Monday, August 31, 2009

Today and Yesterday I ate;

Monday~
Watermelon
Dandelion-mixed herb salad
w/guacamole & organic olives
Mixed veggie soup

Tuesday~
Mixed melon salad
Pineapple-mango salad
Okra & mixed herb salad
w/beans & avocado 
Camomile-ginger tea

Well... the program is almost over. I feel like I need to try it again with more liquid meals on the menu. This was a good first try though. I definitely got to practice not eating late &/or not eating dinner. I still need my training wheels. I haven't lost the desire to eat nothing after lunch just yet. But I know I'm heading in that direction. On the 9th of September I will try the Clean Program again for 3 weeks. I'll do it with a nice menu lined up with liquid meals & simple fruits. Until then, I'll keep most of my calories within lunch time hours.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Today I ate;



Day 18..

Watermelon
Mango
Dandelion-red leaf-avo salad
w/ organic olives & kimchi
= 1700 total calories for the day

I'm still having a good time with everything. Today the scale said that I was 5 pounds lighter. I definitely feel lighter & brighter. I'm still trying to keep the last meal around four o'clock. It's tough, but I'm working on it daily.


Saturday, August 29, 2009

Today and Yesterday I ate;



Day 16 & 17..

Friday~
Mangoes
Bananas
Medjool dates
Green pea/cucumber/lettuce salad
w/kimchi & avocado

Saturday~
Bananas
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Mangoes
Baby lettuces w/avo & kimchi

I over did it on both days. The fruit was enough, I could have eaten smaller salads. I think I ate the salads for fear I would be hungry at night if I only ate the fruit. (Both days were about 2,000 each.) But no complaints. I still think I'm doing MUCH better with late night eating. I've really cut it out. And I feel like all of my choices have been pretty yummy & healthy.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Today I ate;



Day 15? Really?
I really feel like I need to do this over. I haven't made any of the recipes yet. I haven't been super strict about not eating after 4pm either. A few times I ate after 5 or 6. I've been pretty good about avoiding the 'do not eat list'. Tomatoes, bananas, peppers, have snuck in a few times, not many though. Maybe having all meals planned out, keeping it really simple like fruits & liquids only, or very plain veggie salads would make a bigger difference. I feel good. I've been happy lately, but I haven't lost any weight or seen major changes. I think my friend is right, it's not that different than what I was doing before. I'm in the same calorie range & eating basically the same things. I'm just eating a little earlier than I'm used to. Eating earlier feels really good to me & I want to stick with this. I sleep much better when I don't have dinner or eat late. I definitely plan on keeping this. I still have some days to go till I reach 21. I will try to simplify all meals & eat a little less ..& make some of the liquid meals. -Eek. If I can. :) 

Thursday~
Medjool dates (<--so good!)
Mixed herbs & dandelions
w/ red leaf lettuce, kimchi & avo
Lemonade
= 1645 total calories for the day

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Today, Yesterday & The Day Before I Ate;

Monday~
Watermelon
White peaches
Mixed vegetable juice
Okra & mixed veggie salad 
w/tahini & avo
Veggie-lentil soup

Tuesday~
Watermelon
Spinach-lentil soup
Red leaf salad w/organic avo & olives
Green smoothie

Wednesday~
Mango & red grapes
Fresh vegetable juice
Green smoothie
Spinach-lentil soup
Blackberries &  medjool dates
Ice mint tea

Today I was craving for something sweet. I was at a cafe for hours & I happen to be sitting right next to the dessert case. Lucky me. (-not.) I was tempted. I started to make deals with myself, "what if I take two bites & throw the rest away?" But them I got real with myself. I knew these desserts were not tempting. I knew they were all sugar-flour-butter, nothing more. I knew they were junk & would make me feel like junk. I knew I was craving carbs because I didn't eat enough of them this morning. The small amount of grapes & single mango were not enough. I usually have much more fruit that that for breakfast. I decided to leave my book on my chair at the coffee shop & look for something good to eat elsewhere that was sweet. I found a beautiful tiny basket of organic blackberries & a little bag of organic medjool dates at a food-coop. -Lucky me! I ate them and they filled the spot. I felt so good. After that I went back to the coffee shop and ordered a mint ice tea. I felt really proud of myself. I would not have been happy if I ate one of the desserts, but I was really happy with sweet luscious rich fruits. Better than any man-made dessert.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Today I ate;



Day 11! Ten more days to go!
This is really going by too fast & I still haven't tried any all liquid days, all fruit days or the light & energetic recipes that I've been wanting to try. I feel like I've just started. After this is over I may start this again with better preparation. 

