I can't help but feel blessed almost everyday for all the things I have in my life. It's crazy how much I love my life...and I just went through 8 years of an experience that I learned so much from.
So this weekend was insane! Starting Saturday (ALL DAY), my mom decided it was a good idea to have my entire dad's side of the family over at our tiny house. Literally...our house is about 1000 sq. feet. Anyways, we had about 60-70 people in our house...(future reference for a house party...LOL) and it was super crowded. However, I am glad she was ok with it because no one in our family can say that their house is too small to have a party now (there's a reason for everything...haha) and if they do say that, it's because they don't care about keeping tradition...I can say that because I've pretty much helped plan almost EVERY holiday/traditional get together for the last 12 years...so yeah (getting off the soapbox now). But it turned out GREAT! It was fun and we had an awesome time spending time with family. No real focus on presents this year...just family. I love it...
So after everyone left, my mom, her man, and I cleaned furiously (again) and I got ready to go out with my girls to the city. We went to Milk in the Haight and clubbed like crazy. I walked out of the house with the short skirt on and my CFM Boots and my mom said "I guess you're going to go get a guy tonite, huh." L O L ... Not! I just wanted to dance and have fun. And I did...here are some crazy dancing pics...I'm a wanna be hoochie. I have a hard time following through on all the hoochie stuff. So does that make me a tease? Crap!
I didn't get home until 4:30am. Had to get up at 7:30am for a conference call and then we ran a training from 10am-3pm. We went bowling with our team. The girls won the last game (we had an advantage...there was 4 of us). After that, I went to Walnut Creek and went ice skating with Aileen and Belle. Was disappointed by an old friend that night. Crazy how people think that life begins in a certain place, but they don't realize that life is what is happening at every moment, no matter where you are. People miss out on so much because of that. Regardless, it was hella fun! Belle is a super good ice skater so she taught us how to skate backwards. We went and ate Pho and went home to start our week.
Worked all day Monday and had a chance to hang with my favorite peeps in the world (my family) at the Oakland Zoo to check out "Zoolights". That was fun too. I forgot to mention that in between this I was working with one of my new agents and working is always fun for me.
All in all, it has been tons of fun these last 3 days. It's a small preview of the coming year. I can't wait!
As I write this, I am under the influence of alcohol...not something normal for me as I have been trying to watch what I am doing with my body for the last couple of months. However, I was Cinderella today...as I was cleaning my house as my mom went out to Party...LOL...I had a great time listening to Christmas Music and cleaned almost the entire house.
As I look back on my last year...this has probably taken the cake in years of crazy change. I love change, I embrace change, not like a lot of people, so this year has been tons of fun. I am so ready for a crazier year...meaning that I may deal with more drama, more craziness, more change, and more growth. I look forward to it.
This Christmas is different. I am not looking forward to presents like usual, but I am totally looking forward to living my life. I am excited! I guess this is what happens when you drink...You start looking at your life so different. But it's not just today, it's everyday I feel this way. I can't wait. I should sleep now as I am feeling too good. I would text people, but I feel like it would not be taken seriously. I love that I am not crying right now (LOL). Desiree can vouch for that. We should never wait this long to feel this great about our life. We should live it everyday...
Opportunities of a lifetime. I was able to meet with two leaders this week, back to back. One makes $250k a year in Primerica and the one we met with tonight makes $700k a year. They are so humble and want success for all of us. I don't know where you can get leadership like that, but I know I get it with Primerica. We were able to spend hours with them to pick their brains about how they think. The only thing holding most people back from making the kind of income they want is how they think. I love that we have that choice.
I only got 3 hours of sleep for the last 2 days because of all these meetings, but I am so excited right now. We had a great meeting tonight and we hit our goals for today. God loves me...
Still drinking orange juice for breakfast. I decided that the first day of orange juice that I was going to drink probiotics with my orange juice to start building up the good bacteria in my colon. It worked because I am digesting normal now. I am still eating a lot of veggies. Mostly, the left over homemade minestrone I made (yum!) and a raw veggie soup that I pureed (got that recipe from goneraw.com. That soup is the bomb. I have about 4 servings in my fridge, but I am thinking I may eat that tomorrow for lunch instead.
