Almost 6 months later…..starting a new journey!

I’ve reached by lowest ADULT weight and….

So here I am almost into the 6 months AFTER by 30 Day REBOOT and I have continued to eat CLEAN 95 % of the time…I won’t say 100% because then I’d be lying…I do eat the occasionaly BAD FOOD but for all the GOOD I put into my body I’d say the BAD is a VERY TINY part. For instance when I went to the BIG city earlier this month the only BAD thing I ate was potato chips…..and I didn’t eat alot. I still have the occasional burger but I try to only eat burgers that are local or hormone/antibiotic free. I haven’t had ice cream or cheese(other than feta or some cheese curds)…I don’t eat any condiments as a rule..we don’t have mayo, or ketchup or heaven forbid processed/made salad dressings…I only make my own now. I don’t as a rule, have empty calories of useless foods…even when I make my own salad dressing it’s not only to flavor my salad but it’s to add nutrition to my salad…I use flaxseed oil or hempseed oil, apple cider vinegar, agave nectar or honey and the spices and herbs are as fresh as I can get them or organic….sure makes a whole lot of difference in taste and I know what is in them.

Do I miss my BAD way of eating?….do I miss eating 3-5 times a day everyday?..thinking about everything I put in my mouth?? trying to imagine what it would be like to try a totally gluten-free pizza or a dairy-free cheese??, counting calories, fat and protein amounts??….no instead of trying to eat the way I was taught all my life and make changes to help me not have adverse reactions to my food or worse yet taking a bunch of drugs to treat the reactions…now I don’t substitute flavor for function or function for flavor….I have both without the guilt, without the pain and adverse affects of eating foods that I thought I was suppose to eat or eating foods that I grew up thinking were TREATS or REWARDS for doing something GOOD or surviving a hardship. Foods that we were told were COMFORT foods..like ice cream, potato chips, sodas, pizza, french fries, macaroni and cheese, hotdogs…well you get the picture.

I have continued to eat well…not exercising as much as I would like but still I have lost more weight and inches…last time I wrote here was last month and I was 130 pounds, BMI of 22.3 and fat percentage of 24.7 and my measurements were 35″, 29″  and 37″(chest, waist, and hips).

Today my weight is 125 pounds, BMI is 21.5 and fat percentage is 24.5 and my measurements are 35″, 28″ and 37″. I have lost most of my weight/fat in my back, belly and legs. I’m the leanest I have been since after high school and maybe even leaner in some places. In high school I didn’t have a chest at all..or not much of one….so I’d say I have more of a woman’s figure now than I did in my teens or twenties and even some of my thirties…LOL! I use to have measurements of 32″, 27″ and 34″ in high school and my twenties..but I had larger thighs and my hips/thighs just put the weight/inches on yearly. I was pretty much an hour-glass shape with no curves, but chubby legs..now I have curves and I’m getting my hour-glass shape back. I didn’t have children so I can’t blame the curves on my hips widening for childbirth…because I still have the same hips I was born with…no widening here…LOL..no reason why I can not get a firm, toned 34″ hips back or pretty close to it anyway.

I have attained or actually surpassed my goal when I started this journey back in April…I wanted to lose weight and gain confidence, health and happiness while changing my lifestyle….I have done that and I am continuing to do it…all because about 7 months ago I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead by Joe Cross and I had a HUGE wake-up call…that voice in my head said…”do it and do it NOW”. I had been toying with lifestlye changes…researching ways to change my life so that I could live better, feel better and hopefully live longer. I had toyed with many types of eating habits/lifestyles…primal, vegan, raw, juicing, intermittent fasting and all had one resounding principle involved and that was eating CLEAN…not putting processed, dead and useless crap in my body…I started to put only FOOD in my body…foods that my body could use and process and foods that gave me nutrition…in the way of raw and juicing only and then afterwards I have maintained that lifestlye with still eating 95% primal, 95 % vegan, 95% raw, 100% intermittent fasting and still juicing for nutrition benefits.

