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...)