An ode to the 21 Day Sugar Detox. Also known as, that time my body didn’t hate me.

Posted by willrunforbiscuits

in my last post, I casually mentioned how I had recently embarked on the 21 Day Sugar Detox. I didn’t get into all the gory details because I was about 4 days in and quite frankly, not ~~100%~~ at all confident about my ability to follow through. I am not known for having the most self control (see e.g., Lululemon shopping). I don’t think Super Dad or anyone who is even remotely familiar with me, including Super Girl, had any confidence in my ability to complete the detox. Perhaps this is why I was actually successful?

The whole premise behind the detox is that you need 21 days to “break the chains sugar and carbs have on you – and help you find food freedom.” To call my addiction to sugar and carbs “intense” would be an understatement. I had the diet of a toddler: carbs, carbs, and more carbs. The only difference between me and a 2 year old is that I ate more, I drank booze, and I chugged Diet Pepsi. Shudder. Times a million. I was convinced that my chronic pain and another inflammatory condition from which I suffer were exacerbated by my horrific diet. After talking with some friends and perusing the internets (and more importantly, getting – and ignoring for 3 months – a free 21 Day Sugar Detox Cookbook from a friend), I decided to dive in. Here is the gist of what you can’t eat on this detox: grain, sugar (including sugar from molasses, honey, coconut sugar, stevia, whatever), artificial sweetener, fruits other than coconut, lemons and limes (oh thank God, because I eat like 10 a day… said no one ever), green-tipped bananas, and apples. And, YOU CANNOT DRINK BOOZE. AT ALL. I repeat: NO BOOZE.

After mentally preparing for months, I set a date to start the detox. I bought a bunch of coconut aminos, coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut water, and basically everything else ever made from coconut, and started planning out my attack plan. I chose what I could make ahead of time for breakfast and snacks so I wouldn’t just grab a cereal bar or eat spoonfuls of honey-infused creamy all the sugar added peanut butter whenever I was starving. I set up our produce box so I would have all the ingredients to make meals that seemed simple enough, but tasty enough that I wouldn’t miss the Chinese Food I wouldn’t be eating. Yes, shudder again. That is what I used to eat. Frequently.

I made sure to remove all things from the house that I would normally want: ice cream, chocolate, Korean pastries, American pastries, French pastries, cookies, that other carton of ice cream. I planned out our dinners and what I would eat versus the kids. I would usually have some 21DSD approved version of their meals. So I would feed them veggie pasta and make spaghetti squash for myself. And then, they would end up eating all of my spaghetti squash. Why does this always happen?

The first day, I made sure to fill myself up with eggs and have a nice big coffee with coconut milk. The taste of actual coffee, not covered with vanilla syrup or a bunch of Splenda (cancer sprinkles) was horrifying. People actually drink coffee black? How is this possible? Oh well, at least I can have my caffeine so nobody gets murdered at work. I snacked on pistachios and cheese at work. Dinner was some delicious chicken and vegetables I prepared the previous evening. I felt GOOD and it had only been 12 hours.

The next couple days were smooth sailing. I felt less bloated, less belchy, less gassy, and didn’t get my typical afternoon sugar crashes. I lost 4 pounds in a couple days. Obviously water weight. I was less rage-y with the drivers on the road. I didn’t wave to anybody but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Around day 5, I noticed I was getting lightheaded and nauseous, and then I was like “oh duh, I have been working out hard every day, running in 100 degree heat, and eating maybe 50 grams of carbs a day. And I have no clue how much protein.” Instead of focusing on what I SHOULD eat, I was focusing on what I should not eat. I wasn’t timing my carbs right or eating enough protein. Plus, my body was going into ketosis, learning how to metabolize fat instead of carbs. I remedied that very quickly, and discovered my love of coconut water. Sooooo yummy, especially after an intense workout.

The weekend were particularly hard because I spend a lot of time at the pool with the kids, and the pool snackbar isn’t exactly known for having Paleo friendly or sugar free selections. I once went without packing anything other than animal crackers and Goldfish for the kids. So yeah, that worked out well. I also love a nice ice cold Diet Pepsi when I am at the pool. I know, I’m gross. The 4th of July was not super amazing either. Why did I choose to have Day 11 of the detox fall on 4th of July? I know, because I’m a moron. I snacked on veggies with homemade dressing, burgers without a bun, and organic Applegate Farms hot dogs. And more veggies. And oh, I drank a lot of La Croix and plain water. I used to despise La Croix because it felt like it was a juice poser. Such a tease, like “here is just a hint of Grapefruit/Lime/Raspberry. Do you like that? Well that’s all you’re getting!!!” Now, it is a way for me to get my bubbly fix. I will say that tolerating my children while sober on the 4th of July was exceptionally difficult, but it did help to ensure that no sparkler injuries occurred.

