Last night my husband and I went out and spent…let’s just say a lot of money on groceries. I felt like a complete wet blanket after telling my husband no a million times over, but all he wanted was the Velveeta cheese and the cinnamon rolls and the Cheez-Its. Even though he knew I was going to no, he still looked at me as if I was the Destroyer of All Things Fun. One good things, however, did come out of it: I promised him a snack as long as we could find one that fit into the eating plan and we discovered Made in Nature Italian espresso coconut chips.
They were so darn delicious I didn’t know what to do with myself. I probably have developed a new addiction.
But I should start at the beginning of the week. Last week I wrote about how going off our diet messed up my body so much I thought I was pregnant. My whole motivation this week whenever I wanted to eat sugar was to think about on the effects of sugar on my body and it would remind me that although sugar tastes good I always regret eating it afterwards. I can’t process sugar like I used to.
Day 1: Monday. Mondays are never fun, an this one wasn’t either. Thankfully I had prepared Hubby’s meals for the day the night before so we were ready to go. He had a huge test in class and so he came home with a completely fried brain–however, after the workout he felt much better. We went on a walk and were feeling totally great by the end of the night.
Day 2: Working out with my husband makes working out so much more fun. I honestly believe the couple that works out together stays together.
Day 3: We put together a fruit bowl for dessert and all Hubby wanted was caramel apples. Of course, we can’t have caramel apples, but we did have caramel apple dip left over from our caramel apple mimosas last week so we had apple slices dipped in caramel and as amazing as it was, I found myself happier with the apple slices than with the caramel.
Day 4: Pilates day. She does this mat series to target the side of the booty and it usually leaves the husband and I crumpled in a heap on the floor. First, lift your right leg off the ground and turn it clockwise in little circles for 30 seconds. Then big circles. Then counter-clockwise circles. Then counter-clockwise big circles. Then bicycles. Then reverse bicycles. Then triangles. Stars. Toe taps. Balance on your right toe and do a pirouette while drinking water upside down. And then repeat on your left side. Is your gluteus maximus tired yet?
Day 5: Today Hubby wanted apple pie. Apple pie is not, in fact, 21 Day Fix approved, but I did find a recipe by Beachbody for Apple Crisp. This was our dessert, and although it was delicious and light and perfect for fall, we were missing the “crisp” half of the recipe. As much as I love oats and honey, it does not imitate sugar, flour, and butter in any way and it also does not crisp quite the same. Despite the crispiness let down, we still loved this dessert.
Day 6: Food-wise, this was a good day for us. Hubby was amazing and cooked me the most fantabulous pumpkin spice Greek yogurt pancakes for breakfast and later in the day when I still needed pumpkin everything, I found this recipe for flourless pumpkin brownies and I was in heaven. Running With Spoons is very possibly my new favorite food blog. She takes gorgeous pictures of legitimately healthy recipes and it’s quite possible she is my long lost sister. We ended up spending the day shopping and by the time we returned home we were completely pooped and in no way wanted to work out, prompting a long debate on the merits of working out when we could be watching a traumatic episode of Arrow. We chose to work out and felt instantly better. Of course I shouldn’t be surprised.
Day 7: We were so extremely proud of ourselves for making it through a whole entire week having done every single workout and without cheating on our eating plan. After six tough workouts, we were actually excited about yoga. The first round of 21 Day Fix used to leave me dreading yoga, so this was a huge success! I am a Muay Thai fighter in my heart, and somehow the slowness of yoga has always seemed like cheating. And possibly a little bit lame. However, I know from watching people who can actually do yoga (read: not me) that it is intensely hard and the slowness is what brings half the benefits. Amazingly, I very much enjoyed our Sunday night yoga. Even more than that, I enjoyed watching Hubby do yoga.
Perhaps you are noticing a theme here: we love dessert.
Our big lesson from the week is that when your body feels like it wants to curl up into a ball and die, a workout usually helps. When you feel bloated and gross, not eating sugar is a really simple solution. Another lesson I learned this week: my son is becoming very mobile. If I do not watch him, he will catapult himself off the sofa.
I used to never bake with refined sugar but somehow over the course of being married and having a son and working two businesses, the busyness has left me taking shortcuts–for example, with our desserts. This week I have gone back to desserts based off of whole foods that use only raw honey as a sweeter and it’s amazing! We are absolutely loving the way the 21 Day Fix is taking us back to not taking shortcuts with how we fuel our bodies and we are also loving the way our workouts are giving us energy and drive we are not used to having.
Two more weeks, everyone! Stay tuned.