Master Cleanse Days 5 & 6

Thanks to blogging, I was able to recall the happenings of last year's cleanse. Days 5 and 6 last time were problem days for me, I felt tired and a little sick. This time around, I felt fine!

I'm not going to lie, this cleanse is not ALL fun and games. The sitting on the toilet part and the feelings that go with it are very frustrating moments. However, I  didn't have many stretches of time where I felt like crap this time around. I've been happy and energetic!

I was a little mentally foggy the last couple of days. I had to try harder to keep myself focused in order to get through the work day. Other than that, I've had no issues.

Here's my big qualm though: according to the scale, I have not lost any weight! I'm stuck at 140, which for a 5'2" woman, that is overweight. I am overweight.

But how can this be? I feel slimmer, I fit into my clothes better, my stomach looks flatter and my waist looks smaller and when I gaze down at my thighs, they don't protrude as much as the did before. "It's just because you lost water weight." Well, water weight is weight isn't it? So why haven't I lost any? If the scale is inaccurate, I guess that could explain it. And if it is, I bet this has been the cause of my discouragement since it makes me feel fat when I see an unchanging number on the scale despite my many efforts.

Maybe this is it for me, this is the body I was destined to have. Not skinny, not obese, just overweight by a little bit.

Master Cleanse Day 3 & 4

The past couple of days have been going well. Since I'm lumping the days together I'm just going to describe what has been going on as the thoughts come to me.

• There are a few moments where I get a little woozy and have a hard time focusing. I've experienced my mind sort of going out the window and forgetting what just happened. I don't remember having that my first cleanse. 

• I drank my senna Sunday night and Monday morning. I had all my eliminations within an hour. I took the SWF Monday night and all the eliminations were done in one hour. BUT I took senna the next morning and I didn't eliminate until about 5pm. Then after that, I had them almost all night, until about 11pm. WTF?

• When I cleansed last year I didn't work out or dance. I went to modern class last night and had no trouble whatsoever. In fact, I was more flexible! My cleanse will extend through next Wednesday so I'll have taken another class as well as have taught six classes (3 on Wednesday).

• I don't pass things as quick as other people. This concerns me.

• I've generally been feeling well. The only time I was like "this sucks" was yesterday when it felt like there was no end to my eliminations. I didn't feel crappy, I was just tired of going to the bathroom. 

• I've determined that I need to eat my "healthy" food when I dine out and I need to make my "junk" food at home. If I get a salad at a restaurant there might be sugar, soybean oil and pesticides but at least I'll be getting my veggies. If I make fries in my kitchen, they'll be tossed in olive oil and baked.

• I feel the need to forgive co workers I don't like and to try and make nice with them. What? 

Master Cleanse Day 1 and Day 2

Well.

I drank my senna tea Friday night and woke up Saturday morning as it began to work.

I was waiting until I had the place to myself because I had planned to do the salt water flush in the morning before any lemonade. I started to feel fuzzy and my caffeine withdrawal headache was in full force so at around 10am I made myself a drink. I had another a little bit before noon because the weak feeling was not going away. And then I think I had another shortly thereafter...I'm not sure...maybe I was just thinking about it.

Soon, I found myself sitting on the floor in the bathroom with my head hanging over the toilet bowl. How could this be? I cleansed last year in February and did not have such an adverse reaction. I've been eating mostly organic since then so this can't mean my body is more toxic!

Anyhow, from about 2pm until 10pm, I could not keep anything down, not even a sip of water. After thinking about why on earth this is happening, I brought up to my fiancee that maybe I'm more toxic this year because I've been on lots of asthma medication. Then we recalled that since I was getting ready for the cleanse, I discontinued my heartburn medication. It would make sense that if this medication inhibited my stomach's production of acid, that it's possible that it may have compensated by making more. And all that strong acid was just sitting there in my stomach without any food to digest. This explains the very burning, painful vomiting of the contents of my empty stomach.