I broke down and got some turkey as Desiree and I were brainstorming of good foods to eat during Christmas. We decided a Thanksgiving dinner version of Shepard's pie may be really yummy as most people like to mix their food. We'll see. I made the pie, but haven't really tried it all together. Tonight will be the test. I bringing it to Desiree's as soon as I am done with this blog. So I will be having turkey tonight. I gained back two pounds from just eating, but my clothes still fit the same. I am gonna work out after my appointment tonight so that I tone up. I'd rather gain weight from muscle than gain inches again. Plus, I just got all my clothes tailored, so I have 6 extra pants that will fit so nicely by next friday. How exciting!
Anyways, busy weekend ahead...as usual. Don't you love life...if you weren't always busy doing something, you'd be bored. I love it!
I had orange juice today...all day. I also made minestrone out of all these different veggies. Looks really good. I am excited about tomorrow and being able to actually eat. I'll probably eat soup all day, but that's cool by me. I don't need much. I have lost a total of 17 pounds this year by exercising, cleansing, and eating right since August. It's crazy. I now weigh around 125 lbs. I haven't weighed this much since 2004. That's nuts. That year was when I stopped dancing and started traveling all over the place.
I'm excited. I believe that I will do a lot of working out and tone up a little, instead of being skinny. I am planning on dancing again...I love dancing so much. I'm tired now. It was a good day. Still didn't feel hungry, but wanted to eat food. I felt a little weak, which is why i haven't worked out this whole time. I can't wait to start running again.
More tomorrow!
So today is going well. I am feeling good, but I miss eating. Not hungry or feeling sick at all today. I am mostly wanting to eat real food. I ran out of lemons and I can get more lemons from my brother's tree, but I think I will end the cleanse tomorrow even though it is Day 10. I'm supposed to do one more day of lemonade but I am done. I decided. This cleanse was really different. It was definitely easier to do this time, but I think my period messed some stuff up in the middle of it.
I am not planning on doing the cleanse again until Lent and I will give up cooked foods for Lent. I will do raw veggies and fruits, lemonade, and sushi! I think that should be fine for 40 days. LOL...
So with that, I am excited about my orange juice tomorrow. I already bought all the stuff for my soup which I will be making Thursday morning in a Crock Pot. I am making minestrone on Thursday and my mom is cooking me something on Friday...YAY! I can't wait to eat. Not as scared to eat as last time, but definitely looking forward to it like I did the first time.
Anyways, I got another long night. I have "dinner" appointments, so you know what that means. No eating and just watching for another 2 days. At least I can eat food by Friday.
Today is Day 8 and, boy, am I glad it's almost over. This morning was rough. I was feeling really weak and I had major cravings. It always turns out that the 8th day is really tough for me.
And I know why we drink the laxative tea at night. It's just in case the salt water flush doesn't work. The last 2 days my flush hasn't worked. Today it worked great. I was feeling really awkward the last two days because it wasn't working, although I was still eliminating on a daily basis.
I drank about 6 glasses today because of all the cravings and I did weigh myself again. The last two days have been weird and I really believe that my period had a lot to do with it. When I weighed myself this morning I weighed 2 pounds less, for a total of 5 pounds less than when I started. That's not bad, but I also know the last cleanse I was working out and I lost almost 10 pounds. I gained 3 pounds back, but I kept the rest off. So, if you count how much I have lost total this year with doing the cleanse, working out, and eating right, I have lost about 12 pounds. I am feeling good regardless of how this morning was.
We got our tree up and I love Christmas Tree lights at night as they make me go back to my childhood. It's comforting in some sort of way. Makes me want hot chocolate...LOL. Anything comforting has to do with food. Story of my life. 2 more days...YES!
Day 7...strange day. It could be a detoxing day. I feel like I am a little tired and it could be because I am not eliminating enough. I only drank 3 glasses of lemonade today. I think my metabolism is slowing down too much. I don't feel bad but I'm trying to figure out why I'm not really drinking as much as I should be.
I tried drinking more water today to flush out as much as I could. I am craving a little bit of chicken and steak. That's a little scary because I haven't craved for steak in months. The last time I had steak was during Thanksgiving, but I am getting rid of it now? That's really gross.
