Thursday, June 16, 2011

Cleanse

I finished the cleanse! Yesterday was my last day of the juices and today is my first day of transition back into "normal" food. By normal I'm sincerely meaning a much cleaner/healthier menu selections and days filled with exercise. The career I have chosen demands I be in tip top shape and my wedding just four months away really has me motivated to change my life.

The prep days were more difficult than I anticipated and severely harder than the actual days of juice on the cleanse. I sticked to the same menu choices I had already made for myself, but I found myself very uncomfortable. Around 3:00pm I got really tired. In fact, the second day of the prep I had to take a nap. On the 3rd day of the prep my digestion system was having problems with only salads, hummus, guac, veggie broth, and veggies. By the end of the 3rd day of the prep I wasn't sure I was going to be up for this.

To my surprise my system felt relief when I started juicing. I'm still not entirely sure I did the prep and the transition out correctly because I felt amazing on the juice. First of all, having meals on the go that are good for you is a blessing. I was never hungry. In fact, I sat at restaurants with friends and didn't crave eating. The last juice of the day is a cashew milk, and it's very filling. I sat at a pool table on the 2nd night and forgot for a second I was juicing. I thought, "What did I eat tonight that I feel so full." It was amazing. I never had to think about what I was going to have for meals and snacks. This cleared up space in my brain to think about school, work, wedding and musical theater. I rested better than I can remember. I woke up in the morning NOT feeling tired. I couldn't believe it. By the 3rd day I started to think maybe I could work out. I had been advised to listen to my body because I could feel tired or perhaps week in which case working out would be a bad idea. I felt great both days and it was the last day of juicing so I thought what the heck. I happened to chose a very tough class offered this summer through school called "Total Body Workout." The first time I went, a few weeks ago, I thought I was going to puke. Not yesterday. The class was very difficult, but I got through it. I hadn't worked out since before I left for Vegas over memorial day weekend. It had been two weeks. I felt very proud of myself for finishing that class well given that I had been on a strict diet, juiced, and had taken two weeks off to focus on food. I even woke up today not feeling as sore as I thought I was going to feel.

I woke up this morning filled with pride for completing this dieting task that I have been working on for the past twentyish days. I still have a ways to go with my exercise to finish getting into tip top shape, but I feel great about where I am at with my eating. Tomorrow finally came....

Monday, June 13, 2011

Pre-Cana


Last Saturday Mike and I participated in our 1st out of 2 pre-Cana classes required to marry in a Catholic church. We reserved our spot in these classes months earlier. So, in the weeks leading up to the classes there was a lot of anxiety about what exactly was going to be talked about for both of us. Mike was very concerned that I was going to become very preachy and argue with the priest instead of saying my pre-rehearsed phrases. I had given strict instructions on what to say back to the priest if he had any questions for me. I could choose between these phrases: "yes, sir" -"I believe in the Catholic church and all the values." - "You're right, sir." I had visions of a priest standing up in front of the room lecturing us on natural family methods and us hiding in the back of the room trying to figure out a different New York address I could put down as my own instead of the address we share together. The horrific nightmare stayed with me all the way up to the L train ride over to the church where my instructional phrases were being repeated to me over and over and over again.

As per usual, I'm always afraid of being late and I wanted to make sure we got there in time aaaaaaaaaand we were the first ones there. We were in a church school's gymnasium and it felt like being in junior high again waiting for the assembly to start! There were 70 couples waiting to arrive, thus, 140 people. We sat anxiously in our little chairs in the back and to our surprise the class turned out to be a great success and a lot of fun. The class was taught by a married couple that volunteers at the church. They had been married 39 years and were gracious enough to share some really personal stories about their own marriage. We took surveys on different subjects like, financial concerns, kids, conflict resolution, and of course we talked about sex. We had to guess each others answers and I was pleased to find out that we guessed what each other would say fairly well. Mike and I are really intuitive that way and are good at being able to know how the other person is going to respond. It's a great skill for building offensive tactics. Seriously, we got to talking about stuff that we've talked about but we really started to talk about it deeper. I learned some new stuff that I hadn't learned before but I also rediscovered all the reasons why we're going to be happy together in the future.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Cleanse Prep

Dieting is hard. I mean really hard. Especially when you're sitting around a table with four fabulous girls in a really quaint restaurant in Greenwich Village and all you really want is to eat a one of the french fries sitting on the plate of your girl friends.

Yeah, I know how you feel. That was me last night, and I gave in. I ate a very tasty little french fry! Luckily, I was able to stop myself and not eat the entire plate because it did taste like a salt lick. I have to praise every accomplishment because the old me would have eaten every french fry on that plate. I probably would have licked the rest of the salt on the plate. New me - only ate a couple.

