The Write-Off Day – Healing Journey Day 23

Journal:
So, today was a planned write-off. Yes, I planned it as a write-off. Now that the day is over, am I regretting it? Yes, actually I am. I feel like I just started cleansing the little bit of cooked food out of my system thoroughly with my banana day and my juice day, and I’ve filled myself with stuff that may stuff-up my digestion all over again. And since today was a planned write-off day, I made a few mistakes that I will explain.

This morning, I had to get up at 6:00 am to get a shower and get ready to leave. I received four pears in my latest Organic Box that looked ready to go. So I figured they would be an easy breakfast to eat quickly. However, I don’t think they were ripe enough because the one pear that I did eat was not good. So I only managed to eat half before throwing it out. That did not work. I did manage to pack some red grapes and a plum for the drive, but between being tired and talking, I only managed to eat about a cup of grapes before arriving for our day-long meeting.

So why didn’t I just take juice with me on this day? Well, being that the meeting was in a church, I didn’t feel right taking a large bottle of juice in with me. That being said, I only have one small water bottle to take with me and that would not last me the day. Yes, I could have left juice in the car, but if it was hot, the juice could have gone bad. And not just that, I didn’t take my own car as I carpooled with someone else so I would have had to bother them for the keys each time I needed to refill my bottle. So that is why I allowed myself a write-off day. Again, if I could go back, I would have put in the extra effort to take the juice, but we live and learn… right? I’m making these mistakes for you so you can learn from me. That’s the whole purpose of sharing this journey with you.

So during the meeting, I started getting hungry. They had given us a new bottle of water, but I didn’t eat enough in the morning to concentrate for four hours until lunch. So I dug around in my bag and found a crunchy peanut Clif bar. Was it good? It was alright. It actually was probably just like I remembered them: good but with a zing that is not my completely favourite part. However, it held me over until lunch.

For lunch, they had a catering company come in. I actually have had the food from this company before during one of our conference-wide teacher’s meetings. I had bean sprout salad, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, rice-filled cabbage rolls, corn, steamed veggies, sautéed veggies (could have done without this one), a whole-grain bun and some vegan meatballs in a sweet and sour sauce. There were no vegan desserts, so I did not indulge in that. I mean, the food was an awesome break from the sweetness of juices. It was definitely a savoury meal. BUT I lost interest about halfway through the meal and wished I had my juice. Man, it’s so weird learning how my body has changed. It really is. I was not tempted whatsoever by the non-vegan items there (again, they don’t serve meat but a lot are vegetarian so dairy is an issue). And even though I’ve been wanting savoury things for such a long time, a little goes a long way.

Following lunch, we had another four and a half hours of meeting. Thankfully, I got a lot of work done while the meeting was going on as I had brought work with me. So really, it was not a total waste of a day. I at least was being productive! Naturally, I was not hungry whatsoever as this food was heavy in my stomach. I didn’t even finish the plate… I honestly couldn’t. I can’t eat what I used to!

When the meeting was finally over, we headed over to what used to be the ABC store. They recently changed the name of it and I honestly can’t remember what it is! But either way, they sell all kinds of vegan and vegetarian food items as well as books and all kinds of music and kid’s things. It’s one of my favourite stores. Since we didn’t have a lot of time and I was also catching up with a friend in the store, I grabbed a quick treat of vegan jerky for the trip home. Now this is something I shouldn’t have done. I didn’t really need it. This is when I discovered that old habits die hard! Even when I have a “write-off” day, I need to remember that just because I can have something doesn’t mean I have to. It’s better not to stuff yourself with junk that you will regret later. Really decide if it’s worth it instead of just doing it. Again, learn from me.

We didn’t get home until 7:00 pm. It truly was a late day. In my e-mail, a few days ago, I received a coupon for a free 6″ sub at Subway. So I decided that I would get supper from there. I had a 6″ veggie sub with almost all the veggies, a bit of mustard and some sweet onion sauce. I know it may sound weird, but it’s actually good. It was much lighter than lunch so it sat a little better in my stomach. Still, I’m looking forward to my juice day tomorrow. How weird is that?