You may wonder how I can say I eat 95% primal, vegan, and raw?? and 100% intermittent fasting…well let me explain…primal isn’t ALL meat it’s a hunter-gatherers diet…no where in the principles does it say you’re a meat-eater ONLY…but the foremost principles of PRIMAL are eating clean, process-free, whole , naturally occuring foods like vegetable, fruits, nuts, seeds, fish, meat..foods our primitive ancestors would have been hunting or gathering. In primal you don’t eat grains…and I eat very little to none…95% of the time. Vegan means not animal sourced foods…and I do eat 95% of that….a mostly eat vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds..with some meats and animal sourced foods but they make up a very tiny portion of my diet..probably only 5% of my diet is animal sourced. Then there is raw..well in the truest forth raw is raw right???..well not exactly…raw can be foods that can be heated to no more than 105F or 115F so dried or smoked foods are fine as well as lightly cooked on a low temperature like stir frys or sauteeing. I would say that 95% of my diet is derived from raw…I don’t eat much foods that are cooked at high temperatures…so essentially I am a raw eater as well….no not totally but neither am I totally vegan or primal…I eat with the seasons as much as I can I eat local when I can taking in the benefits of living in a farming community..our eggs are locally farm-fresh, from free-range chickens..and unlike in the big cities it doesn’t cost us $4 or $5 a dozen..because these are local people selling their extra eggs. We buy local produce and as much local meat/fish as we can for the meat and fish we do buy and consume.

Now about intermittent fasting??? that was one of the benefits I had attained after my 30 Day REBOOT…I could recognise REAL hunger and I could even understands my body’s NEED for food better. With that I was eating more like our bodies were designed to eat. Our bodies were designed to fast when times were lean(when food wasn’t plenitful) something that in this day of plenty for many cultures doesn’t normally happen. But for our bodies to truly be healthy and digest it’s foods better and use the fat stores and build stamina and health it has to fast sometimes…and when I say fasting I don’t mean starving it. Some days I will eat 3-6 times grazing on foods as I go through my day..other days I may not eat until 3-7 hours after I get up in the morning…I eat some food when I feel hunger not just because someone says we’re suppose to eat at breakfast, lunch and dinner..with snacks in between. So I may go 16 or 18 hours between eating…during these times I’m repairing and digesting and resting..so I do not need to eat as much food…this way I don’t just eat for the sake of eating…I eat for a purpose..to nourish my body when I’m hungry..really hunger..not a mental or emotional hunger.

So to conclude, for this 6 month milestone, I can honestly say this new healthy lifestyle is here to stay…it’s a way for me to be the best damned middle-aged woman I can be…maybe..no… most certainly the best ME I have EVER been….I have made a new goal for myself….to be a leaner and healthier ME when I’m 50 than I was my whole entire life….want to follow me on that journey??..if so stay tuned…I’ll be stopping this blog posting and starting a new one….one which I can post in for the next 4 years or so….journeying to see if I can be a leaner and healthier 50 year old than I was my whole life.

Four months into it…now what are you waiting for??

4 months later and I’m definitely on the road to success…

So I thought I’d give you all an insight into my journey thus far…four months AFTER the REBOOT of my life. To re-cap for those of you, who may not have followed my blog this far, April 10th of the year(2013) I decided to embark on a monumental change in my lifestyle and get to place where I was happier and healthier. I decided on a drastic REBOOT of my life based on viewing the film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I went on a 30 day REBOOT to jumpstart my new lifestyle and it began with a 10 day Juice fast, where I only drank juice all day everyday for 10 days..no food..no nothing..just juices I made fresh with loads of fresh raw veggies, greens and fruits. Then the next 10 days I ate/juiced only veggies and fruits..mostly raw..then another 10 days of a total juice fast. After 30 days I had gone down in weight, BMI and along with it I gained my health and happiness back.

Now 4 months later I wanted to tell you how my new lifestyle is going…how I have fared and see for yourself that even though I no longer juice fast(but still juice a few times a week or daily), I don’t work my ASS off in the gym everyday…I have continued to lose weight and inches just by eating better and living a better lifestyle. Over the last few weeks my smallest pant size I have in the house (size 6 ) is too big…all my clothes are very loose and baggy on me. So I decided to weigh myself and take some measurements to get a sense of where I am at in total changes.

