Day 8: Measurement Day

Okay, I was a little nervous when I woke up this morning, knowing this was the big day where I would weigh myself and take my measurements so that I could see if this was working or not. I had a bit of difficulty with the measurements. It is hard to measure yourself. But I'm not comfortable asking for help right now. Maybe later. So I struggled through. The biggest difference was in my butt. I think about 2 inch loss there. Other wise it was either the same or off by 1/2 inch in various places. Hard to know for sure if I was measuring correctly. Was I getting the tape in the exact same spot as the first time? I used a mirror to help me. I'm wondering if there is an easier way for accuracy.

Next was the scale. I actually weighed myself, was so surprised that I did it several times in a row to see if the number was any different. Standing on various parts of the scale to make sure it wasn't a fluke. But it was real. I lost 6.8lbs! In 7 days. I like that. This is doable for me.

So I continue. Had my breakfast shake, went to work out at water aerobics, made my bank deposit and came home. Went and got water (lugging 5 gallon bottles of water counts as more exercise, right?). Then headed to work where I basically watched various TV shows on Hulu while entering receipts and bills in my computer. I did go to the mall to get lunch and pay the phone bills. Bought myself Mongolian BBQ - you pick 5 fresh veggies and one meat, add your own spices and condiments to it and they barbecue it up on a big flat grill. One of my favorite healthy fast food choices. I got chicken, carrots, celery, onions, cabbage, and pineapple for mine, with a small dash of sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and ginger water, and hot peppers. They of course serve it with rice, but I only ate one scoop (1/2 cup) . So a good lunch.

Dinner, I drank my 1/2 chocolate/1/2 vanilla shake while making porkchops, mashed potatoes and fresh veggy tray for the family. I ate a few pieces of celery for my evening snack.

So begins week 2!

Day 7: Cleanse Day

Well, I'm not sure what I expected from this day. I'm hungry. But I made it through. That breakfast shake is going to taste soo good tomorrow!

Couple of things I noticed today. At water aerobics I was lapping the old ladies. I just felt so good in the water and just moved. At the end of the day, while standing for 45 minutes grading student's tests, I realized I wasn't shifting from leg to leg like I usually do. I was able to stand still and test without having to redistribute my weight from leg to leg because they hurt. Which means they didn't hurt! I have had major issues on class nights with just being in such agony when I came home because my feet and legs ached so much. I even invested in an extra large bottle of Valerian to help me with this problem. But I actually felt fine. I wonder if this cleanse will actually help with my leg pain issues. Hmmm....will have to keep an eye on this and see.

Les told me my new hobby is peeing. I feel like it is. Instead of fighting it, I have just succumbed to the fact that I'll have to pee every hour, or sometimes twice in an hour. And keep on drinking that water! It is getting easier. One thing that helps with my bathroom trips is buying Stephen King's book, "Under The Dome", Nice thick novel that will keep my interest for a while. I'm half way through it. And it makes trips to my library...er...bathroom more enjoyable.

Now I really should head to bed and quit thinking about food. Note to self: Do not look at recipe sites on fast days. Stay away from Pinterest.

Oh, one final thing. Hubby and at least two kids have sniffles and flu like symptoms. I'm feeling just fine. Keep those toxic bugs out of me, Isagenix!

Day 6

I think this is all starting to get much easier for me. I planned my day and my meals out in advance. Had cooked chicken and brown rice for dinner the night before, so packed away a plate to bring to work for my lunch. Mixed up a salad in the morning with red wine vinegar on it for dressing (no fats) and also made up some finadene sauce for my rice. Finadene sauce is the only thing that makes me like rice. It consists of soy sauce, lemon juice, chopped onions and chopped hot red peppers. We grow the "boonie" peppers to use for this, but I couldn't find our plant so I added a few dashes of Louisiana hot sauce to the mix. Put it all in a jar and use on rice as a condiment. Yum.

My friend stopped by in the afternoon with some treats from a local coffee shop. She shared an oatmeal craisin cookie with me. It just happened to be my snack time (2pm). I also had 1/4 of her birthday cupcake. As I ate it I told her about "joy" foods. Chanci shared on a recorded conference call about "fuel" food, "joy" food, and "storm" food. There was one other category but I forget what it was. Joy food is food you just love and you want to eat it and savor it. If it no longer gives you joy when eating then stop! This is a concept I can really grasp hold of.

I drank plenty of water because it was such a hot day. Unfortunately I didn't get to drink my evening shake until 9pm when I got home from work. Kids had made spaghetti for dinner and the smell was so enticing! But I resisted even taking a nibble of spaghetti, made my shake and retired to my bedroom to get me out of the kitchen and away from temptation.

The only thing I didn't do yesterday was exercise. I did do a bit of walking, just in paying some bills and doing banking. Parking far from the entrance to the bank. Thankfully the next four days of exercise will be easier with my water aerobics class every morning.

Day 3 without coffee. It is getting easier.

Tomorrow will be my first cleanse day. Should be interesting. I have a lot of work to do at the office so hopefully that will keep me distracted from wanting to eat real food.

