Daily Detox Debrief: The Other Side

Y'all...I think I'm gonna make it!
Insert my face in the pic above, and that's pretty much how I feel today: Awesome.

If you're just joining me on my processed food detox, you can catch up here and here.

DAY 4
This has been the game changer day. I felt great all day, didn't get hungry once! I even cooked for a dinner party at our place and sat at the table with them sipping my smoothie while they devoured some of my favorites (taco soup and my crack-biscuits) followed by the most beautiful chocolate ganache cake I have ever drooled over. And I didn't eat one. single. bite.

Someone call the national inquirer, because that's a frickin' miracle people. I'm just sayin.

DAY 5
I actually woke up early enough to see the sun rise this morning. (and if you know me, you know that's no small feat) I got up feeling completely energized, even though I only slept for 6 hours. I even got in a little workout for the first time in a while, and it felt good. (more on my fun new fitness tool coming in a later post) I'm down 2.5lbs on the scale and honestly feeling the best my body has felt in a long, long time.

Did I mention that I got up at 6am on my day off? Who am I?!?

Here's the kicker folks...today is supposed to be my last day of the detox. Supposed to be. But I feel like my body is just starting to feel the benefits of this purge so much that I have decided to extend it for another week. I know, I know, don't call the looney bin...I haven't lost my mind quite yet. I've never gone this long in my life without sugar, gluten, dairy (cheese, I do miss you so), meat...I just want to see what purging it out of my system really can do for my health.

So hang with me, or better yet...join me! I dare you. What have you got to lose?
(except maybe some sugar and that muffin top) :)

Daily Detox Debrief: Hangry Much?

Well...I can pretty much sum up the first two days of this fast with one word: HANGRY. 

(no, that's not a typo...I didn't mean to say "hungry" - I meant hangry, as in...I'm so hungry I'm angry.)

To give you the full rundown of the rules for my week-long processed food detox, 

well...there are only two rules really:

1. No solid food (processed or otherwise)...just Fruit and Veggie Smoothies for all three meals.

2. No coffee (but green tea is ok)

Might as well kill me now.  Or at least give me a cookie.

After doing tons of research online and reading smoothie recipe after smoothie recipe, I decided to create my own. (btw, I decided on smoothies vs. juicing because with juicing you lose more nutrients) 

Here's what I came up with:

Jamie's Green Smoothie

1 Handful of ice

2 Cups of water

2 Heaping handfuls of Spinach or Kale (or mixed greens)

3-4 Strawberries

1 Small handful of blueberries/raspberries

1 Banana

1 Apple (sliced, no core)

1 whole carrot (or 5-7 baby carrots)

1 Tablespoon of Almond Butter

1 Tablespoon of Flax Seed Oil (with Omega 3)

5 Prunes (for well, you know...)

1 Cup of Almond Milk

(this makes 64oz - enough for two meals!)

I threw it all in my awesome Ninja blender (that thing can chop!). And to make it easier for me (and eliminate excuses), I went ahead and pre-prepped smoothies for the rest of the week by dividing the ingredients (minus the almond milk, almond butter & flax oil) into ziplock baggies and put them in the freezer.

So here's the lowdown on how it went...

DAY 1:

I was hungry. Real hungry.

So hungry that I did, in fact, sniff the wrapper of a fruit roll-up for five minutes (or more), just so I could pretend I was eating it.  Did I mention I did this in the middle of a meeting in front of my whole team?

[hangs head in shame]

I was so pathetic that I couldn't make it through the entire day, I caved and ate some leftover chicken for dinner...served with a whopping side of guilt. I went to bed determined to do better the next day.

DAY 2:

This day was like sheer torture. Not only was I still hungry, but our staff team had a "team outing" - at the Braves game, of all places. I can't count the number of hot dogs, burgers, fries and nachos that walked by me, wafting their amazing aroma...almost taunting me. Add in a caffeine headache and I was par for the course. It took everything I had to say no to all my ballpark favorites, but I begrudgingly did it.

As if that wasn't tough enough, we had small group that night at my place and I had to make the sweet treat and appetizers...talk about torture! You don't know desperate until you see me with Reese's Peanut butter bars in my hands (baking them, of course) and I can't eat a. single. one. Oy.

But I stuck to my guns and went to bed still hungry.

So that brings us to today. 

DAY 3: 

I'm happy to say today was much better. No caffeine headache, and I made it all the way through! I felt fairly content most of the day, and I even found myself salivating over my dinner smoothie and not the food in the pantry. I don't feel nearly as tired as I did the first two days. I think we might be making a little progress! 

Take that, toxic food! It's time for you to get out of my system!

Tomorrow should be another story though, we're hosting a dinner party at our place. 

I'm cooking.

And I can't eat any of it.

Jesus take the queso coated wheel...I swear I can do this!

Gone Crazy.

Photo Credit: mylifestylezen.com

Life is crazy. Crazy I tell ya.

It's crazy that the last time I posted on this blog was almost 2 years ago.
It's crazy that the last post I wrote about then talked about the qualities in a wife that I wanted to one day be able to reflect.
It's crazy that now I am a wife. What?!
It's crazy that all of a sudden I feel like my body is starting to fall apart.

Apparently once you get married your body decides to crap out on you....did you know that? I've already had one cancer scare in the last year, and now i'm facing some thyroid issues and have to have a biopsy on that as well. What the heck body?! What are you doing to me?? I've hardly been sick my entire life (heck the only time I've ever had surgery was to have my wisdom teeth removed), and all of a sudden within a year I'm being attacked left and right. Not to mention that the first 6 months of marriage has brought on the wedded equivalent of the "freshmen 10." Heck. No.

Don't get me wrong, I love married life. Love it. But I have yet to figure out a rhythm. A rhythm of schedule...of exercise...of eating well...of really, well all of it. I'm not sure why I thought that merging two lives wouldn't be this complicated, but I'm realizing it's going to take longer than I thought. (good thing I'm enjoying the challenge!)

So this week I decided I'm done. I'm done with feeling and eating like crap. I'm done with being tired and overloaded. I'm done with making excuses for why I haven't worked out more than one day a week in the last 6 months. It's time for a change.

I've been researching lots of things the last few months...clean eating, juicing, smoothies, detoxing, the effects of processed food on our bodies. The information out there is fascinating. The more I read, the more I realize just how much we poison our bodies with the toxic chemicals in processed food....me being one of the chief consumers of it. Then after watching the documentary "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" (see video below) I decided a good healthy "fast" of sorts is what I wanted to try first.



I knew I needed to get all the processed food out of my body, so I'm starting with a five day fruit/veggie smoothie fast. All I'm allowed to have are these smoothies I've made.

No processed junk.
No cheese dip.
No cupcakes.
No coffee.
No way am I going to survive...

So here's your invitation to join me on the journey....if for nothing else, but a good laugh (and some accountability for me). I started this on Monday, so tomorrow I'll give you the rundown of Days 1-3. Join me if you'd like, or maybe just cheer me on...if you know how much I like sugar and despise vegetables, you know i'll need it.

Here goes nothin!