21 Day Cleanse - Day 12-21 Overview

Heeeey!

Alright, so it's actually been a 10 days after my little cleanse ended! I guess I didn't realize that the 21 days ended on the 14th...in my mind it was not until the 22nd or something... silly me.

Anyway -- my French friend left early Monday. I'm trying to get back to some sort of normalcy. It's ridiculous how vacation and/or having guests for a week or two just completely throws your schedule off track.

As I said, I introduced her to the raw lifestyle. We made kale salad with an avocado dressing, marinaded portabello mushrooms, green juice or shake every morning, faux-sushi rolls with cauliflower rice (first time, so great!), and a bunch of other random items. Because we didn't spend a lot of time at home together, we wound up going out as well, which actually became a blessing in disguise despite spending money. I was able to find some AMAZING restaurants in the area that I didn't know existed. Lots of vegan and raw places! Sadly, the one that I love the most is kind of far from me :(  They took me there for my birthday. It was so awesome. Their raw sour cream was DELICIOUS. I also found a raw restaurant not far from work, however it's quite expensive ($15 for 2 tiny kale enchiladas!) so I imagine I won't be going back.

This past weekend we visited the Texas State Fair and then the Texas State Veggie Fair the day after. LOVED the Veggie fair! There were food trucks and a bunch of local restaurants, plus the other booths were great. I learned a lot, signed up for a lot of worthy causes, and just had an overall great experience. Can't wait for next years!

Tried doing some running while my friend was in town. She had completed the Couch 2 5K last year and unfortunately is out of running shape...so we did more walking. Went on a hike, which was a big deal for her since she used to be extremely fearful of the woods. Sadly, I broke my pinky toe half way through (ugh, dastardly ninja stumps!). Can't wear shoes right now :(  Can't run... makes me SUPER SAD.

Hopped on the scale today and even without the working out as much over the past 2 weeks I'm still down 4 pounds after the cleanse! I will say that it doesn't seem like a lot, but I'm a pretty tall and thick woman with a lot of extra skin from so much previous weight loss. Pretty sure my body is about at it's ideal weight and I just need to work on toning up.

That is my next task! As soon as my toe heals....

Delays

I realize it's been a week since I posted! I'm still very much doing my thing, I just haven't had a chance to sit down and log everything. I have a friend from France visiting for a couple weeks, so my time has been spent at work, running, volleyball, and hanging out with her. There's not been much time for anything!

The fun part is, she is very interested in the raw lifestyle and since she's already vegetarian, it's not too much of a change. When with me, she's partaking in raw. We've juiced every morning :)  Good stuff!

I'm happy to report some pounds lost! Not sure how many as I stepped on the scale the other day and noted it was down and since then I've drastically upped my workouts.

21 Day Cleanse - Day 11

I've felt pretty darn awesome the past few days :)

Morning:
16 oz Warm Water & Lemon

Green Smoothie
Spiralina Powder
Maca Powder
4 Leaves Kale
1 Apple
1 Zucchini

Maca Drink
Maca Powder
16 oz Almond Milk
Stevia to taste
Carob Powder

10 min meditation
Couple Sun Salutations


The green smoothie filled me SO much..I had leftovers until lunch. Pretty glad to have done the meditation this morning :)  Need to get back into the swing of that!

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Afternoon:
Mixed Greens
1/2 Tomato
1 Green Onion
Cheesy Dressing
Avocado

Orange
1.5 oz Almonds
5 Green & Black Mint Chocolate Squares (please note these are really small .5"x.25" rectangles)

24 oz Water
32 oz Tea

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Evening:
Lettuce Wrap
4 Romaine Lettuce Leaves
1/2 Red Pepper
1/4 Cup Hemp Hearts
1 Green Onion
1 Tbsp Flax Oil
1/4 Cup Cheesy Dressing
1/2 Bunch Parsley
Dash Cayenne
Brine of Capers to taste

3.01 Mile Walk/Run in 45 min
16 oz Coconut Water
24 oz Water


This was SO GOOD... Definitely making it again!! It was just something I threw together with what I had and needed to eat...enjoyable!!

I petered out on the run a bit...I did 90 sec run, 90 sec walk, 3 min run, 3 min walk, 90 sec run, 90 sec walk, 2 min run, then walked for like 15 min and then ran for quite a long time. I find that when I warm up with off and on running for about 20 min, I have the endurance to do another run that lasts forever.

21 Day Cleanse - Day 10

I didn't mention yesterday that I found myself hungry during those normal times of 10AM and 2-3PM and while I was able to satisfy my hunger with a banana in the morning, I felt okay letting the hunger pains keep at me. I drank a TON of tea and water, nibbled on some dark chocolate...but overall? I was okay with it. I did stop by the deli downstairs to see if they had any salad I could eat, but they didn't, thus I just went without! 

Today, I tried something a little different.

Morning:

16 oz Warm Water & Lemon

Green Smoothie

Handful of Greens

1 Green Apple

1 Tbls Spuralina

1/2 Juiced Lemon

1/2 Juiced Lime

1 Banana

Banana

Handful Almonds

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Afternoon:

2 Handfuls Greens

Cheesy Dressing

1/2 Tomato

Green Onion

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Evening:

"Egg Salad" (ish)

Finely Chopped Sprouts

Cheesy Dressing

Baby Pickles

Mustard

Green Onion

Spoonful Raw Almond Butter

Drizzled Raw Agave

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Workout:

Week 1, Day 2 - Couch 2 5K Program

Note on this C25K! Apparently, my running friend is doing the SHORTENED version of this because rather than repeat the first day as in the actual program, we did runs for 2 min (last one was 3), walk for 1 min...oh man was I DYING! Next week is worse! lol... He thinks he can get me running 5k in like 5 weeks or something...which...okay...I'm going to die on the way there - hah!

