Detox: Final Day

I won't lie. Today was not a good detox day. It started fine with an orange/mixed berry smoothie, but went downhill from there.

So rather than telling you about the not-so-good food choices I made today, I thought I would use this as a lesson on WHY made bad choices.

I think there were two big reasons for not following through on the detox menu today:
1.) I was tired, and
2) because of that, I wasn't prepared for the day.

I worked late last night. I ate dinner much later than I like to eat dinner. Then Mark and I had our little Valentine's Day together. I took a soak in the hot tub--and then went to bed about an hour later than I meant to.

I agreed to sub and extra class. I added in an extra client at the last minute. It all added up to not being prepared for the day. I didn't have a lunch or snacks packed. And I jammed my schedule so full, I didn't have time to stop for any.

So I ended up spending my day hungry, somewhat light-headed and stressed out. Lesson learned.

We did have a delicious, homemade, sweet potato, carrot soup for dinner.

Failures aside, it was a good week of detoxing the body. I really enjoyed feeding my body so many fruits and vegetables. I felt energized, and I truly feel like I flushed some evil stuff out of my system.

I also learned that as much as I like starting my morning with a smoothie that is meant to clean the body, it is NOT conducive to teaching early morning fitness classes. It doesn't provide me with enough fuel AND you can't have your system ready to flush in the middle of a class!

Now to get back to a regular schedule of healthy eating (with a splurge now and then), and a regular exercise schedule (outside of the classes I teach--I need exercise that just for me).

Detox Day Four

Weight: 123.5 (Darn....my system must be fully flushed...now for the hard work of taking off the actually extra fat gained over the winter)!

Breakfast
Detox Smoothie: unsweetened coconut water, mango, juice from a lime, pinch of cayenne pepper.

Snack
Half of my lunch--which is left-over spaghetti squash with some all natural marinara sauce

Lunch
The rest of my left-overs

Afternoon Snack
Nothing. I had the lunch fairly late in the afternoon

Dinner
8:15pm--much later than I like to have dinner, but my schedule was crazy today
Roasted carrot salad
carrots roasted in cumin and red pepper flakes on a bed of spinach, broccoli sprouts, avocado, and raw pumpkin seeds.

Snack
Okay...I totally went off the detox here. But, come on, it's Valentine's Day...and my husband bought me some chocolate and my favorite wine. So I had a little of each.

I should probably start today's blog by telling you how my typical Thursday goes...
I get up at 4:30am and have some coffee (which is already made because I set the timer on my coffee pot). I throw on my workout clothes in front of the fire), then drive to the local Rec. Center to teach an hour indoor cycling class. I typically depend on whatever carbs I had the night before to get me through. Occasionally, I will have a handful of almonds or something small. My hope is that during cycling, I'm throwing my body into fat burning mode.

After cycling I have an hour before I teach boot camp, so I will run to Panera and have a bowl of their steel cut oatmeal and another cup of coffee. I am always very hungry at that point. The oatmeal typically gets me through boot camp and to lunch.

Thursdays are my lightest day with canine clients. I usually just have one or two, so I have some down time during the day. I often grab a snack around 4pm to get me through the evening classes, and then have a light dinner around 7:30 when I get home.

Today I had my smoothie before cycling and skipped the coffee/oatmeal break after class (I opted for a hot shower instead). Two problems arose....

First, the detox smoothies are meant to flush the bad stuff out of your system. So even though I went to the restroom just minutes before class started, I had to go so bad toward the end of class that I thought I'd have to excuse myself! Too much liquid!

Second, by the time I was about halfway through the boot camp class, I was STARVING--so much so that I was getting a little light-headed. So as soon as I got home, I had half of today's lunch. Munching on a cucumber just wasn't going to cut it.

I had the second half of my lunch late in the afternoon--so it gave me plenty of fuel to teach my two evenings classes.

Dinner was much later than I like, but it just couldn't be helped tonight.

I wish I had taken of picture of tonight's dinner, because it was so attractive! Delicious too. But I was so hungry by then, I just dove in!

Tomorrow will be the last of the detox blogs. I feel like it did the body some good. It needed a Spring cleaning. Now to just settle back into a pattern of healthy eating.

Detox Day Three

Day Three
Weight: 123

Breakfast Smoothie
 Kale
parsley
Granny Smith apple
banana
water

Snack
mixed berries
banana
carrots
celery
hummus
sunflower seeds

Lunch
Leftover salad w/
broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, raw pumpkins seeds, rice wine vinegar, and raisins

Snack
Figs

Dinner
Spaghetti Squash with Cashew "Cheese" Sauce (raw cashews, onion, two jalapeno, garlic, soy sauce, water) and avocado "cream" sauce (avocado, basil, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil)

Good day! Energy was high. I'm really enjoying fueling my body with fresh fruit during the day. Cravings were better today. I felt satiated without making an extra smoothie.



