21 Day Adventure Cleanse- Day 7- Sunday, June 12th

Daily questions to be answered at the end of each day on Crazy Sexy 21 Day Adventure Cleanse: 

1. Did you abstain from coffee? Yes....
2. Did you abstain from alcohol? Easy peasy, even at a Wine Fest- I don't drink much anyway. Designated Driver all the way!
3. Did you abstain from gluten? Mostly- although I noticed there was some in the soy sauce I have.
4. Did you abstain from animal products? Yup.
5. Did you abstain from crack (aka sugar) and choose low-glycemic fruits and better alternatives such as stevia or agave? Mostly- I had some kettle corn at the Wine Festival, but avoided it everywhere else. 
6. Did you dry brush today? FAIL.
7. Did you cleanse your sinuses with the good ol' neti pot? No...
8. Did you move your body for at least thirty-five minutes? Yup...pushed my two year old around in the stroller at the Wine Festival- up and down hills- and ran around with him in the grass too :) 
9. Did you meditate for fifteen to twenty minutes? Yup. 
10. Did you chew your meals thoroughly and mindfully? Did really well at breakfast, forgot at lunch and dinner.
11. Did you laugh out loud and tell someone you loved him or her today? Yes!
12. Did you spend time in nature? Even five minutes is better than nothing.  Yup, the Wine Festival was at a local park- pretty! Sat in the grass and listened to the live band. 
13. Did you get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep? Not quite 8, but close.
14. What did you eat today and did you juice? I did not juice, I don't have a juicer- but I did start the day with the glass of water with lemon and cayenne like it recommends, and drank a lot of tea.   I won't list all that I ate each day here on the blog, I do that on My Food Diary and I don't think people really want to read all that. :) 
15. How much purified water did you consume? You can include fresh veggie juices in your calculation. A lot! I carry a cup with a lid with me all day long and keep it filled. 
16. What supplements did you take? B vitamin supplement
17. How was your elimination? TMI FOR A BLOG. :) 
18. What time did you stop eating? Three hours before bed is optimum. Around 8:30, closer to two hours than three. My schedule makes three hours pretty tough. 
19. How do you feel physically? I have more energy overall, felt great pushing the heavy stroller around the grass up and down the hills, even though it was hot. It was also more easy to chase after my two year old. It was great. Also don't feel as bloated, feel lean and happy. 
20. How do you feel emotionally? Good! A little sad midday, but the time outdoors at the festival with my family helped that, ending the day super happy. :) 

Sluggish Snow Induced Sloth

It's been a while since I've written. Things have been busy around here- there's the SNOW for one thing, and the family has had a revolving cold that just seems to circulate from person to person and then back again, 0h and work has been a little weird. My life is sort of in one of those Never Never Lands where it seems to be changing from what it was but the final destination of the change hasn't been revealed yet. Not that life changes ever result in a "final final" destination (depending on your life after death beliefs anyhow) but usually changes result in a directed state of cruising towards something tangible. (Or something). Anyway, changes needed to be made- not that anything was BAD per se, but some (mostly work) things have become a little stale- so I'm working on that...but life hasn't revealed what my future 'state of cruising' will be.

One thing I HAVE been fairly focused with has been food. I still haven't eaten meat since the new year, which has been an accomplishment I'm proud of. (Well...outside that one tuna sandwich. Damn you Tuna Steve!) Even when I've been at other people's homes I've managed to eat the non-meat items while politely leaving the meat ones where they are. My biggest issue with being vegetarian is not being impolite in the face of someone's hospitality. Don't want to be "any trouble". I know that plenty of vegetarians and vegans are able to make this work on a daily basis, but its something I struggle with, and making it almost a month and a half is a big deal for me.

That being said, the past week or two have been a little junky food wise. I haven't eaten completely horribly, and a year or so ago I probably would have considered how I've eaten to be pretty healthy, but my body was starting to run really smoothly and I can definitely feel the difference in the past two weeks. Much more sluggish and- TMI alert- decidedly bloated. Wah wahhhhhh. :) I think it's been all the snow. Being stuck in the house for 4 days definitely doesn't do much for keeping one from the kitchen- in fact, I made cupcakes at 9am one morning just...
'cause. I am trying to lose baby weight, and have lost all but 10 lbs (I gained a LOT of weight so only having 10 lbs to go is major). BUT... before this week, I had lost all but seven pounds, and I definitely don't like going backwards on that account. (Although it could be pounds of muscle that I added from all the shoveling out of my car...TWICE. In case you didn't notice the rear view mirror poking out in the picture to the right, that's my car halfway through the first storm this past weekend. I think I'll consider shoveling muscles to be the reason behind the weight gain and move on.) :)

On the other hand, the time stuck in the house was great for trying new recipes. My husband and I are usually super busy during the week- he usually doesn't get home before 6:30 and we go to bed at 9 (please keep all comments about how sad that bedtime is to yourselves thank you very much) so dinner is usually functional and "git 'r done" and not so much exploratory. So during the snowstorm, we tried some new recipes and even had a leisurely brunch one morning (which never happens except on Christmas morning), and that was really fun. My mom got me a book of easy and quick Indian recipes last month, so we made several from that. Definitely tasty!!!

So, in light of my sluggish and slightly off the healthy food wagon self, I am going to make a small, and I think achievable goal of consciously eating more raw foods (lots of raw or lightly cooked fruits and vegetables) and not so much of the processed and more ingredient laden concoctions for a week. (Ingredient laden meaning those foods with lots of unpronounceable ingredients, not ingredients in recipes.) And to help me with this goal, I am going to try to be accountable by posting everyday for one week straight (or at least posting something ABOUT everyday, sometimes I might post about Monday on Tuesday, as well as posting about Tuesday on Tuesday due to time issues, but in the end, I will have eight posts about eight days of eating healthier).

I already have several recipes picked out from Choosing Raw and am planning a trip to the store tomorrow to hunt and gather all those super duper healthy veggies, so...here I go!

Onward Sluggish Soldier, onward!