Back on the wagon

Okay guys, I’m officially cleansing again. It’s 4:15pm on day one and I am enjoying my second shake of the day! I know that in week one you only have to have one shake a day, but I actually really enjoy them and I find that they are just a lot easier. I’ve never been much of a cook anyway. My husband is going to make a delicious cleanse friendly meal tonight so I’m looking forward to that!

My favorite shake, which I will generally make every single day because I am a create of habit is:

2 scoops vanilla Arbonne protein

1 scoop Arbonne fiber booster (If you are new to the program, you are only taking about 1/2 scoop, but I take fiber every day!)

3-4 servings of spinach. (I never get enough veggies in my diet. The only way I do is if I add them to my shakes. It may sound gross, but you can’t taste the spinach at all. It just makes the shake a weird color!)

3-4 frozen strawberries

1 cup of water

You can use Almond milk instead of water, but I’m boring. You can also add healthy fat, but I like to save all my healthy fat for my meals. 🙂 And of course, there are oh so many shake recipes that you get when you do the program, but that one works for me. I use the chocolate too, but I have come to prefer the vanilla.

As for my cleanse friendly meal tonight, Burny is making a spaghetti sauce out of fresh tomatoes and garlic and basil, as well as organic canned tomato sauce. He mixes that with ground bison meat. If you’ve never tried bison, it is absolutely fantastic. I prefer it over ground beef any day, and it’s leaner than chicken, loaded with good stuff and naturally organic.  It’s so flavorful.

We put that over corn meal spaghetti. You can find it in the organic section of your grocery store. Take it easy on the spaghetti though. You don’t want to have too much corn… it’s a starchy veggie, but oh so delicious. You get plenty of veggies, a little carbs and your lean protein. Not to mention it’s soooo tasty!

A little local tip: Burger’s in Brew in Davis serves Bison burgers. You can get that wrapped in lettuce with a side of veggies and it’s cleanse friendly!

More before and afters from Cambiati!

Tiffany lost 78lbs, her husband lost 30lbs.

Me on the right before both cleanses… (161lbs)

Me 25lbs down at the end of last year… (136lbs)

I’m going for it again folks. I did it twice last year (2010) and had great success. I kind of got off track over the holidays, as I know we all do, and I am armed with the tools and the products to make 2011 a fully successful and skinny year!! I start cleanse class number 3 tomorrow. I am going to blog my way through again. It helps keep me on track and my blog stats from last year tell me that people want to know about this program! So here we go guys… one more time.

My goal this time is to fully blueprint after the 28 days. Blueprinting is reintroducing food into your diet slowly so as to see what foods you react to. For example, since 2008 I have not had clear skin. I never struggled with acne until I moved to Texas in 2008 and ever since then, I have been battleing severe acne. It’s terrible. No matter what I use and no matter what doctor I go to, nothing gets rid of the problem fully. Arbonne has been my only saving grace. Although I don’t always have clear skin, I do have soft and younger looking skin. The Clear Advantage line is the only acne product that I’ve ever used that does not dry out my skin! But acne is my final problem.

The only two times that I have had completely clear skin sinec 2008, no joke, has been when I’ve been on the cleanse. About 5-8 days into it, my face clears up and stays clear until I return to my normal diet. That tells me that it is something I’m eating. I can not tell you the difference in my skin when I am on the program. So this time my goal is to find out once and for all, what is causing this acne… and once and for all, I am going to cure it! God I hope it’s not cheese that is causing the problem… I think I’d take the acne if that’s the case, but we shall see. Wish me luck kids, and follow along if you’d like.

Diet starts tomorrow!!

The land where everything is legal

Yes, I am speaking of Amsterdam.

And I am speaking true. Really, everything is legal. Drugs, prostitution, running people over on bikes… it’s all good to go. And it was quite an experience to be there, I assure you.

The reason I am writing about Amsterdam today is simple. I was at lunch with Burny the other day and I was talking about MacTen and somehow that segwayed into talking about eating Space Cake in Amsterdam and before I knew it, I was laughing uncontrollably and Burny was completely lost. I guess it was just one of those things where you had to be there. But then I called Mac after lunch to see if my story was as funny as I thought it was and sure enough… she started cracking up as well. So even though it is one of those ‘you had to be there’ stories… I am going to do my best to bring you readers there.

