Day 46: Just over the halfway mark

Yesterday marked the halfway point on my 90-day challenge.  It feels less like a challenge every day and more like a lifestyle, which is the main reason I took this on.  As discussed in the last post, the momentum keeps going in the direction we choose to go.  The more we pour into positive choices, the better results we get.  

As it's getting kind of late, I just wanted to post a quick update.  I haven't posted in about seven days because I had family in town over the weekend, and I'm still playing catch up at work after a week off.  Also, it's been very warm here, so I've chosen to be outside more, especially at the beach.  

Last week, I had a great week because I juiced every night for dinner and ate a smoothie for breakfast.  My diet was almost completely liquid, with an occasional tomato or sliced radishes.  This week, I've included more solid food.  Today, I ate my superfood smoothie for breakfast, had a simple salad for lunch, and a nice raw meal for dinner at a restaurant where I've been co-hosting talks on raw food and nutrition.  Because it's really heating up here, I'd like to spend the rest of the week eating high-water content food, juicing and blended greens.  

My workout routine is still strong, but I need to focus on my strength training.  I tend to do the same routines at the gym, which is not as challenging and I'm not getting results as fast.  I have some great books on workouts which I plan to look over and come up with a really challenging routine.  I'll probably work on that this week and implement it over the weekend.  The cardio workouts are still great, so I'll stick with them and try to get in the ocean several times a week.

That's it for now.  By healthy!

Mystic Merman

Day 40: The momentum is unstoppable

Today is the 40th day of my 90-day challenge.  What's amazing is that the more I support good habits, the greater the momentum gets.  Every day, it gets easier to make green juice or a superfood smoothie instead of filling up on starches, grains and fats.  Every day it gets easier to go straight to the gym, the stairs or the beach after work instead of heading home to do more sitting on my ass.

As I discussed in a previous post, whatever we feed grows.  If we continue to feed habits that we know are bad for us, it becomes harder and harder to break away from them.  The same goes for the opposite.  The more we feed our good habits, the easier it becomes to continue these good habits and the bad ones begin to fall away.  

While I still have a lot of work to do, I'd like to make a list of the positive habits I'm forming right now:

1.  Eating a whole, plant-based diet every day that is free of processed grains, chemicals, bad fats, and overly cooked food.

2.  Taking the time out of every day to make one green juice to clean out my body, nourish my cells and lose weight.

3.  Reducing the amount of cooked food I eat to be no more than 10% of my diet.

4.  Spending three days a week at the gym in strength training to increase muscle mass, protect my infrastructure and bone health, and burn unneeded fat.

5.  Spending 30 or 40 minutes, three days a week on interval/cardio training to increase my metabolism, strengthen my lungs and heart, and create stamina and endurance.  

6.  Creating a more positive image of myself in my mind to attain my goals and continue to be good to myself.

I could probably list more, but these are the main part of my focus.  I'm so grateful to be where I am now and look forward to a healthier, happier me.  By healthy!

Mystic Merman

Day 36: Back to the routine

After a week at a kid's camp in the mountains, I'm back to my regular routine.  The camp was amazing, and allowed me to stick to my challenge as much as possible.  Exercise was not what I have been doing at home, but it certainly was a lot.  My cabin was situated at the top of the hill, so I got a great cardio/leg workout about six or seven times a day.  Also, I took the kids canoeing, swimming, hiking, and helped run team games.  There was rarely a moment of rest, so it's hardly a wonder that I lost another 5 pounds.

Food was a bit challenging, but fortunately there were other vegans and kids with gluten and dairy allergies.  I was able to find something to eat at every meal and always had a big salad.  I also brought some superfoods to snack on during the day.

Yesterday was my first day back at home.  My roommate and I went to Encinitas for the day, spending the better half of the morning swimming in the ocean and walking around the cool city in the afternoon.  Today, I started my day with a smoothie, had a liquid lunch and a salad for dinner.  I actually felt really good having liquids, so I might consider doing only liquids for the rest of the week to get a fresh start and continue the weight loss.  35 pounds lost, 50 more to go.  I'm doing it!

Mystic Merman

Day 26: Juice Therapy

Well, the first 26 days have gone by so quickly.  On Tuesday, I'll be 1/3 of the way through my 90-day challenge.  While I committed to doing more juicing, it got off to a rough start.  I found myself too busy in the evenings to pull out the Green Star, so I stuck with salads, quinoa, or other meals.  Last weekend, I decided to stop making excuses and set aside time every night to juice.  So far, I've juiced six days in a row.

Tonight's green juice (I'm drinking it as I write this) contains the following ingredients:

Celery
Dinosaur Kale
Carrots
Cabbage
Green Apple
Mixed Spring Greens
Red Onion
Garlic

Now that will clean you out!  Another thing I've been doing every night is following my green juice with a coffee enema.  If you don't know anything about these, you can read about it here.  This is a really fantastic way to stimulate the kidneys and liver to release toxins into the bowels and get them out of your body.  There is nothing better than a clean body.  Green juice and coffee enemas are one of the best combinations to do just that.

