So I'm doing a "detox"

[kicks]

So I hate the word detox because I generally think our body does a good job of getting rid of what it's supposed to. However, I know I've been drinking too much over the past year or 2 and although I work out regularly, not in my optimal shape. Plus,I went on vacation and had lots of alcohol, so I decided I needed a reset when I got back home. So on the plane home I came up with a plan.

I followed JJ Smith 10 day smoothie cleanse...she's black so I thought yay support black businesses lol. You drink 3 smoothies per day and then can snack on as many veggies as you want and can have eggs, unsweetened peanut butter and handful of nuts through the day. Plus I've been drinking 2 large mugs of green tea daily. So no meat, dairy, sugar, processed foods, etc.

On top of that I've decided to get back on track with getting up early to start my day with a focus and purpose. So from now on I'm going to get up at 445 or 5. I work out on the treadmill (and watch or listen to something in French), do some stretching or yoga and read a journal article. It's nice because I'm not rushed and have even taken a few minutes to lay and mediate. I've been doing yoga at the gym most evenings. Since I'm not eating my usual calories, I haven't done my usual intense work outs.

Lastly, I decided to clear all the clutter from the house. We actually keep the house pretty clean (my boyfriend really hates disorganization), but there were still some things out on counters and in piles that I kept ignoring. So I tackled each room and everything is much more organized.

So anyway, I've lost 5 pounds and tomorrow is day 10, the last day. I didn't do it to lose weight but more as a mental test to see if I could do it and to refocus my life in general with more purposeful actions. So overall I think it's been a success. I plan to continue with smoothies for breakfast and lunch and then to increase my snacks and eat a my normal dinner. I also plan to only drink alcohol when I go out instead of my almost nightly glass or 2...or 3 of wine.

I plan to start back marathon and triathlon training and swimming lessons next week.

I hadn't told anyone about it, not even my boyfriend (he's out of town of course!) because I wanted to do this for me, but thought I'd share now that I'm almost done.

[bugandbibs]

Way to go! Clutter is my #1 mood killer and keeps me feeling down. I'm going to work on it over my Christmas break, starting with selling the baby stuff we don't need anymore.

[bimbi284]

This is great!

I try to do something similar at least once a year with H. It usually tends to fall right after the holidays and at some point in the summer, and is a good way for us to reel in some of our bad habits that we get into when time/work/stresses get the best of us.

I've also done a big home declutter a couple of times, targeting a different room or task each day for a month or so. I always feel great after doing that, and I think it's been over a year since the last one. I've been feeling more overwhelmed by stuff and clutter over the past couple of months, so thanks for the reminder as to why!!

If anyone is interested, the plan I followed for the home declutter comes from Apartment Therapy's January Cure, which is designed to get your home ready for a big event, but I just focus on the decluttering and cleaning tasks, and less in the party prep tasks.
www.apartmenttherapy.com/collection/january-cure-2016-895
If you sign up for the emails it sends you reminders and stuff, or you can follow along on the site.

[cookiemdough]

Congrats! So real talk...how do you feel those first couple of detox days? Did you start on a weekend or go to work doing this?

[kicks]

Dec 13, 2016 19:33:48 GMT -5 cookiemdough said:

Congrats! So real talk...how do you feel those first couple of detox days? Did you start on a weekend or go to work doing this?

Ok I honestly didn't feel bad at all. To be fair I generally eat relatively healthy, so it wasn't a huge change. But little things like I was drinking coffee every day with sugar in it and all the wine I drank were probably my 2 biggest culprits. I don't keep any junk food at home because if I do then I eat it all in one setting, so I save my splurges for eating out about 2, sometimes 3 times per week. I love candy, but again don't keep it around, so don't have it very often. Someone had put some halloween candy in the call room so every week when I was on call at night I was eating a ton of candy the past month. I had been wanting to do whole 30 for awhile, but that seemed sooo daunting, so I felt like this was a nice compromise. 

So anyway, I chose to start it when I was on an easy rotation where I knew I could drink/snack throughout the morning and early afternoon. I probably wouldn't be able to do this other months where I was running around like crazy all day during work and work 12+ hours. I started last Monday, ideally I would've started last Sat but I was in NYC, so I knew that wouldn't work. So my days went like this:

Get up at 5 and get on the treadmill, while getting ready for work drink green tea.
Once I get to work, eat 3 hard boiled eggs. I'd sip on my smoothie (the smoothies are all some type of greens like spinach or kale, mixed with water and then 2 fruits, plus ground flaxseed. it said you could add protein powder if you wanted, but I never did) a few times during the morning until lunch time. At lunch I'd have a handful of nuts and sugar snap peas and carrots. I'd drink a little more of my smoothie.

