Facebook, Facebook, Facebook.... What Were You Thinking.......

Funny story, real quick.


The other day I was perusing Facebook when I happened to glance over at the People You May Know box. Truthfully, I think this box should be titled People I'm Trying to Pretend Don't Exist box since never, ever have I looked at one of the people list there and though "Oh my gosh, where have they been all my life?"  Yeah, it was no different.


EXCEPT


Wait for it......

Who should be there but GI freaking Joe.  Of all the people I'm trying to avoid...... Well, at least I know he's not dead.


I would like to write Facebook at letter that goes like this:

Dear Facebook:

I cannot be GI Joe's friend. Please stop suggesting him. I would rather keep pretending he fell of the face of the earth.

Thank You!
J-Berg

Drum Roll Please.....

And the official results are in.... I lost ALMOST 8 pounds on the Advocare Cleanse. In total I lost 7.7 pounds.

Takes a Bow

It was a little strange not to lay out supplements this morning. I didn't have to pump myself up for a fiber drink chug fest. I just laid out my meal for the day, packed it in my lunch bag and went about my business.

I plan to continue with the eating plan, just adding in a few more whole grains and such here and there. It's been a great experience and I'm glad to have challenged myself to do it.



In other news.....

I have so much crap to do. I'm leaving for family vacay next week for a few days. Nothing special but it includes packing for little man so the amount of crap I'll be dragging with us will only increase by like a million percent.

And I'm going to have to find someone to watch our house while we're away.... crap.

There is also the matter of a bathing suit.....
Which brings me to a funny story.

Last weekend I determined not a single one of my bathing suits fit. Seeing as I haven't purchased a new suit since before our Honeymoon, I knew it was time. Most of my we either build for my college body, that I lost some where around here, or they had dry rot. Not so fashionable if you ask me.


So.

I decided to test my luck at Target. I usually don't buy suits at Target since I typically need a better quality top thanks to the Double D Twins. However, I'm not where I want to be size wise yet so I need something I won't be sad to throw away later.

Believe it or not, I found a decent suit. Blue halter top, blue and white stripped bottom. Super cute and yes, I'll probably be sad to see it go if I shrink out of it.

Girl problems :)

Last Day

For the record, I gag every time I think about that blasted fiber drink. It was all I could do to get it down this morning. AUGH

LAST DAY

All in all. I must say. I'm a huge fan of the Advocare 10 Day Cleanse. It is gentle on your system. Easy to navigate and simple to understand. I'm definitely going to incorporate this into my routine every 90 days. It really helped me to rethink my eating habits and evaluate what I'm putting in my mouth.

I am shocked at the amount of empty carbs I was steeling off my son's tray every night. I also forgot how filling and satisfying fresh fruit, vegetables, lean protein, natural peanut butter, and almonds can be. I feel so much lighter and more alert. I also sleep better and my mindset it much, much brighter.

My husband is proud of me. Sure, he likes the results, but he's happier that I'm in a good place mentally. I feel better about my body. I'm a little bit more cheerful and a little bit more positive. It's been a good thing for our family.

Going Forward

Right now, my current plan is to stick with the Cleanse Eating plan through Saturday night. I have no plans to incorporate coffee or Diet Pepsi back into my life before then. I'm going to enjoy a nice deck date with my husband (fingers crossed for no rain) and I'll take each day as it comes from there. Am I still going to eat fruit & protein snacks twice every day? Yes. I am still going to plan clean lunches and breakfasts for myself. I'm going to focus on healthy and good for you complex carbohydrates.

And I will still treat myself, but with a great understanding of what moderation really does mean.

In Closing

I learned a lot, I have fun, I'm excited to do it again.


And now I need to get my butt back to work.....