I won’t recap the other 10 days because they were uneventful. Eating the same things over and over got B-O-R-I-N-G but I had a lightbulb moment when I realized that my diet was super boring before. I ate the same terrible things over and over again. I had very little variety when it came to the fatty and carb-filled treats. I ate a lot of pizza and Chinese Food and Jimmy John’s. So why was I so bored eating the same healthy things repeatedly? With each day, avoiding junk became easier. Watching the kids eat ice cream was not that hard. Driving by Bojangles was easy. I don’t know if is because staying away from sugar and most carbs just made me stop wanting them, or because feeling SO DAMN GOOD helped me plug on, or some combination of these things. But I really was surprised when all of a sudden, it was day 21. Super Dad was obviously surprised too. The “WOW, I am really proud of you for finishing the detox” was code for “I was absolutely 15927% sure you would eat a biscuit on day 3, so bravo.”

I finished the detox last Sunday and on Monday, I was like “hmmm what should I eat today?” I was hesitant to see what would happen when I “broke the seal.” I started with my typical breakfast that I had prepared a few nights earlier. I packed a salad for lunch as usual. But then I had a hot pretzel at the mall and a Diet Pepsi. I about spit the drink out. It was so.freaking.sweet. Like, disgusting. The pretzel though- it was glorious. But I felt like a steaming pile of dung within an hour. I was bloated, and I felt so full and gross. The next day I ate well again for breakfast but had a sandwich for lunch. Felt terrible again all afternoon. And so on and so forth. I ate cupcakes this weekend, and Chinese Food, and pizza. And last night I decided that eating all that crap is simply not what I want. I gained back all 5 pounds I lost and then another for good measure (lol, I blame weaning Super Baby and going on some medication, yup, right that is it) and some of my pain returned. You are what you eat. I have said it many times before. It is a cliche but it is so true. I eat crap, I feel like crap.

It took 21 days on the 21 Day Sugar Detox for me to kick my sugar cravings. It took about an hour for me to realize that even though I like the way cupcakes and donuts and pizza make me feel for about 21 seconds, I hate the way I feel for days afterwards. I need to find a way to make some version of the detox a sustainable part of my life. Today, I had not a drop of added sugar, no sugar substitutes, nothing. And I already feel better. So I am open to suggestions, and I encourage anyone who feels controlled by carbs and sugar to try the 21 Day Sugar Detox (no this is not sponsored).

I AM ALIVE

Posted by willrunforbiscuits

Wow, I am the WORST BLOGGER EVER. Seriously.

But I have a great excuse. Bear with me for a moment. I had ~~another baby!~~ neck surgery. Well, that only explains the last five months of inactivity. But the three months before that, I was dealing with some serious low back and neck issues which made running and being anything other than a sloth pretty difficult. I think I averaged about 15 miles per week of running. That was pretty impressive, I know.

Anyway, fast forward to January 17, 2015. This happened. An anterior cervical discectomy and fusion at C5-6. They removed the C5-6 disc and replaced it with some screws, or something.

And this is what it looked like on the outside. I’m sorry, I can’t help that I’m sexy. My mama came to help me recover, which was very nice of her, especially during almost tax season (she is a CPA). We spent two nights in a fancy hotel with Super Girl, and I watched tv, read trashy magazines, drank stuff through a straw, and Vicodin-texted people. It’s almost as fun as ambien texting. Almost. Super Girl told me I needed to go to lululemon to get a scarf to cover my neck hole, so of course, I did.

The next several weeks were tough. I wasn’t allowed to drive for two weeks, or lift more than a gallon of milk for 6 weeks, which meant I couldn’t pick up my own kids, including Super Baby. Which also means that Super Dad had to ramp up his super parenting skills exponentially, which you wouldn’t think possible, given that he already does everything around here. He would go and get Super Baby from her crib in the middle of the night and set her down beside me in the bed so I could nurse her. Then he would put her back in her crib. Sidebar: WHY did my third baby decide to be the one who was a crappy sleeper? Super Girl and Super Toddler slept through the night at like 7 days old. Not really, but within the first three months of life. Super Dad also had to take them to daycare and pick them up every day for a few weeks. I eventually got to the point where daycare would help me bring the kids out to the car so that I could at least pick them up at the end of the work day. I also couldn’t really be alone with Super Baby because if she needed to be picked up, I couldn’t exactly rely on Super Girl to do it. Although she is freakishly strong for a 5-year-old.

Do you guys know about parenting points? It’s where one parent accumulates points (to be cashed in at a later date) by doing things like watching all the kids for a weekend, or getting up with the baby in the middle of the night, or what have you. Well, Super Dad accumulated about 749,204,573 points during my recovery. He has cashed in approximately 3,200 of them during a recent trip to Colorado. So I am still seriously in the red.

