DONE! DONE! DONE!

Well, it's finally over!! My 21 detox is OVER!! When all was said and done I lost around 9 pounds, I'm feeling better and looking better!!!

I am going to try and stick to some healthier habits from now on. I found an app on the iPad that helps me keep track of my calories so I know that will be a very helpful tool for me. It's INCREDIBLE how just that one simple step of recording that information makes you SO aware of what you're putting into your body. It's insane!! I am planning to start my workout plan next week since it got derailed a little bit a few weeks back. I'm looking forward to getting my workout started and feeling even better than I do now. Even after a few days of "back to normal" eating, I've maintained my weight loss thus far!! So, even that is encouraging. I thought for sure after the weekend I had with a date with my husband a quick little trip an hour our of town I definitely took advantage of being able to eat some foods I hadn't had in 21 days.

I'm so thrilled to be done with the detox (although, it really wasn't that bad at all) but I'm even MORE thrilled to keep up a healthier lifestyle. I think this will be a great jumping off point for things that will eventually be coming in the future.

2 Days Left!

So, I am pleased to inform everyone that I only have 2 days left on the detox!! This is SO exciting to me mostly because I want a piece of fruit and a cup of yogurt so bad I cannot even describe it to you!!! I of course want a bunch of other things that are terrible for me too, but at the same time, I am definitely thinking twice about what I'm putting in my body from here on out. For example, Kevin and I went to Red Robin as a kind of "last hurrah" before I started the detox. We thought it would be fun to go there after I was all finished too. Needless to say, I'm having second thoughts about going, mostly because I'm thinking about all the calories and unknown sugar content in that food!! Seriously, this detox has been such an eye opening experience (which I've said before). Who knew sugar was hiding in so many foods?! I sure didn't.

I am also excited to be done with the detox because it is SO restrictive, I couldn't even let myself enjoy treats that aren't even that bad. For example, we did a showing of Courageous at church last night and there was popcorn (which is a favorite snack) but I couldn't have any because of the oil that is used to pop it in :( In the grand scheme of things, this is not a horrible snack, especially compared to a piece of chocolate cake or a brownie or something. However, I still have not been able to eat any for the last 3 weeks. That has been SO hard, but I'm doing it. I'm also finding it easier to turn down treats. As much as I love baked goods, I don't eat them all the time. I mean, truly, it is not too hard for me to turn down dessert most of the time. I'm either not hungry or I'm so picky about my treats I'm not interested in what's being served. My biggest downfall I think is the other sugars I ate. I drank soda all the time and I used so many products with added sugars in them that I never even knew about. I am definitely going to be taking the things I've learned from this detox and putting them into practice from now on.

I am going shopping on Saturday for next week (my first official post detox week) and I'm so excited. I can't tell you how pumped I am to buy some fruit and yogurt!! Greek yogurt and honey crisp apples are high on my list. I am also going to be getting some clementines and try a few other things that I've found recipes for, now that my diet will not be AS restrictive. I'm definitely going to be making more meals at home and keeping an eye on sugar content of stuff in our house. However, I don't think anyone was meant to eat only the foods on the detox list for the rest of their lives!! So I'll be happy to be finishing up my detox on Saturday!!!

4 Days Left! Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day.

So, it's Valentine's Day. I am SO excited to make Kevin a DELICIOUS dinner tonight (at least I hope it's delicious. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, I'm looking forward to a night in with my hubby hubs just eating some yummy food (I'd be happier if I could enjoy a glass of wine but nooOOoo) and enjoying each other's company. We are home together a lot, but we aren't together a lot. We're usually both running around here and there trying to get this, that or the other thing done. So, I like it when we have no plans but to be together!!

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I have to brag on my husband a little bit. He did such a sweet thing for me this morning. Well, I woke up REALLY early for some reason and got up to make sure he was okay and then I went back to bed for another 30ish minutes. Anyway, when I woke the second time, there was a sticky note on our bedroom door that said "The Many Reasons I Love My Wife, By Kevin..." as I left our bedroom, I found sticky notes all over the house! Each with something Kevin loves about it. I won't tell you all of them but some highlights are "You enjoy singing around the house and overall just being weird with me!", "You are so very gifted and creative with food.", "You know how to make one mean pot of coffee.", "Your smile never fails to make me smile.". Needless to say, I started the morning with a cry because my husband is so sweet and romantic. I am seriously keeping these sticky notes for the rest of my life!