So to recap my measurements back in April:

Weight: 155lbs(BMI 26.6)

chest: 37inches

waist: 36 inches

hips: 40.5 inches

approximate body fat % 34.6(this is only an approximation using an online calculator.

After the first 30 days I went down to 140lbs(BMI 24), lost 2 inches on my chest, 4 inches on waist and 1.5 inches on hips…I didn’t check my body fat percentage.

Today Sept 11/13 my new measurements are:

weight: 130lbs(total of 25 lbs lost) BMI is 22.3; down from 24 in May!

Chest: 35 inches..down a total of 2 inches from April; no changes from May..thank god…never had big boobs to begin with…LOL!

Waist: 29 inches…down a total of 7 inches from April; down 3 inches from May

Hips: 37 inches..down a total of 4.5 inches from April; down 2 inches from May

Approximate body fat percentage: 24.7..almost a full 10% fat loss!!

So in conclusion I haven’t been dieting..I haven’t been working out like a madwoman..only living a healthier lifestyle and the weight, inches and fat is STILL coming off….today is proof that the changes I made 5 months ago to change my life for the better….and they are lasting changes..not a diet..not some kind of fad that will wear off…but a TRUE LIFESTYLE CHANGE!!!….I’m living proof that if you put your mind to it…you can do it!!!…so what are you waiting for??

One Month in..breakthrough..I can say NO to Ice Cream!

I can finally Say..NO! to Ice Cream…yup I said NO!

Well it is now two months since I started my REBOOT and one month since I started a NEW lifestyle and I have discovered a few things about my body..things I had never known or maybe refused to listen to it when it talked…now it talks and I LISTEN!! Yesterday I had a GRAND epiphany…it certainly was a self-defining AHA! moment. It was empowering too..because there was a time..only two month ago that Ice Cream was a weakness of mine..now..no more. I was out grocery shopping and I decided to get a dish of ice cream on a whim..something I had done a billion times in my life…so I bought it and started eating it..it was the first bowl of ice cream I had had in months..and instead of thinking and feeling…..wow..this tastes great..or boy did I miss this….it was more like…wow this was a mistake…and I promptly threw the rest of it out…yes I tossed the rest of the bowl of ICE CREAM AWAY!! I NEVER would have done that in the past..nope I have been known to sit down and eat 1 litre of ice cream in one sitting at times…but yesterday I barely could eat a quarter of that.

Afterward I was like thinking what was all the hype with ice cream?? why did I like it so much..it was cold and being so cold it was tasteless..yes I said tasteless…it was sweet and creamy but the taste I have grown to love with my foods now wasn’t there..there was no fresh taste..no taste of natural goodness…just empty, tasteless sweet and creamy…the taste was thick and coated my mouth with it’s thick yuckiness..not the way I remembered it at all….For the first time ever my tongue wasn’t HAPPY to have it in my mouth and when it slid down my throat it continued to coat it with a slimy, thickness that wasn’t appealing or pleasurable..what had I ever saw in ice cream? how had I derived any pleasure in eating it in the past??

So today I am sitting here more empowered than I was 24 hours ago…and when I stepped on the scale I have learned that I have also lost another 3 pounds..yes three. I now weigh 135 lbs and have a BMI of 23.2. This revelation has only given more STOCK to why I am doing what I am doing…adding to the feeling of health and vitality…I now listen to my body and there are times my body says…NOPE not hungry..and other times when it is…my body now gets hungry when I’m active and burning more calories and it’s not when I’m more sedentary and burning fewer calories… so I now do nothing but listen to my body and I lose weight…weight I believe is there because of me eating when I wasn’t hungry, eating to just eat..not when I really needed it.

I do believe that I have finally met the REAL ME…the person who was inside the body who was trapped by itself…a body that was eating out of some kind of weird sense of NEED..when in fact it didn’t NEED anything but to escape itself…WOW..how’s that for a philosphical theory?….My body wasn’t hungry for food it was hungry for escape…and instead of me escaping I kept feeding the body and hiding the REAL ME more and more everyday…I was actually making myself more sick and tired by eating..when it wasn’t food I needed or wanted..it was ME!! I NEEDED to find the me inside the body I had trapped myself in.

