Over the last few years, I’ve taken some steps to become much healthier and get in better shape. The long and short of the story is that when I was in my teens, college and through my twenties, I could literally eat and drink anything and I stayed thin – I frankly didn’t have to worry about my weight. 

Around the time I turned 30, a few things happened. All of a sudden my body started to change a bit – my hips spread and I gained a bit of weight. Shortly after, I fell in love (which, in short means I drank a bunch of wine, ate decadent food and failed to get out of bed in the morning to work out). That packed on a few more pounds. After a few years, I was sluggish and incredibly uncomfortable with my body. 

The first thing I did was find a trainer. After one that was a complete douche, I met the trainer I work with to this day and I love her. I meet her 3 times a week for boot camp, do yoga at her studio and she makes me turn in a food and cardio diary. I know it sounds a little strict, but trust that it’s not. I slack all the time (and I can tell). 

The other thing I did was look to my girlfriends and see what they were doing. One friend was very dedicated to boot camp. Another used a Fitbit as a great tool to stay on track. The other was sharing tons of adjusted healthy recipes. Somehow, over the course of the last year or so, we’ve dubbed ourselves “The Sweatin’ Sisters” (we also happened to be pledge sisters in college). Now we share weekly recipes, work out challenges, recipes and encouragement to one another. 

I will introduce my readers to my ladies, but I wanted to share with you first what we are up to this week: Jillian Michael’s Detox Tea. I read about it online (probably through Pinterest), and I thought it might be an interesting thing to try – and of course, I’d love to kick whatever crap is in my body out. 

Here’s how it works: mix 60 oz of water (the recipe calls for distilled, but I’m not even lugging that up to my loft, so filtered from the fridge it is), 1 T of REAL cranberry juice (no added crap, it has to be pure cranberry juice), 2 T lemon juice, 1 mug of dandelion root tea. Mix together and drink throughout the day. Here are my “tea tools”: 

It was super easy to make. I just filled up my bottle, made a mug of the tea and poured everything else in with the water. I even squeezed the tea bag a bit into the bottle. Shook it a bit, put it in the fridge overnight and started drinking it this morning. 

So far so good, some people report that it’s a bit bitter, but I don’t mind it (I usually drink tea instead of coffee as it is and I don’t care for sweet tea, so maybe that makes it easier for me). I’m about halfway through for the day and it’s not even noon yet. 

I’ll make sure to keep you posted of any results and progress throughout the week. Plus I’ll have the Sweatin Sisters give their feedback as well!