Today I had a watermelon & a green smoothie. I may have a bit of something else, but it's late now, so I might have to settle for some tea instead.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Today I ate;



1.5 liters of water
Lemonade
Coconut water
Watermelon
Mango
Figs (<--so good!)
Veggie-bean soup

Day 10. Still moving right along. Today was a pretty good food day & a happy day over-all. I definitely want to buy some more figs. I forgot all about fresh figs. Why haven't I been eating more of them?

Friday, August 21, 2009

Today I ate;



It's Friday! Day 9! The days are zoooooming by! 

Today I had lots of watermelon & after that, pineapple. Not sure what I will have later, maybe more fruit, veggie salad or soup. I'll be home late, so I'll post now...

Things are going well, I had a few rough patches; slow BMs, stressful moods, breakouts, etc.. But everything is clearing & and back on track now. I haven't tried any of the recipes for soups & smoothies in the Clean Program yet. I will grocery shop this weekend & prepare for the next two weeks. I would like to make some things from Doug Graham's High Energy Diet Recipe Guide & the Clean Program's recipes (<--the PDF link is there for you to check the recipes out.) I think both are really good for detox. 

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Today and Yesterday I ate;


Wednesday~
1 liter of water
LOTS of watermelon
Veggie gazpacho w/ beans (<--it had tomato & green bell pepper in it & that is not allowed on the Clean program. MUCH less than in the pic above though, it had very few nightshade veggies, but it did have some.)
Carrot-ginger soup (<--ate this for no reason, I wasn't hungry)
Adzuki bean puree (<--ate this for no reason, I wasn't hungry)

Thursday~
1 liter of water
LOTS of watermelon
Wild dandelions with lentils, avocado & blended veggies

Day 7 & 8...
Yesterday was a flop! Ugh. Worst day in a long time. I totally noticed how I needed to over-eat to cope with the day. I couldn't just 'be' with how things were going, I needed to be distracted from my feelings. What I chose to eat wasn't bad, but how much & when I ate it was completely linked to bad feelings & choices. Today I got to choose again & had an amazing day! Life is really all about choices.  ..and that includes choosing how we feel. :)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Today I ate;



2 liters of water
1 liter of herbal tea
Lemonade
Apple
Watermelon-honeydew salad
Lunch at FreeFoods 
= ? Calories (-not sure because most of my calories are from a restaurant lunch)

Day 6 of the 21 day cleanse. All is rolling along...
Today I had lunch at Free Foods in NYC. I over did it of course & it didn't help that I got there starved. Yesterday I didn't eat my usual amount of calories, then I didn't eat today till almost 2pm. Free Foods is a pretty healthy restaurant as far as take-out joints go. What I ate was more or less on the cleanse (-I had a few peanuts & tomatoes in the dishes, they are not allowed). 

Monday, August 17, 2009

Today I ate;



Day five!

Hmmm,.. I am showing some signs of detox, I think. A little bit itchy on my back near my hips & some acne on my shoulders close to my neck. Even though the the bowels slowed & I have detox symptoms I feel great. Really clam & content. A friend of mine was asking about the cleanse. He asked what I was eating. After I told him he said, "That is no different then what you always eat. You are basically doing the same things." After he said that I thought, "he's right". (-I  also reviewed past posts from my food blog, looking weeks back.) But then I remembered that my problem was eating too late in the day & eating too much too late. I have not been doing that on the cleanse. The whole point of the Clean program is to fast from the afternoon till the next day. Your food is consumed at lunchtime everyday. The rest is liquids. I've been doing mostly water in the morning, food in the afternoon & water, tea or home-made lemonade in the evening. This is a big change for me.  

