One Week DONE!

I am just about finished with week one of my 21 day sugar detox.  Things are continually getting better.  My energy is great, my brain feels clear, all-in-all I just feel like things are working better.  Last night was a girl's night out with the ladies from the gym.  Before heading out for the night I made a conscious, pre-planned decision about how to get through the night.  I decided that I would stick with a good clean dinner (steak, broccolini, and a potato), but I would allow myself 1 drink (gin and tonic).  That way I wasn't trying to make decisions on the fly with temptations sitting right in front of me.  It worked perfect!  I decided not to go with the ladies for more drinks after dinner since I wasn't drinking, I felt that would totally push my limits on temptation at this point.  I am still craving junk food, it's getting less, but this morning I was dreaming about a maple bar….

There is a part of me that is saying "hey, you proved you can live without sugar.  Have a treat."  I find myself trying to talk myself out of finishing the detox, which is exactly why I needed to do the detox.  I can too easily cave and justify bad food choices.  I think physically this next week will go much better, but emotionally may be tougher.  Got to see it through, only 14 days left.

 

In other news, I have been wanting to get into road biking for quite sometime.  PJ is big into it, and I'd love to share some riding time with him.  So we've talked for sometime about getting me a road bike.  Yesterday we bit the bullet and I got a new bike.  It is so fabulous!!  I got a Trek Madone 3.1 WSD.  Unfortunately yesterday it was snowing and crappy so I couldn't take it for a ride.  But today was beautiful; 45 degrees and sunny, so I suited up and hit the road.  Wow! The road bike is so responsive and light compared to years on a mountain bike.  It will take a little getting use to, but I loved it.  I can see myself putting a lot of miles on that bike.  PJ and I are still debating on signing up for either a metric century in Helena or the Bike MS ride this year.  I'm ready for some real spring weather so I can really go!

Day 3 and 4… Starting the up swing.

I've made it through 2 more days successfully.  Yesterday I struggled with my stomach really aching after every meal, Kombucha settled it down, so I'm thinking it was gut bacteria's die-off (common when people get away from the standard American diet).  Stomach's feeling better today, but sticking with Kombucha and some plain yogurt with a dash of cinnamon, all things to help heal a leaky gut.  On top of the stomach pain, I was pretty dang tired all day and went to bed early, but slept great.  And I've been freezing cold….

Today all of that is getting better.  No stomach pain today, still really tired, but my brain feels more clear.  And I managed to stay warm with a little effort.  Although today I was craving some junk food bad!  It hit me hard about 1:00, I was dragging ass and just kept thinking about how peppy a candy bar or soda would make me feel…. I had some black tea and yogurt instead.  Oh, and a fabulous trip to the chiropractor made me feel so fresh and new.  Also I even got a workout tonight (workouts having been suffering the last few weeks).  PJ and I got a bike trainer for Christmas, so I finally got around to my first ride on the trainer, just a short 35 minutes, but it's a start.  Feeling good now and looking forward to curling up in bed soon.

 

So in case you're still wondering what the heck this Kombucha is that I keep talking about..  It's fermented tea.  Fermented foods of all types have lots of great bacteria in it.  Kombucha has a bit of a rough smell to it, but is actually really yummy and comes in a wide variety of flavors.  Fermented foods help heal our guts, which is good for our energy, our immune system, and our overall wellbeing, (Here's a list of good things it can do) so I can have my tea and feel good too.  So the next time you can't shake that icky tummy feeling I would highly recommend you grab a bottle to sip.

 

17 Days to Go!  Bring it on!

Day 2: Bone broth FAIL

I made a big pot of bone broth last night with the intention of having a cup of the wholesomeness every morning with breakfast.  It turned out awful….  Flavor was ok, but it was like drinking hot coconut oil…  all slimy/oily.  I couldn't drink it.  I talked to some folks on various paleo website to confirm that's not right, it should be broth-like when warmed. So I may try again, may not.  I mostly was going to drink it for the benefits in healing the gut.  Instead today I got some Kombucha.

Day 2 of my 21 day sugar detox:  As for today I was starting to feel the lack of sugar.  I was super tired most of the day.  I expect the next day or two to be kind of rough as my body stops having sugar to burn and starts burning fat.  But I've got lots of good food around, so there are no excuses not to stay on course.  

*Photo doesn't show everything I ate, but most of it.  Not included in the photo is a paleo muffin, Kombucha, and plain yogurt with cinnamon and vanilla.

Day 1 of the 21 Day Sugar Detox

1 day down of the 21 Day Sugar Detox (level 3).  Ate lots of yummy food, prepped shredded chicken, bacon, and eggs for the week.  And have a pot of bone broth cooking.  Feeling like this is doable, but prepping is going to be the key.  I feel good today, which I figured day 1 wouldn't be too tough.  A bit of a headache this afternoon, but I drank a bunch of water and laid down with the puppy and that solved it.

