#hopefully i can figure out some things about my digestive health lol

[voidite]

its me and my lazy in cas posing! trynna make cool lookin’ sim :’)

[unordinary-analysis]

Episode 174

Honorable mentions:

I’ve been thinking a lot about Cecile recently (I don’t know why) and about how she went from being in control and having authority behind the scenes to being John’s punching bag. It��s scary really how much power John has over people. Cecile, I’m almost certain, still has ambition though, so I am looking forward to seeing what her next move is. 

I’m not going to talk about the basic confirmation of the New Bostin/Wellston association in John’s mind because I’ve said everything I wanted to say about that in the last handful of posts, and I’m looking forward to moving on past that analysis (mainly so I don’t have to restate everything I’ve ever said in every post ever every time I want to write a new analysis lol). I might write something on this in the future though because it was a big part of this episode, but not right now lol.

The height difference between Arlo and John gets me every time ksjdfhsjeraksjngj

Rereading episode 123 reintroduced me to John’s, “ARLO, YOU BITCH”

The same thing happens in episode 123 and 174. Arlo is obviously better off in the situation, but for some reason John feels the need to punch him in the face. And both times it’s not strong enough to even move Arlo’s jaw sidkfhskjfrnkk.

I just want to say that it is pretty much confirmed that John has some sort of mental health issues as a lot of people were saying in the comments of this episode. Arlo also says something that sounds like he thinks this. I’ve talked about this before (don’t remember where/when), but I just wanted to put this here as an acknowledgement of that. I don’t know. I’m not sure if that will lead anywhere specifically in the future or if I’ll talk about it.

While writing this, I accidentally almost wrote Seraphina as Claire and I just--

I think from now on I’m going to be trying to keep these posts shorter because I think they get hard to digest when they end up at almost 5k words like last week’s. Also, I want to learn how to be able to shorten things without losing any substance, so that’ll hopefully happen. Who knows.

John:

The thing about John’s development as a character is that it’s so subtle that it’s a while before the changes are really obvious. I mentioned this while talking about how the switch between John’s fake side and his dark side had become so apparent after such a long time of watching John’s side, but I’m talking about something different now. I think that chapter of this fake vs real John in my analyses ended last episode along with that climax. Right now I want to talk about John’s violence.

I know it’s not exactly (or at all lmao) new for John to be extremely violent, but while in the past that violence had always been targeted at Arlo or Cecile or someone else, now it’s being targeted at Seraphina. For the most part (besides that scene between John and Cecile in episode 167), Seraphina has been kept out of that drama, and that is because John was still trying to convince her of the whole innocent cripple thing. But now, as she just told him that she knows who he is and what he’s done, there’s no more reason for John to hold back, and he doesn’t. In this episode, John grabs and yanks her arm and stuff. And in general he hurts her like he doesn’t care about her. It really was more of his demeanor that made his actions stand out. But everything just seemed so much more extreme because we’ve never seen this with Sera before. Sera’s always had this special significance to John that we kind of got used to. Anyway, that’s why in this episode, even more than all the others of Joker beating up people, John’s violence is very obvious. I also want to say that I think John’s violence has peaked. And, yes, I say peaked because I don’t think John will get any worse from here on. He might stay at this level, but he won’t become even more violent. I mentioned that I closed a chapter of my analyses last episode, and that chapter was about the inevitable takeover of John’s true, dark nature. When John finally became fully dark last episode (or however I said it), he reached his worst point and I think that is the limit to how bad he is going to get. I might be wrong though. 

Another thing that I noticed was just how different Seraphina and John’s dynamic has changed throughout the story. Obviously, there was going to be a change, but I realized it’s been a complete switch. We started this comic with John as the quiet, but will fuck you up cripple and with Sera as the everybody’s scared of, powerful bitch. Now we can just reverse those and it fits. As some of you may know, I am a sucker for dynamics and this had me thinking. I’m just wondering how their dynamic is going to change again. Because, oh boy, it will.

