Reassessing and Detox - maybe

Whoops - I've been MIA on the blogging I guess.
I just found out that I don't have school today - I guess we're not going to get above freezing to melt the ice in time for the buses to run...??? I'm not sure. We've been out all week (MLK Day and the rest for weather), but today I just don't get it unless a water pipe broke over a bridge or something....
I've lived in Tennessee for almost 4 years now and I still can't get used to what qualifies for a snow day. Growing up in Chicago, we got so much snow that they couldn't call school for it - plus, the city is flat with no winding, hilly, dangerous roads - and, of course, the city is prepared with fleets of salt trucks and plows. It's just different here. I'm having guilt about it though! :) I hope parents have solid alternative plans - maybe at the Y or at their church....I hope my kids don't get left home alone.

I always get thrown off on my eating plans when my schedule changes and this week has been no exception. Yesterday was better than Monday and Tuesday when I finished a pint of ice cream and a bunch of cookies. Today, I already packed all my food to go to school, so I might just eat that. Or...I might keep it for tomorrow when there's no way we'll be out. We'll see....

I've been trying to focus on other things besides food. I know that, for me, managing my stress and anxiety levels is crucial for being healthy, and that if I feel out of control in my life, I don't have a prayer in my diet.
My plan has now become to take on 1 or 2 healthy habits a week instead of trying to do everything at once. Thinking about it that way has helped me see how far I've come in changing my life - even though I haven't been successful with weight loss yet. I used to have trouble with even the smallest routines, like remembering to take my prescriptions on time every day, keeping the house from becoming a disaster zone, flossing...etc....
I feel like I have a really good handle on those things now. As of this morning, my house is clean and organized (redid my closet yesterday), I've had enough sleep, I'm all caught up on schoolwork, and I've had a pretty good week with my exercise. I also finished ALL of my paperwork-type things for work (until you've worked for 3 years in the district, teachers have to do a 'comprehensive evaluation' every year). Yesterday I did my nails (not painted, just neat and groomed toes and fingers) and shaved...I was going to pluck my eyebrows but my tweezers are missing. New good habits for the past few weeks also include reading before bed which I think helps me sleep more restfully and taking my multivitamin.

I feel well set-up for success now. I also feel the physical effects of the crap I've been feeding my body and am thinking of doing a detox as a jumpstart to adding healthy foods to my healthy habits. About a year ago I did the Fast-Track Fat Flush Detox - from one of Ann Louise Gittleman's books. It's an 11 day program with 7 days of getting your body ready to fast, 1 fasting day and 3 days of 'recovery'. I lost 6 pounds in the 11 days last year - Ryan lost 9. I felt great - he was hungry and crabby, so if he does it this year, he's going to add more food.
It's basically a pretty sensible combination of including certain types of foods to support your liver and intestines in cleaning up and avoiding crap.

You HAVE to eat cruciferous veggies; leafy greens; citrus; 'sulfur-rich foods' (I choose garlic and daikon radishes); 'liver healers' (I choose artichokes, celery, whey protein, nutritional yeast, beets and dandelion tea...which tastes like dirt, by the way); fiber from carrots, apples, pears, berries, and/or flaxseeds; protein (for me, the vegetarian, this is pretty limited - I can have whey protein, and blue green algae in smoothies, I can have beans, but it will slow weight-loss, and I can have tofu but not more than 2-3 times); lots of room-temp water (half your body weight in ounces), and 1-2 tbsp. of healthy oils (flaxseed or olive)

You CAN'T eat non-healthy fats or too much fat; any sugar including honey and maple syrup; artificial sweetners; refined carbs; gluten; soy-protein isolates like in fake meat products and protein bars; alcohol; caffeine; over the counter drugs; cheese and milk

That's the first 7 days - I have to go back and read the book again, but I think the last 3 days are the same, but you get to add in yogurt. There's some supplements I need to review as well.

I'm not clear about this - but I think if it's not on the 'avoid' list, you can have it. Oh! And you're supposed to drink unsweetened cranberry juice mixed with water on the fast day and the rest of the days too.

So, I think we're going to start that Saturday.
Right now I'm going to take advantage of my snow day and get myself off to the gym, come home and do some classwork and then go to class this afternoon.

