Day 16--Back to Business

Today gave me the first glimpse into how I could handle this process while working. I had training for a pilot program I am doing that lasted from 8:00-3:00. I had everything all ready and prepared last night before I went to bed:

I drank all the bottled water by 4:00 this afternoon. All I had left for the evening was the 40 oz. left in the gallon jug. I had to pee so many times today! It's tough being back in the school and not being able to use the bathroom anytime it's necessary. I had to wait until we had a break...ugh!

MORNING
I woke up pretty well--especially for not getting bed until about 10:30. I weighed myself, and I continue to drop. By the time I walked out the door, I felt like I was so well-prepared for the day. However, I couldn't help but think I forgot something...

BREAKFAST
I enjoyed my breakfast sitting at my desk again. Can you guess what breakfast consisted of? Yes, fresh fruit. I didn't pack enough. I realize that as soon as I took a bite of the first peach slice. I knew early this morning that today would be a hungry day.

LUNCH
I wasn't very hungry for lunch. I actually finished the entire green water bottle by the time I needed to take my supplement (11:30). I had a basic microgreen salad with 1 tablespoon of creamy garlic dressing.

MID-AFTERNOON
I had every intention of bringing my Alkalinize with my and taking it as soon as training was over. However, I realized at 3:00 that I remembered EVERYTHING except the green death drink. I didn't take it until 4:00 which meant that dinner would be pushed back another hour. I was hungry this afternoon--not hungry enough for a snack, but hungry. The Alkalinize subdued my hunger enough to help me get through dinner prep.

DINNER
This was the only meal I was nervous about while looking through the week's menu.

Meal 46 of 63:

curry cauliflower

lemon pepper kale

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this meal because I've never really experienced curry. I've heard such mixed reactions about it that I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it. I knew my mom doesn't like curry, but while I was preparing it, I used a little less curry than necessary. However, I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I really enjoyed this! I would absolutely make it again.

I am still hungry. This is definitely a hungry day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Fingers are crossed for it! I have already finished my gallon of water, but I only got through one gallon.

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Now that I'm no longer taking the Detox, I find myself not having such difficulty using the bathroom. The Detox is meant to help RELEASE the toxins, but it seemed to have the reverse effect on me. Now that I'm no longer taking the detox, my BMs are coming back to normal like during Phase 1. I am grateful for that. I was really beginning to feel gross.

Day 14--End of Phase 2!

MORNING
Well I believe that drinking the 1.5 gallons of water a day and adding the "p" fruits to my breakfast has helped. I was able to successfully use the bathroom in the morning for the first time since I started Phase 2 a week ago. At least, not with drinking another 20 oz of water beforehand. I'm so glad!

I realized that today was a good day for one reason:

Last day to suffer through Detox. Hooray!!! Now to begin the countdown to the end of Alkalinize...but let's not get ahead of ourselves! We still have 7 days of that...

BREAKFAST
While preparing breakfast this morning, I was giddy. Really giddy. I couldn't wait to sit down and eat my breakfast! I haven't gotten this giddy feeling for breakfast in the last 2 weeks. Sure, I've been excited for some meals, but not like this. I definitely made note of that today.

Meal 40 of 63:

fresh fruit

Like I said.....YUMMY!! Who gets excited about fruit? THIS GAL! I never would have said that 3 weeks ago. Don't get me wrong--I've always loved fruit. Just not like this.

LUNCH

Meal 41 of 63:

kabocha butternut squash soup with coconut milk

microgreen salad (with ONLY sunflower seeds and creamy garlic dressing)

I can speak volumes about that soup. I could easily eat 3 times that amount of soup. It was creamy and delicious. The soup had only a slight hint of coconut which was very pleasant. The creaminess of the squash was lovely. It was tough "cooking" it in the blender because it was a bit thick and was tough to get all the squash out from the blender. This is definitely a soup I'll be revisiting again in the near future.


DINNER

Meal 42 of 63:

edamame and roasted corn succotash

lemon pepper kale

The prep for this meal was intense, but very easy. Maybe it was intense because I had a really bad headache, but regardless, it was intense. The total cooking time was MAYBE 30 minutes. However, there were several steps that built on one another. Headache or no, I really managed to keep up with it. Mom certainly helped with all the prep work, but I was definitely driving it. That's kind of how it's been throughout the process: I drive the cooking, mom drives the assisting and cleaning, and we both split the shopping.


In fact, while I was chopping and mincing the cilantro, mom said, "Wow, Kim, you really handle the knife well!" I find that kind of ironic given my history with knives, but it was certainly a compliment. I love working the knife in the kitchen. Watch out, people!!

