Delusions of... Everything

The Detox Recap

The 21 day detox Handy Man and I have been participating in has now come to an end.  It was extremely successful for both of us but in much different ways.

You can read how it was successful for me here. 

Handy Man lost only a few pounds but that slight layer of fat on his abs is going away and he's gone down two belt holes.  He found out there are certain food combinations he cannot eat without emitting an odor that clears the room of other humans.  His chronic heartburn is almost completely gone.  He stopped sleeping with his c-pap machine (to stop snoring) and I have not noticed any snoring.  He has not had the same feeling of having a ton of energy that I have, but he also has not been falling asleep in the middle of the day either.

Before I started the detox, there were a few things I already knew about myself.  I have always been allergic to milk.  It was not a stomach type allergy either, but a head plugging, sneezing, sore throat reaction.  I already avoided milk and milk products as much as possible, but I wasn't really strict about it.  I also knew that enriched flour did not agree with me.  I had already mostly given up white pasta and most breads, but again I was not super strict about it.  I had a feeling that my morning coffee with sugared creamer was not really agreeing with me either.

So the detox was a great opportunity to really give up these things and see exactly how my body reacted.  As I said in a previous post, it's amazing that I could see such a change in such a short time.  I'm convinced I was poisoning my body with foods it didn't like and didn't handle well.  Never mind that I loved to eat them.  When these so called toxins were eliminated from my diet by body started healing, and quickly.  I was able to start losing weight, which had been virtually impossible before.  I lost a total of 14 pounds in the 21 days.

Here are a few simple things that I plan to continue doing to help keep my body cleansed:

• If there are ingredients in it that I cannot pronounce I'm not eating it.
• Drink a lot of water, my goal is 1/2 my body weight in ounces.
• One cup of Aloe Vera Juice a day.
• One meal in liquid form like a fruit/green smoothie for breakfast.
• Whole grains only, preferably sprouted.  No enriched flour, including wheat.
• Limit sugar, try for foods containing 5 grams or less of sugar per serving.
• Eat plenty of fresh greens everyday.
• Exercise 4 times a week.  This will be the hardest for me to do, I really don't like exercising.

This way of eating is by no means easy.  It takes planning, label reading and lots of pre-preparing to be successful.  But when I think back to how I felt a month ago, headaches, heart palpitations, lethargic, forgetful, stomach aches, gassy, chest pains, aching joints and just feeling overall sh***y, all the planning and label reading is so worth it.  I know there will be times when I will have to partake in non-detox friendly foods, but I refuse to let unhealthy eating become the norm for me again.

I plan to do a weekly blog post about how my progress is going and to share healthy recipes and tips along this journey of turning my diet and attitude around.

Clucking

Yesterday morning, after dropping the kids off at school, I made my way to Curves for a workout.  Going first thing in the morning is new for me.  When I was working I'd go straight to work after dropping off the kids, then exercise after work.  Since I got off at noon, it was perfect and Curves is almost empty that time of day.  The mornings are a different story.  I thought maybe there would be more of my generation there exercising before work, but no, it's pretty much the retired crowd, and they cluck.

They cluck so much sometimes they forget to move to the next station as the lovely voice instructs us to over the wonderful muzak.  Yesterday they were clucking about the Superbowl.

Woman #1:  I'm so glad the Saints won, you know because of Katrina and everything.

Woman #2:  Oh me too.

Woman #1:  At the beginning the guys kept talking about how great Peyton Manning is and how great the Colts were, I thought that was so mean.

Woman #3:  I didn't care I just watched for the advertisements, Oh and the halftime show, but I wish they would have focused more on the light show than the band... That light show was something.

Woman #1:  The Who has been around for a long time, since the 60's.  They were quite the band then.  I was just shocked they played the three theme songs to the CSI shows, New York, Miami and Las Vegas.  That really surprised me.

Woman #3:  Which ads did you all like?

Woman #1:  I really like all the Doritoes ones.

Women #2,3 & 4:  Oh yeah, me too.

Woman #3:  The Oprah one was pretty cute.

Woman #1:  I was really thinking about why The Who would play those CSI songs, then it hit me the Superbowl is on CBS and so are the CSI shows.  So I guess they made them play those songs.

Woman #4:  I'm pretty sure The Who wrote those songs.

At this point I almost busted out laughing.  It was all I could do to breathe and not laugh.  They continued on about Mass, luncheons, doctor appointments, meal preparing and just about anything else you can think of.  It really makes my workout go by faster listening to all that clucking.

Strive

Last week I read this post by Jason at The Jason Show.  It intrigued me and it's been on my mind since I read it.  All the comments were great too and one in particular stuck with me as much as Jason's post.  It was by Jenn at Juggling Life, who inspires me quite a lot.  If you haven't read the post yet you should stop by to read it when you have time.