Needless to say, Day 1 was awful. I'm not so sure I should even call it Day 1 because all the lemonade I had was purged and I took a couple doses of pepto in order to finally neutralize my stomach acid so that I could stop throwing it up.

On the morning of Day 2, I still felt very weak as I hadn't had any sustenance in the last 36 hours. But after some coaxing, I managed to down two glasses of lemonade. Then I finally felt like a functioning human being. I was able to -somewhat foggily- lead our fellowship meeting with smiling and singing. Afterward though, during a conversation I started helplessly crying for no reason! Mind you this is Sunday morning and I hadn't taken my herbal laxative since Friday night, nor done the SWF so my body's only way to expel toxins was through my tongue, sweat or maybe my tear glands? I don't know. Either way, my routine was turned upside down and I basically spent half of the previous in bed or puking.

The rest of today has been great- only a few moments of feeling weak or fuzzy. And lemonade definitely made those go away. There were some more challenging moments, however. We were offered both a free lunch AND a free dinner today which we regretfully turned down. It also didn't help that we passed by a new sushi joint up the road.

You truly do not realize how much food is such a prominent focus in life until you stop eating! Food is often used in comparison to non-food related things! Food can easily be the subject of conversation with just about anyone.

I think I remember it getting easier with time, so we'll see how it goes. Drinking senna tonight and hoping to feel different I've flushed away some toxins in the morning!

Easing In

So this vegan thing isn't very easy! Hell, being a vegetarian is totally hard for someone who is usually an omnivore.

This morning I was trying to track the days so far I've been a vegan or vegetarian. Sunday I had barbequed chicken for breakfast! It wasn't an ease-in day though. I don't remember Monday. I had some cheesecake and there was some parmesan on my sprouted grain pasta. I think Monday was meat-free.

On New year's eve I stayed the night at the home of a couple of friends who were doing the Master Cleanse together. They also happen to be moving so they gladly gave away a ton of the groceries. Score! Part of that was a 6lb bag of carrots, a bell pepper, and half a bag of oranges. We made off with a few packaged food with health claims or sporting the green "All Natural" label (which we know does not make it healthy). Nonetheless, it was nice to go home with some free groceries a few days before the anticipated expenses of organic lemons.

Anyhow, on the morning of January 1st, I had planned to make oatmeal but that was interrupted when the couple suggested having some organic vanilla (sugar filled) yogurt with some Kashi (sugar filled) cereal. Garrison indulged. I had 2 oranges. I was starving not long after so we got some dried mango from the health food store (we were there to pick up Stanley Burroughs' book and some copper supplements).

After we came home, I sauteed some garlic, onions, carrots and green peppers in some coconut oil and doused my veggies with Frank's Red Hot then wrapped up the mixture in a (mostly) whole wheat tortilla. I had 2. Garrison put cheese on his. I refrained so up to this point, I had a vegan day.

So then we went to yet another party at which I snacked on fruit, veggies, nuts and grains. I did not succumb to the cheese! Yay! But there were cocktail weenies sitting in a bowl and looking at me. Just before we left, I popped one in my mouth. It was cold so it wasn't worth it. Then later, as I was snacking, I had some cheese.

Yesterday I ate pumpkin oatmeal for breakfast, snacked on raw fruit (which freaked me out because I had to eat so much!) and a lunch of the above described veggie tacos. Dinner was a pb & J sandwich (100% ww bread, all fruit spread without added sugar, and natural peanut butter), then whatever the heck I snacked on: Nut Thins, mustards, pepper jelly, pickle relish, carrot....aw crap- half an ounce of cheese.
So Wednesday was vegan up until about 8:30pm. Not bad. Just not perfect.

I had intended today to be grain-free but I have two more tortillas to use up (I hate wasting). Other than that I'll be grain free and I WILL NOT HAVE CHEESE! I had a pumpkin banana smoothie this morning with peanut milk and chia seeds. So far, I've eaten 3 clementines and 2 pears. It's a half hour until lunch and I am very hungry.

