Saturday afternoon

I have a very dear friend (and former coworker) who has lost a good deal of weight with Weight Watchers. She began to lose weight before I got "serious" about it, but over the course of a few months, we became each other's cheerleaders. She is a lovely lady, and I am very blessed to have her in my life. She has a way of making so much sense to me, and at times I really need it. For instance, when I was stress eating due to my parents' marital problems back in February, my friend provided the saying "if hunger is not the problem, food is not the answer." Such simple and wise words. I'm happy to say that while I haven't lost a significant amount of weight, I haven't gained any more either, and that quote saved me from that. I have accustomed myself to telling myself that every day.

The lasted words of wisdom came just this past week, as I was telling her of my juice fast. She knows I have become a vegetarian, and was patting me on the back for making such a healthy lifestyle choice. Then she said something that really struck me when speaking about people in the "Blue Zone" who tend to live the longest: "Another thing is getting "natural" exercise every day such as all the work you do around the house and yard. Staying active in this manner is actually more effective than the more structured exercise." Again, so simple and so wise.

I gave up on my juice fast after reading these words, because here was the rebuttle to my denial staring me down in blue letters in my email inbox. I could continue to deny the fact that since leaving my job I have become little more than an internet junkie, logging on moments after waking and logging off only for dinner and bed. I could continue to shun exercise, doing things like a 21 day juice fast to lose the weight quickly, but not really healthy or on my own terms that would make a lasting change for me. That was the nagging problem I was having in my previous post. It wasn't that I was on the precipice of something stirring me to greatness. It was my conscience trying to scream out that what I was doing was ingenuine and an attempt to diminish the real problem-my lazy behind. I was a sham, and I knew it.

I knew going into the juice fast that I would see weight loss, but it wouldn't be pleasant, according to what I read. I also worried about after the juice fast, and what would become of my weight loss. That concerned me very much. Would I maintain a new, lower weight? Would my body rebel once I started eating again and I'd pack on the pounds? Was a juice fast really going to put me on a different eating path that would last? Now, supposedly, according to one site I read on juice fasting, once you start eating foods again, you can actually burn MORE calories and see MORE weight loss because juice is calorie laden. Everything else I know about weight loss made it seem more likely that I would just gain the weight back, if for no other reason that juice fasting is a temporary solution, and I need a permanent one.

Post juice fast (which lasted exactly 3 glasses of juice!), I signed myself up for a 30 day email fitness challenge through About.com. I'm on day 3. I completed all the challenges for day one and day two, and you know what? I felt good about it. I felt proud about it. I have to walk funny today because my butt is so sore from two days of getting out there and doing more. I took my dog for two walks, in addition to mowing our lawn (we live on almost an acre of land). I could write more, but I can't. My son is insisting that I go outside with him to play.