Well, for the next week, I won't be blogging or posting on my Facebook page.  I've taken on the responsibility of a camp counselor at a kid's camp.  I choose the vegan option for food, but who knows what that is going to look like.  I'm actually going prepared with a lot of superfoods, so I can stick with my diet.  Exercise won't be a problem, since they'll be 50 kids to run around after and activities planned for every moment.  I will give a report when I'm back.  Until then, be healthy!

Mystic Merman

Day 24: Progress Report

Only six more days and I'll be one third of the way through my 90-day challenge.  I just wanted to give a progress report on where I'm at.  Things are going well.  I'm being good to myself, learning a lot about my habits and what triggers them.  One thing that is really important for me right now is to focus on the positive.  If I make a little mistake (like eat something oily or sweet), I have in the past completely blown that up and ignored all the great things I've been doing.  Remember, whatever we focus on grows.  So, I've allowed myself a couple of moments of relapse, but then moved on.  I am really focusing on all of the positive things I'm doing for myself, and that is making all the difference in the world.

Diet:


My diet is getting better by the day.  I'm sticking to my protein/superfood smoothie in the morning, a salad for lunch, and usually green juice for dinner (although I allow myself to have something solid every three days or so).  One of the issues I've been having is snacking too much between meals, especially later in the day.  This week, I've allowed myself to snack a little bit in the day, but cut it out at night.  This actually isn't very hard since I'm more active in the evening.  Also, if I'm hungry or feeling munchy, I try to drink water or tea, which can do the trick.

Exercise:


This is an area that I'm really excelling.  I've been working out at least 5 days a week.  On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I continue my weight training.  This is mostly large muscle group activities like assisted pull ups and dips, as well as ab work.  The weight I am using to assist me keeps going down, so I'm gaining strength and losing weight.  Today, I weighed in at 252, which means I've lost 7 pounds since I started and a total of 33 pounds (possibly 40 in fat).  On Tuesday, I continue to run up the stairs and on Thursday, I plan on going back to Boot Camp.  Woo Hoo!

One thing that happened this week is that I was able to fit into a shirt that wouldn't fit before.  My mother sent me some nice Hawaiian shirts from the islands about a year ago, but they were XL, instead of 2XL.  They were very tight and uncomfortable and put them aside.  Earlier this week, I tried one on and it fit perfectly.  Fitting into an XL is great news, because I've been wearing 2XL for several years now.

This is all amazing!  It's so awesome what can happen to our health and our attitude with just a few changes in our lifestyle.  The more little things we do, the more great things happen.  Be healthy!

Mystic Merman

Day 21: Raising the intensity

Today marks the end of my third week on my 90-day challenge.  I've done really well so far, although I'm a little surprised at the results.  I've only lost about 5 pounds, even though my clothes are getting looser and my body feels stronger.  By BMI has come down a little bit, so I must still be gaining muscle.  With the kick-ass exercises I've been doing, I'd better be gaining muscle.

On Thursday, I agreed to go with a friend and coworker to Boot Camp at my gym.

This intense, full-body workout proved to be one of the hardest hours of exercise so far.  After a "warm up" (which was not easy), there were five stations set up around the room.  Some had weights; some had steps; and one was open floor.  At each station, each participant was asked to perform an activity for 60 seconds.  Then, you'd move on to the next activity for sixty seconds until everyone had done all five.  After a break, we did it all over again, this time for 45 seconds.  Then, we started a second set of rounds with totally new activities.

Some of the exercise activities were putting a barbell on your shoulders and doing lunges, squatting and then leaping onto a step, running sideways, burpees, shoulder lifts, and more.  We ended the class with about 10 minutes of abdominal work.

Although the class was very intense, I felt like I really got a lot out of it.  Boot Camp mixes interval, cardio and strength training all in one class.  I'm not intimidated; I'm going back.  Be healthy!

Mystic Merman

Day 17: Writing It Down

One of the well-known habits of successful people is that they write everything down.  They write down their goals.  They scribble down thoughts and ideas.  They take notes at meetings.  They schedule their days, weeks, months and even years.  And they keep track of their progress.

This is one habit that I haven't developed.  I've done it for short periods and then given up.  Certainly, it takes commitment and discipline.  However, so does everything that leads to success in any area of our lives.  If sitting on the beach all day drinking led to great success, wouldn't we all be doing it?  I'm sure nearly everyone has seen what people who sit on the beach or in a park drinking all day have to show for their lives.  Success takes work.

The main reason I am doing this 90-day challenge is to develop new habits.  However, if I don't know what direction I'm going, how will I know what steps to take and how to get there?  So, I'm committing to taking 10 to15 minutes every day to write down my goals, plan my days and weeks, note my ideas and great thoughts, and keep track of how far I've come.  I can do this.  And I'm committing to doing it every day for the next week.  Then, I'll create a new goal.  Remember to put everything in chunks.

Be healthy!

Mystic Merman