21 Day Cleanse - Day 8 & 9

So, it's been pretty obvious that I'm not good at sticking to this menu. I like following menus, but it's just me, so I tend to have food leftover if I follow it so strictly. This is not kosher! Not to mention, it's REALLY expensive (for me, who has a massive student loan monthly payment near $1k). I've been fiddling with alternatives. Here's what I know:

1. I do great with salads for lunch because I'm at work; it's fast and simple and I love them (somehow I'm not sick of them yet...)
2. Green juicing in the morning tends to leave me hungry around 10:30...starving by 11. Perhaps I need to try smoothies.
3. If I eat slightly heavy at night, then I get really sluggish and don't want to do any of the chores I need to get done. Perhaps green drinks? Though, I'm usually craving something more.
4. While I like the idea of some of these raw gourmet foods, I just don't have the time to make them. Maybe a couple times a month, but it's killing my wallet and my to-do list. So, I need to stick to simple!
5. I'm usually hungry around 3. I should probably try to pack nuts and whole fruits. 

Combining the past few days since I've failed at keeping this going (it was an emotional day yesterday).

MONDAY 

Morning:

Warm Water & Lemon

Green Juice (Carrot, Lemon, Beet, Apple)

Maca Drink (raw almond butter, maca powder, carob powder water, agave)

Afternoon:

Tabbouleh

1 Cucumber

1/2 Tomato

1 Avocado

handful Chives

1 Green Onion

1/4 Parsley

1/4 Cilantro

Olive Oil

Sea Salt

24 oz Water

16 oz Green Tea

Evening:

Kelp Noodles

Cheesy Dressing

30 oz Water

Workout:

Week 1, Day 1 of C25K - Outdoors, Moderate Hilly Terrain (omg, it was hard!! I've been doing week 3 trail runs and this was a step back that kicked my rear!)

TUESDAY

Morning:

Warm Water & Lemon

Almond Butter

Maca Drink (almond milk, maca powder, carob powder, water, agave)

24 oz Water

Afternoon:

2 Handfuls Greens

Cheesy Dressing

Green Onion

1/2 Tomato

Sea Salt

32 oz Green Tea

2 Squares Green & Black Organic 85% Dark Chocolate

24 oz Water

Evening:

2 Handfuls Greens

Cheesy Dressing

Green Onion

1/2 Tomato

Pumpkin Seeds

Alfalfa Sprouts

20 oz Water

21 Day Cleanse - Day 7

Today stunk... just plain stunk... It was a friends birthday gathering and rather than the normally go out to a bar, we did a brunch and then hit up Main Event for games. Brunch was at a Tex Mex joint and consisted of their buffet. I stuck to vegan, but not everything was raw. I don't know WHAT exactly killed my stomach, but I was in and out of the restroom until about 9pm. I only bowled once at Main Event and went home and then did nothing but lay on the couch and run to the bathroom. OY, that was no fun. Stomach wasn't used to something... I ate a lot of fruit, but also had their guac, some really spicy potatoes and then some salsa... probably the combo and I don't know what they cooked with. Needless to say, next time we do something like that; I'm sticking to the fruit!

Since we were eating and hanging out near the farmers market that I've been wanting to go to, I sucked it up and stopped on the way home. The local farmers can't call their produce certified organic because they can't afford the certification, but they call it "natural", which is the same...they do not use pesticides, no GMO's, everything is naturally grown. This made me happy! It also made extremely excited to find the "over ripe" discount stuff! Perfect for juicing!

Morning:
20 oz Water
Tex Mex Vegan Brunch Buffet (fruit, potatoes, guac, salsa, etc)

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Afternoon/Evening:
Cucumber
Tomato
Green Onion
Hemp Hearts
Olive Oil
Mustard
50 oz Water

Made a sort of tabouli bowl, though I realized I was definitely missing the herbs that the recipe calls for. Didn't realize that until after I had eaten it. The tomato was one of those that was on sale because it was over ripe. I removed one tiny little spot and the rest was amazing! It had so much meat and barely any juice. SO AWESOME!

21 Day Cleanse - Day 6

Um...today I wanted to hang out at home and do freelance, plus make note of the sun hitting my balcony so I can plant some herbs and lettuce! However, it rained ALL day... I had thought about going hiking down south and then hitting up an outdoor yoga class, but, again..it rained...  :(  these days make me very boring. I laid around basically all day before meeting a coworker and her boyfriend in the evening.


Morning:
Warm Water & Lemon
Handful of Raw Nuts & Raisins
24 oz Water

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Afternoon:
Lettuce wrapped "sub" w/lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and guacamole
24 oz Water

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Evening:
Hummus & Veggies
Salad w/Balsamic Dressing



So, the past few days have literally been eating out. I have stuff I could make at home, though I lack a lot of fresh veggies and fruit. The mustard greens I want to make into chips and the kale I seem to be too lazy to make a dressing for. Oh well... I'll get to it! Hopefully before they go bad...