Day 3 - Last day of detox - $1 30 day Challenge

I woke up a little bit earlier than the day before but not ideal. I got my smoothie ready with pineapple, avocado, and kale among other things. 

Lunch was a kale and parsley salad with red and yellow bell pepper, carrot shavings, walnuts and blueberries. The fruit was a nice addition. It had a Balsmic vinegerette, with lemon and honey. It was pretty tart. It was a lot to eat. I had some left over. Which I ate as a snack later. 

Pictured from top to bottom dinner, lunch, breakfast.

After a brief respite when I got home I got the spaghetti squash ready. Put it in the oven and went to the grocery store for week 1 groceries. It had to cook for an hour. I was able to fit half in my tiny oven. I got a little charred being so close to the burner, but it worked okay. 

I saved the pumpkin seeds for roasting. My trick is to boil the for 10 min in salty water and bake for 10 - 20 min at 400 temp.

Dinner was the spaghetti squash with kale/spinach and broccoli sautéed in garlic and olive oil. My husband ate it as well, I just cooked him a big piece of salmon in addition. He liked it. He also ate day two dinner. 

It was pretty late when I got my breakfast and lunch prepared for the next day. I was asleep about 11:30 pm. 

I am happy I am done with the detox. Day 4 is when I start exercises 

I checked my weight before bed and was down 5lbs. I checked it again in the morning and was down 8.5lbs. And I lost about inch thtoughout my body measurements. This is really exciting. I am truly amazed that I list this much in 3 days. Excited for more to come. 

Day 2 - $1 30 day Challenge

Day started off pressing snooze. Even though I woke up late I still drank my detox drink and made my smoothie. Including getting dressed it took about 15/20 min, not bad. I remembered to grab my lunch I had prepared last night as I was out the door. Got in the car and realized I forgot to shave 😬, no time, keep rollin. 

I started to get hungry around 11:30, but usually have lunch at 12, so I stuck it out. I didn't want to eat too early, because I would need to last until 5 when I get off. 

Lunch was a spinach salad with red bell pepper, tomatoes, and avacado with the same dressing as yesterday's lunch. I enjoyed the red this time. Nice juicy pop to the grape tomatoes. I took a nausea medicine just in case. 

I drank a lot of water thoughout the day. We have a really nice machine that has crunchy ice and cold water, so that helps me drink water. We are supposed to drink half our body weight in ounces. 

About 2pm I felt a headache. I took my new migraine medicine (ubrevly). And two hours later my head was still hurting so I took another dose. As I was leaving for work I had to throw up 😩. Thankfully I made it to the bathroom in time. This was a really bad headache. I drove home quickly and got straight in the shower. It felt really good. And helped. 

After a couple of hours of resting, my head still hurt, so I called the doctor on call for advice. He said I could take my ritzapram and or ibuprofen. I took the ritzapram and a nausea medicine. I still threw up though. Then I took ibuprofen. After awhile I was feeling better. 

At 10pm I started Day 2 dinner which is roasted vegetables. I couldn't find my sweet potato I bought. Maybe I left some groceries at the store, because my lime was missing too. Thankfully my mom (neighbor) had one I could borrow. 

Ate dinner and Hubby even ate it with me. Got lunch ready for tomorrow. In bed at midnight. It was a rough day, but I did it. I was #Determined2bDetermined.  

Day 1 - $1 30 day challenge

Today I started day 1 of the 3 day detox in the 30 day challenge. I started the day of good. I woke up pretty early and drank the detox drink which has apple cider vinegar, lemon, green tea, and a little salt. It was bitter, but I got it down. I drank it cold. After that I got my smoothie ready. I am using a blender that the previous tenant left in the apartment. I was worried it wouldn't fare well with the greens and frozen veggies, but with a little stir it got it done pretty good. I also have an inexpensive small blender but I didn't think it would fit the 2cups of kale. Here is a picture of the smoothie: 

After breakfast I got dressed and took my before pictures. I wore a tight shirt and tight pants. Wow I have a lot of improvement. 

After awhile I did my baseline exercises. Which was push ups, squats, quick feet, and mountain climbers. Do each for 1 min and count how many you did. I was pretty winded after. It was harder than you would think. 