Today:
1.5 liters of water (so far)
Pineapple (the whole thing!)
Mangoes
Purple cabbage & red onions w/tahini sauce
= 1275 total calories for the day (-Opps, it's a little low. Next time less cabbage & more fruit!)

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Today I ate;



3 liters of water
Watermelon
Mixed veggies & red cabbage
w/ kimchi & carrot-tahini-ginger sauce
= 1590 total calories for the day

Today is day four of the 21 day cleanse. Ahhh, ...all the food was good today. Things are going really well on the cleanse. I feel settled into it. No hunger or cravings, no discomfort, just good feelings & lots of consistent energy.  But, (no pun intended) ...my bowels are moving slower. This has happened before when I gave up eating after lunch for a while. Everything slowed down, way down. (I do not like this.) I'm assuming my body has to adjust to the change. I will keep drinking lots of water, & continue to eat fibrous greens & juicy fruits to help things move along. If things don't speed up, I may have to look into herbs or hydro-therapy. But I will give my body some time to sort it out on it's own first.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Today I ate;


2 liters of water
Lots of watermelon
Watercress-avo-cucumber  salad
w/ tahini & kimchi on top
 = 1650 total calories for the day
Day three of the cleanse. Busy day today. All is well. So far so good. Gotta run....

Today I ate;



3 liters of water
Camomile tea
Lots of mangoes
Dandelion-red leaf-avo-cucumber salad
w/ organic purple olives & kimchi
= 1625 total calories for the day

Today is day 2 of the 21 day cleanse. So far so good. It's difficult to get a lot of the calories in early. I have to make sure I get most (if not all) of my calories by 4pm. I want to make sure I go through a mini fast through the evening until the morning. I've been a little hungry (I'm sure it's habit & not hunger) on the cleanse, but my energy has been really good. I have a clear & level mind right now. I feel very calm, even with the hunger/cravings. I know I'm getting enough calories, it's just that I'm used to eating later in the day. Today I went for a 100 minute walk/run  this morning & I felt really good the whole way. Even though I didn't eat dinner or breakfast, I had enough energy.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Today I ate;



2 liters of water
Lots of mangoes (-yay!)
Red leaf-avocado salad w/Bragg's dressing & kimchi 
Spirulina smoothie
Chilled spring pea soup
Plain chai tea
= 1750 total calories for the day

I've got good news! Today is day 1 of my 21 day cleanse. It's kind of a combo. Part of it is based on what I wanted to do back in May (-but I got off track & fizzled out on the idea). The other part is based on the book 'Clean' by Dr. Alejandro Junger. My problem areas are eating too late in the day, too many food combinations that can interfere with proper digestion & eating more than I need to. I feel like the Clean program will help me address all of them. Plus allow my body the extra space (& love) it needs to heal past abuse (-like working with toxic art supplies, too much stress, too little sleep, too much food, emotions not acknowledged or expressed, etc.). Some of the things I like about the Clean program is that it addresses other ways of healing like; meditation, artistic self expression, skin brushing, sweating, massage, laughter, deep breathing, etc.  I do many of these weekly or daily already & it makes a huge difference. I've also tried a juice fast and LOVED the results I got from it. So this 21 day cleanse will be a combination of all of it. I know it will do me wonders if I stick to it. I will be blogging the whole way through. So you will be able to read how it all goes..

This is what the plan looks like;

The Essentials: Do These Daily

1 Plan and prepare your three meals: Liquid meal for breakfast/Solid food meal for lunch/ Liquid meal for dinner, with any supplements you’ve selected.

2 Follow the Elimination Diet guidelines for everything you consume.

3 Leave a twelve-hour window between the last meal of one day and the first meal of the next. Try not to snack in between.

4 Make sure you have a bowel movement before the end of the day. 

5 Drink enough pure water to cause you to pee often. If more than one hour has gone by without peeing, you are not drinking enough.

6 Move. Walk. Take the stairs. Jump. Incorporate more movement into your day, as often and for as long as you possibly can. 

7 Rest. Get enough sleep. And breathe deeply all day long.

The Optional Activities:

1 Exercise. In addition to your increased daily motion, more deliberate exercise practices will pay off big time. Start slowly and increase gradually as the days go by.

