Diary I went to bed so late last night. But, I woke up super energetic this morning like usual. However, I think taking all four of those capsules together last night caused me to wake up with some pretty strong … Continue reading
Diary Guys, I’m shocked. Dumbfounded. I feel like I’m crazy in the head! I weighed myself this morning, post-shower, post-oil-pulling, post-getting dress, and even with all of that, I am down over 4 pounds! Normally I would chalk this up … Continue reading
Diary This morning, to my surprise, I did not feel full! Not like the day before, even though I had eaten so much volume in food! Though my weight went up by a pound, but I’m not doing this for … Continue reading
Diary Ok, so this morning was not off to a great start. Yesterday, I had an amazing lunch with some pretty amazing social media peeps, and even though I ate healthy, that falafel bowl (and half a personal-sized raw carrot … Continue reading
Recently, I’ve been in a cleaning mode. I don’t know if it is Spring Fever, the desire to move, the realization that I don’t even use half of the stuff I own, or simply the fact that I’m missing a few papers to get my taxes done and they are due soon! Whatever the reason, I have been cleaning and sorting through my stuff which led me to an interesting discovery: a ReCleanse Herbal Cleanse that I had clearly forgotten I had purchased sometime within the past year.
I have a passion for studying health-related topics. I’m not sure I intend to go on many “cleanses” as I believe your daily diet can be just as cleansing. However, I am a fan of herbs! So, why put this to waste? Let’s try it out! (I really have a hard time wasting things…)
In this spectacular, refreshing packaging is a set of guidelines to follow for a diet while taking their herbal formulas. The provide you with the serving numbers you are supposed to have per meal according to your weight range. I need to consume 4 servings of low density carbs, 2 servings of high density carbs, 4.5 servings of protein and 3 servings of fat at every meal. This is NOT a typical way that I eat, but for the sake of the cleanse, I shall abide by the rules.
I basically looked at the list of approved foods and tried to figure out what meals I could throw together while still keeping variety. I must say, protein was the hardest. They basically have two suggestions for vegan proteins, so I added a third, keeping in mind that the foods are generally whole foods. They suggested soybean milk and tofu, but I added tempeh as tempeh is a fermented soy product with minimal ingredients (sorry, no fake meats in this one!).
You are NOT allowed to have preservatives, colourings, flavourings, salt, or processed sugars. You are NOT allowed to have hydrogenated or refined fats and oils. No frying, deep frying, or overcooking food. No condiments that have sugar, salt, colourings or flavourings (what condiments are left?!). You can’t have mushrooms, peanuts, farmed fish or yeast (only one exception is made with whole grain bread). No dairy, and no alcohol. My saving grace is that I’m allowed one glass of fruit/vegetable juice a day! But that is ONLY in addition to a full 8 glasses of water. This is a lot! It seems a little overwhelming to be honest, but let’s do it!
My plan for meals is as follows:
Breakfast: Smoothie (2 cups spinach, 2 cups berries, 1 cup banana, 532 mL or 18 oz. soy milk, 2 tsp. almond butter, 1 tbsp. ground flax)
Lunch: Sandwich (2 slices whole grain bread, 383 g or 13.5 oz tempeh, 1 avocado, 1 cup cucumber, 1 cup lettuce, 3/4 cup tomatoes), 1 carrot
Dinner: “Stir-Fry” (1 cup rice, 383 g or 13.5 oz tofu, 3 tsp. almond butter, 1 cup zucchini, 3/4 cup cauliflower, 3/4 cup broccoli), “Dessert” (1 cup celery, 1/2 cup dates)
Yes, I plan on doing this for every day. I’m the type of person that doesn’t usually get sick of food I like, so I’m hoping this will go well! Wish me luck!
Journal:
This morning, I didn’t wake up until almost 10:00! Man, I’m enjoying the ability to sleep in. It shall be short-lived as I return to work tomorrow.
