Health: The 10 Day Smoothie Cleanse

Today is July 1st, and I'm officially on day 2 of the 10 day smoothie cleanse that we're doing for a month solid. Of course by "we," I mean myself, and two of my aunts. One aunt has already completed 10 days, and now we're on until the 4th of July when we'll be taking a break for the day to enjoy the holiday. What can I say about the smoothie cleanse? Hmmm... it's meh. I do feel better, but it's a pain in the butt only getting smoothies all day long. The things that I like about it is that I literally have to do no actual "cooking," and I get all my fruits and veggies for the day. I'm an ok cook, but surely no professional. You have a small smoothie 3 times a day, and it's chock full of fresh fruits and veggies.

Today my smoothie was red, and tasted like strawberry/banana. It also was packed with fresh spring mixed greens, flaxseed, protein powder, and fruit. It's pretty good. I miss a lot of things like salad dressing, and bread. I didn't realize I ate a lot of bread but clearly, I do. This morning I was literally like. "FML I just want an mf'ing bagel!" Eventually a cooler headed, much calmer Caroline grabbed the frozen strawberries out of the freezer and weeped silently into her sugarless detox tea. I'm going to make it! For the record, I think they should just rename Stevia powdered Exlax, because people should know that. It tastes nothing like real sugar, or anything resembling real sugar. It wrecks my stomach. I've given up on that completely.

Just trolling the Joe Sugg tag on tumblr, and drinking this red stuff. He's adorable and makes me laugh = motivation.



Smoothie Day #1- This green stuff that tastes like apples, and stuff.

I think I'll be ok, just one more day down until the 4th. I do feel better! My skin looks better. I don't feel all foggy and sleepy mid afternoon, so I am seeing improvements but I'm nowhere near where I need to be yet although I am enjoying this. In some weird, sick, twisted way this is sort of the easiest health thing I've ever done. If you want to try it too, pick up JJ Smith's book the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse, on Amazon. If you're like me and trying to change up your lifestyle, do it. Just stop worrying, and complaining, start now! Your body will thank you for it.

xo,

Health: Addicted.

(Image from tumblr)

I can't be the only girl on the planet whose done a late night Taco Bell run, but we're not always honest about is the following morning, the next day when you wake up feeling absolutely horrendous! Split minute decision turns into weekly trips to the drive-thru, and then the weekend, well ... then you've got the Reader's Digest version of,  what I did in my early 20s. A very close family member to me has been really making an effort to change it up, and she's gotten super healthy and she's really started motivating me without even saying anything. (This is why she's one of my favorites!)

So ... what are we going to do? Eat as clean as possible, at home, for ONE month.

Is there a possibility that I could fail? Of course! I'm really going to try and keep those feelings at bay though with exercise, and a good attitude. I really just want to do this up right though and see if I can make this a committed, personal lifestyle change. Hunter and I ran the Color Run this past May and I loved every single second of it. It was so empowering, but I also loved how I felt that whole day afterward when I realized that I had completed almost 3.5 miles in one go. This October I'm committed to another run, (although I'm not sure if Hunter will attend this time even though he was a trooper in the May race), but I am super excited!  What I would like to change is my goals for the race, and that is decreasing my first run time of 1 hour 10 minutes to around 45 minutes. I know I can accomplish this but my training has to start now.

Currently I've been experimenting with a lot of home workouts in addition to taking early morning walks with our puppy Finn. I get a lot of them from The Lean Machines, (they have a whole playlist worth of 10 minutes workouts here but also check out their youtube as well), and I love yoga so I've tried out PsycheTruth where they have a whole beginners series of 20 minute yoga workouts. Yoga does work, but you need a good teacher if you're just starting out so you do the moves correctly and you'll notice the significance as to how you feel later. As always, since the pavement is the cheapest gym I try to do runs when it's not too hot but lately since we've been hitting 100 degrees or higher here I've been indoors.

If you need cooking ideas, there's so many great books. I love the Eat This, Not That series because I think once you get to the maintainence level of fitness, they can help you make better lifestyle choices when it comes to meals. Just remember if you're just starting out,  or for those people like me, who are maybe restarting again for what feels like the 1,000th time you don't have to be perfect all the time to be healthy. If you feel it, you are, and if you truly feel it then let that keep you going! I have a long way to go, but as we all know it's about the journey not the destination. We need to be happy along the way, because once we reach our final goal if we aren't inwardly happy with ourselves then we've already failed. In the mean time, cooking at home it one of the easiest decisions you'll ever make for your health. I'm obsessed with Jamie Oliver, his cooking is so good and he has a whole youtube channel dedicated to easy things you can make at home! No DVR required. I also like healthy southern comfort foods from The Deen Brothers, and if you follow me on Pinterest I have a whole board dedicated to good eats. Please check that out if you're ever in need of inspiration.

I think that's it for now, but be sure to look out for future posts about my progress.

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