You do your chores, I'll do mine

Usually my fiance and I do just about everything together; cooking, cleaning, shopping, running errands, laundry, and even a bit of car work (handing him wrenches and paper towels counts, right?). But today is a "you do your chores and I'll do mine" kind of day.


One of the best things I learned from an etiquette column was in response to a woman whose husband refused to write thank-you notes for birthday gifts he recieve. The columnist answered "Whatever happened to 'You do your chores, I'll do mine' ?" Suggesting that this woman should write the guests of the party she threw for her husband, thanking them for attending and also dropping a line in about how much her husband loves the gift. After all, there are different things that men and women are expected to do.

Now don't get me wrong, I consider myself progressive! But after carefully observing and reading about the differences between men and women, it has become clear that there are certain things that women are more inclined to do--like the dishes--that men will most definitely forget. Then there are certain things that would drive a woman nuts if she had to deal with that a man can tackle with a little crumbling and cursing but will feel so amazing after it's over; like fixing the car (which is precisely what Garrison's task is today).

So my plan for today is to write thank-you's for our Christmas presents, clean the apartment and then zone out on some piece of cardio equipment whilst watching a tv movie.

In other news, I tossed my charred toast and didn't feel too sorry about it. And yes. I ate way too much crap at the party anyhow. I've also mapped out my Master Cleanse ease-in. Today my diet shall be "normal" but I'm basically cleaning up the leftover perishables and procuring raw fruits and veggies for the next couple of days. The day before the cleanse, I plan to drink smoothies and juices.

Saturday, I will start the Master Cleanse or "lemonade diet," as some call it. "Diet" is somewhat of a dirty word to me. It makes me think of punishment and a lot of low-calorie, yet highly-processed foods. Diets are meant to help you lose weight but not become healthy. Cleansing is meant to rid your body of toxins and thereby help you become more healthy. Weight loss is an inevitable side bonus since what you consume in the cleanse is limited to your "main course" of a lemon juice, water, maple syrup, cayenne cocktail plus herbal laxative tea, a salt water flush, and all the filtered water you can drink. 

I did this cleanse last year in February and blogged about it. I'm interested in seeing the similarities between 2012's and 2013's. I didn't ease-in last time so I hope to see some major differences.

I'm using these two days off to get some cleaning done. I started with the fridge and now it is immaculate! But alas I don't have a picture to share because the camera went with my fiance to document some car work. I will put it up later so stay tuned! 

Away from my kitchen!

For Christmas, my fiance's family decided that we needed to be ripped away from the comforts of our kitchen for an entire seven days filled with outdoor winter activities and tons of processed food. Also, that my desire to eat whole foods needed to be mocked.

Wow, that sounded a little harsh didn't it?

Okay, I'll admit not all the food we ate was processed since a lot of it was from classy restaurants. I wasn't mocked either. It was merely suggested by the future Physician's Assistant that antioxidants could help undo the damage caused by the free radicals released by the heat treated vegetable oil that inevitably makes its way into foods we eat. And I did my fair share of dishing it out when I suggested my future father in law could attribute his hair loss to the rapeseed oil in his beloved Skippy peanut butter.

So let me try again.

In your own kitchen, you very much have control over the methods in which your food is prepared. In someone else's kitchen, even if you're given a touch of free reign, not so much. In your own town you also know the right place to shop in order to find the foods you prefer to eat. I've never appreciated Wegmans more! Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say.

But I have returned home to my lovely canisters filled with brown stuff and my cute little Frenchy in which I meticulously brew delicious coffee meant for the sophisticated addict's taste buds.

This is what wooden spoons look like when they haven't been used for a week. WHO KNEW!?!?!?

I won't rehash every detail of my trip but I will tell you I'm excited for my extreme recovery after the period of moderate indulgence.