Enjoy…

So we arrived in Amsterdam, MacTen and I, on June 28, 2005. We had been traveling before hand- New York, London, and then Ireland- and we would be traveling after our program in Oxford, but the exciting thing about Amsterdam in particular was this: All 8 San Diego State students who had been accepted into the Summer Abroad program in Oxford had agreed to meet in Amsterdam the weekend before our program started. And that was this very trip. So not only were Mac and I in a brand new country… we were there with 6 of our college friends! What a completely different experience.

Mac and I flew from Ireland into Amsterdam in the afternoon. We then caught a train from the airport to the part of the city where our hostel- and the rest of our friends- would be waiting for us. We knew we were going to be the last to arrive. We were armed with directions given to us by Rossco, our only friend who had been to Amsterdam before. Now, the directions we had in our possession made me nervous, I have to admit. It’s not that Rossco can’t give good directions, it’s just that he can’t give real directions. The street names in Amsterdam are, well, laughable. They can’t possibly be real words. There is no way Rossco would have been able to say them or even spell them correctly so instead he gave us a different type of directions.

“Get off the train and go straight down the stairs. Head into the square and take a right at the giant phallic symbol.”

I am not kidding you… these were are only directions.

When I asked Mac about the phallic symbo,l she said that Rossco said we would definitely know what he was talking about. Okay. Here goes nothing.

So we got off the train and it was nearly 10pm at night. Now, don’t be alarmed. At 10pm in the summer in Amsterdam the sun is still setting. It actually looked more like 7pm. But the night life had definitely started, all the same. Did I mention that we were staying in the Red Light District? Yes, that’s where we were wandering around at 10pm at night in Amsterdam. So when we got off the train, we immediately  noticed several sets of stairs. GREAT! If we didn’t pick the right stairs, we certainly wouldn’t run into the phallic symbol. Damn it Rossco!!

So Mac and I chose as best we could and headed out into the nightlife of Amsterdam, backpacks and all. There was no obvious ‘Square’ and there was certainly no obvious phallic symbol. Not even in the Red Light District. We made a quick attempt at the map but could not find the address of our hostel anywhere. We found a street sign and tried to locate that on the map to no avail as well. We even went so far as to ask a passer by- by showing him the street name on our piece of paper hoping he would just point- and even he had nothing to offer us.

So we just started walking. No sooner had we began, a man who was clearly under the control of the police officer who was walking beside him, reached out and grabbed Mac’s boob as we passed. He said something rude of course, and then the police man quickly reestablished his hold on the drunk man. I was so flabbergasted by the fact that the police in Amsterdam simply held hands with those people who were under arrest and escorted them to jail. Mac, on the other hand, was scarred for life. I could see she felt very violated and scared. She was on the verge of tears. Oh man… not good. So I grabbed her hand, told her it was okay and started walking even faster towards… well, towards nowhere. I had no idea where we were going at that point. I knew we couldn’t be far because the directions were very short, but we had seen no phallic symbol at all. I was starting to get really pissed at our stupid directions.

Finally, after wandering down crowded allies and in and out of stores, we found someone who spoke a little english and who could point us in the right direction.

We walked up to our hostel- the Bull Dog Hotel- at the same time as one of our male friends from San Diego. We could not have been happier to see him, even though he was clearly high, drunk, and quite frankly just as useless as we were. He did help us check in and find our room though, that was helpful, and then he led us down the street to where the rest of our friends were many, many drinks deep.

I was 21 at the time but for many of our friends- Mac included- this was their first time drinking in a bar. It was quite hilarious, I must say. It’s always funny showing up last to the party. You really get a good idea of where people are at. But don’t worry… it didn’t take Mac and I long to catch up. We drank a lot of ciders, our drink of choice abroad, and met many interesting people. One man in particular I will never forget. I can’t remember his name at the moment but he was very much Italian with a very thick accent and he was very intrigued by the girls in our group. Speaking generally, foreign men were often very interested in the fact that we were American. And this man in particular, was very interested in everything about all of us. He was… to be blunt… asking us for sex. In Amsterdam. Where he could literally walk outside and buy it for cheap. He was telling us all the nasty things he would do to us if we would let him. There was something about his crazy accent that made it more hilarious than creepy, but overall… I was keeping my distance.

Allow me to offer you a direct quote: “I will take three hours to go from your shoulder to your belly… and one and one half hour to find your cheese spot.”

Gross.

Now add an Italian accent.

Really gross.

