Cleanse Day 5

I love to see the people around me start their journeys to health. It's really interesting to see the different avenues that they take.

To be completely, utterly and painfully honest though? It is sometimes quite hard for me to see them succeed with less effort than I. Of course I want them to succeed, be healthy and reach their goals, but it reminds me how stagnant I've been. I am always encouraging folks to join me at the gym and start eating clean and then it seems they have instantly surpassed me in health, fitness and weight loss. I know it seems like I'm being über competitive, but that's not it. It has a lot less to do with competition and a lot more to do with my personal disappointment in my lack of follow through.

E and I were actually discussing this last night, how I lack follow through. Sure I'm ambitious, but in a very hollow way. I whole-heartedly believe I am going to accomplish something and then as time saunters on, I lose it. The topic at large was the half marathon. I was talking out loud and questioning whether or not I have the capacity to follow through with it. I found training for the 10k and the 10k itself to be challenging, so the thought of a half is very intimidating. I still can't say whether or not I think it's realistic and I think that's an awful shame. He responded very simply with something like, "Follow through isn't something you're born with, it's groomed." This is where my stubborn nature gets a little bull headed. He's right of course, I need to start practicing completing things that I start.

I know that for me, sometimes it's very discouraging to see my friend's number dropping, when mine is remaining the same. There are a lot of things to consider here. First and foremost being that everyone is on a different journey. They have individual goals, personalities, body types, lifestyles and drive. Second being that when people first start losing weight, it happens much more rapidly than people like me, who have been losing/maintaining for 2 years. I have lost and maintained about 40 lbs over the past 2 years. That doesn't mean that I shouldn't lose an additional 20lbs, it just means that my body is very used to this game. Some of you can give up soda and lose 5 lbs.

I don't drink soda.
I don't eat fast food.
I eat very little processed food.
I only have a dessert, once a week.
I don't eat simple carbs.
My caffeine consumption is very low.

But when I fall of the wagon? I fall hard. Like take out for 5 nights in a row hard. I fell off the wagon when I picked Jacob up from the airport mid July... and have been struggling to climb back on, since. I didn't gain that much. I'm not overreacting, but rather trying to illustrate the battle that we fight every day. I'm not in this to only reach my goal weight. I want to live a long healthy life and look good doing it. My appearance is directly correlated with my psychological well being. I could work on this more, but that's the truth of where I'm at right now.

So I'm trying to climb back on the wagon with this cleanse. I feel like it's working, but I really need to watch myself and what I reintroduce when it's through.

When the scale drops to 149.9999999lbs I'm going to shamelessly cry. I've never seen that number.

After the cleanse is through, I need to get rid of my scale again and get into the habit of only weighing myself once a week. But for the cleanse, it's fun to see it drop. With the crystal clear understanding that most of the weight lost is from battling bloat and cleansing the colon.

Speaking of the cleanse.

Cleanse Day 4

• 1st meal: 1/2 personal watermelon
• 2nd meal: salmon "hash" and egg
• 3rd meal: leftover grilled cabbage
• 4th meal: left over lentil curry and hummus
• 5th meal: 3 small figs
• 6th meal: turkey stuffed bell peppers

These next 5 days are going to be tricky and my weight will probably be all over the place. I'm I should be starting my period any minute. I suppose I could have planned this cleanse a tad bit better. Oh well.

By the way, those peppers turned out AWESOME.

Turkey stuffed bell peppers

Serves 4 hungry people

• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• 4 bell peppers (i did yellow)
• 1 small packet taco seasoning
• 1 T minced garlic'
• 4 c raw kale
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1/2 c chopped red onion
• 1 T olive oil
• 3/4 c veg broth
• salt to taste

optional:

• chopped almonds
• raisins
• jalapeños (seeds removed)
• cilantro

1. Remove seeds from peppers and grill at a low heat for about 12 minutes. Turning ever 4 minutes. 
2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet at a medium heat. Add turkey, kale, onion, taco seasoning, veg stock and salt. Cover. Stirring often.
3. Once the moisture has mostly steamed off, add garlic and optional ingredients. Stir and salt to taste.
4. Remove peppers from grill, should be soft and slightly charred, but not completely black. 
5. Stuff your peppers and top with guac sauce.

Guac sauce

• 1 avocado
• juice of 1 lime (or lemon)
• 1/4 c cilantro leaves
• 2 T salsa

1. Put in blender and puree. 
   
   
   
   E called them "little guacamole volcanoes." The acidity of the sauce is kind of important, so if you make this without the gauc sauce, top it with salsa at least. If I wasn't dairy free at the moment, Greek yogurt definitely would have been involved.
   
   
   This morning I was late on taking my pro biotic, I still haven't eaten, but I sliced up this pink lady apple and scooped 1 T of peanut butter for breakfast... and have been waiting for the last 24 minutes to eat it. You're supposed to wait 30 minutes before eating. 
   
   
   
   Cleanse day 5
   
   
   157.4
   
   
   I guess it couldn't keep dropping forever. I'll keep track of my meals and post them in tomorrow's post. Happy Friday everyone!