My “No. 2 & 3 on the list are kind of combined, because one is long term (3 weeks….or longer) and the other happened one night in the middle of the long term one.
FIRST TIME DOING A SCAVENGER HUNT!!!!
This was so much FUN!!!!!!!!!! My husband’s work put together a super fun scavenger hunt downtown, in which we formed teams of ~5-7 people and dressed up in cute little team costumes such as Minions, The Avengers, The Ninja’s, The Griswolds on their way to Walley World (that was us!) and ran/jogged/walked all over a section of downtown Raleigh doing different challenges (on top of the challenge of just trying to *find* the next task!)!
Some of the challenges/tasks included beer pong, running on a treadmill in a swanky apartment building gym, wine tasting, doing a quickie guitar lesson/sing-a-long at a guitar shop, cupcake eating, picture taking, even getting a manicure with the clue painted on one nail, and my favorite; the elimination karaoke challenge!
In the elimination karaoke challenge, 3 people from each of the ~7 teams had to stand on stage; If the mic was in your face, you had to sing a song, basically the only rule was that the song couldn’t be a repeat of one already sung. …oh and you had to sing, no pauses! If you repeated the song, or paused (usually with an “oh shit!”) you were out. Ya’ll this was really fun/funny, I swear! Anyways, we had such a great and persistent team that, even though we walked a lot of the time, we STILL won second place overall!
I highly recommend jumping in on any Scavenger Hunt/Amazing Race type events offered in your town.
NUMBER TWO “FIRST” 😉
Ok, I debated…a lot…whether or not to count this as a “first” on the list. I wouldn’t say it’s an exciting, cool, new thing…and definitely NOT something that I had in mind, at ALL, when brainstorming some of the possible 50 things!!!!
But it sure is a big fat ball of firsts all round up into one!!!!
It’s “The Hormone Reset Diet”
The book JUST came out prior to a group start of >1,000 women who all started this diet together on April 13th.
This diet was a HUGE lifestyle change (for ~21 days) for me.
OK, the premise behind the diet is to “reset” your hormones that impact your metabolism and weight loss, by cutting out certain foods and toxins that impact those hormones every three days. It’s not only that, though. On top of the food changes, and additions (like 1lb of veggies a day, and ensuring 35-40g of fiber a day), there are many new practices that I started doing as a part of this diet…… *AAAANNND* I’ve learned sooooooooooo much about the food industry, hormones, healthy practices, etc.!!!!!
Here’s a quick rundown of the resets and the hormones that they impact:
Reset 1: Meatless and no Alcohol, Hormone: Estrogen
*NOTE: meatless means no red meat ……organic, free-range chicken and pastured eggs, all cold water fish and shellfish ARE allowed.
**ANOTHER NOTE: this reset starts at Day one, AND CONTINUES throughout the 21day reset…same goes with the others. Every three days you drop another hormone-influencing food/toxin, and keep it dropped, throughout the diet.
Reset 2: SUGARLESS (including artificial sweetners), Hormone: Insulin
Reset 3: Fruitless (including nightshades), Hormone: Leptin
Reset 4: Caffeine-Free, Hormone: Cortisol
Reset 5: Grain-free, Hormone: Thyroid Hormones (Insulin and Leptin, also)
Reset 6: Dairy Free, Hormone: Growth Hormone (but also possible allergies and intolerances)
Reset 7: Toxin Free, Hormone: Testosterone
Re-entry phase: This is where you pick your favorites and add them back, one at a time, three days apart and judge impact and whether or not you should just stay away from them altogether.
There’s sooo much mind-blowing information that I learned about how the above foods influence your hormones…enough to fill a book! So I won’t write a book here, but I can’t tell you ENOUGH how much I recommend this one!!!!
ON TOP of the food changes, I’ve started doing these new things, which seem like small changes but all add up to be some major changes in routines!!!:
- Oil pulling
- Tongue scraping
- Drinking warm water with lemon first thing
- Testing the pH of my urine daily
- blood sugar home testing—I found out that I was prediabetic!!! :-O
- Enforcing the no screens after 7 rule
- Counting how much fiber I consume daily, with a goal of 35g-40g, or more
- Learning how to keep my sanity through all these changes with Dr. Sara’s “cell to soul” practices
- I also learned that if you eat something for three days in a row that you originally found “meh” (like the morning shakes) it starts to be delicious, and you can’t wait to have it!
After reading the book and each section on WHY you should drop each of the things in the 7 resets, it’s hard not to want to drop EVERYTHING at once.
And many women did. I chose to try to follow the reset when it came to the things I loved, or thought I needed (like caffeine). I’m glad I did, because I noticed a pretty significant drop in my blood sugar when I went off caffeine!!! It’s neat to actually notice the difference that each and every one of these food changes makes!
As of Day 16, I’ve lost 7 pounds! That’s 7 pounds in 16 days! Today is the day that I drop dairy, and—as much as I LOVE cheese (did you know that there are substances in cheese that are like morphine and highly addictive!?!)—I’m excited and interested to see the impact.
So far, the tally for my 50 FIRSTS before 50 are:
1. Bahamas Cruise
2. Hormone Reset Diet
3. Scavenger Hunt