First step on my road to resolutions....

I ran 4 miles today... 2.5 up to Gold's Gym and then 1.5 home!  I also did the Sunday Erg class - 10,295 meters....

Also, decided to hit up the juice to get me in the right frame of mind...  Today's the first day and it's hard...seems harder than usual... maybe because John and Zack are eating stuffed crust pizza RIGHT NOW!  Bastards! 

I stepped on the scale this morning and it's not where I would like it to be.  Despite making an effort to eat better and work out, that number seems to be creeping up again.  I know it's not about the number...but that's really not true... it's always about the number.  Granted I am in far better shape than I've ever been in and muscle weighs more than fat....which is what everyone says when they gain weight....but could it be true?  I'd really rather prefer to be muscley and have a really low number on the scale! :o)  In the mean time... I'm just going to keep fighting the good fight!

Reset and recharge

Went to Erg class this morning, wasn't pretty, but it wasn't as awful as I expected it to be.  After my month of excess, I'm actually ready to get back into good habits and an exercise plan.
End of challenge.... time to reset my mind and body...

Visited my favorite juice bar. Puree and picked up a 3 day juice fast.  I'm a little worried I'm not going to be able to last 3 days without eating - I don't have a lot of reserves.  I'm not sure I'll be able to row tomorrow or Thursday without a little eating to sustain me.  I'll just play it by ear... there are no "juice fast police" so if I want to eat a few grapes or a pretzel or 2, no one is going to scream "Cheater, Cheater" at me.  I'll just have to play it by ear...or stomach...

My latest obsession

My latest obsession!  These are very similar to the juices I get when I'm doing my Juice Cleanses, but  way cheaper! They aren't quite as big either, that means fewer calories and they are sooooo tasty. I've been drinking one everyday for breakfast and the milk one every night.  The milk one is almost exactly the same as the Choco Maca Milk that I get at the juice bar and it is to die for!!   It's my night time treat!  Better than wine, better than muffins...no...not that good... but close! :o)  Certainly better for me than muffins.

Not a Chance

It's 10 freaking degrees outside (not counting the wind)
I'm on Day 3 of my juice fast - it hasn't been bad, but I do get pretty hungry and I'm feeling a little draggy, can't tell if it's the fast, allergies or the winter crud everyone has
and
another 2 hour delay for school today!

Gold's Gym - you didn't stand a chance in hell today!  I'll make up the miles somewhere else.
But, I promise I'll try and keep our date tomorrow!

Sometimes being bad is good! Or at least it tastes good!

When you know you have a 3 day juice fast coming up, sometimes you want to throw caution to the wind and eat whatever the hell you want...

I'm not ashamed to admit I ate both of them all by myself!  Now the Lays bag was the snack size and not the full size bag, but nevertheless...  I know you are supposed to "prepare yourself" before the juicing, but I like to prepare myself by eating everything I can think of before I start!  Going to try and do 3 days, just to get my head back in the game and out of the chocolate covered pretzel bag!  I wasn't terrible over the holidays, but I definitely let some good habits go.  So here's to trying to get back in the swing. 

I'm also going to step out of my comfort zone tomorrow and try running on the treadmill!  The high temperature is supposed to be 34 tomorrow with snow and there's no way I'm going to get up early and run in the dark and freezing cold, so I'm going to give the warm treadmill a try.  We'll see....  I just hope I don't become a YouTube video!

13 is my new lucky number!

