cleanse | days 19-21

DAY 19 --breakfast: smoothie [protein, bee pollen, coconut water, mixed berries, peaches, mango, spinach] snack: none lunch: [applegate] chicken sausage, avocado, herb lettuce, wrapped in a brown rice tortilla snack: 1/2 larabar dinner: juice [2 large kale leaves, 3 carrots, 1 beet, 1 lemon, 1 pear, piece of ginger]

the thoughts of cheating keep getting stronger and stronger. everything i look at that i am not allowed to eat right now, i think about taking a bite.

just one bite. no, don't! you're so close. but no one would know. just a tiny nibble. no way!

my mind goes back and forth. back and forth. thankfully, the side that really wants to see this through prevails every time.

DAY 20 -- breakfast: smoothie [protein, fiber, flax meal, bee pollen, water, mixed berries, peaches, spinach] snack: carrots with hummus lunch: turkey lunchmeat, guacamole, lettuce, onion wrapped in brown rice tortilla snack: none dinner: smoothie [protein, flax meal, almond milk, mixed berries, mango, kale]

i confess. day 20 and i cheated.  i had carrots at 11 PM. the closer i get to the end, the stronger the urges to cheat.  all in all, a great day though.

DAY 21 -- breakfast: none snack: none lunch: smoothie [protein, flax meal, bee pollen, fiber, coconut water, raspberries, mango, kale, spinach] snack: piece of [applegate] turkey lunch meat dinner: smoothie [protein, flax meal, coconut water, raspberries, mango, kale]

i rushed around early morning and then headed to apple store at 9:30 AM, to get my computer fixed.  i was there two hours, hence my not eating breakfast or a snack. needless to say, i was starving by the time i got back home at 12:30 PM and rushed to make a quick smoothie. so here i am now, just a few hours from being done with my 21-day clean program cleanse.  can't believe i made it. proud that i made it. feeling great.

so what's my first day post-cleanse going to be like? coffee smoothie for breakfast [water, ice, 1/2 banana, peanut butter, protein, fiber, kale] i might try a gluten free cookie, that i've been eyeing at the health food store [hope it's yummy as i've been fantasizing it is, but probably not] something super clean for lunch dinner out with a friend, which will include a beer

i'll be sharing my cleanse conclusion in a few days. i figured i'd get a couple regular days under my belt before sharing all my post-cleanse thoughts.

so happy i'm done!!!

cleanse | 10:30 AM

it's only 10:30 AM and...i have a headache. i'm so over this cleanse. but only today and tomorrow left. had to convince myself to not cheat constantly, especially late last night. all i want is a fricken cookie. or anything that i'm not supposed to have. no motivation to workout while cleansing. probably because i haven't eaten enough for three weeks straight. no one to blame but me for that. trying to stay focused. and i really have nothing to bitch about. so i guess i'll stop. only two more days!

needing to reset

days 1-3

days 4-6

days 7-9

days 10-12

days 13-15

days 16-18

days 19-12 and cleanse conclusion posts coming SOON!!

cleanse | days 16-18

DAY 16 --breakfast: smoothie [protein, fiber, bee pollen, coconut oil, coconut water, raspberries, mango, kale] snack: none lunch: two applegate chicken sausages snack: none dinner: smoothie [protein, fiber, flax meal, almond milk, water, raspberries, mango, kale]

pretty uneventful day. felt great but at the computer or running errands most of the day.  once done with the cleanse, my plan is to do a 'cleanse conclusion' post, sharing my overall thoughts regarding my three weeks of doing the clean program.  so if you have a question, please ask and i'll be sure to answer it in my final cleanse post.

DAY 17 -- breakfast: none snack: none lunch: white chicken chili snack: 1/2 larabar [i would have eaten a whole one but that's all i had] dinner: smoothie [protein, fiber, flax meal, avocado coconut water, mixed berries, mango, spinach, kale]

i woke up at 2:30 AM, from hearing ryder struggle to breathe. rushed him to the ER, where his oxygen saturation was low and he had a 101.5 fever. ended up receiving IV, labwork, chest xray, IV antibiotics and was put on oxygen. four hours later, he was diagnosed with bronchitis and we were sent home. and all of that threw off my morning and is the reason i didn't have breakfast or snack. the chili was such a great change from my daily roll-ups.  day 17 was just weird probably because of the combination of stress, lack of sleep and not enough food.  had a lingering headache pretty much the entire day.  blah! made grilled cheese with bacon and avocado for the family and it took everything i had not to nibble on the bacon.