Arlo:

    When Arlo walked in, my heart stopped, but that’s a little off topic for this-- Anyway, as I said in honorable mentions (and yes this had to be said twice), that height difference between John and Arlo has me livingggg. Height difference is a really good, kind of subtle way to compare two characters, and I think uru-chan does this on purpose because it was something she also highlighted in episode 123. Height difference is used in this comic to express authority/superiority. In episode 123, Arlo stands up to John for one of the first times and refuses to keep being his errand boy. While previously in their scenes, the height difference was never stressed, in this episode, multiple panels show it, symbolizing that in this scene, Arlo has more power, has more control. And in this week’s episode, there’s a similar meaning. When Arlo walks in, John is taken off guard and stutters Arlo’s name. Arlo, on the other hand, is presented as cool and calm. This dynamic, too, helps to orient Arlo as the person most in control in the room.

    Anyway, besides in relation to John, I feel that this episode is really where Arlo starts to gain his authority back. We all know that he’s been struggling with losing his title as king and watching John ruin the school, but he never did anything about it because he felt it was hopeless. But, as I said, Arlo is portrayed as the most powerful in the room in this episode, even though he technically isn’t. That’s difficult to achieve and something that used to really set Arlo apart from others: his ability to command authority. This is one of the reasons why Arlo made such a great king. Anyway, Similarly to Sera and John, I think that this part of the story is a turning point for Arlo too. He’s being pushed back into the drama by Seraphina and I think he’s finally going to get himself back. That authority we saw from Arlo in this episode is what I think of him as. It was nice to see it again.

Hallway Scene:

    This is going to be a quick little section, but I didn’t want to put it in honorable mentions. During the hallway scene between Seraphina and Arlo, I felt that when Arlo brought up John, he was talking from a more outside point of view. He says, “He needs help. He’s so lost in his own head… Nobody can get through to him. Not even you.” This was a very observational thing to say, which I feel Arlo is really good at. Arlo knows when he needs to step back. Seraphina, on the other hand, still seemed caught up in John’s thought. She says, “I’m just a cripple. And you’re just his errand-boy. The Royals, and this whole school… all garbage.” Sera is still trying to figure John out, she’s still only focusing on him, which can be expected, but is still not ideal. She does say, “If that’s how he truly sees us… then what makes us worth listening to,” and, “Now that it’s over, I just want to move on. I have more important things to focus on,” which do state that she wants to move past John, but just the fact that she hasn’t accepted that she can’t even begin to comprehend John’s thoughts separates her from Arlo. Seraphina is still treating John as an equal part of this situation, whereas Arlo knows that he’s just a distraction. I’m not sure if that made a lot of sense because I struggled with words, but who knows.

Terrence:

    Just here to say that I absolutely adore anything there is to do with Terrence because of his potential and link to the underlying plot of UnOrdinary. That’s it. I’m just excited. You might be asking yourself, if they thought the previous point could’ve gone into honorable mentions, why not this one? It's even shorter! To that I say ha. Imagine limiting Terrence to a single bullet point. The disrespect.

[canaryatlaw]

OKAY. so my entire day post is going to be put under a cut because the entire thing is WAY TMI, but there’s way too much shit that happened that I need to process and I already gave the sanitized language version of it on twitter but I can’t fully process it without getting into details. you have been warned- WAY TMI. 

