For the Month of December

I'm not very good at pacts, cleanses, detoxes, or any sort of plan that requires a certain amount of self control. 

I've done it. I've accomplished it. That doesn't mean I'm good at it. But what ultimately makes it easier and provides more motivation is when you do it with someone. This is actually how I achieved the master cleanse, when I did it with a friend. This is where Janice comes in...

Janice is my best friend who I met when I was living in Redding, CA with my parents. We bonded over a love for eating healthy, being vegetarians and our obsessive love for biking. We even have the same birthday (except born a year apart). The last summer we both lived in Redding, we spent almost every waking moment together (and sometimes sleeping moments). We would bike all over Redding averaging at least 30 miles per day. I became a regular at her house. We took road trips to Chico and Portland. When we werent together, we would text how we missed each other. It was kind of sickening how close we bonded in a small amount of time. And then she went to college in Sacramento and I went to San Diego to start a new life.

When we both lived our separate lives, we still talked to each other. Janice was exploring Sacramento, started a new relationship and was having a great time at school. I was getting use to where I was living and starting school again and deciding what I wanted to do with my life. Thats when we started running. 

Janice has lost a significant amount of weight because she made a change in her lifestyle with her eating habits. She is even a nutrition major now. But with a start in a new place, Janice wanted to start running to add to her healthy regime. And I wanted to start running because it was the one thing I hated most and I wanted to conquer my fear. We both went at it different ways but ultimately it was once again something that connected us, even though we were so far away. Even though we don't run 3-4 times a week like we did when we started, we still run and consider ourselves runners. 

So why do I bring this up? 

Because of this article HERE, I decided I wanted to do a running streak for the entire month of December. In the article, a man talks about his experience with a running streak from Thanksgiving day to New years. Even on days when a blizzard is out, the goal was at least ONE MILE (thats about 10 minutes of running for me). He said after he got a flow going, it ended up being just a part of his life. I thought this would be a good way to start December, end the semester and begin the new year. 

So I asked Janice to do it with me since she's my partner in crime when it comes to running. Honestly, I expected her to be nice about it and say "I want to but I'm so busy. But I'll cheer you on." Instead this happened...

And so I write to inform those that read this blog is 

I'M DOING A RUNNING STREAK! 

I encourage everyone to do some sort of exercise streak but for now, I'll just blog about my experiences. Even when I started running, I was still taking about 2 rest days per week and I wasn't running for 25 minutes constantly. So lets see what happens. I'll update on Janice as well. 

On a side note, when I visited my friends/bandmates in San Diego a few weeks, one of my bandmates told me he started reading my blog. This horrified me. This was the bandmate who started the band, writes the lyrics and is a lawyer. And i'm still in school. I was a little embarrassed that he read my antics about trying to do a cleanse but grateful someone read it at all. So this post is dedicate to Tony, if you're still reading this blog.

Happy blogging. 

How I Celebrate the Holidays

I don't know how to start the holiday season but this is how I do it. 

Get out those holiday candles 

The best way to start celebrating the holidays is to have your apartment/house/cardboard box smell like the holidays. Start of with some apple spice to pay respects to the forgotten Thanksgiving Holiday and then go crazy with egg nog and pine scented candles for the next month and a half (preferably separately)! 

Make/Buy as many pumpkin pies as possible. 

Truthfully, the only pies that I have ever really loved that were store bought were the pumpkin pies from Costco (I swear they must put crack in there). I always try to give other store pies a chance when I'm too lazy to make my own but I'm usually disappointed. And the great thing about making your own pies is there are so many options. You can make vegan, gluten free, hazelnut pumpkin, pecan pumpkin, pumpkin pie doughnuts, pumpkin pie smoothies, even pumpkin pie martinis for those who REALLY want to celebrate the holidays! Whats best is the memories you create when making with pies with family, like me making pies with birdie. 

Christmas Lights (are not just for christmas!) 

I'm the weirdo that decorates the house year long with christmas lights. For some reason, they just make my day brighter (no pun intended). But you can get a variety of different colored lights and no one said that christmas lights had to go on just the tree and the mantle place. Decorate your desk chair, your bedpost, even your bike if you want a challenge. Like I said, I prefer year round, but the holidays is the valid excuse to explode in christmas lights. 

Holiday Crafts 

This most likely only applies to crafters who use shopping sprees at Michaels or people who have children (or both, like me). But the holidays are a great reason to make a lot of different types of decorations, especially when times are tight. The holidays are also MEANT to bring people today (not eat a bunch of insane food and go broke buying gifts) and not to sound like a dork but crafts are a great way to get together and socialize. 

Appreciate Thanksgiving

I did mention christmas lights (shame of me) but I truly don't like when people start going crazy about christmas LITERALLY the day after Halloween. ITS NOT EVEN THANKSGIVING PEOPLE! Christmas is nice and pretty but also completely crazy and as much I want to see my daughter happy on Christmas, I don't like that she's been brainwashed that christmas is all about gifts. I've never liked this concept and lets all try to be respectful of the holiday before Christmas. Besides, its about food and being with people you love, whats better than that? 

One last word, be nice to vegetarians and vegans on Thanksgiving. 

Not the easiest of holidays and not everyone has great family members that cook an entire meal around "the vegetarian". Honestly I kind of get pissed when I have vegetarian friends that brag about that kind of thing. "Just stick the knife in a bit deeper." 

Happy Blogging! 

On Pause

If you haven't been able to tell by my lack on "cleanse updates", the cleanse has been put on pause. 

This happened for a variety of reasons, none I'm too completely proud about. I feel that at this point, even though my intentions were good, the timing was off and I was not able to focus on my ultimate goal. Even if I was able to, I think that with everything that is going on in my life right now, this raw food cleanse may have been a little aggressive for me. 

Instead of ten days, I will most likely cut down the next detox to three days. 

It appears more reasonable. My plan before was to have this detox be the beginning to a gradual life change for focusing more on treating my body right, trying to become more social and get back on track for the things that were important to me but it may be best to do this detox through this type of change. I may need to get my priorities in order, set up doctor appointments, focus on school work and then add this detox to the setup. 

For all this who supported me, I'm sorry that this minor setback occurred but please understand this is still me NOT GIVING UP. 

But shit happens.