Cleanse Day 4/5: Making Adjustments

Good afternoon, internet people!

So on Day 4, I was reminded that I have a birthday dinner to go to this weekend, and while I know how to work the menu and have something as clean and veggie based as possible, the timing falls on the last cleanse day. Also, weirdly enough, I was way too hungry yesterday. So what i decided to do instead was a 4.5 day cleanse, so I could do this birthday dinner (not my birthday, btw). 

So yesterday I actually had 8 juices rather than 6, which worked out because it ended up being a bit of a longer day. This way, too, I wasn't getting hungry later in the night and end up eating something because I ran out of juice. I spaced it as normal, and drank more water of course to compensate. 

Today (day 5), I have 4 juices to space over the morning and afternoon. So that's my plan of attack for today, it seems to be working so far. This may be considered cheating, but it's the only way I could do all the things I intended to in the first place. 

I'm proud of myself for making it this far. Tomorrow I'll be posting my overview and thoughts about the cleanse in general, anything else I experienced, and if I would do it again!

Thanks for reading! xx

Cleanse Day 3: Chill Out Day

Shortly after I posted day 2, I started feeling that lovely pain again and this time it was for a legitimate reason. So now, on the one set of days that women are given free license to eat their weight in chocolate and greasy food and expensive lattes, I am drinking raw, cold-pressed juice. 

Which is not to say I'm knocking the juices. They're still good and I do feel that my digestion has improved and my belly is not as bloated as it usually is at this time of the month. However, the pain is significantly worse. I spent the day, therefore, lying on the couch snuggling a puppy and watching Frozen, Bones, and Youtube videos while a storm raged outside. For the pain, I'd avoided taking any medications during the cleanse as well, and though my headache was bad at times, I held out and didn't take anything for it. So the same went for the cramps. Instead, I took a friend's advice and microwaved a small towel to bring myself some relief. I don't have a hot water bottle or bean bag - the towel doesn't hold on to heat like those do, of course - but this was enough to get by. 

In hindsight, I should have just started with 3 days. I'm now on Day 4 and while I'm not "hungry", I'm itching for a salad, a latte, hummus, SOMETHING. I think I just am wanting more variety. I've had the same "menu" for 3 days, and I don't think I properly thought it through. I didn't think I'd get bored. Yes, there are 6 very different juices to have throughout the day, but they're the same 6 juices. If I were to do this again, I think I'd do 3 days, and maybe customize it. The website gives you the option to do that. For the first time, not even halfway into day 4 of my juices, I am about ready to throw in the towel and just drink them between small meals. But, my determination has held out for me so far. I think I would be disappointed in myself if I quit now.

Now for the day's struggle - I have to go downtown today but the storm has gotten worse and I really don't want to leave the house. Maia needs a walk but it's so icky out she barely wants to pee outside. 

Anyway, there's my bitching for the day, haha. I'm going to finish my second juice and play with the pup for a bit. Thanks for reading, all that do. 

xx

Clease Day 2: Changes?

Good afternoon, guys!

Read Day 1 here for info on what the juices taste like: Cleanse Day 1 

Day 2, the juices started tasting better to me than they did the first day. I definitely noted more hunger when I went longer between juices. 

This may be a little TMI, but i feel it's important to mention. Last night, about half an hour or so after finishing my last juice, I was lying down reading before bed and began to feel a "cramp-like" pain in my lower abdomen. I figured it was just normal cramps, so I got up and did what I had to do, and rolled around in bed in excruciating pain for about another hour before I was finally able to sleep. 

Now for more TMI. When I woke up this morning I felt normal, and hadn't bled at all. So was it really cramps, or was it some side effect of the detox? I'm not sure because the only other detox symptoms I've had have been the caffeine headache, which has finally left in its entirety (at least for now). This morning I had my water, first juice, another glass of water and then lost track of time so I'm having my second juice now, about 3 hours late. Whoops. I don't feel hungry, but the cramping feeling is back. I honestly can't tell if it's normal "that time of the month" pain or if it's the detox. Either way, it's not as bad as it was last night, and otherwise I'm doing well.

