4.29.2013

Cleanse Update - Final Days

Source

So at this point, I'm sure you all are wondering how everything went with the last week or so of the cleanse.  Rather than bore you with the details of what I ate each day, since it's pretty much the same as the previous couple of posts, I thought I'd just go over the cleanse itself.

As I mentioned before, the idea behind the cleanse was to rid our bodies of the sugar, flour, gluten, and animal by products.  From the first few days, I felt tremendously better.  I felt less bloated, and had a lot more energy.  Overall, I just felt way better.  My skin started clearing up a lot more, too.

We cheated a couple of times with pizza and Mexican, and I will say that the day after I ate bad, I felt like crap!  Workouts were rough the day after we cheated.  You know.... the more I ate the "correct" way during the cleanse, the better I felt, and the more I kept thinking, "there must be something to this Vegan and gluten free thing."  

Here I am, a couple of days after the cleanse, and I've now eaten some cheese and my body is already rejecting it.  My hands are swollen, my stomach is grumbling and I'm sure in about 3 days, my face will start breaking out again.

The biggest struggle I believe we had was the lack of planning and scheduling meals.  Since we didn't plan well, we ended up eating a lot of the same stuff, which of course got boring.  Being bored led to the cheating.

All in all, I'd say the cleanse was successful and a really good experience.  I didn't have a lot of cravings for bad food during the cleanse.  Though my husband wasn't so lucky.  Since he gave up coffee and caffeine, he was pretty miserable the first week.  He was going through some major caffeine withdrawals without his daily cup of java, so decided to try decaf, but hated that more than not having any coffee.  I plan to continue eating mostly gluten free and vegan as much as possible since I'm still continuing on my weight loss journey and I feel it's the next step for me.

Has anyone else out there tried a cleanse?  Has it worked for you?  I'm always open to trying new things.

Follow the entire cleanse series below....
          Days 1-4 - The Beginning
          Days 5-7 - Trying to Eat Right While Eating Out
          Days 8-11 - Getting Bored with food

4.18.2013

Cleanse Update - Days 8-11

Follow the the cleanse from the beginning here.

All days --Basically I'm getting bored with the same kinds of foods.  Planning on searching for new ideas for next week.  Hopefully we can find something new and delicious... and exciting to make. 

What I ate....
Day 8 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie -- Kale, strawberries, kiwi, banana
         -- Lunch -- Romaine salad with mushrooms, tomato and Italian dressing; hummus and tortilla chips
         -- Dinner --Fancy red potatoes :)
         -- Snacks -- Peanut butter and banana; no bake energy bites

Day 9 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie
         -- Lunch -- Romaine salad with mushrooms, tomato and Italian dressing; hummus and tortilla chips
         -- Dinner --Grilled zucchini; popcorn
         -- Snacks -- No bake energy bites; Naval orange

Day 10 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie
         -- Lunch -- Romaine salad with mushrooms, tomato and Italian dressing; leftover red potatoes
         -- Dinner -- Veggie Thai Spring Roll (SOOOO GOOD!!!); popcorn
         -- Snacks -- Peanut butter and banana

Day 11 -- Breakfast --Homemade oatmeal with apple, cinnamon and light agave nectar
         -- Lunch -- Romaine salad with mushrooms, tomato and Italian dressing; Strawberry/blackberry fruit salad
         -- Dinner -- **Cheat day** Slice of pizza
         -- Snacks -- Spoonful of peanut butter

4.14.2013

Cleanse Update - Days 5-7 - Trying To Eat Right While Eating Out.


Pho Soup
Vegan Taco Salad
Rice Chex

Read from the beginning here. 

Days 5 though 7 were Friday, Saturday, Sunday.... of course the hardest days of the week in my book.  We always tend to run around more on the weekends or have no desire to cook after the long week, therefore tend to eat out more on the weekends.

Here's how it went:
Day 5 -Felt pretty good, but starting to wish I could have a bit of junk food in my life
Day 6 - Caved in and cheated a little bit with some Gluten Free pizza with cheese on it.... agh
Day 7 - Back on track again, but super bad munchies.  A result of yesterdays slip up?  Hmm... perhaps.

What I ate....
Day 5 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie -- Kale, strawberries, kiwi, banana
         -- Lunch -- Leftover spaghetti squash from previous day, Hummus and rice crackers
         -- Dinner -- Ate at this place called Wild Cow in East Nashville.  Got a vegan taco salad.
             Looks great, and tasted pretty good too.
         -- Snacks -- No bake energy bites. These are homemade GF bites made from oatmeal,
             peanut butter etc.  Recipe to come.

Day 6 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie
         -- Lunch -- Fajitas from Mexican restaurant
         -- Dinner -- Gluten free pizza crust with tomato and basil and cheese. *gasp* this is where we cheated.
         -- Snacks -- No bake energy bites; dried fruit bar from Trader Joes (these are AMAZING,
             healthy, updated version of fruit roll ups.  So good!!)

