Juicing Update

A lot of people have been asking me how my juicing fast has been going, and I figure it's time I give y'all an update.

Monday through Thursday I did great. All juice, all day. I didn't drink any coffee, but I did drink a couple cups of green tea each day. Friday we were started running low on certain vegetables, so I started incorporating some solid foods back in. So for the last few days it's been juice for Breakfast and Lunch, and soup or fish for Dinner.

Since last Monday I have lost 8 lbs (that's a total of 16 since Jan 6th), my clothes are noticeably looser, and I have felt AMAZING. Seriously, I can't believe how good I felt having nothing but juice and water for days in a row. I won't say all the juices were delicious, because frankly, some weren't.
I was never hungry either; that honestly shocked me.

So that's the update. I am still drinking the juice, and so is Steve (let's give him a round of applause, shall we). He is also down 8 lbs since last Monday. And he and I both agree that we are going to keep at this a while longer. :-)

I Scream, you scream, we all scream for...

...JUICE?!
A friend of mine recently completed a 10 day, all juice detox. She drank nothing but freshly juiced vegetables and fruits. And water. Plenty of water.
She said the whole time that she felt great and had SO much energy, and after 10 days she lost 11 lbs and 7.5 inches. You can read about her adventure here...
http://juicingforahealthylife.blogspot.com/

After hearing how much she loved the whole experience, I decided to give it a try myself. What's more, Steve has decided to do it with me (though he'll likely do just a week). After multiple trips to various grocery stores this weekend we have bags and boxes and 2 fridge's stuffed to the gills with fruits & veggies. I spent this evening washing all of the vegetables that I will need for breakfast tomorrow. Below is the spread that Steve and I will be drinking.

 

 

I am really excited about trying this. After 4 weeks of lifestyle changing I have lost 8 lbs and am alcohol free. THAT hasn't been my reality since I was growing a human being in my stomache. I have traded beer for tea and bourbon for decaf Nescafe, and I drink over a gallon of water a day now. I have to pee ALL THE TIME, and every trip to the bathroom feels like a life or death emergency, but at least I'm sober.

Demolition Man... and Wife

This has been a very productive weekend for us. We had one goal, and one goal alone... Take down The Shanty.

 

The Shanty, as you can see below, is a tiny little shack that was on the corner of the property when Steve purchased it. The previous owner had built it to be a green house, but Steve and his father used it as a shelter from inclement weather back in the early days of the home construction. They even put in a wood burning cast iron stove. A stove which still stands sturdy (though rusty) and will make a kitchy addition to my future Spokane home's back deck. 

 

These pics are the before, during, and after shots...

 

 

Behold The Shanty! Complete with missing glass panels

and rotting tree stumps.

 

Steve, standing amidst the wreckage.

 

It's gone... ALL GONE!!

 

 

I am sitting here now, tired and sore as all get out. But I am SO glad that we tackled this project (finally!) and managed to get it done in one weekend. The plus side of course is that we have torn down the aesthetic abomination. The down side is that by tearing down the trashy shanty we opened up the corner of the yard facing the even trashier yard of the people behind us. Complete with rusted, broken swing set and a fire hazard lawn that has not been mowed in over 2 years. Sometimes when you win, you lose.

 

I will say that, in spite of the crazy body aches and moist chest wheeze I have as a result of two days hard labor, I am SO happy that we spent this weekend getting something big checked off our Get the Hell Out of Here checklist. So goodbye, Shanty. May you find renewed purpose in the 'mask wearing, knife wielding psycho' nightmare's of  youth.  

Progress!

It's Sunday once again, which means it's Weigh-In Day, or WID for short. I was tickled pink when I stepped on the scale and saw that I am down 5 lbs from last week. Add that to the 3 lbs down from the week before, and I have lost 8 lbs in the last two weeks. Pardon me a moment while I do a little happy dance...

*Weeee!!!*

Thank you.
I have not been the working-out champion like I wanted to be. I've only exercised twice in the last two weeks. So those lost pounds are solely due to not stuffing my face uncontrolably. :-)
I'm pretty proud of myself so far, not just because of losing 8 lbs. I've managed to make a 75% overhaul to my eating habits without cravings or problems. I still need to tackle the exercising, but I'm not berating myself for not doing so yet. I'm taking on one problem at a time, and I now have 8 lbs of progress to help keep me motivated. Baby steps.

Off to a good start.

Well it's so far so good for my resolutions to change my lifestyle. I didn't end up exercising Monday morning, but I did yesterday and I will again tomorrow. Assuming I can still walk, that is. My legs are more sore this morning than they were last night. Hell, they're more sore now than they were two hours ago. But at least the exercising has commenced.

My diet has been very good the last two days, having ended both days within my calorie range. And I really haven't been very hungry, so overeating hasn't even been an issue. Thank goodness for that. Now if I can keep my head xdown and make it through this first week with no complications, that will be a big boost to my confidence in my ability to follow through with this.

My Promises to Myself

With the start date for my Complete Lifestyle Makeover (or CLM, for short) only 3 days away, I find myself feeling a touch of anxiety about it. Not that I'm unsure about what needs to be done and how I'm going to do it. On that I am quite confident. I'm just a little bit worried about my ability to follow through. And the only reason I'm worried is because I tend to be my own worst enemy in this area. I doubt myself, I let myself get deterred from putting in the effort, I dump all over myself any (and every) time I have a setback... I am the master at making myself feel like a piece of crap. That fact in mind, I have decided to make the following promises to myself:

1.) Whether my progress is fast or slow, I'll be sure to keep it steady. 'Slow and steady wins the race' will be my mantra.
2.) I will take my dieting and exercising one day at a time.
3.) I will not berate myself for every little slip-up.
4.) I will be sure to remind myself that my slip-ups are, in fact, little.
5.) If at any point I start to stray from the path of healthiness and/or start falling to pieces over the weight (no pun intended) of it all, I will reach out. Because there are people in my life who care as much about me as I should, and they will want to help me.

It's Time

With the arrival of the new year comes the resolutions. Some new, many old, some really big and important, some dinky or frivolous. For the first time in my life I am making a resolution, a great big important one, that I am going to stick to no matter what. I have to.

My resolution in 2013 is to GET HEALTHY. And I'm not just talking about the 'lose weight and get in shape' kind of healthy, I am talking about a COMPLETE LIFESTYLE MAKEOVER. I am talking about a complete overhaul of my eating habits, my food intake, my physical activity - everything. I need to change what and how much I eat. I need to seriously curb my alcohol intake, if not give it up entirely. I need to become active and fit. I need to create a completely new set of (healthy) habits that I do now and tomorrow and every day for the rest of my life. Do I need to 'lose weight and get in shape'? Oh yes, but I need to do it on a massive scale. In short, I need to lose 80 lbs. And that's not "I have to lose 80 lbs in order to be skinny and hot." That's, "I need to lose 80 goddamn lbs before I am at what my doctor considers to be my optimum healthy weight." That is going to take everything I have and more, but I have to do it. I'm 31 years old, I have two small children, a wonderful husband and the whole rest of my life to live. I can't put off changing any longer. I am out of time and out of excuses, and starting January 7th it's do or die time. 2013 is the year I get my shit together and become the wife, mother, and PERSON that I've always wanted to be. For my family, for my future, and for MYSELF. Because I'm worth it, dammit.