Fit for Fall

Hello, ladies!!! I'm back to blogging from my very petite pink palace in NYC, and surprisingly, I'm not terribly unhappy to be. You see, before I left for California, I was convinced that returning to the city would be torture. After a week of sunny days, mountain views, lovely Lola, nicer people and Ma Soeur's insanely gorgeous home, I feared that the thoughts of sharing a bathroom, a tiny and consistently dirty kitchen, uneven stairs, miserable people and humidity would make me very unwilling to return. While I was definitely sad to leave, I had a wonderful vacation and felt ready to get back to my real life. California is wonderful, and it is likely in my future, but not now. Right now, I'm a New York City gal.

Now, with that being said, another reason I was excited to return to the city is because before I left for Cali, I decided I would embark on a 7-day detox when my vacay was over. You see, my body has not been functioning at its prime, and I know exactly why. My eating habits have been... disastrous. After months of vegan eating, I went on a completely dairy-fueled nonvegan BINGE after moving here. Grilled cheese dominated my life, which is no surprise that not only did I regain the weight I lost when vegan, but my body also rebelled. I'm just not feeling so hot. Weird sleep schedules, total lack of energy, and difficulty working out... yuck. I miss how I used to feel. That's not to say that I'm going to be 100% vegan for ever - I just don't think that's sustainable for me in a city where none of my friends are vegan (let alone vegetarian). However, I do intend to find a balance between vegan and non-vegan, and this detox is just a jumpstart.

For the next 7 days, I will be eating a 100% vegan diet. In addition to that, I will be abstaining from all alcohol (not easy when my weekends have typically been filled with boozey late dancey nights), all caffeine (bye bye, coffee) and most refined sugars. To be honest, I think the sugar part is going to be the hardest. No more dark chocolate after dinner? Le sad. But I think I need it. In addition to my diet, I plan to do lots of moving! Running, yoga, spinning, Fluidity, and pilates are all in my near future. After this 7-day detox, I'm not sure what's going to happen. We'll see how this week goes. To find inspiration as to what the heck I'm going to eat, I'm returning to my fave vegan blogs (like the Voracious Vegan) and to my vegan blog, Vegan Tomato. (Right now, I'm sipping a shake made with chocolate hemp powder, soy milk, and ice and eating a bean & rice burrito.)

I know several of you fab gals mentioned on Twitter that you too wanted to get back to healthy eating. I urge you to join me on this detox or to create some version of your own. Whatever you do, I think we should join together, blog about how we're doing, what we're doing, how we're getting more movement into our lives, and how we're feeling. I'm calling this group effort Fit for Fall. Please comment on this post if you want to join me! My biggest incentive besides feeling good? I want to be able to wear my fave fall clothes and not feel uncomfortable and wonder if I "look fat" every 5 seconds. What're your incentives to get Fit for Fall?

I'm going to end this post with a pic from my time in Cali. This was taken on Thursday night where I indulged in the worst of the worst: Chili's. Chili's is all kinds of unhealthy and tres un-gourmet. But I've always had a soft spot for their chips & salsa & ranch (AND for their french fries). That being said, I want what I ate that night to be the exact opposite of what I intend to eat in my future. LET'S GO!