okay, so. backstory, I woke up on Tuesday with stomach pain and ended up spending most of the day on the toilet. By the time I finished (like 7 hours later- yeah it was BAD) I noticed there was something weird going on down there, but I wasn’t really paying attention. Wednesday morning I was having a lot of pain and it occurred to me that maybe because of Tuesday I had a hemorrhoid (it only gets worse from here, so if that makes you squirm you should bail out now), but like, idk because I’ve never had one before and idk what they look like, so I googled it and shit and did their home remedy stuff, sitting on a ice pack helped, I did a “sitz bath” (which is basically sitting in four inches lukewarm water for 15 minutes), aloe vera, and really nothing helped. Woke up this morning and it was still bad. I showered because the warm water did help a bit, but I was getting suspicious at this point that something else was going on here, so I asked my mom to look at it and she was like WOW OKAY WE’RE GOING TO THE DOCTOR. And here lies the problem of trying to diagnose and treat your injuries off google, because I wouldn’t have known that other than my suspicions that hey there’s this giant bulge in my ass crack and it probably shouldn’t be there. my primary care couldn’t fit me in today but they recommended we go to the walk in clinic, so we do that and the doctor takes one look at that and is like “yeah this looks like a rectal prolapse and a hemorrhoid and you need to go to the ER right away” OH JOY. so if you’re not up on your scientific vocabulary, a rectal prolapse is basically when part of your digestive tract comes outside of your body and usually requires surgery to fix. wonder-fucking-ful. Thankfully we’re close to the local hospital that’s like, the number one trauma center on LI (it’s like two miles from my house so that’s always been convenient) so we go there and the urgent care people gave us a letter to give the triage people, but we still ended up waiting in the hallway for like an hour and a half, during which I was in pure misery, but the male nurse who drew my blood was sweet though and slightly flirty but in a nice and not a creepy way so there’s that at least. he left the needle in my arm because it sounded like I’d be needing it at some point. So eventually we get called, and taken into a section called the clinical decisions unit, where I guess is where they figure out if you need surgery or not. So I get in there and someone comes to look and is like OH YEAH LEMME GO GET THE DOCTOR because everyone seemed to agree this was high key bad, so they got doctors, and more doctors, they even took pictures and sent them to the head guy of the department, but the consensus was oh yeah, this needs surgery to fix. and at this point I’m just like fine, just get it done. they did give me some pain medication around 3 or so, which ended up by 5 mg of morphine, which took pretty much all my pain away and I only felt slightly woozy lol but that perked me up significantly and I was actually like talking and stuff instead of lying there looking like death. there was a bit of a wait for the OR so we had to chill for a while, then eventually I get brought in there and the surgeon comes and like, I had been thinking all day about watching The Resident and just how ridiculously easy it is for them to just straight up kill patients in routine surgeries and they have the one chief of surgery who’s got a hand tremor and is just like slicing organs open, and then in comes this guy who’s like the #1 in the department and has gray hair and I’m just like FUCK MY LIFE I hope I survive this lol (I know the show isn’t very realistic when it comes to that subject). So we’re getting ready, their general idea is that they’re just gonna cut the damn thing off because it looked infected and shit, so they go to check and the doctor is like “oh, uh, it’s gone” and I was like......”really? are you sure????” cuz apparently it slipped back in because that’s a thing that can happen, but they were like well we should still probably go ahead with the surgery because the hemorrhoid is still there and could pop back out, so we go for it, they decided to not do general anesthesia but do sedation, whatever the difference between those two is, so I was out anyway and I woke up after and they were like “yeah so turns out it wasn’t a hemorrhoid and he didn’t have to do any cutting or stitching” and I was like “....so then what did he do?” haha and I’m still not 100% sure about that one really, but they were more than happy to send me home which I was very thankful for because I did not want to spend part of my spring break in the hospital. so they got me out of there pretty quickly with a giant bandage on my butt that I’m not sure is serving any purpose at all really, but they told me to leave it on there until I shit again so I guess that’s what I’ll do. We got home, my mom went to pick up the percocet they called into the pharmacy for me but they were closed, a little while after my dad and my brother got home, my dad was speaking at this big thing tonight that he’s trying to launch at churches across the island about understanding the opioid epidemic and how to prevent it, and he said not quite as many people showed up as he would’ve liked but it was still good so that was good to hear. As far as how all this craziness started, I’ve in the past had episodes of like scathing stomach pain that make me feel like I have to go to the bathroom, but I usually end up cowering in pain on the toilet with nothing coming, until eventually something will give and it’ll all just pour out as liquid (again, I told you this is TMI) and like, it used to happen a lot more frequently when I wasn’t eating much and my regularity was thrown way off schedule (like once a week) but I don’t do that anymore and I take a fiber supplement every day because I’m on a high dose iron supplement thanks to me being super anemic, so it’s usually not an issue, it happened the night of my sister’s sweet 16 at the end of October but I think it’s only happened maybe once in the four months between then and now? And I did bring it up at my last gastroenterologist appointment but he didn't seem to think much of it and said it was probably just another muscle spasm (because he had just said my chest pain issues were probably caused by a muscle spasm). The doctor from the hospital tonight apparently recommended I get a colonoscopy done at some point to make sure everything is alright and in place, but idk if I’m gonna do that because I have a pretty good idea of just how this happened, plus I have a lot of like, traumatic memories about that stuff from when I was little and they thought I had Crohn’s disease (when it was actually just nightly cramps for an entire year before my period showed up) and being subjected to a bunch of really invasive stuff that I was not at all comfortable with so that’s not exactly gonna be on the top of my to do list. Other than that they said not to strain when going to the bathroom and eat a lot of fibre, so I’m gonna try harder to eat actual fiber and not just the shit in caplets, and try to make that work out better. and yeah, that is about it, after all that I chatted with friends for a bit then started getting ready for bed with this absurdly large bandage on my butt 😂 We’re supposed to go out to dinner to this super schmancy place (because my parents have a gift card to it) tomorrow to celebrate my brother and I’s birthdays (his was today but because of all the crazy we’re gonna celebrate this weekend) so hopefully that will work out. And oh yeah, since I turn 26 in 11 days, if this happened 11 days from now I would’ve totally FUCKED because I would’ve had no health insurance thanks to getting kicked off my parents plan at 26!!! Lovely *sigh*. And as much as it does suck to get sick on vacation, I am at least glad I was with my family and not in Chicago where I had nobody except like, Jess (and no offense to her in the slightest, because I’m sure she would’ve been great, but with this kind of thing a mom is just better suited for it), and that sounds kinda miserable. Okay, that’s the end for real now, I took my pills a while ago and now my eyes really want to shut and I’m going to listen to them. If you made it all the way through, thank you for suffering through all that TMI to find out how I’m actually doing, though I kinda doubt many of you will actually reach this far, lol, but I cannot blame you for that. Goodnight my dear friends. I hope your Thursday was a hell of a lot better than mine.

