Category: Support

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Clean Gut Cleanse | Day.10

I chose to take a few days off from writing to truly focus on my tasks at hand (meeting with Publisher, updating my book, planning her homeschooling, staying on top of my health). Plus two back to back birthdays among several other things. But I have not stopped, I have not faltered, I have been going strong with my cleanse and I am happy to say, we have reached double-digits! Just 11 more days left of the initial phase of ridding the body of nonsense, while repairing & replenishing the good stuff via supplements, clean eating, and removal of excess.

I have done quite a few repeat meals, and several of them have been pretty boring if I do say so myself.. But I have always maintained the lemon water, to break my fasting, shake breakfast, entree and/or soup for lunch, and a salad for dinner. There is a fish recipe that I tried and it did not come out well. It was a mix between the thick cut cod not being done enough, not enough flavor, and the flaxmeal seasoning blend not sticking to it. Those acorn squash fries were FIRE though, and I will be doing those more frequently. They are just pretty hard to cut, especially with my hand/wrist issues.

I have made the tomato soup again and it is still just as delicious as ever. I am pretty much sticking to my chocolate blueberry shake with added hemp protein for my morning shake. None of the others really compare. I will say, I used up the last of the cashew butter ($12 for a 3 inch high jar), and opted to try the sunflower seed butter ($8 for the same size jar, possibly slightly bigger). I really hope it is just as good because these shakes are so good. I also tried something I had never done before, I cooked the salmon tonight with mustard (stone ground), and I will absolutely be doing this many more times. The rest of the salmon piece will be used for my rice-free sushi recipe tomorrow which I will definitely send pictures of because I am excited for it. The mixture will be placed in hallowed out cucumbers! Just need to find some sushi ginger without sugar, I have only seed the sugar brands so far.

I have not started back exercising, but my daughter has been asking to go running today, so I think tomorrow we will go ahead and jump back into getting active. Although I was/am not aiming to lose weight, I can already see a small change in my waist. My mommy fupa has lost a bit of its puff and that, I can appreciate. So this next half of phase 1, I am looking to flatten the curve even more, possibly force those buried abs from their hiding place. Even if not, the fact that I am doing what my body needs and getting healthy from the inside out I am excited about and looking forward to seeing just how good I will feel.

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Clean Gut Cleanse, Day.01

Whew, today was a day for the books! Day after birthday party, starting cleanse & homeschooling on same day, as well as keeping up with my current month’s challenge (100 squats and 100 calf raises daily). But, happy to say I made it through!

There were a few hiccups early on due to me waking up late with a stomach ache and having no idea exactly what I was going to be eating today, but I survived and figured it out.

The cleanse I am doing this time around, I had not done before today. This is from a book I previously read and determined that I was absolutely going to try this. It is from the “Clean Gut” book written by Dr. Junger. Without going into too much of my PHI, several of the elements discussed in the book really hit home with me and I knew if nothing else, I should give it a try. If it proves useful, I will incorporate it into my yearly fast/cleanse cycle. For the most part, my yearly cleanses are based on fasts of some sort and just cutting out one to eight things. This specific regimen not only has you cutting out most things and only having a few clean options, it provides recipes in the back (which are actually tasty). There is also a list of supplements to take, and it specifies the breakdown of which to take with what meals, what to eat for your meals, and how to come off the fast.

I do not wanna ruin the book if anyone is interested in reading (I get ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from this post in the form of monetary gain or otherwise for my doing this), I simply figured that I would share my journey as I am doing it. I have actually been recording a few times a day to capture the recipes and such, but this is not the avenue that I will be sharing that on. Possibly on my Y.ou.Tube channel – I will splice some things together to take you on my journey.