The hubby and I did a 4.5 mile trail run this morning (my first run in awhile other than a mile here and there with my canine clients). I did the run before the smoothie, but still had energy for the entire run!

Detox Day Two

Day Two
Weight:124.8

Breakfast
Smoothie:
1-cup juiced organic carrots
1-cup juiced organic oranges
1-cup frozen mango chunks (unfortunately, organic wasn't available)
several mint leaves

Snack
Raspberries
Blueberries


Lunch
Leftover carrot ginger soup from last night

Snack
Sliced cucumbers

Dinner
 Salad made in the food processor with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, juice from a lemon, raw pumpkin seeds, kelp crystals, seasonings, and a tablespoon of maple syrup.

I felt good today. Energetic--no headache. However, this afternoon I was HUNGRY--and no amount of fruits and veggies seemed to help. So I made a smoothie with unsweetened almond milk, all natural peanut butter and a banana. That helped. I finally felt satiated.That wasn't too heinous. The almond milk probably had some processed stuff in it. But I had three fitness classes to teach tonight. I needed to satisfy my hunger.

Tomorrow starts with a green smoothie (kale, apple, banana, and parsley). Should be interesting.

Oh and we had dessert tonight! Banana "ice cream" (frozen bananas in the food processor) with "caramel" sauce (dates and water blended up). Delicious! And satisfying!

A Week of Detox/Day One

So...as I mentioned on The Fit Life, LLC's Facebook page, it's been a fabulous Fall and Winter full of travel and adventure. The two weeks before Thanksgiving were spent exploring Costa Rica. In early January we took off to Utah for a week of skiing. Here a ski weekend, there a ski weekend...And just last week, we spent another week skiing in the Poconos. It's been fabulous, and I consider myself very lucky to be able to do these things.

That being said, it's really hard to maintain healthy habits while on travel (and with a group of people who do not eat the way we eat). There has been far too much unhealthy food and drink in my diet since mid November. The result is that I feel toxic--sluggish with frequent headaches and digestive issues. My body is telling me it needs a Spring cleaning--even though Spring is still several weeks away.

So the next five days are detox days for me (Mark, my husband, is doing it as well--his own decision I might add). I think that will be enough time to rid my body of toxins and get back into the habit of healthy eating. What does five days of detox mean to me? For me it means five days of eating very pure--organic fruits, vegetables and whole grains (i.e. quinoa). No dairy, meat (not even fish), alcohol, or processed carbs.

Although I'm not doing this as a method for weight loss, I will be tracking my weight simply because I'm curious about what kind of "crap" (literally) I have stored up in my body after three months of not very diligent eating and drinking. My weight has certainly increased during the past three months. When I left for Costa Rica I weighed 117. Currently, I'm at 126.2. That needs to come off, but I know it will take some time and getting back into my habit of healthy eating and interval training.

I thought I would share the five days of detoxing with you--and keep you apprised of how I'm feeling and what I'm eating.

Day One
Weight: 126.5

Pre-Breakfast
Coffee with about a 1/4 teaspoon of coconut sugar and a few tablespoons of coconut milk
To detox the body, I really shouldn't be drinking coffee--or any caffeine. But I just didn't want to deal with withdrawal headaches all week. I could have taken an extra week to taper off the caffeine, but I really wanted to do this this week.



Breakfast: Anti-Oxidant Smoothie
1 -cup water
1-cup unsweetened organic pomegranate juice
1-cup frozen mixed berries

Snack
I cut up an organic cucumber to munch on while I was out with my canine clients, but unfortunately, I left it sitting on the counter. I was really hungry by mid morning (I've been eating a few eggs for breakfast, so my stomach wasn't sure what to do about having just a smoothie), so I made a quick stop at the grocery and purchased:
one apple
a little ready to go dish of mixed berries (strawberries, red raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)
a container of assorted varieties of cherry tomatoes

Lunch

Salad made with:
Kale
Carrots
avocado
raw pumpkin seeds
lemon juice
olive oil
black pepper
raisins

I'm typing this as we drive to Perfect North Slopes for yet another night of skiing, so I had to plan ahead for our dinner. I didn't want to ruin a day of clean eating by dining on pizza at the ski lodge. So this morning I made a carrot ginger soup. It's in a thermos, so we can easily have it for dinner. I also packed a few raw cashews and raw pumpkin seeds to munch on so we feel satiated and have energy for skiing.