Day 5

Today didn't start out so good. We had a maggot emergency. Living in the tropics, this is something we have had to deal with on more than one occasion. Kids had not taken out the garbage for the last two days and dishes hadn't been washed. Result was maggots crawling all over our kitchen and living room floor, first thing this morning.

I wonder, does sweeping and mopping floors while bending down and picking up the stray maggots with a paper towel, for 30 minutes count as my exercise for the day? I sure sweated a lot doing it. The sweat was dripping down my legs and tickling my ankles and made me think maggots were crawling on me! Not fun.

I wasn't planning on going to church (we actually haven't gone for the past two months) but Les came home from his first wedding and had enough of a break that he decided he wanted to go. So I joined him, but he had to leave before it was over to do his next wedding. It was nice to see some old friends, but the sermon, oh my. so disjointed. One of the associate pastors speaking. Oh well.

I'm not really liking the vanilla shakes so this morning I decided to try mixing one scoop of vanilla with one scoop of chocolate. That was quite satisfying. So I did the same for my dinner shake, only added a sprinkle of cinnamon to it as well. Nice. For lunch I had a few slices of cantaloupe and a sandwich made with Oroweat Sandwich thins - 100% whole wheat, flax and fiber (no high fructose corn syrup), 100 calories per sandwich. I had cucumber, tomato, turkey and cheddar cheese and just a little bit of butter so it wasn't dry. Quite tasty. I know I'm supposed to be counting the calories, so I try, but am not being too fanatical. I've dieted enough over the years to have a good estimate of how many calories certain foods are. So I'm sure I was within the acceptable range. I did however feel hungry again by 3pm so boiled myself an egg to eat.

And what if I can't remember if I took my extra accelerator pill then? Hmmm.....the perils of old age. You get forgetful easily.

I have chicken and brown rice cooking for dinner for the family. I plan on putting aside a lunch plate for myself for tomorrow. One more day down and one more to go until my first cleanse day.

Day 4

Today was a total caffeine free day! And no headache. Wow. I honestly didn't think it was possible.

I did end up having to have a nap in the afternoon though.

It was hard to follow the plan exactly today. First of all, it was Saturday. A work day. I had to be at work by 8:30am, class started at 9. I dealt with all the driving lessons, class instruction, testing, phone calls, and other work related issues until 1pm when I finally was able to lock up and go home. Except I couldn't just go home I had to go to the mall to get lunch for my working daughter. I had my shake for breakfast around 8am. Had munched on a 1/4 apple and a handful of mini rice cakes sometime during the morning and by now I was hungry and wanted my lunch shake. But first I had to go to the food court. Note to self: Never go to the food court when you are hungry~!

It took forever to get Stephanie's sandwich from Charlies. And then I decided to pick up some food for Cassie too, since she was at the dive shop with her big sister. So I picked up a 2 choice chinese plate for her - rice, noodles and orange chicken. The smell of the food in the car was so tempting! And then, when I went to get into my car, my pants ripped! My favorite pair too! Big hole in the seat of the pants. I delivered the lunches to the girls and confess to sampling a few bites of noodles and orange chicken from Cassie's plate. Then I hustled myself home to have my lunch shake. It was now 2pm. Definitely off schedule here!

Had a vanilla shake with more of the orange energy mix in it. Hoping it would give me some energy. But then I sat down to read emails on my bed and fell asleep. Woke up about an hour later and realized it was time to get ready to go out for dinner. Tonight was mom's night out with fellow homeschooling moms. I had planned my meals so that I could eat dinner.

The dinner was excellent (barbecued chicken, red rice, and salad). I drank about 5 glasses of water with dinner. Of course we were there for almost 4 hours, good company, good fellowship, and lots of laughter.

Home around 10pm where kids were demanding that I feed them! HUH? I made them each a sandwich and then declared my duties done and went to my room to visit with my hubby and relax.

So Day 4 was done. I do think I ate more than I should have for the day and definitely can see how sticking to a schedule is better to keep yourself on track. But am proud of myself for avoiding that coffee! One baby step at a time they say.

Day 3

Three days down, 27 to go!

Today I changed things up a bit and did my two shakes for breakfast and lunch and then ate dinner with my family (chicken, potatoes and Caesar salad). I did find it much harder to do this. I felt very hungry by 5pm and we typically don't eat dinner until after 6, closer to 7. So I did find myself reaching for snacks more. I ate one of the IsaSnacks while doing my grocery shopping around 4pm. I called these "candies" in one of my other posts and now I know why Chanci says they are not candy! A little chalky, round "horse pill" looking thing. Easy to nibble on though and has a chocolaty/spicy flavor to it. Not inedible. But not something you want to eat more than one or two at a time! I just have to trust what they say about these snacks, that they are nutritiously sound and good for me. That is my mantra as I eat them. This is good for me. This is good for me.