Anyway, I only have 4 DAYS LEFT on the detox. I hope I don't gain all the weight I lost back in the first 2 days. That will really make me mad. Here's hoping I can stick with a slightly different version of the detox for the rest of my life!!!

Less Than a Week!!!!

Hello Friends!!

I've got 6 days left on the detox. I've got a few more meals up my sleeve that I am really looking forward to trying and I'm really excited about making Kevin and myself a delicious dinner for Valentine's Day. We are having crusted steak, roasted asparagus and quinoa pilaf!! I just finished making Kevin his Valentine's Day treat because he is gone for the day. While I was making the delicious treat... out of habit I licked my finger when some chocolate got on it. I immediately got mad at myself. But I'm totally NOT starting my 21 days over again for what was probably 1/8 a teaspoon of chocolate. The guidelines say that if you cheat you are supposed to start over. I'm not going to eat one of the actual treats. So I think that should count for something.

This week, we're going to try Tuscan Turkey and White Beans plus we'll be revisiting some old favorites. Kevin and I have found that we LOVE the Gluten-Free Chicken Chili with Sweet Potatoes. So, I made a double batch of that yesterday so we can have it through the week. I just keep looking toward next Sunday when Kevin and I get to go on our Valentine's Day date and I get to eat normal food again!! I am not going back to old habits, but I am looking forward to going to a restaurant and having a night out with my dear husband.

I have already seen some great results. My clothes are fitting better, I've gone down an entire notch on my belt and I am just feeling better overall.

Here's to the next 6 days!!!

Becoming Second Nature.

Hello Friends!

I'm on day 12 of my detox and the diet change has pretty much become second nature at this point. Not to say I'm not looking forward to my first apple or cup of yogurt when I'm done, but I know a lot of these habits are going to stick! I've still got a few recipes I'm itching to try out and I've got a delicious and healthy Valentine's dinner planned (well, except I am making Kevin a special treat that I will not be partaking of). I'm bound and determined to start up my exercise routine this weekend. I wanted to wait to start this because I didn't want to shock my system too much at once. Eliminating sugar and then doing way more physical activity than it's used to all at once, I think that's just asking to get sick!! So, on Saturday I'm hoping to start the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (again) and hopefully finish the whole 30 days this time. I think the most days I've done is 10. So, I really want to finish and now I feel like, if I can finish this detox, I can finish the 30 Day Shred. It's going to kick my butt, and probably add a few pounds back on, but they will be muscle instead of fat and I will gladly accept that exchange!!

There are going to be a few rough temptations this weekend, but I am bound and determined to power through. We have a youth group event with our girls this weekend and there will probably be some crazy delicious sweets staring me in the face, but I will not give in. I'm going to bring some healthy options to snack on while we watch girly movies and bond with our girls!! Saturday Kevin and I are going to a dance at the fairgrounds, and I will SO desperately want something to drink besides water... but again, I will abstain. I've made it this far and to give in now is just ridiculous!!!

Here's to one more day of making it through my detox!! Going strong with 9 days left!!!!

Just About Halfway!!

Well Friends, I am just about halfway through this detox!! I can't believe how quickly the first 10 days have gone. I thought this whole process was going to be torture (and at times it has been) but all in all, it's been an eye opening experience. I'm learning that there is sugar in just about EVERYTHING. Seriously. Store bought chicken broth, sugar. Canned veggies, sugar. Canned beans, sugar. Bacon, sugar (even plain and Turkey bacon). Sugar is in EVERYTHING. It's kind of ridiculous. So, shopping has become very interesting. If I take nothing else from this experience, I've become a more conscious shopper and I am planning to keep a lot of these new habits once the detox is over. Thus far, since my initial weigh in with ladies at church, I've lost 7 pounds. Since I've started the detox I've lost 5. I'm pretty happy with that number. If I can mirror that number with my remaining time on the detox, I will be a happy camper!

Day 9 was pretty uneventful. I had some soup for lunch (and dinner) and had some air popped popcorn for a snack that evening. It was a pretty normal day with not much to report.

Day 10 has been pretty normal thus far too. I'm having soup for lunch and I think I'm going to try to make a curried chicken for dinner tonight. I found a SUPER simple recipe online that I'm going to try and serve it over some brown rice. I think I'll make a veggie too just to add some color to the plate!!

I found a recipe the other day too that I think I'm going to try sometime this weekend. It's White Beans and Turkey breast in a slow cooker all day. It's got some yummy seasonings and spices in it. It sounded promising and since I FINALLY found a chicken broth with no sugar added to it, I can make soups and other such delicious fare all day long!!

