Harajuku Moment

A Harajuku moment is that moment when you decide you've had enough. When you decide it's time to change and this time you mean it.

In his book, The 4-Hour Body, Timothy Ferriss shares stories of people who reached their Harajuku moment.

I reached mine a couple of months ago.

I was several months out of a divorce, working long hours sitting at a desk, had decided not to date or have much of a social life at all for that matter, and decided that letting my figure and health go didn't matter anymore.

And so I continued on this path to self destruction - not getting enough sleep, eating whatever crap I wanted whenever I wanted, sitting long hours without exercising, and living in sweat pants and XL t-shirts left behind by my ex-husband.

It was comfortable, I thought.

I'm happy, I thought.

This is good for me, I thought.

I really don't care that I look terrible, I thought.

I could feel myself getting heavier, becoming more short of breath when simply walking across a room, not sleeping well, making poor choices in my diet.

Weekends, I'd be like, "I have a ton of work to do. I'm gonna' need chocolate and Dr. Pepper to motivate me. But you know what? I deserve it. I work hard. I deserve a reward."

That was not rewarding myself. It was destroying myself.

I started ditching baby showers, bridal showers, wedding receptions, parties, dinners - any social event. I hardly left my cave. I hardly saw the light of day. I had nothing to wear anyway. I didn't feel good. I just wanted to stay comfortable - hiding in my cave and wearing tent-sized clothing.

One day I looked at myself in the mirror and decided - ENOUGH! I'm sick of this. This is not me. I've lost myself in this misery. I want to be happy and healthy and get out and have a life again. THAT'S what I deserve! Not chocolate. Not chips. Not ice cream. Not Dr. Pepper. Not greasy fast food. Those aren't rewards. Those are more like punishments.

That was my Harajuku  moment.

You have to have that moment. You can't just say, "Well, okay I'll try it if you say it's good." You have to want it. You have to be done with feeling and looking crappy. You have to say "Enough is enough" and mean it.

That is the ONLY way you will have success. This is my third week to do this diet. I did not lose a single pound my second week on the diet. Typically I would throw my hands up and give up at this point and say, "Well, I guess it's not gonna' work out for me. Oh well. I tried."

No. Not this time.

I'm excited to go to the store and stock up on these foods that will make me feel alive again. I'm excited to spend an hour in the kitchen every Sunday evening separating and preparing my meat rations for the week. I love standing back and looking at my preparatory work and thinking about how much good it's doing for me.

In fact, I HATE binge days. Hate them! I feel yucky. I look forward to Sunday when I can get back on my diet that makes me feel good again. On binge day I sat down with a bowl of popcorn - my absolute favorite snack.

NOT ANYMORE! It didn't taste good to me and didn't make feel good. In fact, it put me off. I don't like salty, buttery popcorn anymore. It makes me dehydrated and bloated.

And I LOVE water. Okay, so I drink a lot of crack water (refer to past post), but I can't get enough of water. It makes me feel so good.

I hope you can find your Harajuku moment. If you haven't found it, this way of life won't work for you. Nothing will. Not until you've had enough.

NEVER!

That's the answer to the question - When will you end this diet?

I have decided that even when I reach my goal weight, I will never stop this diet.

Here's why:

1. I feel fantastic. I'm not talking about the weight loss part. I mean, losing weight feels great too, but I feel so good. Energetic, happy, less stressed. I'm not all cranky and stressed out and tired all the time like I was before I started it.

2. It's healthy. Less health problems - especially degenerative ones. For as long as I live on this earth, I want my quality of life to be top notch. Eating clean like this will do that for me.

3. I can feel the fat melting off. When I lotion up after a shower, I can feel that there is less fat on my arms and legs. And I'm not all bloated around my mid section anymore. I can actually comfortably button my jeans. It's feels amazing!

I hate to call this a diet. It's not a diet in the sense that you're depriving yourself and it's temporary to lose weight.

It's a diet in the sense that it's a specific sort of nutrition you're putting into your body that's going to keep you feeling and looking great.

Who doesn't want that?

Lunch

This is a typical lunch for me. One marinated salmon fillet cooked stove top in light cooking spray, half a can of kidney beans and broccoli. Very simple. I eat this every day for either lunch or dinner. It's very satisfying. 

Breakfast

Every morning I eat the same breakfast - 7 days a week. 

I start by spraying my non-stick skillet with light butter spray and adding a handful of spinach leaves. 

I cook them until they wilt.

Then I dump in half a can of black beans. 

Next, I beat two egg whites and one egg with yolk and pour that into the mixture, stirring until it's cooked. 

And finally, I dump in about 1/3 cup of salsa for extra flavor and stir until it's heated through. 

And this is the end result. It's not pretty, but it's tasty and it fills me up. Four hours later, I'm still not starving, but it's already time for my next meal. 

Preparation Is Key

I don't know about you, but for me preparation is key.

If my diet is all prepared and easy to just grab and cook/heat, I have a better chance of sticking with it.

I do all of my shopping in one day and usually get all of my meat, veggies and beans purchased - enough to last me the week. Sometimes I have to run back and grab a few more things, but that's okay.

I can't eat my meat without some bold flavor so I buy these marinades for $1 or less at the grocery store. They help you out by telling you on the back which meats they flavor the best. These are some of the marinade choices. I love them all. Not pictured is Baja Citrus and Montreal Steak. YUM!

