The Home Stretch

Just a few more hours to go before my "cleanse" is over and I'm really excited. Not excited so I can indulge and go back to my old ways, but because I feel great and have learned a lot about my body. It's a really wonderful feeling.

As I recap the last few days, let me remind you what the goals of my cleanse were:

• Daily Trader Joe's Total Body Cleanse supplements
• No caffeine
• No alcohol
• No refined sugar
• No gluten
• No processed or pre-packaged foods
• Try to eat at least 50% of my diet as raw foods

Day 11 - 5/8

Today was a rough emotional day for me. A little over a year ago my practice was absorbed into a larger health care system. A few (huge) benefits of this were a brand new, larger office space and the hire of my new nurse. My nurse couldn't be any more perfect of a fit for me (she loves Phish, shops at Trader Joe's and the local co-op, and is incredibly sweet to our patients) and I am so happy with my new office. The downside is dealing with layers and layers of corporate administration whenever something is wrong. Unfortunately for me, the thing that has been wrong multiple times is my pay. I discovered another error on Thursday and (as usual) was unable to reach the person I needed to talk to. I felt really powerless and frustrated. Normally an afternoon like this would end with me sitting in a pile of candy and Taco Bell wrappers hyped up on caffeine from a sweeter-than-I-usually-drink coffee from Starbucks feeling horrible. But it didn't this time. It didn't even enter my mind. Wow.

Breakfast - Smoothie (blueberries, organic whole milk yogurt, banana, chia seeds, water to blend), hard boiled egg

Lunch - Leftover Asian Salad with honey lime dressing topped with raw cashews

Snack - Pear

Dinner - Homemade steak gyros (steak, cucumbers, tomatoes) on corn tortillas with homemade tzatziki sauce and corn on the cob

Snack - herbal tea, small bite of homemade energy bars (I'll post my recipe soon!)

Day 12 - 5/9

Today was a much better day. I never got an answer to my pay question, but at least got in touch with the right person to discuss the problem. This evening was my first challenge with eating out at a restaurant. My monthly book club met at an Italian restaurant (like hardest place to find food fitting my rules!). I was hoping for an entree salad, but there wasn't anything like that on the menu so I went for the best option I could and boxed up half of the meal to bring home to my husband. It was definitely the richest meal I've eaten since starting my cleanse (and I enjoyed every bite), but I wasn't tempted to overindulge on liquor or dessert.

Breakfast - Smoothie (blueberries, organic whole milk yogurt, banana, chia seeds, water to blend), homemade energy bar (dates, cashews, and sunflower seeds)

Snack - Herbal tea, raw cashews

Lunch - Chicken breast roasted with tomatoes, green vegetables in walnut pesto (purchased from the hot food bar at the Honest Weight Co-op and elderberry Kombucha

Snack - Pear

Dinner - Garden salad with house made Italian dressing on the side (it was delicious, but as I didn't know what was in it, I only used a very small amount) and chicken picatta with roasted potatoes and green beans

I went for a short 3/4 mile jog to my in-laws house to meet my husband and the girls.

Day 13 - 5/10

Today was supposed to be rainy, but turned out gorgeous! I went for a jog in the late morning (my best effort yet) and got to enjoy some real quality time with my family

Breakfast - Two egg omelette full of veggies (spinach, red peppers, and mushrooms) topped with chopped tomato (I shared with baby bear who LOVES tomatoes and apparently cooked spinach)

Snack - Pear

Lunch - Chopped lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage, and tomatoes with leftover tzatziki sauce

Snack - Homemade energy bar

Dinner - Baby spinach salad with red cabbage, sweet potatoes, and avocado

I went for my usual 1.8 mile walk/jog talking only a short walk break and jumping right back into it. I think on my next run I might make it the whole distance! I finished up with abs and arms as usual.

Day 14 - 5/11 Mother's Day!!
Today was a fabulous day with my family. My husband got up early and put the baby bear back to bed with me and he and the bug let me sleep. Bug even had Daddy make me a hard boiled egg for breakfast because she knows I like them, how sweet! We started our day off with breakfast, pictures, and tons of play at a gorgeous town park. Then, we came home and the girls relaxed a bit while I put the finishing touches on a few dishes to share at Mother's Day dinner. We spent the rest of the day at my in-law's house with our extended family. My mom is still in Florida so we only got to see her on Facetime, but it was better than nothing!Overall, it was a very relaxing day and I didn't spend a second worrying about food.

