How to lose 15 pounds in 20 days.

How to lose 15 pounds in 20 days. The answer is pretty easy.  Go to Africa. Take care of a very sick baby with no medical support.  Be confined to a hotel room because you've been advised to not leave the property with your baby.

Get to the states and promptly make a hospital room your place of residence.  Then... once you're back home and life is normal, a friend will look at you and say, "We need to get some weight on you girl!" And you'll say, "Huh? What are you talking about??" and then you'll feel your jeans, look in the mirror, glance at a picture of yourself, and suddenly realize you're 15 pounds lighter.

This is what happened to me the first month I was home. It wasn't necessarily a good or bad thing.  It was just a fact. Ultimately though, I certainly wasn't pleased to have lost the weight.  I like those 15 pounds of padding just fine. So... lil by lil I've been trying to gain some back. My first tactic was to wildly attack holiday feasts.  Then I decided to just eat with abandon everyday in the name of "gaining it back."  Sugar cookies? Yes m'aam. Sweet tea? I think I will. Wings and Dr. Pepper delivered to my door? You betcha. But then I realized I was feeling super exhausted and crummy. Even though I managed to do it guilt free, obviously I knew I wasn't making the healthiest string of choices.  So now, I'm pursuing HEALTH (more water, less soda, more veggies, less carbs, more pure food, less preservatives, etc. etc. etc.) All in the name of health and energy.  Do I care what I weigh? No. Not really. Do I care if I have energy to make it to nap time? Yes. Yes I do.

So... what do you do to take care of yourself? Are you a juicer? A runner? A zumba-er? (or is it a zumbee?) I'm hoping to take the bull by the horns this Spring and pursue health like never before.  If anything, I hear clean eating gives you a "glow" and if you could see the dark circles under my eyes right now you would know a "glow" is something that sounds pretty darn awesome:) I mean just look at this text... my girlfriend had just confessed her frustrations with the inaccurate scale at the doctor's office when I responded with this:

Aren't girlfriends the best? So, anyhow, carrots, and spinach, and berries, and blah blah blah... Here we come. And seriously, if you're a juicer and you have a recipe that is delightful (anything that doesn't involve holding your nose and chugging is what I'm deeming 'delightful'), I'll gladly take it. Send them my way!