I just finished doing another 3 day juice fast.  I'm getting to where I really like those things.  I figured after my belly bomb weekend with my dad, a juice cleanse was probably a good idea.  Get myself re-centered and back in the swing of things.  There really is something liberating about not having to eat anything.  When you get hungry it's time to drink a juice, you don't have to worry about what to eat, don't have to cook anything, don't have dishes to do.  There's no worrying about good choices or bad choices you just drink your damn juice!!  So, I got on the scale and Holy Weight Loss Batman... I am down 13lbs!  13 Freaking Pounds!  The scale said 120lbs and I about peed myself.  I don't think I've weighed 120 in forever!  Now granted, I'm sure I'll put a couple back on as soon as I started eating, but it's still pretty damn exciting!  I guess my little bouts of running really are helping out.  I'm stuck on 5 mins right now.  I can't seem to get past that point.  It's the damn side cramps that are killing me.  I've been repeating week 4 in the hopes that I can get the side cramps to ease up.  I don't want to proceed to running more if I can't run 5 mins consistently and now stupid Hurricane Sandy is "cramping" my style!  

I miss my juice!

   Back on the eating bandwagon,  making a real effort to eat smart and I think I am, but it takes so much effort!  You have to think about what you are going to eat, then make it and then eat it!  It's much easier to be unhealthy.  Doritos and Slim Jims just sit there mocking me in their easy grab, ready to go packets!  I find myself really missing my juices.  All the work and effort taken out of it...hungry? Go in grab your juice and go.  Done.  If that juicing bar was closer, I'd be there everyday!  I miss my Mean Lemonaid, my Easy Green, and believe it or not even my Carrot/Coconut Water!

   I guess it's conceivable that if I really wanted more juice I could actually make my own with the jucier that I own, but talk about effort... that is TOO. MUCH. WORK!  So, not sure what I'm going to do... maybe I'll make a pilgrimage to the juice bar and stock up... Drink one or two a day... I don't know....
                                                                 

     VS. 

Oh my dilemma!

Made my choice...

Oops! I did it again...Done, but it's not about the number.

I woke up this morning and realized I was done with the juicing.  Of course I pranced right over, in my panties and zombie apocalypse t-shirt, to the scale I borrowed yesterday from a neighbor.  We don't own a scale, haven't owned one since I was in my 20's. As a matter of fact, when I was walking into the house with it, John said..."Why are you bringing that evil machine into our house!"  He actually seemed quite perturbed!  I don't believe in scales, I know they aren't good for me personally.  I see a scale and I have to step on it and then there's a number in black and white that you can't get out of your head.  And for me aside from Freshman year in college when I gained the "freshman 25"(thank you Munich West Germany and a "major" in Beerfest!)  I've never been that worried about my weight.  True story... the end of my freshman year of college I weighed the same thing I weighed when I delivered both my kids!!!  Even then I didn't really diet, just quit with the beer and alcohol and most of it went away.
So for me - it's never really been about the number... more about do my pants fit,  does John roll over to my side of the bed when I lie down or do the airlines "suggest" I buy and extra seat just in case!  And lately, more importantly it's been about health and fitness... can I run away from the zombies when the Zombie Apocalypse hits!  I don't want to be the slowest, juiciest, fat-padded runner in the pack!

But I digress....Back to my story... I pranced over to the scale and stepped on it and Lo and Behold...I saw a number I don't remember seeing much even in high school!  123.5!  SAY. WHAT...I stepped on the scale 3 more times just in case.  Sort of like the time when I first worked in the lab and I did my own pee pregnancy test and it was positive, so then I drew my own blood and did a serum test and it was positive and so then I drew my blood from the OTHER arm, I guess just in case I was only preggers on one side and it was positive!  Sorta like that, 4 times on the scale and still the same number!  It was pretty exciting,  now I know as soon as I start eating that number is going to go away.  I understand that that's not even a number I'm interested in trying to stay at.  As a matter of fact as soon as my neighbor is up I will return the evil machine to her and not worry about it again.

But that number and the sense of accomplishment I feel, ARE motivation for me to step back from the Doritos and Slim Jims (but not the Drunken gummies, I'm heading for those when I finish here) and go back to making conscious choices about what I stuff in my mouth.  I almost don't feel like eating yet, because of the pressure to make that first bite a good one....

