Staying Clean

Feeling Better

I’m feeling better, but still not all the way right, just about 88%.  (I don’t know how I came up with that random number, it just sounded right, LOL)… I have so much to say, I don’t know where to start.  I guess I’ll start with Monday.  I forced myself to go to my Weight Watcher Meeting even though I wasn’t feeling well.  I gained less than half a pound, which is relatively minor considering I cruised and boozed for a whole weekend and haven’t been able to work out.  But, I was very strict with my points when I got back from vacation….  Later, when I got home from the WW meeting, I saw my neighbor walking across the street carrying a giant trash bag over his shoulder Santa Claus style.  He had this crazy look in his eye.   And me being the nosy person I am, asked “Neighbor is everything okay?”  He said something, but with an ear infection in both ears it was hard to hear anything.  I asked again and he said “I’m about to start some Beef”  (which is ghetto terminology for a grudge or a fight with somebody.)  Then I asked “Beef with who?”  He explained to me that he caught his Baby Mama cheating, while he works hard every day to keep food on the table, and he proceeded to tell me that it was her stuff in the bag, that he was putting her out, and that he was going to pour soda on everything!”  I told him I was sorry about his situation and then he tried to hit on me.  Not literally y’all….  You know what I mean, he started flirting with me.  I politely declined, and he said “that’s okay, I’ll give you time to think about it.”  ….I went in my house and peeped though the mini blinds and by that time her clothes were scattered from the street to the porch.  Assumingly, drenched in soda.  I hadn’t seen anything this exciting on my block since that day, that girl demolished that cheating man’s car.  By the time I looked again, her cousin was helping clean up everything.   This morning, I saw the neighbor guy carrying a mattress.  I just smiled and waved and decided to mind my own business, like everything was normal.   Anyway enough ghetto drama, today it was soooo HOT outside.  Like, you know how the heat hits your face when you open the oven when you’re cooking?  That’s how it felt every time you stepped outside today.  So of course Me and my friend took our weekly walk indoors to the gym.  I knew I had to do Week 2 of my running plan.  After the first 90 second interval run, I was like Ha! I’m Carli to the Fierce, this is easy.  But after the 3rd interval run, I was struggling,…wondering where all my fierceness disappeared to.  My calves were burning and my ankle was hurting.  I tried to focus on the music, and write my blog post in my head to help me think about something else.  I finally finished all 6 intervals, and completed a mile and a half.  My friend was still walking, and I sat sweating in a chair and just watched.  I didn’t feel like doing anything extra.  But it did feel good to finally be back on my running plan.  I’m ready for the next day!

Liquid Satan and Cookies

The two things I gave up, Liquid Satan and cookies. A while back, after reading the book Skinny B!tch, I and learned about all of the harmful ingredients in soda pop aka “Liquid Satan”, and I decided to stop drinking it. It was really hard, I realized I was actually addicted to the caffeine and had a nasty little soda habit. However after a couple of weeks I stopped craving it. The low calorie mix-ins that you add to water, helped during the tough times. I just realized that lately, I haven’t told you guys how it was working out for me. I’m still soda-free! I don’t even really think about it that much anymore. Throughout the day, I always drank at least 5 cups of water, and it was hard not having something with flavor with meals. But as Roni said, drinking water is an acquired taste just like beer or coffee …. One night I had a lot to do, and “needed” a soda for the caffeine boost. I bought my all time favorite kind, Mountain Dew code red. It tasted awful, I mean really awful, like plastic, it just tasted fake and gross. I never thought in a million years that I would say that! ….When I came back home on Monday and saw that last box of Girl Scout cookies, I said to myself, did I really go to LA and decide to give up cookies? I kinda panicked. What the heck was I thinking? Who gives up cookies? I LOVE cookies…I could eat cookies everyday…then I thought…oh yeah, that’s why….While I was in LA there were free cookies everyday at the training center. After I made my decision to give them up,it was easier to resist. To me it’s easier to totally give them up instead of tricking myself into believing that I can eat just one and be satisfied. Well I’m still adjusting to losing 3 hours (switching from pacific to central time zone, in addition to day light saving time). So, I think I’ll call it a night.