So one month in and here I sit..empowered and more ME than I have been in years..more ME  than I have been since..well maybe EVER…So happy to finally meet you..where did you ever get yourself to?…welcome home!

The PLAN…making a Difference!!

I can see it’s making a difference now…

So in my last post I was having some issues with life getting in the way of me taking care of myself. I was falling into the old habits…old BAD habits that can derail us all from making a REAL change..from making the difference we seek. When we all try to commit to something, we try to make a resolution to make a change for the positive in our lives. Whether this is stop eating badly, smoking, drinking too much, not exercising, not making time for ourselves…we all can get side-tracked very easily if we don’t make the effort to really change our life…our LIFESTYLE.

I was doing a REBOOT and while I was ..I was not swaying from my goal…10 days of juicing..then 10 days of juicing and eating healthy and then 10 days of juicing again…they were easy goals to stick to, once I got started. Then after the REBOOT..what was my goal?? sticking to eating better…feeling better and taking care of myself. Thing was I thought it was easy  just stick to what I had been doing…Right?..well yeah sort of…but when things get busier and life starts to throw things at you like get-togethers with friends and family and home and life obligations, making time for yourself and what matters to you can be hard….so my plan was to re-prioritze my life….and I did. I started a new goal..well actually my life is now full of schedules…I schedule everything to make sure I have the time to do things all the time….sound tough??.sound boring?? sound TOO SCHEDULED…well I don’t schedule EVERYTHING!!

I make time everyday for things like exercising, yoga practice, meditation, just having a ME time…I then schedule everything else around these things..so that they don’t get pushed or like someone said to me..BUMPED BACK. One very important quote I like to say to myself everyday is….”Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today”…and I always add this….because tomorrow may never come!!…and sadly for so many people this is so very, very true..don’t be one of those people who have regrets because they put off their todays and then their tomorrows stop coming.

So since last week I have made time to exercise, to do yoga practice and to just relax everyday…I found once I did I was feeling better, lighter and much more like….well ME!! I even went to a burger joint and ordered a double cheese and bacon burger with a side of poutine…and felt yucky afterwards….but it was an important test…an experiment for my cravings…to show myself that eating this sort of food is BAD for me..as BAD as the feeling after I ate it…I’ll remember this for a long time…and will not be likely to repeat it anytime soon…for the last three days I have not touched any meat as I am detoxing and allowing my body to heal after the abuse I put it through.

Today I decided to take stock of what my body is telling me…and my weight has stayed the same…maintaining at 138lbs down from the 155lbs and the weight loss I had attained while REBOOTING for 30 days…it’s been 24 days APRES’ the REBOOT and I haven’t gained a pound….I took some measurements and discovered I lost another inch on my waist..so I’m STILL toning and tightenin things up…and except for my craving experiment…I’m feeling pretty damned…GOOD….so my LIFESTYLE change is working…and I’m working with it…and it’s Making a Difference!!…..LIVE ON!!

The Plan…Self Preservation!

Sometimes it’s best to take a step back to move forward

So I have discovered that I was moving forward in life but stumbling backwards at the same time. The thing is it was moving back into OLD habits, OLD BAD HABITS…and in turn going back to an OLD lifestyle…one that HURT me…and didn’t help or LOVE ME. So I now have decided to STEP back abit and rethink what it is I wanted to have happen when I started my 30 Day REBOOT..what I NEEDED to have happen…it wasn’t ONLY about losing weight, getting smaller, it was about being healthier, and happier and once I did the 30 days I was indeed happier and healthier..but then something happened…LIFE HAPPENED!!

Life has a way of sucking you into things…looking at things differently, you find you’re getting sucked into other people’s problems and issues, you find yourself forgetting about yourself and what makes you happy. I can’t be doing that…forgetting about me is like forgetting I exist or saying I’m not IMPORTANT. I am important, I do exist and I do matter…if I didn’t then I wouldn’t be able to help others, I wouldn’t be able to make a difference. I need to have a BALANCE in my life..where I can continue to HELP others but not when it means I forsake my own needs at the same time. There is self-lessness and there is having no SELF-worth and they are NOT the same thing.