[imnoexpertblog]

Look Good, Feel Good

5/9/18

It would make perfect sense that as I am writing the Health and Beauty blog I am CRAVING EVERYTHING BAD FOR ME EVER. I’m usually craving-free unless it’s shark week. But I currently could go for all the fast food, all the chocolate, all the fried stuff. Hopefully writing this will pull me out of that state. I have a long list of things to cover in this category and it’s so hard to only pick a few to start with! Interesting stuff coming for sure.

Ever heard of Olly? The vitamins? Well if you haven’t, you’re missing out. After a little bit of time on third shift, my body started to reject sleeping during the day. It was weird because it was going fine initially, then not so much after a little while. Now it really just depends on the day or how much noise is being made near/in my apartment building. Anyway, falling asleep has never been my problem. It’s staying asleep that I just can’t seem to master most days. I started researching vitamins and supplements that might help me, but also isn’t entirely melatonin. If you take too much of it, your body can potentially stop making it on its own and that just sounds scary to me. I came across Olly Restful Sleep gummies. I looked on the Olly website, Amazon, and on Target and the reviews were mostly 4 stars and 5 stars. People were claiming it cured their insomnia after years of searching for a fix. I saw that people were a fan of it helping you fall asleep as well as stay asleep, which was my whole goal. The taste reviews were also positive! They are a “blackberry zen” flavor. I was thinking this stuff might be gold in the form of a purple gummy. These gummies are also a mixture of melatonin (for the healthy sleep-cycle), L-theanine (to encourage calmness), and botanicals (to soothe and relax). I liked everything I was reading so I ordered them for $11.99 on Amazon. I figured if they don’t work, I didn’t break the bank over it. I looked at other vitamins they offer and I also bought the Vitamin D gummies. I thought if I sleep all day and the sun goes down soon after I wake up, there is no way I am getting enough sunlight. I was also sold on them as soon as I saw that they were lemon flavored. I am obsessed with lemon. So, I bought both and continued to look at all the Olly vitamins. I eventually added Flawless Complexion and Undeniable Beauty to my cart on a regular basis. Flawless Complexion has kept my face very clear since having quit tanning. They are flavored “berry fresh” and consist of vitamin A and E antioxidants (to support clear skin), zinc and selenium minerals (for new skin regeneration and cell detox), and a bunch of botanicals for odetoxification). Undeniable Beauty is flavored “grapefruit glam” and consists of biotin (for growth of hair, skin and nails), vitamin C (for collagen production), and borage oil (for naturally occurring GLA). I like these 4 and can see results, so I will keep at it. I take the vitamin D every day. I take the sleep gummies at the beginning of my work week when it is most difficult to get back to day-sleeping (after having slept through the night with Baby over the weekend). I rotate the other two every other day to avoid overkill and gutrot. I have tried the Goodbye Stress ones as well as the Vibrant Skin, too. I cut the Vibrant Skin because I disliked the texture and I already take 2 vitamins for my skin. The Goodbye Stress vitamins didn’t seem to do anything for me. Reviews claim otherwise for some, which is great for them, but I didn’t see a difference myself. There are more for energy, probiotics, digestion, daily vitamins, etc. Olly also carries smoothie/shake mixes and now granola bars! I’m excited to try more of their products.

