body challenges

+1 pound.

Lamesauce.  
I didn't post last week--I had zeroed out for the week, and had nothing to report.  I hadn't exercised a lot like I had said I would. 

In the middle of last week, I was super excited to really start working out my tummy.  I googled a bunch of floor exercises that target my core, and did them 2 nights in a row.  On the third night, I finished my reps, and immediately felt the muscles in the small of my back bulging out.  I woke up the next morning and could hardly bend over.  This has been going on for a week and a half now.  :(  Most of the pain is in my lower back, but if I have a full shift at work, the pain starts to shoot down into my hips and thighs.  I've tried stretching, walking, hot showers, uggghhh. 

So needless to say, I've been pretty sedentary.  I've looked into chiropractors, but without insurance, they are SOOO expensive.  I did schedule myself a massage for Monday through the massage school.  I'm hoping I can take a muscle relaxant and then they can kneed out whatever the hell is going on in my back!  The only real exercise I can handle is walking on the beach.  There's something about the sand that doesn't piss off my back too much.  :)

A rack in the store I never thought I would be shopping...

I'm hoping Justin and I can start hot yoga again soon.  We tried it for a week in Burien, but I gave up on it after I gained weight at the end of the week.  (Looking back, the weight gain could've been ANYTHING, but because the hot yoga was already hard, I blamed it instead.)  But I am excited to give it another try.  From what I've read about hot yoga, it can really help realign the back, and also help issues with the intestines.  (Pretty much the 2 parts of my body that plague me on a regular basis!)  I just wish it wasn't so expensive!  But I think we're going to give it a try again.  There's a studio here in Kihei that has morning and evening classes, and is only a couple of miles down the road from our apartment.

Regardless of a little bit of weight gain and a shitty back, life has been great.  :)  I went shopping the other day, and I can officially buy shorts in size 8!  :)  I am a single digit size!  Never thought I'd be able to say that!  :)

This week, I'm going to focus on walking everyday, the wellness of my back, AND I'm not going to drink.  I feel like my happy hours beers may also be the culprit of my 1 pound gain.  So we're going to give the beer a break for now.  I love it, but it only upsets my tummy anyways.

See you next week, hopefully with some betters news! 

Current weight: 136 pounds
Weight to lose to reach final goal: 6 pounds
Total weight loss: 88 pounds

Juicing backlash

+2 pounds

Blehhhhhhhhhh.

It's okay. It really is. Honestly, I have felt pretty damn awful this past week.

I did not transition out of my juice fast like I should have. In my mind, I had been so deprived for so long (only 10 days...lol), that I just went back to eating the way I was before. Which, don't get me wrong, is not bad at all. I eat pretty damn well. Buttttt, my body was not ready to digest whole, complex foods, and I didn't listen to my body. I've had a crazy amount of heartburn, and upset stomachs. I almost went back on the juicing the other day, because I was feeling disgusting and I felt like I had seriously wasted the last 10 days of progress. But that's okay. You live and you learn.

Next time, I will actually eat raw the 3-5 days after my fast. And maybe I won't do the fast for so long. But I still feel very positive about the whole experience. It may be an overshare, but my period started the last couple days of my fast, and it was seriously the least invasive period I've ever had. I would consider juicing the few days before every month if it meant no cramps and general crap feeling that usually accompanies that time of the month. All the vitamins and micronutrients were good for something! :)

This next week, I'm going to focus on my exercise. I kept saying how much I missed being able to do so, and then I felt so gross I barely did it anyways this past week. So I'm going to work those two pounds back off the old fashioned way! :)

I did finally make these black bean burgers last night. Besides a few hiccups, these actually turned out pretty well. Before this recipe, I had no idea what quinoa even was, but it's actually really good! Oh, and google the pronunciation for the word "quinoa," because it's not at all what you think...haha.

So my focus for this next week is exercise. Lots of exercise!

Current weight: 135 pounds
Weight to lose to reach final goal: 5 pounds
Total weight loss: 89 pounds

10 day juice fast successfully completed!

I didn't quit!  yay!  ANDDDDD....

My first "real" breakfast this morning!

-5 pounds!  woot woot!

This morning I had 2 slices of tomato, half of a banana, and a small juice.  (I bought WAYYY too many strawberries, so I made a small strawberry carrot juice to try and use some of them up before they go bad.)

The tomatoes...greatest thing I've tasted in a long time...lol.  I've been super craving banana, since you can't juice them and all. 