2 Five-minute meditation exercise. Clean your mind and emotions as you clean your body.

3 Colonics. Daily bowel movements will do the work. Colonics will accelerate the process.

4 Skin brushing. Spend a few minutes removing dead skin cells before your shower.

5 Hot-Cold treatments. Once in the shower, use this to power up circulation and detoxification.

6 Infrared Sauna. Sweat profusely as often as you can.

7 Massage. Schedule a massage each week if your time and budget permits.

8 Laugh. Try to do something every day that makes you laugh out loud. It changes the body chemistry for the better and releases stress.

9 Lubricate. Drink two tablespoons of olive oil every night before you go to bed.

10 Write. Keep a daily log of what you eat, what your incessant thoughts are about, how you are feeling and how you slept the night before.

11 Record your progress. Take a daily picture of yourself: same angle, same distance.

12 Eat a clove of garlic every day. Have it alone or thinly sliced and sandwiched between two thin apple slices.

13 Read a book related to health and wellbeing, about the food system, or about the environment. Take this opportunity to educate yourself about what is going on today. Understanding will make it more likely that you will want to maintain the results after you complete the program.

14 Express your artistic side. Dance, sing, play your instrument, paint, sculpt. Whatever it is that wets your whistle. This will activate your right brain and more strongly imprint this whole experience in that part of the brain that is more involved with instincts. Far in the future, even if the thoughts of living Clean vanish, your instincts will be stronger than your thinking brain and will guide you to making the right choices for health.


Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Today I ate;


2 liters of water
Camomile tea
Fresh orange juice
Big slice of watermelon (<-- Gift from a friend. Very sweet.)
Green grapes & mango
Red leaf lettuce w/ purple olives & cucumber
Salad bar at LifeThyme (<-- I wasn't really hungry, I was just eating to be eating I think.)
Pecan goodie (<-- Super tasty.)

Tomorrow I'm beginning a new program for three weeks. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow night. :) I'm excited.


Today and Yesterday I ate;

Monday~
1.5 liters of water
LOTS of mangoes (-so good!)
Dinner at Bonobo's (-mixed raw veggie salads & a truffle made of raw nuts)

Tuesday~
2 liters of water
Green ice tea (-Strong. I liked it.)
Papaya-mango salad
Medjool dates w/ a little nut-butter
Dandelion-Kimchi salad 
With cucumbers & avocado
Salad (-beans & guac, the works on a bed of lettuce) at a Mexican restaurant 
I'm not happy with today's food. Oof, I ate way too much. I still haven't got back on track with the original plan I had back in May(!). Where has the time gone?! I will re-visit & revise it & try it again. I feel like I want a challange, like I want a push & a deadline to take things further. I still want to limit complicated combos, high fat raw foods & eating late in the day. More soon..

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Today and Yesterday I ate;



Saturday~
2 liters of water
Grapefruits
Banana-maca-spirulina smoothie
Lemonade
Mangoes
Dandelion salad with red radish & avocado

Sunday~
2 liters of water
LOTS of mangoes
Vegan West Indian food (<--okra, chickpeas, veggie stew, etc. at a place called 'Imhotep' on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn. They don't have a website.)

Friday, August 7, 2009

I'm Back!

I had a great time camping. I had so much fun I'm planning another trip in September. I can't wait. Even though I had a blast camping, I was not having a blast with my food options. Fruits & veggies were not a local favorite were I was staying. (Good thing I brought some dried fruit to to last me the first two days!) Coffee, baked goods, meat loaf, chicken & plenty of sandwiches were the local favorites. I did the best I could without being too 'up-tight' about it all. I did find some bananas, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine lettuce & sour cherries. But not enough to feel like I was eating the way I would like to. I'm so excited to be back home & to have an abundance of fresh produce! Lucky me. Sometimes stepping away from what you have makes you see how blessed you are. Every now & then I complain about New York produce. (I'm from Northern California & I know how good & fresh produce can be.) But after having almost no options for a week, I feel like I hit the jackpot now! I will not complain again.

Today I had lots of homemade honey-lemonade, several sweet grapefruits, a banana-dandelion smoothie & a dandelion kimchi salad with avocado-celery dressing.

I'm so glad to be back. :)

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