Essentially, it is a 21 day cleanse, then a week or two to introduce back certain foods slowly. Breakfast is a shake (recipes in the back of book), lunch is soup, salad, and/or entree (recipes in the back), dinner is a salad. With breakfast and lunch, there are 6 supplements to take each meal, and lunch has 2. The first thing you ingest in the morning is a cup of water with juice from half a lemon, and the last thing at night is a magnesium supplement. Basically, you are stopping your ingestion of “bad” foods and potential triggers (dairy, nuts, high starches, gluten and other comment allergens), and build your gut health back up while supporting your body with tools it needs to process everything correctly.

I had an entire situation happen with me postpartum and had 2 rounds of antibiotics to take, one to fight a bad reaction to the first one, the second one giving me SEVERE side effects. Needless to say, everything was wiped out of me, I lost about 9 pounds in two weeks (and I am already only 130 wet…) and my gut was STRIPPED of everything. I had so much (vegan) yogurt, kevitas, kombucha, sauerkraut, and kimchi, but I did not think that alone would have helped me get back to a solid level of gut normalcy. I took some probiotics for women, but I still knew this cleanse will help get me much closer to where I need to be.

Day.1 down, and I am excited to sojourn down this path to healing from the inside out.

Each of these meals were actually VERY filling honestly. The only thing I finished to completion, was the salad. I feel light, I have had a small stomach ache that persisted since I woke up (not uncommon for me), and I was a bit tired mid-day, but typing this at almost 11pm, I am suddenly full of energy. Here is to wishing for the energy boost to last through the entire process and take off even after it is done.

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Entangled in preparation

Something I notice about myself, I a very slow to pull the trigger. I like to marinate on things for a long time, I like to make sure all of the details are just right.

Something I notice about my daughter (and parenting in general), there really is no wiggle room for this. My daughter is at that great toddler age where her interests are vast and her attention is fleeting. You know the time where you finally get into listening to the same song 8 times a day, just created a new dance routine and all of the sudden it’s “no, no, no, no, not that one,” *face palm.*

Yes, those are the times in which we are engaged.

Well, I may have found a great way to a happy medium. She begins her more pointed homeschooling on Monday. I wrote out a very loose themed calendar, with 4 potential themes a month/a theme each week, loosely related to the time of year and the three letters of the month. I say loosely because for instance, last month we were working on her letter “K” and this month, our first focus letter is “A” and whenever I ask her to write an “A”, the page typically looks like the doodles of a white supremacist child doodling on their page during their first propaganda lesson… KKK AK KKK AK

So, I have that calendar prepped as a back up of sorts. As a lead Preschool Teacher and Kindergarten Instructor, I was required to plan the month (or at least 1-2 weeks) in advance. Sometimes it worked out perfectly, other times, a week would go by before any of the topics piqued the attention of the children. It is actually kind of counter-intuitive to what I learned about early childhood education, as we were taught to create lessons geared towards a child’s interest. How do you plan a month in advance when that age group drop best friends and favorite toys just about daily. Granted it is really not possible to do that with 12-20 three-year-old children in your class anyway, but that is another story altogether. I just know that based on how she is feeling that day, certain activities will be more favorable to her.

So, I am gathering free resources from as many different organizations and businesses as I can while this CV still has the world gripped in its net, to create her lesson plans for the future. Free scholarly articles, subscriptions, content, books, etc. I actually have more actual lesson plans/ideas for her middle school aged learning, than I do for her start on Monday.

Because she is only four, where I live she is technically starting 2 years early, so I am starting her out very slowly so we can be all the way into a groove by the time we are required to be fully immersed in the process, legally anyways.

I am excited to see how Monday’s 1.5 hours of schooling goes and where her interests and imagination takes us. These are the last days…

~Mai

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20|20

I just skimmed through a few of my old blogs and it warmed my heart to review the state I was in back when I first began this blog. It is a beautiful thing when you can look back and chart your growth, current and possibly continued struggles from that point in time, but also the success.

