New Years Eve 2013- Preparing for an Epic year

The refrigerator has been cleaned out and stocked with fresh fruit and veg.  Kitchen has been cleared and a spot has been made to house my Breville juicer for the next month.  30 days of just juice.  I am a bit nervous that I will not be able to do this, but there is a fire burning in my belly (and no is not hunger pangs)telling me this could be the start of something big..... The expectation is to lose 30lbs in this month.  People have told me that this is not safe, I should not be doing this, but my answer remains the same, binging on sweets, and fast food and carbs day after day for 47 years is not safe either.  At least I am putting something healthy into my body by juicing.

I did a big grocery shop this morning, bought tons of kale, blueberries, grapes, cucumber, lemons and limes, apples, oranges celery.... how can any of this be bad for me.  I do know that the next 4 to 5 days will be tough, I think I may need to white knuckle it a bit, my plan is to come here and write about how I'm feeling- anything to take my mind off of the anticipated hunger. 

The goal- to lose 30 lbs in the month of January.  Tonight, or tomorrow morning I will be throwing my scale away.  it's old, its weighs me 23 or 25 pounds heavier that the scale at the gym, and quite frankly I have been soooo attached to the number on the scale for so long - it's just time to cut the cord once and for all.

I am going to use my start weight of 253.6 which was my last weigh in at the gym a week before Christmas.  I suspect I am up about 3 or 4 lbs from that, but I don't have access to the scale.  So as of February 1, 2014, I am hoping to see my weight be 223 or lower!  Phew, this is going to be tough, but you know what all of the yo yo dieting I have done for years and years has been tough too.  This will hopefully set me on the path to onederland, and set me up for a summer full of competition - runs, triathlons, etc.

Here are some before and after pics of my fridge, just looks so pretty to me.

Putting the Holidays behind me and looking tothe New Year

This Christmas may go down as the worst Christmas ever.  I have been sick since Christmas day.  Still fighting this sinus cold and flu, but at least I'm feeling marginally better today.  My plan for today is to take down my Christmas and prep my fridge for my juice cleanse.  I want to remove everything that is not juicible, except for the condiments on the inside of the door. 

I also signed up for  5 k race in June - something to motivate me to lose this weight. I did a 5k a few years ago, but walked most of the course. My time was 55 minutes.  I am proud of that race, since it was only a year into my journey, but now I expect so much more out of myself. 

Some things I am thinking about doing this year:
-5 k Biggest Loser race
-tough mudder
- Sprint triathlon
- powerlifting competition..... 

Yup, a powerlifting competition..... my chiropractor competes, my personal trainer is thinking about competing this year, and if there is a possibility of my lifting in a fashion that does not injure my lower back, then I want to compete as well..... I'm keeping this on the backburner for now.  And of course I will continue with my boxing, although I have come to realize I really that I don't think competing in boxing is what I want to do.

Anyway, lot's of hopes ad dreams for 2014, I have set out my plan, I know what I need to do in order to accomplish my goals, I just really need to dig in my heels (like I do when I clean and press) and EXECUTE!

In the next few days I will post some before my juice pictures, and do my official start weigh in.  The hope is that in the month of January I should lose anywhere from 15 to 30 pounds, depending on how strict I am able to be with juice only.  The only thing I am worried about is that I work out hard 3 times a week so I *might* need to add some protein on these days.  We'll see.  

Preparing to go on the juice

A juice cleanse that is.

Going to do a 30 day cleanse beginning January 1, 2014.  I am going to spend the month of January 2014, kick starting my weight loss, upping in calorie burn, and concentrating on me.  More to come in the next few weeks.... lots of reading and talking to people to ensure what I am doing is the right thing FOR ME. 

I hope to document everything here so that I can go back to it to see what could be done better etc.  

Monday Morning Check In

Well after a food fest for the last few days, I dragged my ass out of bed this morning and hit the gym.  Here's what I did:

- elliptical 10 minutes
- treadmill, run at 4.5 mph, walk 2.5 mph - 1 minute intervals for 10 minutes
- elliptical 10 minutes.

- arm, leg, back stretches
- 100 crunches
- two rounds of latter drills

I really want to keep up the running.... I will continue to do the run walk intervals, for 10 minutes and will slowly start to increase the run intervals and decrease the walk intervals.  Once I can run for 10 minutes, I will start to add to that time until I can make my way up to 5k straight running.   Well, that's the plan anyway! 

Feeling better after getting in some cardio.  The only positive about the weekend, is that I realized yet again the I cannot eat crap.  Desserts, carbs, wine, give me horrible heartburn.  Yuk, I need to remind my self of this over and over during the next month!

Saturday check in

Loving the juicer.  Have had a green juice every day since I bought it last week and I swear I am feeling stronger.  I woke up twice during the week at 2 a.m feeling rested.  and had two off the chart circuit training cycles at the gym.  Not 100% sure, but think it may be down to the juice boost. 

slipped up last night by ordering a pizza..... sigh.... old habits are hard to quit - but most of it has been packed up and put in the freezer in small quantities - a small win.

new challenge is to start each day with 50 pushups, 100 sit ups and 200 squats.... started this today..... squats nearly killed me! 

second part of the challenge is to get in an hour workout every day.... two days personal training, 3 days weights and 30mins cardio, and 2 days of 60 mins of cardio.....

Today is 60 minutes of cardio..... heading to the gym now.

Start weight - as of Nov 15 - 253.6 ( weigh in fully clothed, in shoes)

Easing my way into this

Day 3 of juicing today..... I made a carrot and apple juice this morning (5 carrots, 2 apples, 1 peeled lemon, 1 inch ginger) and tonight I made a green juice( handful of kale, 3 apples, 1/2 peeled lemon, 1/2 cucumber, 4 stalks of celery). 

I have to say that I have eaten more fruit and veg in the last 3 days, than I probably ate in most of the last 6 months.  BUT, I don't seem ready to commit to a full juice detox yet.... I am easing my way into this.  I am still recovering from a nasty cold and flu and don't feel 100 % at the moment.  But I am continuing with at least 1 juice a day until the weekend, and then I'll try and up it next week.

Everything else is going ok.  

Is Juicing my answer to weight loss???? hmmmm

This is my grocery shop this morning.... a whole bunch of things that I rarely eat.  Today the experiment starts.  Apples, lemons cucumber, carrots kale, spinach, ginger - Can these ingredients truly be the solution to my lifetime struggle with weight?  After stumbling upon the documentary "fat, sick, and nearly dead"  and subsequently reading quite a bit of info found on the internet, I think I'm ready to give it a go. 

I have heard that quite often overeating is caused by our bodies craving of micronutrients - vitamins and minerals that our body needs to keep it healthy.  When eating a diet that is not rich in these micronutrients, our brain signals us to eat more to try and obtain these nutrients.  Because our (my) diet is relatively either processed, or lacking in nutrient rich foods, I am continually eating trying to satisfy this need.  Not sure how accurate this is but it makes sense to me. 

Now, my problem is that I suffer from IBS type symptoms (not "officially" diagnosed), so basically, much of what I eat, whether its macronutrients or micronutrients, goes through my system very quickly and I am told it's too quick for my body to absorb the nutrients in the food.  Fruit and veg is generally very fibrous which does not lend itself well to my IBS.  Now from what I understand, juicing removes the fibre from the fruit and veg and the remaining juice is immediately absorbed into the bloodstream.

My hope is that finding a way to get these much needed micronutrients into my system will curb my brains signal to eat, eat eat..

Now I'm still going to eat one sensible meal a day, perhaps some protein and a bit of unprocessed carbs (like sweet potatoes).

Many people have tried to talk me out of trying this, saying it's not healthy etc.... but neither is carrying an extra hundred pounds of fat, nor is eating fast food 2 to 3 times per week.  So while I'm sure my path will change as I go, I am feeling hopeful that this may help in getting me on a healthy path. 

Good friends, good food, a lil shopping and juice

Good day today, went for a stroll in a quaint little area in the middle of the big city.  Shopped at a few little shops, had a lovely lunch of pizza and red wine,  and dropped into a another store and found a perfect zebra picture for my living room.   Came home tonight and made my second juice..... it was fantastic.  Sitting here now with my stomach cramping... Hmmmm gonna take a while before my IBS prone self, gets used to the increase in fruits and veg..... but it will.  I am imagining all of the micronutrients rushing into my blood and being carried throughout my body....

It has been a good day.

Picked up my juicer today, came home and was able to make my first juice.... kale, lemon, celery, apple an ginger.. Very nice. 

Going to start my day with a big juice for the next week to get my body used to it, then hopefully will do a 3 or 5 day reboot (fast). 

Pretty happy with this

And on to the next phase

Well its been more than a year since I made a feeble attempt at jumping back on the wagon, setting goals, and making plans to get back on track.... The last year has been a bit of a roller coaster my weight continued to climb from 235 to 250, and then all the way up to 285 as of January 2013.  The good news is I never gave up, I just fell into old patterns and spiraled downward from there.  I am now a couple of days away from the 5 year anniversary of quitting smoking, I've also just signed up for another 9 months of personal training, and I'm looking into the benefits of juicing for weight loss once my juicer arrives in the next few days..... it's all still up in the air, but I want to make the next year of my life count, and I do so much better when I am here and writing down about my life......  till tomorrow.