That garlic really sticks with you…

DAY EIGHT!!!!!!!!

I am just cruising now. Only 20 days to go! Okay… that sounds like it might as well be 1 million, but oh well. Think of how thin I’ll be. 🙂

So I had my second class last night and I learned two things: I’m not taking enough fiber and I’m not eating enough veggies… otherwise I’m doing great. And I’m not finding myself needed to add the healthy fat’s to my shakes because I’m not feeling hungry between meals, so that is going to increase my weight loss! Very exciting. I think I’m not feeling hungry because I’m too busy!! But either way, I’m pretty sure that that is a good thing. Those Fizzy tabs really do make a difference though, I have to say. I may not go back to my fourth favorite food: Soda. (Yea right!)

So yesterday, I woke up late (love my ‘job’). I am up for a promotion with Arbonne right now so I went straight to my office instead of the kitchen, so I was only able to get in 2 meals before 7 pm, which is when we are supposed to stop eating. Our metabolism, especially women’s, slows down significantly after that.

First meal was my token shake. I added the berries which I am now obsessed with, but I really learned last night that I have to be adding veggies every time as well to get enough throughout the day… which is fine because I can’t even taste them when I do. So today my goal is to up the fiber and the veggie intake!

Also today, we start the Paleo cleanse, which is going to start taking toxins out of the body. It’s basically a powder protein that we add to our shakes. We also now upped our number of shakes to at least 2 per day. The Paleo cleanse is designed to really help support and cleanse the liver, while the Sea Sourse cleanse is designed to support and cleanse the colon. Both are being added today… so it’s been interesting. Still no running to the bathroom issues, but we shall see. I’m actually going to add the Sea Sourse cleanse to my diet tomorrow since we have all week to do so.

So back to yesterday. It was at about noon when I had my shake, and then at 4 ish, Burny and I had another amazing meal. We both have agreed that we are going to continue eating this way after the cleanse. If the food tastes great AND is super good for you, why not. That way we won’t feel so bad eating out on the occasions that we do. I have to say, this whole process has really brought to light my bad eating habits. I really need to keep these tools and maybe even just continue with a vitamin, veggie, balanced shake each day. That would probably improve my diet, weight management and overall health quite a bit.

Our lovely meal consisted of grilled shrimp with garlic and spices and lemon and I made a ‘salsa dressing’. Between the onions in the salsa and the garlic… I’m pretty much a man repellant. That stuff stays with you.

The salsa… well, I intended for it to be actual salsa, but we used a blender instead of a food processor… and well, they are different. So it was liquid salsa, but it made for an amazing dressing. We ate the shrimp and some corn on a bed of spinach with the salsa dressing. Man did it have a kick, but I’m craving it again tonight! Who knew I could accidently create a fat-free, super healthy DRESSING? Plus, I forgot about corn. I LOVE corn!

Then I tried my detox tea, which I am supposed to drink everyday, with some warm almond milk and cinnamon. I just don’t like tea. Any suggestions on how to make tea taste better???

Exciting update: Today, Burny and I went on a hike again and I wore jeans for the first time in about five days. OMG has my body changed. I couldn’t believe all the places these things were loose! I love it!

Talk about hunter gatherer lifestyle…

DAY FIVE AND SIX!!!!!!

I have to say… the most unusual things happen to me. I mean, isn’t that why I blog? I must just have a cosmic target on my forehead telling the world to play a joke on me! “Let’s see what she does with THIS!” It gets ridiculous.

I’m talking about Day six of this cleanse program, but to get to day six, I must first tell you about day five!

Okay so the only real change in my meals on day five was that my lovely husband cooked me a wonderful meal that actually tasted like it wasn’t even healthy. We had steak, which I am allowed once a week if I love steak- and I do- but it has to be natural, organic and free range. It was. And he cooked it in coconut oil, garlic and some spices. It was amazing. He also cooked veggies in the same stuff and so we had cooked spinach, bell peppers and chalets on the side! It was soooo good. I would eat that even if I wasn’t on this cleanse. So anyway, I used up my steak meal for the week, which at the time didn’t feel like that big of a deal… of course I could go another week without steak! Right? Well…. let’s just say it would have been nice to have that option on day SIX!