So I have devised a PLAN…a plan of Self-Preservation where I will NOT forsake myself in the pursuit of helping others…I will have ME time and I WILL do things that make me HAPPY, and feel good about myself. I volunteer and foster for an Animal Rescue and doing so makes me feel good..actually GREAT but it also can become ALL-consuming…ALL-incompassing. I need to do things I NEED to do and take care of ME as well as taking care of the kittens I foster, volunteering to help the rescue but don’t forget to make time to help myself. I had stopped exercising, I had stopped meditating, stopped practicing yoga..stopped doing things to take care of ME all because I had convinced myself I was TOO busy, had so much to do with the kittens everyday that I didn’t have time to get on the treadmill, get on my Total Gym, pull out my yoga mat and practice..sit and do nothing but meditate and relax..take a long soak in the tub. What were the consequences??..well I stopped going to bed early..started staying up late and trying to get tired by being on the computer or watching TV late…not be able to shut off my brain, getting cravings and thinking about(but not acting on it thankfully) eating things that make me feel sick or make me feel BAD, waking up late and not feeling like I want to do anything at all,(now the weather wasn’t co-operating as well.. it was cloudy and cool and not very pleasant outside)…but let’s not let excuses about the weather cloud things here(pun intended). Getting back to the consquences…I was getting cranky, having a short fuse with my wife and my little furry family…I started to see them as hinderances to me being able to get everything done in a day and not seeing them for what they REALLY are…my loved ones…my family…my rock..what I turn to when life is getting to me. I wasn’t only forsaking myself because of added stress and pressure on my time but I was also forsaking my family…the reason why I am here…what and who REALLY matter to me.

Life can do that sometime IF we let it…and I for one say…NO I WON’T let life get to me…take myself away..take what matters MOST away…Today I’m taking back my LIFE from a LIFE that was consuming ME and my LOVED ONES. I will have to make a schedule and keep to it…do things to takecare of the kittens I have in care, takecare of the volunteering I want to do to help the rescue, but remember to do things for myself..take time out of EVERYDAY to practice yoga, exercise, meditate, go to bed earlier , get up earlier…and every now and again…do nothing..or very little…but relax and REBOOT.

Today I started off with a nice juice and I did the cleaning I needed to do..so I won’t be buried in kitty poop. Now it’s time to exercise, and practice yoga…maybe even sit out in the sun and meditate for abit. I have to start putting off what CAN wait and STOP putting off what CAN’T wait…my health and happiness CAN’T wait…but taking pictures, updating adoption ADs, trimming nails, promoting the rescue, sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Emails CAN WAIT…no one will die if I don’t do it EVERYDAY…but some CAN DIE if I don’t take care of ME…and I CAN ruin relationships and miss out on my HAPPINESS and LOVE when I forget about it means to be me…and what matters to me MOST……SO HERE is TO…LIVING to ENJOY…not putting LIVING OFF until you CAN ENJOY!!!

 

DAY 18 of New Lifestyle…is Status Quo..or IS IT??

Maintaining what it was..is what it is…

Today is Day 18 of my NEW lifestyle…and I’m maintaining what I had attained…or HAVE I??? I have gone to the grocery store and bought only health, wholesome and mostly FRESH foods. I don’t eat any dairy at all, only eat animal protein 2-3 times per week. Eat mostly RAW veggies and fruits or some lightly cooked meals(sauteed to be warm but not cooking ALL the nutrients out of them). I have gone to a restuarant and only ordered a salad filled with lots of greens and other veggies, dressing and bacon on the side..and didn’t end up eating the TOO SALTY bacon. I haven’t had ANY cravings for sugary foods or greasy foods..although a few times I have wanted a nice grilled burger…so the end of the this week I’m going to indulge this one craving and see what happens…if I don’t feel GOOD after eating it…it will tell me..it’s just one of many things I won’t be eating anymore. I am the same weight I was when I weighed in on Day 30 of my REBOOT 138lbs…my clothes seem even looser on me although the three measurements have stayed the same…35″, 31″ & 38″. My size 6 jeans were abit tight on me…now they’re loose and abit baggy in the hips and legs. So I know that my weight and size is pretty much steady.