With Day One almost in the bag, how did I feel?

Good. Mentally, I feel great because I know I'm feeding my body really good food. I've had a slight headache since mid morning. I'm not sure if it's because I waited too long to drink my smoothie (I'm very prone to headaches and any change in my schedule can set me off). My digestion is in over-drive. I can come up with several reasons for that: First, I've been limiting my fruit for a long time because of the carbs. And this morning my body got a huge dose of fruit. Also, by eating pure, the body doesn't have to work nearly as hard to digest the food. Food flows through the system much faster. Plus, I made sure to eat the fruit on an empty stomach--not mixed with any other food.

I'm looking forward to the soup. It will be my first hot meal of the day--and there's just something about eating something hot that satisfies me. It's why I don't think I could ever make the leap to being a raw foodie.

I didn't teach any fitness classes today--I just had my human and canine clients. Tomorrow is a different story. I teach three classes and have a full day of canine clients. We'll see how my energy holds up. I should be fine because I'm getting plenty of carbs from fruit.

I will check back in tomorrow night!

Fun Holiday Workout

We did a fun holiday workout in boot camp today. I thought I would share it. This was a TRX boot camp,
so part of the class was spent on the TRX. This isn't meant to be an hour long workout (although you could probably modify so it does)!

I think it would be a good challenge to try at home!

The Twelve Days of Boot Camp

On the first day of boot camp my instructor gave to me...

A burpee with a push-up.

Second: Frog Jumps

Third: Lunges (ea. side)

Fourth: Jump Squats/Box Jumps

Fifth: Carpet Inch Worms (boot campers have carpet squares under their feet and use core muscles to pull their legs up, then they walk their hands back down like an inchworm)

Sixth: Jumping Jacks

Seven: Full Sit-ups

Eight: High Knees

Nine: Dippy Birds (ea sides). Dippy birds are what I like to call single-leg dead-lifts/hip hinges--because you look like one of those little birds that dips down and drinks the water). 

Ten: Squat Kicks

Eleven: Push-up Side Planks

Twelfth: Mountain Climbers

Just like the song, the class goes through the days and counts backwards (i.e. on the sixth day of boot camp my instructor gave to me: Six Jumping Jacks, Five Carpet Inch Worms, Four Jump Squats, Three lunges, Two Frog Jumps and a Burpee with a Push-up).

Enjoy!!

Costa Rican Adventures: Part I - The Unexpected Adventure

We've been back from Costa Rica for three weeks now, and I've been meaning to blog about our travels there. So I'm finally sitting down to do just that.  I'm going to start with our first unexpected adventure--putting our rental car into a ravine on our first full day. I wrote the majority of the post that first day--by hand--in a little notebook. So my tenses may be all over the place for this one. Here it goes:

November 6, 2012 - Rural Costa Rica

I learned two very valuable lessons today. First, NEVER trust your GPS in Costa Rica; and second, learn the Spanish words for, "We need help!" There were some other lessons too: Always carry a complete English/Spanish dictionary with you when traveling in a Spanish-speaking country, always have food in the car, and spend money on a decent emergency cell phone.

Today was the day we were to make about a 3-hour trek to from Alajuela to Manuel Antonio. Alajuela is near the capital, San Jose, in the central part of the country, and Manuel Antonio is on the west coast.

The trip started out well, but the mistake came when our gps told us to go a different way than our printed directions. We followed the gps.

At first we were pleased with our decision. We were seeing some beautiful scenery that you just can't see on a highway. Not too far into our trip, our nice, paved road became a gravel road. We weren't concerned. We had done much reading on Costa Rica, so we had been warned that the roads there are a little crazy. They are often unpaved--and during the rainy season (which it is) it's not uncommon to see small rivers running across the roads. So we continued on without concern--enjoying the adventure (we heard someone refer to the roads there as a Costa Rican massage).

We continued on the gravel road for many miles. After awhile the houses became fewer and fewer, and the road became bumpier. Eventually the road became something that didn't really resemble a road at all. At this point we had two options:  backtrack a really long way (a few hours) or keep going and hope we hit a main road soon.

Our "road" continued to deteriorate until it was not much more than a hiking trail--partially washed out by heavy rains. We came across a bridge at one point, and just crossed our fingers that the car would make it over. On a few occasions, rivers ran right over the road. Again, we crossed our fingers and went, hoping the car didn't float away. During one part of the journey a tree branch brushed the inside of the window where I was sitting and dumped a bunch of fire ants on me. I smacked at them as I felt the stingy bites (which I later had an allergic reaction to).