Here's to the second "half-ish" of my detox journey!!

Days 6, 7 and 8

So much for blogging my progress everyday. Whoops!! Anyway, here is a quick catch up blog!

Day 6 was probably the hardest day I've had yet. I DESPERATELY wanted something sweet. It was RIDICULOUS how much I wanted some chocolate or ice cream or SOMETHING. I powered through and didn't give in. I ate some carrots to help calm that craving. That seemed to help. It's incrdible how sweet things that have some natural sugars in them taste when you've not been having sugar for even a few days. Crazy. Anyway, I promised to let you know how my tortilla-less fajitas came out. They were pretty good. I think I overseasoned the chicken. Next time I think I'll just stick with simple salt and pepper and then maybe squeeze some lime juice over the meat instead. Overall though, the meal was good and really filling. I made it through day 6 (just barely) and powered on to day 7!

Day 7 was BUSY. I was bound and determined to get some mass cooking done on Saturday since Kevin would be at work and I'd be home to keep myself occupied. So, I loaded up with all kinds of ingredients to make 3 different soups to have throughout the week for lunches or quick dinners. I made a DELICIOUS Gluten-Free White Chicken Chili with Sweet Potatoes and Lime. It turned out SO good I will probably make another (double) batch this week or weekend. Seriously good. You can find the recipe here: www.glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com. Next up was a Cuban Black Bean Soup. I had to work with this recipe a bit since there were a few things listed that I can't have right now, but still it turned out well. I think when I re-heat it for dinners or lunches this week, I'll have to add some meat or other veggies to it for some added flavor. Of course if I could have cheese or some other goodies like that right now that problem would be solved!! Anyway, all in all, that one turned out well and Kevin even liked it more than I thought he would. I had wanted to start the third soup but ran out of time because we were attending a hockey game for a friend's birthday that evening. That was another point of temptation for me. I desperately wanted some concession food. I'll admit it, I LOVE a good hot dog. I wish it wasn't true, but it just is. The inticing aroma of popcorn was also calling to me (which is an okay food as long as there is not butter on it). I stayed strong and did not give in!! I was very proud of myself, especially because the real test was yet to come on day 8.

Day 8 was the Super Bowl. Kill me right now. I clearly did NOT think this thing through. Anyway, let's start at the beginning of the day. I wanted to make sure I got that third soup made, so I went for it right after church. I made a chicken tortilla soup that I got from www.thepioneerwoman.com and it turned out SO amazing. I had to make a few modifications to that recipe as well, but I have to say, I really like the result. I had some of the chicken chili for lunch and then had the chicken tortilla soup for dinner since it was fresh off the stove!! Then, we went to our church Super Bowl party. Let me first say, it was SO much fun because I love my church family and it's impossible to not have fun with them. However, the fare for the evening was a nacho bar (which I love) and I could not have one bite of it :( I brought some snacks to keep my cravings at bay, but it was SO hard to watch everyone eat some delicious nachos and there I was munching on a brown rice cake and water. I was having such a hard time I almost started crying because it was just SO difficult to not be enjoying the food with everyone else. I abstained though, and I'm feeling good about it. Looking forward to seeing if all the sacrifices I made this weekend will show on the scale when I weigh in for the Biggest Loser at work tomorrow. I sure hope so!!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings. A short blog about today will be coming later :)

Days 4 and 5

So, I didn't have a chance to blog about my day yesterday, so here it is a day late!

I'm feeling really good so far! Yesterday I started with the regular, light breakfast. I had snackies for lunch again. I chopped up some colorful peppers and had those. I also have been enjoying celery and carrots (in moderation). Yesterday was a bit of a crazy day for us, so I had leftover brown rice pasta and meat sauce for dinner again. I'm still trying to work on getting food made in advance so that on days when Kevin and I are really busy, we have more options for things to just throw in the microwave. We had our church small group to our place last night, so in order to not tempt myself to eat dessert, I made an apple crisp (for the first time) because fruit dessert doesn't usually do anything for me. I think it turned out okay (I don't know for sure because I didn't have any). In fact, the hardest thing not to take part in last night was the coffee (I don't like black coffee so I've basically stopped making it). All in all, I'm feeling good. I've lost 4 pounds in the last week or two. So, I'm already feeling good about that!! Hopefully it will be followed by at least 6 more in the 16 days I have left!!

