Bye Bye Insomnia

As I mentioned before, I've suffered from insomnia on and off for at least a few years now.  When my husbands work alarm would ring at 4:30 a.m. I just wouldn't know where the night went.  Sometimes I would just pretend to be asleep so he wouldn't know I was up all night.  There were many nights that turned into another day without a wink.

During most of those sleepless nights, there was the internet.  A lot of social media browsing.  Pinterest projects bloomed from insomnia.  Books sometimes kept me company, thinking they would make me drowsy enough to fall asleep.  To no avail.

While on the cleanse a beautiful thing happened.  I got a full 8 hours sleep on the first night of the cleanse.  There is a product called Apothecherry that helps you achieve that full nights rest.  AMAZING!  It contains ingredients that help you sleep.  And that it did.

 

Puruim's Apothe-Cherry™ made from 100% Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate

It was such a relief to be able to sleep.  My sleep was deep and hard too.  I could tell because trying to wake to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night was harder than usual and felt like I was dreaming, if that makes any sense.

I haven't had this much rest and abundant energy in years.  Can't stress enough how great I feel.  All due to the 10-day Celebrity Transformation Cleanse.  So grateful.

Have a Happy Hula Day everyone.

Got so much energy I can dance hula all day long, just like Lilo.

How RUDE!!!

I was startled awake by The Hubs at 7 a.m., very rudely I might add, because he just realized he was late for work.  About an hour late.  In his line of work, that's called a flop, so he would be home for the day and he was not a happy camper that he missed work.  He hates that.

My alarm was set for 9 a.m., so I went back to bed for another couple hours.  More so that I benefit from the maximum amount of sleep as where before when there were many-a-night that insomnia got the best of me.

Its Sunday...Walk Day with the BFF.  We usually meet up at 11 a.m. and start doing a warm up lap.  Today were going to Wilson Park.  It is the best park in my area.  There's an awesome walking path that is just under a mile long so it makes it easy to gauge our walking distance.

Its a very HOT and still day.  No breeze and it feels like an oven.  Its been a hot summer this year.  We start out just a stroll to warm up,  I pre-stretch before I leave the house because its part of my daily routine.  Besides, in my work its what I preach to all of my clients to do on a daily basis.. STRETCH!  Now if I could only get the BFF to do the same.

On this day I was extremely proud of both of us.  We approached the hill with verve and a positive attitude.  On this 9th day of my cleanse and to my surprise, we did that hill without any problem.  I wasn't breathing overly hard... steady and rhythmic.  My heart wasn't beating out of my chest and I felt really good.  IT WAS AMAZING!  As I was coming to the top I remember thinking that walking this hill won't kill me after all.  I can go another round without the stopping. Which we did -that never happens.

I didn't want to slow the heart rate for fear that the fat burning aspect of it would not work.  I'm so happy at this point, for a second I thought I could run.  But we won't attempt that just yet.  We have a bit to go as novice walk-for-fitness-ers, but I'm confident we'll get there.

There was no weight loss on this day and that's fine.  Probably due to all the food I ate yesterday.  Tomorrow is the last day of the cleanse and we'll see where all this dedication has gotten me.

Be well and Have a beautiful day.

Wanted to share the Wonderful Wilson Park:

 View of part of the walking paths and the Tree House.

Another view of the Tree House 

The Duck Pond.  You can see the walk paths in the back there. 

A different angle from the back of the pond. 

The Steamers are right next to the park with train rides every 1st Sunday.

The children's Playground

View from way back on the hill.  Those buildings back there are the batting cages, hockey rink and indoor sports center.

note: pics taken from a google search of images of the park and do not belong to me personally.

Was That a Hunger Pang?

Well maybe I spoke too soon about this being effortless.

Its day 8 of my cleanse and the hunger pains are intense.  It woke me from my sleep they were so strong.  I actually gave a little chuckle when I realized what it was.  It was funny to me.

It felt like my body was telling me to put some solid food in me.  Some very tasty, very chewable food.  Like a steak or something, which I have been craving for a couple days now.  Which is ironic because I'm not much of a meat eater - in my mind at least.  I prefer fish & chicken.  My husband is a carnivore to the core and thats what we primarly eat at home, but I do not prefer it.  So it took me by surprise that that is what my body wanted.

To satisfy my hunger I incorporated more of the flex foods, as much as I was able today.  Every chance I was able I ate a flex food.  Got a little creative too.  Sauteed my spinach in coconut oil with garlic and that was so delicious, I didn't want it to end.

Had an apple as a snack.  Half an avocado for my afternoon meal with Himalayan salt and cayenne pepper.  The flavors are so vivid and just popping.  Maybe that in itself helped satiate me.  The fact that everything tastes so good is a great plus.  It's like I've never tasted food so delicious.