The only thing I do have problems with is maintaining an active lifestyle and putting ME first in my priorty list everyday. During my REBOOT I ONLY did this…now I find it hard to as I’m getting busier with LIFE. I foster orphaned and abandoned kittens for a local rescue that I also volunteer with and sit on the board of directors. This is the busy time for the rescue, as kitten season has begun and many litters with their mothers and even litters on their own are being found abandoned frequently. I find myself so busy somedays I can’t find the time for my yoga or meditation and even exercising…so then at night I feel keyed up and anxious and can’t get to sleep. Then I invariably sleep in too late and my day is so hectic. My emotional and mental state of being is in jeopardy because I don’t feel as good as I did 18 days ago.

I think a ACTIVITY REBOOT is in order for me…I have maintained my routine to some extent but bit by bit more things fall by the wayside so I need to REGROUP and get things straightened out or I’ll be battling with fatigue, stress, and other BAD habits that I was good at doing BEFORE my REBOOT….in my next few posts I’ll be talking about HOW and WHAT I’ll do to REBOOT my active lifestyle…for today…I’m going to just try and get some much needed extra stuff done…then tomorrow let’s REBOOT!!

Here I am One week later…Keeping on Track

Keeping on Track….

So one week later and I’m checking in to say…I’m Keeping on Track. I went through some interesting progressions in incorporating my eating lifestyle into my new life. I had some challenges over the week as well. Last weekend I went to TWO gathering where FOOD was a BIG part of them…and like in my first gathering where I drank only my juice these two ones…I made meals that I was happy to eat and made me feel GREAT afterward. Saturdays’ dinner menu was either a full course turkey dinner or a vegetarian’s lasagna…I chose neither and made a lovely large green salad with plenty of other veggies in it…with a homemade honey dijon dressing….I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t even give another thoughts to the bland, pale and non-appetizing other two choices…even the dessert didn’t even sway me…it was a fruit and cake with syrup…it looked nothing like my own fresh ginger and fruit salad with so much flavour. Then on Sunday the choices were veggie or meat lovers 3 foot subs and some fresh veggie and fruit trays…I nibbled on some veggies as my homemade vegan chili complete with three beans, nutritional yeast and loads of other veggies and avocado to add creaminess, was heating up in the microwave. I ate it with gusto as we had been up and partaking in a workshop/seminar.

I didn’t feel left out or even deprived..on the contrary I enjoyed eating what I had and only looked at the dead, doughy bread and was GLAD I hadn’t eaten it and then been feeling bloated and unwell afterwards. I have trying to stick to a regular day of plenty of fresh veggies and fruits as much as I can..I now incorporate some nuts and seeds into my eating as well as I eat some meats(so far only chicken) about 2-3 times per week…which is down from the 2-3 times per day I use to eat. I don’t really seem to mind not eating the meat as long as I eat plenty of vegetables and seeds and nuts…my thoughts of eating meat is not really a part of my life now. I will eat some but just not to the extent I use to.

I decided to weigh myself and do a quick measurement just to see how I have fared while starting my new lifestyle with a new eating style. I was pleasantly surprised to say that :

I have lost another 2 lbs..down from 140lbs to 138lbs which now gives me a 23.7 BMI well in the normal end.

I also lost another inch on my waist down to 31 inches down from 32 last week…and .5 inches down from last week at 38.5inches!!

This only supports my new eating lifestyle because along with the weight and measurement benefits, I am also seeing that my health is much better also….I wasn’t feeling all that well yesterday but after a few hours of rest and just sipping on juice and some broth I felt so much better when usually I would have been sick for maybe a few days…and needing to take some medication for nausea and stomach issues…this time just rest and gentle foods  and some herbal teas made it ALL BETTER!….PMS once again rearing it’s ugly head…I’m now almost 1 week late getting my period…likely a drawback to my change in eating once again…but I can say that it’s been an easier PMS with eating better…and learning to deal with it without medication and suffering….One week into my NEW LIFESTYLE and I’m KEEPING ON TRACK!!!…..LIVE ON!!!

Day 30….And this is ME!!

Yes this is ME…I know, I know..it looks like a MUGSHOT..LOL!!

