Wait...this is what I meant.

Dear friend,

Well, I so loved this saying left on my facebook by a friend that  made it into a logo.  As I was sharing it on Pinterest and Facebook I noticed something.  Not everyone understood what I was trying to say.  So, I googled the saying to see if there was anything else out there similar to what I was thinking and here is what I found--people were using it in terms of rock hard abs strong is the new skinny, like to replace the Kate Moss version of skinny with Jillian Micheals skinny.

THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT.

In fact while we are on the Jillian point--I know she has motivated a lot of people to get fit but in an interview I saw on late night--that woman believes that if her fitness were taken away from her she would be nothing, I don't even think she would like the woman left over...she spoke very harshly of her former self with quite a bit of distain.  This is not what I was trying to express when I created this image.

I was trying to express what living a plant strong-whole foods life has given me.  A holistic acceptance of myself.  I am strong--not rock hard ab strong-- but strong in that I know who I am and no matter the size if I am doing my best I love myself.  I am strong from the inside out.

It's a mental clarity mixed with will power and motivation to continue forward in reaching my full potential.

Strong to me is achieving my optimal health not just physically but mentally and spiritually.

And the only way to do this is by accepting yourself, seeing your beauty without qualifiers, without comparisons, without criticism.

Be good to yourself with the gift of healthy fuel, invigorating exercise, kind words, and support...be your own best friend, don't belittle yourself or live your life as if your happiness must sit on the shelf until this is defined or that is slimmed down...just take care of yourself.

Keep harmful things out and put helpful things in and I promise, the peace of mind, the clarity, the kindness it allows you to give yourself is worth so much more than that image you have of the perfect physique.

If your self worth, your view of yourself hinges on the outward--what happens when you age, if, heaven forbid, your physical appearance is changed with illness, or an accident.  Love yourself for that deep beauty you possess and reach for the full potential inside of you.

A woman who can truly see her own beauty is priceless, that simple knowledge creates so much power.

I was 10 when I can first remember looking in the mirror and not liking what I saw... and it took me almost two decades to change that.

I can not remember the last time I said a negative comment to myself--and to me that is truly amazing.

It frees up so much of my time and energy to focus the things that really matter, I don't stand in my own way anymore...it makes me feel as if I can do anything.

And I can.

With love,
Viv

Reboot Days 2-7

Hey Y'all,

Soo, I'm sure you're eager to know how the reboot has been so far for me.  Well, to be honest, it's been a roller-coaster.  I decided to start my reboot when my husband was out of town and taking care of 3 kids under 5.  Yes, I'm certifiably crazy, but I couldn't wait and wanted to do this reboot immediately.  I'm still detoxing (Day 8) and so I haven't reached that happy place with this program yet.  Maybe I should watch Happy Gilmore again to find that 'happy place'.  All jokes aside, some days are good and I have a little more steam and exercising doesn't seem so much of a bear...and some days, I am literally pulling myself around from place to place, b/c my energy level is so low.

And then, the dreaded happened on Sunday...I got this flu/cold thing and feel like junk.  But, I kept a mini-journal and here is how is goes:

day 2:  woke up and whole body hurt; face itchy-couple hives. light-headed in the morning but that seemed to subside; am following this blog http://meltdownreboot.blogspot.com/.  She had an ingredient list for this juice she bought at a juicebar called Jungle Juice.  I tinkered around and made my own version.  It is awesome.  Thanks meldownmomma!  I also started exercising-elliptical (30 minutes)-about killed me.  Fyi, I have been doing P90X, so doing the elliptical is usually not a problem, but not on the reboot....whole new animal.  You will feel like you weigh twice as much as you do and extremely out of breath.  It was tough.  But, I DID it.

JUNGLE JUICE
1 apple
3 carrots
1/4 pineapple
1 lime
1" ginger

day 3: horrible headache,  super sluggish and foggy headed.  Tried the Mean Green drink that they have on Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead-delicious...much better tasting than the normal Green Drink I have posted for day 1.  Elliptical for 30 minutes.

day 4:  Mornings are hard!  Woke up with headache and whole body hurt.   Wanted to stay in bed.  My juicer is acting psycho and it's taking me longer than normal to juice (like 30 minutes long).  It's killing me. Elliptical-breathing heavy, reduced my time to 20 minutes.  Did some ab exercises.  More energy around 10AM

day 5:  Had quite a bit of energy and cleaned the whole house.  Did lots of ab exercises. 

day 6: Felt AWFUL.  Came down with virus and lounged around a lot today.  Craving FOOD.

day 7:  Felt Junky from Flu and was zapped of energy.  Elliptical 20 minutes.  My food cravings are insane right now.  My dad sent me a new blade for my juicer to see if that would make a difference...it did a lot, but it still has it's psycho moments.  It's a really temperamental juicer.  I foresee a juicer purchase in the future.  I made my family a vegetable Penne for dinner and I almost cheated.  It looked so good.  I miss food.

Today is day 8 and I still feel awful.  I would vouch to say I feel worse, so I'm hoping this is going to end soon.  Juicing while sick has not been fun.  The pounds are melting off, though.  I have lost over 5 lbs. 

Do I think I can last 60 days?  I'm taking it 1 day at a time.  I am trying to listen to my body.  It's so hard to know what's typical, b/c I don't think there are any typical results...everyone is so different.  I am dealing with hypoglycemia, so I have to be really careful with the whole sugar intake (not too much carrot, beet or fruit juice).  I only do 1 meal in the morning of fruit and the rest veggie, which has seemed to work out okay.  The past 3 days, though, I have been hungrier, and the 3 quarts of juice that I'm drinking + the 100 oz. of water has just not been enough and I am hungry and light-headed.  So, I'm thinking I'm going to have to make more juice than I had intended. 

