21 Day cleanse...In Week 2 and I'm still ALIVE!

Ladies,

A very good friend of mine, Catherine, told me about a cleanse she was planning to do. So, I told her I'd try it out with her. We ordered it off of this website and were both a little nervous about trying it! However, We did decide we were going to blog about the experience and share it with you week by week and perhaps we would include some before, during, and after photos... maybe... possibly... depending on how they look! I was pretty sad about my before photos. Thus no photos will be posted until post cleanse...if I look good in them and I'm not scared to show all of you my tail at its heaviest.

I am currently the heaviest I have ever been... YIKES. I don't think I am at an unhealthy weight, its just not the weight I am used to and for the wedding I want to feel GREAT! I mean shoot what girl doesn't want her new hubby to think..." Man, my wife looks GOOD!" I think Michael and I have both caught the health bug and so we are working hard, together, to be fit for our day! Which is really nice because otherwise I would cheat on my diet and be the first person in line for Orange Leaf Yogurt, and then take a trip to any place that sells pizza and beer. Michael may or may not have cheated with a day 7 pancake celebration. I woke up to the pancake aroma, and in my crazed carb lacking state, I almost licked the remaining batter reminisce of the stove. Clearly Michael underestimated my carb sniffing snout and didn't think I would catch on to the fantastic smell of pancakes after no sugar and no carbs for a week... wrong sir WRONG! I think it may have had something to do with a hangover.

These are 2 vices that no matter what diet and how fit I am I will ALWAYS love pizza and ice cream. Even during pageantry I LOVED pizza. It was so hard to find a healthy way to sneak a bit of pizza here and there and also get down to pageant weight. My pageant weight was typically around 108-110. Which is pretty small for me considering I typically weigh around 120. However, at the start of cleanse week I weighed in at 126. Good news is I had lost weight pre-cleanse. I started doing Pure Barre when I got up to 131 and couldn't lose a pound...not one...not a half of one. Really? YES REALLY. I was running my tail to death in the gym and couldn't drop any LBS. I was certain I had totally ruined my metabolism with pageant diets and stress, etc and then entered Pure Barre. I lost 5 pounds in about 3 months and kept it off during the holidays, hooray, and then started this little cleansing project! Girls... If you have a Pure Barre in your area... don't walk there.... RUN and take a class. You will be addicted, and love it! Its fantastic. Its basically an hour a day of therapy wrapped into weight training, great music, and burning of every muscle you never knew you had! It's a wonderful stress reliever too! Check it out here!

Sooo... Now on to the cleanse! Week 1 has been tough, I am not going to lie to you about that! However, week one is mostly ridding your body of the cravings you have for carbs and sugar. You eat very clean, very planned meals and smoothies. Its actually very simple in theory but extremely hard when everyday I smell pizza, Jimmy Johns, buffalo wild wings, or any other assortment of foods my co-workers are snacking on in the cubes around me! Even though I wanted to really bad I have not cheated yet because..... DROM ROLL PLEASE... I am already down to 123 LBS in WEEK ONE! Whoop Whoop! Now I know that not all that weight will stay off post cleanse, but the idea is to break your self of the cravings by practicing 21 days of regimented eating. So, post cleanse I will be doing the diet mentioned here by the lovely Stephanie! After eating 3 weeks like a bunny rabbit, moving on to Steph's plan will be great! We can add new yummy foods we haven't seen in a while but still be working to keep the weight off and slim down! Hello best of both worlds, its nice to finally meet you!

So gals if you are interested in trying a good cleanse go here and order it from the same website Catherine and I ordered from. It has been a fun little project so far and I'm definitely interested to see if 21 days of this continues to have great results! More updates coming your way after week 2!

Cheers,

101 Uses For An Empty Bra

Hi Ladies,

A few weeks ago the was a segment on the Today Show... My ultimate FAV in morning television... which highlighted a book called "101 Uses For An Empty Bra". Of course that grabs anyone's attention immediately, especially anyone who has had a loved one go through breast cancer and struggle with the turmoil of a mastectomy. You can check out the Today Show segment here. After watching it I thought to myself "Wow, how shocking that this book hasn't found a home to be published on a national level." I searched high and low and was able to order through the books website. Which was great! I was really excited when it arrived in the mail yesterday. I think the books purpose and presence was something special to share with you ladies!