The weird thing about coming home after Subway though was my spurt of energy. I just had so much energy that I went out to my stairs and did 2 sets of 10 step ups for each leg on them. Random energy bursts to exercise? I support this! And I wasn’t even done yet…

I went and sat down for a few minutes, but decided I still had some more energy to go. So I put on some good music and did a “Fight Club Workout”. It went something like this:
1. Warm-up: 5 minutes of a basic left and right punch
2. 12 Lunges with Front Kicks (each side)
3. 1 minute of the warm-up
4. 12 Turn, Block, and Punches (each arm)
5. 1 minute of the warm-up
6. 12 Head Crushers (each side)
7. 1 minute of the warm-up
8. 12 Push-Ups (on my knees)
9. 1 minute of the warm-up
Repeat circuit one more time.

Man, it was such a fun workout. I was a bit worried as I heard quite a bit of “snapping” as I threw punches (I’ve had absolutely no training in this area) but I don’t think I injured myself so it’s all good!

After the fun workout, I made a mango smoothie. Oh my goodness! I wasn’t going to take a picture today because I try not to encourage eating the food that shouldn’t be eating yet (aka I should be on juices and thus should only show juice pictures) but these mangoes were DELICIOUS! I bought these 14 mangoes about a week ago and they were hard as a rock. Only 4 of them have softened so I’m still waiting for the others. But these 4 were so good and made such a delicious drink. Now these I could eat all day. I’m really beginning to think that if I had properly ripened fruit in the right seasons, this journey would be going a lot better than it is. But we do the best with what we got! I mean, do you see the colour of this thing? So good…

After drinking my super satisfying smoothie, I got ready for bed. It has been a long but good day. I’m hoping this will be the start of a slightly easier work week!

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is the same.
-Digestion on hold… again…
-Heavier stomach feeling from eating so much.
-Thick saliva again.
-Hair is so-so greasy feeling today. Still a little better than normal.
-Energy was awesome today.
-Very productive.

Weight at the end of the day = 182.6 lbs (up 8 lbs from yesterday! Woah!)

Total Calories = approx. 2560 (56% carbs, 21% fat, 23% protein… I ate a lot today! I’m actually surprised the macro split isn’t worse than this!)

Day 1 in Review

Hello everyone!

As promised, I will tell you what my days are like, and what I may struggle with.

I have gotten quite a few ideas from different vegans, however, today I decided to go with Freelee’s sample meal plan in a way that I could do it.

For breakfast, I’m having pulpy orange juice. That way I’m still getting in some of the fibre, and filling up on some yummy oranges. She suggests drinking 2L just for breakfast! I would have loved this as a kid, and still enjoy it today! I don’t think this is something I will do everyday, simply because I know it is important to get the full fibre in of a full fruit, but every once in awhile, it’s a nice, healthy “treat”!

For supplements with my breakfast (I’ll quit taking them as soon as I run out though…), I’m taking 2 probiotics (to make sure my digestion doesn’t do anything funny on the switch in diet), biotin (for hair and nail growth), and vitamin D (it just snowed again today!). I am planning on taking vitamin D still on days that I don’t get outside in the sun much, and also planning on taking B12 which apparently is difficult to get enough of on many different diets, not just vegan. Aside from those two, I will not continue the others once I am done with them, unless I need to. I also took two green chews (using to help me adjust until I’m eating a sufficient amount of greens each day), and some multivitamins (which I will also stop taking once they are done).

For a snack, I again took Freelee’s suggestion and drank some more pulpy orange juice. Like I said, it’s amazing! But I don’t think I would do this more than once or twice a week. It’s good to get a variety of fruits and veggies in too!

In total, I drank approximately 2.63L of pulpy orange juice. I did not even feel hungry at lunch! I’m in love.

Now, I was little worried that because I was drinking so much orange juice, and no water, that my urine would show up as dehydrated (darker yellow). After all, as a kid, you grow up thinking this is the case, usually because it’s not pure orange juice you were drinking. But nope! It was really clear. I was very hydrated! That’s the power of real things (no additives).

I got really busy at work (teaching, of course), and did not get a chance to eat anything else throughout the afternoon. I thought I had a deadline for certain files to be in my students’ records. Although I was done getting them to do their part, I wanted to grade them quickly before I sent them to their files. So I was grading like a mad-woman! When I was done with one stack, and about to tackle the next (after school), I took the one stack to our special needs coordinator. She was so excited I was done with them and was the first one. I looked at her and asked her why I was the first one when the deadline was tomorrow. She then proceeded to tell me the deadline was a week from tomorrow. I had the date completely wrong! Ugh… Oh well, I’d rather have things done earlier than later. I didn’t mark the second stack though. I went home.