The past 2 weeks, I'd been getting home at 2, so then I'd have an apple with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter.
Before I went to yoga for the evening I'd drink the rest of the afternoon smoothie and have some more veggies, usually cucumbers and carrots.

When I got back in the evenings from yoga, I wasn't really hungry, so sometimes I wouldn't even finish the 3rd smoothie and would save it for the morning to drink before I got on the treadmill. But I would have another cup of tea. You're also supposed to drink a lot of water, which wasn't too hard for me because that's all I drink anyway...well water and alcohol. So I was definitely going to the bathroom more often! But not a huge deal for me since I don't drink soda or juice. 

I actually had 2 social events semi-planned this past weekend, but decided not to go so I wasn't tempted by food. We had lunch delivered at work twice last week and that was a tad bit hard and that's when I realized I couldn't go to the social events over the weekend, so I canceled. So I really just focused on myself the past 10 days, which was nice. 

So overall I'm glad I did it and it wasn't torture!

[kicks]

Dec 13, 2016 17:36:40 GMT -5 bimbi284 said:

This is great!

I try to do something similar at least once a year with H. It usually tends to fall right after the holidays and at some point in the summer, and is a good way for us to reel in some of our bad habits that we get into when time/work/stresses get the best of us.

I've also done a big home declutter a couple of times, targeting a different room or task each day for a month or so. I always feel great after doing that, and I think it's been over a year since the last one. I've been feeling more overwhelmed by stuff and clutter over the past couple of months, so thanks for the reminder as to why!!

If anyone is interested, the plan I followed for the home declutter comes from Apartment Therapy's January Cure, which is designed to get your home ready for a big event, but I just focus on the decluttering and cleaning tasks, and less in the party prep tasks.
www.apartmenttherapy.com/collection/january-cure-2016-895
If you sign up for the emails it sends you reminders and stuff, or you can follow along on the site.

Oh thanks for sharing that link!
Also, good idea to do something like this twice a year. I'll have to plan for summer as well. 

[kicks]

Dec 13, 2016 10:28:57 GMT -5 cubed said:

That is awesome kicks ! I like your outlook and have been planning on doing something similar. Now that work is finally letting me breathe a bit, I am trying to figure out how to do all of this.

I definitely had to realize I can't be as much of a night owl 
I've been making sure to get in bed by 10:30 instead of midnight. It's actually been nice. Since my boyfriend is on the West coast when I text him telling him I'm going to bed he's like really, already and acts all shocked lol.
But I plan to keep it up! I hope your work keeps giving you a breather. 

[thejackpot]

kicks, kudos lady!!! I bet you feel much lighter, mentally and physically. A reset is always a good thing.

[kicks]

So I finished! I didn't cheat the entire 10 days. I lost 6.1 pounds. I couldn't find my measuring tape, so I don't know if I lost any inches.

I mostly feel good about going to bed earlier, getting up to work out, being committed to yoga and organizing the whole house. I still had a smoothie and eggs for breakfast. I picked up a bunch of healthy food at Whole Foods and plan to continue to not drink as much. I plan to go out to dinner 2 times this weekend and those will be my splurges

[05heel]

I'm impressed!

[kicks]

Guys I'm so bummed, I had a late soccer game last night at 11pm and I pulled my calf muscle My calves had been tight and I did stretch some before the game. It was the second half and I was sprinting back and heard the pop and some pain. So now I'm limping around this morning and probably should do no exercise for at least week. I was going to start marathon training tomorrow. So much for being all zen lol.

[05heel]

Dec 16, 2016 8:41:20 GMT -5 kicks said:

Guys I'm so bummed, I had a late soccer game last night at 11pm and I pulled my calf muscle My calves had been tight and I did stretch some before the game. It was the second half and I was sprinting back and heard the pop and some pain. So now I'm limping around this morning and probably should do no exercise for at least week. I was going to start marathon training tomorrow. So much for being all zen lol.

I'm sorry. That really sucks.

[andwhat]

Dec 16, 2016 8:41:20 GMT -5 kicks said:

Guys I'm so bummed, I had a late soccer game last night at 11pm and I pulled my calf muscle My calves had been tight and I did stretch some before the game. It was the second half and I was sprinting back and heard the pop and some pain. So now I'm limping around this morning and probably should do no exercise for at least week. I was going to start marathon training tomorrow. So much for being all zen lol.

Oh that sucks. I hope you heal quickly.SaveSave