Adventures in raw

Ok - so where I last left off...I was doing a cleanse in preparation for my 32nd Birthday.  It went fine...until I got strep throat.  When I emailed my "coaches" their main advice was to do another cleanse after I was off the antibiotics.  I said "uhm, that's more $$ than I want to spend" and they said "nothing".

So - then I happened onto a cleanse by a woman here in Boulder, Eloise Nelson, and it looked actually pretty good.  I bought the book from her and started the cleanse on Wednesday.  It's a mostly vegan and raw cleanse...which is different for me.  So far - the 3 recipes that I've made out of her book have been really pretty tasty.  Oh, the shakes that I have for breakfast in the morning are...interesting.   The texture is...interesting.  But - they're bearable and they're mostly fresh fruit, spinach and then some Chia seeds and hemp protein powder.  The downside of this cleanse is it was somewhat $$ to get the products - but they will hopefully last the entire cleanse.  The upside is I think this is a nutritional cleanse as well as fiber...and I'm having REAL food and not pellets and chocolate over-processed "what the hell is in this" shakes.

So - I'll let you know the updates.  Otherwise I'm just full of stress and that's awesome.  I seem to have broken the damn on an unhealthy Etsy addiction.  Ohhhh....handmade goods...

Sidelined by Strep...wah wah waaaaah.

So - disappointingly - I have had to stall on the end of the cleanse.  I've been doing shake days for this week...but as far as weight loss I think it's stalled out.  I'm down 8 lbs - which I really need to look at as a positive thing.  I was just hoping for more.

I got strep this week. I woke up Tuesday with a terrible burning in my throat.  I thought immediately that it was strep - so I went to Urgent Care and got a test...and then went to Walgreens for the antibiotics.  The 1st day was pretty awful but I felt better on day 2. 

I talked to my coaches - and they told me that while I'm on an antibiotic I'm not really supposed to do the juice part of the cleanse.  So, like I said, I've done shake days and today is day 11. 

After I finish the antibiotics- I plan to do 2 more shake days and then 2 cleanse days so I can finish the product. Hopefully I'll get more results.  We'll see!

Cleanse - Days 5, 6, 7

I've made it halfway!  I've completed my first two pre-cleanse days, my two juice days, and now I'm on my third shake day of 5.  I have to make it to Friday - which means two more juice days, but I think I'm doing ok right now.  John compared it this morning to SlimFast...which I guess is somewhat correct in the replacing two meals with a "shake"...hopefully this Isagenix stuff is a bit healthier?

I am happy with results so far.  Sure - I'd like to have dropped 20 lbs the first day - but that's not realistic.  I am happy with the ~6lbs that I've dropped and I hope I get in a few more before this is over.  My energy is ok.  I really wanted to nap all day yesterday - not sure if that's just because I needed sleep or if I was overly tired

Saturday was nice with the return to shakes and food.  I was mostly good at the Farmer's Market - but chef Deb made polenta and seeing as it was gluten-free, I had to have some.  So - I substituted it as my mid-morning "snack" instead of freaking out about eating a DELICIOUS polenta with butter and parmesean, and tasty greens on top of it. Yum.  I had my shakes in the morning and at noon so I could eat dinner with John...which didn't exactly happen due to his construction project.  Ah well - things happen.  I made us a healthier version of Chipotle's burrito bowl - used brown rice, probably less salt and less cheese and sour cream.  It was o.k.  If I were really cooking and not trying to be super healthy - I think I would have kicked in a few more things to make it tastier. 

Sunday was a normal, mostly schedule following day.  I had my meal at lunch - and I made a delicious omlette with applewood smoked chevre, sauteed local spinach (purple and green!), garlic and tomato.  It was deeeeelicious.  The shakes were fine and the snacks were fine. My bloodsugar dropped on Sunday afternoon - but overall it was just fine.

One of the things I've been appreciating from the fast is how it is helping me appreciate the little food that I'm eating right now.  I have a plan to head to Whole Foods for lunch to make a big and healthy salad for myself.  Yum.

