Monthly Archives: February 2013

Wednesday.  Okay first week of the CLEAN (http://www.cleanprogram.com/) program is done.  I won’t say it was easy because I had a headache for pretty much the entire week but I will say that today I woke up 5 pounds lighter and feeling pretty fab.  My head feels really clear, I seem to have decent energy (I was feeling tired for a couple of days last week.)  The actual number of pounds that I lost was crazy but I am not going by that because when I stepped on the scale last Wednesday morning it was abnormally high. So I’m going by the number from Thursday which seemed normal and I’m 5 lbs down from that. The last week was about preparing my body for the cleanse.  It was my week to work my way in — get off coffee, alcohol, sugar, wheat (gluten), salt, soy and basically anything else I was eating…  The only difference between the pre week and the next three weeks is that my breakfast and dinner will be smoothies (or soup is fine for dinner).  Other than that everything is the same.

Oh and btw, if you check out the website, I am only doing the whole foods version.  I’m not buying their powders and such.  I have my own protein powder and I will be making my smoothies from whole foods not from mixes.  This is also not a juice fast (so no worries about me screaming from hunger.)  I can eat.  And if I’m hungry I can snack but it just has to be approved foods and hopefully I give it a couple of hours between nibbles.  So far I’m doing okay and not feeling the need to forage in the kitchen.  This is really about detoxifying and eating whole, organic fresh foods.  It is supposed to lighten my mood as well as my weight. Hopefully this is a nice kick start and gets me on a path I can maintain.  I have to admit, I’m feeling pretty optimistic because today I really do feel the way they said I would.

I did fine with the food and hunger (I really wasn’t hungry)  but the headache was a drag.  (Yesterday was the first day that I didn’t have it.)  Of course at first I assumed it was caffeine withdrawl but when it didn’t go away after a couple of days I thought maybe I had some kind of sinus problem.   Though after meeting with my group last night, pretty much everyone said they had a headache for the week and now were fine.  So it was just my body detoxing.    I also found myself feeling weak a couple of days.  The interesting part is I was eating plenty of calories.  I was eating probably better than I have in a long time.  But my body just wanted to rest, it was as if it was saying “yeah, thanks about time, now let me do what I have to do to catch up.”    Now today I feel fine.  So I guess that was just part of the process.

I am intriqued by how much I am a creature of habit.  Good and bad, large and small habits.  For the longest time I resisted having a smoothie for breakfast.  “I want something warm” for breakfast (which is still true but doesn’t mean I’m going to pass out if I don’t get it.)  “I want to chew my food, not drink it.”   True, but I have to say, smoothies are fast and clean up is a lot faster than a lot of dishes.  Anyway, I have been having smoothies for breakfast all week only because I couldn’t think of anything else to eat for breakfast.  Just trying a smoothie for breakfast kind of woke me up.  It’s not the end of the world if you just try something.  Now I’m kind of into them.

Juicing is encouraged but frankly I can’t take the mess and what seems to me like a lot waste.  Smoothies are much easier.

I can have brown rice (along with a few other grains like Quinoa, Amaranth and Millet) on the plan so that is kind of my saving grace.  No wheat or corn or any derivatives of wheat and corn.   I really like steamed veggies and brown rice and throw in a couple of beans, it’s a nice lunch.  So for breakfast today I made a smoothie.  Almond milk (I’m supposed to make my own but let’s not get crazy), plain plant-based protein powder, a nice cup of  blueberries, a small handful of cashews and a spoon of Cacoa powder for interest).  I wasn’t starving when I woke up even though it had been over 12 hours.  Had that at 7:30 and was fine until 12:30 when I made a really nice lentil/brown rice burger (very easy too) and some awesome kale chips (outdid myself on those!).

Snacks are allowed so that is not a problem, the only thing is there has to be a 12 hour rest between your last meal of one day and your first meal of the next.  That’s not been a problem because I have been doing that for years.  I eat dinner really early (Senior Citizen special).  And it is always at least 12 hours before I eat again in the a.m.

I am happy with the weight loss though the idea behind this cleanse is to get rid of the toxins that are poisoning me and causing everything from weight gain to depression.  For me this is a chance to wipe the slate clean and get back to good habits.   Wine can sit out for now (and as training progresses that will probably be limited to small quantities anyway).  Coffee out (though I’m sure I will go back to coffee).  Chips are gone (sorry old friends) as is bread.  What I’m hoping is that after 3 more weeks, all my cravings for a glass of wine and something salty will be tempered.  Frankly, I’m one week in and I really don’t crave anything at all!  Not even chocolate — go ahead try, you can’t tempt me!

Workouts going well.  New pilates instructor is good.  I committed to twice a week for month of February.  It’s expensive so after that I have to drop to one time a week.  Already though I am seeing progress.  Those hidden core muscles are starting to wake up.  Made it to Spin class twice last week plus another core class.  I got one run in and two long walks though by the weekend my long walks were rather slow because I was starting to fade.  For the next three weeks I’m going to be modifying my long workouts according to how I feel (well I do that anyway).

So for now I’m pretty impressed with this CLEAN program.  I have three weeks to go on the cleanse and I hope to just keep eating this way afterwards.  The only thing that might be different is I would eat real meal at night and not a smoothie.

I’m taking my Floradix for iron, I’m also taking the recommended milk thistle and probiotics.

I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going but so far so good.