As of this day I lost a total of 13 pounds.  In 8 days, thats not bad.  Not bad at all.  Two more days to go and I just may have my steak when all of this is done.  We'll see.

This is what I want to eat...

Picture from Serious Eats at www.seriouseats.com

But what I'm  able to eat during my cleanse instead...

Picture from www.breasthealthandhealing.org

I could go for both together right now.  Ok, I'm done drooling for now.  Have a great day.

What Happened? Hmmm

Aloha all.

Although I set the scheduled postings so that there wouldn't be a lapse in my blog postings, it seems that it hasn't worked.  We've been out of town for a week or so and I was confident that my blog will post like clockwork.  When we got in this morning, I noticed it wasn't to be.

Anyways...just wanted to apologize for the lapse in postings.  I will go over and do them manually.  Stay tuned for more of my journey.

Thank you for stopping in.  I greatly appreciate you for your interest. Wishing you a great weekend and Happy Aloha Friday.

Walk in the Park

Weeks before my cleanse my best friend and I started walking for exercise to get the blood pumping and the body moving after years of inactivity.  The only way I could motivate him to come with me was to go to the beach or to the park and tell him he could "people watch".  If you know what I mean.  There's a helluva lot of beautiful healthy people there.  Gave me motivation too.

In the beginning it was very difficult for me.  For both of us.  There were pains in my knees, hips and muscles.  The hills or ramps and stairs would prove to be most challenging.  My heart would be pumping out of my chest - sometimes I thought I was having a heart attack.  It was hard to breathe and I would get light headed and needed to rest at the top.  Not to mention the pain/numbness in my legs and hips. The struggle was real people!

I knew we had to just suck it up and continue on, build some endurance and stamina over time.  And that's what it was going to take, time.  Time and determination.

It seemed as soon as I started the Cleanse that everything changed, literally overnight.  And that is no exaggeration.  Day two on the cleanse was a walking day and even that early on I could tell a significant difference.  One - I had an abundance of energy, two - I wasn't breathing hard and the hills, ramps or stairs weren't as much of a struggle as before.

By the next week I was doing them with absolutely NO PROBLEM.  My heart wasn't pumping out of my chest, I could breathe easier and didn't need the rest at the top.  Plus we added more laps, more go's up the ramps/stairs to our usual walk...which I just loved.

Don't understand how that worked so quickly.  Maybe the blood was pumping through my body because it was a little cleaner.  My heart was being fed the proper nutrition that it didn't struggle to pump efficiently.  I don't know.  Whatever it is, I am so grateful everyday for Purium.

A walk in the park (or beach) isn't something that I loathe anymore, instead I look forward to it.  That has never happened before.  The couch will win before a walk would.

Walking and moving has become a very big part of my life.  I'm up to 3 miles 3-4x a week.  Someday's I'll go longer or further.  Depends on what time allows in any given day.

The TRUE Test

From day five to six the weight loss was a substantial three (3) pounds.  That was amazing!  I've never thought you could lose that much weight in 1 day.  Wow!  The aminos are doing a great job of building muscle which is burning fat.

On day six I decided I needed a massage because of the pain and tension in my neck & shoulders. Mainly related to my job as a Massage Therapist.  I just couldn't stand the pain any longer so I went for a Thai Massage. Whoooohooo! Crystal my therapist worked me over so good I felt like jelly afterward.  Just what I needed.

The next morning I woke up groggy.  Due to two reasons - I had a great massage and because I fought the urge to go to bed after my Apothecherry drink to watch a movie.  That stuff is a godsend.  It puts me to sleep in absolutely no time at all.  Miracle for this formally insomnia ridden woman.

Day seven, a Friday was going to be the true test for me as I had four clients in a row that day and gradually lose energy as the day goes on.  There is hardly any time to go get something to eat and restore my energy in between so I tend to go straight through until I'm done drinking only water.  If I'm lucky I'll have a small fruit, some nuts or worse case scenario, a chocolate bar.

My work runs 5-6 days a week and all hours of the day.  Most appointments are in the afternoon and can go into late evening/night, when people finish work.  And I'm mobile which means I go to the client, so add a lot of driving to it all.

To my surprise I made it through like a champ.  I took my aminos and drank my shake at the designated times, no problems.  Easy peasy!  I could take them driving between clients and it provided all the energy and sustainability I needed to get through the evening.

It worked so well, I still had so much energy when I got home that I ended up doing my notes that same night.  Where as I would wait until Monday to enter the data because I was so wiped out there was no way I could do it.  All I want to do is eat something, shower and sleep.

I'm loving all this energy and the good nights sleep I've been having ever since I started.  What a difference it makes.

Just 3 days left!!  And the funny thing is, it was completely effortless.

Wanted to leave you with some pics of the moon I took while leaving my last clients home around 10 p.m.  It was so beautiful.  Taken with my iPhone so forgive the quality.