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Thoughts on this phase? Well, besides the difficulties I've experienced in the bathroom, everything has gone very well. The prepping and cooking have gotten easier, and I actually look forward to cooking. Granted, I don't have to think much about what I'm cooking because the recipes are spelled out for me. That helps a lot.

I will admit that I'm really doing just fine without the meat. I do acknowledge, however, that I have had a craving for bacon or a burger or something along those lines. I know someone from high school who is vegan, and he said that as my body releases the toxins of the meat from my system, my body naturally has these cravings; they do go away. I can attest to that from when I cut red meat out of my diet 2 years ago. I craved it at first, but then it disgusted me.

I'm really toying with the idea of staying vegan after this is over. I feel cleaner. I feel better. Even when I overeat during a meal (which is NOT often), I don't have that wrenching feeling in my stomach that tells me that I had too much meat and, as a result, will need to lay down on the couch because it hurts too much to sit. When I overeat right now, I just feel my stomach telling me, "Kim, you should have stopped eating 5 minutes ago!" I can still sit comfortably. I'm fine. My energy is high. I'm still sleeping close to the hours that I sleep during the school year, but my days are more energized. Please...I was dancing in the shower this morning to some terrible pop song on Z100. I haven't danced in the shower since I was listening to NSync....about a month ago. Hah.

I mentioned this to my chiropractor today when I saw him, and he was really excited for me. "That's awesome, Kim. Not everyone can do it. I know I need meat. My wife, though, could go days without eating meat. What's great about what you're doing, though, is that you're really testing it out. You're not making this decision based on how you were raised or what people say, but you're listening to your body and making decisions based on what your body can handle." Not verbatim, but pretty darn close. I think he's absolutely right.

We will now be going into the third and final phase of this cleanse. I will still be eating vegan, but all the grains will be cut out from the diet. They will be available as options during certain meals, but I'm going to do my best to stick as closely to the meal plan without using the grains.

Fingers crossed!!

Day 9--I've got "K9" written on top of my gallon of water. I've been waiting for it since I started.

Super long title, but whatever.

This day was a long day, and I knew that in advance, so I was able to prepare. Like I mentioned yesterday, I cooked all my food for today yesterday. I spent a good 6 hours in the kitchen. Prepping and cooking. It was worth it, though, to have a day of no cooking. I spent the day out in Hillsborough tutoring, and then went up to visit Michele.

People on the boards have revealed that it could take 2-3 days for the Detox to work it's magic. Oh, if I forgot to mention, this is the RELEASE phase where my body is supposed to release everything it's been holding onto. I'm still waiting for this release to happen. It's supposed to be a gentle release, not a OH-MY-GOSH-I'M-ABOUT-TO-CRAP-MY-PANTS release. We'll see.

MORNING
Waking up this morning was super easy, and that's with not going to bed until 10:45. My alarm went off at 5:00, and I was up, bouncing, and ready to go. This is clearly not because I'm cute, but rather than this cleanse is really helping me sleep. It took me no time to fall asleep last night, and I don't remember waking up once. Nice change.

BREAKFAST
The breakfast in the book for this morning was miso soup which I refuse to eat. So rather than suffer, I decided to eat a different breakfast from this week. This week mostly has fruit in the morning for breakfast, but I didn't want to have fruit. Instead, I took the only other non-miso non-fruit recipe for this week's breakfast and used it for today. I was pleasantly surprised. I ate it at my desk at work while I scribbled some answers to a Romeo and Juliet study guide question packet for tutoring since I've never used the guide and, oh, yeah, all my materials are boxed up for the summer.

Meal 25 of 63:

chick pea mash with avocado and cilantro

spinach

I added a bit of Himalayan salt on top of the chick pea mash before I packed it away. I was DELICIOUS! I could eat that a million times over and over again. The avocado really helped. The recipe called for slices, but who can really slice an avocado nicely without mushing half of it? I put it in the food processor which resulted in a guac-like avocado for my topping. So good. I highly recommend it.

LUNCH
Basic microgreen salad with some pinto beans and rice from last night. Also yummy. I added some more Himalayan salt to the top, and it was divine.

DINNER
This was the most frustrating part of yesterday because it was so time consuming, but the end-product is so darn good!

Meal 27 of 63:

sweet potato and roasted red pepper bisque

roasted asparagus with slivered almonds

This was the second meal that made me want to do this cleanse. If I can eat something as good as this and feel better about myself, why wouldn't I? Like I said yesterday, it's totally vegan and totally good. It does have a strong ginger flavor which I know some people don't like, but I thought it was fabulous. It's amazing how little you have to put into it to make something so good. There were even some small chunks of sweet potato and roasted red pepper. I love it. Yummmm...