That was it. We had to cut him off. He was just getting way too graphic for us. And it was at about that time that Mac and I realized that her wallet had been stolen. We had it when we came into the bar, because we had ordered drinks, but now it was nowhere to be found. It was quite a blow, let me tell you. Again, Mac was on the verge of tears. All her credit cards, her ID and her phone cards were all in that wallet. It was really very tragic. Luckily for us, I had plenty of money and she still had some travelers checks. We ran over to the hostel and immediately called her mom and told her to cancel all her cards and send new ones to Oxford. Overall, we dealt with it pretty quickly and moved on as best we could. Mac and I both tried to keep it from ruining our night. After all, there was really nothing we could do about it.

That night we all slept in bunk beds in an 8 person hostel room, where we all tried desperately to hear our Ipod’s over Rossco’s snoring.

The next morning we all walked to the Van Gogh museum. It was a beautiful walk. Rossco led us, confident in his own directions, and we happily followed him up one street and down another. We passed by the phallic symbol that Rossco had mentioned before and yep… it was pretty obvious. Had we have seen it, we would have known exactly what he was talking about.

Amsterdam is stunning. I had no idea. I was definitely not expecting that at all, but it is. It is so beautiful. There are canals between nearly every street, much like Venice. There are bridges and cobblestones and color. Oxford is nearly all the color of sand stone, London is gray and Amsterdam is colorful. There were lots of flowers and the buildings were made from lots of different materials so there was a lot of contrast. It was quite a lovely walk.

Once we got to the museum, I was not nearly as impressed by the art as I was by the city that housed it. I could really take it or leave it, personally, but I am happy that I went and saw some of his original work. I always think that’s very special.

After the Van Gogh museum, we headed back to the hostel, stopping at Hard Rock Cafe of course. America is everywhere. Right smack dab in the middle of this amazing, new culture was Hard Rock. And we were craving burgers. Once we got back to the hostel, we all showered and hit the town yet again. I have to warn you, this is where both the histerical-ness and illegal activity come into play- well technically it’s legal in Amsterdam, the land where everything is legal.

All of us, minus Rossco, took space cake together.

Don’t judge me! If you know me, you know that I am usually totally against this behavior but you know what they say… When in Rome!

So all 7 of us went into what they call a ‘coffee shop’ in Amsterdam and asked the bar tender- who conveniently spoke English- some questions about what would be the best plan for our group. We told him that some of us had smoked before and some of us had not. We told him that we wanted to have fun, but we didn’t want to lose our minds or anything crazy like that. He suggested Space Cake. We agreed. We each bought a muffin of Space Cake and sat down at the bar. The bar tender said that one muffin should be plenty but not too much so we all had our fill. It tasted just like a bran muffin… nothing else.

After we all finished eating, we headed back down the street to the bar were we had been the previous night. If you have ever eaten pot in any form before you know that it can take up to, or even over an hour to kick in, so we were all just waiting patiently. Our eyes were shifting from one person to the next, just waiting for the first person to go. That, in itself, was hilarious. Those of us who were new to the whole experience kept saying “I think it’s hitting me” and those of us who were veterans kept saying “trust me… you will know.”

It was a little unnerving. The only thing that kept me calm was knowing that it was legal, and regulated and safe.

And then we met this guy… I can’t remember his name either, but he was cute enough and he started talking to Mac and I. It had only been about 30 mins since we had eaten our muffin so I was willing to chat for a few minutes before finding a way to ditch him. He kept telling us that we needed to go to this amazing club with him later called ‘Escape.’ We knew our plans did not really exceed tripping out in the bar, but we told him that we would think about it. He was unaware of what we had recently ingested.

About 45 minutes into muffin land, Mac realized that she hadn’t talked to her boyfriend since we had arrived in Amsterdam. We made a rash decision to literally race the drugs and run back to our hostel, use the phone, and run back. We really thought that there would be enough time. And more than anything, I really thought that we were going to be able to feel the effects coming on slowly…

JumpSki, who was there with us, decided to go as our chaperone back to the hostel. What a gentleman. But between the three of us, we had maybe smoked a half a joint combined before this experience so not one of us was going to be any help in that department. Oh well…

We made a run for it. I tried my boyfriend, SinkinShip (aka cheat #3)  first and SURPRISE SURPRISE, didn’t get ahold of him. Then Mac jumped on the phone and started chatting with her much more devoted boyfriend. She was just talking with him, completely normally, and Jump and I were trying to hurry her off the phone, when suddenly… quite literally out of nowhere… I BURST into laughter. I am talking about sitting completely still and normal to laughing very loudly and crazily and uncontrollably in an instant. I guess the drugs had hit me. And the world around me was absolutely the most hysterical thing that I had ever been a part of. Poor JumpSki was trying desperately to quite me down. But lucky for all of us, it didn’t bother anyone. Everyone else around us was already high.

