Sleepless

It's been a busy week. I've averaged about 6 hours of sleep/night, which is much less than usual for me. I've had something going on every night, which has fingered me a goner with no kills in Sock Wars. This morning, quite amazingly, I got up at 5:15 to fit in a run. It's not enough. Yes, it's taking me forever to get through the C25K, but that's not what I'm referring to. I need to take better care of my diet.

Tonight I'm off to Red Robin for my birthday burger. (You are on their mailing list, right?)

Are you getting a good indication of my diet problems? I've been making excuses. When I have my own kitchen, I'll stock more whole foods. I'll eat healthier. As if I'm powerless right now. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the childishness of my overeating. Oh, and the laziness. Berating myself will help, right?

The JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge is exactly two weeks away. I'm planning on a run/walk. I'm going to play it by ear, but since I won't have finished the C25K, I should take walk breaks. Jay found out he has an exam that night and won't be able to run. I'm pretty disappointed, I love racing with him. Not that I can compete, I just love loving a runner.

Detox daydreams

As I mentioned, I frequented the spa while on the ship more than I should have. One of the themes surrounding my visits was detox. My first related trip involved a metabolism analysis. They hooked me up to a machine with electrodes placed on my hands and feet. By sending a small current through my body they were able to analyze my lean muscle weight and supposedly, my water retention. Peter said that toxins are fat soluble and so become part of your fat cells, then water surrounds the fat cells to protect your body from the toxins. He prescribed a 9mo detox supplement that was a sure way to remove the toxins from my body, thus releasing the excess water while also boosting my metabolism. I was intrigued without the intent to purchase. Sadly my interest just encourages them, but I knew I couldn't spend $300 on the first 3mo of the plan, regardless of how curious I was.

Although the hard sell was a bit annoying, one of the positives I gained was the reinforcement of some things I've already tried to disincorporate from my diet, such as all types of soft drinks, including diet and regular. I've been trying to eat less meat and eating less processed foods is also on my list. Whenever I look at those zero-fat, yet suspiciously still tasty snacks now, all I can hear those sweet words from the Skinny Bitch authors: "chemical shit-storm." Changing your eating habits takes time and so I do what I can. I am still often weak, but try to at least to critically observe what I'm doing. This little bit of positive reinforcement from Peter made it worth the $30 I spent on the analysis. Plus the printout from the machine was pretty cool!

For my next detox spa treatment I indulged in what I've later determined as a complete waste of money: Ionithermie. They lathered me up with some mud & put electrodes on me to stimulate my muscles. I was measured before and after, and found to have lost the completely unbelievable amount of 12 inches. I believably feel 100% the same. The one thing I've taken away from this was the prescription of dry brushing your skin. I didn't buy their $44 dollar brush though, I got the $6 one from ULTA when I got home. I'm hoping it'll stimulate my circulation and remove some dead skin cells.

When I got home I looked into some more detox programs online, including the one pushed on the ship. What I found was that there weren't very many reviews that seemed like they were from real people. Each one had the ring of marketing surrounding it. And some of them had elimination stories that were down-right frightening! Today the Diet Blog I read had an article entitled 4 Reasons Why You Don't Need to Detox. More validation, yay! So essentially I'm going to continue attempting to limit my intake of unnatural chemicals, and look into including some more fiber into my diet.

Fasting (10 days remain)

Rather than beginning my diet at day 100 in the countdown, I decided it would be prudent to wait until day 17. What could go wrong? Well, come to find out, I was 8lbs heavier than last year on the same date. I buckled down hard and fast.

Dieting has always been an all or nothing thing for me. I have absolutely no success with moderation in times like these. You can have a bite. No, actually, that's not how it works. The more I resist completely, the easier it is to stand my ground. I put it out of my mind entirely. The donut holes and Easter candy you set on the coffee table last night to have with our tea=invisible. It's the only way I can do it.

Now at day 10 I am only up 5lbs, with a goal of making it down 3 more. I tried everything on and it all fits, thankfully and with moderately less self-loathing.