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B- Oatmeal and a Protein Shake
L- Grilled Chicken Sandwich w/ chz and a side salad
S- Popcorn
D- Meat loaf, sweet potatoes and broccoli
S- ate a muffin, had a sweet craving

Nothing to Brag About

Hey Guys.  Today was just like the title said, Nothing to brag about.  I haven’t worked out since Monday, and I’ve been eating sooo bad.  Breakfast was okay, I had a Fiber One granola bar, lunch was fried rice and the best crab rangoon from a Thai restaurant downtown.  Somehow 2 giant cookies managed to sneak in, or was it three?  Ugh, I feel so fat. For dinner I went to one of those run of mill award banquets with my Dad’s job.  You know, with the round table chairs too close together and long winded speakers.  The creme brulee was deliciously fantastic and I’m sure artery clogging all at the same time.  It was however, actually entertaining, at the begining when about 50 protesters crashed the party.  They went up on the stage and chanted ‘We Want Jobs!, Give Us Jobs’, through a megaphone.  Most of us thought it was a skit, and a part of the program, until they turned the stage lights out, and security ushered them off the stage.  Only in America!…On another note, I can however, proudly say, I’m sticking to my ban from soda.  I haven’t had one in forever.  I still crave one from time to time, but I try to focus on the big picture instead of my immediate desire for a caffeine jolt.  It’s so funny, when I tell people I just recently quit drinking soda, they all shriek back in horror and say “WHY????”  You would think told people I started doing illegal drugs or something the complete opposite of what I’m really doing (getting healthy).  Today at work, one lady told me she was a Coke addict and can easily drink 12 cans a day! I told her about the ingredient they put in there that’s also used to make the fireworks whistle.  Hopefully it will influence her as much as it influenced me.  Knowledge is power.   Note to Self: Just because the cookies and the creme brulee were Free, it doesn’t mean you had to eat it.

Kicking the Habit

You would think with a title like that, I would taking about quitting smoking, but nope, I’m talking about my naughty little caffeine/soda habit.  I didn’t even realize it, but I was kicking back 2 or 3 sodas everyday.  I drank a soda with lunch, a pick me up during the afternoon, and one with dinner.  It was crazy how many sodas I was actually drinking.  It wasn’t until I read that book, and the authors referred to soda as “liquid Satan”, and explained all of the horrible ingredients and awful side effects that I realized how bad it really was.  The label of one of my favorite soda cans (Coke Zero) reads as follows: carbonated water, caramel color, phosphoric acid (used for rust removal), aspartame (causes cancer), potassium benzoate, (prevents mold growth and used as the whistle in fireworks) natural flavors (ummm…care to elaborate?), potassium citrate (has regulated OTC use by the gov), acesulfame potassium (also causes cancer), caffeine, PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE (harmfulto people with a certain genetic disorder and pregnant women).  What in the world is all that crap???!!!  If you can’t pronounce it, maybe you shouldn’t be putting it in your body….  The first couple days of going clean from soda was awful.  I had a horrible horrible headache, and a bad attitude.  I was fussing a people, and honking the horn during traffic jams.  All of the crazy side effects of caffeine withdrawal are what made me really realize how bad of a drug it really is.  My body was so used to taking it in on a daily basis that I actually had psychological and physical withdrawal symptoms.  Thats just way too extreme, my body should be able to function naturally without the need for any extra drug to keep me going.  I can confidently say that I’m glad I made this decision to quit.    There were also a lot of good side effects that I hadn’t anticipated.  My skin is brighter and clearer, my “bad” knee is not giving me much trouble as it normally does, especially when its cold outside.  And I don’t go to the bathroom as much.  That’s probably way too much info, but it’s the truth. I used to the bathroom all the time, and let me you, my bathroom time has been cut in half! I used to think, okay, that’s just me, I pee a lot.  But now, I wonder was it really from drinking all of these sodas?… Overall I’m very happy that I made the decision to kick the soda habit….on another note, I’ve been studying more aggressively for my Group Fitness Instructor test.  In the 1st chapter of my course book it defines physical fitness as “someone who is physically fit, is able to have a better quality of life.”  That little statement really resonated with me, because I think back to when I was so heavy that getting out of the car was a chore, walking down the street was a challenge, even walking up the stairs to my apartment was difficult.  Once I became more physcially fit, and didn’t have all of that extra weight, litterally weighing me down, I did and still do, have a much better quality of life.  Physical Fitness is not optional, it’s something that we need in order to live a full life.