As I was laughing uncontrollably, in walks the same, cute guy from the bar. The same guy who wanted us to go to the club with him. There was no being inconspicuous at that point, so he came right over to us and tried to convince me to go with him to ‘Escape’ again. I couldn’t even answer him I was laughing so hard. He must have been on something too because he didn’t seem phased by my erratic behavior. He said ‘Escape’ a few more times and then walked away and left me to my laughter. Jump finally calmed me down enough so that I could catch my breath. That is when I turned to Mac to get her to hang up the phone so that we could get back to our friends. As soon as I looked at her, I burst out in laughter again. But this time I was laughing for a reason… Mac was still holding onto the phone, but her eyes were closed and her mouth was wide open in the most hysterical silent laughter that I have ever seen. It was amazing.

 Two down!

I don’t even think that she said goodbye to her boyfriend. She just hung up the phone and the three of us stumbled out into the street. Jump was holding both of us up, unsure of what exactly was happening. Apparently he was still unaffected by the bran muffin. The three of us only made it about half way down the street before we had to stop and catch our breath. I just could not stop laughing and Mac could not seem to hold her head up. Jump had his arm around her and every time she tried to lift her head, it jus slumped back down and around and into Jump’s chest. This, of course, was the funniest thing since Dumb and Dumber. Even Jump couldn’t help but laugh as Mac continued to proclaim that she couldn’t hold her head up, and then would prove it by swinging back into Jump’s chest.

Suddenly, Jump got this very funny look on his face. Mac and I stopped laughing and asked him if he was okay. I’ll never forget what he said:

“My underwear just got tight!”

Three down!

He said it so calmly, but Mac and I knew that he had finally joined the club. He continued to describe how the elastic on the leg part of his boxer briefs was slowly cutting off the blood flow. He didn’t seem too concerned… just reporting the facts as he felt them. Mac and I just continued to laugh.

It was at that point that the boy from the bar appeared again… or I can only assume it was him… all I heard was ‘Escape’ over my shoulder and then he was gone. It was so strange.

We finally made our way the rest of the way down the street and into the bar, where our friends had all clearly started experiencing the effects of the bran muffin. Again, Mac and I were the last to the party. And again, it was priceless. It’s at this point where the night gets a little fuzzy but I do remember a few more things:

We were all standing around the bar like models. I kept saying out loud:

“Oh my God. We are all standing like models right now, it’s crazy!”

I took about 8 pictures of us ‘standing like models’ but sadly lost the camera before I could develop the pictures. I assure you though, we were such good models that night.

At some point Mac insisted on finding doughnuts. Now, in all the years that I have known Mac, I have never heard her request a doughnut, let alone even see her eat one when they are available. But this particular night was different. She wanted a doughnut and there was not going to be any substitutes. After we announced our mission to the group, naturally, they all felt the unbearable need for doughnuts as well. So we were off…

Again, lucky for us, Amsterdam was prepared for the munchies. Not more than a block away- or so it felt- we found a magical store with an endless assortment of desserts, doughnuts, french fries, kabob, and anything else you can think of that wouldn’t normally be found in a store together. And other than the one brief freak out by one of the girls when we initially left the bar- it was too dark outside- everyone seemed to be handling themselves well enough.

When we were in the store, and Mac was enjoying her doughnuts, I remember a spider dropped down from the ceiling on its web. My friend Nickle- our veteran druggie- looked at me with the most serious look on his face.

“Don’t tell anyone that just happened.”

I agreed and decided that the reason was because everyone would suddenly be seeing spiders in their food. I wasn’t eating so there was no risk of that with me. But sure enough, as soon as we left the store to head back to the bar, one of the girls started freaking out over her food.

“My fries are glowing. They are poisoned. They are glowing neon.”

Mac and I just lost it again. We tried to hide our laughter from our friend, knowing she was seriously concerned that she was about to die from her neon fries, but we just couldn’t hold it in. And somehow, Nickle trying to convince her that they were fine by eating handfuls of them, just made it that much more funny.