I haven't lost anymore weight. I am still only 3-4 pounds lighter than when I started. However, I am losing inches. Reason I know this is that I tried on all my old jeans and they fit me now. Also, my current pants are not fitting right anymore. So, something is happening. I think as long as I am feeling ok and my clothes keep getting looser and looser, something is happening.
I'm tired and I gotta wake up early tomorrow. I got a tree for our house and it's in my car, so I'll have to get it out tomorrow morning. 3 more days of lemonade...yay!
Today has been a great day. We had a very interesting training this morning and I realized that a lot of what happens to us is totally driven by how we react to it. I realized that I react negatively to a lot of things and that I need an attitude adjustment every now and then. Great lesson.
So, this is the spiritual portion of my blog. After day 6, you start really going on this journey. That's why I love this part of the cleanse. I am feeling really bloated (but that's because of Aunt Flo) and my back is hurting a little. That may have to do with my kidneys (but that's usually how I feel when I am having women issues, so it makes sense).
This morning my salt water flush did not flush. That was kinda scary. But I did go early this morning and that may have something to do with it. I still feel really good. I have a lot of energy and I am normal. My eyes are still itchy though. Kinda weird.
We also had a chance to attend a free concert with the Katina's at church today. It was great. I cried a little because I feel so blessed and I know that Jesus has everything to do with it. For example, this morning I had to make copies for my training this morning and I was running a little late. Well, I drove up to a Kinko's and it was closed. The copier at the office was acting up last Saturday so I assumed that it wasn't working. I asked God if he could make it work. I walked up to it and I got my copies. Something as little as making copies and he shows me every day that he loves me. How awesome is that. After I got my copies, I said out loud, "God loves me."
And now I am watching "Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory" (the old one), which is my all time favorite childhood movie. I think I've watched this movie about 500 times in my life. I love all the lessons it teaches...LOL. You know...things like don't drink from a chocolate river, don't eat strange looking gum,and don't be obsessed with TV.(LOL) I'm sure there are more, but those were the ones I was thinking of.
I hope tomorrow is better. I only had 5 glasses today...again. I tried on all my pants and they totally fit. YAY!
I am going to bed soon. Today was an awesome day. I decided to take the day off to organize and clean everything.
I went to dinner with my friends tonight and watched them eat my most favorite Italian food in the world. I can't wait until next Saturday. I have 5 more days after today of lemonade, then I get to drink orange juice and soup. Yay!
Still having my stomach rumbling at night. I need to go to bed earlier or something. I drank 6 glasses today. The laxative teas are actually working better this time than they were before. Before the flush was the only thing working. This time the tea makes me go as soon as I get up and then I flush whatever is left with the salt water. What's really weird is that I am losing my taste buds. My tongue is still coated with white stuff. They say you are supposed to do the cleanse until you tongue is pink. Don't know if I can do this longer than 10 days. That's usually a sign of detoxing. My seventh day is on Sunday and that's supposed to be a major detox day. We'll see.
I may plan on doing a cleanse for Lent. I may just do the lemonade and any raw food; veggies, fruits, and sushi ;) Good night...another awesome day awaits.
Half way there! Technically, I have about a week left until I have solid food. I am excited to be eating soup a week from now. I am trying to figure out what kind of soup I am gonna eat. I keep watching the food network and watching people eat food. I am supposed to go out to dinner tonight with some friends, but I will be watching them eat instead of eating. I'm ok with that. I love watching people eat at this point. I think you gotta love it because everyone is eating in front of you everyday.
It's around lunch and I haven't drank that much yet. I am just chillin' at home today. Cleaning, doing laundry, cleaning my car, all that jazz. My room is a mess, my office is a complete disaster, and my trunk looks like someone just dumped a bunch of papers in there. This is the first day I've actually sat at home and done my chores for about 2 months. Hence, why my house looks the way it does. (and I am still procrastinating because I am blogging...LOL)
So...off to clean! Busy weekend!
I am sitting in my car typing on my laptop waiting for my 5:45pm appointment today. I'll have to go the bathroom soon. I am actually on my 5th glass so I'm feeling better about how much I am drinking today.
