When I’m in my routine, I do 35 minutes of cardio roughly four times a week plus yoga at least once. I drink a lot of water. And I avoid bread and dessert, unless they’re really, really worth it. I try to limit drinking alcohol to the weekends, but considering that BOOZE is in the headline of this blog and I have a full bar at home, you can guess how well that goes.

Back in July, when Norman Bates became ill then suddenly passed away, I got completely off my routine. I wasn’t fully operating in overdrive to begin with; I’d say maybe a 7 on a scale of 10. But I was just about to engage in the process of switching gyms to better suit my schedule when everything got disrupted. I became physically ill while dealing with the loss, and was not sleeping or staying hydrated. I stopped going to the gym. And my alcohol intake increased. A little over a month after losing Norman, I brought Roxie Hart home when she was only five weeks old and weighed only one pound. It was a terrifying and stressful time. Everything in my home was a potential threat to her due to her size. And she ended up having blood come out of her rump, which turned into weeks of trying to solve the mystery of what was causing it, then trying out various medications that may or may not work, and me being even more terrified and physically ill from worrying that I’d lose her too. Needless to say, my “routine” was a distant vision.

The best thing I did during this time was choose to be kind to myself. I cut myself some slack for not going to the gym. When the holidays came, I ate more chocolate chip cookies than I normally would be interested in eating (they were REALLY good this year) and was okay with the fact that I gained 5lbs., despite having worked so hard to lose 40lbs. only a few years ago. I knew I would get back into it. And not because of a New Year’s resolution, but because I know myself. I get there. I always do.

And the time is now. Roxie is 8 months old and we’ve begun to transition her to adult food (we’re going with Wellness CORE, which is grain free and good for both kittens and cats). And as Roxie’s diet changes, I’m making small adjustments to mine as well. The biggest of which is trying this “cleanse”. The main catalyst in adding a supplement was the fact that I was sick for a good 3-4 weeks. I’m not sure if I’m developing allergies as an adult or if I was just infected with some REALLY intense virus, but I couldn’t breathe and had this nasty cough that kept me up at nite. I’ve been following Bethenny on Twitter for awhile now and have seen her answer questions about her cleanse. I appreciate what a marketing machine she is and, as a marketing person myself, like to support smart brands. I read more about the product on her blog and decided to order it to help give my system a nudge back in the right direction.

Here’s what I’ve noticed thus far: I am due for my period in a few days. I do not suffer from cramps, but I normally feel bloated, constipated, exhausted, and dehydrated around this time. I am unable to get a good nite’s sleep right now per usual, however I do not have any of my other usual symptoms. I also feel less hungry in the afternoon. I am usually starving by 3pm, which makes it difficult to get motivated for a 5pm workout; I just want to go straight home and EAT SOMETHING. But if I workout at 5pm instead of 7.30pm, my previous preferred gym time, I actually have time to do stuff in the evenings. Like last nite, I was able to get re-dressed and go out to dinner with my boyfriend at 7pm, but still get a full day of work and a workout in. And I wasn’t dying of hunger by the time we met up. In addition to the cleanse, I am also drinking a ton of water and have made it to the gym every day this week. Although Bethenny recommends the morning, I take the cleanse around 2pm. It’s disgusting-looking but it really doesn’t taste that bad.

Another observation: last nite, I drank one Cosmopolitan at my home bar before going out (see some of my cocktail recipes here!) and had one glass of wine at dinner. I normally would’ve felt a little dry this morning, but I woke up feeling like I drank nothing at all last nite. It could be coincidence or psychological, but I think the cleanse is doing something for me.

You can order the Cleanse from Bethenny’s website here but I found it cheaper on Amazon. You can also skip the starter kit and go straight for the refill packs. It’s the same thing, just without a wooden recipe box. I wish I just bought the refills to begin with.