Lunch was a salad with spinach, broccoli, green bell pepper, and zucchini. With a homemade dressing. It was an avacado, cliantro, lime dressing. I know I bought a lime, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I even looked it my car. So that was really frustrating. I ended up borrowing one from my neighbor. It was probably the healthiest, most green meal I have ever eaten. It was a really large portion too. See below. 

I am prone to vommiting lately, so I went to take a nausea medicine. My doctor also recommend I take a probiotic. So I wanted to get back to taking them. I made the mistake of taking the probiotic before the nausea medicine kicked in. And it triggered me to throw up 🤮😩. I didn't give up though. After I felt better and ate some more and I was okay. There was still some left but I was pretty hungry after doing some errands, so I finished it later. 

The family was cutting down some trees in the backyard so I helped out. I got hungry again, probably because of the vommiting. So I ate some plain Greek yogurt with 1/2 tsp of honey, pinch of celyon cinnamon and a dash of vanilla extract. Plain greek yogurt with 1/2 tsp of raw honey is on the approved snack list. It was very good. Nice and creamy.

Before dinner on an empty stomach I drank the detox drink. I tried it warm this time. I drank it really slow. I'm not sure if I like it better hot or cold. 

Dinner was raw spiralized zucchini and carrot with sliced red pepper and chia seeds. With a homemade dressing that had avacado, ginger, and cayenne pepper and lemon.  The dressing was very tasty.  The spiralizer didn't work with the carrot which was frustrating. Next time I'll use a grater. Over all dinner was good. See below. 

I finished up the day by preparing the salad lunch for tommorow for work. Breakfast is a smoothie, so I'll just have to throw that together quick because I usually don't have much time. I can't really prep it. 

I am happy with how day 1 went. Excited for day 2, I hear the dinner is really good on day 2. 

30 day Challenge Start

Tomorrow I start the beginning of the $1 30 day challenge, beginning with the 3 day detox. If you are interested in joining click this link $1 30 day challenge.

The 30 day challenge is a meal plan and exercise plan for 30 days and if you want to continue you can sign up for a monthly subscription. 

I stood on the scale and was shocked,  I stepped on a second time to recheck in disbelief. I took my measurements. And tomorrow I will do the baseline exercises. There is a lot of room for progress, and I really want to make a change. 

I am at my heaviest weight. I have been this weight before. It is horrible, because I carry all my weight in my belly, so many people ask me if I am pregnant. 

I had my last meal before the diet, and I feel bloted, so I feel ready to start the detox, so I can feel better. 

Things I will have to overcome:

• Drinking soda and sugary drinks
• Eating candy and sweets
• Preparing food - I usually order something to go for lunch at work and have very little time in the mornings 
• Motivation to exercise

Some health challenges I face that affects my weight: Thyroid, PCOS, Bipolar and the side effects of meds. 

I bought the groceries for the detox Friday. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) starts the detox, I have the detox drink made in the fridge. I am glad the first day isn't a work day, so I can get acclimated. The morning starts with a smoothie, lunch is a salad with homemade dressing, and dinner is a raw zoodle bowl. I even bought a spiralizer to make it. 

There is a fb group for support which has been helpful. 

This blog has always been about being determined2bdetermined (my user name), which is to say you have to try to try I suppose. Its about motivating yourself. It's about finding the excitement in the mundane, because things like diet and exercise are hard but it helps to get excited about what is hard. 

Read my first blog post here for more about the theme of this blog.  Kindling the fire of existence  Here is a quote: 

Motivation is hard to come by. It is my motto of the season to find excitement in the mundane. This is the only way I believe I can conjure up some motivation to do all the things I need to do for a better life but don't want to do. It is about convincing myself that I want this. I am not determined, but I want to be. I want to be determined, I want to be consistent. I need to be

I will try to post regularly with my progress. 

*I did check with my doctor before starting, which is recommend. 

Great Day

Today was a great day. I woke up right when my alarm went off at 6 am. No snoozing. I watched good Mythical Morning and made a pot of tea and ate oatmeal. I got ready and was out the door a little after 7 am. I made it to work on time and even got gas.   

I had a good day at work and had some surprises in the mail. A ring I ordered. It was really pretty. A gift card from taking a survey. And my diet food. 

I made a great dinner chicken wings and zucchini. I used ginger paste and hot sauce from jeruselam bakers on one and did the others with lemon pepper and other with herb and garlic Ms. Dash. It was really good. Ended with hot chocolate with chai spice. I even cleaned the dishes. I wanted to keep I clean since I spent so much time making it clean yesterday. 