Day six:

Side note, we have a new puppy… he is like 11 1/2 weeks old and he is as much of a terror as he is cute. And he is VERY cute. We are trying to teach him to sleep in the crate at night, but of course he doesn’t like it. We have neighbors. It’s not a good combo. And the night before day six, it was windy. It’s always windy in Gardnerville, but on this particular night, it was frighteningly windy. I was literally scared that the window was going to blow in. I could hear it squeaking. And I could hear a loud banging throughout the night that I just knew was our garbage. That damn toder has a habit of blowing over in the wind, dumbing and then blowing all our garbage around the yard. It’s just great. So I was not sleeping well and not looking forward to morning. And the puppy was just scared and lonely and loud. SO it was quite a night, I assure you.

Well, when Burny went to work in the morning, he let the dogs (we have a loner dog from his parents right now too to help train the puppy… right) out to use the restroom. The puppy, who is really the only one we are worried about, immediately did his business… both businesses! Okay, so good. Burny thought it would be fine to just bring them both back up to our room to sleep until I woke up. So I had both dogs on the bed, which I quite enjoy. This was not the problem. Around 9am, the baby jumped off the bed and woke me up. When he does this, he usually wants to chew on something so I threw the covers off myself and jumped up to grab him. Well, in that 30 seconds, this little dog had left a HUGE present on the floor at the foot of the bed… AND he was chewing my sock. All this in 30 seconds. I was almost impressed.

So of course I freaked out and took him downstairs and opened the back door to let him out. Well, as soon as he walked out the door, I noticed that our back fence had blown down in the wind, leaving a clear getaway to the back alley for the dogs. Now keep in mind that I have just woken up. I sleep in underwear. I had nothing else on. It’s raining, and windy and now I have to go out and retrieve the dogs before they escape. SO yes, I did a quick run around in the yard collecting the dogs with no clothes on in the rain. Not the best way to start my morning. And then I had to go upstairs and clean up the baby’s lovely mess. While I’m doing that, I realize that the puppy had escaped into the garage. How? Well, my husband had picked up the garbage and dragged the toder in the house so that it wouldn’t blow over again, and he had tried to push it into the garage from the house, it wouldn’t fit, so he left it in the door frame to the garage. Brilliant plan!

Think all this is the cosmic joke that the world is playing on me? Oh no…

It was at about this point, when I went into the kitchen to get the cleaning supplies that I realized the power was out. Yes, the electricity. I literally cursed out loud. I had been awake all of 11 minutes and I am NOT a morning person as it is!

SO after I cleaned up the dog mess, got dressed, and jimmy rigged the back fence with our dog gate so the dogs could be outside, I went into the kitchen to figure out what to make myself. Of course no power means no blender. No blender means no shake. No power means no microwave, oven, stove… basically there was no way for me to MAKE myself anything. Great. This would totally happen to ME while I’m on this totally random diet.

But I thought, no biggie… the power will be on by lunch. So for my first meal I drank a ready-made Arbonne protein shake which I am so glad my husband made me buy. I also ate a half of an apple to just fill me up a little more and then I drank a fiz tab.

After complaining via text message to my friends about my predicament, I sat down to make some calls for work. I thought at least nothing would distract me from getting some work done, even if I didn’t have the internet. Well, no… my cell phone wouldn’t make or receive calls. Texts, yes. Calls, no. It was like furthering this sick joke. So now I was SURE that the entire day was going to be a total waste. At least work wise. But I did clean. I cleaned the whole house. And don’t worry, I turned on every light in every room when I walked in. I tried to vacuum. I tried to turn on the heat when it got freezing in the house. I even tried to run the dishwasher! I mean, come on! I felt like an idiot every time! We are such creatures of habit, and clearly we take electricity for granted!

Power was still not on by lunch, which I was pretty much counting on, so meal two was another ready-made shake with some carrots and humus (which I threw out because I am so sick of it now) and I added fiber to my shake. It was gross. By now the fridge had totally lost it’s cool and the shake was luke warm and the fiber was chunky having not been able to blend it better. Lovely.

Then the big dog threw up in the yard because he had eaten too much food- the exact opposite problem I was having- and it took everything I had to keep the puppy from eating the puke. It was so gross. I had to pick up the puke with a paper towel, and even then the baby ate a hole in the grass trying to get every last morsel. I just don’t understand dogs. On our hike the other day it was all we could do to keep him from eating the horse poop!

