ready4change

So I’ve been thinking of several different things that I’ve been meaning to tell all of you but just haven’t had time to write about them.  So you’re going to get all my “randoms” in one post.

First, I’m DONE detoxing!!  I made it four days and said ENOUGH!!  The straw that broke the camels back though was I was asked out for lunch by this really super nice guy.  When he asked me out to lunch I actually told him that it was a bittersweet invite because I was on a fast!  How dumb am I…der!?  so to prove to you how nice this guy is he said, “well, how about tea?  Can you do tea?”   My heart skipped a beat at that moment and my fast was over

Second, since I live in the Washington DC metro area I went to the NBC Health & Fitness Expo they host every year at one of the convention centers.  I went by myself and really had a fun time.  Two things I wanted to tell everyone about the expo are: 1) I saw Heba & Ed from lats seasons Biggest Loser!  they were there giving a speech/presentation about their time on the ranch.  I didn’t realize they were there so missed the majority of their talk but did catch the last 5 minutes of it and took some pix on my phone of them.  Heba is a very tall/big woman.  But they both still look great!  2) many local gyms had demonstrations of the different classes they offer at their gyms.  I watched a large variety of different types of classes that I wish my little gym at work could/would offer. The class that I was most interested in was Zumba.  They had two latino women and a guy leading a fairly large group and danced 30 minutes straight.  They were amazing!  The way the girls wiggled their hips and upper bodies was astonishing.   I’m not sure I would look that beautiful doing Zumba but I would sure like to try!

Third, Biggest Loser last night….OMG!! Tear jerker for me.  I hope if Daniel is voted off someone continues to give him the one on one help like Jillian does.  He really inspires me.  Last nights show lead to my great workout today.  Here’s why.  When I was watching Bob’s last chance workout I wanted to strangle Jolie for not running on the treadmill.  But more than that, I kept thinking “wow…they are running at 6.7 for 30 seconds and they are much bigger than I am!  I should be able to do that too.”  But what REALLY inspired me to move my fat butt today was watching Daniel RUN at 7.0 for 10 seconds!!!  Even when I was skinny and in shape, I never pushed myself to run at a fast pace.  So today in my workout I added intervals.  To my amazement, I too can run at a pace of 6.7.  What’s even better is 30 seconds wasn’t long enough for me to fatigue so I was doing 60 and 90 second intervals!!!

Ok, I think that’s all the thoughts that I had been thinking about over the past several days.  Hope everyone’s week is going great!  This new Mr. Wonderful that has strangely entered my life is a very positive and passionate person who turned me onto the motivational speaker Les Brown.  If any of you have a chance to read some of his quotes they are very powerful.  I don’t have one favorite yet as they are all great, here is one I liked today.

“We must look for ways to be an active force in our own lives. We must take charge of our own destinies, design a life of substance and truly begin to live our dreams.”
Les Brown

This has been the hardest day by far.  I honestly can say I do not feel hungry.  I honestly can tell that I have more energy and have definately been “eliminating”.  However, I want solid food!  I read in one person’s detox journal that on day 4 they wanted to eat their keyboard if they could for the simple pleasure of chewing and swallowing and now I can totally agree and understand what was meant by the comment.

My purpose of doing this detox was purely to cleanse my internal organs/system of all the over-the-counter energy boosters & drinks, cigarettes, alcohol, fast food, processed food, preservatives, etc that I have been carelessly putting in my body over the past year and a half.  I am NOT doing this to lose weight.  Yes, losing weight is a side effect of detoxing but I know that whatever I may lose I will gain most of back. I’m not cutting into my fat stores, just getting rid of water.

One thing that I had read in a few detox blogs was that several folks said they had a heightened sense of smell.  I have that now too but I’m not sure if its from the detox itself or just smelling how wonderful food smells and wanting to eat something I can’t have!!

I will stick with this for at least a couple more days…don’t want to waste the lemons and expensive organic maple syrup.  But seriously I’m ready to eat and ready to eat wisely!

Day 1 went really well.  Didn’t eat any solid food.  Day 2…well I cheated.  Around 11:30 a.m. I could smell co-workers heating up their lunches and it was driving me crazy.  So I looked in my “food” drawer I keep at work and discovered I had left the box of thin mints I had received as a holiday gift in there!  Score!  Ate four thin mints which is actually one serving (4 grams of fat; cals 150).  But then my stomach started to really hurt and start cramping.  Duh!  And then there was a retirement gathering for another co-worker yesterday afternoon.  When I walked in I went straight for the veggie tray.  I had 4 baby carrots, 2 broccoli florets and 2 snow peas.  And then…a 2×2 inch square of chocolate cake called my name so I answered.  Wasn’t hungry at all…just wanted to much!

I got home and finished the rest of my lemonade for the day and decided since I had already cheated a bit that I would go ahead and eat something somewhat healthy so ate a small serving of polenta.  Surprisingly it didn’t upset my stomach.  I drank my laxative tea before bed and was actually not totally exhausted at the end of the day like usual.  I fell asleep fairly quickly and slept really well.  I actually woke up before my alarm went off this morning!

I felt really great this morning and have had a lot of energy so far all day today.  Prior to this fasting I was a HUGE energy drink person.  Like some drink coffee, I drink those.  Tons of cals in them but they do keep me awake.  I was actually someone nervous about giving them up for this fast because I hate going to meetings and not being able to keep my eyes open.  However, so far today I have felt a lot of energy!

I just cheated again tho.  I ate 4 more thin mints. the good news is, the box is now empty!  I do feel as if my body is starting to rid itself of all the toxins in my organs and starting to flush out the ‘bad’ stuff.  I feel amazingly refreshed!

For a couple years now I have considered doing one of those 10 day cleansing diets but never made a commitment to try it.  However, I really feel this year more than any other is the year to take the bull by the horns and cleanse me - inside and out.  Gone is 2008.  The year had a lot of really great times and memories but it also had a lot of drinking and smoking and unhealthy eating.  So I have decided to detox and cleanse my body of all the impurities I have been polluting myself with.  I decided to do the 10 day Lemonade diet.  Today is my first day and everything I have read said days 1 and 2 are the hardest to get through.  The diet recommends drinking 4 cups of water with 2 tsps of uniodized salt water.  Couldn’t drink it all.  only drank about 1/2 of it.  Uck!  The lemonade stuff is not terrible.  It really does taste like lemonade at first…until the cayenne pepper hits the back of my mouth and burns!!  I have to drink about a gallon of this stuff each day for 10 days.  Each night I’m suppose to drink a herbal laxative tea.  I will report back each day with my updates.

Have any of you done a detox/cleansing diet before?  If so, what where your experiences (good and bad)?