Happy Sunday everyone!  Back in college I would load up on caffeine all semester long and then detox during breaks.  Usually I spend the first couple days relaxing and hanging around watching TV and hanging out with the family.  I’d take an Advil if I got a bad headache on the first day and avoid coffee the rest of the break.  It worked it out pretty well.  The thing is I never did that after finishing my internship, I jumped straight into studying for the RD exam and wedding planning.  Therefore my caffeine addiction has grown to an absurd obsession.  I love the adrenaline rush I get with coffee and I find myself drinking more and more and more.  Although I’m extremely productive, the adrenaline rush that comes with coffee also produces a stress hormone known as cortisol.  Cortisol when repeated released daily causes negative metabolic changes in the body including increased fat storage and inflammation.  So, I’m doing my body a favor and trying to cut down.  I started by avoiding it this weekend and tomorrow I plan to bring a smaller cup of coffee to work made with half regular coffee half decaf.  My eventual goal is limiting it to an occasional cup a week and going for green tea and dandy blend instead. The only child brat in me doesn’t do well when I’m told I totally can’t have something, so instead I’m just telling myself I’m cutting back.  I’ll go from there!

Past Healthy Habits Challenges

• Week 10:  Drink More Water
• Week 9:  Focus On Making Balanced Meals
• Week 8:  Be More Present
• Week 7:  Avoid Soda
• Week 6:  Spend 15 Minutes Playing and Cuddling with Missy Daily (my cat)
• Week 5:  Throughly wash all produce
• Week 4:  Meditate Daily (at least 10 minutes)
• Week 3:  Get enough good quality sleep (at least 7-8 hours)
• Week 2:  Limit tasting during cooking and food preparation 
• Week 1:  Wait one hour between dinner and dessert 

Grocery Shopping

I know I said I wasn’t going to the store, but I went anyway… I didn’t get that much though!

Menu Options

Breakfast

–  Cereal and Almond Milk (Puffins)

–  Vans 8 Whole Grain Waffles

–  Cranberry Date Quinoa Breakfast Bars

– Green Chile and Cheese Breakfast Burritos 

Lunch

–  Canned Chicken Breast Pita/Sandwich

–  Pizza Turkey Meatloaf Burgers/Salad

– Breakfast Burritos 

Dinner

Sunday- Pizza Turkey Meatloaf or Burgers

Monday-  5 Ingredient Cheesy Brussel Sprouts and Chicken Saute

Tuesday- Mexican Rice Bowls (from paleoomg.com)

Wednesday- Wing it, 5 Minute Omelet Bowl or Healthy Homemade Corn Dogs

Thursday- Tuna or Salmon, Green Beans, Sweet Potato

Friday-  Grilled Cheese or Egg Sandwiches

Saturday- Wing It

Fitness Plans

This week I’m doing 50-75% of what I’ve been doing.   From here on out I will be following the 2 weeks max force followed by one week at 50-75%, and repeat plan.  Even though it seems like I’ve been doing just a bunch of walking and light lifting, I know I need to be careful rehabbing so that I don’t flare up my injury.  I’ve actually been incorporating walk/runs into my workouts which has been awesome.  So this the tone it down week which is fine cause it’s going to be a busy one, I plan to base it off of what I did last week.

Here is what I did last week:

Sunday- Rest

Monday- 1 mile walk/ upper body workout

Tuesday- 2 mile walk (1/2mi walk, 1/4mile run, 1/2mi walk, 1/4mile run, 1/2mi walk) & Upper body workout

Wednesday- 2.35 mile walk- 43minutes & upper body workout

Thursday-  walk 3 miles~45 minutes (1/2 mile walk, 1/4 mile run x 4)

Friday- upper body workout

Saturday- 3.12 miles (1/2 mile walk, 1/2 mile run, 1/2 mile walk, 1/2 mile run, 1/2 mile walk, 1/4 mile run, 1/4 mile walk) ~ 41 minutes and upper body workout

Upper Body Workouts are all form the 30 Day Upper Body Challenge from Eat, Drink, and Be Skinny —-> see post here from when I started the challenge.  

Questions of the day:

Have you ever taken a break from caffeine?

Do you tone down your workouts one week a month to help with the recovery process?