So by dinner, I couldn’t possibly even consider drinking another ready-made shake. It just wasn’t going to be an option for me. So I called NetherNetherLand because she had done the cleanse before, and she suggested that I go to In n Out and get a burger protein style because I was allowed to have steak once a week. Sounded amazing, expect I had JUST HAD STEAK! Cosmic joke! I brainstormed with my husband also, and he suggested I wrap some defrosted shrimp in spinach and eat it. That did not sound appetizing at all. There were plenty of sauces I could have made, had I have had a blender. I was really feeling like a hunter/gatherer… I mean, I had already read half a book and fallen asleep three times. What did they do back then???????

The final decision was that I had to go out and get something to eat that was already cooked. There was not going to be any fast food places that were going to be able to offer me food within my strict diet, so I grudgingly decided that I would have to cheat. But I was going to cheat as best as I could. Well, most of the town was still lacking power too so I ended up going to KFC. I know that sounds like the worst place in the world to go to, but here is what I got: I got 1 breast of grilled chicken, which I know they cook in oil so that was cheating, but I knew it was going to be better than jack in the box. I got a side of corn, no butter and no salt, so that was fine, and I got colslaw… which had dairy so that was cheating too. But hey… I bet if the cavemen had the option, they would go to KFC too.

When I got home and started eating my cheater food, the power came back on. Of course.

And to make matters worse, LOST was a rerun!

Things that are weird about my diet so far: I started my period mid cycle which I can only assume is because of my drastic change in diet. I guess that happens sometimes.

Things that are good about my diet so far: I can already see changes in my body. I don’t have a scale here so I can’t weigh myself, but my clothes are fitting differently and my body just looks different in the mirror! Pretty cool. I am also finding that my skin is clearing up. I struggle with acne and chest acne, and it’s nearly all gone. I always thought that it might be food related…

So today is day seven. One week down!

Blood sugar a-plummeting

DAY FOUR!!!!

SO tired. Not sure if that is a side effect of the cleanse or of my constant non-stop activity! BLAH! I did get light headed every time I stood up today. I think my body is finally starting to protest this ‘hunter/gatherer’ lifestyle I’ve suddenly adopted.

For the record, I found out what was making my pee so bright yellow… Lizzard hypothesized and my MIL confirmed… the culprit is vitamins. Goes to show you that I may need this detox more than I even realize. I’ve never had enough vitamins to turn my pee colors. Yikes!

For meals today:

Breakfast… same shake as yesterday. Stuck to the berries, added spinach, no almond butter but still using the almond milk. Forgot the ice… wasn’t as good.

Lunch didn’t occur until I had driven back up to Nevada with a baby puppy on my lap and his brother, Gizmo, riding shotgun. And yes, again I went for the carrots and humus… no messy blender, no cooking… I mean, do you even realize how much of a pain a blender is to clean? Oh yes, I also had a half a Granny apple. It’s really amazing how delicious natural sweet is. You don’t really notice until you take out all the unnatural sweet things.

Dinner I changed things up a bit. I made brown rice and black beans and I added my infamous turkey breast with some avocado. It was good for about 7 bites and then it started really needing some spices, which our cupboards are lacking here in Nevada. I think I can improve upon it though… it was a good start. It looked like a fiesta bowl at Taco Bell… cept way less calories. 🙂 NetherNetherLand had some good ideas for recipes too, athankyou! And I’m very much looking forward to Burny’s return into my life tomorrow so that he can cook me up something delicious. He is one of those people who just know what to add to something to make it divine. I am clearly not one of those people.

So here is the weird thing for today, aside from the slight headache I’m now enduring throughout the day which I can only assume is due to lack of soda: About an hour after dinner I had the most uncomfortable pain in my middle… like all the way through my middle. It was not really like anything I had felt before… What could have caused that? It wasn’t air and it wasn’t me needing to use the restroom… and then all the sudden it was gone as soon as it had come… hmmm…

Neon Yellow??

DAY THREE!!!

I know I’m not supposed to do this, but I weighed myself and so far I am at 3 days/3 lbs. Not too bad! Who knows, maybe I will lose 28 lbs! 🙂 God knows I have it to lose.

