Just Because...

I wanted to share my literary genius. Tonight I sent an invite to a couple of old friends to join me for dinner to catch up. This is how it went...

"Ok bitches....we need to plan a dinner...at this time there is no one preggo (unless one of you have something to tell us...) so that means dinner cannot be ruined by myself or Miss Lokke giving birth to a child (and by child we mean a couple freakin cute infants).

So...with this being said, we need to plan a dinner sometime soon. AND since said former preggos have a couple of kiddos now, they are welcome, which means I think we should plan dinner at someone's house.  What this means to all of you is that Heidi and I will walk in the door, hand our kiddos off and be face deep in a couple bottles of wine while you ladies pass our kiddos around and ogle them. (And I may need a DD home).

I would be more than happy to have everyone at our house (however, I know that Irish woman complains about me living in Lincoln...) so I'm game for where ever.

Let's do this!"

  

Classy, I know.

Daily Download: Week Three: Tuesday

Well...life has officially gotten in the way of my blogging for the past few days...to recap because I know you are waiting with bated breath to hear how the cleanse ended up. Well, we ended the cleanse early on Saturday afternoon. My comrades and myself realized that it wasn't worth us being miserable and that we had given it a great shot and had some good results.

I lost 4 pounds {due to choosing not to eat anything because the meals on the plan were terrible} and overall my body felt good. However, I was constantly hungry and thinking about food throughout the entire five days and the lack of caffeine really made work days tough. Am I happy I did it - 100%. Am I proud of myself for sticking with it for 5 days - absolutely. Would I do it again...not unless I was prepping for an awards show where I was up for the best actress nomination for a Golden Globe...

Since then I have eaten some not-so-good-for-me food, but overall I've been making relatively good choices. The bad:  Family dinner at the hubby's dad's was pasta and garlic bread on Sunday night. We went to a movie on Monday and I didn't have buttery movie theater popcorn {instead I opted for the nachos w/ jalepenos...I know, not better, but did you note that I didn't have movie theater popcorn?!?!}. I've had a couple glasses of wine since coming off the cleanse. But I've also eaten more fruits & veggies and I'm eating smaller amounts at meal times - so that's a good thing, right?

So while I know that inevitably I'm a cleanse quitter...it was a great...er, good...an experience and I'm glad I tried it. And most importantly, I'm glad that I had a couple people to go through it with because had I not, I know I wouldn't have even made it to day five. Now it's back to tracking what I eat, making a BIG effort to work out {despite the fact that my head starts bobbing around 9pm each night} and making better decisions. I still need to get back into bikini shape and there is no time to waste!

Breakfast: 32oz lemon water {not room temp, but I'm going to keep this part of the cleanse because it forces me to at least get 1/2 my necessary water intake in right away in the morning}, a hard boiled egg and a vanilla latte {ugh, I cannot pick this habit back up...Le Peep is too close to little man's day care and they have a great coffee bar}

Banana

Lunch: had a lunch meeting, so instead of going to the buffet {which is where my employees usually pick}, I steered them to JBs Cafe. I had an egg white omelet w/ ham & green pepper {no cheese!} and two pieces wheat toast w/ butter, water

Diet Mt. Dew

Dinner:  chicken salad w/ celery, two hard boiled eggs, mustard and a dab of light mayo {no bread}, glass cab sav

Piece of dark chocolate {I figure if I need something sweet, having some small bites of this around is better than me shoving a Hostess cupcake in my mouth, right?}

Water:  80oz approx

Exercise: none yesterday - I debated staying up after little man's 3:30am feeding to work out from 4am-5am, but was exhausted. Planned to hit the gym after the little guy went down for the night, but after working all day, an Angels board meeting and catching up on a few work emails I just didn't have it in me.

Daily Download: Week Two: Friday

Day Four: The only thing keeping me on this cleanse is the weight loss and relatively healthy feeling I have each morning. While I realize I won't retain all of the loss, it has been a great jump start to shedding some lbs and eating better. I'm down 3lbs total since starting this nonsense and while I'm not having the same weight loss results as my cleanse partners in crime {they are both around 10 lbs!} I think it's because I haven't been working out which it recommends. It's so hard to try and balance the morning routine {I'm already getting up at 5am with no time for exercise baked in}, drive to work in the dark and drive home from work in the dark to spend some time with little man & daddy. By the time we get him fed and put down for bed, I'm exhausted and ready for bed myself {if I don't have emails to catch up on from all day meetings at work}. I know...this is just a pile of excuses, but it's the truth and I don't think I anticipated not being able to make time to workout when I started this cleanse...and perhaps I started this too soon after having just returned to work and not having gotten 100% caught up there yet.


