Official Cleanse Day 7 - Day 9 Overall

Yesterday, Keith came home (yeah!) and we had a salad with a grilled chicken breast Asian style. I was really good. He decided that the cleanse (fasting) part of the diet was making him too cranky and weak. He wants to finish building our mud room this weekend so after today or before the leap day party we plan to go to he will be finished. He also confessed that he went up to the concierge room on Wed. night just to get a little chocolate chip cookie and ended up with a piece to key lime pie (which he doesn't usually like) and a cookie! I, on the other hand have given up my almonds and most of wafers each day and I still am maintaining but not loosing. My idea for tonight is to have half of my shake before I go so I am not hungry and snack lightly.
Two of our three friends are still going but they decided to start their cleanse (fast) yesterday and today so they could eat at the party tonight and not start the cleanse after eating junk. I am not sure what this means for me but I wish they would have told me about this.
I still plan on cleansing on Sat. and Sun. until our potluck Sunday night. Then I will be finished. Apparently, I am the only one who is playing by the rules so far but the one who has lost the least weight! I think I am missing something here. Posting again tomorrow.

Official Cleanse Day 6 - Day 8 Overall

Yesterday was a good day. I did get hungry at lunch time while we were out. I packed lunches for the girls but not me. I wanted to have a hot meal today, so when we got home I cooked up a chicken breast and steamed some fresh veggies and ate that in place of my salad with chicken. I did not eat many of my snacks yesterday either. I am not losing any weight these last few days even though I am not supposed to get on the scale and that is discouraging. I am still sticking to it though. The girls had a wonderful time in their new dance class yesterday and I met a few moms that were nice. Keith comes home today and the girls swim this afternoon. It should be a nice day so hopefully we can play outside. I will post tomorrow.

Official Cleanse Day 5 - Day 7 Overall

Yesterday was an easy day again. I did not get too hungry except when I ate my meal an hour late. I had to work on getting all my water in so I will need to be better at that today. The girls have their first worship dance class today at 12 and 1 so I will need to pack lunches for all of us I think. That is about all we have planned for today. Maybe a walk if gets into the 50's today. I am not sure how Keith did on his plan yesterday, we did not talk about it last night as he called just as I was putting the girls to bed. We now have only 4 days left!!!!

Official Cleanse Day 4 - Day 6 Overall

It is becoming routine! No headache this morning. Yesterday went well. The only trouble I had was being 45 minutes from home and ready for my shake. That gets me cranky. Then I got home and had to start the girls dinner before my own and ended up having my meal about 2 hours late! I did go to the gym yesterday, I was pretty weak but I felt I needed to do something. My plan was to do the elliptical for 30 minutes and then walk the track for 30 minutes. After the first 10 minutes I thought I could not go on but I kept on until my time was up. Needless to say my feet were numb by the time I got off and I was a bit spaced out so I gave up on walking the track, but it was something.
Keith did well yesterday. He kept up with his snacks and shakes. He went out to dinner and had a chicken breast with steamed veggies and some seared tuna. The good thing is he told the people he is with about the cleanse. Today they are going to IHOP for breakfast and he said he will have his shake before he goes and drink water at the restaurant. We have a real busy day today. Craft club at 1:00, Swimming at 4:00 and AWANA's at 6:30. We will leave the house at 12:45 and not be home until 8:30 tonight. I have a food plan for all of us lets hope I can execute it. We have almost hit our halfway point!!!! I will post tomorrow.

