I don’t think I have ever stuck with a new years resolution, except for the one last year when I swore off dieting. I forgot to swear off gaining weight also. So I started this year 28lbs heavier then I am today, February 3rd. I juiced a total of 13 days in January and it has felt like the longest month. I have had a roller coaster ride of emotions. I think it takes at least 30 days to make serious changes and my body feels truly changed. I feel like a healthy fat kid, if that makes sense. I know being over weight is not healthy, so obviously I need to shed pounds, but I have been  doing so many good things for myself, that I feel amazing! My energy levels are way up and I have way more stamina. Bikram has helped me move again. I feel flexible and agile. BPC juices have given me control over my emotional eating. My stomach has shrunk, majorly. I am not craving food all the time. I can say no to junk food - BPC juices have re-set my taste-buds; I crave healthy food now. I feel better when I am juicing. Do I still miss food when I’m juicing? Sure, I feel so much more clear headed and I don’t feel weighed down. I notice myself just having more energy to do little things. Plus when I read the benefits of juicing and all the amazing things my body is getting from the juice, it puts me in a healthy state of mind.  

I just Finished my 4th 3 day BPC juice cleanse!!!! I have lost a total of 24 pounds since jan 1st!!!! Between Bikram and Juicing and eating healthy I feel Incredible. The picture of above is of me and my Bikram yoga Instructor Connie. She has really been my champion this last month, I love her so much and her support in class is amazing! 

So Between Juicing and Bikram this Is how I felt yesterday, Ihad a really hot class and the sweat and pounds are coming off. Whenever Im juicing I like to stay active and keep my mind busy. I decided to paint yesterday and if you look you can see I used my juice #4 bottle for my brush dip. it came in handy.

They say the third time’s a charm. I am just finishing my 3rd BPC  cleanse and was told that each time you cleanse it gets easier. It does. I felt this time that the juicing didn’t consume my thoughts as much. I definitely got used to the fact that I am now a “Juicer”. I tried to be more aware this time of how I felt.. the big thing I love about juicing every week Is I feel like I re-start my taste buds: just when I think I might want a candy-bar, I start the Cleanse again and the craving goes away. I honestly do find that I want healthy natural foods when I get off the Cleanse. I think the brain and the body collaborate to tell you: “you are healing yourself; don’t quit now”. I have been eating very well since Jan1st and I could not have done it without BPC. I think anyone who is trying to quit something or make a big change should do a 3 day juice cleanse. It somehow handed me back my willpower, and my desire to be a healthy person.

I finished my second cleanse I feel great! I  decided to weigh in and I have lost 12lbs since Jan 2nd!!!! That’s about a pound a day. Losing weight is definitely a positive side effect, but moreover,  when I’m not juicing I am now making smart, healthy choices. I have not had candy, soda, or fried food since I started the challenge. I think Bikram has really helped in the calorie burning department. Soooo hard, but I feel so accomplished after a class.

 This second cleanse had ups and downs, but was definitely easier to stick to. But the excitement of doing my first waned…I had to find new ways to get excited. I have to remind myself how good the juice is for me and the benefits of giving my body a rest. Monday I felt great, good energy, but by Tuesday night I did not feel well for some reason. My stomach hurt and I felt bloated; not sure why. I also had the day off  and spent the day doing Bikram and errands, but at night I found myself in front of the TV and that is a dangerous place for me. I am so used to eating while watching TV that I started to miss food; I was not hungry at all, but I really missed food. So I decided to go to my jewelery desk and work on some projects and I was fine. I find if I stay busy, juicing is easy. And I am more productive because my head feels clearer. I trained myself to do unhealthy things for so many years, I have to really fight to break those habits. Caffeine and Diet Coke are my enemies and I have now been off of soda and caffeine for 12 days!!! HUGE accomplishment for me.  I think that every time you juice, new challenges arise but so do new revelations. It is such good feeling to complete the juice cleanse. It makes me feel so healthy and ALIVE.

I woke up on day 3  feeling like I wanted the juice cleanse to be over because I wanted to CHEW something. That was the only reason, really; I missed chewing food. But I felt great, in fact I felt healthy like my body had really, actually detoxed. I had the day off from work and was worried I might start obsessing over food, so decided to keep myself busy - I cleaned my studio, went to the movies, worked on some jewelery projects and took my puppy Eleanor to a play date for 2 hours (amazing how productive that juice makes you). The day seemed to fly by and when I did crave food, it was food like salads or a nice nectarine. I was not wanting burgers and fries as I suspected I would. In the past, when yo-yo dieting I craved foods that are BAD. During the cleanse I thought this would be the case, but I wanted healthy, whole, natural foods. The only weird craving I had was for lemons - I am not sure why, but I craved lemons a couple of times really badly, then read that people were putting lemon juice in their Green Juice, so next time I juice I will try that. I am very happy and proud of myself. It is not easy to go from the most UN-healthy of eating habits to Juicing and Bikram cold turkey. My body was a little shocked to say the least, but our bodies are so strong and know what they need — so I made it through, a better man. I have had a few days to really think about the juice cleanse and prepare myself for my next,  starting Monday. I am very excited to see how my body reacts to the cleanse this time. My friends at BluePrintCleanse tell me that your body responds more and more favorably when you cleanse regularly… I am thinking that each cleanse will be a new and different experience.