It's a blustery day here, wind and rain, gloomy clouds. I'm proud of myself that I've done this right so far. For the last almost week, all I've wanted is a hot Starbucks latte. I am definitely going to have to ease myself back into coffee, but I doubt I'll go back to meat. Maybe on special occasions, or for dinners out etc, but as it is I don't eat a lot of meat in those situations anyway. Usually chicken or fish. I want to decrease my dairy intake as well. I'll see how hard it is to reincorporate those things into my diet after this is done. Ironically I have to go out for dinner on Sunday, so I'll have to see what I can find that's not only gluten free, but also vegetarian, and easy to digest. I'm assuming a salad, but I don't trust restaurant dressings. I'll figure it out.

Anyway, I think that's enough blabbing for today. I'll let you know how I'm doing tomorrow!

Love you for reading! xx

 

Cleanse Day 1: First Impression

Good morning!

This time I may actually mean it. My dog let me sleep until 8:30 which rarely happens, so it was nice to get that extra hour-ish of sleep. I think I may have to go to a pet store and buy her something ;)

Okay let's be honest I would have bought her something regardless. Her breed? Spoiled.

Miss Spoiled is currently curled up next to me on the couch. Yep. What a life. It looks a little something like this. 

Anyway, yesterday was day 1 of the cleanse and I want to give you a little first impression I had of each juice. For reference, I'm doing Good Life Cleanse's Classic Detox Cleanse, and all the nutritional info is provided in the link. You can see which ones I'm having and the presumed order. I'd recommend referring to that so you know what I'm talking about as I go through the juices of the day.

 First thing when I woke up, I drank a tall glass of water. I wasn't feeling hungry (and I never am in the morning), so I instead took Maia out for a walk, which was supposed to be an hour and turned into two. So by the time I got back home it was 11:30. I started with my first juice of the day pretty late, you're supposed to have it within the first hour of waking up. Whoops.

The first juice is "Classic Greens", with apple, cucumber, romaine, celery, lemon, spinach, kale, parsley, and ginger. On first impressions yesterday, I wasn't overly fond of this one. It tastes pretty heavily parsley, which I'm not a huge fan of. But, it wasn't horrible, and I could taste other flavours in it too. Ultimately, it was okay, but not my favourite.

Please note, in between each juice - as instructed - I had a cup of hot water. You can do hot or cold, but because it's winter here in frosty Canada, I chose to boil a kettle and have a mug of that. 

The second juice is "Sweet Life", with pineapple, cucumber, apple, lime, and mint. I quite like this one. At first the mint was quite strong but about halfway through it became refreshing. Plus, I love anything with pineapple, so there's that.

The third is another green juice, called "All U Need", with carrot, celery, spinach, and parsley. This one again is parsley heavy, but it's lighter than the first one and the carrot is heavier. Which I appreciate, it makes the juice a little thicker and sweeter than the first one. If I could, I would swap out the first one and have 2 of these instead.

The next one is called "Master Cleanse" with lemon, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper, and this is the one I was most worried that I wouldn't like. I can't handle spicy things, so this "spicy lemonade" intimidated me. My first sip was, I'll be honest, horrendous. Then I realized I'm supposed to shake it. So I did that. After I shook it up it was tolerable, but I had to dump the last 8th or so of the bottle because all the cayenne fell to the bottom and made it very spicy. Otherwise, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I just can't handle spicy things.

I had been spacing these no further than 2 hours apart, and that seemed to be working well, but after Master Cleanse I had a shower and was getting distracted watching Bones and not keeping track of time. I went about 2.5 hours, and realized suddenly that I was getting really hungry. 

I started my next to last juice of the day - "Roots Remedy", with cucumber, apple, celery, carrots, beet, lemon, ginger, parsley, mint. This one is okay, I don't hate beets, but again the parsley is pretty strong. I think the mint helps mellow it a little so it's not so offensive. It easily quelled my hunger about halfway through. I'm proud that I didn't break before even one day!

The last juice is called "Creamy Cashew", with cashews, vanilla bean, cinnamon, dates, and sea salt. This is the one I was most excited for and it's definitely my favourite. It's like dessert! I did find the vanilla bean to be a little strong, but it was a nice ending to the day and really kept me full overnight. I didn't wake up starving or anything.