DAY 18 -- late breakfast: smoothie [protein, fiber, flax meal, bee pollen, coconut water, mixed berries, mango, carrots, spinach] snack: apple with almond butter and carrots with hummus lunch: none snack: a couple pieces of [applegate] turkey breast lunchmeat dinner: a smoothie [protein, water, almond milk, mixed berries, peaches, spinach]

i'm getting kind of lazy. with my food. with my supplements. keep forgetting to take my supplements here and there. not wanting to really cook anything. although i never really wanted to cook anything just for myself. it's just that much worse now. just munching and wanting to get through these last few days. i should have eaten lunch but i had a late breakfast and then snacked a bit and lunch time had come and gone. thinking about cheating with all kinds of crazy stuff -- cookies, a coke, a hamburger. i don't even really drink coke but i'm really wanting some at the moment. these past three days have really been kind of weird.

only three more days. monday tuesday wednesday. monday tuesday wednesday. monday tuesday wednesday. that's all. three days. and i'm DONE!!!!!!

as confident as i am that this cleanse absolutely was the right thing for me to do, i absolutely cannot wait to be done!

cleanse | days 1-3

i decided to share my journey with the clean program, for anyone that might be interested in doing this cleanse in the future... i'm doing the clean program with my dear friend, em (thank goodness!!).  i can't share how much it has already helped, doing the cleanse with a friend -- sharing our food choices, different ideas, our moans & groans, etc. we both decided that we would skip the elimination diet and just go right into the cleanse.  i had already been eating well since new year's eve, so i considered those few days an ALMOST-elimination diet.

DAY 1 -- breakfast: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, almond milk, spinach, kale, berries & pineapple) shot of brown rice protien powder (mixed in 4 oz water) lunch: roasted chicken & quinoa salad dinner: organic split pea soup (kind of gross)

i start each morning with a glass of water and probiotics. then i have a cup of green tea. i wait an hour or so before having my smoothie. i gagged like crazy on the protein powder, to the point that i had tears strolling down my cheeks. i already had tried the rice protein powder in my smoothie the day before and it was terrible. sooo...my rice protein powder was dumped in the trash. and i've switched to whey for now. i also purchased the program's nourish powder and will see how that compares.

i was pretty hungry the first day and basically thought about food all day. i climbed 42 flights of stairs (training for this). although i don't think i'm going to do that again until i'm through a full week of the cleanse. my calves still hurt three days later.

my biggest complaints on day one were that i had this weird cotton mouth feeling all day, even though i was very well hydrated and i had the most raging, killer headache at night. i laid on the couch at 6:30 PM and never got back up, until i went to bed at 9:30 PM.

DAY 2 -- breakfast: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, almond milk, spinach, kale, berries & pineapple) snack: carrots & homemade hummus lunch: applegate chicken sausage, a few bites of quinoa & 1/2 lara bar snack: 1/2 lara bar dinner: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, almond butter, kale, berries & pineapple)

day two went pretty well. i was less hungry and no raging headache. my head did nag a bit at one point but no big deal. the toughest part of the day was when my family had pizza and i had my smoothie. went to bed at 10:30. overall, a pretty good, satisfying, not too hungry kind of day.

DAY 3 -- breakfast: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, almond milk, spinach, kale, berries, mango & pineapple) snack: carrots with hummus lunch: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, spinach, berries) snack: some fresh pineapple & a bit of guacamole with brown rice chips (skyler said the chips taste like paper) dinner: chicken burger, avocado & onions on a bed of lettuce and spinach with homemade salad dressing (dijon, oil, vinegar, lemon)

i've decided that i'm going to eat a couple dinners with my family every week.  so i did liquid for breakfast and lunch and burgers with my family for dinner. :-)  my back bothered me all day -- kind of aching, kind of hurting.  by the end of the night, my back was killing me along with another headache. i'm assuming it's all part of my body working to detox all the crap out.

all in all, the first few days were a wee bit painful. i had the cotton mouth, headache, backache and felt a bit sluggish and cloudy-headed. but today, the beginning of day four, i'm feeling pretty good. i feel less fluffy-puffy already and that feels awesome. no ailments at the moment, but i KNOW that could easily change throughout the day. the thing that bothers me the most is that my thoughts are always on food. normally, i never think about food. i eat when i'm hungry and that's it. i'm not usually a bad eater except during the holidays, when i get into the cakes, pies & cookies. also, it's not easy to prepare my daily meals separately from the rest of the family's meals. it takes a lot of time, thought, commitment and will-power (as i smell donuts, coffee, pizza, etc. that my family is eating).

to read why i'm doing the cleanse or simply learn a bit more about the clean program, check out my blog post HERE.