Today I woke up feeling great, It was the first day of my second cleanse. I  just completed my first BPC cleanse 4 days ago, and reflecting back on how i felt then and how I feel today — night and day. I really believe now that detoxing from caffeine really took it’s toll on my mood and body. I was also eating so unhealthy prior to the 1st cleanse..   I spent the days following my first cleanse really making smart food choices. I also found I was craving real, whole, healthy foods and not junk! It really makes it a lot easier to make healthy food choices when your body is craving the good stuff. This was a big shock for me – I am not use to wanting fresh fruit and big healthy salads. I am the guy that wants chips and soda. I also think that since I am not on any sort of diet, my mind and body is more balanced…I’m not dieting, for once.  I mean who wants to eat a cheeseburger and fries and then go to a Bikram class? I sure as hell don’t.  I am taking this day by day and today I feel AMAZING!!! 

I was very excited to start my 3 day BPC cleanse. Sunday afternoon I received my box of juice and I was so excited, I felt like a kid on Christmas. I opened the box and explored each juice carefully. I stored them in my fridge by each day. I have a nut allergy so Unfortunately I was not able to get the cashew milk which seemed like it would be so delicious, from what I read from others. I got a Lemonade as a replacement. My cleanse was called level 2 nut allergy. that Sunday I decided to take it easy on heavy food and try and do healthy meals all day no meat, candy, or diet coke to better prepare my body for the wake up call it was about to get!

Monday morning I woke up and was really excited to begin my Juicing! The green juice tasted like I expected, It’s not my favorite, but I feel so healthy when I drink it, I could just feel the goodness entering my body and then 2 hours later i had the most delicious juice PAM. WOW!  I could drink them all day. I then went to my Bikram class, I felt Like I was really detoxing my body doing both at the same time. I left Bikram feeling like every toxin in my body was gone. I came home not feeling hungry which surprised me after 90 minutes of intense Bikram. I did notice a mild headache from no caffeine. I then had my 3rd juice another green juice and the rest of the night I sort of spread them out by at least 2 hours. I went to bed at midnight and i did not feel Hungry at all, I was really surprised I had expected some hunger pains. I think the excitement of actually doing something good for myslef was also contributing to me not being hungry.

I woke up Tuesday morning feeling pretty good a little sore from bikram class, but i was expecting to have a monster appetite and feel terrible, especially  since I had not had caffeine in 24 hours. I had no appetite and was like it’s time for a morning juice no big deal. I had bikram at noon so I figured I would drink my second juice before Bikram. During Bikram I felt a little out of energy and I think I was psyching myself out, thinking things like All Ive had is juice and not real food. so I left Bikram a little frustrated. I was now missing Food but I was not hungry. so i had to train myself not think about eating. I told myself your not hungry, your actually helping your body in so many ways by not eating. get over it, it’s only 3 days and the rewards are far greater by drinking the juice. I think for me especially I need to constantly remind myself what the benefits of juicing really are. How each juice is really helping your body to look better  and feel better. the juice is actually helping your body clean itself.

My New Year’s resolution was to get healthy and I am actually going to do it. It’s a new year and fresh start. There is a verse in a Taylor swift song “today is never to late to be brand new” That’s exactly how I feel. today I am going to be the healthy person I want to be. I was so nervous last night about attending my first class at Bikram grand central, My stomach was in knots…… 60 days of bikram and BPC juice
cleansing 3 days a week! What did i get myself into?  I have been so UN-healthy all year….. to immediately start juicing and doing Bikram. I was crazy! All these thoughts and things that kept me from being my
best were slowly creeping in again. Fortunately I had no choice but to go to bikram and began my juicing, I made a commitment this time and a lot of other people are supporting me and went out of there way to set me up for success. I am going to get healthy. Bikram yoga Grand central welcomed me with open arms. As soon as I
walked in I was greeted Denise and Kyoko with such support and enthusiasm that all my fears melted away. Maggie and Patrick from BPC were also there to support me along with other friends. The studio is gorgeous and open and bright; I felt so comfortable there even with my shirt off (now that is saying something). The teacher Denise was amazing; exactly what i needed… she was so positive and supportive. Doing Bikram is the hardest thing for me at this size. I am not flexible and was pouring sweat, light headed and my belly got in the way the whole time, but it didn’t matter. I was in the room and I was working. I was working from the inside out. I could feel myself getting healthier. After class I was greeted by Maggie from BluePrintCleanse who had setup the juice tasting. It was awesome! Fresh pressed juice after a bikram class is exactly what your body needs. I had pineapple and wheatgrass and it tasted so amazing. It was a nice treat since I begin my 3 day juice cleanse tomorrow, They have been delivered and are sitting in my fridge waiting for me, I am sure I will blogging about juicing tomorrow. They say it’s the journey not  the destination, that is what I am choosing to believe, I can not wait to see what happens after 60 days.

I have decided I have to do something different in 2011. No more
diets! I am going to become a mentally and physically healthy person.
How am I going to to this? Well, I did this last year… I lost 70 lbs
before my 30th birthday in 2010.  I have tried every diet and exercise
in the book. I have “experimented” with just about every “healthy
lifestyle” imaginable. Even a Vision Board. I broke my contract with
myself somewhere along the way and the weight came back with a
vengeance, along with some serious concerns about my health and well
being. The healthiest I have ever felt while experimenting with every
healthy lifestyle under the sun was juice cleansing with
BluePrintCleanse and practicing Bikram Yoga, per a recommendation from
one of my best friends, who is both a Bikram instructor and employee
of BluePrintCleanse. I want to be a healthy person —- not a thin
person, not an extremely muscular person — just healthy, so that I
can enjoy my life. BPC and Bikram Yoga Grand Central will be
sponsoring me for my 60 day challenge toward optimum health. I will be
cleansing with BPC three days per week and am aiming for a minimum of
four Bikram classes per week. I will be posting my experience, random
thoughts, pictures, a food journal, and probably some funny stories.