Health Crazed

I don't know what's come over our household lately, but fitness is all the rage here right now. Last week, a new exercise bike arrived on our doorstep, along with two Fitbits. For the record, assembling the exercise bike was almost as much of a workout as riding it...

Saturday, Mr. W and I wore our Fitbits for the first time, locked in fierce competition to see who would take more steps.

At the end of the day, Mr. W beat me by about 3,000. I've decided he must have much shorter legs than I do and for every step I take, he takes a step and a half... That can be the only answer...

The trouble with the exciting combo of Fitbit and new exercise bike is that the Fitbit doesn't count pedaling as steps. You have to stand up while you pedal for anything to register. And that's much harder than sitting on the cushy over-sized butt pad. Even when I used to mountain bike, I was never a stand-up-in-the-saddle kind of girl. I'll take the chafing over the extra work any day. Which means I guess I'll have to make peace with the fact that my Fitbit won't be counting any bike time... Sigh.

To round out the madness, we decided to do another juice fast beginning after breakfast yesterday. I probably negated any good the fast would do by making bacon, eggs, and hash browns in the morning, but whatev. Waiting to start until after breakfast made the whole thing much more tolerable than it was when we did it the first time. I barely even felt a hunger pang when I was out pulling weeds all day. (Seriously. ALL DAY.) And it was sort of nice not to have to make dinner.

(Note to anyone doing a juice fast: Do not go on Pinterest while you're fasting. That site is pretty much just a pictorial encyclopedia of every yummy dish that was ever cooked in life.)

One last health craze I decided to try out yesterday was oil pulling. Has anyone else heard about this? Erin wrote about it on Mimosa Lotus last week and then I saw a bit about it on Good Morning America, so I decided to try it for kicks as I transitioned from bacon to kale juice.

It was pretty gross at first. Taking a tablespoon of solidified coconut oil and moving it around in my mouth until it became liquid again was not the funnest thing I've ever done. Swishing it for 20 minutes after that wasn't so great either. And I'm not sure it did any of the things it's supposed to. I can't tell if my teeth look any whiter. That said, I might try it one more time before writing it off completely.

The hope behind all the new equipment and endeavors is that we'll kick our overall health up a notch. After all, Mr. W is turning 40 in a couple weeks (and I'll be 38). And being apart for the last year and a half hasn't exactly caused a decrease in my wine and chocolate consumption...or the size of my thighs...