Back to basics.

As more people ask me about quitting sugar, I find myself back in the place I was before I started. I hear them say "I'm weak" and "It's not for me!"  and I am instantly back to last summer/fall, before I quit. I remember thinking how ridiculous it was to quit sugar. I remember thinking about how small my willpower was and how sugar wasn't "that bad" for me. And then I re-read this post and remember how empowered, strong and awesome it felt to achieve "the impossible."

But I did the 8 weeks. And I FELT better. Wholly better - emotional, physical... clearer, pain-free. 

So here's a quick bullet point of some of my favorite "sugar free" tips: 

• Trader Joe's has two salad dressings that are sugar free - a Greek Feta dressing and a "Goddess" dressing that tastes vaguely like hummus. 
• Whole Foods has sugar free ketchup!!
• You can easily make your own taco seasoning and Italian seasoning (Italian dressing mix) that taste BETTER than the jarred/envelopes!
• Greek yogurt (plain!) starts to taste less like sour cream and more delicious the longer you are without sugar! Yogurt with walnuts and cinnamon is a fantastic breakfast or snack!
• Triscuits are about the only crackers that don't have added sugar that I have found.
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I'm not going to lie, I haven't been "sugar free" these days.  A little ice cream here, some fruit there. And I pay for it - my joints hurt, I have cravings, I have wicked mood swings. 

In my head I know I CAN do it. I also know that I am doing fine allowing the occasional "treat" now and again.

And I'm kicking BUTT on my fitness. Still doing Weight Watchers and last week, I earned **42** Activity Points!

Tues: Yoga - 75 min

Wed: Spinning - 66 min

Thurs: Spinning - 75 min (I rode extra!)

Fri: new class - cardio drills & power sculpt - 75 min (this class KICKS MY BUTT!!)

All in all a good week.  Weight holding steady at 152. I feel like I need to weigh in on Fridays instead of Mondays! 

Weekends are my diet enemy!

Crickets...

Sorry for the radio silence lately.  I'm in a weird limbo - |thisclose| to my goal, but really not full flung into no sugar (summer without ice cream? seriously?)  So I keep jumping between 149 and 152. I still haven't "officially" hit my goal weight.

I'm definitely not back to where I was with sugar - I don't have it every day. I have been eating more fruit (it's summer!) and letting myself have a "treat" now and again.  I definitely am more aware of my kids' sugar intake as well.  In addition I'm SUPER skeptical when people say something is "sugar free," knowing that most of the time there is fake sugar, agave, or cane juice. I know NOW that these are all sugar by another name. Knowledge is power, people!

So anyhow, as summer progresses, I hope to get back into the swing of things. I've started a new class at the gym (two actually!)  Cardio drills & power sculpt. They almost KILLED me on Friday. And if you know me, that means I'll be back this Friday more intent on kicking royal butt.  :-)

Running Success

I ran a race today at the zoo here in St. Louis.  I was running with a friend who has a pace time of about 9:45/mile. That's SUCH a stretch for me! I ran my first 5K last summer and my time was 41 minutes.  But I know my pacing has come down - I ran 13:40/mile at Disney and I've been running AND spinning since then!

So this AM I thought "I'm going to do it, I'm going to run it in less than 30 minutes!" I didn't want to let Sara down or hold her back, so I just told myself to suck it up, it's GOING to end (in 30 minutes!) and get it done.

Sara and I ran the first half mile at an 8:45 mile pace!! Oops, talk about gunning it out of the gate! :-)  I had RunKeeper coaching on keeping me at 9:45 mile pace and we were under it CONSISTENTLY the whole race. As we were rounding the last .1 miles, RunKeeper told me we were pacing at 9:32, well under what I anticipated!

As we crossed the finish line, the clocks said 31:34 but I knew we didn't cross the start line as the time was started, so I wasn't worried. RunKeeper had us running 3.31 miles in 31:31 minutes (we were ON with the 1's and 3's today!).  HOWEVER, the "official" time for the race shows us as 31:05, missing my 30min 5K PR.

In talking to a friend, though, he said it sounds like the race course was a little bit longer than what they measured out. He did some math and figured out that the extra .2 miles would add 1:55 - putting us UNDER 30 minutes for our time.  I'm choosing to believe that (he's a very seasoned runner!) and say I FINALLY HAVE A PR!!  :-)  A REAL PR, not just a PR because I've never done it before :-)

I've had overkill on sugar today (2 bananas, lots of watermelon and I won't mention the coke or brownie I had today - apparently trying to shock the heck out of my body!) so tomorrow I will probably hurt.  But it's ok.

After my 5K, we went to have breakfast, then came back to the race route because my "baby" (ok ok she's almost 4 years old) ran HER first race! She ran in a kid's fun run (1/4 mile) and we had such a blast. She giggled the whole freaking time :-) 

Mommy & E before her first race!

In her running shirt :-)

 We spent the rest of our day cooling off from the morning heat. Swimming & watermelon for all!!

Success!

WELCOME SUMMER!! :-)

Peace.

Thanks for your prayers for my friend and her little girl.  Ainsley passed away on Saturday.  Lots of love has been pouring out to Jen, Mark, and the rest of their family since then.  My heart is broken for them, but Jen is the strongest momma I know.