So there you have Day 1! I'm pretty happy so far. Tomorrow I'll give more of an overview of how I've been feeling, etc. Have a good day, and thank you for reading, all that do. xx

Prep Day 3

Day 3 was easier still than the days before. Here's what day 3 looks like:

Green tea (throughout the day)

Water (throughout the day)

Smoothie of strawberries, 1 apple, 1 banana, chia seeds, and almond milk

Hummus with celery sticks

Vegan chili with tortilla chips

I slept poorly, but that has nothing to do with this - as you may remember I am an insomniac and when I do sleep it's not often very deep or very long.

So today marks day one of just juice, water, lemon water, and green tea. We'll see if I survive. I'll give you my first thoughts tomorrow, as well as daily updates and finally at the end an overview of what I liked, what I didn't like, and would I do it again?

Love you for reading! xx

Prep Day 2

Yesterday was better than the first day. My headache persisted until around 1 pm when it finally started to fade away. I called and ordered my cleanse, and it will arrive today.

Yesterday I didn't have much of an appetite, but here is an overview:

Green tea (throughout the day)

Water (throughout the day)

Small glass of orange juice (I'm aware this is sugar, it just seemed like a better alternative to delving into my stash of halloween candy because I was craving something sweet!)

Vegan chili, with tortilla chips

I was going to make a berry smoothie afterwards but didn't end up doing that after all. Instead I opted for a hot cup of water with lemon, and went to bed.

I know this doesn't sound like much, but I really didn't have much of an appetite. Especially first thing in the morning.

Love you for reading! xx

Prep Day 1

In preperation for the cleanse I'm starting on Tuesday, I have to do a 3 day prep period. 

This means no refined sugars, dairy, meat, coffee, and lots of water, incorporate plant based meals so the cleanse is most effective and my system doesn't completely crash with the adjustment.

Yesterday was Day 1. The worst thing about it was avoiding coffee. My caffeine headache started around 11 am and has continued into today - over 24 hours now. I knew it was coming, but that doesn't stop it from being horribly painful. Otherwise, yesterday looked like this:

Filtered water, first thing in the morning, and throughout the day

Handful of raw cashews/almonds

Salad with lettuce, cucumber, green pepper and organic caesar dressing (so I failed a little here, I didn't realize my dressing had cheese in it, whoops)

Green tea

Vegan crackers with organic peanut butter

Vegan crock pot chili with organic tortilla chips (not certified vegan but there weren't any animal ingredients that I could see)

 I plan to do a post every day about the previous day, so you can follow along with this experience. I placed my order today for the juices, and they should be arriving tomorrow, which will allow me to start Tuesday morning. That's it for now!

Love you for reading!

xx

Health and Juice Cleanse

Good afternoon, beautiful people of the internet.

Lately I've fallen off the health wagon. A combination of stress, Halloween chocolate, and nasty weather have contributed to this lovely little spell. However, I am determined (and by putting it in print somehow I must be held accountable) to get back on track.

 I'm strongly considering trying a juice cleanse for the first time. I am no stranger to green smoothies, so my concern is not the taste of the juice. I actually am pretty excited about it. My concern for doing this is the cost, more than anything. I don't have a juicer, so unless I go buy one and all the produce i would need - by my calculations and guides I've found online at least - it would cost a few hundred dollars to do a cleanse for 3+ days. I have a Nutribullet, but the point of that blender is to maintain the smoothie consistency. The point of juicing is to remove that fibrous content that a smoothie maintains. 

On the other hand, I've found a company out of Nanaimo which delivers cleanses, raw, cold pressed, organic, to your door. It would cost, with shipping, about $60/day. Which, if you add it up, is less than if I did it myself. The only thing is I don't know if I can handle spending the money on it! Ugh, the struggle.

Regardless of the juice cleanse thing, I am making an effort to make better choices again. I need to not fall off the wagon anymore. This should be a lifestyle for me.

I am walking my dog every day, drinking way too much water, and plenty of tea. I've also been trying to avoid meat products. I have made a new vegetarian friend who has inspired me to stop eating meat, or at least I'm cutting down on it. Eating meat really is not necessary, just with also being gluten free I find it difficult to cut out both things entirely and still have things to eat!

Anyway, looks like that's it for now. If I go ahead with the juice cleanse, I'll let you know how it went, my thoughts and experience. 

Love you for reading. xx