Official Cleanse Day 3 - Day 5 Overall

Lets just start out by saying yesterday was really hard. The morning went OK. The girls played outside most of the morning due to the fact that is was sunny and 56 degrees. Since Madison has Strep throat and Tori woke up stuffy we skipped church. In the afternoon we were both feeling weak and hungry. We really have not felt hungry until yesterday afternoon. Our tummies were growling. Then we went to our friends house for bible study. Our friends that host our group are the ones doing the cleanse with us. Of course, people brought strawberry shortcake and chocolate chip cookies for the snack but we held strong. These same friends Chris and Amy are having a leap day party Friday night and a pot luck for our group on Sunday. Keith and I are suspecting sabotage. They say they are planning on cheating on Friday night and ending the cleanse early on Sunday. We are slowly weakening. I think I will end my cleanse early on Sunday for the pot luck but I am not sure how I will handle the party on Friday night.
As far as our hunger yesterday I did eat some extra food. I had about 15 extra almonds and a half of an apple. There are directions for eating more if you are really hungry and I followed that somewhat. Keith had about the same or so I thought. The confession came this morning that he ate a piece of bread rolled around a string cheese while I was outside with the girls yesterday. However, he does not feel guilty anymore. In the past 4 days he has lost a total of 9.5 pounds and 9.25 inches. I have lost 4.5 pounds and 4.5 inches. We do not weigh and measure again until Monday or Sunday before our potluck.
This morning I woke up feeling very light headed and weak. I very much looked forward to my shake and I drank it much quicker than usual. I am feeling a little jittery but not hungry. Today, I will eat my wafers, almonds and 2 shakes along with a veggie salad and 6 oz of chicken. That will be my schedule for the next 5 days. Keith just left for New Mexico and will be home on Thursday around noon. He has all his snacks and shakes. He is going to try to stick to it. He is traveling with another co-worker so eating may be a challenge. We will see how things go for him.
It is snowing this morning quite steadily so today will be spent working on school and laundry. The rest of the week gets busy with swimming, dance, craft club and PE class. I will post in the morning.

Official Cleanse Day 2 - Day 4 Overall

We did it. A whole day without a meal. I can't say it was easy but it was not too hard. Every 2 hours or so we were drinking our cleanse juice or eating a tablet and or 2 almonds. I had a headache off and on all day. Keith was working on building our mud room and over did it. He started feeling shaky by the time he came in. He ate half an apple and felt better.
It turns out that Madison has Strep Throat so she is on antibiotics and not able to go to church this morning. Victoria woke up stuffy and then fell back to sleep in our bed so we decided that church is out this morning.
I did get out and take about a 15 minute walk while the girls were on their scooters yesterday.
When I got up this morning I was a bit lightheaded but that passed after I drank my "juice". Keith said his stomach is feeling sour this morning. All in all we are doing good. We will see how Keith can handle his 4 day trip and stay on his shake-meal-shake plan. There is way too much coffee and food temptation when he is traveling. So we will see. We weigh in and measure in the morning and I will post the results tomorrow.

Official Cleanse Day 1 - Day 3 Overall

Well, we made it though day 2. We both took naps and had headaches all evening. The shake for dinner really helped. We had a few snacks during the day of carrots or an apple. We drank all of our water. We decided that if you can got to bed early and wake up late you think about food less. :)
This morning we woke up late a bit afraid of our first fasting day. We had heard that our cleanse drink that we drink 4 times a day for the next two days tastes like shampoo and we were conflicted in how to drink it. The directions say to mix it with water but we have heard not to prolong it and just shoot down the 4 oz. at once. We decided to shoot it. I poured mine over ice and drank it down with a straw. Keith just drank his straight. To me it was like drinking a lot of Robitussin without the buzz. We both felt a bit unsettled after drinking it so we drank a bunch of water and then it was time for our "nutritional snack" which is a small disk a bit larger than a nickle and about 1/4 inch thick. It was chocolate. Keith started nibbling on his first and was slowly savoring his, I thought he was teasing me, but no these actually taste....decent. They taste like brownie mix still in the box, powdery but chocolate. I was taking small bites and mixing in a sip a water and yes definitely brownie batter. I took me a few minutes to finish my snack and then we took our first accelerator capsule. So today, we will drink 4 shots of cleanse drink and have 10 "snacks" and 12 almonds. Tomorrow will be more of the same.
Oh, I forgot, we did weigh and measure ourselves this morning. Can I just sidebar here and say how much I hate dieting with my husband. He has lost 6 pounds and 6 inches and I have lost 2 pounds and 2 inches. He says it is because he has more to loose. He is on his 2nd day without coffee and seems to be surviving. I will post again tomorrow.

Warm Up Day 2 of the 11 day body cleanse

First, yesterday went OK. It took Keith about 30 minutes of convincing to give up coffee for these 11 days but he is giving it a shot. We made big salads with grilled chicken for lunch and each drank our "shake" for dinner. I drank 75 ounces of water yesterday an Keith drank about 100. Last night I went to the Jeremy Camp / Toby mac concert and had a fantastic time. Both those guy put out amazing shows. I could have stayed there all night and watched those two perform. Keith, on the other hand stayed home and had to cook dinner for the girls and get them into bed. He was admittedly a bit cranky. On to Friday....
Today has the same plan as yesterday shake-meal-shake. We woke up and had water and a shake. Then I fixed the girls waffles (Mmmmm). We left for PE class and to take madison to the Doctor (possible Strep). By the time we get home I am starving and I end up spending 15 minutes feeding my children first. Can we say cranky mommy? Now after I have eaten my salad I still feel hungry so I will drink a glass of water and see what happens. I have had a headache all day but I am not sure if it is due to caffine, the concert or lack of sleep. I think I will lay down for a while.
Tomorrow is day one of our first 2 day fast. We will drink a cleanse drink that apparently tastes like shampoo. I am sooo excited to try it. I will post again after I drink it.