Some ah-ma-zing women I know got together and planned a "Bubbles for Ainsley & Evelyn" event on FB. HUNDREDS of pictures were posted of kiddos, animals and grown ups blowing bubbles to Heaven for the girls. I invite you to also participate, if you are so inclined.

Read their entire story at Maybe If You Just Relax. 

Off Topic

... but still super important.

I don't normally talk about things other than the diet/training/weight loss stuff here, but this is important enough that I need to address it.

My friend Jen has a beautiful baby girl, 16 months old, named Ainsley. She has never left the NICU/PICU and is in some pretty severe health right now. If you're the praying type, if you "send vibes," if you chant or whatever it is you do - please please do it.  

You can read all of Ainsley's story at Jen's blog, Maybe If You Just Relax. But just know, Jen is an amazing friend and amazing person who's had one heck of a year.  And Ainsley has a smile that lights up a big, big room.  And right now, there's nothing I can do for them except ask as many people as I can to pray for her - for Ainsley, for Jen & her husband, for their other daughter.

Juicing

Taking another step towards healthy!

My mom was in town this weekend and has been doing a lot of juicing. I am NOT a fan of "thick" drinks. My husband makes a fruit smoothie every.single.morning for himself and the kiddos, but the thickenss of it just makes me gag. So when my mom said "Let's go get a juicer and you can see if you like it!"  I was NOT on board.

We did that Saturday. After we picked up the juicer, we went to Whole Foods and loaded up on greens, veggies and a few pieces of fruit. When we got home, we set up the juicer and got to work.

This was our "recipe" the first day:

Kale
Carrots
Cucumbers
2 Apples
3 Ribs of Celery
1 Lemon
About 1" of fresh ginger

It smelled like freshly mowed grass - and it tasted WORSE!!

So the second day, after a little research, I tried something different.  I got rid of the celery, which I read can make the juice bitter. I swapped the lemon for an orange.  I split my greens between watercress and kale and only used 1 apple.  That was INCREDIBLE!

Then this morning, I skipped the apple and orange - and added PINEAPPLE - omg soo good!!

Today my "recipe" was:

1/4 of a fresh pineapple
Cucumber
Carrots
Spinach
Watercress

It was sooooo goood!

Am I doing a "juice cleanse"? Nope. I'm not even doing it more than once a day. At this point, it's just a morning thing for me. I want it to get the extra nutrition from veggies that I don't normally eat or enjoy.

I plan to get a few different things from the grocery store in the next few weeks, including parsnips and beets. I will, for now, continue to add one to two pieces of fruit to my juice until I can tolerate the greens on their own. I don't think I'm getting TOO much sugar out of it if I'm just having a small glass of juice and in the long run, I'm getting a lot of nutritional value that I wouldn't have otherwise.

 If you juice, what is your favorite combination? 

And in case you're wondering, I did not hit my magical GOAL number for weigh in this week. :( I gained 1lb because I took the weekend off from counting points and working out. My mom was in town and that is my cue to go out to eat, enjoy and indulge :-) I deserve those weekends once in awhile. Goal is waiting for me, hopefully next week!

I managed to make it to yoga this morning. I've talked Jen into taking a spin class with me tomorrow night. My hubby is going back too. Then I will have Pilates on Thursday and another spin class on Friday morning. I'm hoping that Mother's Day finds us with good weather so that we can go out for a family bike ride (with the little guy in the trailer and my big girl on her trail-behind bike attached to mine!)

Delay!

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to hear about my WI on Monday.   Let me calm your hopes - I didn't make goal :(

Saturday I wound up visiting Urgent Care in the evening for what I thought was strep.  Turns out it was a virus, but I was wallowing in my pain and had stopped at the store for some (sugar free) vanilla ice cream and (sugar free) chocolate fudge. Sunday I could do nothing but eat (hello sugary things! bring on the cravings!) and Monday AM I was at 151.  Granted, last week I weighed in at 151.5 so still a LOSS (the scale is moving in the right direction!) but not my official GOAL. I was sad, but such is life.

As a sidebar, when you're quitting sugar keep in mind that things like Splenda and Stevia are all still "sugars." You are just replacing real sugar with a fake sweetness - which doesn't actually detox your body.  If you're going for a full sugar detox, you must cut all of it from your system for awhile. If you keep giving your body the "sweet" it's craving, you'll never get away from the grasp of the addiction.

Instead, I went to the gym. I ran a 5K in 30 min and lifted (some heavier weights than usual, too!) I missed spinning on Friday and yoga on Tuesday thanks to a sick kiddo (same sick kiddo but two different illnesses- that's how we roll.)

But since E is all better, tomorrow I will ship her off to school, the little man off to the child care at the gym and I will be SPINNING my heart out! I will miss Pilates this week because of a kiddo dentist appointment, but hope to get right back to it with another spin class on Friday.

I've talked Jen into taking a spin class with me. Leave her some love and let her know she'll do just fine :-) It really is addicting! I can see why people keep going.   There is something cathartic about working out until you are drenched that really makes it worth it.