Since that initial blog post of me introducing myself, I have basically done all those things and more. It has been quite the thing to keep positive and forward moving with everything this year has birthed. The CV, fires from the Amazon, Australia, Hawaii, and all over California. Locust plagues. A shift in the focus of sex-trafficking, the racial climate (that has been in existence since the founding colonizers took over this land, but people are just now talking about it and its real effects all of the sudden), & holding people and businesses accountable for general NGAF. Dual storms over Texas. Coin shortages. Clorox wipes being wiped off the planet during the time we all need them most. Folks grabbing up all of the toilet paper, baby wipes, bread, and pasta. Many people loosing their jobs and businesses. An election with two candidates with supporters on each side hurling insults and seeming “evidence” of the other candidate having historical ties of various “ist” and “ism” communities. This is about 1/8 of everything that has and is being disrupted right now.

I am doing the very best that I can do to stay focused and doing exactly what I need to do to stay aligned with this forward momentum. I am looking forward to birthing a few of these projects I am working on mentally & in my lab, out into the universe. One hint, several of these have to do with writing ;).

I start another cleanse next week and I look forward to continuing on into our THIRD YEAR of the CHALLENGE page’s monthly exercises. I have also added some weekly cardio, that I plan on turning up this week as well. Looking to pair a cleaning of my internal (fasting/cleanse), physical (upping the CHALLENGE ante), & mental (writing, KonMarie the home, set up home office), for maximum results in them individually, collectively and beyond.

Also, our early start home schooling! 2 years early according to the state I live in, but I think a super slow start, early, makes sense with how my child engages with her world. I am surely looking forward to more art, lesson plans, scaffolding, mini-projects, science and math.

This is reading a bit like a check list of accomplishments, current events, and current projects – but after reviewing my posts from 2 years ago, being able to look back at something like this is very heart warming. And I always, always, think about the fact – that if you do not write your own story, others will. And it is IMPOSSIBLE to write another person’s story FOR them, no matter how well or long you have know them.

Most folks in your life, you simply have a few pictures of moments you recall of them. Others that may have been in your life for longer or more deeply, they may have a commercial or two. Some more inner circle – family, loved ones, siblings, parents, spouses, may have an episode. The only person that can do justice of retelling your motion picture, with behind the scenes footage, biography accuracy, and direct quotes is you. So every word, every click, every utterance via lips or fingertip – is me documenting my journey. It is about time we all told our stories, while we are living them to maintain the accuracy and passion of it all.

So here is to an explosive month and the synergy manifested from each of my concurrent focus areas!

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Push Up Challenge: Day.3

Success!

So far here are the totals for this month:

Squats: 95  | Push ups / Arm Raises: 6!

*So, my fiance just told me that I have not been doing real push ups!  My arms are bowed too wide & not closer to my chest.. I am stunned, because that means that I cannot do a real push up *sigh* 

Well, here is to trying to learn the basics again.  Learning something new every day.

>Respectfully submitted<<     ~Mai

Challenge Calendar_Day3

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CHALLENGE! Underway

August’s Squat Challenge was a success and my booty is 1,500 squats stronger!  My daughter even joined a number of days and completed over 100 squats with me on her own volition!  Such a beautiful secondary gain to being active and making the effort is the spark that others are able to draw on; our children, family, and friends.

I started doing challenges earlier this year and this one I just reached out and asked a few people if they wanted to join in with me.  A staggering 10 people completed the challenge with me yesterday, and as of today – the group I created to house the monthly challenges has 23 members.  I am so ecstatic to have such a large group of supporters and accountability partners!

I needed to be sure that I could post daily on FB before I jumped back on here, and I think for this challenge, I will also challenge myself to be sure to post on my blog in tandem with my FB posts.  

So cheers to another challenge… another day… another month… another opportunity to perfect myself, gain increased strength, focus on my health, and refine my level of discipline.  If you decided to join in, comment and let me know how you are doing.  First post tomorrow will break down the image you see below.

>Humbly & Respectfully submitted<<       ~Mai

Challenge Calendar_Day0

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8.1.18 | New 30-day challenge!