So I packed my food for tomorrow. Cinnamon bar, s'mores bar, Mac and cheese and bbq crunchers. And I put a bottle of water in the fridge so it would be cold. 

Here is to a new venture - Optavia.

Confession

I don't like that I don't like the way I look in pictures in the mirror. I don't like that I notice people's weight. It's like when you are focused on your own weight you notice others. I am thinking about joining a gym. My hesitation, I don't have enough money. That is pathetic. It doesn't even cost that much. I should make provision. I don't hesitate to spend money at low cost food. I need to make a commitment.

Productive Day

Yay! I had a day off from work and got a lot done. I planted some bulbs and cleaned my room. Did laundry. Made a hat/scarf rack. Hung my diploma. Removed old clothes from my closet. Vacuumed. Cleaned the ceiling fan and tightened the bolts so I could use it. My room was a mess. I still had some things laying around from when I moved here in January. I found two things that were lost, my camera and my big set of markers. :) so glad I did not lose them for real.
It's not finished yet though. I still have to put all my clean clothes up and do something with my old clothes. I have some great items so I want to sell them but it will take time to catalogue.

Finding the excitement in the mundane...I feel so much better now that my room is clean. Doing these mundane tasks might suck but the reward is great. It was hard work digging but it will be great to look at the flowers that come up and know I made it happen. I might actually enjoy being in my room now that I can walk around.

I need to focus on this progress and not let it slip. It's 8:30pm and I still have some time left in the day to get my clothes put up.

So I'm singing off to get it done :)

Its Time

I got a job and have been waking up early for work. I am still sleeping pretty late. I am doing good though. I feel good. And I feel ready to start making changes to loose weight. With changes in medications I have been on this loop of gaining and loosing weight. I don't like the feeling of looking at photos and not liking it as much. I don't like comparing myself to a lighter me and thinking I look better or worse.

So I'm going to do some searching to find out what kind of diet I want to go on. I really don't like the idea of diets, I just need to figure out what changes to make. I am okay with loosing weight slowly.

Today I was productive. Last night I didn't sleep...

Today I was productive. Last night I didn't sleep...

At the end of last week I had fixed my sleep schedule to the "normal" (sleeping when its dark). I had been going to sleep at like 3 and 4am and waking up late in the afternoon. I have a tendency to want to stay awake at night. I wouldn't call it insomnia. I just don't like going to sleep and I don't like waking up. It leads to me sleeping away the morning.

To get my schedule back to normal I usually stay awake during the night and day until it is the following night. That is what I did last night, because I wanted to be awake for the weekend.

This isn't healthy. As a person with Bipolar I should't be missing sleep. But It makes me wonder...If I am more productive on the day I didn't sleep than when I went sleep late and slept throught the morning maybe it is a good thing. Maybe I should do an occasional sleepless night, especially during times like this when I am sleeping more than normal on the nights I sleep.

I suppose it would be best to just sleep between 10pm and 10am, but that just isn't my tendency (unless I have obligations).

up and down

I have gone through a lot lately. I was almost arrested twice in one day. I was instead sent to a crisis stabilization unit. Apparently I was not well. They changed my medications around. I feel good about this new combination. My psychiatrist says to try it out for a month and then he will see if any changes are needed. So on top of all that mess I lost my job and wrecked my car. It seems as if the enemy is out to get me. I have to stay positive though. I am facing the decision if I need to move in with my parents back in Marietta, 4 hours away from my grad school. Moving away makes me feel like I am giving up on grad school. But it is evident that I have a problem, because I have been hospitalized each semester in grad school. And since I don't have a job, paying for rent and car seem unmanageable.  I have been seeing a social worker and a counselor/play therapist to manage my illness this semester. I finally feel a break through. Before I didn't know what to do with a counselor. As I have continued to go I am seeing the outcome; it is encouraging. Before I didn't have a clue how to cope with depression. I am learning and practicing more self control. I believe self control is the key to a healthy sustained recovery. If I can practice self control to avoid talking to people who don't want to talk to me and not pushing my beliefs on others and not flirting with every man that walks by I will be solid. I feel this self control already happening. I believe that medication gives me the freedom to allow myself to rely on self control more than medicating.

Check out my vlogs for more information about my experience with bipolar disorder. My most recent one talks about healing.