Cleaning Up

MARDI GRAS is approaching, and though I am not catholic, it seems like good timing to make some resolutions for the 6-week period of abstinence often observed after Fat Tuesday. Inspired by A Year Without, I'm going to cut out all refined sugar for 6 weeks. I don't eat a lot, I suppose, I don't even eat my own preserves on a weekly basis (!), so I have put together a general plan to really tighten up my diet and fitness regimen so I can lose 15 pounds that are hanging on.

Diet changes:

• no alcohol
• no refined sugar
• no wheat
• no potatoes
  
• no packaged food
• no fried food
• no chocolate candy (exception: raw cacao powder/nibs)
• take all my vitamins every day!
  
• as much raw as possible

Fitness changes:

• Yoga 2x-3x/week (from 1x)
• Run 2x/week (from 0x)
• Cardio/exercise bike 4 hours/week (from 1:20 - 3:20)
• Weights 4x/week (from 5x/week)
• Swim 2 x/week, starting TBD (from 0x/week since November when I slept funny and woke up with a painful neck kink that is still troubling me)
• Massage bi-weekly (from weekly)

Exception: I will allow for Saturday as a "free" day to indulge in only one of the excluded items, whether it's wine or pasta or chocolate but not everything. Of course, if there is a special dinner - the "free" day will float.

So, this should be interesting. It will definitely affect the food I put together on my blog over the next several weeks.

I'm also cutting down on "noise" - I'm going to take a break from reading and commenting on blogs, social network sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, TBD, etc) and focus on starting seedlings for my garden, improving my motorcycle skills in dry weather, and in wet weather, scanning a humongous collection of family history documents and photos so I can start sending the originals back to my mom and reduce the amount of "other people's stuff" in my house.

I will still be accessible by phone and e-mail, as well as by comments here on my blog. After Tuesday, however, I won't really be responding to notes and such on any social network sites, so please don't take it personally. It's not about you - it's about my gigantoid ass and my bad habit of taking on more and more family history docs to the point that it has become the project that has eaten my spare bedroom. And, yes, there will be a website with the docs if you're interested in it when it is done.

Plenty of gardening, raw vegan yum yums and other delights will still be posted here during my semi-fast thingy. Someone just has to remind me when easter happens so I can get back to eating chocolate and fried tofu with peanut sauce.