I was so hungry when I came home, and so excited at the same time. I had just subscribed to a service called The Organic Box. They deliver fresh, organic produce to you once a week. You’re able to customize that you want, and it’s just amazing. So I got my first box today, and was so excited as I brought it in the house and was taking everything out. In fact, it inspired my supper.

For supper, I had a big salad with 50/50 mixed greens from Organic Girl, berries from my Organic Box (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries), rainbow carrots from my Organic Box, field cucumber from my Organic Box, some sunflower seeds and soya nuts that I had, and topped with a mixture I made of avocado, salsa, lemon and a touch of vegan cream cheese. Oh it was so delicious and fresh tasting. Absolutely loved it!

Unplanned, but when we got to the gym, they have a Booster Juice and my husband wanted one of their smoothies. They have these vegetarian wraps that are super tasty, so I got one of those. I’m not sure this was vegan… That was my mistake. I will have to check another time.

My workout went well. I did a 10 minute warm-up on the treadmill, did some push-ups, some kettebell and 10-lb plate squats (hold the plate straight out in front of you), planks, foam rolling, shoulder rolls, standing alternating toe touches, my chiropractor exercises, and a 20 minute brisk walk on the treadmill.

Usually when I do cardio, I take it as my chance to read. I’ve conquered quite a few books this way because I have so much going on the rest of the time. Right now, I’m reading a book called “Skinny B***h”. I don’t swear, ever, so I will not type it out, sorry. But it is a super good book so far (minus some swearing/harsh language), but the information is awesome. The two ladies that wrote it are actually vegan and they explain why they’ve made this choice and why people should make that choice throughout the first chapters of the book. Love it.

After we came home, I took some mini, organic sweet potatoes that I had and cooked them up. One had gone mouldy in the bag, but didn’t seem to effect the others. I was so deceived. I cooked up about four of them, took them out of the peel and mashed them together, had a couple good bites, then took a bite that was potently terrible. In fact I had to spit it back out, clean my mouth out, gargle and the works. Oh that was so terrible. I didn’t go on eating anything more last night. That had ruined my appetite.

Following this, I went to bed.

Week 12 Day 1: Squat Victory and Tips!

I can’t believe this is the last week of the challenge. Oh man. And you know, I started this challenge with the mindset of: I have to win! I’m proud to say I’m finishing this challenge with the mindset of: I don’t care if I win, I’ve come so far in my mentality and strength. I’m happy!

Today was another low-key day. It’s warmer outside, (-25 C) but still not something you want to go take a walk in.

More household chores got done (I’m so productive in the morning!), and we went out for groceries. We also stopped by the school to see if my car would start. Now, keep in mind that car has been sitting in deep snow, not plugged in, for 3 days. Absolutely frozen. Yet, what did that car do when my husband turned the key? Started as if it were a warm, summer day outside. Man, I love that car! I can understand its initial shock to the temperature and storm on Friday. I can sympathize about that. But it got used to the fact the weather is here, and it amazed me by starting and running without a problem! What a car!

We went home after our errands to eat before the gym. My husband just happened to fall asleep and took a nap. And it just so happened that a girl posted a couple squatting videos that were about 45 minutes in total. The videos reviewed everything that you should do right and everything that you could do wrong when it comes to squats. It literally broke the whole process down step by tiny step. It was so convenient these videos were posted today because I had to do squats today. I took many mental notes, and looked forward to trying this out. After all, squats have been a 3-year frustration for me.

When we got to the gym, I did my quick 5-minute warm-up on the treadmill. I then got ready and headed straight for the squat rack. I did my first set of 15 with much lower weight than normal (65 lbs) focussing on all the tips for my squats. I felt really good about them, but of course it’s always easier for someone to watch you and critique. So I went and got my husband. I simply did one rep, and my husband freaked out that I did it perfectly! I then explained to him what I had watched, the step-by-step of what I did, and just was so happy. 3 years of frustration, finally, finally fixed.

It took a long time for me to finish my 4 sets of squats. I was so focused on making sure my squat was in proper form, and adding weight each time. I was so tired and sore by the time I was done, and yet I had 8 more exercises to do. All of them were 4 sets today of 12-15 reps. I fought crying so many times. I could barely walk. But somehow, I managed to get through the workout, and went home without an ounce of energy to spare. It was killer. Cardio wasn’t even a thought today. I was dead.