Oops! I did it again...Day Three

I'm on my last drink...almond milk and then I'll be done.  Went over to borrow my neighbors scale just for the hell of it and I'll weigh myself tomorrow.  Today really wasn't too bad.  I spent most of the day up at the high school doing spiritwear and other stuff and then home working on the computer so it was pretty easy to avoid eating.  I was definitely hungry, but I was easily able to ignore it and by the time I was REALLY hungry it was time for another juice.

Now it's almost done and I feel pretty good about the whole thing.  I don't know how much actual "cleansing" got done or if I'm any healthier but I do feel more ready to get back on the eating healthy bandwagon and after all that was the point of the whole thing.

Would I do it again... probably if I felt like my eating was out of control.  It's a good reminder that you don't always have to eat every time you feel a twinge.  I didn't particularly notice a lag in energy.  Food or no food, by 3 o'clock I'm ready for a nap!  And I really only noticed a headache on Day Two and it wasn't bad enough to even take anything for.

All in all.... now that it's only a good night's sleep away from being over...pretty decent experience... minus the carrot juice!

Oops I did it again...Day Two

Well....Day Two...It wasn't awful, but it has been a little more of a challenge since I was stuck at home waiting for window people to show up.  It's a lot easier to not eat when you are out running errands or in meetings. I've also spent more time in the bathroom... jeez with the peeing...

Pretty much the same juices as yesterday except for two substitutions because the juice bar ran out.  So instead of Easy Green, I had Coco-Phyll which was spinach, romaine, kale, cucumber, celery and coconut water. It was fine, not as good as the ones with apple in them but not awful.  It certainly made me feel healthy drinking it.  The other adjustment I made was I mixed my carrot juice and coconut water - halfsies.  It helped a little bit, I had twice as much carrot to drink but half as strong.  I'm just not a fan of the carrot!  Still absolutely loved the Mean Lemonaid, I could drink that stuff by the gallon!  Yummy!

I also had a different milk to drink tonight. Choco Maca Milk - almond milk, cacao powder, maca mesquite (what the hell is that?) and cinnamon.  It was okay, a little bit like watered down chocolate ice cream.  Probably really good if you like milk and ice cream to begin with, but not really my thing.  But by 845pm I was so hungry I was thankful to have anything!

I was definitely hungrier on Day Two and it freaking amazes me how much "food stuff" is all around us!  Every TV commercial, book, magazine is full of food.  I must have downloaded 15 recipes from Pinterest, it was all I could do to keep myself from licking the TV when a commercial for Stouffers MeatLoaf came on!  MEATLOAF... I don't even like meatloaf... but it looked so moist and gravy-ful and warm....STOP!  I had to go hide down in the basement while John and Zack ate dinner for fear I would snatch that Ramen right out of Zack's hands and slurp it down before anyone could stop me!

I do feel skinner, emptier than when I'm stuffing my mouth with Doritos and cheese and slim jims.  But getting through today is going to be a challenge....

Oops I did it again - Day One

I survived Day One.  I gotta say it wasn't as easy as the cleanse I did myself a few months back.  That one, based on the Blueprint Cleanse, had juices mixed in with smoothies and smoothies are much more filling than straight up juices.  I found myself much hungrier than last time, but as long as I kept myself distracted it worked out okay.

First up instead of my regular tea - Hot water with lemon and 1/2 ginger shot.  It was okay, not particularly tasty, but at least warm.
1st juice - Mean Lemonaid - water, lemon, cayenne pepper and coconut nectar.  It was freaking AWESOME! I was really hesitant at first, but this was really delicious!  Got me started off right.  Although I did find myself mourning a little for my traditional 1/2 bagel with tomato, bacon and a little mayo spread.  But I powered on.
2nd juice - Easy Green - Kale, cucumber, apple and lemon.  It was also pretty good.  I like the green juices - they definitely taste like you are drinking something healthy.
3rd juice - 22 Karat - it's straight up carrot juice.  It definitely tasted like carrots, but I found it a little hard to take.  It tasted a little dirty and it did make my throat itch a little.  I had a hard time getting through it.  I added half a beet shot - but it didn't do much to help.  I might actually skip the carrot juice tomorrow.
4th juice - Coconut Water - It was okay, but I think my stomach was still wonky from the carrot juice and I couldn't make it through the whole thing.  I think if I hadn't had the carrot juice I would have been okay.
5th juice - Green apple - Green apple + cucumber.  It was fine.
Last drink - Almond Milk - not my favorite, but I don't like regular milk.  I drank it all though, because supposedly the extra protein and fat in it helps you feel full and sleep better.