I am taking it day-by-day.  I know there are good benefits to me doing this, but taking care of 3 small kids and juicing and SICK is just crazy.  I wish I could go to sleep and have a juice i.v. and wake up 30 days later. 

I know, this doesn't seem like a very motivating post, so, okay, here's the motivating part----I JUST MADE A WEEK MILESTONE-YAY!!.  Quite frankly, I think 8 days without food is amazing.  My goal is another week and to take it from there.  I CAN DO IT!!!  I'm hoping by that time, I can feel an energy boost and some euphoria to push me through the next 2 weeks.

Tata for now!!

Another late post from Fifi

Hi ya'll.

Sorry, I'm late again this week.

I got together with the gals earlier this week and we had some amazing juice. I'm now watching "fat, sick and nearly dead" and I'm itching to start my first juice fast.

I'm going to try 10 days started February 15th.

As for this past week, I lost another 2 lbs, so that brings my weight loss to a total of 6 lbs.

Yay!

Fifi

MOVE and here is why...

Well hello there...


As you know if you have read previous posts, I am totally converted to a plant strong way of life.  I know the benefits, I have felt them, I cherish them, and I will never go back to the way I felt before.  It has changed my whole life.   I am ready for the next hurdle, the next challenge.  In my next series of posts I am going to convince myself of the importance of exercise--so much so that I will not go a day without it.  How am I going to do this?  Just as I have built the eating habit...education, information, knowledge and of course the action.  I am going to move as I learn and here is the first convincing piece of information, for me and for you...

A friend on facebook shared the following quote and I think it is perfect for the beginning of this journey:  


"We should all be as fit as we can be—that’s good Word of Wisdom doctrine. That means eating right and exercising and helping our bodies function at their optimum strength. We could probably all do better in that regard. But I speak here of optimum health; there is no universal optimum size.
(Elder Jeffery Holland)"

I love it when I exercise, the goal is just to make the time for it and to miss it, to love it and value it so much that a day without it doesn't feel right.

Let's give it a go.

Viv

PS Thanks Trish

A New ME! Day 1

SOOoooo, I have been keeping a little secret.  Eating the P90X diet was not making me feel the greatest.  In fact, I may have been losing weight, but I was super sick a lot and just drained of energy.  There were some underlying health concerns that needed to be addressed.  I'm still exercising, but I have a slightly new direction.  I have really been feeling the need to do a juice fast...simply b/c there are lots of health things going on that I know need to be healed from the inside. 

I watched a documentary on Netflix called 'Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead' on Sunday.  Thanks Viv!  It changed my life.  It changed my way of thinking.  We as a whole are not eating the way we were meant to eat.  Just thinking about only getting 5-10% of nutrition out of our processed food is just amazing.  No wonder we're starving and wanting more and more all of the time.  We are starving ourselves fat!!! 

It just opened my eyes and starting today folks, yes, today, I started the beginning of my 60 day juice reboot.  If you're not familiar with the reboot, it's a product of the above documentary.  The link to their site is:  http://www.jointhereboot.com/index.php?lang=en 

I'm not posting pix of myself until the reboot is over.  However, my beginning stats are 132.4 pounds; my goal is to just start a new lifestyle.  I want to eat healthy for life.  I want to eat more veggies.  I want to follow this great food pyramid that they talk about on "F,S,&ND' by Dr. Fuhrman:

So, on to some great pix.  I was blown away by how many veggies I got to 'drink' today.  Here is Breakfast:
I did the 'Green Juice' that Joe does on the documentary.  It yields about 4 cups.  Here is what it looks life before going into my wonderful 25 year old Omega Juicer...which still to this day juices like a champ.  Nothing beats an Omega.  Love that monster.

Green Juice  

2 cups Kale

2 cups Spinach

1/2 cucumber

4 stalks celery

2 Green apples (I used what I had on hand)

1" Ginger root

For lunch, I had my own little concoction, we'll call 'The Red Bullet'.  It also yielded about 4 cups and wasn't quite as tasty as the Green Juice, but still okay. 

The Red Bullet

12 carrots/8 large carrots

1 apple

1 beet

4 cups spinach

And for dinner, I repeated the Green Juice.  In between juicing, I had appx. 100 oz. of filtered water.  In the morning I had hot lime water and the remainder of the day, just normal temp.  A side-effect from all this juicing that is not all that snazzy was having literally about 12 bowel movements today--all diarrhea.  I know, it's TMI, but I'm here to tell you, you may not have results like mine, but expect some changes in the bowel department.  I'm hoping that will stabilize by tomorrow, or my tushy is going to be really really hurting.

As far as hunger...yeah, there were times I was hungry.  In the morning I was a tad light-headed, but it seemed to go away.  My stomach growled, but I can do this.  I'm in it for the long haul!  Yippee.  Now, I'm going to bed.

Sorry - I missed a week!

Hey guys,


Fifi here. Guess what? By eating right and 'sticking to it' I have lost 4.6 pounds (total).


So, since we started, I am down 4.6 and I am happy with that (for sure!).


Really the only thing I've been doing is working out consistently and not eating after dinner. Also, I feel like I've been eating much more clean. More fruits and veggies, less starches and processed food.


Yay!


And that's it for me this week.


Good luck,
Fifi