What's with the name?

What's with the name? In my mid-twenties, I had essentially gone through one kind of life and am starting to enter another. The people that are probably going to read this blog know exactly what I'm talking about - but for those who don't know, here's a brief rundown . Cheers to Chapter 2! A journey in health in many ways, and to be the best version of myself I can possibly be. I am also a blogger for GreenMommas.com. This is my blog.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

A Cleanse to Rule Them All & Other Things

I realize it's been over a month since I've posted. But wow, I'm over 2,000 page views. Incredible! Thanks to all of you that continue to read my blog!

The cleanse is a thing of the past - I lost 14lbs total (12 during the month of April) and have really reconsidered the way I was eating. Or I should say, how often I was eating. For the last month I've been having four smaller meals - two of them are the whole fruit and veggie smoothies or juice. This works very well for me, keeping my metabolism going throughout the day and sustaining my energy. I've also tried to cut out as much gluten and dairy as I can. Mostly because it's hard for me to control myself when I start to eat it (cheese or bread). I'm working at it but I still have indulgences, like strawberry-rhubarb pie on Sunday. It's important that I not try to set crazy limitations on myself so allowing a little indulgence once in awhile works for me.

I have to talk about some of my new favorite food things. Recently I discovered fresh-pressed juice. We are incredibly lucky in Burlington to have a few companies that offer a full juice bar, and we also have one company that is at the Essex Farmer's market on Fridays. There is nothing more delicious and refreshing as a carrot apple ginger juice (lots of ginger). I bought a juicer after crunching some numbers - my buying a $5 juice twice a week would mean the juicer would pay for itself in about two months. I've been juicing everything - a great 'wake up' combo is lemon, apple, kale & mint. Landon loves fresh orange or lemon/apple juice and I feel much better about letting him have that over grocery store orange juice (I've never let him have sugary juices).

My next new food thing is a lovely company, YourFarmstand.com, that brings together local farms and the people that want their awesome food. It's online ordering with free delivery for all things local. I have been able to get (finally) reasonably-priced local meat. The veggies are very inexpensive as well and they get delivered directly to me at work every Thursday. The quality of the food thus far has been nothing less of superb. I highly encourage you to check it out, they deliver to many areas!

I'm going to jump all over the place in this post, sorry!

Gardening season is here! We have two plots this year - 1200 sq feet of gardening space. Both plots are planted already. We've got greens in one plot (beans, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, more beans, lettuce, kale, spinach, cukes, basil, herbs, tomatoes, brussel sprouts) and the other plot has less-green things (corn, potatoes, onions, squash, melons, radish & peanuts). Not kidding with that last one; Noah has a whole bed of peanuts going. Hoping to make some of our own peanut butter in the fall. With twice the space we anticipate twice the yield lasting us throughout the winter, as we ran out in January/February of this year. 

CrossFit is going really well. I feel stronger every week - can currently do 115lb dead lifts, 75lb push presses, almost a hand stand and I'm working with a 20kg kettle bell (~44lbs). Five or six months ago, I was working with just a bar (45lbs) for those first two exercises and a 12kg kettle bell (~26lbs). I am really happy with how strong I am becoming! I had a defining moment last month when we were working in teams on a circuit workout. Each team would use the same bar for dead lifts - and my instructor put me on the boys team! I'm as strong as some of the CrossFit boys now! I have noticed a huge improvement in my mobility, too. When I started CrossFit my squats were right at my knee line, and my hip flexors would hurt when I tried to go lower. I can now to a really well-formed 'air squat' with my lowest point well below my knee line, with no pain. 

Last month and this I've lost another 6lbs, bringing my grand total up to -97 (whoa!) and 19 lbs lost in the first three months of Slim it to Win it. And guess what? I'm #4 out of 50 (or so) people for percentage of weight loss. With a great three weeks I could win this thing.

I'm finally feeling like I am close to the finish line. It's within my reach. My goal when I started this journey was to get down to 150 and I'm 30lbs away now. It's funny when I tell people I 'only' have 30lbs to go. That seems like a lot of weight to most people. But when you consider that I'm already down almost 100lbs, it doesn't seem like a lot. Sometimes, I almost feel like I want to slow my weight loss journey down. I don't want the journey to be over. But fitness & health is something that I'm always going to be working on, even after I hit my goal weight. I am excited to finally be able to build a wardrobe - during the last year I haven't had more then three outfits at a time because it's just too expensive to buy a whole new set of clothes every two months. I've finally started living my life without physical limitations, challenging myself everyday to be stronger and continue to make great food choices. 

Here's-97lbs :


Also celebrating 6 months without coloring my hair. I had forgotten how pretty my natural color is. It's still a little bit lighter at the bottom because of the highlights, but it blends pretty well. 

Cheers to the home stretch!