Okay so here the day I have been working towards for 30 days…actually ALL my life…the day where a NEW ME will begin to LIVE a new and Healthier Life. It’s funny having my pisture taken..I haven’t had one taken in awhile that I have felt comfortable so this one looks like the ones you get done for a passport or drivers licence/photo ID…LOL!! I guess I need to practice smiling and meaning it now..BECAUSE I have ALOT to SMILE about!!

I took the AFTER photos and WOW I can REALLY see the difference… how about you…the best view is my side where the most change is evident:

BEFORE taken April 9th 2013                     AFTER taken May 9th 2013                                                                            30 Day REBOOT completed!

Yesterday I said I went to a get together centered around FOOD and eating FOOD and I juiced and SURVIVED…but what I didn’t mention was that I had on clothes that were TOO tight last month. I tried on a few of my favorite SMALLER SIZE clothes yesterday and they FIT!! I had on my size 6 jeans..they FIT!! and my tailored dress shirts…THEY FIT…no more will I HIDE behind baggy clothes that HIDE ME…from now on I’m going to LOVE my body and SHOW it OFF!!

So today was also my measurement and weigh-in day so that I could also quantify my progress in the 30 days…so here it goes!

Weight on April 9th: 155lbs(BMI 26.6) Weight today 140lbs(BMI 24) that is a 15lbs weight lost in 30 days…the most weight I have ever lost in such a short period of time…but it FELT GOOD..and from my pictures you can tell I lost fat and fluid NOT muscle.

Chest measurement April 9th: 37 inches May 9th: 35 total of 2 inches lost.

Waist measurements April 9th: 36 inches May 9th: 32 inches; that’s a 4 inch loss in 30 days.

Hips measurement April 9th: 40.5 inches May 9th: 39 inches giving me a 1.5 loss here. Which gives me a grand total of 7.5 inches in these places. Now I know from the way my clothes fit and the way I look I did lose more inches elsewhere.  I’m just so happy to see my body reflecting my mind and emotions right now…I feel so ALIVE and much healthier and it reflects in the size my body is in now.

Today will be a one that will be cherished greatly by me for a VERY long time…and I’ll have these measurements and photos to remind me of what I can accomplish and also to remind me where I was….and NEVER want to go back to again. It’s only the beginning because I plan to continue…NO!…I WILL CONTINUE!! I don’t see myself stopping here..why not strive to be even better and even more healthier. But for now my REBOOT JOURNEY is coming to a CLOSE…so that my NEW LIFE in this NEW ME can begin…so it’s not JUICE ON!!(although I’ll ALWAYS Juice daily)….It’s NOW LIVE ON!!

I decided to show the WORST view I believe in the BEFORE category and show what is looks like now…here in the BEFORE my back is lumpy with back fat and then in the AFTER it’s less lumpy and bumpy…THAT’S  WHY my shirts fit better!!! <<<BIG GRIN>>>

Yup! BEFORE                                and…AFTER

Day 29 One Day to GO!

Only One Day to Go!

It’s Wednesday and only ONE DAY TO GO in this 30 Day REBOOT…and let me tell you if will NOT BE MY LAST!! I will definitely do it again in a month or so to just REIGNITE the passion for veggies and fruits but also to just get this feeling of FEELING GREAT again. I met a different me on this journey and I like THIS ME…so she won’t be going anywhere. I learned alot about self-control and an inner strength and what makes us THINK we’re hungry and what we can do about it.

With the tools I have learned to cope with cravings and mind over my body’s needs, I can handle more situations where food use to be a social thing…people gather around a buffet table and talk and eat and EAT. It’s like eating in front of the TV, you don’t realize you’re stuffing your face until after you eat too much and then you lament on how STUFFED you are. Before this journey I use to go to the grocery store and see all these NEW and improved snacks and junk foods and be tempted and even acquiesced most times. Now I go to the grocery store and have a REAL purpose to why I am there..not to hunt down the next BEST thing to eat…but to got there to buy foods to put in my body to nourish it. I don’t look at a quick junk food and think…yeah maybe I’ll try this or that..now I read the labels and see all the dead, processed and artificial CRAP in them and say…NOPE..rather have a nice piece of REAL LIVE foods…rather put something into my body that my body will say…”wow thanks this makes me feel good” not put something tasty into my mouth that will then make me SICK later.