So - today, so far:

7:00 - Shake and accelerator capsule, isaflush and water
7:30 - iced passion tea from *$ (no sweeteners - doesn't need it!)
9:30 - 1 Snack & 2 nuts, water

Cleanse Day 4 - day 2 of juice

Let me begin with: Hi, Jackie!  Glad someone is reading this!!

Day 3 ended ok. I was drained of energy and I sooooooo wanted to eat.  Having to feed Ada-Ruth was torture.  Her meatloaf looked like the most delicious food ever made...even though I knew it wasn't.  I had my juice - which seems to be better diluted- and my wafers and went to bed earlyish.

Day 4 - I may feel better than I did yesterday. I followed my Friday ritual of getting Starbucks - but I opted for an iced-non-sweetened Passion tea.  No chemicals - just some herbal tea over ice.  It was good.

7am - Juice & water, accelerator cap and fiber stuff
8:30 - Snack & H20
10:45 - late due to a meeting - snack & H20
12:00 - late due to meeting - Juice & water

In positive news, I'm down 4.5 lbs!  Woooooo.  And supposedly the 2nd day of the cleanse is supposed to be very "cleansing"...

Day 3 - the real cleanse begins

So today is my 1st day on the "Cleanse for Life" juice and day without food.  Actually - I have my Isagenix "Snacks" to munch on...redefining "snack" to mean "tablet" or possibly "pellet" and "munch" to mean - savoring an oversized-Necco wafer.  It kind of tastes like Astronaut Ice Cream (of which, I am a big fan).

I have had 2 of the juice doses so far.  I have another at 4.  The juice is...not so great.  But - the "cleanse coach" told me it will start to taste better.

I keep thinking about food and the food I want to have when I'm done with this stinking thing - but I guess that's really counter to what I'm supposed to be thinking about.  I'm supposed to be thinking healthy thoughts - not about how I'd really like to have food...any food.  The soup my co-worker ate today at lunch smelled like the best french onion soup ever...she said it was only ok.

So here is the journal thus far. 
7am - 4 oz juice, fiber supplement, metabolism accelerator, water, tea
8:30 - snack, water (DYING of hunger)
10:00 - snack, water (still dying)
11:30 - 4 oz juice, water (yup, not satisfying)
1:00 - snack, water, metabolism accelerator (hungry hippo am i)
2:30 - snack, water (oh -snack was totally what I needed.  Oh wait)
3:10 - dying of hunger...only 50 minutes until my next 4 oz of juice.  Whoooo.

But - so far I am down about 3 lbs and besides hunger, I don't feel too bad.  And, it's nice knowing that I'm doing something good for my body...flushing out toxins and bringing in the good nutrients.  Good stuff.  Still - I can't wait for next Friday (the last day of my 11 day cleanse...)

Cleanse me - Day 2

Day 2 -

I have that undercurrent of hunger that just doesn't go away.  But - I'm doing ok.  I worked from home today - not sure if that was good or bad but it was nice to be home.  I also realized that I had read the paperwork wrong - my "snacks" are 2 almonds + a small snack - so I'm had more robust snacks today.  Yea!

Also - as far as weight - I was down 2 lbs this morning.  There is a lot of water going in/coming out - so who knows if it is real or water weight.  Still kind of nice.

730 am - shake & water
10am - 2 almonds & water
1130 - peanut butter and fiber supplement & water
115 - lunch (mexican bowl with spinach and chicken) & water
2:45 - tea
318 - 1/2 apple, 3 small almonds
4:15 - hungry and wanting another snack.  Will get one when I get off of this call.
4:45 - celery and 2 almonds.

I'll be having another shake tonight. I'm about to go get a pedicure.  I need it - and it should take my mind off of food? :)

Tomorrow is the all-juice day.  I'm a little worried about how it will go - no real food - all juice but some snacks.  We'll see...

Cleanse me - Day 1

I am doing a "nutritional cleanse" for the next couple weeks.  Some may wonder why I'm trying to add stress - but I'm feeling good about this.  With my birthday in a couple weeks, I want to start the next year of my life healthier and more active.

