The past couple months have been a downer.
Everything has just been… off. From going back to a part time 8-hour-a-day job to not getting enough sleep, life has not been gelling for me.
Part of it are the hours I am working.
4am – noon means a 2:30am wake up and a 7:30 pm bedtime 4 times a week.
Those hours were completely voluntary. My reasoning? I would be home by noon. I could work on my websites and still spend time with my family.
Except I am so exhausted when I get home. After working 8 hours the LAST thing I want to do is work more. And I still haven’t come up with a good balance between the two jobs.
Though I haven’t yet posted my end of month review for May (it seemed wrong somehow to do it in the wake of last week’s turmoil & protests) let me just say that the best was I can summarize it is to say ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’.
It was time for a roboot (or a boot in the ass).
Enter the 14 Day Reset Cleanse
In my April monthly review I said I would do a 2 week cleanse ‘after Mother’s Day’.
Well, June 1 is after Mother’s Day, so it wasn’t a complete untruth…
My weight had plateaued in mid-March with the addition of a job and no additional time to work out – though to be fair the job is physical (appx 8 miles of walking daily + moderate to heavy lifting) so I am calling it ‘functional fitness’. I do need to incorporate a good stretching routine when I get home and a pilates-type routine for my days off to keep the stiffness at bay.
But back to the point… I wasn’t losing weight – and I hadn’t hit my first benchmark: a 10 pound weight loss.
Though, if we are being honest, I hadn’t really been trying for 3 months…
So, I sat down and read through the 14 day cleanse and made it a priority.
And yesterday, June 8, 7 months after I began my #50_before50 journey, I reached my first weight loss micro-goal – and exceeded it by 1 pound!
Today is my final ‘full cleanse’ day. Tomorrow I begin to add foods back into my diet, beginning with gluten and dairy, carefully monitoring how each makes me feel.
Overall Thoughts on the 14 Day Reset Cleanse
I’ll be honest… I didn’t do loads of research before choosing to do the 14 Day Reset Cleanse. In fact, I didn’t do any research into other cleanses. This cleanse, from Health Coach Institute, was one my best friend did at the recommendation of her CrossFit coach.
It was easier than I thought it would be.
To be honest, it wasn’t much different from how I was already eating. I did have to give up my morning eggs and lunchtime yogurt, but otherwise, it was quite similar to the way I was already eating.
Flaxseed ‘cocktail’ = ick.
Ok, not really ‘ick’ so much as strange. Like drinking watery sludge… But it has very little taste and is over quickly.
There is plenty of variety.
This wasn’t as restrictive as I anticipated, and I did take the option to add poultry. It really was more about cutting out processed sugars, red meat, and grains than about deprivation.
I was never hungry.
Whole fruits, veggies, and proteins kept me satisfied. I had one day with cravings- it was stress related and all I wanted was a greasy burger and some sort of fried potato. I compromised with a turkey burger on quinoa with avocado and salsa.
Cream of rice is tasteless mush.
This was the worst part of the entire cleanse for me. Just… yuck. Even with the addition of fresh fruits and slivered almonds. I only ate this on the mornings I had to work because I knew I needed more energy than a shake alone could give me. On days I was home I did not eat this.
Going Forward from the 14 Day Reset Cleanse
After adding foods back into my diet and gauging my reactions to them I plan to keep some bits of this cleanse in place.
I will probably continue the warm lemon water on the mornings I don’t have to be at work at 4am, as well as the flaxseed cocktail – because fiber intake is more important as you get older. (So, so important!!! Ask me how I know!!)
I will also have a shake on the mornings I don’t work, though I do hope to get back to my morning eggs on work days.
I also plan to implement this cleanse following work trips and vacations when I tend to eat more than I should and different foods than I eat when I’m home.
So there you have it… FINALLY a new win, a renewed spirit, and a plan for this portion of my #50_before50 goals going forward.
The rest… Well, most of that is still beyond my control…
A little win is still a win! Congratulations!
This was a HUGE win for me! Weight loss has been such a struggle for me. I’ve worked with trainers and not had results so it was BIG to know that it was possible for me to actually lose weight!