Panic was starting to set in for me as the small SUV bounced all over the trail. What seemed like an adventure at first wasn't fun anymore. I glanced over at Mark and sweat was pouring off his face. I knew he was nervous too. We knew we were in big trouble if we weren't to a main road by the time the rains started. Our "road" would become a river with us as its victims.
 

As the car lurched up yet another steep mountain hill, our tire became stuck in a large divot. As Mark (he was driving, by the way) tried to back out of the hole, the car sprung backward and landed in a narrow, but deep ravine. As we sat there--almost in slow motion--the car started to roll on its side. It settled on the driver's side. We were definitely stuck and there was no maneuvering out of this one.

We both carefully climbed out of the passenger side door--making sure to distribute our weight carefully. We removed our most valuable items--cash, passports, camera, purse and papers, and started to walk up the road. We hoped we would either get a cell signal on our emergency phone or run into someone who spoke English sooner rather than later. It was hot. We were in the middle of nowhere--and we hadn't seen a house in well over an hour.

We only walked a few minutes before we heard voices. Mark ran up ahead to find them. There was a small house and a lady was walking up the mountain road with her cow. Mark managed a "Telephono?" in Spanish making a gesture as though he were talking on a phone. The lady pointed up the road. She spoke no English.

We continued up the road in the heat of the day--hoping our luggage would still be in the vehicle when we were finally reunited. Soon we came to another small house. "Buenos Dias!" we called. A man came out. "Hablo Ingles?" "No."

Between our small dictionary, gestures, and drawings we were able to convey that our "L'auto" was in a ditch and we needed "La Grua'" (tow truck). The very kind man used his call phone (his had a signal) to call an English speaking friend. He handed his phone to me, and I was able to communicate what had happened.  The man then gestured that we should walk to the car to take a look. Back down the mountain road we trudged, with his son and dog in tow (we had only walked about a 1/2 mile, so it wasn't that heinous. I was just stressed, hot and hungry--so it seemed far).

Soon we heard the sound of a motorcycle. The cyclist got off his bike, smile and said, "Hi folks! How are you doing?" We smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. Now we could communicate.

The young man's name was Markos. We were able to explain our entire predicament. Through talking to him, we learned that the road we had traveled on had actually been closed for over twenty years. The only one who uses it is the utility company to fix power lines.

Markos (our savior) spoke to our rental car company. And eventually arranged for a friend of his to bring a tractor to tow us out of the ravine. He felt if we waited for the towing company the rental place recommended, we could be stuck outside all night. Markos happened to know the three sisters who lived in the house we first encountered (where the lady with the cow lived). He helped us carry our luggage to their house so we could keep an eye on it. Now all we had to do was wait.

The friend with a tractor was a few towns over, and the roads were rough--so we had about a three hour wait ahead of us. Markos stayed with us the whole time. The three sisters gave us a cup of coffee, and Markos picked a fresh grapefruit for us to eat.

When the man (with a few friends for back-up) finally arrived with his tractor. Mark and Marcos helped them hook a chain up to our jeep. They were able to pull the jeep out of the ravine without the jeep receiving even a scratch. He pulled us up the last bit of the hill (it turns out if we had just made it through that last bit of treacherous road, a much improved road was just a half mile or so away).

We paid the tractor driver for his trouble without complaint. We gave Markos what we hoped was at least close to a day's pay--that's the amount of time he spent with us. We were very lucky to get off so easily. Markos had us follow him to the main road, and made sure we knew the route to our final destination--Manuel Antonio.

So what could have been a complete disaster--what very honestly could have ended in our deaths if the rains had come in--turned out to be a very lucky day. If I had it to do all over again, would I choose to take the same route again? Well....no. It was crazy, dangerous and stressful! However, we saw parts of Costa Rica that most tourists never see. And we met some people I feel very lucky to have met--people who live their lives very differently than us.

The three sisters lived very simple lives. They didn't own a car. If they needed to go to town, they walked over thirty minutes to a bus stop, then took the bus--and then carried their supplies for the long walk home. They lived mostly off of the land--raising their own chicken, cows and vegetables--and eating off their wonderful fruit trees.

We learned firsthand how wonderful the kindness of strangers can be.

We had about another hour of gravel roads before we hit the main highway toward Manuel Antonio. When we finally arrived at our little cottage and got settled, we were exhausted. But reflecting back on the day's adventure, we felt like the luckiest people in the world.