I want to journal this - but don't really want to use Facebook so I think I'll use my Victory Garden Blog. :)


So I'm in day 1.  Here is what's happened so far:
6am- Wake up, weigh in & measure.  SO not happy with weight and measurements.
7am - Chocolate shake thing, fiber supplement, accelerator.  The shake was really thick - almost too thick.  I feel good afterwards.
730am - I've switched to herbal tea for now and feel pretty good. Not missing my caffiene too much.
8:30am- water
9:00am - water
10am - hungry.  I can have 2 almonds (2??!?!) so I have 2 almonds and a "snack" provided by them. I also have lots of water
11am - hungry.  I have 2 more almonds and more water
11:55 - leaving to have my "meal" of the day - I'm about to go to Whole Foods to make a nice salad from their beautiful salad bar.
1:15 - Salad.  It was huge and yet I was still somewhat hungry
2:30 - 2 nuts and water
4:00 - 2 nuts
6:15 - shake
7:30 - 2 chocolate almonds (whoops!)

End of day - feeling ok just a bit hungry.

Helen, Harriet, Clementine, ClaraBell and two others...

Welcome to the chicks!  They're sleeping right now...so not too much excitement yet.   

Lessons thus far

Gardening is a very Zen activity.  You can't really control anything, your patience is rewarded and hope for certain results should be abandoned. 

Practical lessons thus far:
-Growing lamps need to be VERY close to the seedlings.  Too far away and the seedlings get leggy.  Leggy, in the world of seedlings, is bad
-It doesn't matter what the seed packets say - the "time to germination" will just depend so don't get frustrated when the 5-7 day germinating eggplants take 14 days
-When you first plant seeds - it can seem like you're planting waaaay too many.  When they begin to sprout - it doesn't seem like enough.
-You have to be close to the seedlings.  They need a lot of care and watering (literally) or they shrivel up.  This can happen overnight.

We get the chicks tonight or tomorrow morning. We build garden boxes today.  Exciting stuff!

Seeds and chicks

Hello.  Yes, it's been a while.  You're looking good - keep up the good work.  I've changed the name of the blog.  Moving on. 

In a new chapter of our life - we're taking on a Victory Garden.  Our suburban-farm will be comprised of a vegetable garden, herb garden, some fruit and a chicken coop with 4 layers.

I've felt compelled to learn how to make food out of dirt and little pebble-like things called "seeds".  I'm not sure how good we'll be at this.  I'd say that John has a closer heridatary link to farming but I seem to have more of an interest in learning how to plant seeds and pray the buggars turn into plants.  Last week I planted a flat of heirloom vegetables and a flat of tomatoes (13 heirloom varieties).  So far - after a week of waiting - about 5 plants have popped out of the soil - leaving about 90% of them unmoved and me worrying that I've planted bum seeds.  This new hobby requires a lot of patience and reading the fine print on heirloom seed packages. 

The other major component of our farm will be four egg-laying hens.  We're really excited about the chickens.  We can only have four because Longmont requires that a) you have a permit for Urban Hens and b) that you can only have 4 living in a coop 6 feet from your house and from your property line.  Sooo...4 chickens it is.  Since John grew up working for McMurray Chicken hatchery - he had a pretty clear idea of the rare birds he wanted to get.  No Rhode Island Reds or CXRs for him...we're getting beautiful heirloom birds.  Next Sunday we will become the proud owners of two Light Brahmas, one Silver Laced Wyandotte and an Auracana.  They will lay brown eggs and the Auracana will lay blue and green ones.  We get them as 2 day old chicks...so egg producing won't actually begin until September or so.  We've got names picked...stay tuned. 

The S-W family continues to do well.  Ada-Ruth is the light of our lives and has been growing like a weed.  The past 2 weeks have been a bit rough - she's had her 1st ER visit, 1st ear infection, 1st hospital stay, 1st IV, 1st diagnosis of pneumonia and 1st bout with thrush.  She comes off of her antibiotic tomorrow and she's feeling much better.  John and I are both battling some un-diagnosed malase...hopefully we'll all begin Spring feeling healthy.  I know one thing for sure - I am ready for Winter to be over.

Last but not least - just in case you've been looking into career options during these economically difficult times...consider chicken sexing.  Enjoy.  Part 1 and Part 2.