Detox: Final Day

I won't lie. Today was not a good detox day. It started fine with an orange/mixed berry smoothie, but went downhill from there.

So rather than telling you about the not-so-good food choices I made today, I thought I would use this as a lesson on WHY made bad choices.

I think there were two big reasons for not following through on the detox menu today:
1.) I was tired, and
2) because of that, I wasn't prepared for the day.

I worked late last night. I ate dinner much later than I like to eat dinner. Then Mark and I had our little Valentine's Day together. I took a soak in the hot tub--and then went to bed about an hour later than I meant to.

I agreed to sub and extra class. I added in an extra client at the last minute. It all added up to not being prepared for the day. I didn't have a lunch or snacks packed. And I jammed my schedule so full, I didn't have time to stop for any.

So I ended up spending my day hungry, somewhat light-headed and stressed out. Lesson learned.

We did have a delicious, homemade, sweet potato, carrot soup for dinner.

Failures aside, it was a good week of detoxing the body. I really enjoyed feeding my body so many fruits and vegetables. I felt energized, and I truly feel like I flushed some evil stuff out of my system.

I also learned that as much as I like starting my morning with a smoothie that is meant to clean the body, it is NOT conducive to teaching early morning fitness classes. It doesn't provide me with enough fuel AND you can't have your system ready to flush in the middle of a class!

Now to get back to a regular schedule of healthy eating (with a splurge now and then), and a regular exercise schedule (outside of the classes I teach--I need exercise that just for me).

Detox Day Four

Weight: 123.5 (Darn....my system must be fully flushed...now for the hard work of taking off the actually extra fat gained over the winter)!

Breakfast
Detox Smoothie: unsweetened coconut water, mango, juice from a lime, pinch of cayenne pepper.

Snack
Half of my lunch--which is left-over spaghetti squash with some all natural marinara sauce

Lunch
The rest of my left-overs

Afternoon Snack
Nothing. I had the lunch fairly late in the afternoon

Dinner
8:15pm--much later than I like to have dinner, but my schedule was crazy today
Roasted carrot salad
carrots roasted in cumin and red pepper flakes on a bed of spinach, broccoli sprouts, avocado, and raw pumpkin seeds.

Snack
Okay...I totally went off the detox here. But, come on, it's Valentine's Day...and my husband bought me some chocolate and my favorite wine. So I had a little of each.

I should probably start today's blog by telling you how my typical Thursday goes...
I get up at 4:30am and have some coffee (which is already made because I set the timer on my coffee pot). I throw on my workout clothes in front of the fire), then drive to the local Rec. Center to teach an hour indoor cycling class. I typically depend on whatever carbs I had the night before to get me through. Occasionally, I will have a handful of almonds or something small. My hope is that during cycling, I'm throwing my body into fat burning mode.

After cycling I have an hour before I teach boot camp, so I will run to Panera and have a bowl of their steel cut oatmeal and another cup of coffee. I am always very hungry at that point. The oatmeal typically gets me through boot camp and to lunch.

Thursdays are my lightest day with canine clients. I usually just have one or two, so I have some down time during the day. I often grab a snack around 4pm to get me through the evening classes, and then have a light dinner around 7:30 when I get home.

Today I had my smoothie before cycling and skipped the coffee/oatmeal break after class (I opted for a hot shower instead). Two problems arose....

First, the detox smoothies are meant to flush the bad stuff out of your system. So even though I went to the restroom just minutes before class started, I had to go so bad toward the end of class that I thought I'd have to excuse myself! Too much liquid!

Second, by the time I was about halfway through the boot camp class, I was STARVING--so much so that I was getting a little light-headed. So as soon as I got home, I had half of today's lunch. Munching on a cucumber just wasn't going to cut it.

I had the second half of my lunch late in the afternoon--so it gave me plenty of fuel to teach my two evenings classes.

Dinner was much later than I like, but it just couldn't be helped tonight.

I wish I had taken of picture of tonight's dinner, because it was so attractive! Delicious too. But I was so hungry by then, I just dove in!

Tomorrow will be the last of the detox blogs. I feel like it did the body some good. It needed a Spring cleaning. Now to just settle back into a pattern of healthy eating.

Detox Day Three

Day Three
Weight: 123

Breakfast Smoothie
 Kale
parsley
Granny Smith apple
banana
water

Snack
mixed berries
banana
carrots
celery
hummus
sunflower seeds

Lunch
Leftover salad w/
broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, raw pumpkins seeds, rice wine vinegar, and raisins

Snack
Figs

Dinner
Spaghetti Squash with Cashew "Cheese" Sauce (raw cashews, onion, two jalapeno, garlic, soy sauce, water) and avocado "cream" sauce (avocado, basil, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil)

Good day! Energy was high. I'm really enjoying fueling my body with fresh fruit during the day. Cravings were better today. I felt satiated without making an extra smoothie.



The hubby and I did a 4.5 mile trail run this morning (my first run in awhile other than a mile here and there with my canine clients). I did the run before the smoothie, but still had energy for the entire run!