No Excuses

Wow! I actually had two good days in a row. It's very exciting to write 'good days' in my labels.
I can't believe how quickly I can change from feeling just horrible and humiliated and dejected to feeling pretty proud and confident. It's like - once I find that place where I get back on track (literally, I feel like a train that went off the track....and just got scooted back on for a smooth ride) I just snap out of it. I feel like, when I'm not on plan, there's this frantic energy...guilt, food obsession, saddness, humiliation, hopelessness, anxiety...all wrapped up in a depressing ball. When I manage to focus on the small decisions and just build my confidence back up - it's like that melts away...Good stuff!
Yesterday was rough - I was sooo exhausted, I got sidetracked several times, and I got upset by getting sent one of those obnoxious 'we say Merry CHRISTmas e-mails' at work**(see my rant below if you care to), but didn't use it as an excuse not to exercise or to get off plan. Today I was so sore from my workout yesterday. I felt like I had cramps and my arches of my feet were killing me. But I put in my old Step Reebok workout and did all 45 miserable minutes of it. (I DO like exercise, but it's freaking hard! Too many lunges!). I struggled and wanted to quit the whole time, and a few times I had to take a break to gulp water and stagger around the house gasping for air, but I got back on that darned step every time and felt great when it was over.
I didn't have many cravings today either. I ate an apple at breakfast, an Amy's tamale pie frozen thing (only 2 points!) at lunch, a Choco-walla Odwalla meal replacement bar for snack, Ryan's awesome shepherd's pie for dinner (fresh green beans, fresh corn, tofu, potatoes, asiago/parmesan/romano cheese blend baked on top). Yum! A chunk of raw red cabbage (I know, I'm weird - I could almost always eat red cabbage or broccoli...or chocolate). And then I had 1 1/2 Dove miniatures and a small square of Green and Black's dark chocolate for dessert. I recorded it all and wound up with .5 points left to spare :) I didn't even have to dip into my APs or WPs. Good, good day.

Oh! And! I just looked out the window and there's snow on the ground! Good because I love and miss snow. Good because I get a snow day to clean my house, do some reading, sleep and work out tomorrow. Not so good because I really wanted to finish some projects up with my kids at school. Not so good because some of the kids were supposed to get to go see a middle school production of The Nutcracker tomorrow. But...hey....I'm sure they're alright with the trade-off. I won't feel too bad for them :)


WARNING: VERY GROUCHY 'WE SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS'-EMAIL RANT...getting it off my chest....
**I just don't see that issue as being about faith - #1 - it's very divisive and confrontational, #2 - I kind of see there as being 2 Christmases - there's the religious Christmas and the commercial Christmas. They're not the same - lots of secular people 'celebrate' the commercial version just as an American cultural tradition, and the religious version means a lot to a lot of people...so I just think the whole argument about one corporation saying 'Merry Christmas' and another carrying stock for Kwanzaa and Hannukah and saying 'Happy Holidays' is less about religion than consumerism...and why (as this email said) does government not publicly favoring one religion over another 'take away our faith' (that's absurd! faith is personal...) and why do you feel that words like 'inclusive, sensitive and diversity' are "used to intimidate' you?! A lot of people dismiss those terms as PC b.s. but I take them very much to heart. As a teacher, the last thing I would ever want is any child to feel at all outcast or singled out because their personal, home-life/religion is not the majority and is therefore completely shunned. I think religion should be taught at home and at church and diversity taught at school. Schools shouldn't (and in my experiences, don't) prevent religious practice. Silent time is allowed for prayer...But, we shouldn't be seen as 'sponsoring' one group's faith. When I was in Chicago, I felt everyone was represented. Now, in the Bible Belt, it's all Santa and the music teacher even has a bulletin board up with a manger scene and a quote saying "Unto us a child is born". This would never fly if the school wasn't majority Christian. I really think it's inappropriate. We should cover holidays as cultural study and use the season as our focus. Everything doesn't have to be Santa and Christmas trees...there's so much we could do with just winter as a theme. For example, I have decorations up in my classroom - there's a Santa and reindeer window cling, and Christmas stocking garland, but there's also Hannukah garland and most of the stuff is neutral (snowflakes, snowmen, Nutcracker, penguin....kids love it...they don't need me to push religious content on them...I've seen Jehovas Witness children stay out of school around holidays like Halloween and Christmas because the schoolday is so overwhelmed with this stuff...it just makes me sad)
#3 WHY was I sent this in my work email? Talk about inappropriate. #4 - The person who sent this to me is a fellow ESL teacher - someone who should really take to heart the effects that subtle instances of hegemony can have on the psyche of minorities....anyway...this issue just pushes my buttons...just one of those things, I guess. Arg!