Monday. Oy, what did I do? I started a juice cleanse this morning and I’m hungry already. I haven’t even finished my first juice. I can already hear the mumblings… Why on Earth are you doing a juice cleanse you stupid person you? For a couple of reasons.
First and foremost is to cleanse myself of some bad habits. I don’t have anything chemical to cleanse myself of at this point. I don’t eat meat or dairy (for the most part, I was out at a restaurant last week and there was the goat cheese incident.) I haven’t had any alcohol since September. I would like to say I haven’t had any sugar since September but I went to a dinner a couple of Friday nights ago and had a vegan desert and then I served the obligatory chocolate after our book group meeting at my house and ate the leftover vegan chocolate cupcake I bought (so good.) But in the scheme of things there really is not a lot of sugar, flour, caffeine (yes I started drinking decaf again but only 1 cups of decaf in the a.m. and I can skip a day without dying).
I eat too much Ezekiel bread. As a matter of fact I believe that if left to my own devices I could exist on eating ONLY Ezekiel toast and Earth Balance spread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s my go-to food and although it is a healthy bread there is nothing green about it.
I snack too much. Almonds here, banana there, almonds, ezekiel toast, almonds, banana. I found myself actually not eating any meals, just snacking all day on well, almonds, bananas and Ezekiel bread. And then a big salad for dinner. Sometimes I would have a salad a lunch too. But really just kind of grazing my way through the day. How/when did this happen? Not really keeping track of what is going on. What happened to 3 meals a day no snacking (my preferred method). What happened to a bean, a green and a grain? I don’t know. It kind of just snuck away from me. I eliminated starchy carbs and without rice, beans seemed kind of bleh. What happened to my daily green juice? I wiped some dust of my juicer the other day so I know where it is located.
The second reason I want to try the cleanse is to see if I can kick-start a better weight loss for February. In the month of January I ended up losing a whopping 2 pounds. That’s it. 2 pounds. Granted I didn’t gain 2 pounds but I wanted to lose 10 in January and 2 is not 10. I think not having a plan and a format did me in. And darn it, I can do better than that.
A couple of the people on my team are trying the blueprint cleanse. I normally wouldn’t go for such a thing but it is a juice cleanse and I am a big believer in green juices. I thought long and hard about it and thought okay I can do it for 3 days. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Just see if I can kick-start myself back into some good habits by breaking the connection to having to have Ezekiel toast for breakfast and too many pinches of almonds during the day. Of course I had to sign up for their Excavation plan (I keep calling the Evacuation plan which I think may be a more appropriate name). On the EXCAVATION plan, I drink more green juices, less sugar. Less fun.
So this morning I waited as long as I could before I dove into my first green drink. I had it while writing this post. I like the drink fine. I like green drinks. This one had ginger in it and I like ginger. I can understand if someone isn’t used to green drinks and/or ginger it would be hard to take but for me, it was right up my alley. Only problem is I would normally drink that AND have two slices of Ezekiel toast. I’m kind of looking at my kitchen right now with woeful eyes. Really? Whats the harm in a little…. Halt! Step away from the toaster…
I’m nervous about working out but I am just going to take it one step at a time. If I don’t feel well enough for the big workout then I will just do a light one. I will go swim after my 2nd green and before my 3rd green juice. I have an extra cashew juice the cleanse consultant told me I could have half of one if I felt the need for some extra protein after working out.
I prepped for my cleanse by watching “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” again. A great documentary if you have not seen it already. Very inspiring. Of course by the end of the movie I was chanting to myself 3 days? He did 60 days! I could do 60! I could do 60 and train for Ironman and lose 50 pounds and.. and.. and… Ugh, back to reality. I have to go swim this morning (tennis cancelled). I have this green juice to drink. The difference between my goals and the reality of the work I need to do to get there is vast. And there in lies my eternal quest, to have the big vision but also the diligence to complete each little step to get there.
Had our first brick workout yesterday. Kind of hurt to run after the indoor trainer workout. (Kind of? It really hurt, I haven’t done that in a long time.) I like the team a lot, they are very nice. Coach Hola is funny in a kick your ass kind of way. Funny how I can’t get the RPM’s to 110 when I’m on my trainer at home but in the group class with him telling us to shoot for 120, 110 seems like a bargain (which I think is the whole point of him telling us to shoot for 120).
I’m not really sure how it happened. It didn’t feel like we were doing very much and all of a sudden if feels like we are doing a lot more but I’m not really sure when or how that snuck up on me. But, so far I feel okay.
Finally rode outside on Friday, did a couple of loops of the park just to remind myself of what it feels like to be outside. I was bemoaning to my friend “this is SOO much harder than riding indoors on the trainer.” Then we had our team indoor workout yesterday and I was crying “this is SOO much harder than riding outdoors.” LOL, I have a lot of work to do.
Another hour and I can have my second green juice. Ugh this is going to be one LOONNNGGG day…..
Namaste

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