Detox Day Two

Day Two
Weight:124.8

Breakfast
Smoothie:
1-cup juiced organic carrots
1-cup juiced organic oranges
1-cup frozen mango chunks (unfortunately, organic wasn't available)
several mint leaves

Snack
Raspberries
Blueberries


Lunch
Leftover carrot ginger soup from last night

Snack
Sliced cucumbers

Dinner
 Salad made in the food processor with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, juice from a lemon, raw pumpkin seeds, kelp crystals, seasonings, and a tablespoon of maple syrup.

I felt good today. Energetic--no headache. However, this afternoon I was HUNGRY--and no amount of fruits and veggies seemed to help. So I made a smoothie with unsweetened almond milk, all natural peanut butter and a banana. That helped. I finally felt satiated.That wasn't too heinous. The almond milk probably had some processed stuff in it. But I had three fitness classes to teach tonight. I needed to satisfy my hunger.

Tomorrow starts with a green smoothie (kale, apple, banana, and parsley). Should be interesting.

Oh and we had dessert tonight! Banana "ice cream" (frozen bananas in the food processor) with "caramel" sauce (dates and water blended up). Delicious! And satisfying!

A Week of Detox/Day One

So...as I mentioned on The Fit Life, LLC's Facebook page, it's been a fabulous Fall and Winter full of travel and adventure. The two weeks before Thanksgiving were spent exploring Costa Rica. In early January we took off to Utah for a week of skiing. Here a ski weekend, there a ski weekend...And just last week, we spent another week skiing in the Poconos. It's been fabulous, and I consider myself very lucky to be able to do these things.

That being said, it's really hard to maintain healthy habits while on travel (and with a group of people who do not eat the way we eat). There has been far too much unhealthy food and drink in my diet since mid November. The result is that I feel toxic--sluggish with frequent headaches and digestive issues. My body is telling me it needs a Spring cleaning--even though Spring is still several weeks away.

So the next five days are detox days for me (Mark, my husband, is doing it as well--his own decision I might add). I think that will be enough time to rid my body of toxins and get back into the habit of healthy eating. What does five days of detox mean to me? For me it means five days of eating very pure--organic fruits, vegetables and whole grains (i.e. quinoa). No dairy, meat (not even fish), alcohol, or processed carbs.

Although I'm not doing this as a method for weight loss, I will be tracking my weight simply because I'm curious about what kind of "crap" (literally) I have stored up in my body after three months of not very diligent eating and drinking. My weight has certainly increased during the past three months. When I left for Costa Rica I weighed 117. Currently, I'm at 126.2. That needs to come off, but I know it will take some time and getting back into my habit of healthy eating and interval training.

I thought I would share the five days of detoxing with you--and keep you apprised of how I'm feeling and what I'm eating.

Day One
Weight: 126.5

Pre-Breakfast
Coffee with about a 1/4 teaspoon of coconut sugar and a few tablespoons of coconut milk
To detox the body, I really shouldn't be drinking coffee--or any caffeine. But I just didn't want to deal with withdrawal headaches all week. I could have taken an extra week to taper off the caffeine, but I really wanted to do this this week.



Breakfast: Anti-Oxidant Smoothie
1 -cup water
1-cup unsweetened organic pomegranate juice
1-cup frozen mixed berries

Snack
I cut up an organic cucumber to munch on while I was out with my canine clients, but unfortunately, I left it sitting on the counter. I was really hungry by mid morning (I've been eating a few eggs for breakfast, so my stomach wasn't sure what to do about having just a smoothie), so I made a quick stop at the grocery and purchased:
one apple
a little ready to go dish of mixed berries (strawberries, red raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)
a container of assorted varieties of cherry tomatoes

Lunch

Salad made with:
Kale
Carrots
avocado
raw pumpkin seeds
lemon juice
olive oil
black pepper
raisins

I'm typing this as we drive to Perfect North Slopes for yet another night of skiing, so I had to plan ahead for our dinner. I didn't want to ruin a day of clean eating by dining on pizza at the ski lodge. So this morning I made a carrot ginger soup. It's in a thermos, so we can easily have it for dinner. I also packed a few raw cashews and raw pumpkin seeds to munch on so we feel satiated and have energy for skiing.

With Day One almost in the bag, how did I feel?

Good. Mentally, I feel great because I know I'm feeding my body really good food. I've had a slight headache since mid morning. I'm not sure if it's because I waited too long to drink my smoothie (I'm very prone to headaches and any change in my schedule can set me off). My digestion is in over-drive. I can come up with several reasons for that: First, I've been limiting my fruit for a long time because of the carbs. And this morning my body got a huge dose of fruit. Also, by eating pure, the body doesn't have to work nearly as hard to digest the food. Food flows through the system much faster. Plus, I made sure to eat the fruit on an empty stomach--not mixed with any other food.

I'm looking forward to the soup. It will be my first hot meal of the day--and there's just something about eating something hot that satisfies me. It's why I don't think I could ever make the leap to being a raw foodie.

I didn't teach any fitness classes today--I just had my human and canine clients. Tomorrow is a different story. I teach three classes and have a full day of canine clients. We'll see how my energy holds up. I should be fine because I'm getting plenty of carbs from fruit.

I will check back in tomorrow night!