So here is day three:

I woke up late again… back to normal! Had my breakfast shake at around 11:30am. I figured out the rules a little more clearly, thanks to NetherNetherLand, and so I added a few strawberries to my shake this morning and it was delicious. Turns out they ARE allowed in moderation. So my shake was chocolate protein, fiber, vanilla almond milk and strawberries. It was sooo good. Even my mom thought so. It tasted like blended chocolate covered strawberries. I recommend it, even if you aren’t cleansing or even eating healthy! It was that good.

For lunch I took a tip from yesterday and I enjoyed some carrots with hummus again. It was quite tasty. I have to admit… organic carrots are not as good as regular carrots. I can’t figure out why on earth not, but I noticed.

I was also able to NOT eat the snacks (including chocolate covered strawberries ironically enough) at the Arbonne party today… which I have to admit, was a challenge. I mean, I almost broke down for ONE Cheeto at my in laws! But then I remembered I don’t even eat Cheetos when I’m not detoxing… soooo true that you want what you can’t have!

Don’t worry… I didn’t eat the damn Cheeto.

For dinner I ate spinach with tomatoes and a turkey breast. No dressing… just cut it all up and ate it. Actually pretty good. I would have NEVER in a MILLION years eaten that before this. At least not without ranch. 🙂

Observation of the day: My pee is changing colors. Neon Yellow to be exact. What is that about? I can’t figure it out. I am not even in the ‘detox’ portion of the program, but maybe my body is a little more screwy that the average cleanser. It wouldn’t surprise me.

I get Hummus!!

DAY TWO!! And guess what, I’m still alive! So far, so good.

No crazy run-for-the-bathroom moments that everyone seems to be waiting for. People hear ‘cleanse’ and immediately think ‘house arrest’!

And, best of all, I’m not even hungry! That could be the most surprising part, as I am kind of a bottomless pit. I have a huge appetite and I can really put it away like you wouldn’t believe (food that is).

Today I actually woke up early! That rarely happens-perks of working my own schedule from home. I don’t do alarms.

Had my fist protein shake at 7am.

Changes to shake today: 1 Table spoon of almond butter… much improved. Not nearly as bitter. I liked it a lot more… Oh yes, and I added ice. It made it thinker and cold, which lets face it, should be mandatory with a shake.

Drank a few fiz tabs throughout the day… life savers. Had my Detox Tea in the afternoon instead of the morning… not sure how that will change things.

Lunch… had another shake. I went really crazy with my lunch time shake. I added vanilla almond milk instead of chocolate almond milk. Made it much lighter, which was nice. It wasn’t so rich. AND I was able to HIDE a serving of veggies in it by putting a cup of spinach leaves in there. They blended into nothing and I couldn’t even taste it. I would never have guessed that chocolate and spinach would ever belong together. Although, now that I think about it, I might have seen something like that on Iron Chef America: Battle Spinach.

Dinner was amazing if I do say so myself. I cooked a deck of cards size turkey breast with JUST spices… it was amazing. And I had a tomato with pepper as well as carrots with Hummus… delicious! I GET HUMMUS!! This changes everything.

Maybe this won’t be so hard afterall…

The Ultimate Adventure…

… A 28 day Weight Loss Detox/Cleanse Program!

It’s true, I have taken on my health and I am bound and determined to change my BAD HEALTH HABITS! Come on, we all have them. Even if you work out, even if you think you eat right… we all have issues.

I use food. I eat when I’m bored, I eat when I’m sad, I eat when I’m happy and celebrating, I eat when I’m defeated… the list goes on and on. I make excuses: “Well, I already blew it today… I might as well have a milkshake” or the classic line: “Diet starts Monday!” Well, when Monday never comes… that’s where the problem lies.

Sure I have weight to lose (and I took a Before so as to compare with an After at the end of the 28 days, stay tuned), but more than that, I have digestive problems and skin issues. My husband blames ALL my health/skin/digestive problems on my diet. I thought he was full of it. Well, as it turns out, he is absolutely dead on. How do I know? Well, I’m learning…

Today is day one of my 28 day adventure towards a new ME! I am officially enrolled in a nutritional class that will take me through the pros and cons of food, the excuses, the bad habits and of course, the benefits of a healthy diet. A healthy diet starts with healthy information, right? Who better to tell me about food than a nutritionist. My nutritionist and the nutritionist for the Cambiati program (that’s what it is called: Cambiati.com) is named Ti Caudron. She is fantastic! She knows her stuff.