And then, of course, I remember the end of the night. We were all back in our 8 person hostel room, Rossco was snoring loudly, Mac had “sunk into her bed and become tv fuzz” and was sleeping with a huge grin on her face, and Jump and I, along with one of our girlfriends, were sitting on the floor still enjoying the effects. I was just talking and talking and talking, about what… no one will ever know, and Jump and Checko were just laughing their butts off. I felt like quite the comedian. I could do no wrong. I felt like I had never been funnier! And I am a funny girl.

And then suddenly, out of nowhere, Checko stopped laughing… leaned over to JumpSki… and whispered in the loudest whisper I have ever heard:

“She is really freaking me out!”

And then she continued laughing as if I hadn’t heard her, clear as day.

I have to tell you, my high ended right there. I stopped laughing, got incredibly self conscious and said:

“I’m going to bed now.”

And that’s just what I did. I put in my Ipod and went to bed. I didn’t even allow the thought, ‘Why am I creeping her out?’ to creep into my head!

It was about half way through our walk to the Heineken museum the next morning when we all realized that we were still high…

Tune in next week for the rest of our weekend in Amsterdam!!

Before and After…

my before and after

I had a friend tell me they had trouble downloading the images… it’s just a word doc. Is anyone else having trouble? If so, I’ve included the pics below… but I worked so hard on my word doc. 🙂

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And were done

So it’s official! I have made it through the 28 days!! I feel amazing, I feel accomplished, I feel healthy!

Final tally is this:

-14 lbs in 28 days gone.

-3 inches (at least) around the waist gone.

thinner looking face

-new appreciation for veggies!

Now that it is all said and done I have to say in all honesty that it wasn’t hard at all. I mean, now that it’s over it really feels like it flew by. I learned in my class that after 21 days your body/mind has learned a new habit. It’s like muscle memory. So I have MORE than learned a new way of eating… hell, a new way of living. I can’t tell you how amazing I feel when I go to bed (and actually fall asleep which is new to me) and when I wake up. It’s really remarkably different from how I felt before. How can I know for sure??
Well, I did exactly what you’re NOT supposed to do on day 29. I ate whatever I wanted. The whole point of this thing is to start over with a clean slate and reintroduce foods into your diet slowly… well, what can I say… I missed cheese and bread. So I actually stayed within some of the boundaries but I really want to tell you why I totally regret my 29th day.

Morning: I had a Jamba Juice. I had the same one I had had DURING the cleanse, but I did not add any of my cleansing elements. Let me tell you… eating/drinking that much fruit (however healthy it might be) causes air… air that comes out… and you know what I’m saying to you right now. I was honestly alarmed.

Lunch: I had a choice. I knew I was going to eat at least ONE meal with the family, and so I was going to choose between the lunch meal and the dinner meal. Well, I was really interested in the dinner meal and it just looked/sounded too delicious so I chose dinner. So for lunch, I had a salad of mixed greens… everything on the salad was allowed (black beans, tomatoes, and corn. The dressing was even a cilantro dressing, which didn’t have any dairy or anything bad (as far as I know). So the only thing that I ‘reintroduced’ in this meal was cheese… and really only just a little. Maybe 2 oz. And that is how we are SUPPOSED to reintroduce foods… a little at a time, and one at a time. Well……

Dinner: I ate with the family alright.

I had a beef bbq sandwich (the beef was fine) it’s the bread and the sugar that were new. I also had a little potato salad, which adds potato, mayo, and dairy to the list of new foods. I also had coleslaw, which again adds dairy (but otherwise was okay). I also had just a little mashed potatoes, which adds butter and dairy. I had asparagus (thank god) and then to finish it all off, I had just a bit of tapioca pudding. I mean what was I thinking?

What’s the bid deal?

Well, one, I couldn’t figure out exactly what was making me feel like CRAP

and, two, I felt like MAJOR crap!!

That was at about 6:30pm and when I went to bed at nearly midnight I was still suffering. I was full, and bloated and just icky feeling. For the past 28 days I had not felt any of those feelings… certainly not while laying down to go to sleep. And guess what? This morning… same story. I still felt full and gross. I usually woke up feeling ready to roll. I always felt like my stomach was flat. I never had to rush to the bathroom. I never felt sluggish… all that this morning. Trust me, it wasn’t worth it. It might have been before, but now that I know how I can feel without it… I really want to figure out exactly what of those MANY things are causing this feeling. So I’m starting again… and now I know how.

Today I had a very healthy salad again. All items on board qualified with my diet… and it was delicious and I felt great. And then for dinner, I had a shake. Paleo, protein, fiber, spinach… the whole thing. And you know what… I feel better. I’m not quite back to where I was (which shocks me even more) but I do feel better.