We did go home, and we ate and got ready for bed. My poor body was used and needed the rest. What an awesome, awesome workout.

**If you are interested in watching these videos as well, here are the links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPNmkTIQTpM&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtPN-ftmxG8&feature=youtu.be

Week 1 Day 1

So today it began. I wasn’t prepped the way I wanted to be, but you can’t freeze time.

It started this morning with being tired. Being tired is significant in this case because I didn’t get up when I wanted to which meant that my food didn’t get cooked like I wanted it to. Thankfully, half the meals I planned did not require cooking, so I grabbed those ingredients and threw them in a bag to take to work.

There is something to be said for eating on plan. The food choices are better, the health level increases dramatically, and you just feel better. I have to admit: I’ve been eating so bad lately. Eating out a lot, and eating a lot of junk. I can’t tell you what a blessing it was to eat healthy food today. My body just felt great.

So right now, I’m on 1850 calories with up to an extra 300 calories around my workouts. If planned with junk food, this takes no time to fill. But planned with healthy food, it’s so just right. I haven’t felt hungry all day!

The workout was designed with a 5 minute cardio warm-up, a circuit of 5 whole body exercises, and I finished with 25 minutes on the elliptical.

It’s late, and I’m tired, but I feel good. I’m just drinking some water, BCAAs, and eating a bowl of rice/haddock/eggs. Quite the combo I must say, but those are the items I hadn’t managed to cook earlier so I’m eating them now.

I’m going to be so tired, but I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. I’m ready to win this challenge!

The Famous “Bounceback”

I wrote a post a long time ago about being sick, and coming back to the gym. How my body surprised me, and the determination of not giving up. Well, today’s post is kind of on that track, but with a different twist. One that even shocked me.

I wrote yesterday of how I badly hurt my quad the night before. I took extra special care of it yesterday, trying not to overuse it, and just watching it closely. Once I finally got outside for morning recess with my students (after a VERY stressful morning), I simply sat on the ground in the shade and relaxed (don’t worry, I could see all the students from where I was sitting, teacher’s duty never ends…).

I got up and noticed it felt mostly better, though not quite all the way. So I decided to do a “sample” squat. It went ok, but I wasn’t sure what adding weight to it would do so I just continued to be careful throughout the day.

As I was on my way home, I began pondering what I should do to workout. I couldn’t really do chest or back or arms and shoulders because they were already done and I needed to do shoulders and arms again the next day. So the only option was not to go to the gym, or take a chance and do legs. Can you guess what I did? Took a chance. After all, it was one of my most stressful days at work. Almost everything had gone wrong.

When I got to the gym, I started thinking about what I was going to do. As is super important, I knew I had to warm-up that leg. NEVER take a chance on stressing muscle groups without some type of warm-up. It’s safer in the long run. For my warm-up, I got on the treadmill for 10 minutes. Normally I’d suggest a 5 minute warm-up, but because I was recovering from an injury, I did double to be sure. I kept it at a walking pace, and only added a small incline after the first 5 minutes. This seemed to go pretty well.

Next, I headed to the women’s workout room. I’m not afraid of working out in front of men, in fact that doesn’t bother me at all. What does bother me is that sometimes the gym is SO PACKED and the women’s room never seems to be that bad, and that was the case last night. Especially with my leg being the way it was, I wasn’t sure how “fast” I’d be according to the men’s standards. The women’s section is a calmer place.

Once I got in there, I decided to jump in a try the squats. I used a very lightweight, 40 lb barbell. I used sumo stance. These didn’t really hurt but instead gave me a feeling to know I needed to still be careful. I actually succeeded in my 3 sets of 20 which surprised me, but I knew I shouldn’t persist past that. No need to aggravate the injury. I then tried some sumo deadlifts with the same weight, but my leg wasn’t having any of that. So I headed for the leg press.

The leg press I used was the type that pushes your seat back. Normally, I would just do normal squats and deadlifts, but I figured the extra support might be a little better for a day like today. What happened next blew me away. The press had been left at a weight of 135. I decided not even to attempt that and dropped it to 55 lb. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 75 lbs. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 95 lbs (what I normally do on free weight squats), I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 115 lbs. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 135 lbs. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 155 lbs. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 175 lbs. I did 30 reps. And it was at this point I stopped. Not from pain, not from exhaustion even. But from the simple fact I knew my leg may not feel it now, but it would later. I honestly couldn’t believe it: that I mentally was able to keep going, and that my leg not only held up, but went so heavy! I began thinking that maybe my legs have been under-recovered.