Body Cleansing from the Inside Warm-Up Day 1

Well, today marks day 1 of our 11 days of body cleansing. Keith and I are doing the Isagenix Cleanse which basically is going to cleanse all the toxins out of our body while we fast or drink fitness shakes and have a small meal depenting on the day. How it will work for us is we will have two warm up days of a shake - meal - shake with small snacks of apples or celery. Then 2 days of fasting while drinking a cleanse drink and eating chocolate wafers and almonds, back to 5 days of shake-meal-shake and 2 more days of fasting.
So this morning Keith is on his way home from a trip so he will start at lunchtime. I got up and took my measurements and weighed myself and then I made my first shake. It's funny how things that are called a shake do not actually taste like a shake. It smelled pretty good. I followed the directions of first blending a few ice cubes in cold water and then blending in the powder. I got very encouraged to see how thick and frothy it was pouring into my glass. What I did not expect was how BITTER it tasted. I got a straw to help the "shake" avoid my sensitive taste buds and that helped a bunch. After finishing it, I can say that it is do-able and I am feeling full. Am I looking forward to my dinner "shake"? Not really.

We are swimming again!

The girls are thrilled to be back in swim class. However, I am not thrilled with having to leave class with wet hair when it is 20 degrees outside. We all know how long it would take for me to blow dry the girls hair before we leave. So, I figure I will get them swimming caps. Then I discover $25.00 later that swimming caps do not keep your hair dry, just out of the way. The girls like them and they do help a little so I guess that is something. These pix were taken with my cell phone so they are a bit fuzzy.

Keith and I are starting a Isegenix Cleanse (diet) on Thursday. It is an 11 day diet/fast. I am going to try to blog my way through it. We ordered it with some friends and we are all going to try it together. I think there are 5 of us altogether. Keep checking in if you want to see if we can handle it.

Over the weekend I chapperoned at the Revolve tour which is a conference for teen girls. The theme was how to value yourself and view yourself as a treasure and not a target. They had some excellent musicians there and each one did a concert. We saw Hawk Nelson, KJ 52, Natalie Grant and Ayeisha Woods. Each group put on an amazing show. I would recommend seeing any of them live if you like their style of music. I noticed alot of moms in the concourse during kj 52 (rap) and Hawk Nelson (punk?). I loved every bit of the concerts. Speaking of concerts I am going to the Toby Mac, Jeremy Camp, Mathew West concert on Thursday. I am so excited I can not wait.

Off to put the girls in bed. We have an appointment with the the vision therapist to get Madison's results in the morning.

Test Email to Blog

I am testing to see if I can create a blog entry by email.

Our Baby has Glasses

Yes, our little girl now has her first pair of glasses. As you can see she is very excited about them. The doctor told us she only needs them for reading/school time, but she was telling me that they helped her while watching a video in the car yesterday so who knows how much she will be wearing them. Madison is also being tested for some other vision issues that have to do with how the eyes track while reading and how quickly they can focus moving from close to farther away. She has been struggling while doing school work for a few months now so after a few more tests next week we should have a firm understanding of what we are dealing with, if anything. The glasses may be all that is needed to help her. Anyway, she is loving the extra attention she gets when we go to the Doctor's office and is loving her glasses. She thinks whe is so grown up and she looks it too. I will post when we have more info. Jane

Well, things are moving along for us now. We are getting into a routine. The girls are going to start swimming on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are also starting a dance class called Worship Dance in a couple of weeks and we are doing a PE class on Friday mornings. That will be enough for now. A few weeks ago we went to the Stock Show and the girls got their offical cowgirl hats. We were not able to stay for the rodeo so that will be top on the list for next year. We have new photos on our Shutterfly site, see the link on our Blog page. We are off to a Casting Crowns concert tonight and we all have optometrist appointments tomorrow. I am pretty sure Madison needs glasses. More on that later. Well, off to get ready for the concert. Jane