Monday, November 9, 2009

Isagenix cleanse update 11/09

Well, not so good this week. I only lost one pound and no inches. I will confess that every day I went into town and had a large decaf breve at a local (non-Starbucks) shop. (Theer's a story in that, but I'm not going to confess). Now, I know there aren't enough calories in a breve to add up to anything, particularly since I was following the plan as directed otherwise. Well, maybe not. I suppose those sandwiches I had a couple days were a bit non-plan.

OK, ok, I was bad. But really, not all that bad - with this last pound, I've lost 29 pounds in the last year and that is good for something! And while I cheated, I didn't lose any ground.

The holidays are coming up, the parties are starting soon. I'm going to go off the cleanse but I will have an Isagenix shake every morning and *try* to be good the rest of the time. At least then when I start up in January I won't have backslid (too much).

I'm at 140 lbs right now - I could stop because at a bit over 5' 7" no weight chart says I'm overweight. But I know that I would be happier if that last bit of flab disappeared, so if I can fit in a 9-day cleanse between now and after the holidays, I will. There's a program for that, too - I haven't tried it yet.

Thing is, I really like losing the weight, I like how much better I feel. That's a good reason to keep with it, even though I'm sliding a wee bit.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Isagenix cleanse update

Sunday was a cleanse day - liquid fast all day using a cleansing drink. You do a cleanse day every 7 days and the first is the hardest, at least for me, but I got through it just fine.

Here's the results: 2.5 inches and 5 lbs in one week! My pants feel noticeably looser and I feel really great. When you lose weight so fast, you can really notice it and I love that!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Cleansing for Weight Loss

I'm doing the Isagenix cleanse for health benefits (detoxification) including weight loss. I've been on and off of Isagenix for over a year now and it's quite amazing. I started out at 168 lbs and immediately took off nine pounds last year - not so many pounds, but because of how detoxing works, I lost enough inches to get into a smaller size of jeans.

I didn't go back on the full Isagenix cleanse program again till June of this year. During the hiatus, I didn't gain any weight - again because of what happens when you detox.

Why cleanse?

The residue of toxic chemicals is stored in the bodily tissues of every single person and animal on the planet. Living bodies have systems to expel toxins from the body, but in the last 50 or more years, human-created toxins are now found everywhere, and the average person, at least in the US, ingests tremendous amounts (pounds!) every year in the form of hormones, antibiotics, food chemicals, additives, artificial sweeteners, and MSG in processed and store-bought foods. Let's not forget air and water pollution (smog, industrial/agricultural chemicals and "innocent" chemicals such as chlorine and florine in water).

Our bodies can't expel the overwhelming load of toxins - kidneys and livers can only do so much! - so what isn't expelled is stored in fat in order to keep the body from dying from toxic overload.

If you've been dieting to lose weight, your body does everything it can to fight the release of these toxins back into your body. Your metabolism slows right away. According to the 2003 report "Energy Balance and Pollution by Organochlorines and Polychlorinated Biphenyls" (Obesity Reviews, 2003) dieting releases pesticides (organochlorines) and PCBs (from industrial pollution) from the fat tissue, where they are typically stored, and poison our metabolism - our bodies work hard to prevent the resease of those toxins, which also prevents us from losing weight.

In other words, you probably have too much fat because you have too many toxins stored, not because you eat too much.

So - to lose weight, get rid of that toxin-storing fat - not by simple dieting, but by cleansing, using a program that will safely get rid of the fat *and* the toxins. This is what I'm doing, and I'm willing to provide my results to show you that it works!

My Cleanse

I'm using the 30 day Isagenix cleanse program - there are others I'm sure. I like this one because it was recommended by a nutritionist I trust, and there's no weird stuff to do.

The program has you regularly measuring your body in 14 places plus weighing yourself. The places include: Neck, upper arms, chest/bust, rib cage, waist, abdomen, butt, upper thighs, knees and calves. I’m not such a public person that I’ll provide my individual measurements, but I will say that adding all those measurements up, I started at a total of 321 inches this past June, at 159 lbs (note no weight gain since the previous fall!) and after 30 days, I’d lost a total of 3.5 inches and 9 lbs.

I took a month off and started again. My only diet restrictions during that time were that I had an Isagenix shake for most breakfasts, and I avoided processed foods (packaged foods, anything with stuff in contents labels that I couldn’t pronounce or identify) and purchased organic foods whenever available at the store. I confess that I didn’t look closely at the labels of the occasional Haagan Dasz bars.

When I started again in September, my body measurements had increased a little, but by the end of that 30 days, I’d blown past that and was down to 306.75 inches and 146 lbs.

After almost 30 days off, during which time I went to a retreat and was fed awesome home-made meals three times a day, plus home-made snacks in between for 4 days, I’m starting this next 30 day cleanse cycle at 308.5 inches and 146 lbs.

My next report will be next week when I measure again.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Mongol horse race - guaranteed to kill horses

The largest non-sanctioned endurance race ever attempted is set to be run this summer in Mongolia. Nearly a thousand under-sized native horses have been drafted into an effort which deliberately flaunts international endurance racing rules. Worse, none of the 25 amateur riders have any previous endurance riding experience and all will be riding Mongolian ponies they have never met before. No safety arrangements are provided by the promoter, no water or food for the ponies, inadequate numbers or no veterinarians - how many of the 800 equines will be dead before they reach the 1000 km line, how many more will die afterwards as a result of the abuse they will receive?

This is an atrocity. While US and other legitimate endurance riders and organizations are protesting their outrage, where is even the slightest concern from PETA? From any animal welfare organization? From any rational, reasonable government?

And if all that wasn't bad, the UK charity, Mercy Corps, has accepted money to lend their name to this race. This is what I wrote to them on their comment page:
"You should be ashamed to quote Ghandi on your pages and yet sponsor the Mongol Derby. The fact that you accepted bribe money to lend your name to this event - guaranteed to cause terrible injury and death to many, if not most of the Mongolian ponies - is enough reason to question all you do."

Of course, the comment page on the Mercy Corp website actually goes to the Mongol Derby website (http://mongolderby.theadventurists.com/index.php?page=contact), so I also emailed them using another comment page at http://www.mercycorps.org.uk/contact.php

I also emailed my legislators and asked them what can be done to stop this event. I don't care if humans want to injure or kill themselves in an extreme event, but why force animals to suffer for human folly?

More info about this killer event at http://www.thelongridersguild.com/mongolia.htm

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Spiritual Horsemanship

You might check out my alternate blog at http://spiritualhorsemanship.blogspot.com/ I'm starting a thread on an orphan foal at my place.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Risk

There is no risk if you only live in the past or the future.

Without risk, there is no adventure.

Without adventure, there is no life worth living.