So because I am a ‘sharer,’ I decided to add a category on my blog to keep a journal, so to speak, about what I am learning, eating, and feeling as I go through this program in hopes that it will benefit you all in some way also!

So here we go:

I AM NOT STARVING MYSELF. WE DO EAT! Let me just start there. And I have already learned how bad those ‘don’t eat’ lemonade cleanses are for the body. Fast effects, but lasting effects, ya know?

Second, keep in mind when you are reading this that I am in NO WAY a veggie person. I HATE veggies and I am not at all a health food person. Although I have worked out regularly in the past… I DO NOT WORK OUT RIGHT NOW! This is going to be a stretch for me, but I have to admit that I am already surprised at the options, recipes and tools I have at my disposal with this program.

Other than the class, we have also been given a TON of printed materials like recipes (thank god), tips, meal plans, suggestions, FAQ’s, support, and of course, the right information and an explaination. I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for me to do something when I don’t know why I’m doing it. That is the whole plan here… they tell us why we shouldn’t be eating certain things or doing certain things, and what it does to our healthy and our body. That really helps me stick to the plan. I know WHY I can’t have my third favorite food: Cheese.

We do this program with the aid of a class-as I mentioned- once a week, 5 classes in total over the 28 day program. The classes are invaluable so far, as are the tools you take away from the class and the printed materials. I can already see how this information is going to force me to look at food even after the program is over. YIKES!
I would also like to point out right now that this is not a run-to-the-bathroom type thing, although I am drinking a lot more water so I do have to use the restroom more than I might usually use it. I am not usually much of a water drinker but with this program I am supposed to drink half my body weight in liquid. So if you weigh 150lbs, you drink 75 oz. This is hard for me.

This was my day today as far as food goes:

Today I started my day with Arbonne’s Detox Tea with lemon. I hate tea. I don’t like this part, but I know that tea, particularly warm tea, helps stimulate the system and get things moving.

Then I had my first protein shake which IS a meal replacement shake. Not all of them are or have to be. There is what is called a ‘Recovery shake’ which apparently is essential for after a work out in order to get the maximum benefit from the work out. WHO KNEW?

-My lunch shake had Arbonne’s protein powder(which is a vegan protein; no dairy, no soy);
-a scoop of the Arbonne fiber, which is tasteless and accounts for 40% of your daily fiber intake per scoop. I swear by this stuff! I used to be a Metamucil girl, but never again!
-Two table spoons of Almond butter, which made it a little thicker than I would have liked, and a little too bitter. I am going to use one table spoon tomorrow and see how that works. This is the ‘good fat’ portion of the hormonally balanced meal. Appearently that’s what I am aiming to achieve: Hormonally balanced meals.
-1 cup of Almond milk.

Overall impression: Not so bad. Actually pretty tasty and really filling! I wasn’t left hungry at all afterward. We are supposed to be eating meals every 4-6 hours with no snacking in between, so I was surprised when I actually lasted 5 hours.

In between my meals, I am allowed to ‘snack’ on beverages. I chose a few glasses of water with pomegranate fiz tabs. Fiz tabs are an appetite suppressant as well as a natural energy. It has green tea in it and it really helped keep me going in place of my fourth favorite food: soda! (Soda or caffeine of any kind is prohibited).

For dinner I had spinach, 1 cup of black beans for protein, 1/3 of a tomato with pepper because I love them… all this served with a dressing I made myself with avocado (the good fat in my hormonally balanced meal), olive oil, garlic, chili powder, almond milk and lemon juice. Again, surprisingly good.

So far, pretty impressed, but it is day one so the jury is still out. There is so much info swimming around in my head but I definitely can see how this program can really change your outlook and in a lot of ways, change your life. I was referred to the program through some other Arbonne reps and I have to say, they all can’t say enough about it. One of my teammates has lost 80 lbs doing the program every few months over the past year.

We shall see…

Tip of the day: Soy is actually bad for you! It’s like junk food… unless it’s organic soy.

Please, if you have done this cleanse, give me tips, encouragement or meal ideas!!