10 Things Tuesday

Switching it up for today..... a little 10 Things Tuesday

1. Ryan was up and ready for action at 5:31am. Mama was up but not ready for action at 5:30am. Yeah, it was one of those mornings.
2. It also included an emergency phone call at 6:00am for a co-worker withsecurity badge issues at one of our job sites.
1. Which leaves the question- Why do I bother to be proactive when shit it just going to get lost anyway?
3. 2nd to last day on the 10 Day Cleanse. I feel amazing. I'm amazed at the changes in my body, my skin, my energy, my focus.... amazing! I hope I can keep it up once I stop taking the supplements.
4. I still REALLY, REALLY hate the fiber drink. It makes me shudder just to think about it.
5. I pick up our new CSA allotment tomorrow. So excited. 
6. I just ran up three flights of stairs in my heels. Cardio Baby!
7. How do you know when your kid has an ear infection? Ryan keeps grabbing or smacking his ear but he does it so randomly, it's hard to tell. He does it more frequently when he knows I'm looking at him. With that said, he will do anything more frequently when he knows it gets him attention. I am so confused!
8. Home interest rates are on the raise, another reason we aren't moving.
9. In the interest of trying to continue with a healthy lifestyle. I'm going to try follow the cleanse diet to the letter until the weekend and see what happens. (Sorry Diet Pepsi)
10. Still looking forward to my deck date this weekend!

Catching Up

How on earth are we in the last week of June? Anyone have a clue? June flew by..... I can't even believe it.

You know what that means, right? July is right around the corner. Little Man, he will be one..... If you are hearing banging, cracking and ca-booming in the far off distance, that would be my head exploding! He can't be one already, that just can't be... can it?

I thought kids slept through the night at 11 months old? No.....
Only my kid? Yeah, I know of figured that.

So here is where we're at.

I'm on the down hill slide of the Advocare 10 Day Cleanse. As of right now, I'm down about 5 pound. The cleanse itself hasn't been a problem at all. I do however, miss Diet Pepsi and coffee. I also had no idea how many carbs I consumed until I cut them all out. WOW. My biggest downfall? Sharing Ryan's food. I didn't realize how many pretzel rods, pretzel minis, crunches, puffs, macaroni and cheese scraps and other crap I had been eating. Now that I'm aware, hopefully I'll be a little more mindful of what I put in my mouth during his meals.

I haven't had the opportunity to workout as much as I would like to while on this cleanse. I had good intentions but per usual, that went downhill fast as our schedules got busier and busier as the days went on. I did get in two walks on Saturday and Sunday. Tonight I do have plans to get back into business.

I think the biggest keys to success on this plan are staying focused and planning ahead.
I've down pretty well. My only cheats? A teddy graham that Ryan stuck in my mouth and a small piece of a string cheese. The string cheese was my fault.

All in all, I'm excited to see the final results. I plan to continue the clean eating plan prescribed by the cleanse. It's perfectly livable, I'm never hungry and I love how good I feel. But man am I exited for wine.... good golly.


Cleanse aside, here's what's happening around our house.....

- We are making a mad dash trip to Virginia next week. I couldn't be more excited to see our friends!
- We have big plans to take down the peeling wall paper and repaint the half bath before we leave. I foresee a lot tension in the Berg household prior to that project being completed.
- Mr. Berg and I are going on a deck date Saturday night. What's a deck date? Since we are too cheap to pay for a babysitter, we are going to get dressed up and have tapas on the deck after we put Ryan down. I'm pretty excited.
-I'm exhausted. Ryan has had a cold. He's teething. He is miserable and not sleeping. As are his parents.

Day Four

Day Four is fabulous, do you want to know why? You don't have to drink that blasted fiber drink on day four. Thank the good lord!

(Please note: I don't think the fiber drink is all that terrible. I am just not a fan on citrus flavored drinks. On top of that, it's full of floating fiber. So I don't like looking at it and I don't like tasting it. But truth be told, mix it with cold water and chug and it's really no big deal. I'm just a baby)

I cannot complain about this cleanse, it's been easy going and versatile for my busy life. The key to success is just to be organized and plan ahead.