My flush was a little weird today too. I think I may have to drink more water before I go to bed, because I didn't flush out as much as I usually do and that could be because I am not drinking as much. The only thing I am feeling is a little tummy rumbling and some slight tiredness (but I am not sure if that's coming from me working my butt off for the last week). But the laxative tea is working well. Maybe that's why. Who knows.
My theory about my eyes has been squished. They are starting to itch again! So it's not cheese! (Yay!) Another thing that I wanted to warn people about the cleanse, too, is that I started forgetting to do stuff. Not all the time, but little things that I would usually remember, I forget to do. For example, today I forgot my measuring spoon so that I could make the lemonade when I was out and about. That is not something I EVER forget. I forgot today. I forgot stuff on the last cleanse too. It's not really bad, but be warned. It's sometimes frustrating...
This is technically night so I won't have an update until tomorrow. All in all, it was a good productive day.
Man, this week is going by so fast! I'm already on Day 4...crazy! I guess this was a good week to do the cleanse as I am so preoccupied...
Holy Cow! I haven't been weighing myself like I was on the last cleanse but I have lost 3 pounds already! No way!
Today has been a crazy day. We hit our business goals, let's just hope that it's enough to send us to the Bahamas. I learned a really good lesson today. If you've done everything you know you could've done to make a situation work and it still didn't give you the results you wanted, you can feel good about at least trying. In simpler terms, trying your hardest is almost as good as winning. You never have to look back and say "what if?" I believe that if someone feels like "what if?" about any situation, they will always think that. I don't wanna look back on my life and think "what if?" I wanna play all out. I once heard a woman talk about her life like this, "I wanna be all used up by the time I die so I know that I had a full life." I want that too.
Anyways, my stomach is rumbling as I didn't drink as many glasses of lemonade today. I had about 4.5 glasses. That might be bad. I'll try to drink more tomorrow. I'm not feeling weak at all though. I actually feel like I have more energy. Weird. If I calculated this correctly, it's about 100 calories per glass of lemonade. So I only had 450 calories today. No wonder I lost 3 pounds. I am feeling really good though. Gotta go to bed. Another long day tomorrow. I'll get a bit of a break on friday. Thank God.
Today is a much better day. My salt water flush was really awkward today. It took a lot longer to go through me (about 50 minutes). I wonder what that was all about. Other than that, I am not having as many cravings as I have been the last two days. I thought it was going to be hard like the first time, but it's not that bad. I do have that forever feeling of "dang, I wanna eat food", but that's because I haven't been eating for 3 days now. That's pretty normal.
Also, I am peeing every hour and a half. It's crazy. So far, so good. We'll see about tonight. I couldn't finish the tea last night. I drank most of it, but I left some of it in the cup. I was ok with it. Will keep you posted.
You know what's weird about this time is that I am not drinking very much lemonade per day. Today I only drank about 5 glasses...I don't know if that means that my metabolism is slowing down a lot. Weird.
I am trying the regular smooth move laxative tea tonight. It actually tastes like chamomile tea. Pretty good, not a big fan, but good. They said that anything with senna leaf works for your laxative tea. Follow the directions on the tea package as each tea has a different seeping time. By the way, anyone who is reading this, I am not a doctor or am I suggesting you do the cleanse. I am just sharing my experience to help if you choose to do it. That's my little disclaimer.
I am feeling kinda tired, but that could be because I woke up at 5am to do my salt water flush before I left my house. You can't drive while doing the flush...you will hurt yourself. I actually read somewhere that you can also do the salt water even if you aren't on the cleanse. You just have to make sure that your stomach is empty (best to do it in the morning). I actually did the salt water flush two days before I started because I kept starting and stopping. But it totally worked.
Anyways, I am ready to go to bed. I decided to write on my white board near my bed how many days I have left. There's some relief when I erase the number on the board and write one day closer to solid food. Got another long day tomorrow. Gotta get up at 5am again. 10 more days! (remember even after the lemonade, you have to slowly incorporate solid food back into your diet so you have to add 2 more days to your actual cleanse)
I have lost about 1 pound so far. My eyes have also stopped itching. I believe I have some allergy of some sort to something I eat all the time. I can't put my finger on it (I have a feeling it's cheese, but I'm in denial...I love cheese!), but every time I have done the cleanse, my eyes stop itching. That is really weird too. Anyways, another awesome day to come!
