I have been trying to get more greens in my
diet because I eat a lot of grains and carbs, so this is a great additive to my diet to
balance it out a little more.
I actually did end up dreaming this week. I only had one dream, but it was a
big improvement to last week where I did not dream at all. My dream was actually
very interesting and very weird. I dreamed that I lived in a big city like Chicago or
New York and there was a toxic waste spill, kind of like lava, that was coming
towards the city. There was a big lake in the middle of the city and Barack Obama
came riding up on this huge dolphin or whale in the middle of the lake. He made a
speech about how everyone needs to evacuate the city only take one bag per person
with us because it would be too hard to carry anymore. I remember being really
frantic and not knowing what was more important for me to take. I not only took
clothes and shoes, but I also took random things like my favorite stuffed animal as a
kid. It was definitely a weird dream to have. I did find that when I ate the salmon,
raspberries and Brussels sprouts I felt really happy and motivated to do things.
The last week, I was supposed to be on a completely organic diet. This week
also happened to be Thanksgiving, so there was no way I was going to be able to
completely stick to an all-organic diet. Instead I decided to eat organic when I could,
but for the rest of the time eat completely healthy. This meant that I would basically

have to cook most or all of my meals at home because I could not eat anything that
was frozen or anything that came out of a box. Mostly all of my meals ended up
being cooked at home. I ate a lot of chicken and salmon. I also ate a lot of bananas
and fresh vegetables. It was very hard sticking to this diet because of Thanksgiving,
but I had the motivation to keep with the daily practice. I also learned how to cook
so much more than I knew how to cook before. I learned so many different ways to
cook chicken.
I found myself eating alone for most of my meals, so I was not as easily
influenced to eat badly. I only ate with someone else once a day, but this was
because I was at home and we usually all ate dinner together. I also found that my
body just felt completely different. I had so much more energy then the previous
weeks. I actually felt healthier and happy about the way my body looks.
This week I dreamed almost every night. I also slept through the night almost
every night without waking up. My dreams were very vivid and interesting. The first
two nights of eating organic and healthy, I had nightmares those nights. They were
both about a zombie apocalypse. It was almost like being dropped right into the
show The Walking Dead. I was fighting zombies and I watched a lot of people die or
get turned into zombies. I honestly think that it was my bodys way of responding to
a healthy and organic diet. It was almost like it was telling me what is this healthy
food and what are you doing to me. There was a night or two where I had dj{ vu.
The rest of my dreams were either romantic dreams or they were intimate and
sexual. I think those dreams have to do with the fact that I have not seen my
boyfriend in a while, but I managed to be able to FaceTime him so I got to see his

face. I do not know how much it has to do with what I am eating, but I definitely
dreamed a lot more on a organic and healthy diet.
This project was very eye opening for me, I felt like I gained a lot of
knowledge, not just about my diet but about the way my body works as well. I think
I am going to turn this project into a permanent daily practice. I want to keep up
with my healthy eating because I felt so much better on a healthy and natural diet.
This daily practice was hard at first because it was hard to get out of my normal
ways of eating, but once I got the motivation I really enjoyed it and actually wanted
to eat good.

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