5am: 32oz lemon water - room temp of course

7:45am: oatmeal {had to sneak this in before a 4 hour work meeting & a lunch meeting in the buffet following so that I wouldn't fall over from starvation}

8:30am: peppermint herbal tea {refilled in the middle of the meeting}

12pm: blueberry & almond milk smoothie {was supposed to have a lunch meeting at the buffet BUT our morning meeting ran over...it worked in my favor}

2:30pm: raw carrot sticks & green beans & an apple

4:30pm: herbal tea & handful blueberries

7pm: detox chicken & herbal tea

Water: lots today. I would say 80 oz

I look back on the article and for this being the end of day four, I'm not feeling the way she did. I don't have a ton of energy, my skin isn't glowing and I'm still crabby and wondering why I did this damn thing in the first place. At least we're finally over halfway done...

Daily Download: Week Two: Thursday

Day Three: Again I woke up feeling great {one of the major pluses of this cleanse...at least so far} this morning. I hopped on the scale and saw that I was down 2 1/2 pounds {total, not just from yesterday} and that got me so excited. I have a number in mind that I want to eventually get to so if I can do so by having done this cleanse, that would make it all worth it.

5:30am: glass room temp water with lemon

7am: peppermint herbal tea

9am: oatmeal with almond milk

{half inclined to walk into my bosses office and sneak a Diet Mt Dew}

11:30am: we had an employee service luncheon today, so I planned ahead and brought my coconut water and herbal tea to "enjoy" while everyone else was feasting. I also snuck some of the shredded raw carrots off the salad they put in front of me {calm down there was no dressing on it yet}. Their meal looked truly amazing, while I was gagging down my coconut water. Man, I really wanted some of that dessert.

While they enjoyed buttered rolls, chicken, roasted potatoes & steamed
 veggies, I got to drink coconut water & herbal tea
{and yes, that is a chocolate Eiffel Tower and truffles in the background next to the bread basket...really}

An amazing chocolate cake w/ fresh fruit

Immediately after the luncheon we had a manager's meeting, so I could get my smoothie in, plus I really didn't want my "snack" of cucumber basil and lime juice so I had another herbal tea.

7pm: choked down the last of the miso soup and had a cup of herbal "Calm" tea w/ lemon

I'm beat at this point and going to finish this post and head to bed....well, first I will feed little man, daydream of sweets and then head to bed.

Water: approximately 72oz

Daily Download: Week Two: Wednesday

Day Two: I woke up this morning feeling great. I wasn't hungry {surprisingly} and my body felt abnormally good and tight {in a toned way}. I jumped on the scale before my shower and noticed I had lost 1 lb from the prior morning's weigh in session {while I understand this will be hard to maintain, it was pretty damn cool to see!}However, my excitement quickly faded once I got into the swing of my new daily food routine.

5:30am: a hearty breakfast of room temp water with lemon

{Texting with Tessa to give each other a pep talk. It wasn't very peppy}

6:30am: peppermint herbal tea {my stomach was growling at this point}

9am: blueberry/almond milk smoothie - for some reason this tasted way worse today and was difficult to choke down, plus I waited to long to finish it and it was a bit nasty toward the end. That resulted in me throwing away half of it.

{Cue growling tummy}

11:30am: part of the container of coconut water...still not a fan.

{Called Tessa to complain that I want to quit, she was not nearly as positive as yesterday but still a voice of reason.}

3:30pm: drug out lunch as long as I could - detox Teriyaki chicken - because I knew that I really didn't want to eat the miso soup that was outlined as our 4pm snack. My chicken was pretty good - although I didn't have the energy to run upstairs to the microwave at work so I ate it cold....and the fridge here must be cold because parts of my chicken were frozen. Mmmm...chicken popsicles.

7:30pm:  finally home from work {stomach growling in my car the entire way} and heated up the miso soup {thought it would be better than the broccoli & arugula soup from the night before}. Choked down part of it and threw the rest out. Made another glass of herbal tea and threw a lemon in it for good measure...quickly drank that and went to bed soon after.

Water: tons of water, more water than I've ever drank, thus lots of bathroom breaks to go along with it.

I am miserable...I agree with the women from the OWH article, the only thing keeping me afloat is looking back on my goals for this cleanse - losing some lbs and proving my husband wrong!

Daily Download: Week Two: Tuesday

Day One: Well it's here...day one of the seven day Goop Cleanse. Here is what I started with this morning - each of my carefully planned steps throughout the day. I weighed in right at my pre-preggo weight and will use this number as a guide throughout these seven days to understand if I'm shedding any pounds. I've started this day excited to see if I can finish this cleanse and prove myself {and a few others} wrong.



My entire day's intake packaged for work

 
5am: I woke up and got a glass of room termperature water w/ lemon to drink while I was getting ready for work.

About as filling as it looks

7am: herbal tea {decaf}. I had heated up water for my tea at home and then realized I didn't have a travel mug, so after dropping off little man I hit up Scooter's. I asked if they had a decaf herbal tea, but theirs were all flavored and I didn't think that would fly so I asked for a cup of hot water and then passed my tea bag through the window for them to add to it. Surprisingly they were cool with this. {As I'm drinking my tea, my stomach is growling...when do I get my smoothie?!?!}

Peppermint Herbal Tea

9am: I held off as long as I could for my blueberry smoothie {1/2 cup fresh blueberries, 1 1/2 cups almond milk, scoop whey protein powder and scoop Probiotics green powder}. It was pretty decent...until I tried to make it last and it separated. {Note to self: drink quickly}.