However there are candies! Chocolates to be exact. Isa Delights.I love the Isa Delights. I was given a free box of dark chocolate ones with my kit and I will definitely add these to my next autoship order. As are most women, I'm a chocolate-holic. So "dieting" and depriving myself of chocolate is very stressful. Thanks to Isa Delights I don't have to deprive myself. I allow myself one of these a day and I eat them slowly to savor them and thoroughly enjoy their chocolaty goodness.

I did cheat and step on the scales today. And was pleasantly surprised to see that I have dropped 3 lbs. However, I'm not silly enough to start rejoicing just yet. Two weeks prior to starting this program I had weighed myself and was 2 lbs lighter than I was on the day I started this program. So based on that I have lost the two lbs I had gained in two weeks and lost only one more. I know that my weight can fluctuate a pound or two in any given day. I have learned it is best to weigh yourself the same time each time. Often night time weight is heavier than first thing in the morning. Some diet books recommend you only weigh at night to get your true weight. I tend to like the morning time weight better!

Tomorrow will be another test for me. I have an evening dinner out with friends. So again, will be doing shakes for breakfast and lunch. And since I'm working until 1pm I won't be able to eat lunch until then. Which hopefully will make me not quite as hungry at 6pm when I go out for dinner.

Day 2

First to share a few things I learned yesterday.

#1. It is hard to drink as much water as I should. I estimate I drank about 64 oz of water, maybe a little less. Here is what is written in a recommended PDF file:

How Much Water Is Enough?
So, are you drinking enough water? A non-active person requires half their
body weight in ounces per day. For example, if you weigh 160 lbs, you would need to drink 80 ounces of water per day. For every 25 pounds you exceed your ideal weight, add an extra 8 ounces of water. An active person needs 2/3 of their body weight in ounces per day. So if you weigh 160 lbs, you would now need 106 ounces of water/ day. 

Now without giving away my actual weight (I'm still nervous about sharing too many details) I should be drinking much more than 64 oz. However, drinking what I did yesterday resulted in way more bathroom trips than I was comfortable with. That is my issue. I'm sure I'll eventually deal with it, but right now, I'm not liking that side effect.

#2 This is a big tip that I came up with . If I eat my main meal midday then that means I don't have dinner with my family. I've decided to try this as much as possible to follow the schedule, but some nights I do want to have dinner with my family. So I'll switch out my shake meals on those days. In the meantime for the nights I don't eat with my family, the easiest way to resist temptation and to not feel deprived of the food they are eating is for me to cook something for them that I don't like. So last night I made them a tuna fish casserole. I hate tuna. Made it much easier for me to resist that temptation.

#3 Coffee. This is a big one for me. I know ideally to really follow this schedule and cleanse my body of toxins that prevent me from losing weight, I need to get rid of the caffeine. However, coffee for me is much more than just a caffeine hit. It is part of life. It is what I do in the morning to spend time with my husband. A ritual. Getting up and making coffee and sitting in the morning drinking coffee with Les before we start our day has been something we have done for years. Afternoons we often take a break and reconnect again over coffee. I love to go out with friends and meet in a coffee shop to visit and catch up on life. So how do I give this up??

I have been trying for the past two weeks to cut back. I quit having my afternoon coffee and have only been drinking coffee in the mornings (usually two cups). With the first day of the cleanse I confess to drinking one cup of coffee. Only one cup.

Today, day 2, I poured 2/3 of a cup of coffee in my mug, and then promptly forgot it on the counter when I headed out the door to my water aerobics class. By the time I got back my sweet hubby had dumped my coffee down the drain. He's trying to be helpful. But by 12:30 my entire head felt like it was in a vice grip. I just couldn't stand it anymore, so when hubby made coffee for his afternoon cup, I had one too. The headache quickly subsided. Now I know that what I'm feeling is caffeine withdrawals. And I know I need to work through this. But I also know myself and I think this is the key to success for me. If I cannot think, move or even breathe because of pain in my head, I'm going to look at this program and put all the blame on the program. Which, of course, would be wrong and ultimately self-destructive.

So I will try not to drink coffee. I will try to work through the pain. I will try.

Day 2 is almost over. Time to head home and make dinner for  the family. I had lunch early because my water aerobic class had their monthly birthday potluck this morning. I ate salad, roast chicken, fruit, and only one slice of Gerta's wonderful bread. Considering I usually eat two slices and take home two more to eat during the day, this was a HUGE sacrifice for me. Gerta is from Germany and makes the best homemade German bread. Her pretzels are even more amazing. Thankfully it was the bread she brought today. Oh and I had carrot pate. Talk about a wonderful low calorie food! Grated carrot mixed with lemon juice and sunflower seeds and eaten on a leaf of romaine lettuce. And one tiny piece of Miss Amy's fudge brownies. Just a tiny piece. Again, usually I eat 2-3 pieces of this delicacy! So I survived my first potluck on the cleanse. Considering Guam is the place where fiestas abound (fiesta = FOOD) it is something to be concerned about.

Tonight I have a ladies night out to watch an interesting play at the university. No food involved. I'll bring my water and an Isa-Delight to slowly savor.