I walked out of the restaurant feeling proud and defeated at the same time. On the one hand, I felt like an addict. Everything inside of me was telling me not to eat it, but my physical salivating reaction said EAT IT! I gave in. On the other hand, I managed to just have a taste and walk away. In the past, if I cheated, I'd just eat whatever I wanted for the rest of the day including french fries, sweet treats and big portions of them both. I also felt ok because yesterday was the last day that I could cheat because I'm starting my juice cleanse on Monday. Thus, today was the first day of the prep day with no cheats allowed.

For breakfast I had a grapefruit.

Then for lunch I had a Lara Bar and some fruit.

Dinner I had some guacamole with corn tortillas and boiled artichokes.

Simple and small raw food meals is how to prep for the cleanse. Earlier this week I gave up the rest of dairy, coffee and meat. I switched to decaf and added almond milk. Then I stopped eating chicken and turkey replacing it with eggs. Then yesterday I stopped eating eggs. Now, I just have to eat cleanly like that for the next two days and Monday I start the juicing. I'm a little nervous about it, but excited at the same time!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Speechless

It's an interesting subject: Death.

I myself have been blessed to never feel the true pangs of losing someone incredibly close to me effecting my daily life. However, I have been surrounded by sadness in the last couple of months with the passing of my grandmother, my grandfather and a bartender in my restaurant family with whom I encountered very few times.

I'm amazed and very touched by how people truly come together in times of need. The true survivors of death become surrounded by people who love them and love the person who just recently passed. We often times start to reflect on our own lives and how we can stop taking for granted our loved ones and the passing of time.

Feeling humbled, tonight I pray for all the people who are having to live with the absence of their beloveds. I'm squeezing mine a little tighter tonight and making him go to the doctor and get a full physical work up done.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Ready for a New Me.

It's summer now which means that it's wedding crunch time.

Ever since the hectic school year ended, I have thrown my life into the cruxes of wedding planning. It's funny the very first thing that pops on when you sign into theknot.com or start doing any type of wedding research the very first ad is, "have you got your personal trainer yet?" The google ads on the side are all about different gyms you can sign up for and you're researching "wedding flowers" It's funny, but it's true.

I'm the first one to admit that I've been complaining about my weight for the last two years and I've done nothing about it. I've tried these fad-esk type diets on for size that just don't stick and I go in and out of working out, but the truth is that I'm just not motivated or consistent enough. After I stuffed my face in Vegas for my dear friend's wedding, I got home and said, "if my wedding isn't going to motivate me to get into a healthier and better physical shape and life-style, then nothing will."

So, for the next few weeks I'm turning my diet upside down.
For the first two weeks I'm doing a sugar control diet. The idea of this is to help the body deal with the addiction to sugar, keeping the blood sugar levels balanced by eating good fats and protein, and eating small portions 6 times a day. I usually start the morning off with two hard boiled eggs, a snack, lunch which is usually a leafy salad, a snack, then dinner which is usually chicken and a veggie. Snacks can be 1 piece of dark fruit that is low on the glycemic index like green apples, lemons or oranges. A handful of almonds, half an avocado with olive oil spread on it and some sea salt. I'm actually finding that I can only fit 5 meals in a day, which my nutritionist said was ok. Yesterday, I fit another snack in after dinner because my waking hours were much longer. You're supposed to eat every 2-3 hours and I've been leaving 2 hours after my last meal to digest and then I go to bed.

Then after the two weeks is over - I'm going on a 3 day raw food diet which will be all veggies with some olive oil. My body will have to have healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, almonds, and flax seed oil to help keep my blood sugar levels neutral. The fat also helps keep the body full longer.

Today is the end of day 5, and this was my menu for today.

Breakfast-
Grilled Chicken Skewers... ok, I know this sounds weird, but I closed the restaurant last night so I wasn't home until 2:30am. Thus, I didn't wake up until noon. It was already lunch time.

Snack
a handful of almonds.

Lunch
I had this amazing shake at this health food store made with almond milk and some fruit. (I probably should have some more protein, but eh.. it's ok.)

Snack
Almonds

Dinner
Grilled breast of Chicken with asparagus. Now, the asparagus had some hardboiled egg on top with a little bit of buttered balsamic vinegar poured over it.

The trouble that I have been finding is that I'm getting bored with my options of what to eat. Sometimes I have egg twice and chicken twice! I did however buy two new cookbooks to help spice up my different veggies and proteins. I'm also a little worried about transitioning from the sugar control diet into the detox juice cleanse because I'm hoping that the prep and the juice will keep my blood sugar stabilized enough. The sugar control diet is high in fat and in protein and sugar too but mostly from leafy greens and other veggies. The juicing will bring a higher fruit content.

My hopes with for the next three weeks is to deal with my carb/sugar addiction then detox the body, and give my body a new way of eating while working out in the hopes of getting into shape and getting rid of the access fat that I'm always complaining about. It's time for a change. I'm ready for a new me.