Yesterday I did run into a small problem.... I forgot to eat my afternoon snack. I completely forgot about it. I just wasn't hungry. It wasn't until I was unpacking our vegetables from our CSA that I realized I never ate my snack... whoops!

Speaking out CSA. Oh my gosh, do you guys have CSAs where you live?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Typically local farmers/farmers markets will put them on in the summers/ fall to encourage people to buy and try more locally grown produce.

For ours we paid up front and for the next 22 weeks we will get a giant bag of fruits and vegetables every Wednesday. It works out to be about $20 a week and we get so much food!
Yesterday I picked up 1 zucchini, one green cabbage, one head of cauliflower, 2 bundles of spring onions (huge bundles mind you), a bunch of Swiss chard (I picked up a smaller bunch since we hadn't had it before), 2 pints of blueberries, a huge bag of snap peas, and a head of green lettuce.

They also give out one recipe a week. This week's recipe was for Swiss chard, how convenient.

So, guess what we had with dinner last night? Swiss chard.

It wasn't bad. I think I'd rather have it in a soup.


This motivation I am gaining from this is incredible. I'm researching clean eating recipes. I'm rethinking my workout schedule. I'm excited, it's something I haven't been in a long time. I love it.

Day Three

As we move into day three, I'm feeling pretty good.

I'm enjoying the meals I've prepared for myself and the supplements I'm taking have been very easy on my systems. My only complaint is the crazy headaches. I'd love to say they are from caffeine withdrawal or my ".". Since I'm cutting out caffeine and I have my "." at the same time, it's probably a nasty combination of both. They are killing me.  I was trying my best to go without Tylenol or Excedrin to manage them but this morning I had to break down an take some Excedrin. My headache was so nasty it was actually making me sick to my stomach.

With the said, I refuse, absolutely refuse to let this frustrate me or deter me from success. I knew going into this it would be hard. I am a hardcore caffeine addict. I start by day with a cup of coffee (or two), I typically have 1-2 cans of Diet Pepsi during the day or a large fountain diet soda, and all evening I drink Iced Tea with Splenda. Caffeine and I- we are BFFS. It's been a nasty, eye opening break for us. As the days go on, I realize I really need to reevaluate my consumption. Will I give it up totally? I highly doubt it. But a drastic cut back is coming.

Right now I'm not feeling the best about my body. I know this is a combination of post vacation blues, "." bloat and a general lack of activity. I have no one to blame but myself. This cleanse really has come along at just the right time. It's the kick in the pants I needed to start thinking a little bit more about my needs and what I can do to be successful.

"The Cleanse" Day Two

Breaking up with Diet Pepsi is terrible, just in case you were wondering


Anyway....

Welcome to J-Berg's 2nd day on the Advocare 10 Day Cleanse. How is it going so far?

Well, let me tell you. So far, it hasn't been bad. I've been following the "rules" to the letter. I have been carefully packing my lunch bag every day with lots of good for you stuff. For breakfast I have a modified version of my typical smoothie- Spinach, 1/2 Cup Frozen Fruit, Small Banana and Almond Milk.
Lunch is a homemade turkey burger that has onion and zucchini mixed in. I top it with black bean and corn pico and a single serving packet of guacamole.  Dinner last night with chicken in tomato sauce with veggies on top of spaghetti squash.
My snacks are either 1/2 cup Honey Dew Melon with Almonds or an Apple with Peanut Butter.

Either way, super yummy!


And of course, I drink tons and tons of water.

My only real complaint is that I have a raging, splitting, oh.my.god.kill.me.now headache.
I'm pretty sure it's a combination of hormones and the sudden lack of caffeine in my diet. I seriously miss Diet Pepsi. Our break up has been awful.

Today I have felt foggy and irritable. However, I can't tell you if that's because of the cleanse or because no one in my house feels good and no one is sleeping very well. Maybe that's a good thing? I can't pin point the culprit so I can't get mad at anyone.

