Keep on Chuggin' - Week 6

It is no secret that I love me some green juice...



(Romaine - apple - celery - cucumber - mint - lime inspired by One Lucky Duck)

And after last week's challenge, I felt great after juicing every day again! I feel so great when I juice every morning. My hair and my nails thrive and I love starting my day with a healthy dose of green stuff.

While it's not officially summer yet, the temperature is certainly rising, hitting 34 degrees in Toronto today, feeling like 40 with the humidity. And while I'm a fan of beating the heat with gelato... I've also been striving to get in lots of water! Green juice definitely has its place, but sometimes we just need to go back to basics, y'know? That's why this week we're talking about oh-so-refreshing...

WATER!

While water is not a magical substance, it is definitely important. Our bodies are composed of up to 70% water and your water needs depend on how much you're losing through your life and day-to-day activities and with this heat it's even more important to stay hydrated. I personally like to go for a minimum of 2L (8 glasses) each day and challenge you to do the same this week.

"But Ashley, I hate drinking water"

Here are my top 5 tips to make water consumption easy-peasy:

1. Start early - have a glass of water first thing in the morning (add some lemon and cayenne for some extra cleansing love)



2. Take it with you - bring your water bottle everywhere you go! Make it a super pretty one and you'll be even more likely to tote it along. Leave it out on your desk or workspace so you can see it



3. Change it up - I've become a big fan of sparkling water lately (VOSS is my fav, with grapefruit Perrier a close second) or try adding lemon, lime, cucumber or something fun to your usual glass



4. Make it tea-rrific - homemade herbal iced tea is delish. I became obsessed when I was doing my Fringe show last year and we had to drink "sangria" daily. Make a big batch and keep it in your fridge. You'll feel extra fancy (and possibly very Southern) when you can offer your guests iced tea when they visit



5. Use a straw - I leave a glass straw in the drawer at my office and I swear I drink water faster when I use it! Check out Meghan's super pretty signature straws - I picked one up at ReBoot and love it!

Do you have any tips to get in those 8 glasses a day?

Week 4 Update: There have been a couple of great posts in the blog world since our positive self talk challenge in week 4. Loved Ali's post on setting yourself free through choosing to love yourself and Sheryl's body image reality check post on Monday (can't wait to share with you guys how awesome Sheryl is in real life - NYC post is coming!!) I went back to bellydancing last week and for the first time in a long time I felt really great physically. So excited to be dancing again and so excited to be feeling the self love as well as thinking it.

In other fun news...

The Weight Watchers 2nd annual Walk It Challenge is taking place this Sunday June 12th at Running Room locations across Canada! I'll be doing it at the Beach location (1977 Queen Street East) alongside a lot of my members from my groups at Carrot & Trinity. We had a ton of fun last year and I can't wait to do it again! The walk starts at 8:30 and it's totally free to sign up. I didn't make a group this year as it didn't really do much last year (the Running Room wouldn't even tell me who was in my group) so sign up as an individual and come walk with us on Sunday! If you're heading to the beach location be sure to come say hello!

More Self Love –Week 4 #52DTS

Happy Holiday Monday to my Canadian friends…
and Happy Monday to everyone else!

I’ve had a great long weekend and happy that we’ve had a bit of sunshine even!! For me it’s even better as I’m enjoying a 3 day work week because on Friday I’m going to

NEW YORK CITY!!!

I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am or how much squealing and jumping and skipping and smiling there has been leading up to this trip. It will be my first time in the city and I feel like I might not want to come home. I have a list of things I want to do and can’t wait to take lots of pictures, tweet and blog about my excursion – stay tuned!

Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to @cocomonsterblog for being the winner of Peggy’s book and some Vega yummies!! Send me an email wwleaderashley [at] gmail [dot] com and we will arrange to get you your goodies!!

Week 3 Check In

I didn’t do a check in on Friday – I’m sorry! I rocked my workouts again this week:

Monday: 60+ minutes with trainer
Tuesday: 50 minutes spin
Thursday: 30 minute run + core
Saturday: 60 minutes zumba

+ lots of walking in the sunshine

How did everyone do with their eating?

Following an awesome dinner with my roomies on Monday I ate lots of leftover soup and kelp noodles from Peggy’s book, enjoyed some delicious oatmeal breakfastsand enjoyed some yummy meals out with friends, including a trip to Rawlicious and delicious brunch at Lady Marmalade with my little sister yesterday. I am working on consistently making great choices, listening to my body and eating mindfully. Also still working on getting the sugar out while not feeling like I’m restricting myself too much. It’s an ongoing struggle, but it’s necessary.

Speaking of necessary…

Week 4 Challenge – Love Yourself

The process of positive self talk has been a constantly ongoing, seemingly never-ending battle for me. I’ve talked about it on the blog many times (here, here, here and here) and there have been a bazillion other times when I’ve had conversations with friends, family, WW peeps, or written in my journal about my challenges. I’m thankful that people can’t actually see inside my head because there’s some pretty messed up stuff that goes on in there.

Lately it’s been really really hard, and this was part of the reason for the 52 Days to Summer Challenge in the first place. I have been working on getting rid of the thoughts that don’t serve me, but holy jeez are those thoughts loud sometimes.

I have so many things in my life to be thankful for: amazing friends, familia, and awesome peeps who love me, a great set of jobs, performance opportunities, an amazing house with fantastic roommates etc. etc. etc. But for whatever reason, I still freak out and go to the negative self loathing place. I don’t know that my body image has ever really been stellar, but I’ve found that since beginning my weight loss journey in 2006, the issue has been much more prominent; in the years since I’ve been harder on myself since losing the weight than I ever was before.

I find that I feel better when I’m treating my body well with exercise and awesome eating, but that is not always the rule. On Tuesday I was on my way to spin class and in the elevator on my way up to the class I started tearing up as a result of some negative stuff in my head. I cried on my way home and later that evening - yes, even after 50 minutes of hardcore spin and heading home home to make green juice and a delicious, healthy, vegan dinner. This has got to stop.

I read a great post on Ange’s blog that really inspired me awhile back, especially the idea that self love is an ongoing process and that (for now) the “goal is not to eliminate negative thoughts, but to reduce the frequency of those thoughts and to counter them with positive ones”.

This week I would like you to work on self love.

If a negative thought enters your head, write it down and then take a minute to turn that thought around into a positive one. I am also going to take some time to journal some of my thoughts because I’ve found that process to be very helpful in the past.

What kind of messages have you been sending yourself? Are they things you would ever say to another person? How have the messages you’ve been sending to yourself changed over time? What process do you have to reduce your negative thoughts?