I didn’t eat ANYTHING until 2:00 today. My fruit supplies at home were low, and I needed to go get groceries. There are four organic grocery stores in my city, and I frequent three of them (one has awkward parking). So, I made a list for what I will need this week and went out.
It wasn’t until I got to the second grocery that I noticed they had apple samples! Yes! I ate about a quarter of a Fuji apple that was amazingly delicious, and about a quarter of a Red Delicious apple that wasn’t so impressive. Needless to say, I chose Fuji apples to buy. Then, as I was getting ready to checkout, I decided that I should buy something to take with me. So I bought a cup of grapes to take along.
Now, you’ll notice in the picture that I also bought a bottle of water. One thing that I have noticed is that I am NOT consuming water. Yes, fruit is hydrating, but I haven’t been doing well getting in all my calories lately either. So not only am I not eating everything I need to, my body is also being deprived of water which ended up leaving me with the feeling that I needed to pee all day. It was almost like I couldn’t get all the urine out and I know that lack of water causes all kinds of problems in that area, hence, the bottle of water. People, don’t joke around; drink your water!
After I came home and put everything away, I went to the gym and completed about 26.5 minutes on the rowing machine. Now, this is interesting because I use to try using the rowing machine when I ate the typical bodybuilding diet and I HATED it. I don’t think I was ever on one longer than 5 minutes; seriously. And yet, with no rowing experience, after having eaten maybe 150-200 calories so far, I was able to do the 26.5 minutes of rowing with burst intervals (fast/strong pulling reps between slow/easy pulling reps). I was shocked and amazed. There truly is something to this journey about unlocking my own potential and I’m loving it.
When I came home, I went to look at my food sources I had only to discover I didn’t have much that was ripe for today. I guess I kind of overlooked that when planning my grocery shopping. So I ate an apple. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I ate an apple to end my day. So in total today (and this is terrible), I ate 1.5 apples and 1.5 cups of grapes. Yup, I ate hardly anything and it doesn’t make me happy. This is an example of bad planning. Please don’t replicate days like these. On the other hand, this also proves the potential our bodies have and how ridiculous it is that we – as a society – have become so distant and scared of the feeling of hunger. It’s not going to kill us to feel hungry from time-to-time, just not purposefully starving ourselves either.
Now, let’s talk about hair. I said I was going to finally fill you guys in and so let’s do it right now! I have been looking into the no-poo movement. Basically, it explains about all the chemicals we put into our hair which ultimately gets absorbed into our heads. It also discusses how the typical shampoos and conditioners strip our hair of its natural oils and all of the damage we do. So the no-poo movement works towards restoring your hair back to maintaining its own oil balance while using no shampoos and conditioners and washing with simply water.
Now, it doesn’t happen overnight. We have trained our hair to create more oil than it needs to for years, hence the greasiness you feel when you haven’t washed it in so long. So it is quite the process to get your hair to look and feel good without washing it for a long time. Currently, I wash my hair every 4 days with water, and every 12 days with shampoo and conditioner. When I started this 3 months ago, I ended up wearing my hair up a lot because it looked greasy and awful. But now, 3 months later, I only wear my hair up one or two days of those 12 days and it’s awesome. My hair is learning. 🙂
If you’re interested in learning about the no-poo method as well, please Google it! There is so much information out there and it is totally awesome for those who are trying to get back to our natural state. I’m all about keeping as many chemicals as possible away from my body!
Review of Symptoms:
-Surprisingly energetic despite a lack of calories.
-Stamina is so much better!
-Hair is not greasy.
-Acne is awful.
-Digestion on pause… but what can you expect with hardly any food…
-NEED MORE WATER! Caused me to feel like I needed to pee all day without actually having to.
Weight at the end of the day = 169.4 lbs (down 1 lb from yesterday… so excited!! Haven’t seen the 160s in a LONG time!)
Total Calories = 320 (96% carbs, 0% fat, 4% protein… embarrassingly low…)
Calm in Christ and Fitness 