Breakfast - Hard boiled egg, homemade energy bar, and Starbucks iced coffee (this was my mother's day "cheat" and it was totally worth it!)
Lunch - Organic "power greens" mix and leftover chicken chili with avocado/organic yogurt mashed together
Snack - Blackberries
Dinner - Grilled chicken, grilled portabellas, salad greens, curried quinoa salad, moroccan carrot salad, and fruit salad (honeydew, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries)

The Middle

Something surprising is happening with this cleanse. After last week that started off rough (headaches, body aches, and extreme fatigue), I don't even feel like I'm on a "diet". I feel completely normal. Actually, BETTER than normal. I feel empowered - like I finally am winning a battle with food I've been losing my whole life. Food isn't my comfort when something goes wrong. Or my reward for accomplishing something. Or my enemy - sneaking it's way into my stomach and "making" me fat. Food is JUST food. I still enjoy eating immensely, but I'm slowly unfurling myself from the emotional connections I've wrapped myself up in over the years. It feels amazing.

This is the start of week two. I'm introducing yogurt back into my diet this week, but holding off on any other dairy. I don't think I have any issues tolerating moderate amounts of milk, cheese, and other dairy products in my diet, but I've been feeling so well that I don't want to tip the scales against me. Especially because I've lost the "I need it!" feeling I was having about cheese last week...

Day 8 - 5/5

Totally uneventful day. The weather was nice and I took a trip to the local co-op on my lunch break. I haven't been to the co-op since it moved (because I get nervous about trying to go places when I don't really know where they are because I get lost easily) and I was very impressed. Now that I know the extent of their bulk supplies (and how to get there) I will definitely be going there more often. Seeing so many healthful choices really motivated me further that I'm on the right path.

Breakfast - Smoothie (frozen blueberries, whole milk yogurt, banana, chia seeds, and water to blend), hard boiled egg

Snack - herbal tea

Lunch - Raw veggies (carrot, celery, cucumber, snap peas), raw mixed nuts, Ginger Kombucha

Snack - herbal tea

Dinner - Honey soy marinated salmon on a bed of diced cucumbers and chopped baby spinach

Snack - Apple

I went for a 1.8 mile walk/run. I finally settled into a decent pace with this run, but was interrupted by a page because I was on call. Afterwards, I repeated the arms and abs workouts.

Day 9 - 5/6

Today was very slow at the office which used to be dangerous, but I didn't feel the urge to snack at all. I used the down time to catch up on a few CME (Continuing Medical Education) articles and to read the new book I borrowed from the library, Wheat Belly. I was going to try and squeeze in another run, but had too much work to do preparing two batches of crockpot chicken taco chili and a big pan of Reese's brownies for teacher and nurse appreciation days.

Breakfast - Smoothie (frozen blueberries, avocado, whole milk yogurt, chia seeds, water to blend), hard boiled egg

Snack - herbal tea, raw mixed nuts

Lunch - Grape tomato, cucumber, basil salad with olive oil/balsamic vinegar

Dinner - Chipotle burrito bowl (brown rice, pinto beans, barbacoa, mild salsa, corn salsa, avocado) in lettuce wraps

Snack - spearmint tea, grapefruit

Day 10 - 5/7

Today was the first day I stepped on the scale and didn't see any weight loss since I started the cleanse. I'm holding off revealing numbers about my weight loss until the end, but I've been steadily losing weight since I started. I immediately felt discouraged, which scared me. In the past I have done great on "diets" as long as I was losing weight, but gave up immediately as soon as I plateaued. I had to remind myself that this isn't a diet. This is me taking control of food, and by extension, my life. I should not be continuing to lose weight this fast and it needs to slow down. And I feel amazing. Crisis over. 

Breakfast - Hard boiled egg, peanut butter (I made these brownies for my nurses and consoled myself that I couldn't eat any by licking the PB off the spoon after adding it to the frosting)

Snack - Herbal tea, organic whole milk yogurt with blueberries, chia seeds, and raw cashews

Lunch - Baby spinach topped with chicken chili and a few blue corn tortilla chips

Snack - apple, raw cashews

Dinner - Asian salad (red cabbage, carrots, red pepper, red onion, cucumber, and black rice) with homemade honey lime dressing

Snack - herbal tea

I went for my usual 1.8 mile walk/jog. Each time I complete the loop I've been running a large portion of it as I build my endurance. I also ended the workout with abs and arms strength training.

Food Cleansing

I bet you expected my next post to be MORE party details, but I tricked you! Today I'm all about kick-starting my nutrition and exercise goals. I'm really using blog posting as more of a journal/motivational tool for myself, but you all can come along for the ride if you're interested.