Next, I went for 2-30 second planks. These went by so easily.

After that, I went for the abductor and adductor machines. Adductor was so, so, so good. I haven’t done exercises for my adductors in so long, and it just felt so good. But again, I was doing 30 reps a set and continued increasing the weight until I was raw sore. Phenomenal. The abductor, well, significantly weaker than my adductors, but that’s ok. They still hurt me today, but I pushed them as hard as I could.

That pretty much concluded my workout, aside from the fact I forgot to mention that I did a set of 30-35 reps of calf raises in between each set of squats, but I’m just blown away and still am. That was such a GREAT workout, and only a day after injury? I never do that heavy of weight normally (except sumo squats was lower), and NEVER have gotten up to the amount of reps I used yesterday. I am in awe of what a body is capable of, of what a dedicated mind can do, of the punishment our bodies is able to handle and keep going. We ARE God’s greatest creation, and He must have put so much work into us. How much we doubt ourselves daily, how little our brains allow us to do, and yet here’s our body, just waiting for its orders so it can show us how much more it can conquer.

Love your body. Push your limits. See what amazing things you can do!

Well, It Looked Like A Good Idea…

Last night, arriving at the gym later than I wanted, being much more tired than was good, I knew the first thing I needed to do to warm-up was 10 minutes of kicking (roundhouse, high kicks, modified kicks, all kicks!). Excellent source of cardio and use of legs, though now I know to do it AFTER leg workout and maybe not so much before.

As I’m looking around, trying to figure out where I’m going to do this (new gym doesn’t have a punching bag), I notice a lady on a treadmill that is walking and kicking. I thought this idea was GENIUS. Then you don’t have to worry about jumping back and forth. Just step and kick with the other leg! Then by the time you put the kicking foot down, the other foot can just go up for the kick. No walking or jumping included!

So naturally, I go into the woman’s workout room to try this (no need to make a fool of myself in front of more people should something go wrong). I set the treadmill on a low speed, and begin. At first it was all adjustment of learning how fast to kick vs. how fast the treadmill was going. But it seemed AMAZING. More focus on the kicking, less focus on the extra foot movement.

It was kind of like this picture except I allowed my body to go back a little further, and had full extension kicks instead of just knee lifts.

I thought it went well, albeit I know I’m a little awkward when kicking. I really should get some more training with this. But it was after, when I went to start my squat warm-ups, that I realized an all-of-a-sudden strip of pain down my quad. Oh my goodness. I stopped, waited a minute and tried again. The pain kept pulling. So I stopped again. Waited another minute, tried again, and realized it was just getting worse.

I had to stop. Which is something I rarely do. The pain was not going away. Did I do it during my squat warm up? No idea. Hasn’t happened during a warm up before… Did I do it during my kicking? I’m thinking so. It’s something I don’t normally do. Could it be a result of hardly sleeping leading to very little recovery? Also a possibility. It’s really hard to say.

Naturally, I went and rolled, and rolled, and rolled. It hurt, it was painful, but it needed to be done. Then, I stretched, and stretched, and stretched. Again, it hurt, it was painful, but it needed to be done. Did the pain go away like I had hoped? Nope. In fact, it almost felt worse afterward, but nothing can help repair an injury like stretching can do. So instead of doing my leg workout, I ended up doing my back workout. Even though I was able to complete it, it still was modified since I was shifting most of my weight on my uninjured leg. Even though my lower body was shifted, I tried my best to centralize my upper body. You gotta do the best you can with what you got.

I couldn’t do the cardio I wanted, and even though I left the gym last night feeling defeated and upset, I made myself question the whole thing. I can’t push my body to destruction. It’s better to recover now than not be able to fully recover later. And missing one cardio session will not make me fat. My body needed recovery, and that’s what I had to do.

If you get an injury, don’t give up, but don’t push it to the max. Remember that some recovery (which does require minimal work) is what will help you in the long run. Listen to your body as it knows best (notice there is a difference between body and brain!!). And most of all, take recovery seriously. Your body cannot build, repair or produce the results you want if it does not get the down time to do it. You only get one body, so let’s treat them the best possible.