So, I have been on a hiatus, I took some time off of social media as I do periodically and it was great while it lasted!

Now, I am back on & am jumping into another challenge & have some new recruits joining with me.  I will most likely try to record and upload daily for accountability purposes & so I can look back and see my personal growth / journey.

If anyone else wants to join us, my friends, family and I will be dong 50 squats a day.  Any time, and way, any method, as long as it is daily and you do at least 50.  I am going to start out really simple with basic squats & do as much as I can in the a.m. before I shower & go to work, and only do what I have left over when I get back from work.  Honestly, the goal is to get all 50 done at the beginning of the day.

I am definitely going to stretch tonight, make sure I am limber again.  I fell ALL the way off after my last 90-day challenge and am still psychoanalyzing myself how I can be SO DISCIPLINED once whatever innate on-switch is turned on, and completely apathetic when the switch is off.  Do I have to actually challenge myself, compete with myself, in order to reach my goals?  Not quite sure, but I am still mulling it over to make sure I am getting the most out of this life by understanding and figuring myself out as I continue to evolve.

T-Minus 7 hours until day #1…

~Humbly submitted *Mai*

 

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Like a ton of bricks

I am literally just waking up from being in a horrible fog.  When I tell you I felt like I had a HORRIBLE case of malaria the last 36 hours, I WISH I was exaggerating. 

I felt like I’d gotten a cold, because Tuesday at work I was sneezing, nose running & clogged up, I was tired, and had a slight headache.  Figured it could also just be my allergies flaring up with the weather being all over the place.

Tuesday night was worse.. Everything exacerbated and I also randomly got an earache pretty badly in my left ear.  I literally kept a piece of garlic in my ear the whole night.  But I was slowly getting worse.  

In the morning when my fiance got off his graveyard shift, he told me NOT TO go to work if I was feeling like last night (I think he could see it in my face).  I said I was just going to try, I HATE missing work and feeling like I am leaving more for others to do, especially if it is not pre-planned. 

MISTAKE.

Went to work and from the moment I got in the car and drove there, I knew it was a bad decision.  My head began pounding & I was at full migraine now.  I had no appetite, my jaw, my neck, my face, my eyes, even my teeth hurt.  Where was all of this coming from? My co-worker immediately commented on how I did not look well.  Damn, second person cannot be wrong.  Tried to push through as there were two things that definitely needed to get done today & I was able to do that.  Not even an hour into work, I had to tell my boss I felt horrible & she suggested that I leave & take care of myself. 

Clocked out & when I got to the car, I just sat there in the warmth because I was soooo cold and I was also light-headed and almost in a fog, I was not happy about driving home in that state.  I told myself to drive slowly and I will be ok.  Made it home and shivering, got to my front door.  I ripped off my clothing, put on jammies, and robe, and put the scarf back on, put on my long thick socks and climbed under all the blankets.  I lay there shivering trying to fall asleep for over a hour.  I was shaking uncontrollably, and with all those layers, STILL unable to get warm.  Could fall asleep because my face was hurting and my head was pounding.  It was very miserable.  I finally fall asleep at some point and lay in the dark room all day, only up to use the bathroom & sat up to drink water.  I could not eat, each time I reached for the banana I opened up that morning, I felt like I was going to upchuck & had to put it right back down. 

This horrible cycle repeated until 8pm & I finally forced myself to stay up for a few minutes and walked over to the couch, where I laid back down & 1/2 interacted with my daughter.  She seemed confused as she looked at me laying there in the dark.  Not holding and hugging her like I always do.  Couldn’t tell her how weak I felt, how my body seems to have a mind of its own, how mommy does not want to pass to her WHATEVER this is plaguing my body.

Finally got up the strength to eat half a bowl of food I had to coach my fiance through making & send hopefully a coherent email to supervisor I would not be in the next day.  Shortly thereafter, I made my way back to bed to sleep through the night until almost noon today.

