you know when you have something you REALLY need to do, and it's REALLY long after you should have done it, that you just keep putting it off and putting it off (and putting it off)? well, that's my personality type anyway. and that's what keeps happening with me and this blogging thing. it's not that i don't have anything to say (i usually have the OPPOSITE problem - i LOVE to talk - way too much from what i hear), it's simply that i oftentimes have TOO much to say and can't pick a topic. so i guess for a few posts i'll just ramble. but that's the nice things about blogs. they don't interrupt and don't seem to care WHAT you put on there. WAY cool.
we have been up to SO much lately - from texas school (of professional photography) at the end of april (as i was still recovering from the coolest fashion show on earth!), my birthday (which SHOULD be a national holiday, but seems to get lost in between my oldest and youngest daughters' birthdays...), having to say goodbye to our nanny of 2 years (boo hoo!), getting to say HELLO to the most wonderful new nanny (YAY!), to our trip up to see jed and vicki and friends in july, to the craziest month of the year (august). WHEW! if i can find the images i've taken recently from our escapades i'll post them soon. let's just say i'm newly ADDICTED to rock band, and i hate snakes more than EVER.
so somewhere in here our good friend jed started this 'diet', if you will, called the lifeforce plan. it is somewhat extreme, and i must admit we thought he was NUTS when he did this (he loves food as much, if not more, that i do). basically, it's a plan that has you eating solely from a list of yes/no foods (if it's on the yes list you can eat it, if it's on the no list you can't - sounds pretty simple), you can eat however much you want (yay!), and you take 23-33 supplements a DAY (BOO!). oh yeah, and you have to drink a TON of water (almost literally). again, thought he was a raving lunatic.
welllll... after watching his AMAZING progress over the first several days and weeks, we were awestruck when we went to see them in july. he was a completely new person, and only on week 8 of the plan (there are 16 weeks total). after a few days of talking to him more in depth about it, jim and i decided to take the plunge ourselves. against my saner judgement i'm sure. what i loved about the idea was the incredible health/detox benefits it has for your body. and who wouldn't want to lose weight as a bonus?
it is complete HELL.
okay, well, that's a SLIGHT exaggeration. the first week or so was pretty easy. we can eat all meats (except pork), all vegetables, all fruits (except oranges), whole grain brown rice, whole grain brown rice CAKES (what an anomoly of that word...), all potatoes, salt/pepper/spices, and olive oil. that's it. everything else you can think of (pretty much everything that sounds YUMMY) is on the 'no' list. oh, and i have to drink 3 QUARTS of water a day (poor jim has to drink 5!). no sugar. no dairy. no yeast. no sugar substitutes. and nothing with any of these ingredients in it at all.
so i suppose i'm putting this here for a few reasons. one - it feels good to vent a bit about it, and two - it's called accountability. perhaps if i type this here i will feel tremendous guilt if i think about quitting (which i'm down to thinking about only every OTHER minute).
and the worst part about it? you have to passively SWEAT for 20 minutes EVERY day. PASSIVELY. that means not tied to exercise (think hot bath, sauna, jacuzzi). really, who WANTS to sweat? it's not fun. in fact, i'm STILL not used to it and i'm sitting here writing this at midnight instead of running that wonderful HOT bath. at least i have teen vogue and lucky to keep me company.
BUT, it's working. the results are TREMENDOUS for both of us. which is the main reason we can't just quit - it's actually working. ahhhhhhh......
but with that, i'm off to sweat now. ICK. wish me luck...
peace and popsicles -
jen
this image is a shot i grabbed of jim at vicki's warehouse in illinois
