Happy Monday!
What's up? How's life?
I hope you all had a great weekend, and a big Happy Mother's Day to all you mama's out there! Yesterday was a busy day jam-packed with family, so the day flew by and there was little downtime. Despite all the running around, it was so good to see people from both my side and Ryan's side of the family, and I am happy we could fit (mostly!) everyone into one day.
My family (as in, mom, dad, Sarah & her friend Sarah) came over for dinner, where Ryan BBQ'd some balsamic marinaded chicken. I made a big quinoa salad with black beans, as well as some grilled zucchini sticks and a spinach salad. Lots of food and lots of laughs, as we played Cards Against Humanity afterwards. Does anyone else love that game? It is one of those games where it's like. Hmmm... Do I really want to play this in front of my parents? Nevertheless, it was hilarious & my sister's friend had never played it before. Crazy! It was definitely a fun time and the day was FULL OF FOOD!
Too much food. You know when you are full, but you keep on eating because, well. It's there! And I don't want it to go to waste. That's exactly how I felt yesterday. I found myself eating things like cookies and chips, when usually I am not tempted by those. Although it was a weird day of eating, I am back on track today.
Before we jump into what happened today, I wanted to let you guys know that I am trying a cleanse. Yes, a cleanse. And not an all liquids cleanse or a soup cleanse or anything like that. I am doing the Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox. You have probably seen it in stores, and to be honest, I had this cleanse kit for over a year and a half before biting the bullet and starting it today. When I first purchased the kit, it was near Christmas time and I was starting my first bikini prep in the New Year. So, I figured prep plus a cleanse was probably too much. Here we are now!
You take the three herbal pill supplements twice per day, as well as the CL Herbal Extract twice per day. It is suggested that the supplements are taken before meals at breakfast and dinner. This is pretty doable, I'd say. The last thing I want is to be hauling out all of my supplements at lunch time at work. I know people would probably be like, oh, okay, because they were used to my food during prep, but nevertheless. It makes it easier to do at home. Additionally, it also comes with a booklet with a list of foods to eat during the cleanse. The usual bread, pasta, candy, ice cream, dairy, sugar, etc. is on the avoid list, though there are things that I eat every day that are on the YES list. This includes berries, oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, chicken, etc. During the cleanse you are to avoid things like added sauces - some oils are okay - and peanut butter. PEANUT BUTTER? That is my ride or die in my morning bowl of oats. However, yeast bacteria thrive on things like sugar and peanut butter. I am going to cut it out during this twelve day cleanse and see how my skin reacts to that. Eczema is a very picky thing, and although I like to think I know my triggers (dairy, bread), even the slightest thing can set it off. We shall see how I fare with this!
Why a cleanse? Why not! As I read through the booklet last night, I immediately thought: do it for the blog. This doesn't mean I am going to do ANYTHING for the sake of writing about it on the blog, but I read so many blogs and reviews before finally jumping in. Perhaps this will serve as a tool for you in case you are ever interested in trying it!
So, with a new cleanse on the go, it was only fitting to go grocery shopping and stock up on some more healthy items. This included more berries, rice cakes, almond butter (this is allowed!), lemons, cucumber, and apples. We'll see how creative I get with this, as it almost reminds me of my prep diet - only with more fruit! Here is a little example of a prepped lunch for the week:
Quinoa, broccoli & baked chicken breast with a sugar free (it is amazing what they put sugar in!) seasoning, which is a medley of spices like garlic, pepper, onion, etc. I also made a big salad for tomorrow, as I usually like having salads on Tuesdays as it is a rest day. More carbs on the days that I work out!
Speaking of work outs, I am absolutely exhausted from my day of working out. Yes, it was pretty much a day. If you didn't pick up on this already by the first photo in this post, I went to a hot yoga class today. There is a studio maybe four doors down from my work, and although I walk by there pretty much every day, I hadn't been inside in a long time. In fact, the first time I ever went was 2009, and since then they have undergone some ownership changes. This meant that I was eligible again for the 2 week intro pass. Myself and two other coworkers arrived at 9:30am to get our sweat on, and holy crap did I ever sweat. It is hard to grab onto your arms and legs in certain poses when literally every pore of your body is pouring with sweat. The class was an hour long, and man did I ever feel good after! There were people of all ages and experience levels too, which was really cool to see. I didn't feel like the odd one out despite not being the most flexible yogi in the room, but that's the great thing about yoga. Everyone is on their own journey and you just make space for what feels good to your body.
After yoga, I came home and started laundry while my oatmeal cooked away on the stove. I got a bit of a late start to my breakfast game (something about twisting around on a full stomach in a boiling hot room didn't sound appealing to me pre-yoga), so I started my cleanse during the first meal. Once breakfast was settled, I thought to myself. Well, what else am I going to do? So what else did I do but go for a run. Crazy, I know, but that's what I did. I ran 5km, then immediately jumped into the shower. After running some errands in the afternoon, prepping meals, and even taking a 30 minute cat nap, I headed off to another workout class.
Yes, another workout class.
Me and the two other coworkers I went to hot yoga with also went to a Barre Infusion class at our local rec centre. It was lots of fun and incorporated tons of squats! Barre generally uses things like the bar (as seen in ballet class), balls, and lighter dumbbells. The repetitions are HIGH, like to the point where I was losing count between what rep and set we were in. My legs are starting to feel sore now, so I know I will feel it tomorrow! It is also a great core workout too. If you have been interested in trying a Barre class I would highly recommend it! It is a good work out for sure.
And with that, I am off to flop on the couch and RELAX! I always tell Ryan that I need one day to just do nothing - yet on my days off I am always so GO GO GO! Maybe next weekend ; )
Until next time, friends!
No comments:
Post a Comment