I have noticed that I am always thirsty. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with anything or not. But seriously, I have had no issues getting in my gallon + of water everyday.

Oh and I still hate that nasty fiber drink. HATE.IT!

However, it is a small price to pay for an interesting challenge.


Here's hoping for even more success!

Never Have I Ever Done Anything Half Assed

I started the Advocare 10 Day Cleanse this morning. I chugged the fiber drink, had my breakfast smoothie with almond milk instead of regular milk and without yogurt. I have drank a ton of water.

(I really miss coffee)

And because I'm never one to start half assed, I'm doing this cleanse with the following conditions.

• I am still fitting jet-lag from Germany
• Ryan slept a total of 3 hours last night, I slept a total of 2 hours.
• I'll be starting my "." any time now
• I have a gigantic head cold- resulting in the need for millions of tissues

I figure if I can be successful under these conditions, I can be successful anytime. I'm certainly up for the challenge.

This morning I came into work armed with snacks, lunch, water bottles, spark packets and no caffeine. (Sorry Diet Pepsi, we're on a break.) A lot of my time has been spent worrying that I'm not getting the food portions right or eating the right things at the right time.

I will say, I'm not hungry at all. That fiber drink will fill you up. (And it's only as gross as you let it be. I chugged it and lived to tell the tale.)

In about a half hour I'll have an apply and some peanut butter. Things to look forward too!


Happy Monday!

Friday

I packed.
Mr. Berg packed.
I packed for Ryan.

We are a go.


See y'all next week.

I Packed.... Kinda

Right now, in my bedroom, next to my dresser, is a pile of clothing. It's a mix of casual and dress clothes. There are several pairs of shoes, pajamas, socks, underwear, bras, etc. I would consider myself packed. However, I still need to locate my suitcase, put said crap into the suitcase and figure out accessories. There is also the matter of makeup and hair care products. Yeah... so I'm not even close to being ready.

Ryan's stuff, however, is all packed and ready to go. At least someone is ready for their vacation.


Oh and I'm all caught up on Grey's so that counts for something right? And PS- Dr. Webber is so NOT dead. And Arizona is 100% selfish. Oh, and Christina? I gotta say, I love her character more and more and more every day. Her love for Owen is incredible and the fact that she knew she had to left him go be the person he wanted to be, amazing!

I digress....

We are so not ready for this trip TOMORROW.
Last night as we were getting ready for bed, I asked Mr. Berg if he was ready for our trip. Of course, he is super excited. I told him I didn't feel like it was real yet. He even laughed when I told him that I was willing to bet that the next morning I would wake up and say something like "Shit, we leave for Germany tomorrow."

And what happened when the alarm went off this morning. Exactly that.

"OH SHIT! We leave tomorrow."



There is a large part of me that wants to just pack a carry on and get the rest when we get there. So yeah. I really hope we are ready to go by tomorrow.


Happy Thursday Folks!

Barely Out of Tuesday....

Does anyone else remember that Counting Crows song? I totally forgot about it until I popped in an old college mix CD on my way to work this morning. It was a good way to start the day.

Anyway...

My apologies for a terrible post yesterday. It was miserable day and I felt like total shit-on-a-stick for a large majority of the day. Truth be told, it's embarrassing. Who passes out during blood work? And it wasn't even serious blood work. It was a vial and a half.... That's like nothing. During my pregnancy I gave out 7 of those suckers at a time.  Oh well...

Today is a new day.