Tomorrow: bad news… a wedding. A wedding that I intend to be drunk at because ‘cheat number 2’ might be in attendance (among other reasons), and I plan on eating whatever they are serving. Soooo yea, I’m going to be right back in icky land. BUT I do plan to go right back on my shake diet the entire week following. I feel like I really have the tools now to keep myself on track and keep myself as healthy as possible.

I’m very excited and it was WELL worth the money. I think even my husband would grudgingly agree to that!

Thanks for coming along with me on this journey. If this wedding doesn’t offer me up a good blog, I will return to my great stories next week!

If you’re interested in cleansing too or just want more info, please let me know. I can also get you a 20-50% discount on your cleanse products. Message me!!

Observe and Report

Two more days!

Twenty six days!! Can you believe it? I can’t! I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself after this adventure closes. To be honest, I have a wedding this coming Saturday and I am afraid I am going to pollute the hell out of my body, but at least I know now how to get it back to normal! I have a clean slate and I plan to keep it as clean as possible, as much as possible.

Report: I am currently 11 lbs down and only 1 pound away from my goal. So if I can just drop one more pound in these next two days, I will have reached my goal weight! But not only that, I have lost INCHES around my waist. I wish so much that I would have measured, and if you do this… I recommend you do do that… but I would venture to guess that I’ve lost 3-4 inches. It’s amazing. My stomach is totally flat still and I LOVE my skin. That is probably the most impressive part of this whole thing… NO MORE ACNE AT ALL! If you are in your late twenties, STILL struggling with acne… you should really consider food allergies. I kind of thought that that was my problem, but when you’re eating things all the time, and not really ‘testing’ food… how are you supposed to know what is causing what? So that is very exciting. And furthermore…

Report: I had a regular however NATURAL hamburger patty the other day (protein style of course) and the next day I had 2 zits!! I had one greasy thing (even though it was natural) and I broke out!! Very telling to me. Now I know for sure!

Observation: I no longer need any sleep aids. I have restless leg syndrome. It sucks. I hate it. And I can NEVER fall asleep on my own. I stopped taking meds and had it down to melatonin, which is at least a natural supplement… but I don’t even need that anymore. Even if I go to sleep before I’m actually tired, I can still fall asleep fine. Pretty amazing. And furthermore…

Observation: I have plenty of energy. I feel great!

Observation: I am actually craving things like green beans! I have had them two days in a row and they are delicious! I am also looking forward to incorporating shakes into my daily routine.

Observation: I have also developed a taste for foods that I would have never even tried before, like Veggie soup and spinach in my shakes.

Report: I am very proud of myself. I feel like I have accomplished something and I feel like I now have the tools to really maintain my weight and my health!! I am very excited to see what happens!! Stay tuned for before and after pics!

Coming down the home stretch

DAY TWENTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay kids, only 8 days to go… and it feels so good. I can’t believe it’s almost over! Wow. It feels like it’s been a long time, but on the same token, it feels like 28 days is NOTHING. Anyone can do anything for 28 days. Even if you work. Even if you have kids. Even if you think you can’t… I must go back to one of my favorite sayings: Whether you think you can, or think you can’t… you’re right. So what do YOU think?

So here is the update from my almost done perspective. Don’t forget, I’m on all liquids right now! WHAT?? Me? The girl who loves herself some food! Favorite food one: Brownies. Favorite food two: Mexican food. Favorite food three: Cheese. Favorite food four: Soda. And can I have any of these? Forget it! AND I’M ON DAY 20!

Today is day three of my ALL liquid diet. I only have one more day of this, although I feel like I could easily do more. I have been having two shakes per day and one other meal that is liquid. (i.e. soup). Day one I had some chicken noodle soup (homemade) without the noodles or the chicken. It was grand. And then I also had another cup of a mexican soup that is veggie based… also delicious. I mean, when you’re just eating the broth, sometimes you need to double up. It’s not because I was overly hungry.

Keep in mind, each of these meals are balanced, especially the shakes, so I’m not hungry! And it’s only 4 days so I mean, who can’t do four days?

So yesterday, Burny experimented and I’m not sure how it turned out… jury is still out. We heated up some chicken broth (organic) and then he added some garlic, jalapeno, carrots and basal to the mix and once it was heated up… we blended it so it was all liquid. Sounds gross, but that’s soup right? If I had it to do over again, I would leave out the jalapeno and go easy on the basil. It was a little strong for my taste… but it did the trick. I wasn’t hungry afterwards. I am finding that less and less makes me full. I’ve completely stopped over eating… and I am a ‘go back for seconds if it’s really good’ kind of girl, so you can see how huge this is for me. I mean… MacTen, Raps and I can take down a Soup Plantation any day! I can really put it away!