Blueberry Smoothie

12pm: time for a coconut water. I'd had one of these when I was preggo to help with leg cramps and hated it...so I wasn't looking forward to it. It didn't help when I had my co-worker try it first and she basically did everything but throw up in my office. Great...well bottoms up.

1:30pm: lunch time was made up of a salad with mixed spring greens and the carrot & ginger dressing we made. It was ok...not great, but ok.

OMG I need caffiene. I've told everyone in my office space that I'm doing a cleanse {or they've stopped by after hearing me dry heave} so all I could think of is how I could sneak a can of diet mt. dew and open it without the person next to me hearing it....I.can.do.this.

3:30pm: for a snack I got to indulge in a handful of unsalted, boring old pumpkin & sunflower seeds. As sad as it is to say, this was one of the best things of the day...behind the smoothie!



Unsalted sunflower & pumpkin seeds

On my way home I had to use all of my will power not to allow my hands to turn the wheel into a gas station to get a diet mt. dew. My head throbbed from a caffiene headache. Surprisingly, I prevailed.

7:30pm: I heated up the broccoli & arugula soup that we prepared Sunday while talking on the phone with Tessa about how miserable I was...fortunately she was the voice of reason to my extremely unreasonable requests to quit. She said she didn't mind the soup and was excited for me to try and tell her what I thought. After getting off the phone, I tried it and did everything I could not to let myself spit it out. I asked Nick if he would try it...and he did...and he complained for 15 minutes about the disgusting taste in his mouth {me: "well, just use those thin mints you were just eating to cover up the taste."}. So I did what any other 30 year old woman would do - I plugged my nose, took a huge swig of almost half the bowl soup and then ditched the rest of it down the drain. I figured it would tide me over until I could feed Cruz and hopefully fall quickly asleep and ignore my growling stomach.

Water: tons of water - close to 80oz I would say

Exercise: none...and don't judge me or you'll get what's coming to you

Cleaning Out All The Toxins...Am I Really Going To Do This?

Cleanse...detox...what does that even mean? Clean out the toxins in your body, eat cleaner {i.e. fresh produce with little to no flavor}, eat little to nothing {I can hear my stomach growling now}, workout to sweat out all the junk, sleep as much as possible so I don't have to think about how hungry I am. Tomorrow I'm starting this Goop Cleanse and I'm scared sh*tless.

Last week I read an article in the Omaha World Herald and it got me really pumped up to jump start my get fit routine. Ever since little man was born, I've been telling myself I'm going to get serious about this every week and I've never sustained it, so when I saw this article I knew I had to try it. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be as barbaric as the Master Cleanse which consists of subsiding on water, lemon & cayenne pepper, but it's not as lax as other cleanses I've seen - you actually get to eat food {not good food}, but solid food. Tessa & I got together yesterday at Whole Foods armed with our massive list of produce, probiotics, coconut waters, etc. It was an overwhelming trip trying to pick out so many different types of vegetables and fruits, most of which I've never heard of. Kale, arugula, garlic, ginger broccoli, scallions, shallots, beets, celery, pears, apples, lemons, limes to name a few. After a couple hours of shopping we headed to her house for a couple hours of cooking every meal and blending every juice to make sure we're making this cleanse as easy as possible...and we were cussing ourselves the entire way.

Our produce pile...never even heard of 1/2 this stuff
{Check out Cruzer in the background}

I've never chopped so many vegetables in my life....
my hands were stained red from the beets

We look happy, but that just covers up the fact we were seething
mad that we decided to put ourselves through this.

Fast forward to now....and I'm extremely nervous and wondering what.did.I.get.myself.into? Tomorrow morning is the first day of the seven day detox. I'm nervous I'm going to be starving myself throughout the day, being a crabby you-know-what and despising anyone who is eating normal food and most importantly drinking an ice cold diet soda.

So...why am I doing this?

• Shed the last few pounds of my pregnancy weight
• Detox my body and start clean
• More energy {not driven by numerous Diet Mt Dews throughout the day}
• Get myself to make healthier food choices...and perhaps discover some new foods that I like to eat
• Nick doesn't think I can do it {thanks, honey}...that's ammunition enough for me to complete it. {Plus I really don't think I can do it...it would be great to prove myself wrong as well.}

My reward to myself for completing this seven day torture er, cleanse is to buy myself a new pair of skinny jeans. I haven't bought any new jeans this year {due to being pregnant for most of it & then not wanting to buy when I still hadn't gotten rid of the preggo weight}, so I think this will be a great reward at the end of this very long, dark tunnel.

Well, wish me luck. I will be checking in along the way.