Basically the idea is to pick a focus word to help with attaining goals.  The word could be anything that means something to the person using it.  Something that is a reminder to stay on track with what's trying to be accomplished.

After I read Jason's post I was trying to come up with a focus word for me.  I pondered on Jason's chosen words of Release and Replace.  I have already practiced Release in my life, I'm pretty good at it actually.  I thought Replace could work, because I do have a couple habits I'd like to replace with different ones, but it just didn't feel right.  I also checked out the whole list of words that singer Christine Kane posted last year.  The one word that struck me instantly and has stayed with me the past few days is the word I read in Jenn's comment about how her word would be Strive.  That word hit me like lightning! 

There is so much I want to do, so much I want to accomplish.  I need to exercise regularly to combat borderline high blood pressure, borderline diabetes and to lose weight.  I want to learn to use Photoshop.  I want to write everyday to improve my skills and tell my story.  I have goals for my blog.  I have other goals waiting in the wings.

I will Strive to accomplish things I need and desire to do.

The word Strive feels positive to me.  It's a good strong word that makes me feel motion.  When I say that word to myself it makes me stop and ask myself if what I'm doing is helping me Strive toward my goals.   While getting toward the end of my work out on Monday I considering cutting it short.  The word Strive popped in to my head and I knew I had to keep going.  I knew I had to Strive toward regular (and complete) workouts.

The power of positive thinking has worked for me in the past and I know it can work for me now.  The trick is to remember to use it!

(Click here to see my Rudy Tuesday contribution.)

Hello... Anybody Home?!

I feel like I've been absent from my blog lately.  Oh, I've been making posts, mostly close up nature photography posts.  I feel like I've been having an affair with my new lover lens that I seriously can't get over!

I haven't posted anything new at my exercise blog since, well, sometime last week.  My good intentions are there, I'm just not following through.  I've even lost weight, but haven't taken the time to figure out how much... Somewhere around 3 pounds in 2 weeks.  I've been working out everyday and I joined Curves yesterday; I've started 2 a day workouts.  (That makes me sound like an NFL player!)  I'm baffled as to why I haven't blogged about all of this over at Truckin'.

What I've been doing instead of mindful blogging is reading.  Since the beginning of May I've read 8 books.  Here's a list with a very quick evaluation:

• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling - A+
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling - A++
• Innocent in Death by JD Robb (otherwise known as Nora Roberts) - A    The In Death series are my go to books.  I always read one after I read something epic that I have a hard time letting go of.  I always have trouble getting Harry Potter out of my system.  I think I'm defective that way.
• Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates - C   This book was a strange one for me.  I didn't really enjoy it, but I couldn't stop reading it.  I had to know what happened with the characters.
• Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult - B   I enjoyed this book.  There were interesting twists and turns that kept me guessing.  I will definitely read more of her stuff.
• Revenge of a Middle Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan - C  I can barely remember what this book was about, but I do remember that I finished it.
• The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards - A  This was mostly a heartbreaking story, but I enjoyed it very much.
• Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen - A+  I just finished this book (hence the blog post with actual writing!) and loved it so much.  It was one of those books where I didn't want to sit down and read unless I knew I was going to get at least an hour of uninterrupted time.  I'm recommending this for a summer must read! 
  

I don't usually read so many books in such a short time, but I've been craving the books lately so I've been going with it.

There has been a butt load of stuff going on that would have been fun to blog about if I hadn't been reading so much.  Here is just a sample:

Handy Man has been refinishing the kitchen cabinets and they look beautiful.  No I haven't taken pictures.

As of yesterday school is over for the summer.  There was a BBQ at Dancing Daughter's school.  It was really hard for me for many reasons.  I organized the BBQ and had to get everything set up, that kind of thing always stresses me out.  It was time for DD and I to say good bye to the school, students, teachers and parents we've come to really like.  I've been involved with that school for 5 years being a major volunteer, 3 with SWS and 2 with DD.  It was an ending for me and I don't do well with those.  No I didn't take pictures at the BBQ.

SWS had a ceremony at school where the Juniors become Seniors at a special assembly.  He said it was very emotional saying good bye to the Seniors, but totally awesome to get to "take over" the Senior bleachers.

Our friends Chrissy and Mark purchased airline tickets and are coming to visit us from Boston at the end of July.  I am so excited about this!

The grand opening of the new county library in our city was the weekend of DD Dance Show, so I wasn't able to attend, however I did go check it out the following weekend and loved it!  It's so new and shiny and fancy.  Even though I still had a pile of books to read at home I checked out a book.  *sigh*

We are doing something tonight that is causing both Handy Man and I to have to take time off work tomorrow....

We are all thrilled about this... The whole family is going, plus 3 other teens.  I know it's dinner time right now, but I'm going to go make some coffee...  It will be late tomorrow before I make contact with any of my bloggy friends!