My man's youngest brother bought two bagels from the grocery store the other night and after two days of them sitting in a paper bag and a 3.5 hour car trip, he decided he didn't want them. "I'm wasteful," he said. I appreciated his honesty. I, however, am not wasteful. Alas. I don't eat white bagels. Or at least I declare I don't until I accidentally do.

It just so happens that I'm attending a party this afternoon so I thought I'd put these bad boys to good use. I cut through their stale crusts and made small bruschetta toast size pieces. I figured they would be tasty to the average palette if I tossed them with herbs and oil and toasted them. So I did like I did when I make bruschetta. Well not quite. I usually brush on dried herbs, fresh garlic and olive oil. But this dish is for a party, not for me.

So I dumped on about 2/3 cup of canola oil (because it needs to be removed from my cabinet but I HATE wasting things I mistakenly spent money on) over the slices and added a spice blend I never use.

 

Maybe I'm recalling incorrectly. I thought when I did the brushed-on olive oil method that I left my toasts in a 450 degree oven for a good 10-15 minutes. Well since these slices were, like, totally soaked in canola oil...

THIS 

is what came out of the oven after 8 minutes. No, those darker ones are not a pumpernickel variety. Now I'm going to see about salvaging the ones which were not burnt and supplementing my dish with something else.Oh! I almost forgot to mention that these are intended to be topped with a hot pepper jelly whose first ingredient is sugar. Gotta get rid of it somehow, right?

I've yet to work out all the details of my recovery but I know at least it will involve an all-organic, vegan ease-in to the Master Cleanse and a similar ease out with some (hopefully) permanent changes.Wish me luck!

Pumpkin

I was given a gift. A very large gift. A large round, orange gift that probably weighed a good 12lbs or more.

Finally! I get to accomplish my goal of making a pumpkin pie! Like... you know, from a real pumpkin instead of a can!

Ok, so it's not a "pie pumpkin" as they say...the smaller round looking ones are better for pie because of the fibers or something. Pshaw. A pumpkin is pumpkin to me. If Cinderella's fairy Godmother can turn it into a carriage, I'll turn it into a pie.

So also bought myself a new camera and took some pics of said pumpkin. I don't have my card with me so I'll upload pics later. I didn't as many progress pics but I'm working on the whole food-tography thing.

Anyhow here are the steps I used to process my pumpkin.

1) Sharpen knife for a few minutes.

2) Have your fiancee slice the damn thing into 12ths.

3) Scoop out the stringy things and the seeds and set in a bowl. An ice cream scoop worked very well for this.

4) Arrange the sections of pumpkin on a baking tray and roast in a 300F oven for one to one and a half hours.

5) While that's roasting, add water to your seed and string bowl play in the slime, pulling the seeds (which should float) away from the strings (which kind of sink).

6) Pour the strings and water into a pan on the stove and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer for 45 minutes. Strain and reserve your PUMPKIN BROTH!!!

7) The pumpkin meat slices in the oven should be tender. Some of mine had pools of what looked like water on the surface. So I dragged my finger through it and took a taste. It wasn't water, it was oil! And it was sweet! I picked up the slice and there was all this gorgeous oil resting at the bottom of my baking sheet! What I didn't lick up stayed in the pan.

8) After the pumpkin slices cool, get the ice cream scoop back out and scoop the cooked meat into a food processor or blender. Wear earplugs.

9) Puree until smooth.

Our pumpkin yielded about 21 cups, including the raw meat. We were definitely cycling the oven for a few hours with slices, one tray at a time. This is very much a weekend project.

I also tossed the seeds with the oil plus salt and pepper and toasted them. I ended up having to add olive oil but still I thought it was pretty friggin cool that I could the pumpkin's own oil to cook its seeds!

Now I get to cook with all my puree! So far I've made pumpkin pie oatmeal and a pumpkin smoothie. More on those with a later post!