Today, for my non-shake, liquid meal, I found this amazing little place in South Lake Tahoe that serves Natural and Organic foods… including a veggie soup that had no dairy, sugar and was totally vegan! How perfect is that? So I enjoyed a delicious bowl of veggie soup. Oh my God… if you know me, you know that I don’t do veggies, and never in my life has it occurred to me to order veggie soup, but that is something I would totally order again. I would actually drive to South Lake for that soup. I thought it was amazing. And I cheated a little by eating a few of the veggies… They were really soup-like though.

AND, as our nutritionist recommended, I got a massage today. Thank you Burny! 50 mins of pure bliss. I do love myself some massage. And it really was helpful. I feel like a brand new woman. And then to follow it up with that amazing, and HEALTHY soup… I mean I might just be turning over a new leaf! We shall see…

Stay turned for the final week. Tomorrow is the second go round of the Sea Source cleanse… lovely!

I knew I had left my waist somewhere…

DAY SEVENTEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I haven’t been updating as much because a) I have been busy and b) without Thomas my meals have been rolling on repeat. Although I will say that yesterday I actually went out to eat and was able to find something on the menu to order! It’s getting exciting folks! I actually know enough about food to know what to order for myself now!

I had a bison burger, which I was already a fan of before this because of how healthy they are for you. They are leaner than chicken, and it is illegal to add any steroids or chemicals to bison, so you can be sure it’s a free range, organic piece of meet. And you will be shocked at how flavorful they are. I far prefer bison to hamburger. It just really puts hamburger to shame, and you don’t even have to add any spices to it to make it taste delicious.

I had the patty, without the bun of course, and I added avocado as my healthy fat. I had a side salad instead of fries with just a touch of dressing. The dressing was a stretch because of the vinaigrette, but there was literally just a touch on it. And the salad was the healthy greens instead of iceberg lettuce which is pretty much water.The bison patty also falls apart it’s so tender and delicious. Again, this is something I would order again outside of my cleanse diet.

Starting tomorrow I am moving to 3-4 blended meals a day. That could mean a shake, or soup. This portion goes on for only 4 days and to be honest, I’m looking forward to it. With the shakes, I know I’m getting the right portions of everything, and I know it’s going to keep me full, and I know it’s going to be easy. So I don’t mind it at all.

Also on Monday I have to do round two of the Sea Source… yikes.

As for weight loss… I am at 10 lbs lost, which is quite remarkable in just 16 days, but even more, my body is unrecognizable. Even my sis who is not quick to give out the complements told me that I looked really skinny. My waist is much more defined. My stomach is completely flat. You can see my hips clearly again. I don’t look bloated at all. My thighs have also slimmed out, and you can see it in my face. I LOVE IT!! I saw two women yesterday who I had met the day before I began this cleanse, and the second I walked in the room they both said ‘You look fantastic. I can see it in your face!’ I can’t wait to show you guys the before and after pics. And this is all just in time for summer!!

Oh yes… and my skin is completely clear! I can’t remember the last time that happened! I have been hearing that in your late 20’s, women experience a change in hormones and a lot of women start to struggle with acne. That’s me! Well, this has really helped clear all that up thank god!! I can only guess it is because all of my meals are ‘hormonally balanced’ which in turn, would only hormonally balance my body and my skin chemistry. It makes total sense to me.

Over all, I’m almost sad to see it end in another week or so. I will definitely keep at least one shake in my daily routine as much as I can, and I know that I will be eating a lot better. My habits have changed now. And even though I know I’m not supposed to be doing this, according to Ti our nutritionist, I am finding myself judging my husband for his eating habits.

For example, yesterday he ate God knows what for breakfast. He had a beer and a frozen yogurt for lunch. And before and after dinner he had a vanilla shake. I think I might have judged him for that even if I wasn’t on this cleanse, but now… at least I am not falling into these habits along side him. I have to also point out that I have been away from him this last week for work and I just got to see him yesterday for the first time in 7 days. Well, twice I walked to the fridge to get a snack. TWICE!! I have not done that one time in these 17 days and I did it twice when he was home! That really tells me that I have unhealthy habits that I associate with him. Who knows why! But it was really good for me to recognize that. I would have never noticed had I not have been on this cleanse. It was really interesting to me.