I wasn't starving, but I did spend most of the day at least slightly hungry.  The biggest challenge was the mindset of grabbing a snack when the hunger pangs kicked in.  That and watching TV is a pain in the ass... sweet lord do you know how many FOOD commercials there are???  EVERYTHING starts to look good by about juice #3.  I even found myself a little jealous as a scooped Cooper and Zoey's food into their bowls tonight.  I also have a wonderful bowl of Drunken Gummies "brewing" in the refrigerator and their allure is growing daily!  I keep telling myself "one gummy won't make that big a difference."  But we all know it's never just one gummy!  And really, when you are trying to cleanse your system I don't think the best thing to sneak is processed, artifical perservatives and sugar + vodka! Stay Strong! Stay Strong!  I think today may be a challenge.

Oops! I'm doing it again!

I've decided to try another one of those 3-day Juice cleanses.  Only this time I'm paying someone else to do all the work.  I found a fancy Juice Bar in Maryland, through one of the bloggers I read and I thought Why Not?  I've been doing really great all summer watching what I'm eating, not dieting, but just trying to be more aware and consciously making good choices.  Only eating when I'm really hungry, no mindless snacking, measuring out appropriate portion sizes and making healthy choice instead of always defaulting to a slim jim and some Doritios when the first hunger pangs hit.  That, in combination with our Summer Fit in 15 had 6 lbs falling by the wayside.  Yeah!  Pants that were a tad snug are now loose and flappy.  Anyway,  all that has fallen by the wayside over the last 2-3 weeks.  I know it's all stress.  Brenna going back to college, Zack starting high school, I've taken over a huge administrative position on the Crew Board and am still doing all the same stuff for Athletic Boosters. With school starting sometimes I have 3 different meetings in one day not to mention all the little "critical" shit that's gotta get done so the big stuff doesn't go down in flames.  Let's not forget the upcoming bathroom remodel. Can anyone say Post Traumatic Tile and Paint Syndrome!  It's all starting to get to me, I'm having the "can't find my locker" "can't find my class that I forgot to go to" and  "can't catch the hundreds of snakes appearing in my house" dreams.  Those are always an indication that I'm feeling overwhelmed and out of control.
Long story short (too late), I've been partaking of the snack food just a little too much and been feeling yuck!  Soooooo, I saw this bloggers Blog and I thought "Hey, I should do that again."  But I just couldn't add the stress of having to make it all myself, and shop and blah, blah, blah.  I've been tucking away "Mad Money" every month forever, and what better to spend my mad money stash on than  Juice Cleanse torture therapy!

I drove out to Bethesda yesterday and picked up my 18 bottles of juice, my 3 beet juice shots and 1 ginger shot and tucked it all away in the refrigerator.

Today's the day... of course, just like when you make an appointment for your kids at the doctor and they suddenly get better, I woke up this morning, the first morning of my juice fast....STARVING!.  Not just a little twinge of "Hmm I think I'll eat a little earlier this morning" hungry.  Freaking, stabbing hunger pangs hungry.  Oh well...

Right now I'm "enjoying" hot water with a slice of lemon, and 1/3 of the ginger shot (it's very spicy).  Not nearly as satisfying as the bagel and cream cheese I would love to be eating.  But I bought, I committed and I will persevere!