Keep Calm and Detox. I was feeling puffy after drinking one weekend (I was probably just dramatic, it was the first time I drank two nights in a row and I fully regretted that. If you know me, you know that I rarely drink) so I went searching for a detox tea. I wanted to make sure I was getting something legitimate and something reviewed well. These detox teas can be scams, part of fad diets, have the wrong ingredients, or can possibly just not work. Being on a budget, Zero Tea 14 Day Detox Tea caught my attention being only $15 for a 14 day package. The reviews were promising (4.5 stars for almost 900 reviews). It has organic rooibos, cinnamon, green tea, nutmeg, cloves, red peppercorn, orange peels, and cornflower. Most importantly (to me) it does not have any laxatives in it, natural or otherwise. It claimed to boost your metabolism and energy, promote proper digestion, reduce bloating and inflammation, and to detoxify of course. Plus, everyone was raving about the taste. Taste is a big thing for me because I am really not much of a tea drinker. I think it tastes dirty most of the time. Pushing that fact aside, I trusted what these people were saying and I ordered it. I started it the day after it arrived, steeping the bag in 8 oz. of water for 5 minutes and drinking it upon waking up (it also recommends drinking 8 oz. of water before the tea, as well). I really was okay with how it tasted! It was kind of cider-ish and also citrus-y. Technical terms, LOL. I lost 2.4 pounds in those 14 days and I truly felt it did what it claimed to. I felt great the whole two weeks, was less puffy, even had great skin the whole time, lost those couple pounds, had energy, and it curbed my appetite and cravings. I got a little coupon inside the bag stating that if I gave them a review, I would get a free bag! Baby and I are going to split it and both do 7 days with our free bag. I’m excited!

I have never been one to spend a lot of money on much of anything, but make-up especially. I was at Wal-Mart with Baby a couple weeks ago and we passed an end-cap with boxes full of make-up. They all were under $10, worth much more, and had about five items in each! You can bet I was immediately interested. Budget friendly make-up? Uh, yes please. I have a recent obsession with highlight so the Walmart Beauty Favorites Box: Glow For It was all I could look at. It comes with Covergirl Vitalist Healthy Glow Highlighter, Found Coconut Sheet Mask, Milani Make it Dewy Setting Spray, Hard Candy Rose Gold Highlighter, and Wet N Wild MegaGlo Highlighting Powder. Maybe it’s a little overboard to use the three highlighters and the setting spray all together but I do. Every. Day. They also have Time For Eyes and Latest in Lips for the Beauty Boxes. There are three Hair Favorites Boxes as well; Refresh Renew Extend, Love My Curls, and Naturally Inspired. I am very close to buying the Naturally Inspired Hair Box. Give these cheap boxes a look!