So far, day 5 is going well. I'm having snackies for lunch AGAIN but tonight, I'm going to make what I think is going to be a delicious dinner. I'm going to make fajita chicken and veggies and serve it over cilantro lime brown rice! I am going to have two different types of onion and four different types of peppers as well as some delicious spices on the chicken!! I think all in all it's going to make for an incredible dinner. More on that tomorrow, I guess.

So far, I'm feeling great about this whole thing. I think the first big test will be this weekend. This will be my first whole weekend on the detox and I'm nervous that I will cheat. We have a Super Bowl party to attend as well as a hockey game for a friend's birthday. The temptations will be high, but I KNOW I want to succeed with this detox, so I am going to fight them as much as I can. Here's to trying to eat well in a world full of yummy, terrible food!!

Sugar Detox Day 3

Day 3. Today, I'm feeling much better than the last two days. I'm figuring out some new food options and finally getting excited about some of the food that I do get to eat! Last night for dinner, I had brown rice noodles with meat marinara sauce. Honestly, the brown rice noodles didn't taste much different than regular noodles. So, I'm glad to know that!! When I'm really wanting pasta, I can have some!!! The mornings have been the hardest part. My stomach doesn't really get along with eggs at all, so I'm pretty limited on what I can eat in the mornings. So, I've been eating a lot of rice cakes with peanut butter on them. I'm not really having a solid lunch today because I am have a very busy day today. So, I've been snacking on fresh salsa, celery, limited amounts of carrots and later, some peanuts! Tonight for my rushed dinner, I will have leftovers from last night.

We are doing a Biggest Loser program at work and last week was the first weigh in. Today was the second weigh in and I have lost 3 pounds!!! I can't believe it!!! Mostly because I can't really tell yet that I've lost any weight. Hopefully, this keeps up though!! I'm looking forward to getting back to a healthier weight and ingraining in myself some healthier habits.

What Did I Get Myself Into?!

Hello Friends!

So... it's been a LONG time since I've last blogged. It's mostly been because we have been running here and there, keeping ourselves QUITE busy. The other part of it is that I'm lazy. So, to catch up as quickly as possible, we've hung out with friends, karaoke-d to our hearts content, had our first married Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve, we've babysat some adorable new babies and have enjoyed some fun (and not so fun) times with family. Overall, 2012 has been great, except for my ever expanding waistline. No, this is not a pregnancy annoucement. This is an, I'm lazy and it's finally catching up with me annoucement. Anyway, a friend of mine just finished a sugar detox and found a lot of success with it. I thought this might be the best way to kick off my plan/goal to eat better. So, yesterday I started the 21 day sugar detox and I thought a way I could keep myself even more accountable would be to blog about my experience. So, here goes.

Day 1... was TERRIBLE!! I wanted chocolate SO bad (which made me realize just how addicted to sugar I am... YIKES). I had already felt defeated before I even started!! I was telling myself "I can't do this. I can't do this. I don't really want to do this!!". Although, I would like to fit into my pants again, so I guess I really do want to do this. However, I powered through the first day. I drank more water yesterday than I probably have in the last month and by the end of the day I was really not doing too bad. I made some delicious broiled chicken and asparagus for lunch and made some salsa to have as a snack throughout the week (there is STILL jalapeno on my hands, a shower and like, 20 handwashings later). So, all in all, day one went as well as I could have imagined it would go.

Day 2. Well, I'm only about halfway through day 2, but I'm doing well. I've been drinking water like I'm going to run out tomorrow!! I had a VERY light breakfast (which is not too different from my norm anyway). I had a brown rice cake snack in the morning and then had leftovers from yesterday for lunch and then I snacked on some peanuts this afternoon. Tonight, I plan on making brown rice pasta with meat sauce for dinner. I'll report back tomorrow with the verdict on brown rice pasta. I'm not missing my sweets too much, but it is only the 2nd day. I still REALLY want some chocolate, but, I'm determined to power through!! The main goal is to get some immediate weight loss results so that I am more motivated to keep up the lifestyle (with some changes after the initial detox) so that maybe I can keep the weight off!! That's what I have to keep telling myself. I have to keep the end goal in mind!!! The only negative side effect so far is that I have been EXTREMELY tired both yesterday and today without my usual caffeine boost throughout the day. Thankfully, I have not had any headaches or "withdrawl" symptoms, just really tired. Hopefully, I get over that quickly!!

Anyway, I am going to blog about my progress every day!! So, if only for a little while, there will be an update every day!!

Also, I'll try to do a better catching up with the Bradfords blog post soon!!