Getting back in shape

Hey everyone,

So, the Christmas and New Year holiday is a horrible time to stay in shape, right? And if you have work to do during the holiday....yep!.....and if your family doesn't eat like you......heck yeah! Staying in shape is pretty much impossible.

I haven't checked how much I currently weigh. However, from looking at my body, especially from side-view, I knew I had gained a couple of pounds. This holiday, I have had quite a bit of dairy (and yes! I have suffered from my milk allergy, boohoo), I haven't had as much fruits and vegetables as I would normally buy back at school as I haven't done my own grocery shopping since I got home and I have just been forced to eat things I normally wouldn't eat. Yeah, so the weight gain was a pretty unhealthy one.

Guess what! If you're not happy with what you see when you look in the mirror or how you feel, you need to work on it. So, 6 days ago, I started working on getting back in shape and I am seeing the results already. I took on Casey Ho's 30 days Flat Abs challenge (I'm on day 6 now), I have done some belly dancing, pilates (I usually would do the a day of the challenge followed by some pilates then some cardio), a latin inspired dance workout.... I feel good after working out and that's awesome.

I'm also drinking more and more water and in large mugs. I have a mug that takes up to 3 cups of water and I drink all that at once and prefer to use that mug whenever I'm drinking water to ensure that I drink a lot of water during the day. As a snack, I have come to love eating circular slices of apple with either cayenne pepper or cinnamon sprinkled on them. When there are clementines around, though.....oh my.....I run out of count with how much I am eating. I LOVE CLEMENTINES!

Another thing I did (before I actually fully got back to working out daily) is to drink a lemon and cayenne pepper tea. Basically, I just squeezed out the juice and every thing inside (apart from the seeds) of an entire lemon followed by a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, then another teaspoon, then....you can tell I love my pepper :) and then poured some hot water over it, stirred it all up and drank it. I started drinking this before actually reading up on it because I knew of its detoxifying properties (and I had heard about it, the word, 'pepper' stuck out to me so I wanted to try the drink), but here's something I read up on it to summarise what it does:

Lemon is a natural detoxifier as vitamin C transforms toxins into digestible material. In addition to vitamin C, lemons are also packed with antioxidants and electrolytes including potassium, calcium and magnesium. Lemon is also known to stimulate the liver’s natural enzymes by helping to oxygenate the body.
Cayenne pepper stimulates the circulatory system by opening the capillaries, aids digestion, and helps regulate blood sugar. Furthermore, and very importantly, it increases the temperature of your body and kick-starts your metabolism, which, yes, can help you to lose weight over time. ~ By Nadia of Body Unburdened

So, yeah, I stopped drinking the lemon and cayenne pepper mixture (I ran out of lemons, boohoo), but I am still working out and drinking a lot of water to flush out nasties that get into my body and I am seeing some pretty good results.

~Sammy

p.s Heading back to the west country soon. Can't wait to go grocery shopping on Saturday and get all my fruits and veggies (and lovely lovely Medjool dates! :) )