by Keri O’Meara
In my last entry I described my bitchy mood, this week I was hoping to discuss my poop.

Monica, the owner of CORE studio, told me I was likely to experience a mixed bag of emotions and so far, she has been right about that (unless I am just a crazy bitch). She said that another symptom of this type of challenge/detox is increased trips to the bathroom and a change in ones fecal texture.  Is it weird that this is one of the reasons I took this challenge on?  I even stocked up on magazines in the hopes of four BMs a day.  Sigh, no avail.  I am still just plain old once daily with ‘normal’ textured crap- whatever that means. I am peeing about seventeen times a day, though, so I guess I can be happy about that.

I am also sleeping really well and the nightmares have subsided. The problem with sleeping: I don’t want to stop.  It’s a struggle to wake up and I feel groggy for the better part of the day. A friend of mine who has stopped smoking four times -so it’s safe to say he is an expert- told me that when you quit your blood sugar drops. So maybe that’s why I am so tired. Yes, that’s right; I no longer partake in cigarettes. It has been seven whole hellish days. I now have a serious orange juice habit. This doesn’t seem to be raising my blood sugar or giving me more energy, but it is contributing to my seventeen daily pees.

Because I am so tired I am still feeling overwhelmingly frustrated and like nothing I do is good enough. The other day a good girlfriend of mine, visibly annoyed with my self loathing, said to me “Of course you are tired, you are working out everyday. You put so much pressure on yourself, give yourself some credit.”  

So SDTC readers, the positive attitude starts here. No matter that I have been bitchy, that I am tired, that I am not having really amazing craps, that I don’t feel special because half of Toronto seems to be doing this challenge as well (good for them) and that I am still feeling wayward, here is what I have accomplished.   

Seventeen straight days of Pilates.  Okay I lie; I missed the day after my birthday. I didn’t want to throw up all over the beautiful hardwood floors of CORE studio (red wine, Veuve Cliquot and Red Bull DO NOT MIX).  But the next day, a Sunday no less, I did two classes back to back.  I intend to practice for the next thirteen days despite the fact that my glute meads are so cramped I can hardly lift my legs anymore. I have gotten stronger, I am able to do moves now that I couldn’t two weeks ago and the instructors at CORE have made note of this, which feels great because those girls have x-ray vision when it comes to the way their students muscles move (actually, it’s quite freakish.)

I am running three times a week. I am eating fruits and vegetables-which I don’t think I have done since my mom used to sneak in raspberries with my ice-cream which I  didn’t get until I ate my broccoli.  I still have a little round belly but you can see definition in my abs and I swear my ass has risen at least half an inch. And of course- I have to say it again- I quit smoking. Yeah me! 

Being that I used to be a chain smoking, wine pounding, grease guzzling cynic it feels a bit weird saying this, but you don’t know how good it feels to be healthy until you are.