Anyway, that’s all I have to report for today. Hope you’re enjoying this journey as much as I am!

9 lbs/13 days

Actually, truth be told… I had lost nine pounds on the 11th day and I haven’t weighed myself again so who can know. I’m wasting away. Mostly I am noticing that my stomach is flat as can be and I’m not bloated or pooching out, which is most of the battle, wouldn’t you say? It’s all very exciting.

As I mentioned, I did have to do the Sea Source cleanse portion (which will be once a week for the next two weeks) two days ago and I have to admit that that was the least fun part of this whole experience. First of all, I’m not used to drinking SO MUCH liquid. And to think that I actually got a head ache from not drinking enough just makes me feel like there is no winning.

With the Paleo and the Sea Source I’m supposed to feel a little hung over, and therefore, I must hydrate more than usual. Well, for me more than usual is drinking ANY water at all so you can bet that I felt pretty shitty… no pun intended…

The Sea Source, like I said, supports the colon so I made sure I had nothing going on that day outside of the house, just in case. Well, I drank the whole thing which took all day (we are supposed to sip it for 8-10 hours) and it tasted like some sort of guava drink. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t unbearable. Usually things that are kind of gross get more gross with time… this was quite the opposite. It actually got easier to drink as the day went on. I think it just takes some getting used to. But don’t get me wrong… I’m glad that I only have to do it once a week.

So I was just waiting for it to all ‘catch up to me’ but nothing happened. Half way through the day, as I mentioned, I got a headache that got worse and worse as the day went on. Drinking water really helped and by the end of the day, it had pretty  much gone away, but it was back in the morning so I did have to cheat and take some meds to get ride of it. I’m kind of a baby when it comes to a head ache. I used to get migraines so I am really sensitive to that sort of pain.

At about 10pm… well, it came. It came and came. About 4 trips to the restroom and it was over however, so it wasn’t even that bad. But it was the first time that I have had to deal with that aspect. I feel like everyone has been waiting for that, so there ya go! It was over and done with in about 45 minutes though… and everything has been fine since so I think I can deal with it.

Today I had some Free Range Ground Turkey meat as my protein in my one meal, so that’s new. It was actually really good and I think I can mix it with a lot of things. I was kind of running out of ideas for the ‘protein’ aspect of my non-shake meals… so I’m glad that I have something new to play with.

Tomorrow I will be half way through the whole program!! Also tomorrow we are stepping it up to 3 shakes a day for a few days, which will be new. Honestly, I’m looking forward to it. The shakes are so easy and they are balanced so I’m not hungry and frankly, I don’t have to cook or think up something good to eat. So I don’t think that that will be very difficult. This will mean that we will be bumping up the Paleo too though, so we will see how I react to that. Always something new!!

Meals a gogo

So, as I mentioned, I have officially added the detoxifying element to my daily regimen. It’s the Paleo cleanse stuff that helps detoxify the liver. I guess the liver gets pretty bogged down over time, and so we need to clean it out. The nutritionist compared it to changing the filter on your AC. I can dig it.

It tastes funny. It’s almost fruity… but not really… kind of chalky… but not really. I can’t REALLY figure it out… but either way, it’s the most flavorful thing in my shakes. I don’t know how that happens.

So we are on day 10 today and I am still adjusting to drinking 2 shakes a day… 1 meal of food. Meals are slowly going away, and eventually will be gone entirely… but I’m finding that the shakes are just so darn easy that I don’t mind so much. If only I could solve this Paleo thing…

I’m also bathrooming slightly more but it’s still not at all what you think when you think ‘cleanse’ so that’s good.

I’ve lost 7 pounds. 10 days. Not too bad… I hope I keep this up!!!

Tomorrow I have to do the SeaSourse cleanse… I’ve been putting it off until I have nothing else to do… it’s just for one day, but it supports the colon. Well, there is only one thing that the colon does so if it’s supporting that… we shall see how it goes is basically what I’m saying to you. I’ve still been told that it won’t be bad, but you just never can tell.

Yesterday I only had time for 2 meals and they were both shakes. My second shake I had to take on the run- yesterday was a crazy, crazy day promoting with Arbonne- and as I was driving very illegally fast up to Yuba City, I took a turn too quickly and my dinner went flying across my car. So a) I lost part of my dinner and b) now not only to I have to drink the Paleo… my car smells like it too. Grand!