I am making a slight modification (cheat?) for the first few days.  Level 3 allows for a green apple or green tipped banana per day, but I have a pint of GORGEOUS fresh blueberries that I didn't get finished this weekend and a couple kiwi's.  So I'm going to stick with 1 serving of fruit still, but enjoy what I have til it's gone.

Did you miss why I started this craziness? See the first post here.

Food photomontage!  (Haven't had dinner yet, leftover stir fry from last night)

 

21 Day Sugar Detox

It's time for me to admit that I have a problem.  I am addicted to sugar.  There I said it.  I love everything sweet, I love breads, pastas, pastries, all that refined sugar carb-y goodness.  

But I also know it's not good for me.  I mean that not in the sense that it's unhealthy (which most of it is) I mean that in the sense that the more sugar, carbs, grains I eat the crappier I feel.  My joints hurt, I get headaches, foggy brained, and sooo tired and grumpy.  My blood sugar crashes and all the sudden I am starving, weak, nauseous, and shaky.  And I don't like the soft spots on my body.  I've played some with paleo nutrition and gluten-free nutrition.  Both did good things for the way I felt physically and in my brain.  And yet I continue to eat the crap food that I know is bad.

So I've decided that starting February 18th, 1 week from today, I am going to try a 21 Day Sugar Detox challenge.  NO sugar for 21 days, including fruit, grains, artificial sweeteners, none of it.  Getting clean of sugar is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but I'm always scared and make excuses. So now I'm putting it on the Interwebs for everyone to see, so I have to hold myself accountable.  ekk!  I'm hoping this gives me a great break/jumping off point for maintaining a good clean paleo lifestyle afterwards.

I want more out of myself, so it's time to stop cheating myself for instant (and short lived) satisfaction.

Taking a break?

I'm not sure.  I have informally started a break I guess.  I was doing great, 4-5 workouts a week and feeling pretty good.  Then I just hit this wall. My day-to-day schedule changed and now I find myself struggling to find the time/motivation to get my butt to the gym.  So I'm giving myself permission to step back a bit, figure out where I am at, and what my goals are, then I can get back at it.

I'm torn between crossfit, oly lifting, and now cycling. It's hard to feel like I can adequately train for any of them.  Next year I want to do a century ride by the end of summer, which I know will take time away from crossfit for some focused time in the saddle training.  I like oly, I feel I'm good at it technique wise, but I'll never be super strong, so is it worth spending a ton of time focused there?  And I fight flair ups in my shoulder problems, and feel like after making a year of gains in crossfit I am either totally plateau'd, over even back sliding. I am seeing a new doctor soon (he also does crossfit) about the shoulder, and make sure I'm not missing some vital information there.

I don't know.  I feel guilty for not being in the gym.  But I also feel overwhelmed making it fit and frankly I just don't really want to go (which is usually a sign I really need to go).  I'm burnt out in so many ways it feels.  So maybe a break, refresh, and then restart?

Most EPIC camping trip EVER.

Friday night we got to camp and got set up just in time for it to start to rain.  We sat in the truck, by the lake for a while hoping for a break in the rain so we could fish before it got dark.  All the fire restrictions are in place, so no camp fires for this trip.  We finally gave up in trying to fish so we sat under a tarp by the warmth of the propane lantern and watched it pour til we decided to got to bed.

Saturday was still a bit over cast and very wet, but that was fine since we were hiking into Mystic Lake.  The hike was great, not to hot, and we both felt much stronger than in years past.  Once to the lake we hiked a bit further down shore to find a perfect fishing spot.  

On the way up

At the top

We enjoyed the day fishing and napping (well, I napped...)  I caught a nice little rainbow, actually the biggest fished I’d ever caught up to that point.  The PJ caught a fish right as we were getting ready to call it a day.  

Woke me up from my nap...

One Fish

Two Fish

As we were getting ready to go we stop to enjoy the beautiful view one last time, when PJ said he had a surprise for me.  He then pulled that little box every girl knows out of his pocket and asked me to marry him.  I, of course, cried and said yes. 

Right after he proposed

After we both calmed down a bit we headed back to camp, I smiled ear-to-ear the whole hike out.  We did stop along the way out for a couple nice river photos of me and the new bling too.

Can you tell I'm excited?

The Rock

The day wrapped up with bbq dinner lake side, and a little last fishing.

Sunday morning we enjoyed camp breakfast (camp food is always soooo delicious!)  Even though we forgot a spatula for the pancakes PJ saved the day, and I still got pancakes and an omelet. We went back to fishing for a bit.  Just as we were about to give up thinking we’d been skunked for teh day, I caught one last nice brown trout to top of the weekend.

Last fish of the trip

All-in-all, definitely the most EPIC camping trip EVER.