Hi ya Peeps,

First off,  I promise I won’t babble on about the Superbowl – I’ll just say that I love Justin and his whole halftime extravaganza was perfection; Selfie kid was too cute, #superbowlselfie (leave him alone), and who cares if Pink had a lozenger in her mouth and had to fling it before she sang.  She was sick already; she is adorbs, and rocked it! That’s all I got!

So, I’ve arrived at Day 31 of the #newme plan and still chugging along (as in chugging down my nasty cleanse day drinks)….  I just want to share a couple of observations being a month +1 day in,  if truth be told.   Proud to say I’m down approx. 15  lbs. and have lost 2.5 inches here and there tummy and ass, that needed to go bye bye!  

Now, I know 31 days doesn’t seem long, but let me tell you, when you change things up  180 degrees, it’s a lot!! I’ve had no coffee, pop or booze, and still going strong.   My grocery cart has never looked so healthy.  Full of greens! Walking around with kale, spinach, and a buggy full of zucchini’s is so not how I used to roll. I have actually embraced cooking and as most of you know, this is huge, because typically la Cucina and I were always at war.

Let’s not get crazy though.  I’m not at the point where I would like to hang with the Barefoot Contessa, Ms. Garten.  She loves to cook with a lot of butter and creams, so I adore her for that, but her incessant babbling about cooking for “Jeffrey” could get annoying.  Look, she even named a cook book after him.  He is a lucky man.  They always seem so darn happy, but I think it’s most likely just a sugar rush…

I think I’m more of a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives kinda gal.  Hanging with Guy Fieri seems like it could be a ton of fun, and I think I could learn a lot more from him, in a ‘greasy spoon’  kinda way! I don’t need fancy.  Some of the greatest places I have eaten at were spots we just happened upon.  So much better than linen and lace IMO!

Aaaanyway, over these 31 days I have made a few observations which I will share.  Before I made the decision to start, I had to choose the best day (there never really is a best day btw) ~  I was sent this picture from my Atlanta peep, and boy is it true.

You think you are ready, but need to do the typical countdown of your favorite meals before the day.  I had 6 days to indulge.  I likened it to death row, dead man walking kind of thing.   My last 6 meals in no particular order… 1) perogies, boiled not fried, slathered in Sour Cream; 2) Mr. Greek Souvlaki dinner with extra tatziki (stay with me), 3) Roast Beef dinner with all the fixings; 4) a Temple Burger (click on link – pay a visit. it’s soo worth it!) from our local pub; 5. poutine from NY Fries or Costco, and I think we topped off the final day with 6.  Pizza…(stuffed crust of course).  Do you love me more now? Good right?

Scales of Justice  ~ Getting on the scale day #1 is easy. I wore my WWF Belt to be sure I had a big number and did my best running long jump from my bed to land perfectly, dead center on the scale.  I wanted to make sure each pound was taken into consideration.  This can be a very eye opening process.  I don’t really weigh myself a lot and typically go by what fits and what doesn’t.  The number was in the ballpark of what I thought, and confirmed to me it was time!  The upside to this was watching the number go down; very rewarding.  I also had to measure everything, and that too was eye opening.  But, again, re-measuring is much more exciting when you see the results.  #progress

Spidey Senses ~ Yes, my spidey senses are tingling.  While on this journey, I am finding that every sense is heightened.  Microsoft has a delish cafe, and I have avoided it since the start, but when people come back to their desks to eat lunch, with a ‘Korean stir fry” smelling like a little piece of heaven, I want to die.  Not only is it the smell, it’s when they start talking to me with the food in their mouth.  I know it’s not polite, but let’s face it, it “sounds” so darn good… and then the sound of them scraping the plate, getting every….last…..bite,  I can’t even!  Once this deep freeze ends, I’m throwing on my 80’s headband, cranking my tunes, and doing laps around the block during lunch!  Visually, television doesn’t help either.  Do you realize how many food commercials there are?  No?  Well, I didn’t either, but when you are coming into day two of a two day no food cleanse, even a commercial about Irish Tripe looks appealing!

Compliments ~  As hard as we all find it difficult to take a nice compliment (me included), I do have a lot of people that are starting to notice my weight loss and boy does that feel good.  Grinding it out daily, it’s tough to notice the changes, but I do know I’m in a different pant size, and my belts are all bigger.  The best comment by far has to be my son’s, when the other day  I asked if he could see a difference.  He said “yes, your neck looks a lot thinner…” My neck?  Really?  How about my badonkadonk!  Aw well, I’ll take it. Thanks son! 🙂

Energy ~  My energy level is over the top.  It just feels so great!   To be honest, I’m not one that needs a lot of sleep ~ I’m an early riser and now even more so.   Can’t wait to start my day!  I had no problem at all tuning into the Australian Open for 2 weeks straight at the ungodly hour of 4am!   Probably not a good thing to do, but this clean livin’ has it advantages.

It’s the Little things ~ So, if the #newme has anything to do with this, and If you are the slight bit interested, I found two products that I want to share with you.   A hairdresser once told me I have thin hair, but a lot of it.  No kidding.  When combing my hair in the morning, I would have enough in my brush to start my own wig business.  Then someone mentioned the Wetbrush to me, and let me say, it’s the bee’s knees! This no-tangle brush is for wet hair. It doesn’t pull hair out, and only slides through it like butter.  It’s like magic.  This was definitely the #dotd for me!

Another find I highly recommend is this Renpur Leave In Conditioner.   Just put this on your wet hair, comb with your new Wetbrush, and style away.  People were commenting that my hair looks different, but it’s the same old hair ~ just new product.  It’s $10 at Winners and $20 if you are a amazon.ca fluffy slippers kinda gal!  I may or may not have cleaned out all the Winners this side of the tracks, so good luck finding one, although I’m a sharer.  Here it is…  (also grabbed the shampoo as well)

Well that’s a wrap for today.   Happy I’m finally “in the zone” and it feels so great.  It truly is 90% mental, and 10% discipline!  I won’t share with you my soup making story, how I was covered head to toe in Kale and beef broth because my blender and I had a bit of a fight ~  *wince*  but I will share the “Green Energy Soup” recipe if there is any interest.  Let me know!

Tipping the scales, one day at a time…

xo