Also, this was the first time I roasted my own red peppers. I felt so accomplished! One thing I'm learning is that sometimes I actually CAN cook. I might not actually burn the house down. I am finding that I do sometimes put the wrong quantity of something in the mix. I mean, really, what's the big difference between tsp. and tbsp.?? Unfortunately, it has resulted in unplanned doubling or tripling of recipes to make it work and not throw everything away.

This was a really good day, and a really good day for food.

Day 3--Don't bad things come in threes?

MORNING
[WARNING: Don't read this paragraph if you're not comfortable reading about bowel movements.] I woke up this morning a bit uncomfortable. Since I've started the program, I have noticed an increase in BMs. I believe this can be directly attributed to the water intake and fresh vegetables. However, I hadn't gone since yesterday afternoon, and I clearly felt uncomfortable. I weighed myself, and saw that I went up .6 lbs. I have had a lot of aches, too, but I can't tell if it's due to my period or the "internal workout" I'm getting. Many people note the aches during the process, so I know it's common. The aches in my legs and back I'm sure also come from standing in the kitchen for hours working on food. Anyhow, I drank the remainder of yesterday's gallon of water to see if it would help. I barely finished the water when I finally felt things moving! In the videos, Isabelle mentioned that the color, consistently, and smell might change. Oh boy, was she right! The Alkalinize is green, so as a result....oy! Good morning, Kim!


BREAKFAST
Meal 7 of 63 this morning was 2 scrambled eggs, kale, and 2 slices of whole grain toast. (There is no picture as you've seen it before on Day 1.)

LUNCH
Note: Not hungry.

Meal 8 of 63:

lentil lime salad

microgreen salad with cashews

I tried my very best to eat the lentil salad. I really did! I just couldn't get behind the flavor. The cilantro and the aminos (a low-sodium soy sauce) were just a little too overwhelming in combination with the flavor of the food. I did like the flavor of the dressing when I made it last night, but I couldn't get behind it today. I ate about half the lentils before I gave up. The microgreen salad, however, I finished in its entirety.

I started to get a headache. I don't know what exactly it's from. My gut instinct is that my eyes hurt and it's from staring down at my iPhone. That would also result in a stiffing of my neck, added stress, and would then result in a tension headache. However, it could also be from this cleanse. It is common from the various supplements we are taking. I haven't taken anything for my head because I'm really trying to be strong. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

DINNER
I was actually a bit hungry since I barely ate my lunch. While prepping dinner, I took a moment to check the facebook groups again. A friend from a couple groups offered to email me the reset newsletter because I set it up too late and wouldn't receive the newsletter on the correct dates. I read something that struck a chord with me: "By now your body is starting to release toxins, and it's common to be experiencing strong cravings or even aches and pains. For many people, these can be the most challenging days of the Ultimate Reset™." I have had bad cravings today! I hadn't had cravings the last few days, but today it was wicked!


Okay, so dinner...

I got a boo boo. I need to stay away from knives. That was simply from slicing cucumbers for the cucumber salad. It didn't bleed at first; it just looked a little red. Then all of a sudden it wouldn't stop. If you don't already know, I have had a bad history with knives (I accidentally stabbed myself in the leg--good story), so this just made my day. I quickly snapped a pic and sent it to some friends who would appreciate it.

But as for food!

Meal 9 of 63:

nori rolls with smokey tempeh strip

cucumber salad

miso soup

The cucumber salad and miso soup called for wakame (seaweed). I'm not a fish person and hate the taste and smell of all of it. I decided against using the seaweed for the soup and salad to at least give me the chance at liking it. The only seawood I had was in the nori strip. I tried. I tried really hard. I did like the tempeh, so I'll have to figure out a way to better incorporate that into a meal without the nori. Instead of eating this, I ate leftover beans and rice from yesterday. I did, however, eat the cucumber salad. There aren't any fishy flavors in the way I prepared it, so it's still good for me.

I'm overall very disappointed with today. I'm hoping tomorrow is a better day. Nori rolls are supposed to be lunch tomorrow with the lentil salad. Hah. Yeah, okay. I'll have to figure something out. Maybe more beans and rice tomorrow? I could see how people on the boards talk about wanting to give up. It's very frustrating. I've loaded and unloaded the dishwasher a dozen times already. Even when I prep the food in advance (like today, I made all the rice for the next few days), prep time in the kitchen still lasts hours. I don't know how I'll be able to pull it off over the next two weeks when I have to drive out to work to tutor a kid in To Kill a Mockingbird and Romeo and Juliet.

I look forward to breakfast. THAT will at least be a good meal..