Okay. My struggle this week (and/or this past.. few months). I am back to the gym. Reluctantly. Again. I was going regularly in February and I was really proud of myself! Then I got deathly ill and didn’t go for about a week. That is understandable. But that is what did it for me, getting sick knocked me right off saddle. My main motivator now is that Baby and I get discounts on our memberships at Western Racquet if we go a certain amount of times each month. Otherwise, it’s not cheap. I always heard good things about that place but always knew how expensive it was. I wasn’t interested in spending more than $20 a month, which was what I paid at Planet Fitness. Baby’s friend gave him a two-week trial at Western and he LOVED IT. He knew he was going to sign up right away. He then had me do a two-week trial. It’s very nice in there, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t hooked though until I used the steam room and showers. HOLY MOLY. I never showered at Planet Fitness when I worked out there. There was nothing special about the showers or locker room there and I usually prefer to shower at home. But. Steaming changed the game for me. I had no idea how great it feels or how amazing it would be for my skin. The showers have hair/body soap dispensers and they even have little changing sections in each of them! Western provides towels, Q-tips, tampons, cotton balls, lotion, mouthwash, hair driers, SO MUCH STUFF. I don’t use the sauna but they have one of those too! I think having all of that is definitely worth the membership. Text WRFC to 95577 for a free two-week trial if you live in the area! Back to my struggle though, I really don’t feel like working out lately. My body just doesn’t want to sleep through the day these past couple weeks and I’m not sure what to do about it. Lacking the energy I would have if I slept enough is holding me back for sure. I’m just going to keep pushing myself to get to the gym, taking my Olly sleep gummies, forcing myself back to sleep every time I wake up, and look into ‘sleepy’ teas to potentially knock me out. If you have any tips, let me know! I already have black-out curtains and sleep with an eye-mask. Ya girl is TIRED.

I hope you survive Hump Day! I look forward to our next requested blog; anxiety in relationships. I’m off to sleep soon, wish me luck!

[kurlstories]

My 21 Day Juice Cleanse Experience & Weight Loss Journey So Far

In January I stepped on the scale and was overwhelmed by the numbers that stared back at me. What I saw was a reflection of all of the stress, bad eating and lack of consistency in the gym that I let myself drown in. Even knowing those things, I stood there and wondered how I'd let myself get to that place. 45 pounds later, I've realized that it was because I stopped putting myself first. Not prioritizing my health resulted in years of me doing the minimum and crying wolf when I didn't see the results I wanted.

Well as they say I was "tired of being sick and tired" after seeing the highest numbers I'd ever seen on the scale and It was the reality check I needed to finally put myself first again. So, how did that result in a 21-day juice cleanse? I wanted something different and drastic to jump-start the new lifestyle I knew I needed. I came across the documentary "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead," and was hooked after seeing the key benefits juicing provides. First and foremost it's a great way to detox your body from all of the many toxins we stuff it with and simultaneously feed nutrients to help reboot it in the best way. To simplify this I thought I'd breakdown my experience in three categories; the good, the bad, some tips and what I did after the cleanse to keep the weight off. So here we go:

The Good

Improved Digestion- This was the benefit that really got me on board to do a juice cleanse because I've struggled with good digestion for awhile. Because your body isn't working as hard to break down so much food, it is able to reset during a juice cleanse. I've seen great improvements in this area since the cleanse. 

Energy Boost: Because your body isn't working so hard to digest whole foods, it disperses that energy elsewhere. I got the BEST sleep I've ever gotten in my life. I didn't need a full eight hours of sleep to feel refreshed and well rested. I'll admit that I'm usually dragging myself out of bed but during that cleanse I was up at least an hour before my alarm and didn't feel tortured by it at all. 

Glowing Skin: While one of the detox symptoms I experience was small bumps on the side of my face, once the symptoms passed my skin glowed like never before. It also may have been due to getting great sleep for once but I definitely experienced skin that looked alive and dewy. 