The migraine, face pain, earache, and chills have seemed to subside and I am just left with a headache, clogged nose, bouts of sneezing, and general fatigue.  Hopefully I will continue to get better through the day and will probably take another nap here shortly.  I serious had not felt this bad w/ all of these symptoms since I had malaria during my travels in Meritah (Afrika).  I am so thankful the worst has seemed to pass & looking forward to getting back to myself.

>Respectfully submitted<<    ~Mai

 

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#Igot5onit99 | DAY 99 COMPLETE!!!

IM DONE! IM DONE! IM DONE!

Such an amazing feeling that I completed this, three months of shutting down excuses and just doing it.  Listening to my body those 5 times when I just was not able to do it those days.

Awwww, it just feels so amazing.

Also finally got in touch with a woman I’d met on my travels to Meritah (Africa) and we had a long, amazing, and long-overdue catching up session.  Hopefully, we will get to link up later this year in person as well. 

Well, nothing like a warm shower to “consummate” the closing of this challenge.

Next challenge to begin in: 35 days!

2018 = 5 million!!!

Second half of challenge totals:

  • 840 each of: 
    • push ups
    • squats
    • calf raises
    • (seconds) holding plank
    • (seconds) holding yoga pose
  • 330 minutes stretching
  • 210 minutes deep breathing

TOTALS!

  • 1482 push-ups
  • 1480 squats & 620 seconds holding seated squat
  • 390 plank rotations
  • 1080 seconds holding forearm plank
  • 1260+ seconds holding yoga pose (Tittibhasana)
  • 1100 calf raises
  • 425 minutes of deep breathing
  • 380 minutes of stretching

>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<<    ~Mai

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#Igot5onit99 | Day.98!!!

OMG, tomorrow is the FINAL day of my 99-day challenge.  Today was successful, workout completed & we also go to head to Balboa Park for the Earth Day celebration.  Baby girl got some great sun and danced away to a several live bands.

We wound down the rest of the evening & watched a movie we hadn’t seen before, so all-in-all, it was a successful day.  Looking forward to buttoning up this challenge & feeling the accomplishments of my hard work, as well as transition into another push towards balance, but this time, focusing on my diet.  

See you all on the other side.  #Last24 #Igot5onit99 #DangThatsALotOfSquats!

#Countdown1toGo!

2018 = 5 million!!!

Second half of challenge totals:

  • 820 each of: 
    • push ups
    • squats
    • calf raises
    • (seconds) holding plank
    • (seconds) holding yoga pose
  • 310 minutes stretching
  • 200 minutes deep breathing

Totals for day 96/99:

  • 1460 push-ups (+2 for the “Level up” #1)
  • 1460 squats & 620 seconds holding seated squat
  • 370 plank rotations (+20 for the “Level Up #2)
  • 1060 seconds holding forearm plank
  • 1240+ seconds holding yoga pose (Tittibhasana)
  • 1080 calf raises
  • 395 minutes of deep breathing (+20 for the “Level Up #3)
  • 360 minutes of stretching

>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<<    ~Mai

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#Igot5onit99 | Day.96

Workout complete and just THREE MORE DAYS!

Good workout, dinner is practically done, had an AWESOME time today for our early Admin Appreciation day lunch 🙂

Have a perfect little weekend planned to spend time outdoors and with the family, really excited to be moving into outside walking season.

I think on Monday, my final day of the challenge, I am going to do burn outs of each of the exercises, just do as many as I can do straight over the course of the day and see how that goes :/

#Countdown3toGo!

2018 = 5 million!!!

Second half of challenge totals:

  • 800 each of: 
    • push ups
    • squats
    • calf raises
    • (seconds) holding plank
    • (seconds) holding yoga pose
  • 300 minutes stretching
  • 195 minutes deep breathing

Totals for day 96/99:

  • 1440 push-ups (+2 for the “Level up” #1)
  • 1440 squats & 560 seconds holding seated squat
  • 370 plank rotations (+20 for the “Level Up #2)
  • 1040 seconds holding forearm plank
  • 1240+ seconds holding yoga pose (Tittibhasana)
  • 1060 calf raises
  • 390 minutes of deep breathing (+20 for the “Level Up #3)
  • 350 minutes of stretching

>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<<    ~Mai

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#Igot5onit99 | Day.93!