Another awesome thing happened in the winter. We got a ton of ice and snow. About three weeks after surgery, I slipped and fell on the ice, which is ~~definitely~~ not something you want to happen when you are recovering from a cervical fusion. I was starting to feel a lot better post-surgery. I had regained much of the strength in my left hand which I had lost, and my thumb and hand pain were almost gone. But after I fell, I began having this horrible nerve pain in my right shoulder. I know, I should play the lottery because I have the best luck ever! Well, guess what? To this day, I am still dealing with that pain. I managed to herniate the disc below where I had my fusion. Why? Because when you have a fusion, the levels below and above are at greater risk for herniation. So, yeah, that’s fun.

I am treating with my orthopedic surgeon and a pain management specialist, and have gotten two epidural steroid injections, several trigger point injections, and am going to start physical therapy. I do electric stim at home too. In the mean time, my running has been virtually nonexistent because the jostling seems to bother me. And I am seriously boo-hooing because I haven’t been able to go to Madabolic Raleigh since the new year (seriously, if you are in Raleigh, Charlotte, Charlottesville, Asheville, Greenville, or one of those other ‘villes, you NEED to go. They have an awesome program going and the owners of the Raleigh location are the sweetest people ever). But I have been going to Flywheel a lot because it is low impact and it totally feeds my competitive illness. If I’m not in first place at the end of a class, I feel like I just wasted $20. It’s the only thing I can win at these days, besides eBay and “how many times a day can you yell at your kids?” contests.

I am also turning around my diet with the 21 Day Sugar Detox, which is basically Paleo. I think, I’m not sure. I never really looked into Paleo before because I was 100% convinced I could never give up bread. As we all know from my blog name, I am super into carbs. Like, the bad kind. I am hoping that putting the kibosh on gobbling sweets and swigging Diet Pepsi will help with my pain and some other health issues I won’t get into here. More on that in my next post, which I PROMISE will not be in 8 months. I am only on day 2 of the detox and so far it is going pretty well. If by “pretty well” you mean “in a way that makes me wish I could be in a medically induced coma for the next 20 days.” No really, it isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be, minus the excruciating amount of time I have to spend prepping food and cooking. Which is (how many times can you divide zero into one hour?) times more than I typically spend on those things each day.

But first, I leave you with two delicious things:

1) The Banana Vanilla Bean N’oatmeal that I had for breakfast this morning. To die for.

2) This baby. Who needs to be eaten, immediately. Babies are Paleo, right?

It’s getting real up in here

Posted by willrunforbiscuits

July 2013

Whenever I go to the gym, run a race, or see people trying out new diets (ahem, “lifestyle changes”), I wonder what the impetus is. Do these people Crossfit to lose weight? To get stronger (duh)? To work on their butts? Do my friends eat Paleo so that they can get leaner? Or maybe they are thinking about the long term health benefits of changing the way they eat. I don’t really care what the answer is because it’s none of my business. I just know that for me, exercise and nutrition have played so many different roles in my life and I am once again seeing their evolution now that I am a mother of three, just scrambling to keep my head above water many days.

The background on this ~~somewhat~~ totally rambling, TMI post is this: during pretty much every minute of my 20’s, I had an eating disorder. I vascillated between bulimic and anorexic although I never looked thin like the celebrities and models whom everyone labels as anorexic. I know exactly when/why it started in college, but that’s not something to get into here. The only salient point is that I became bulimic for a number of reasons, one being that I loved food more than I loved myself. I loved the way donuts and ice cream and cookies made me feel. But then I hated gaining weight. So being the brilliant college student I was, I figured purging was a way to get the best of both worlds: eat a lot and not gain weight. Oh wait. As any bulimic will tell you, you definitely do not lose weight with binging and purging. In fact, you may (I did) gain weight. And you feel GROSS. You also feel like you are deceiving so many people around you, including your loved ones.

Right before my senior year of college, I decided the bulimia thing wasn’t working for me. I needed to find a different way to get control because bulimia made me feel out of control. So I switched gears. I started counting calories and stopped drinking (Uh, I mean, I was only 20 so actually I made the decision not to start drinking when I turned 21 in the fall). I lost a LOT of weight because I was swimming 4 hours a day, doing one hour on the ellipitical between practices, and subsisting off of chocolate chip scones, frozen yogurt, and salad. I allowed myself 1300 calories per day but I was burning close to 4000. The weight melted off and I tipped the scales at 116 before the season started. I think my weight at weigh-in was 136 the year before. But I got a lot of positive reinforcement because I swam faster. And my back fat was gone, so of course I was thrilled about that.