I did go to Jamba Juice the other day when I was out and about running errands.  They now make all natural juices.  I got the orange/carrot/banana juice.  Not having to prep the oranges and clean up the mess afterwards was nice, but the juice wasn't actually that good....haha.  They juiced the carrots and oranges, and then blended in the bananas.  It was alright.  But my juice is better.  :)

With the fantastic weight loss from this week, I destroyed my zen sushi goal.  If Justin doesn't have to close tomorrow night, we'll be headed out to Haiku tomorrow night.  If not, we'll hit them up sometime next week.  I'm still chasing Justin though....lol.  I swear he's losing a pound every time I lose a pound!  I thought I had him this morning, since last time I checked he was 134.  But when I made him get on the scale, he also weighs 133.  Haha...whatever!  But I can say that I now weigh the SAME as my husband.  (The same husband that I outweighed by nearly 80 pounds when I married him.  yay!)

I just calculated my total weight loss number to put at the bottom of my blog, and my first reaction was, "ew, gross."  Haha, I'm still at a loss sometimes to how much extra weight I was carrying around with me in college, and how much that weight held me back.

OH!  And I think I finally had a positive break through with my body yesterday!  :)  Justin and I decided to go to the beach, and I was changing into my bathing suit.  I looked in the mirror, and my first thought was, "hey, I look pretty good in this."  It was like a fantastic "AH-HA" moment, and I felt SO good about myself.  :)  I know that seems insignificant to a lot of people, but its HUGE for me.  My bottoms were so stretched out since I've had them forever now, so I had to go to Wal-mart to get a new pair--the only ones they had were string bikinis, with the ties on the side.  I can't tell you the anxiety those bottoms have been causing me...lol.  So to finally feel good in them...  :)

My progress graph since I restarted Weight Watchers  :)

Current weight: 133 pounds
Zen sushi mini-goal: 0 pounds
Weight to lose to meet final goal: 3 pounds
Total weight loss: 91 pounds

Jucing weigh-in

-2 pounds.  yay!

I'll admit I was a little bit disappointed this morning.  I felt like the amount of pain and suffering I endured did not equal the amount of weight I had lost.  That I could've worked out a lot this week, and ate actual food, and produced similar results.  BUTTTT, that's silly.  I didn't start juicing just for the weight lost results.  Actually, when I first thought about doing it, weight loss wasn't even on the top of my list.  So losing 2 pounds is great!  Especially because it puts me that much closer to my ultimate weight loss goal.

The first 2 days were HARD.  I won't lie.  I napped a lot, and was incredibly cranky towards my wonderful, loving husband.  I would randomly get dizzy, and randomly get these awful headaches.  And sometimes the headaches would last for a couple of hours, and sometimes they would only be there for a few minutes.  I felt awful.  And I was awful...lol.  I whined about not being able to eat, and griped at Justin for eating in front of me....haha. 

But I can now say, at the beginning of my 4th day of juice fasting, that I'm glad I did it.  My headaches have almost completely subsided--which means the death grip caffeine had on me is almost gone!  I rarely get lightheaded, and I like mixing up the different juice concoctions now.  I find that I love putting carrots in everything!  yum!  I am still getting food cravings, but its literally just to eat a tomato or orange whole.  (Justin even ate popcorn next to me while we were watching Buffy, and I was fine!)  :) 

I'm also hoping that this juice fast will improve my insides.  I know that sounds weird, but I worry a bit about how much damage I did to my stomach and intestines from all those years of crappy eating, and then all those years of splenda usage.  I don't really have any doctor's note or scientific data showing me that juicing will help heal the lining of your stomach, but it can't hurt right?  :)  I just think about the splenda study they did on rats and how some of their stomachs NEVER healed from the splenda damage.  uggghhh.  I can't believe people eat that crap.  I can't believe I ate that crap!

I'm going to go the full 10 days.  And Justin and I decided we will break my fast with some Vietnamese Burritos!  YUM!  Nothing better than a bunch of vegetables wrapped in spring roll wrappers.  :)  Day 10 for me is next Thursday, but I have to close on Friday.  So I just have to decide if I'm going to fast for an extra day so we can go out on Saturday, or if on Friday I will just eat real fruits and veggies--I think that may be better for my body.  But we'll just play it by ear.

One more big challenge presents itself tonight--I go in to close at work.  No samples, no coffee, no nothing for except juice.  Its been one thing juicing at home with nothing around me to tempt me, but now I've got to go be a functional person while juicing...lol.  I think I'll be fine, because now I feel fine!  2 days ago, I probably would've destroyed a customer for returning a drink or something.  :)

Well, Justin and I are off to water aerobics.  See you next week!

Current weight: 138 pounds
Zen sushi mini-goal: 1 pounds
Weight to lose to meet final goal: 8 pounds