Day 2 is better...kinda. I want to eat food and all I keep thinking about is what I am going to eat when I am done. But I must say that I am not hungry. There is a very distinct feeling of being hungry and just craving. You definitely learn to distinguish the two while you are on the cleanse.
I actually realized that I am a social eater. I love to eat if other people are eating. Also, I crave what other people are eating and sometimes I want it just to taste it. The smell of food is actually 75% of what is great about food. I can actually smell food and be satisfied with smelling it. French fries smell really good right now. I always crave potatoes or some kind of starch because I love that stuff.
After the first cleanse, I stopped eating so much white rice. I eat mostly brown rice or some other kind of grain (like quinoa). Red meat is something I eat maybe once every 3 months or so. It's not something I buy to cook, but I'll eat a little if it's there. I eat mostly fish and chicken for protein.
I am going to start making a list of all the things I want to eat so that next Saturday the 13th, I can actually pack up food to eat at the Big Event we have in San Jose. That's going to be an interesting day.
On a more sentimental note, my brother and Desiree got me an awesome journal for my birthday about 4 years ago and I am running out of the pages the journal came with. I called the store that they bought it from because they left me the card and they are going to try to order me refills! How exciting! I love my journal.
Let's hope we close tonight!
It's a little late and I am getting ready to go to bed. Got a long day tomorrow. I am totally craving, but I believe that it is because of all the food that I ate before this cleanse. So a word of advice for those who are planning on doing this, do not eat a lot of foods you crave for before you start as it is tough to recognize whether you are hungry or craving for a certain food. (By the way, I went to my brother's house and Desiree made tacos and burritos for dinner, which looked super yummy, and I wanted to eat that too...I wasn't hungry...I just wanted to eat)
I am now craving these strange Nori Japanese crackers that I ate about 2 days ago (because I have a bag in the cupboard), and Mexican food (probably because my fam bam was eating that for dinner tonight). The books say that when you crave something, you are actually purging it from your body and your body is wanting it back (something like that), which makes sense because of the Nori chips. I can also tell that I am detoxing because I have a slight headache (really weak) and I am really anxious. I keep telling myself it is early enough in the game to quit and I read somewhere that saying that is a detox symptom.
I am not really enjoying my laxative tea tonight. I usually have the apricot one that I found, but I decided that I would have the chocolate smooth move tea. It's ok. I still drank it. I'm worried about my salt water flush tomorrow. I gotta wake up at 5am to get it done and over with. Another note, I only drank 6 servings of lemonade today which is not normal for me because I usually start out with drinking about 8-10 servings a day. Maybe I am preoccupied. Well, going to bed. I hate that food is constantly on my mind...I guess it's better than other things...LOL.
Hi all...here we go again. I wasn't planning on blogging this, but I didn't blog the first time I did the Cleanse (I didn't have a blog back then) and I thought it might be helpful to others doing the cleanse in the future.
So today is the first day of the cleanse. I woke up a little earlier to do the salt water flush because it takes about 45 minutes to take effect. The best thing about doing the salt water flush instead of the laxative tea is that you only go #2 once a day and that's in the morning. With the laxative tea, if you do the tea at night and in the morning, you will go at least 3-5 times during the day (not really knowing when). Trust me...it's worth it to do the salt water.
I am not really feeling hungry right now. When I feel hungry, I just drink more lemonade. I can't wait until Wednesday. That's when I start feeling light again. I was reading that the amount of food stuck in our colon is actually about 3-4 pounds of our weight. So when I'm cleansing, because all I am doing is drinking lemonade, I weigh less and it feels great!
Most importantly, the cleanse is to cleanse your body. I spoke with a doctor that is one of our clients and she said that as long as you are getting your electrolytes, you should be ok. Another note, if you are not peeing every hour or two, there's a problem. The cayenne pepper is to increase your blood flow so that the toxins are eliminated quickly, which in turn, makes you pee.
I'm sure I'll be craving something starting tonight...it's always dim sum. Keep ya posted.
