Journal

Journal – Yesterday was the last day of my “cleanse”, I usually do this twice a year to remove all the toxins from my body. Sometimes it helps to do this when you start to eat better and exercise or when you have binged. It also helps to do a “cleanse” just to keep your body pure from toxins to help with your weight loss. Unfortunately, I had to do this cleanse because I had binged! That is right people I too binge. I ate cake, cupcakes, chocolate, pizza, you name it and if it had fat in it, I was eating it! I got a point where it didn’t even taste good to me but my body was starting to crave it. I swear, those foods are addictive because of what is in them! I of course didn’t start to feel well and when I ran I felt so bloated and muggy. It was time to get clean! This cleanse felt good and wasn’t that hard to do. You have to use self control. It was torturous cooking meals for my family and watching them eat dessert at first. But, after day 4 my body started to feel better and I did too! I was no longer tortured by their junk food, I became disgusted. The first three days I had to constantly talk to myself, “No, Marissa, don’t eat that!” and “Marissa, do you really want to eat that, is it really worth blowing your cleanse you just paid for?” This helped, me continuously silently talking to myself, it really did. Sometimes you just need to listen to that voice in your head and talk back to see how you really feel. If you do decide to cleanse, I highly recommend GNC 7 day fast loss pre diet cleanse, I have done many cleanses, but I was pretty impressed with this one. I was able to come over that “scale stump” that I was stuck in and I had a lot more energy. I did not follow it all the way. I did not eat the fat free, half fat, low fat, no fat suggestions. I just ate organics and less of it. So instead of eating “Margarine” I had organic butter and instead of 1/3 fat mayo, I had ranch dressing. I recommend “Bolt house yogurt ranch dressing”. It is super yummy and it is all natural. If you decide to cleanse and need some tips on alternating the food or need recipes please email me and I will help you out.

Food tip of the day

Try controlling your portions by eating on small plates. I never knew how much I was eating until I measured. If you need to, measure your servings. Keep a food journal. Do whatever it takes to know what and how much you are putting in your body, it is crucial to weight loss. Try not to eat low- fat, low -carb, fat- free, etc. foods. They don’t help! I found that I gained weight eating like that because of what is in those foods. Eat the real thing; just eat it in smaller portions. J

Challenging workout of the week

Not a runner? Try something different like spinning? Don’t have a gym? Walk and Walk fast! Trust me you will sweat! Remember to keep your cardio to at least 30minutes a day. Get that heart rate up and burn those calories!

Journal

Sorry! No one can take a pick of me right now! So this is the best I can do....Look at those guns though! I am getting pretty buff! hehe..

I have been writing...I promise! I just haven't been posting. Life has gotten the best of me and I have no idea how I have managed to lose pounds in the end. I have been running (I need that for sanity) and have continued to discover how to eat. The more I do this the more I learn. I have learned that I should have been eating a lot better and that what I was eating was either not good or to much!

Can you guess what I am going to talk about? Of course, food! What we all love. I love food....I love how it tastes, I love that it makes me feel better, and I love that we can all gather around together and be happy, eat, and enjoy one another's company. I am not saying that this is bad, I am just saying that when we do these things, we just tend to lose control. I am saying a good majority of America is obese and that is scary! We are unhealthy and we need to do something about it! What are eating? Has anyone asked that question?

My daugther goes to a school where junk food is not encouraged. This has helped me see the purpose and good in "natural food". I have had to really learn to research what is healthy and what is not. Let me tell you a grocery shopping story. It was Feburary and my family and I decided to all go to the store together. Mike was picking up some milk and I thought...where did that come from? Were the cows treated with hormones? What kind of quality of Milk is it? I mean, we as Americans trust our farmers and trust that they are treating the cows well. I never used to think of even asking these questions. It was scary to think that my family and I could be drinking something harmful. So after that we went to get some yogurt. I thought well, the store brand is cheaper than the brand name yogurt lets get it. I strongly felt that I needed to look at the back of the yogurt, so I did. I discovered that the yogurt has HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP in it!!!! What? Was I feeding my kids PURE SUGAR!?!?!?! Argh! Who puts that in yogurt?!!?! So I went and got the name brand and it was safe. May I recommend that you eat Stoneyfield ...it is great, thick, and healthy! My kids are very hyper and sugar just makes it worse. I have to be careful because sometimes what I think is healthy may not be healthy and may be making the problem worse. Not only that we as Americans are feeding our children this food and giving our kids juice and soda and ...I hate to say it, but that is why our kids are hyper and obese. We are just giving into their addictive sugar cravings that lead to more healthy problems.

Long story short. I am learning how to eat and it will continue to be a process. Some tips: When you choose to eat all natural make sure you read what is in the product. When something says "all natural", it may not be "all natural". This issue of Health Magazine was great because it described what I had been trying to tell people perfectly! I love going to the healthy store and buying my groceries but, I don't like seeing that they do sell not so healthy things. I am not talking about baked goods here, I am talking about things that have persevities, food dye, and Fructose in it. Things that are not that great for you. Health Magazine gives these tips on what to look for. "It probably isn't all natural if..."

Tips:

1. It has three or more ingredients you can't pronounce or have never heard of.

2. Any of the ingredients on the label list en in -ol or -ose; that means it is probably an arificial sweetner (maltinol, sorbitol, sucralose)

3. It claims to be sugar-free, fat-free, low-carb, light, or double fiber;

4. It contains one of these ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated or paritaly hydrogentated oil.

Credits: Heath Magaine April 2010 issue

As I continue to learn how to eat and exercise the pounds keep coming off. I have noticed however that the pounds have come off a bit faster since my discovery and I am now happy! I was frustrated for a bit. I was running 6 - 8 miles and running every day and on top of that I was doing Bikram Hot Yoga! I wasn't losing any weight and if I was, it wasn't consistent. I then kept a food journal and kept track of what I was eating. When I did that I was shocked because I had no idea at how bad I was eating! Lets just say I had some kind of sweet every day that was double the portion I thought it was and the fact that it had preservatives and lots of processed junk in it which I like to call Toxins. I had to detox all over again, I feel much better now and hope to stay that way in the near future. Good luck this week! I am excited to continue to blog. I miss it! I am so glad I have my computer back, for those of you who didn't know, I was out because my wonderful and sweet son killed my computer. It was in the shop for a while and I was stuck with an I Pod touch as my computer! So needless to say that I am soooo happy to be back in the blogging world!

Marissa