WOW. What a month it's been! *6 Month Anniversary*

I really got out of hand. My holiday eating threatened to undue me. It's really quite deceptive. When I look at my weight during this time, I see that i spent 3 weeks having gone up in ounces with the rest of the time not losing more than 1 lb. That's very different from other weeks. But what really did me in was convenience foods. I began to have GF pizza 3 times a week. I think somewhere in my mind I thought, since it's gluten free pizza it's healthier. I was definitely making that connection. It is a false one. Also I was having low calorie chips so that I could grab and go, a concept that's fine as long as you're not making the kind of choices I was. But what really helped do me in I feel was all the holiday alcohol consumption. It really did loosen my inhibitions and make me feel warm and relaxed so I wasn't worrying about how it's not the healthiest way to consume calories.

I began to head crave. That is a nasty fiend I was sure i'd seen the back of. At 10pm at night I found myself thinking about what was in the refrigerator and having to fight myself not to get up and eat. THAT'S when I knew I was in trouble. Because that didn't just happen one night. It began to be a theme for weeks 24 and 25. I was in steep trouble. I knew that I had drank hot chocolate twice during those two weeks putting 2 teaspoons of sugar in each cup and I wondered if that was it? Sugar has and always will be my biggest problem. I just didn't think in that amount it could undue me?? I decided that to help myself I needed to educate myself. I went to the library and started to look for books on sugar. I could NOT believe it! That sh1t is in everything! Bread, chips, processed foods, sugary sugar sugar. The food industry has been ruthless about sugaring EVERYTHING! I never realize how prevalent it was. No wonder I lost my mind. I had 2 literal teaspoons of the drug, then was having it in pizza and chips. What an eye opener.

And the education did not stop there. I was surfing the documentaries on netflix for something to watch last week. I came across one called Hungry For Change. The documentary exposes the secrets the diet, weight loss and food industries use to keep us addicted to dead food. (dead food is food with no nutritional value) It also defined "food products" which sadly, is not real food and is what most of us eat. The problem with it is that it just does not nurture our bodies. I never even realized until that film that we could simultaneously be over eating AND starving ourselves! WHAT?? Another great thing about this film is the way it draws correlations between eating, overeating, acceptance and inclusion among family and peers. Jeez. After watching that documentary I was really motivated to quit eating dead food and began to look for ways to get back on track.

How I got my groove back:

I acknowledged that I needed to detoxify my body and cleanse it out. I had heard a lot about chia seeds and found some great online information about the benefits of chia seeds and purchased a quantity. (this is just a sneak preview of chia seed benefits:) http://www.mychiasee...iaBenefits.html

Then I remembered juicing. It was something that I had heard about and wanted to try 2 years ago! I had even purchased a juicer back then that remained untouched. Hubby broke the juicer out and I went to the library for some literature.

I found a great book called "Detox For the Rest of Us: Safe and Easy Plans to Cleanse Your Body, Boost Your Metabolism, Lose Weight, and Feel Great!" By Carole Jacobs. It has 15 different detox plans that one can try, each different in nature from juice detox, to cholesterol flushes to liver detox, lactose detox, gluten detox etc. so that it is varied in its methods for people who have multi dietary needs/preferences. I know that the way we live, power lines, computers, pesticides in food and fruit, sugar in every freakin thing etc. meant my body needed detoxification.

Last Saturday with book in hand hubby and I broke out our grocery bags and went to the local organic farmers market. We picked out enough fruits and vegetables to begin a juicing cleanse. Sunday 1/13 we began our juicing cleanse. Hubby did a 3 day cleanse with me (Sun, Mon, Tues) and I did a 6 day juice cleanse which will end tonight. We each will continue drinking 1 juice a day for breakfast this Saturday - Monday.

You know what? I would NOT have believed this had I not done it. The first day I was on juice cleanse only, it STOPPED ALL OF MY HEAD CRAVINGS after the first breakfast juice. That is how bad my body was screaming out for nutrition. I no longer have that worry. It is gone. Each day for the last 6 days I have had juice followed by 20 ozs of water for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with 1/4 cup of almonds and 5 prunes. I sprinkle 2 tablespoons (daily intake serving) of chia seeds on the breakfast juice and I have felt full and satisfied. It has been fantastic being back on liquids again. I love the way it cleans my mind and the fact that I am detoxifying my body. My hair is shinier and my skin is brighter. Whew. Disaster averted. This gal, back on track!

It has now been 6 months since I was plicated. This week I am grateful to report I have lost 5.4 lbs. and I am in the 5's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I weigh 156 lbs. I am just 7 lbs away from goal weight! The last time I was in the 5's I was 16 years old! That was 26 years ago. I am not only very happy, I am very healthy.