The Benefits of What?

I made it to the gym this morning. I got in 40 minutes on an elliptical. However, I haven't worked out with weights for a while. I want to get back into it. I haven't been getting up in time to do much of anything expect a quick aerobic workout. These dark, cool mornings—I just want to stay in bed.

Well, I'm on day three of the, um, colon flush. As you my recall Dr. Natura sent me a Colonix kit. It's enough to do a 60-day program. Hmmm. I just thought—is someone trying to tell me something? I've never had much of a problem telling people they were full it. Maybe word has gotten out. . .nah. Anyway, it's going OK. The kit contains three supplements:

1. The Intestinal Cleanser, which is a fiber supplement.
2. The Paranil capsules that contain 18 detoxifying herbs to purify the colon and liver.
3. The KleriTea herbal tea for regularity and detoxification.

They say you can take the fiber supplement with just water—and that's what I've been doing—but they also give you option of taking it with juice. I'd opt for the juice if I were you. I chug it quickly—but it doesn't really taste very good. But this isn't a treat—it's a detox system. So what do I expect? 

The capsules are easy enough to take. And the tea really isn't too bad. In fact, it contains chamomile so it makes a nice bed time drink. 

But the real question is: does it work? Well, things do seem to be moving along a little easier. And with my digestive issues, I'm hoping this detox system will help.

I never thought I'd be writing a post about the benefits of pooping. But that's what this system does. So let's not pretend it's for something else. Or call it cute names. Dr. Nautra's website says: The Colonix Program gently but effectively cleanses the colon of toxic waste, detoxifies the liver and restores regularity while helping you to gain more energy and a flatter stomach. OK. We'll see if it does that. So for the next—let's see 60 minus three is 57—57 days, I'll be continuing this program. And reporting in periodically. 

Looks Like I'm Gonna Live

The testing turned out OK. While I have a condition in my esophagus that will never go away, it is not cancer. Years of acid reflux have eroded my esophagus to the point that it will always be damaged, but right now it can be treated with medication and common sense diet choices and drinking lots of water. And  don't have to go back for two years. Thank God for that one. I really hate how much time I've spent at the hospital over the last year. I just want to be well already.

That's my big news for the day.

I Hope This Helps

I did not post last week because I have yet another health issue I've been tending to. I had to have a biopsy of my esophagus. That was about a zero on my fun scale. I still don't know the outcome, but I'm hoping it'll be OK. At least OK enough that I don't have to worry about another surgery until next year.

And this leads me right into things people send me because of this blog. The good folks at Dr Natura sent me a Colonix kit. What's a Colonix kit you may be asking? Well, it's exactly what you think it is. It's an internal cleansing kit. I will be trying this out for two months and reporting on the progress as I go. I started this morning. There is a fiber supplement that you're supposed to mix and drink in the morning. I didn't do that this morning because I have to take so many prescriptions, I don't want them to just flush out without my getting the benefit of them. So I'll have to figure out how to bring it with me, and drink it at work.

Actually, this couldn't have come at a better time. I have so many digestive issues. Maybe this will help. I hope this will help. At any rate, it probably won't hurt.

Tomorrow I go to the doctor, and he will tell me how the test came out. What a great way to spend a birthday.

I managed to workout this morning. Check that out on the Daily Mile.

And I'll let you know how things came out.

In Spite of Myself, I Continue to Succeed

My dear friend Ann said the only time you lose is when you give up. Too true. This time around, I will not give up, in spite of everything. In fact, I think—no, I know—all of the things that go wrong in life are what make you stronger. So I must be Hercules. Or something anyway. Anyway, I am getting stronger everyday.

I worked out this morning. High five to myself on that one.

I started writing this earlier. Then I got sidetracked. Ask anyone who knows me—I'm often easily sidetracked. Today, I'm trying to look at things from a different perspective. Is something really bad if the outcome of facing the bad thing is good? Do we repeat our mistakes until we finally learn whatever lesson it is we're supposed to learn? And then the good can be seen? Or is life a bunch of random hits and near misses? OK. this is getting too deep. Later—

What Is Lucid Dreaming?

What Is Lucid Dreaming?

The Chicken or the Egg? Or the Egg and I—Whichever Works for You

Finally getting back into the game. Yesterday, I got a report from the Daily Mile—zero workouts for last week. That hurt. I don't want to get another failing report card. And with that, I made it back to the gym this morning. 45 minutes on an elliptical. And I felt pretty good. I got some much needed oxygen pumped into my body. It's all up hill from here, right? (That's an exercise joke. Ok, it wasn't that great.)