Many times I have written about my family's experience with the battle of breast cancer. So we know all too well the difficulties, the strain, and the process that this disease entails. I think that's why this book touched me so much. I love the idea of mourning the loss of something you can't change or control through humor. After all it is the best medicine out there. That truly is what Sara and her family did with these "uses". The process of a mastectomy is very much one which requires a mourning period.

As little girls we are taught that part of our femininity comes from the shape of our body and specifically the curves of our breasts. Past that, as a mother, our breasts our part of a life giving process to nurture our children while still trying to balance a part of sexuality with said motherhood. (Now add high heals, a job, house work, social interactions, love and a million other things and you've got a pretty busy schedule.) So as you can imagine, and I'm sure each of you deeply relate to the thought, loosing your breasts to a disease you can't stop or control changes your perception on everything. How you look, how you are seen by others, where your feminine wiles come from, your sexuality, your comfort, overall it impacts your life in every facet. While I wish this were not the case because it is the loss of something physical, I do not believe it is vain in any capacity for a woman to feel sad or to mourn this loss. Its natural, its part of the process, and its absolutely necessary. I can't claim to understand the mourning process on a personal level because I am only 25 and haven't, luckily, faced breast cancer myself. With that said I will share with you my personal stance and approach to this disease.

I will not be shocked if one day I am told I have breast cancer. It has run through most of the women in my family, leaving my mom as the only survivor. I think because of her I am more able to take a proactive, perhaps drastic to some, approach to my control of this horrific disease. I will likely have a mastectomy after we have children as a preventative measure and then have a reconstructive surgery. My aunt did this when we were younger, after her mother and both sisters fought the battle. Its a big decision and not one that I take lightly in the least, so I hope that it does not read that way. To me its feels better to mourn the loss at my own decision to have the procedure verses coming to a point where a doctor tells me the procedure has to happen in order for me to live healthily. Like I said, having a proactive approach is important to me. I want to be able to live without worry and I think that this decision is an important part of having that security. This is years down the road for me and I have plenty of time to think about it and come to feel confident in my decision. Books like 101 Uses For An Empty Bra help in the decision making and in the solace of that decision. I hope there are more books like this to come. Below are a few of the images from the book compliments of the website. I hope you enjoy them... don't be afraid to chuckle!

Cheers,

New Year Resy List..

Ladies,

Clearly item numero uno is DON'T PROCRASTINATE. Which is awesome because I am already 6 days late on this post... Dang. The idea of New Year resolutions has always been a foreign subject to me. Typically I do not make one, however this year I feel as I get older it may be time to start buckling down with some goals prior to life happening around me with no purpose. One thing I always used to tell my dance students was "Do it with Purpose" I think the same thing needs to start applying to my everyday life. I wake up everyday, go to work, workout if I'm not being lazy and eating carbs instead, lay on the couch, rehash the days events with the soon to be hubby, go to bed and repeat. We live for weekends and we definitely make the most of those 1.5 or 2 days depending on work schedules. But I want more than that. Thus, this year its time to make some resolutions and wake up everyday as if it were on PURPOSE rather that just a result that habitually repeats itself.

Here goes Gals the list of "To Do's" for 2011:
* Don't procrastinate...duh
* Plan a super fantastic wedding day for Michael and I. I want this day to be one WE remember and love. Of course I want our friends and family to have a blast and to love it too, but this day is truly a day for us. So I'm going to go ahead and throw it out there people... if you want to talk to the Bride on the wedding day... you better pack your dancing shoes because that's where you'll find me... all night!
* Blog on a more regular basis...because I do love writing and I do love the feedback I get from you lovelies!
* Be positive... try not to let thing get me down even though they are difficult.
* Be a better daughter, fiance, friend, sister, employee, co-worker, teacher, volunteer, overall be a better me.
* Be active... I want to be at a weight and body I am comfortable with, happy with and I can maintain. Pageant weight isn't a livable weight, but where I am now is not where I feel most happy and healthy in my skin and that's the goal. I want to be happier in my skin.
* Get back to the happier, more light hearted, more energetic girl I used to be. I feel like the stress of the everyday or the life surprises you don't want because they are no fun have started to wear on me. Sometimes it makes me easily agitated and hostile. That's not the girl I want to be... and so now I'm not going to be!

What are you resolutions ladies?! What things can I look forward to reading on your bloggies in 2011? Accomplishments? Dreams? I would love to hear them all!

Cheers,