Yes yes yes, workout complete! Day 93 & it was a good one. 

Work was simple per usual, but it is always interesting to get to know them more.  Obviously, with all of the craziness in the world, there is always a myriad of things to discuss and today it was the Starbucks situation.  Very interesting indeed to hear points of view, reasoning, which stance they take & how their views, history, culture, ethnicity, & biases play a part.  Not going to delve any deeper than that, nor put my perspective out there… yet.

In other news…

Have a few people to do the 30-day water cleanse also (not my image, found online)! 

12821355_1053888147987336_5439255519756836814_n

Basically you do this everyday, just one bottle before bed.  In the bottle you take a few sips and then put:

3 Tbsp of ACV 
2 Tbsp of Lemon juice 

I will probably make a full 5-days on Sundays or Mondays & do it Mon-Fri.  Have 2 people looking to do it with me, just not quite sure when I will be getting started.  I have been wanting to do a fast; step back from the sweets, breads & sugary cereals (oatmeal or non-frosted shredded wheat only), pasta, and potatoes OR eggs.  May even do it in conjunction with the above, we will see.  This is why I am trying out new recipes so, so that I can have a variety of options. 

Baby girl continues to shock me with how far she is coming, how much she has picked up, and how amazing & complex her thought processes are becoming.  I am in love with watching and supporting her growth.  It is also forcing me to step my game up on all fronts… Challenge accepted!

#Countdown6toGo!

2018 = 5 million!!!

Second half of challenge totals:

  • 760 each of: 
    • push ups
    • squats
    • calf raises
    • (seconds) holding plank
    • (seconds) holding yoga pose
  • 310 minutes stretching
  • 185 minutes deep breathing

Totals for day 93/99:

  • 1400 push-ups (+2 for the “Level up” #1)
  • 1400 squats & 400 seconds holding seated squat
  • 370 plank rotations (+20 for the “Level Up #2)
  • 1000 seconds holding forearm plank
  • 1240+ seconds holding yoga pose (Tittibhasana)
  • 1020 calf raises
  • 380 minutes of deep breathing (+20 for the “Level Up #3)
  • 330 minutes of stretching

>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<<    ~Mai

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#Igot5onit99 | Day.92

7 days to go!  Workout complete (modified – due to physical therapy).  Who know physical therapy was such a workout on its own?  But my core is going to be impeccably strong by the time summer gets here.  

Also got to catch up with my (almost) b-day twin from high school, which was awesome.

Most importantly, today I posted about my business asking for feedback and I had a LARGE number of participants and that warmed my heart!  I do not really care for people to “like” or “comment” on my posts whether they be information or images.   But when I have such a strong feedback regarding my business venture, that is what means the most to me.  So thankful for the quality people I have around me that are pushing me towards greatness & others that continue to inspire me to feed the drive and creativity within.  

Last week of challenge & its already starting beautifully!

#Countdown7toGo!

2018 = 5 million!!!

Second half of challenge totals:

  • 740 each of: 
    • push ups
    • squats
    • calf raises
    • (seconds) holding plank
    • (seconds) holding yoga pose
  • 300 minutes stretching
  • 180 minutes deep breathing

Totals for day 91/99:

  • 1380 push-ups (+2 for the “Level up” #1)
  • 1380 squats & 400 seconds holding seated squat
  • 370 plank rotations (+20 for the “Level Up #2)
  • 980 seconds holding forearm plank
  • 1240+ seconds holding yoga pose (Tittibhasana)
  • 1000 calf raises
  • 375 minutes of deep breathing (+20 for the “Level Up #3)
  • 320 minutes of stretching

>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<<    ~Mai