Whole 30, Awesome-ized

Starting yesterday, I embarked on a Whole 30, which is basically a 30-day whole foods cleanse based on a primal or Paleo diet (check it out here). Anyway, I knew right from the start that I was not going to have a perfect Whole 30. I know me, and I know that I tend to strive for perfection, then dump the whole project if I mess up even a tiny little bit. So, I decided straight up that I wasn't going to be perfect and hopefully this will make it more sustainable for me.

Yes, I'm a wuss...plenty of people do a Whole 30 without cheating at all, but I do not have that kind of willpower or stick-to-it-abilities. I know that about myself, so I'm doing the cleanse in a way that I feel can be sustained for a whole thirty days. Basically my planned-cheats are a daily cup of coffee with a bit of stevia and cream. Though last night I did have a small dessert (I know....one day and I go off the wagon!)...but the husband had friends over and they brought dessert and I didn't want to be rude (I promise, I just had a tiny bit...and YES, I paid for it later....bloating, tummy upset, blech!)

To prepare for the cleanse, I made a menu for the week (something I've never done) and went grocery shopping for the specific items on the list. Usually I just wing it and thus end up with things I never eat, or a bunch of random stuff that doesn't go together into anything resembling a meal. This will be better. The fridge is packed to the gills with produce, so it's my challenge to eat it all by the next shopping day. I hate throwing out food, so that's even more reason to stay on plan :-)

Here is what my menu looks like, complete with assignments for prep work in the far right column....this comes in especially handy as I head into my work week (Friday, Saturday night).

So, there you have it folks...we'll see if I can keep this up. I know I definitely need to lose weight, but I am going to try to focus instead on how I feel and hope that weight loss is an added bonus. I am also going to try to incorporate more exercise, which will be a combination of barre workouts, cycling and ramping up my Cough-to-5K running again. Stay tuned and stay awesome!

Long time no bloggie.

I have admitted it before...I am an awfully inconsistent blogger. And besides, I think I only have one reader (Hi Cher!), so I don't feel that much pressure to update since I chat with said reader on a pretty regular basis. That said, I am going to try to get better at updating this thing as I am really looking for a way to stay motivated as I strive to get as fit and healthy as possible. I have had a bit of a setback in this department, but am starting to get more active again. Now if I could just dust off my juicer all would be bright and sunny. One thing at a time.

As for the stupid ol' bone marrow disorder...platelets at last check were 451! ALMOST there, ya'll! I'll be very happy when they drop below 400, and ecstatic if they ever drop into the 200s...that would be amaaaazing! If they get down to the 200s, I may talk to my hematologist/oncologist about decreasing my Pegasys dose. At the rate I'm going, that may be awhile, but at least I'm not having many side effects from the meds.

Sooooo....on the fitness front, I am starting Body for Life on Monday. I did the program waaaay back in my early 30's or so...I lasted about a month and got totally burned out. Sadly, I took before and during pics, and I could actually see a change. I kick myself all the time for not sticking with it. Anyway, since I know next to nothing about weight training and there is SO MUCH to learn, I figured that starting with BFL would give me a good, basic education and that I can embellish from there.

In other fitness news...I'm currently doing the Couch-to-5K training program and I'm on week 4. My runs this week involve intervals of jogging for 3 mins and 5 mins, with walking in between. I did one yesterday (in the rain, no less!) and it was fine. About 5 workouts from now is the dreaded 20-minute jog...we'll see how that goes.

I have also started climbing again...so much fun! Getting back into the harness was tough...I had to start with the easy easy climbs, but am now back to doing 5.10a and am working on moving up to the 5.10b climbs...in a few weeks I'll be back where I was before, playing on the 5.10c routes. Woo hoo! Now if I could just master those darn overhangs, I'd feel like a stud-ette. The scary thing about the overhangs, is that when you fall off them you swing waaaaay out. Super scary when you're 30-some feet off the ground. Yikes!

Ok...gotta dash and start planning my grocery list and meal plan for my first week of BFL. I need to try to find a way to stay away from the eggs...as I recall I got totally "egged-out" when I attempted this before. Something about eggs stimulates my gag reflex if I have to eat them more than once or twice a week.

Ciao!

On the Fitness Front...

Ok, so don't tell my hubby but for his B-Day I got him this cool thing by Nike that you put in your shoe and it logs your running mileage...somehow it communicates all this to your iPod so you can analyze your running program on your iPod. It's way cool. So, in conjunction with that I signed the two of us up for a 5K on September 14th...that's not very far from now considering that I get winded if I jog for more than 2 minutes straight.

So...to gear up for our big run I am running with the help of a Podcast called "Couch to 5K", which basically turns even the laziest person ever (me) into a runner in 9 weeks. Since I am also trying to talk my friend Cheri into doing a duathlon on August 24th, I am compressing my 9 week running plan down to 7 or so. And yes, I know that the whole idea is to gradually ease into running, but hey...I can bench press 40 pounds and do 3.5 "real" push-ups, so it's not like I'm starting at groun zero here. :-)

Oh, I also got him a wobble-board, which is kind of one of those things that I think he'll like but that I KNOW I'll like. If I were cool enough to do links I'd do them here so you could check it out, but alas...I am not that cool.