Just Keep Going....

If you're new to the no sugar way of life, then you may be needing a little extra boost right now! Keep going - the worst part of ridding sugar from your diet is the withdrawal [yes, withdrawal] that your body goes through as you detoxify. Sugar is addictive, in all its forms. You will find a whole world of wonderful tastes open up to you as you indulge in fruits and vegetables, instead of something packaged as brightly as fruit yet packing the nutritional punch of a Slurpee.

JUST KEEP GOING! 

 

 

Strike Sugar September

My love of lifting weights, sweating it out on a long run, and preparing healthy clean foods was not something I was born with shocking I know. Every deadlift, hill sprint, and qunioa salad has been a step in a healthy direction, and a building block for a future of whole body/mind/spirit happiness. I have gathered information along the way from many experts, and many wannabe experts whose advice was later cast to the curb and one of my absolute favourites is Tosca Reno. Tosca is known most prominently for becoming a fitness model, author, and columnist after the age of 40. She turned her life around completely from being fat and frumpy to fit and fabulous - and owes it all to clean eating and a love of iron! Every month she and her teams at Oxygen Magazine and the Clean Eating Diet and hosting a challenge to reawaken health and vitality - and I thought I would pass on Septembers challenge! September is Strike Sugar month and I plan on hitting it hard! Read through Tosca's tips, and she'll continue to post more throughout the month!

Here's to health, happiness, and hitting the gym with purpose!

THE break up

If you are looking for the great giveaway, here it is! Don't forget to leave your comments on that post - yeah for contests!

I have been unexpectedly afforded much too much free time this weekend. When it came time to pack up our bags and head on home, Darius opted to stay with his Grandparents, play with cousins, and have an absolute blast. Honestly, I can't blame the kid for choosing to stay when going home meant Dad going back to work, and hanging out with Mama and Eli...really it's no contest. And have found myself with extra time - a precious thing I didn't realize I had lost - that has facilitated great bonding time with my wee little man. Eli and I headed outdoors after his immunization appointment this morning [tell me I'm not the only one extremely behind on these, simply because I hate to hear my baby cry] to go for a fresh air workout. Secure in his BabyBorjn, Eli slept on my chest as I climbed endless flights of stairs, then went for a walk in a beautiful park. Seriously good sweaty workout - and just what I needed this morning.

You see, when my sweet boy decided to stay behind, my anxiety slowly began to build, until it spiked yesterday evening. As I inhaled nibbled on coconut chocolate popcorn, and licorice babies, I realized that all I was trying to do was shove the anxiety back down with sugar, instead of working through my feelings, and resolving the anxiety. Sugar has often been my go to 'shoulder to cry on' so to speak. When something in my life has me feeling out of sorts, chocolate is a great band aid...or so I convince myself as I'm eating it, instead of savoring it.

As I walked I reflected on the night before, the panic that I felt rise in my throat as Darius' bedtime neared, and the numbness and stomach ache that my self soothing technique brought. The anxiety was still there, it was simply waiting for me to lay in bed [with no distraction insight] so it could creep back up on me.

Well, I worked through my anxiety, and then decided 'enough is enough' with my relationship with sugar. We've had a long run sugar and I, and simply this relationship is not giving me what I have been trying to get from it. I wanted comfort, pleasure, or a sweet treat [depending on the moment] - and it gave me stomach aches, sugar crashes, and excess calories. Sugar, you really are a horrible companion. [There are so many more reasons, from a health perspective, to give up my sugar habit that I will delve into in another post.]

And so, in the classic line that many teenage girls have heard at one time or another,

"Sugar, it's not me, it's you. This is just not working. I'm sorry, [not really] but we're through."

Do you have a bad habit you're ready to break?