I've been flirting with real food for awhile, but I've also been quick to stray back to old ways. I'll admit my overall diet today is still better than it was five years ago, but that really isn't saying all THAT much. In the past I relied far too heavily on fast food and processed food to get through my busy schedule. I think allowing myself to still have some of these foods on a daily basis was really sabotaging my efforts. I decided I really needed to "detox" from all the bad and give my body a chance to recover and reboot. Which brings me to...

My 14 Day Real Food/Raw Food Challenge
*This is based on so many different things I've read and watched, but does not follow one specific set of rules from any one source. This is 100% my challenge to myself - some of the ideas probably are evidence based, but I am not endorsing this in any type of medical way. This is just my journey (I hope!) to better nutrition.*

My plan is to cut out all processed foods, refined sugar, gluten, and alcohol and to cut down on dairy and animal protein. I'm intending to essentially eliminate dairy the first week and slowly introduce some back in next week. I'm also taking the Trader Joe's Total Body Cleanse vitamins to accompany my life changes.

Day 1 - 4/28
The first day was rough. I developed a horrible caffeine withdrawal headache mid-morning that continued to get worse as the day went on. By the time I got home I felt like I had a tight rubber band wrapped around my head. I also felt extremely exhausted, weak, and achy. I'm not sure if it was the change in diet, the headache, or the fact that I was so tired from bug's birthday party over the weekend but I could barely keep my eyes open driving home from work. I haven't felt that tired since residency! I went to bed before 8pm that night.

Food and Exercise Review
Breakfast - Banana and raw almonds
Snack - Red pepper slices and baby carrots with herbal tea
Lunch - Cucumber, tomato, avocado, parsley, and cilantro with lemon juice
Snack - Pear and herbal tea
Dinner - Sweet potato and avocado topped with tomato, cucumber, cilantro salsa and Chia strawberry lemon water

No exercise today! I was WAY too exhausted

Day 2 - 4/29
The second day wasn't perfect, but was much easier. I only had a mild headache during the day and didn't have any problem sticking to my food plan during the day. My first test came that evening when I picked up my very sick little bug from her grandparent's house and had to come home and cook dinner. The bug had a fever and was miserable and the little bear was her usual unruly dinnertime self (scream for food, shove as much food in her face as fast as she can, demand to get down from the table). I was very tempted to give up the attempt to cook, but took a few deep breaths, got everyone settled, and pushed through dinner prep. I was exhausted early again and started dozing off around 8:30. It was with extreme effort that I stayed up later to chat with my husband.

Food and Exercise Review
Breakfast - Green apple and raw cashews
Snack - Pear and herbal tea
Lunch - Zucchini hummus with celery and baby carrots
Snack - Herbal tea
Dinner - Cod, wilted spinach, roasted green beans, and black rice with Chia lemon water
Snack - Carrots, celery, and banana slices with organic peanut butter

No exercise again, still laying low and letting my body adjust.

Day 3 - 4/30
By the third day I was over the caffeine withdrawal headaches and the exhaustion was getting better. I slept wrong and had a searing low backache all day which made everything more frustrating, but I stuck with my plan without too much difficulty. I did get hungry in the evening and needed to eat a bigger snack. This was really the first time I felt "hungry".

Food and Exercise Review
Breakfast - Green apple and hard boiled egg
Snack - Raw cashews, herbal tea
Lunch - Kale salad with red pepper, cucumber, avocado, and lemon juice
Snack - Pear, herbal tea
Dinner - Baked sweet potato and diced avocado topped with red cabbage, red pepper, cilantro, and scallion "slaw" with apple cider vinegar dressing and Chia lemon water
Snack - Frozen blueberries and organic peanut butter

The only exercise I did was household chores - up and down the stairs about a dozen times washing and folding laundry

Day 4 - 5/1 
Today I felt great when I woke up. I was up early to sign my bug up for the before/after-school program and had to round at the hospital. Being in the hospital brought out some STRONG cravings for coffee (literally 90% of the people that walked by me had a coffee cup in their hands), but I got through it by stopping at the store for a new box of herbal tea on my way to the office.

Food and Exercise Review
Breakfast - Green apple and raw cashews
Snack - Herbal tea
Lunch - Grapefruit
Snack - Pear and cherry tomatoes
Dinner - Chicken and Quinoa Thai Salad (modified dressing to remove anything processed) with Chia lime water

I finally felt like I had enough energy today to get back into the swing of things with exercise. I went for a short 1.6 mile walk/jog outside and followed it up with an arm workout and an ab workout.