Weight Loss: I put this last because it honestly was just a benefit on top of everything else I experienced. Even though I started the cleanse to drop weight, the stuff I learned about my body made the weight loss itself seem small. By the end of the cleanse I dropped around 15 pounds.

The Bad

The good definitely outweighed the bad for me and everyone's detox symptoms are different. But I want to be transparent and share some of the negative side effects I experienced during the cleanse. My symptoms during the first week of the cleanse ranged from intense cravings, minor acne, mucous, coated tongue. All are signs of toxins leaving your body. Check out this video for a breakdown of different detox symptoms. 

Tips

- Don't think you have to do 21 days to see the great benefits of a cleanse. I'm still trying to figure out how I made it to 21 days but what I do know is that I was eager to challenge myself. I'm not opposed to doing another cleanse but It definitely wouldn't be that long again. I'd personally recommended doing at least a week because that's when I started to experience some of the benefits. 

-The week before you do a cleanse, prep your body by adding more veggies and minimizing how much meat you eat. 

-I drank around Drink 96/126 ounces a day and was never hungry. I tried to drink as much water but most days I drank around 96 ounces of water as well to help flush everything out. 

-Go vegan or vegetarian for at least a week after the cleanse. This will help your body readjust to whole foods again, instead of shocking it with a burger which can hurt all of the progress you've made. 

-Social life? Not that I've really had one myself (lol) but when I did go out during my cleanse, I just drank a juice right before and drank water all night. It was a struggle in environments where I was clearly the soberest person there but in the end, it was worth it. Just hold your glass of water and try your best to pretend it's your favorite drink. (more than likely you'll remember it's just water)

After The Cleanse

It has been six months since I ended my juice cleanse and I've not only managed to keep off the weight but I've lost another 30 pounds. Like I said before, the cleanse was simply something I did to jump start a new lifestyle I knew I needed. I don't want to leave the impression that it should solely be a way for you to lose weight. If you don't have the right mindset you can easily fall back into past traps. I knew once the cleanse was over I needed to focus on consistently going to the gym and eating as clean as possible. 

Working Out

Have I been perfect? No, I've missed maybe two or three weeks in the gym during the last six months (because life happens) and a box of Popeyes has made its way onto my lap a few times (because It's the best chicken). But because my mindset is different, I no longer let moments like those stop me from pushing. What I've tried this time around in the gym is going to a variety of group classes which I highly recommend for gym newbies. I now take cycling, tabata, pure strength and insanity at XSport. I also give myself mini challenges, like in July I aimed for 31 days of movement, where I'd do at least thirty minutes of some form of exercise a day. Though I only made it to 28, that was a win for a girl who has struggled with consistency in the past. 

Eating Clean

Because I'm very mindful of my digestion issues, I'm implementing less meat and more veggies on a more consistent basis now. I've also become a meal prepper which I believe is key to me sticking to a healthy eating routine. With that said I don't have a fridge full of bowls, I just plan out what I'll eat for each meal during the work week and cook as I go. With that said, I still make it a point to have cheat days beecause I'm a #foodieforlife.

Self Care

This will forever be a work in progress but stress was one of the main factors that played a part in me eating a big beef from Portillos one too many times. How you feel mentally is a key player in you staying motivated to do pretty much anything in life. Working out has played a huge role in relieving my stress but now I try to stay more mindful of how I handle stress and things I can do to de-stress. Right now, reading, writing, working out and blogging, and even as an introvert socializing helps me destress. Finding things that make you happy and doing it will keep you on track with your goals in life. When you're consumed by the stresses of life it's easy to find yourself stuck in a non-progressive rut. 

Takeaways

If you made it this far in the post, hopefully, you've realized that there's no real magic trick to losing weight. It boils down to moving your body, watching what you eat and finding your groove with those two things. Hopefully, you've also realized that it starts with a mindset. Maybe you only try a 3 day cleanse, or just start to work out twice a week. Just do what's best for you, challenge yourself and be mindful of your mental health as much as your physical health. 

If you have any other questions about reaching your weight loss goals, I'd love to hear them in the comments!