Day 420: Inspiration from Others

I must say that I am very proud of myself lately regarding my self-discipline and dedication to healthy living. Thanks to some better decisions and my handy dandy juicer, I've already gone back down to 135 and it hasn't gone up since I started juicing about two weeks ago. I haven't officially done a juice fast yet, but I'm slowly easing into the idea.

The only thing I've been worried about is how much juicing costs. The cost of buying fruits & vegetables almost made that first week was discouraging since I spent so much money and only got 2 pitchers of juice out of it.  To alleviate this a bit, Nick and I went to Sam's so I could buy fruit in bulk and try to save money, and it did help, but Sam's doesn't have kale, which is a big vegetable that I like to put in a lot of different juices. I have to do some kale price comparisons over the next few weeks.

I've been making FAR better choices and being much better about resisting temptation lately. I haven't eaten out much (except for my bro Russ the Big Hobbit's birthday, one dinner with Nick, a healthy lunch with my pal Megan, and for a very fatty migraine inducing Father's Day, which I shall discuss briefly later in this entry).

Asparagus & roasted chicken breast.
The chicken breast looks like it has a groovy hairdo, no? 

These blueberries were from a co-worker's
brother's farm. Quite tasty in some juices!

I've also been making more time to be active again. I've biked a couple of times over the past couple of weeks, and tonight was the first time I've visited my apartment complex gym in MONTHS. I'm hoping to go back again tomorrow with my former roomie Jamie B.! My true intentions are to get back to working out EVERY DAY or at least 5 - 6 times a week again! 

They added some vibrant new paint to the hike & bike trail!

Not my best time by any means, but
at least it got done. I'm easing back into it.

I feel like I'm finally getting my health back on track. I have to admit that I have been struggling big time with cravings this week. It took every bit of my willpower not to go to Chick-Fil-A for some nuggets, waffle fries, and a lemonade on the way home from work today, and I was able to conquer the craving! I had a skinless chicken thigh with brown rice and a spinach salad instead. Go me!

Also, I've been quite inspired by people around me lately. I have a couple of friends who are also trying to get healthy, and they've been starting great new things! My friend Dawn started her own fitness blog called DJ Dawgie Dawn's Challenge. If you guys get the chance, visit her blog and cheer her on!! Y'all really have no idea how much the Facebook likes, comments, +1's and messages inspire!! All your feedback has made ME want to keep going so I don't disappoint y'all or myself, so I know that Dawn will feel the same way if you help her out. Also, my pal Megan (whom I briefly mentioned about having a healthy lunch with earlier in this post) has been asking me a lot of questions about how to get healthy, and I'm always happy to help! HEYYYYY if you're reading, Meagan!

Another inspirational place has been a closed fitness group for women only that I was added to recently by my college pal Jess on Facebook. It's a place where we're allowed to share our progress, goals, frustrations,  and any other thing regarding a healthy lifestyle we want to dish about. I'm hoping that it is an active group because goodness knows that I could really use some more boosters lately!

Speaking of boosters, my dad "boosted" my healthy lifestyle with an extremely unexpected gift for me this week. He's been super skeptical about my mom and my newfound juicing hobby since it "wastes so much pulp" so he bought me a groovy blender! He got me a Blendtec Professional's Choice Home Blender... He saw a man doing a demo about it at Sam's and apparently he was convinced by its awesomeness. I haven't tried it yet, but I intend to attempt making a spinach and some other kind of fruit smoothie soon this week. I'll let y'all know how it goes! 

Aaand speaking of my dad, Father's Day went rather well this weekend! I spent the day with my parents (of course), Nick, and Nick's Uncle Steve at my apartment where we had Chinese food to-go since all the restaurants were crazy busy. We TRIED to eat "healthier" dishes (vegetable lo mein, vegetable fried rice, Chinese broccoli, etc.), but I'm pretty sure they douse everything in salty sauces, oil, and MSG there, so we probably did not do that great. In fact, I actually got SICK from the food since I've been eating so healthy lately. When my parents left my apartment that evening, I got the WORST MSG induced migraine I've had in ages. I puked a few times that night, and my head hurt SO SO badly. I don't think I can eat like that anymore... I don't WANT to if that's what's going to happen to my body. How very sad... but then again not because my body was rejecting the food that was bad for me. If my body reacted that violently every time I ate something that was bad for me, I'm sure I'd eat better from now on. I'm sure we ALL would.

That's all for tonight, my friends. Thanks for the inspiration, and I look forward to making more progress in the weeks to come.