And now, time for some Secret Confessions of the Berg Family:

1. We haven't watched Grey's since The Avery Foundation helped everyone buy the hospital. We just let the DVR fill up. So, it's been a Grey's Marathon every night this week. We have one more episode before the season finale. Hopefully we can finish up before we leave on Friday.
2. Ryan has a million and one cool toys. His favorites? An empty toilet paper roll and an empty contacts box.
3. I typically wear a single strand of pearls every day. I love them and care for them well.... Well, I did at one time. Today, I noticed half the strand is covered in a fine layer of sweet potatoes. Compliments of someone's grubby, after dinner hands and a fascination with all necklaces.
4. Prior to the big clean out this morning, there were 15 receipts in my tote bag this morning.
5. We still haven't packed. When I asked Mr. Berg to find the suitcases last night, he asked me why. Clearly, we are not in vacation mode.
6. I'm starting the Advocare Cleanse on June 17th- The same day my "." is due. I will also be jet lagged and returning to work from a week's vacation. Clearly, I do nothing half assed...
7. I've been wearing closed toed shoes all week because I'm over due for pedicure. They've gotten so bad even Mr. Berg has started asking when I'm getting my toes done.
8. The answer is tomorrow, along with my nails and my roots.

So Far, Today is Not Going Well

Want to know something terrible? I am so looking forward to our flight to Germany on Friday night because it means I can sit down, watch TV, sleep, eat crap and not have to get anyone a damn thing for 8 solid, glorious hours.... I know, right? Amazing.

Little man was up and hungry at 4:00am.
He didn't go back to bed until 4:35am.
I never went back to bed.
Obvi, we were running late this morning but that was okay because Mr. Berg and I had physicals this morning for our new life insurance.
Which would have been fine except....
The nurse showed up 30 minutes late without a hint of an apology.
I passed out during my blood work.
Mr. Berg didn't realize I was going down until it was almost too late.
Once I was up and half functioning again, Mr. Berg assumed it was safe to go to work and left.
AUGH.... MEN!

So now I'm at work, still hungry from the crappy breakfast I picked up at Sheetz and half sick to my stomach from the blood work. AND.... My arm hurts. A LOT.

{WHINE}

Good news? My blood pressure was finally it's super low, normal self.
About.damn.time.body.



And we leave for vacation in 4 days and I still haven't packed. Not a lick.

Is Tuesday over yet?

How I Survived Pit Master School and Didn't Look Like Paris Hilton in the late 90's

First and foremost..... My new tanner is awesome and I didn't look orange in the slightest. In fact, I looked pretty good. So good in fact, I put more on the next night and I still don't look orange. I'll take it.

So... Pit Master School....

We arrived 15 minutes early to class Saturday morning. I'm sure I looked like a cross between a trophy wife and a pack mule. Never wanting to be unprepared, I filled my new tote bag with two notes pads and pens for note taking, two bottles of water, my favorite insulated cup filled with ice water, a hat, sun screen, cell phone, sweater (because you never know), snacks, gum, a diet pepsi and Advil. That poor bag was bustin' at the seams.

As we walked up to the area where class was I noticed lots and lots of people were all ready gathered around the picnic tables. The smoker was already going and the instructor and her staff were milling around setting up food and drinks and the whole nine yards. As we found our table my husband started shaking the hand of a huge man at the table to our right. It turns out he knew him and his buddy- both worked for his car service center. We made small talk and took our seats.

And there is was.... the big buddy's butt crack.

And it wasn't just any butt crack, this thing was a foot long and directly in my eye line.

As I'm sitting there, trying to determine what to do with my self, I notice Mr. Berg dying from silent laughter. He later said he noticed the look on my face and was trying to figure out what I was looking at.

I made him switch seats with me immediately.
When it comes to sweaty butt cracks of people I don't know, I don't mess around.

The rest of class was highly entertaining and delicious. It wasn't held entirely outside, which was even better. We also ended about 2 hours earlier then anticipated.

All in all, I shouldn't have whined about it. It was fun.

And now....
I leave for Germany in 4 days.

Am I ready?

HA! I haven't even thought about pulling my suitcase out of the attic yet... or is it in the basement?

I threw some things for Ryan in a bag.
My thank you gift for my parents is half prepared.
I might have looked at the tour schedule... but I don't remember half of it.
I have a checked the weather... that counts for something right?


Time to get on the stick.....