Namaste

Stole this cartoon from my friend’s facebook page:

Tuesday. Well I’m finally updating the blog because certain people are pests. It’s not that I haven’t had things to say, I’ve just been saying them in my head. Work has been crazy, crazy. Upkeep on the house is a lot though worth it. Raising a puppy is fun but physically exhausting (I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to raise children!). I was giving myself a pass on having to really commit to fitness for the last couple of months. That said, I have been doing a tremendous amount of snowshoeing and hiking. My dog Higgins is very good at jumping on my head and demanding to go for a walk and by walk he means a minimum of 1:15 preferably 1:45. And he would like that 3 times a day. So I started putting him in doggie day care in the mornings and save an hour for us in the afternoon. That gives me mornings to get my yoga, pilates, running, spin and core classes in. I have yet to have a week where I get all the workouts in but I think I’m definitely getting better. Except for core. I have not been doing my core and it was becoming a “thing.”

About a week ago I woke up and decided it was time to pull the blankets off my head and crawl back into society. Life has been a lot for a long time and I knew I had to get back on track but I just didn’t really have the energy. I have been drinking too much wine. Eating too many french fries (though I’ve been baking them in the oven myself a potato is a potato is a potato). All of my old habits had shown up at the back door while I wasn’t looking and then next thing I knew they had moved in completely. I do think it is interesting how we have a nature (good or bad) that we gravitate toward. Why do I always go back to red wine and fried potatoes? Why don’t I ever want to binge on chocolate cake or ice cream? I think we all have our own ways of getting out of balance and certainly there is some reason I lean towards certain types of carbs over others. I prefer salty over sweet, crunchy over creamy, Malbec over Chardonnay. Eventually, however, my imbalance starts to weigh me down and a little indulgence becomes a coping mechanism. Then the coping mechanism becomes and ugly habit. Then ugly habit becomes a cross to bear. One day I wake up and find I am Sisyphus pushing that same old rock up the same old hill.

As I get older I have one thing I didn’t have before — more data. I can look back over the years and see what has worked and what hasn’t. I like to think at 53 I kind of know myself (over-due roots and all). I’m training with Lisa again. I know that is a right fit for right now. I miss the eager beaver I was back in my TL days but I don’t know if I’ll ever have that energy or drive again. I’m just trying to find that happy, sustainable middle ground. Sustainable being the operative word. So how did I get any core muscles in the past considering my deep dislike for grunting or routine? I had a good experience with Pilates (the one-on-one with a reformer kind, not the generic at the gym Jane Fonda kind.) So I decided to go for it and I found myself a pilates studio in CT. I hired myself an instructor. I’ve committed to twice a week for February, once a week thereafter. I’ve had three sessions so far and I although I do a lot of complaining, I remember why I liked it and already I see a little improvement.

I joined a gym here back in December and I have been going. They actually know me there. So that is good. I love my spin instructor. I’ve been going to her for a couple of months. I’m supposed to go twice a week. I never do (until this week — I’m committed). I’m also supposed to be going to her core class afterwards. I never do. Well I did but I couldn’t keep up so I quit. Lisa said I have to go anyway so this morning I did 2 spin classes and I can barely walk. I excused myself from the core class but told the gal behind the desk that on Thursday I have to go to core and she is not allowed to let me out of the building until I go. Meanwhile I have to go to Pilates in the morning and I can barely walk.

Food. Yeah. Something had to happen. When I first got Higgins all was good. I was watching what I was feeding him and in turn was watching me. But slowly I started to slip and found myself eating at the computer. Oops another snack. Then I found myself buying Paul Newman Vegan Oreo Cookies and I knew I was in trouble. I don’t even care about cookies. I was buying wine buy the case because it was cheap. Yeah, right. I’ve been here before. Enough with the miserating. Time to take action.

So I signed up for a cleanse class at the yoga studio. Four weeks. One week of prep, 21 days of cleanse. It is similar to the whole foods cleanse I did a couple of years ago that really worked for me. It is based on Alexander Junger’s book “Clean” but we are doing a whole foods version. I’ll write more about it later. But in a nutshell, it’s eating the way I imagine I’ll eat one day when I’m perfect. Unlike a juice fast, I get to eat real food. For the next week it is an elimination diet similar to the diet I had to go on before my radioactive iodine treatments so I know I can do it. After the first week of prep we go into a shake for breakfast, a big meal at lunch and a liquid dinner (smoothie or soup). Snacks are allow in the 12 hour time period when we are eating. But every night I have to go 12 hours without eating. To be honest I do that now so no big shake. The hard part? No bread, no potatos, no wine, no coffee (yes, I know, here I go again with detoxing from coffee).

We had our first meeting tonight. We will meet as a group once a week for five weeks. I liked the people, some funny people and it is a small enough group (about 14). They outlined the program to us tonight and gave us first steps. (Well to be fair they gave us first steps in an email last week telling us to quit coffee but I didn’t start yet.) I start tomorrow. A little nervous about breakfast since I’ve been eating the same breakfast every morning since October and nothing but the mushrooms and spinach are allowed. I’ll figure it out. I always do.

So here we go. No wine, no bread, no potatoes, no corn, no gluten, no dairy or eggs. For the next 28 days. Pilates twice a week. Spinning twice a week. Core class twice a week. Snowshoeing and Cross Country skiing twice a week for the next two weeks. I truly, truly, truly don’t want to do this. But I truly, truly want to feel healthy again and therefore I will.

Namaste

One of my favorite movies and favorite actresses: