Dr. Oz's Three Day Cleanse: Day 3

I was miserable yesterday being hungry and tired. So I used a sleep aid last night to make sure that today I would just be hungry. 

I weighed myself this morning and was down another 1.6 pounds from yesterday morning.  I have three pounds to go to reach my goal for this weight loss challenge.

Today was pretty challenging, being I am a teacher and it's Valentine's Day. This pile haunted me today, but I stayed strong.  I let my students know that even though I wasn't indulging today, I was saving it. 

Overall, today was better than yesterday.  I think there is a big mental part of this.  The first day was new and I was motivated.   Day 2 was hard,  I really questioned whether I would make it another day. Today, I was like "This is the last day, I've got this."  

I am glad I tried this.  I tested myself.  I stuck to it.  Yes, I know it was only three days, but it really was a challenge.  I don't have much in the way of willpower.  

Here is my advice to those thinking of doing this: 

1. Do it with a friend and share the cost of the vitamins, probiotic, omega-3, almond milk, and flax seed.  That shit is expensive and you aren't going to use nearly as much as you have to buy.  

2. Do it with a friend and keep in touch throughout.  I did this with my friend Erin.  It was helpful to message each other.

3. Take a blender to work for your lunch and snack smoothies.  I bought a small one called the dash.  It works great, but it was too small for the amount I was making, so I kept making half at a time and that was annoying.  I really needed a full size blender for work.

4. Stay close to a bathroom.  Not because you are going to poop a lot, at least I didn't experience that, but you will need to pee often, even if you are not drinking a lot of water. 

5.  Definitely take advantage of the salt bath.  I was irritable by about 4:00 or 5:00 every day, when I needed to fix the dinners I wouldn't be eating for my family and had to do all my house hold crap, but I was tired and hungry.  The baths were a great time to just chill.

Where do I go from here?  I think I need to work to be more aware of the junk I put in my body.  Maybe I will exercise too, but that may be a stretch for now. 

Dr. Oz's Three-Day Cleanse: Day 2

Day 2, not as awesome as Day 1!

Let's start with how I slept last night.    First of all I had a hard time falling asleep and then I woke up in the middle of the night, soaked in sweat.  I had to jump in the shower, rinse off, change, and go sleep on the couch.  I don't know that the cleanse was to blame. I think it may be more that I just got hooked on "How to Get Away with Murder" and was watching a little longer than I should have and the night sweats... I am almost forty years old and that shit just happens.  I woke up with a headache which at first I attributed to clenching my teeth, but the headache never really went away.  

I weighed myself before starting Day 1.  I am not going to share that. There was a time a few years ago that I would have, but now that number is just too high.  Anyways, I weighed myself this morning, the start of Day 2, and was three pounds less!!  

Yesterday, I didn't feel hungry at all. Today was a different story.  I had my breakfast shake and felt really hungry by 10:00 with almost 2 hours to go until lunch.  It was like this throughout the day.  After finishing a smoothie, I would be hungry again soon.  

I am tired of drinking.  I feel like all I do is drink all day.  It's sad, when the highlight of my day is taking my multi-vitamin, probiotic, and Omega-3, because I get to chew.  It was tough to swallow the dinner smoothie.  It tasted good, but I am already tired of all liquids.  

My teeth feel furry and flax seeds keep getting stuck in them. 

Again, I was expecting a little more movement in the bowels, but no such luck.  

So overall, I was tired, hungry, and grouchy with a headache and furry teeth.  I can do this to myself again for one more day.

Dr. Oz's Three-Day Cleanse: Day 1

Today wasn't too bad. I started it by drinking a cup of green tea.  I wasn't excited about this.  I don't really like tea at all, but I put a pack of Stevia (which is allowed) and a lemon slice in it, and it wasn't so bad.

When I started making my first smoothie, I wondered about adding ice. Usually when you make a smoothie, you add ice or frozen fruit to make it cold and thick. So I did a little research. Yep, I probably should have done some research before starting, but I didn't, so it is what it is.  In my research, I came across this website.  I don't love that they are making their smoothies in bikinis, but I did learn a few things, like that yes, I should add ice and that I shouldn't have peeled the cucumbers. oops.

The smoothies are HUGE.  Each one is about 32 oz.  They take me forever to drink.  Today, I started my lunch smoothie about noon and didn't finish it until about 1:30 PM.  By the time I was done, there really wasn't much time left until I needed to have the snack smoothie, which today I chose to have the lunch smoothie again.

The smoothies are delicious, but I think flax seeds are weird!!    I love all three, but I think the breakfast one is my favorite.

I was curious about how many calories I had today, so calculated it all and it was 1,330.  I didn't feel hungry at all today.  My husband said I was irritable.  I don't think that is because I was hungry.  I think it's because he was annoying.

I was expecting a major butt explosion, so far, nothing, no tummy rumblings. Honestly, I am disappointed by this, because some times that is the only time I get to myself.  I was looking forward to sitting on the throne, scrolling Facebook, or playing trivia without someone needing something.

I am heading to my favorite part of this diet...the bath in epsom salts and lavender oil.  I love baths!  I love salt baths!  I love lavender.  I love the peace and quiet.

My Last Ditch Effort...Dr. Oz's 3-Day Cleanse

There is one week left of the Meltdown Weight-loss Challenge that I am doing.  In this challenge, I had to earn certain points and lose 6% of my weight.  I am good on the points.  The weight...not so much.  Honestly, I have been eating everything in sight.  So in a last ditch effort to try to reach that 6% weight loss, I am resorting to a 3-day cleanse.  I have decided to do Dr. Oz's cleanse.  Mainly because my friend sent it to me, and I am too lazy to research anything else.

Today I spent a small fortune buying the materials.  I had some stuff on-hand like coconut oil, lavender oil, multi-vitamins and cayenne pepper. I also decided I needed a small blender to have at work.  So with the blender and fricken expensive probiotic and omega-3 supplements, I spent close to $100.  It really is cheaper to be fat. It is ridiculous how much fruits, veggies, and flax seeds cost.  Check out my haul.

So in an attempt to make my life a little easier during the week.  I prepped my lunch smoothies bagged them up to just take to work and blend there. When I look at it all in the bag, it really is a lot of food.  Also, I had to you tube how to cut a pineapple.  In an effort to save some money, I opted for the whole pineapple instead of a pre-cut one.  

I am actually pretty excited about this, except for drinking green tea.  I hate tea.  All tea.  I will suck it up though and probably drink it while plugging my nose.  I have already warned my co-workers about this cleanse and have made sure we have plenty of poo-pourri on-hand. 

I plan to blog about this experience the next three days, so be sure to follow to get the good the bad and ugly.  I am off to have one last bowl of ice cream.

Is it Worth It or Should I Just Enjoy Life?

For the last three weeks, I have been doing an online weight loss challenge. I won't bore you with all the details about how it work, but know that I like the challenge.  I like the daily readings and check-ins, but I am frustrated!!  Not with the challenge, but with how easy it is to get fat and stay fat and how difficult it is to lose even the slightest bit of weight.  I have lost a total of 8 pounds, but the last 2 weeks have really pissed me off.

Last week's weigh-in, I gained some weight.  I was expecting that. I mostly stuck to my low-carb diet, but cheated about two days when I had some beers, cake, chips, and salsa.  I vowed to make this week better.  I really stepped it up, but only lost 0.8 pounds.  So fucking frustrating!!!!  I have been doing a two-mile run/walk  each morning then walking 3 more miles in the evening.  I am getting up at 4:45 in order to do this.  It's scary.  It's dark.  I have to remind myself that the multiple shadows I see are mine from the different porch lights and street lights.  I have had to change from listening to murder mystery podcasts, which I do in the daylight, to 90s pop, so that I am not so scared.  Thanks to the Backstreet Boys and TLC (RIP Left Eye) for keeping me safe. I have also ended (ok if I am honest with myself, I have put on hold) my love affair with Bud Light, trading it in for Michelob Ultra, a "Superior Light Beer" which honestly is not as "dilly dilly" as the Blue Gills, and I only had three this week.  I have not had a pop/soda in over three weeks, instead I have been drinking a shit-ton of water. 

These are pretty drastic changes for me... all for a 0.8lb loss.  That annoys me.  Is it worth it?  I don't fricken know.  I have heard not to pay attention to the numbers on the scale, but to how your clothes fit and how you feel. Well that shit is not helping me either!!  My clothes don't fit any better.  They are still tight, with the exception of my bra.  Seriously, I forgot to pack a sports bra the other day and did a walk/run after school, so I wore my regular bra, and my long flappies kept slipping out.  I don't need to lose weight in my boobs.  How do I feel?  Sore.  My joints and muscles ache.  The only thing that feels good is that I am sleeping better.  I fall asleep easily, and I am not tossing and turning all night.  I haven't taken any Melatonin or Ambien in three weeks.  

I'll keep going and keep giving it my best through this challenge, but part of me really questions if this is all worth it.  Is it worth it to not have the things I enjoy and to have a sore achy body, if nothing really changes? 

Still Fat, but Going to Try Again

So my last post was from April 2016  and I have just been getting fatter. Since then, I have gone through little phases of "Oh I should get healthy" or "Oh I should start running again," but nothing lasted very long. I seriously have zero will power, love food, and enjoy being lazy.  Honestly there isn't much better than a Netflix and Chill except that the chill part for me is a huge bowl of cold, creamy, chocolaty ice cream.

Here I am again at a point where I want/need to make some changes.  I feel disgusted by my appearance, when I talk to my friends on the Marco Polo app, my multiple chins are very present and depressing.  I am even more disgusted that I get out breath so quickly.  I used to refer to myself as fat-fit.  I was fat, but if I needed to I could run a mile or shit even climb a flight of stairs.  Not now.  I get tired going from my couch to the freezer to get my ice cream.  That scares me.  I don't want to die.  I need to be here for my kid.  The thought of my husband raising her without me scares me.  He would never make her brush her teeth or read the best books with her.  Not only do I want to live, I want to be active and be able to do things with my daughter, so here I am once again, ready to make a change. 

I thought some external motivation would help, so I started an on-line weight loss challenge.  It starts Monday, so in the meantime, I am working to get rid of all the junk food in my house.  I have been eating Reese's peanut butter cups like crazy... they have protein.

I have been going back and forth about what eating plan I want to follow.  I have had good results with a lot of them, as long as I stick with it.  My top two choices are The Whole 30 and a Low Carb.  I have decided to go with the Low Carb option.  I think because it is just easier to stick to.  I like The Whole 30, but it really is a lot of work and the food prep is time consuming, plus 30 days without alcohol pretty much sucks.  The only thing I don't really like about the Low Carb diet is that I get really sick of eggs, so I will need to get on Pinterest and find some alternatives. 

Exercise... yep still need to figure that out, but I hope to do at least 30 minutes per day.  I know that doesn't seem like much, but it's a start. I will need to ease into this.

Will I blog...maybe some times it's a lot of work and remember, I am lazy. 

Biggest Loser Mid-Point Weigh-in and Whole 30 Day 25

Today was our midpoint weigh-in for the Biggest Loser contest, which also started the day I started The Whole 30.  I am down 13.6 pounds!!!  That's in 25 days! 

I am really proud of myself for having stuck to this plan.  I sort of felt like I cheated last Sunday when I ate wafer at during communion, but my friend assures me that wafer is merely Styrofoam, and there is nothing in all my Whole 30 readings about not eating Styrofoam, so I'm good.

I have not been craving sweets at all, which is awesome.  During the third week though I sure was craving some beer.  I got through a happy hour with my friend, Beth, who is one of my usual drinking buddies.  She has been super supportive throughout this whole adventure and made sure I had a full glass of water at all times.  One thing I did not enjoy doing with out a beer, was bowling.  We had a staff bowling party.  Don't get me wrong, I love bowling, but I love bowling more with beer and pizza. 

 On this diet I told myself that I wasn't going to take any pills, even advil.  I did take some advil that first week because of some sugar withdrawal headaches, and I took some Benadryl one night because I cleaned some shrimp and accidentally touched my eye, which swelled shut.  In the past I have been pretty dependent on melatonin and the occasional Ambien to get to sleep.  I have had no problems going to sleep while on this plan, and I have been staying asleep.  I have been truly getting a great night's sleep, but these past 5 days, I just haven't wanted to wake up.  My alarm is typically set for 5:00 AM, and I wake just before it, refreshed and ready to go, but this week I have been so sluggish in the morning and it's often 6:15 before I get out of bed.  I don't think it has anything to do with the diet, I think this week has just been crazy busy, and it is wearing me out.  Luckily, we have spring break coming up and hopefully I can get some damn rest. 

Exercise...umm, it hasn't really been happening.  I need to change that.  The first week, I did a great job exercising.  I have big plans to get back into some sort of exercise routine during spring break.  Just think how much healthier I will be if I not only eat well, but actually move my fat ass!  Also I have had a revelation.  I know why we (as a whole) are fat and lazy... It's because of these little things:

The last couple of weeks I have been driving my husband's truck.  It has manual window roller downers.  They are a lot of work!  Just try pulling up to the bank or to get a pass at a gated community.  Your left are will be shaking and you will be winded.


I have 5 days left of The Whole 30.  People keep asking me how it's been and if I am looking forward to eating normally again.  The thing is I don't think I will be eating normally again.  I have seen that this works for me and I feel good doing it, so why would I stop?  It doesn't mean I will never eat a cupcake or a piece of cheese again, but it's not going to be an everyday thing.  Also when I do reintroduce food, I am supposed to monitor how it makes me feel.  I am going to work very hard to make sure I don't get back to the terrible habits I had just 25 days ago.