I’ve been in Ireland for the past month, away from home and all the things I had set up for myself and my success in this challenge: food scale, measuring utensils, body scale and measuring tape, weights, and probably most importantly – the ability to do my own grocery shopping. This has made me feel out of sorts and like I lack control. I am now heading back to my “normal” life and have given a lot of thought to what I need to do in order to make the next nine weeks the most successful in terms of the challenge.
Whenever I feel like I need a reset for my body, there are a couple of things I like to do and which I will now do. I will start with a 48 hour fast which started on the flight back. No food for 48 hours – just water, tea and coffee. This will end at noon on my second day at home which works out perfectly as it will allow me to open up my 8-hour intermittent fasting feeding window in the middle of the work day. At this time, I will do a four-day smoothie cleanse which consists of three smoothies the first day, followed by two smoothies and two small meals the second through fourth days. Additionally, the fast will put me into a 21-day sugar cleanse where the only sugar I will consume will come from fruits. I love doing all these things but have never really attempted to do them all at once. My hope is that this will “shock” my body into burning fat and sugar and give me optimal results. Having done this 21-sugar cleanse in the past, I know how hard the first two weeks are but how GOOD I feel after two weeks. If I have learned anything about myself during this challenge, it is that I do much better with strict healthy eating rules than if I give myself a lot of leeway, at least at the beginning of it.
I really want to go hard on these last 9 weeks and see what I am made of. I will document this process as best as I can in terms of moods, energy, sleep, weight loss and inches lost. I am super excited about it because I am really motivated to give it my all (and because I have never documented these things in the past and am so curious as how I will come out of it!). To all this, I will also add workouts 3-4 times a week and average 10,000 steps a day. Wish me luck!
Week 1
Starting thoughts: feel bloated, energy seems fine but I don’t feel motivated to work out like I had been the first two months of the challenge. Really looking forward to feeling as good as I did before the holidays and enjoying this no excuses mindset I currently have. I know it is going to be tough, but unlike previous times, I have the added benefit of knowing how good I feel once I get past the hump. Ordered my first instacart groceries so I feel ready to go!