Day 7 -- Breakfast -- Rice Chex with Almond Milk
         -- Lunch -- Homemade veggie pho soup again.  YUM!!
         -- Dinner -- popcorn (typical Sunday night meal)
         -- Snacks -- Banana with peanut butter; energy bites; dried fruit bar.

4.12.2013

21 Day Quantum Wellness Cleanse

source
My hubby and I have decided to do a 21 day cleanse in order to rid ourselves of the crap we tend to eat - gluten and animal byproducts.  The idea behind the cleanse is that it will clean our your system and break your desire to eat the bad flour, caffeine, animal products.  After all, those are the products that slow us down, make us feel like crap and overall, make us hungry all the time and fat.  And did I mention those products, particularly the gluten laced products, sugar, and animal products are typically what cause CANCER and early death?

That makes me NEVER want to eat animal products again......

Now, I know this sounds completely crazy to try and go vegan AND gluten free, but it's been surprisingly easy thus far and we're just starting day 5.

The general idea?  Eat FRESH.  

We've been eating mostly fresh veggies, salads, fruits, nuts, etc.  I love most of this stuff anyways!!  And So far with 4 complete days these are the current results:

-Days 1 and 2 - felt bloated from extra fiber from veggies and thought I was hungry constantly.
-Day 3 - munchies are GONE!  I no longer felt the need to eat excessively, eat sugar, etc.  Also cannot get enough water, I've been drinking almost double what I typically drink.  I guess due to the "detox" process of ridding the body of the crap.  Also, super tired.  Not sure if this is due to stress from work and/or a double workout on day 2.  Time will tell.
-Day 4 -  Feeling GREAT!  Realized I don't need as much to eat as I typically do consume.  Skin is starting to rid of the crap, too!!  They say a cleanse can be really good for people with acne and stomach problems, which is what me and my husband both have issues with.

What have I been eating, you ask.... FAN-TASTIC QUESTION!!
Day 1 -- Breakfast -- Green Smoothie made from Kale, Grapes, Banana, and Strawberry
          -- Lunch -- Salad with mushrooms and cabbage and balsamic dressing;
              Hummus with GF rice crax.
          -- Dinner -- Popcorn (yes, it's gluten free if you don't make the nasty bagged kind)
          -- Snacks -- Apple

Day 2 -- Breakfast -- Green Smoothie (same)
          -- Lunch -- Salad with mushrooms and cabbage and balsamic dressing;
              Hummus with GF rice crax.
          -- Dinner -- Homemade Chinese Pho soup (recipe coming soon!!)
          -- Snacks -- Apple and handful popcorn

Day 3 -- Breakfast -- Green Smoothie (same)
          -- Lunch -- Steamed broccoli and rice
          -- Dinner -- Tons and tons of green beans and a small batch of popcorn
          -- Snacks -- Banana and peanut butter

Day 4 -- Breakfast -- Green Smoothie (same)
          -- Lunch -- Sauteed zuchinni and mushrooms with brown rice
          -- Dinner -- Spaghetti squash with garlic, spinach, tomato and basil. YUMM!
          -- Snacks -- Apple and peanut butter

At this point, I'm really excited to see what happens with my body in the next few days, especially now that cravings are gone.

And yes, I KNOW I have a small addiction to popcorn.  it's a super quick meal for me when I don't have a lot of time. Don't judge. :)

4.03.2013

Spaghetti Squash 3 Ways

There have been a ton of spaghetti squash recipes on Pinterest lately and every time I see them, I contemplate making something.  The hubbs made some spaghetti with spaghetti squash awhile back, but I wasn't a big fan of it myself.  So this week while my husband's away I figured I'd try it a couple of different ways by cooking it myself.  After all, it's a fairly inexpensive and healthy meal.  I'm determined to like it, so here are the first 3 recipes I've tried, and I'm sure there will be 1,000 recipe trials, too.

Version 1 - Garlic and Parmesan Cheese
Cooked spaghetti in oven according to directions on label, then added a bit of parmesan cheese, garlic and seasoning.  This was OK, however trying it for the first time, it was a bit different than what I expected.


Version 2 - Sauteed Garlic and Spinach
For this version I followed different cooking directions for the spaghetti squash.  The previous version says to cut the squash in half and cook for 45 mins, but doesn't specify to turn it upside down.  This one stated to turn it upside down, and BOY, does it make a difference.  The squash was more moist, more cooked and less crispy.  So much better!!  While I waited for the spag squash to cool a bit, I sauteed up some garlic and spinach and then tossed it into the spag squash.  DELISH!


Version 3 - Pesto, Tomato, Basil and Mushroom
As I mentioned before in my mushroom risotto post, I love mushrooms with anything and everything, so of course I put them in this version, too.  This one has sauteed tomato, basil, mushrooms and pesto added to the spaghetti squash.  I really wasn't a huge fan of the pesto with this, so if I make it again, I'll definitely tweak the recipe.


Are there are good recipes you've tried that you want to share?  I'm always open to more suggestions.