After graduation, I didn’t have all the hard core swimming to keep my weight in check. So back to bulimia I went. My bulimia peaked while in law school. The stress of studying and being away from my friends and family, the feeling of not being even close to the best but actually being below average when everything depended on your class rank… I just could not handle it. Things got so bad during law school that I considered taking a semester off to go to some really expensive recovery facility to deal with my eating issues. The cost was just too huge of a deterrent. I knew I was going to develop some serious health complications from my bulimia if I didn’t stop. I decided I wanted to start running again to see if that would give me some of the self esteem I had lost after college. I also thought it would help me lose all the weight I put on from my binges.

Picking up long distance running in 2005 was the first turning point in my eating disorder. I had something to focus on besides “where am I going to get my next meal… which will end up in the toilet?” I began to feel better about myself. I ran a half marathon after 6 months of training and was pleased that I ran under an 8:00 mile pace for my first half marathon. A few months later I ran a half marathon around a 7:20/mile pace. My grades improved significantly. The problem that lingered is that I continued to be bulimic, but it was more like “bulimic light.” As long as my training went well and I had a good run, or a good race, I didn’t rush out to buy ice cream and other junk. But if I had a bad day or missed a run for some reason, I backslid into my old eating habits.

This pattern pretty much continued even after I became a real grownup, with obligations like law school debt, a car payment, and a mortgage. It wasn’t until I became pregnant with Super Girl that I had a wake up call. I could not, I would not, do anything to harm this baby just because I was too ignorant or scared to deal with the underlying issues that contributed to my eating disorder. I needed to make smart choices for myself and this child. I continued eating biscuits and ice cream, but instead of just using it to stuff down my feelings and anxiety, I ate it to enjoy the way it tasted. I ran during my pregnancy because it made me feel strong and empowered. Yeah it burned calories too but I don’t think it’s a crime to run an extra mile because you had an extra scoop of Ben and Jerry’s. Nobody is perfect.

I never really lost that focus on my weight and body image though. I was determined not to gain more than 30 pounds and I “accomplished” that goal with Super Girl and Super Toddler. The number on the scale was so important to me as it had been for years. So even though I wasn’t bulimic anymore, I still cared so much about a silly number. After I had them, I was frustrated my body didn’t just snap back to a version of me that never existed anyway. Some Gisele Bundchen-esque figure with a 36 inch inseam and tiny waist. I didn’t lose any sleep over it but I tried diets here and there hoping that I could get to my “ideal weight” of 130 pounds. Never happened.

During this pregnancy, I really lost site of nutrition even though I was lifting and running a lot during the first two trimesters of the pregnancy. I had so much anxiety because I didn’t know how we could handle three kids. Also, I was worried I would have post partum depression again, as I did (really really badly) with Super Toddler. So I ate my feelings, my old crutch. I would joke with people about my Bojangles Baby, and I still do from time to time- okay, yesterday. I rationalized that if I was working out that hard, I could eat whatever I wanted. I had been making that argument for YEARS. I think it goes back to my swimming days in my teenage years when we quite literally could eat just about anything and never gain an ounce because we were burning so many calories each day. But eating whatever I wanted wasn’t healthy for me or the baby. And again, it was just a way I dealt with stress, as it always had been.

I watched the scale creep higher and higher each week. When I delivered Super Girl, I had gained 38 pounds. Wowzers. I officially weighed more than Super Dad the last three weeks of my pregnancy. And I delivered 3 weeks early. So yeah, that’s kind of scary. After having her, I have been focused on slowly getting back into my workouts because I was on bed rest for the last 6 weeks of the pregnancy. But on the other hand, I would get so frustrated that the number on the scale has not just dropped by double digits every week.

I finally had an epiphany last week after Super Girl got on the scale three days in a row and asked me what her weight was. She had been seeing me do it. It broke my heart. She wants to gain weight because she will be a “big girl,” but I don’t want the number to be something she obsesses over when she is old enough to care. I don’t want her staring in the mirror examining her stomach or “Cabbage Patch Abs” as I call mine half-jokingly. I don’t want her to think that exercise is a means to an end of keeping her weight down or getting boys to like her. I want her to feel empowered by sweating, the way I do every time I go on a run or finish a Crossfit workout. When I was doing a WOD on Saturday, I felt strong even though it was only my second time back since Super Baby was born and I was lifting a lot less weight. I felt hope for how much stronger I could get with each passing week. I felt like my daughters would be proud of me not because of the number on the scale, or how my thighs don’t touch, or how much definition I ~~hope to one day~~ have on my stomach, but because I work out to be a better mom to them and a better wife and just a badass who loves herself.

I am not 100% comfortable with my body and I don’t know that I ever will be, but I’m getting there. Being a mother has helped me realize that I can largely overcome the insecurities and issues that led to my eating disorder, because I would never ever wish that kind of torment on my children. I just want them to see that eating and exercise do not have to be rewards or punishment, and that they can be strong and happy no matter what the number on the scale is. And that’s as real as it gets folks.