I'm doing OK on my diet, but couldn't keep up the vegan thing.  I could go without meat. But I couldn't go without milk and cheese. So I broke over some string cheese. And I have frequent insomnia—so warm milk made it's way into my diet. And then there was the grilled chicken salad. OK. I did have some meat after all. But it was grilled.

I know that some people who are vegan do so because of morality about the way animals are treated. And I appreciate that they feel that way. I don't want to see animals harmed in any way. I just can't stop eating them. I wish I could. I grew up on a farm—I've actually seen a chicken running around with it's head cut off. Not something I enjoyed. In fact, I couldn't eat chicken or eggs for years. (Not because I thought they were treated bad. I was just sick of them. I hated them. But more about that later. We had a chicken farm in case you're wondering.)

But other than whacking some of their heads off every once in a while, we treated our chickens well. (But I hated them. I hated feeding them. I hated getting them into roost at night. I hated gathering eggs. Hmm. Maybe that's why I don't mind eating them now. Some kind of payback.) Anyway, they weren't in little cages pooping all over each other. They ran around in a pen. And a fair-sized pen at that.

People bought eggs from us. And sometimes a whole chicken but that was rare. We mostly sold eggs. So that's my vision of a farm. I know not all farms are like that today. But some local farms still exist. And maybe people should buy meat and eggs from local farmers. Anyway, how and why did I get off on this? OK. I forgot to mention the greenhouse-gas thing, too. But I won't go there right now.

Anyway, the point is: I can't stop eating meat. I've tried. I wish I could. I can go long periods without eating meat. But it always finds its way back into my diet. And I just can't believe that I'm a horrible person because I eat meat. I don't think the meat industry brainwashed me either. I was eating meat long before it became a big deal. Here's another thing: People eat meat. How can you stop an entire planet? Isn't there some other way than all or nothing? I don't know. What do you think? I really got sidetracked, huh?

Under the Weather

I haven't been around this week because I'm sick—again. It's now settled in my chest. Needless to say, I haven't been exercising. On the bright side, though, I have no appetite. However, none of this means I'm giving up. I'm down six pounds now, and I want to keep it going down—the weight I mean. 

So I'm hopped up on cold medicine. And concentrating is an issue. This post will be short. In fact, this is where it ends. 

See you next time, and be a blessing to someone today. 

And the Winner Is. . .

Congratulations to Tricia! You won the $60 CSN Stores gift certificate. I will email you a little later to let you know what to do.

No Apologies. No Excuses.

Well, I weighed in this morning, and I am up a pound. OK, OK. What went wrong? Well, on Wednesday ate pizza for lunch—not one slice but two. I ate it even though I remembered the Weight Watchers advice I'd heard when I was doing that program to lose weight—you know what you eat can show up 48 hours later. And I ate it anyway. I could hear Dr. Oz's voice telling me about all of the fat, salt, and bad carbs, and I ate it anyway. So, as my newest hero Julia Child would say, "No apologies. No excuses." It is what it is. A mistake.

So what can I do different this coming week? Drink the water I should drinking. Exercise like I'm supposed to be doing. And cut out the pizza—at least pizza covered in sausage and cheese. BTW: I'm not the only one who had a run-in with pizza last week. Ann has an all too funny story to share. You gotta wonder, though, when things like this happen is it a sign? You decide.

As for what I did in the dietary department the rest of the week, it wasn't too bad—although I could've done much better. I've been keeping a diet journal—at least part of the time. So something else I could change is to keep it all of the time. Why is this a struggle? I'm lazy.

But this is not defeat. It's a wake up call. One success: I did exercise four days this past week for a total of 12 miles (117 miles since I started).

One last thing: There's still time to enter the CSN Stores giveaway. It ends September 8. That's all for now.

What does it take to motivate you?

Welcome to September. My birthday month.

This morning I had a hard time getting out of bed, but then I remembered Ann and our weight loss challenge. How could I just lay here while she was losing weight? Didn't seem right. Anyway, it motivated me to get up and get to the gym.

Speaking of motivation, there's a blog titled Nu(de) Motivation.  According to this blog, five successful, beautiful, intelligent women volunteered to find their way back health by using the idea that they would eventually be photographed in the nude as motivation. OK. Here's the thing with this for me: If someone wanted me to lose weight so I could be photographed in nude, I don't think it would motivate me. I think I would probably purposefully retain my weight to ensure that never happened. But, if that works for you, then by all means go ahead.

Anyway, my point of discussing the nude challenge and my weight loss challenge with my friend is to find out what other people use to motivate themselves. And so with that I ask you: What motivates you?