Next, I separate my meat into baggies. The chicken breasts are so huge that my son and I split those so I package one to a bag, but the hamburger, steak and salmon goes two to a bag. Then I pour a little marinade in each one and squish it around a bit, then seal the bag.

For this week my steak is marinating in Montreal Steak, my fish is marinating in Baja Citrus and Garlic Herb and Wine and my chicken is marinating in Chipotle Pepper, Garlic Herb and Wine, and Spiced Brandy and Herb. It gets me excited just thinking about those tasty marinades.

PS: I didn't mention hamburger because I totally forgot to buy some at the store. That's what I'm running back for tonight.

And finally, I pack everything in the freezer, except for what I'll be eating today. All of my frozen veggies are packed in behind. I've got peas, broccoli,and  brussel sprouts.

Every night before bed I pull out the meat for the next day and refrigerate it. It's so easy to just grab the bags of meat and veggies and a can of beans and whip up a meal.

BINGE DAY!

First of all, I just want to say that I will NOT be getting on the scale at any point today because I'm scared to death.

This is a mandatory binge day. The diet calls for it. I can eat whatever I want. I can eat crap to the point of getting sick.

You would think I'd be skipping around, popping all sorts of naughty things into my mouth and thoroughly enjoying it.

The problem is, it's only been one week on this diet, I've made significant progress, and now I'm terrified of completely undoing it all.

This is the part where I just have to trust Mr. Timothy Ferriss when he says, "It is important to spike caloric intake once per week. This causes a host of hormonal changes that improve fat-loss."

He actually says on page 88 (of this 522-page book) "Yes, you can eat anything you want - in any quantity - on Saturdays."

Here's how my morning started off. I sauntered into the kitchen, looked around, opened the fridge, saw the usual fixings for my strict breakfast, shut the fridge quickly and went into panic mode. I saw a chocolate bar sitting on top of the microwave so I ate one  piece and cringed. Then I made myself some herbal tea.

And that's where I'm at right now at 10:20 AM. I am lost.

That's Not A Diet!

Those are the words my dad proclaimed when he stopped over and saw the size of my lunch plate.

I laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm definitely not starving. In fact, I have to sometimes force myself to eat because I do this FOUR times a day."

That right there is chicken cooked stove top in vinaigrette dressing, broccoli and lentils boiled in chicken broth.

This is meal #2 of the day. I've got to do this two more times today in four-hour intervals. Definitely not a starvation diet.

You may look at this and think, "How in the world do you lose weight on THAT?"

Because I've hardly exercised this week, I've been eating like this and I'm down 9 pounds in less than one week.

I can't explain it, folks. It's just working and that's all I know.

The Most Effective 4 Minutes Of Your Life

Raise your hand if you hate working out.

I'm raising both of mine.

I do love to get outside and do physical activity. It's just the whole working out thing like, "Okay, I'm going to the gym now to spend the next hour or two of my life sweating my face off and causing myself to be in intense pain. I...can't....wait...."

Or putting on a workout video. BORING!

I'll never be a runner, which seems to be the latest fad. That's great for those  who can run. My genes do not allow for that. I tried it a few times, woke up the next morning with intense arthritic-like pain, called my father who had knee replacement surgery in his 40s and he said, "Oh no. No. No. You will never be a runner. Don't do that to yourself."

So I've power walked with friends and that's great - lots of great venting sessions, good exercise, but it never lasts. It's hard to coordinate schedules - especially when you and your friends are all mothers with young children and they have husbands who would like them to spend time with THEM in the evenings - not YOU.

In spite of my intense hatred for the above, I try to do it as much as possible anyway.

BUT, if I'm having a long work day, rough day with the kids, just not feeling like I want to spend an hour torturing myself today and there's no other opportunity for physical activity, I have discovered the following.

The 4-minute workout, which has been called the most effective fat burning workout you can do in a day. Go ahead, do your other workouts on top of this or don't work out at all aside from this.

But do this every day and you will feel amazing. And see results.

Only 4 minutes? Yeah, you haven't tried it yet. It's SO HARD!

Here's the run down: (The links show you the exercises)

1. One minute of  Burpees

2. One minute of Prisoner Squats

3. One minute of Push Ups

4. One minute of Mountain Climbers

Try it. I dare you! Just do this every day. It gets easier and easier to get through. I seriously doubt it will ever get to the point where you're doing it and hardly breaking a sweat or breathing heavy because the guy who introduced me to it who happens to be in fantastic shape and personal training is his life struggles to get through this without grunting and groaning and panting and sweating.

PS: I'm down to 170 pounds! I can't wait to work my way down through the 160s now!

Crack Water

This diet calls for a LOT of water.

And I'm sorry, but I don't like water all that much. It's boring and also it makes me gag....unless I've just worked out hard in which case I can't get enough of it.

So I concoct a little something my youngest sister refers to as "crack water" because it's so good (like crack, apparently) that you can't stop drinking it.

And that's the idea - to drink water like it's going out of style. 

My personal favorite is Sweet Leaf Vanilla Creme. You find it at Sprouts and it costs $12.99 a bottle, which will last you about 3-4 weeks, depending on how much you use. I just drop 2-3...okay like 5 to 6 little drops (not droppers full. Just drops. CALM DOWN!) into my water and it's like candy. Or crack. We like to say crack in my family because it's funny to us. Clearly we are a sick people. But the important thing is, it makes necessary evils less painful.

And that, my friends, is how I'm able to drink water all day long.

PS: I'm down to 172 from 179 in about 4 days. WOOHOO!