Final day of detox

I survived it! Ha, no really, it was great, after the first few days that is. But now, I notice a significant change in the way I feel. I feel cleaner and lighter. My skin looks awesome and I have more energy. I have to say, the one thing that I have noticed the most is how much better I sleep and fall asleep. Cursed with being a light sleeper, I have always struggled with waking up several times a night, for no reason. This is particularly annoying when it takes a minimum of  thirty minutes to fall asleep. But for the past few days I have gone to sleep quickly and only woken up once!  This waking can be attributed to the 75 ounces of water I am drinking daily. It is nearly impossible to get them all in before 4pm.
Also a bonus, I have lost 10lbs! Woo.Surely a large part was water weight, but who cares?! I feel great. Lighter even. So I am planning to keep up a modified version of this eating plan. And try to do the detox maybe once every two months. Just to keep bad habits like refined sugar and yucky fats at bay. Don't really miss dairy, but I have not been to a Mexican restaurant yet.
Today is the last day of the detox so the Hubs and I are going to celebrate with a movie, woo hoo. He is so excited because my average annual attendance to Malco is about 4 movies, so he will totally go see a girly one with me if it means I will actually go. We haven't decided if we want to see a self-indulgent woman whine and dine her way across the Eastern Hemisphere, or yet another rom-com about bucking the traditional family system. Hey, an escape is an escape and I will take that break from reality for a 100 or so minutes.

detox: for life!

So I am on day 8 of an 11 day detox plan...it isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. It is a 7 day prep with a one day liquid fast and then 3 days post-fast. It is the Fast Track Detox and it really is great, once you get used to it. I did the same author's Fat Flush Plan years ago when I had lots of issues, and it made a remarkable difference in my life. Seriously. So far I have lost 9lbs, most of which I think was water being held by all the nasty things I have eaten over the last year.
I got the Hubs to do it with me, and my sister is doing it long distance - though she is a day ahead, lucky her fast is behind her. The Hubs managed to hang tough for 4 days, but the no gluten and no caffeine was a deal breaker for him. I can't blame him. However, we have both seen a marked difference in how we look and feel and how we think about food. I used to be crazy strict about food but pregnancy has a way of changing things. And I never really got back on track. Reading this book teaches you a lot about food toxins and what they do to your body. Now, there are plenty of things that I love that I cannot wait to eat again, so no finger pointing coming from me. Maybe just not eat as much or as often. But I can tell that this has made an impact on our family and I am very grateful that my husband is embracing this new and improved style of eating for major lifestyle enhancement!
Today is the Miracle Juice fasting day and I have made it to noon, I am halfway through the fasting day!! Sitting down to a mani/ pedi to take my mind off it and reward myself for being disciplined and sticking to it. I will let you all know that I have survived and what the results were!

New Era

Sort of...I am looking at a weekend that will hold two fairly major events in my life. Who knew they would both be on the same day? Well God knew, but He didn't tell me until sometime this past spring. Ha!
This Saturday will hold both my ten year high school reunion and my first child's first birthday! I just let out a huge sigh as I typed that. There is a lot of life that has happened in both of those time lines. Unfortunately we are not going to make the reunion. There is a rather large sporting event in Oxford this weekend, so we are staying here to participate. I am doing the 5k and the Hubs is doing one of the bike rides. I guess this is our way of saying that we are still cool and somewhat fit. Really I am afraid that these events will confirm our worst fears - we are no longer the spry twenty somethings we think we are. This is also the argument the Hubs likes to use for Baby #2, you know the "we aren't getting any younger" one. Somehow that evokes a less than thrilled response about physically carrying another human being for the better part of a year. Another, because Soon-to-No-Longer-Be-Baby H has recently discovered that being held and carried is her favorite thing, next to holding our fingers and following her belly around the house on tiptoe.
Hope everyone has a fun weekend in store.I am hoping that by sometime tomorrow evening I will reminiscing over a glass of wine about the last year of parenthood and comparing it to the other previous 9 or fewer years that seem productive but less full than the last couple have been!

Feedback please

As you can see there is a new look here. And a new title and header. So with all of that I would really like to change the address to go along with it - but I can't figure out how to do it! Well really every imaginable combination of related words seems to be taken. So bear with me as the address no longer matches the title or theme. I am working on it.
I promise this will not become a regular thing, me changing thing up on you all of the time. This was prompted by my background expiring and I figure I can always work with a bird theme. There are lots of metaphors there for family and life. I really should get with it and design my own background and title/ banner...but who has the time?
Any helpful bits of advice or tips are much appreciated!

All Joy No Fun

Did any of you read the article last week from New York Magazine All Joy No Fun - Why Parents Hate Parenting ? If not, you need to allocate about 20 minutes and go read that right now. Parent or not.
Did you read it? WOW right? Ok, now did you read some of the comments? Let me say that I was rather impressed with several of the readers' comments. Intelligent and insightful even. They gave more weight to the article for me. But back to the article...
Heartbreaking...such a limited view on parenting and the choices (or not) behind it. Look, I'll be the first to tell you that I never saw myself as a mom, or maybe it was just that I never saw myself as what I thought the typical 'mom' looked like. Not that I didn't have a good role model.
And insert aside here:
My mother was/is quite possibly one of the most amazing, accomplished and complicated people I have ever had the pleasure to call friend. And I appreciate all of her qualities even more, now that I have my own child. There is an entirely new level now that we are 3 generations. It's like the bonus round in Super Mario, but without the annoying music. Want to love, understand and appreciate your mother more than you thought possible - have a baby.

...and we're back.

I agree that there are new expectations of parenting as outlined in the article. There is a lot of competition and judgment going around too. And this is just as apparent in the Christian community as it is elsewhere.
I have to agree with one of the comments, but refine it and say that having kids will not make you ultimately happy, neither will not having them. Same goes for being married, getting the job or whatever other goal you have. We have to consider how we measure our happiness. Or our joy.

I have a million verses I could stick in here about where my ultimate joy comes from but here are a few of my favorites:
"These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full." John 15:11

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Romans 15:13

And one that is a little harder, but helps me all the time...

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing for your faith produces steadfastness." James 1: 2-4

The joy/ happiness robbing is a 360 problem as well, economy, leave conditions, current social issues, technology and so on influence us in more ways than we know. No wonder our heads are spinning and we are always second guessing ourselves - when every other blog post or news article says there is a newer and better way to do things.
Ultimately we do have a choice. We have the power in this struggle. There were and still are days when I  have to  stop and reevaluate every hour. Am I going to choose joy? Lord help me choose joy, and remain in You for that joy.

I don't have a concrete response for this, I just thought it needed to be shared. Tell me what you think!