Also I can smell, see and even handle foods that use to tempt me badly and walk away from them…tonight I attended a supper get-together where it was a potluck and people had lots of healthy choices like vegan chili, caesar salad, fish casseroles, fruit salads, veggie trays..etc. Still on my Juice Fast I was determined to tough-it-out and go there with my juice in hand and a larger jug of water…thankfully there was a washroom handy and I drank my juice and water watching people stuff their mouths with tons of food…my wife ate all kinds of foods she loves but some didn’t agree with her…she lamented on how they made her feel bloated and overly full….and I was thinking to myself..well I STILL feel light and refreshed and when people came over to tell me how good I looked and they could see I had lost alot of weight..it made me feel even lighter. I felt proud of what I have accomplished and I didn’t feel deprived. I was walking by the cheese tray and usually I would have popped a few pieces of it in my mouth as I walked by…I looked at it and thought…YUCK!!..it looks dried out and just sitting there with everyone standing over it in the warm room..it wasn’t appetizing at all…now the veggies and fruit…I wanted to eat them all…but ALAS…not until Friday can I break this Juice Fast.

So here I am on the eve of my last day on this first of many REBOOTs…but never will I have to do it for so long..because from now on I have the tools to tell myself NOT to put something in my mouth that won’t make me feel good…and if I do…the immediate adverse reaction will only remind me why I DON’T EAT IT!! REBOOTING for 5 days every now and again will help to recharge this REBOOT BATTERY inside of me.

Tomorrow I’ll be measuring myself, weighing myself and taking AFTER photos to be able, firstly to see how far I have come, and secondly to have a STARTING POINT for where I want to go. I’m not done NOT BY A LONGSHOT…and although I may not POST daily after tomorrow…I will still post on how things go AR(After Reboot) and also how I do with continuing on this healthier and happier ME JOURNEY….until then….JUICE ON!!!

Day 28…Oh What a Beautiful Day….

Sunny is Shining…and it’s such a Beautiful day!

It’s Tuesday..Day 28th and it’s such a beautiful day…the sun is shining, birds are chirping and building nests…it’s warm out and I FEEL GREAT!! It’s a wonderful Spring day with temperatures high enough to be summer in our neck of the world….I have been feeling better each day of this JUICE FAST…the first few were tough..alot tougher than I has expected since this is my SECOND 10 day Juice Fast. I had thought it would be easier…but by doing two 10 day fasts in one month I do end up having hormone fluctuations to contend with on top of the normal results of Juice fasting and DETOXING. I still have plenty of energy and get so much done in a day, it’s almost crazy what I can do when I put my mind to it.

This week is a busy week for me, with a big charity event I am volunteering at, my mother coming to visit and also ending my 30 day REBOOT. I still have trouble THINKING about food but it’s not REALLY BAD foods or JUNK foods…it’s chicken roasting in the oven low and slow..roasted veggies and also fruit smoothies. I guess the REBOOT is working because before doing this I craved foods like french fries, poutine(with loads of cheese curds and gravy), pizza, ice cream, and huge greasy double burgers with loads of bacon and cheese on them. I also will be interested to see how much weight and inches I have lost..because my clothes are getting so loose on me…I feel lighter with a real SPRING in my step…I wouldn’t say I feel like when I was 20…nope…I feel better!!…when I was in my late teens- 20’s I was eating REALLY poorly because I was working and eating at a fastfood restuarant three to five days a week. I feel more like when I was a kid..minus the migraine headaches I use to have.

These last two days ahead of me will only bring me more closure and teach me even more about my accomplishments, what I am capable of and the strength I have inside. I use to think I had pretty good willpower and then I would cave…these 28 days has shown me I do have STRONG willpower…a strong will to live and be happy….and these are directly connected to how I treat my body..something I knew all my life…but did not actually advocate to doing it. This JOURNEY has opened my eyes to DOING and not just thinking or saying I will.

I will wait till Thursday…Day 30 to measure myself and take the AFTER photos…no matter what the scale says..or the numbers are on the tape measure….the way I feel and look doesn’t lie…..IT’S a BEAUTIFUL DAY….and I’m so grateful I’m alive and enjoying it!!..JUICE ON!!!