Ok, New Year, New Round of SPP

This will be interesting...I'm in the middle of the Holiday Revelry, eating and drinking lots of unhealthy foods. I hope to try and taper down leading up to Day 1. I don't think I'm going to be as good leading up to Day 1 as I was the last time I did this but, I have some motivation....We leave for Cabo on Day 22.

More challenges

I made it through the weekend but had a little slip up on Monday evening...ate some of those cookies in the freezer...then some tortilla chips. Did better on Tuesday, made it to the gym and back on track with my eating.
Tomorrow is my hike day. Should be good.

What a great weekend!

I feel like I did ok at the party last night. I had about 6 oz of wine total. That is very acceptable. I took my veggie platter and that is mostly what I ate before the dinner. I did have a piece of bread and some cheese. For dinner I had a small piece of abalone and small piece of tri-tip and rice and salad. Dessert was a peach with reduced balsamic vinegar and blue cheese. We hung around later than I wanted to and I broke down and had a brownie and then some pita chips. I wish I hadn't but I did. Oh well. Got to bed around 12:30 am. Slept very well.
What made the weekend especially great was that on Sunday we rode our motorcycles to church and then to breakfast and then we continued on and did 150 miles to Casa de Fruta and out by San Juan Bautista and back. I don't think it could be considered exercise but at least I wasn't in front of the TV munching on something. As for food, I had oatmeal with nuts and berries for breakfast, the first I've had since Day 1. Lunch at Casa de Fruta was a bowl of fruit. We got home around 4:00 and I had a shake and then made some lentils for the week and Dinner was salmon, brown rice and a salad. Just a great weekend. Tomorrow I weigh in and I just hope my Sat dinner didn't mess me up too much. I had such a good weight loss last week and with my cold this week, I only worked out twice this week. So I don't expect a weight loss this week, I would be happy to stay the same. We'll see.

Same ol' thing

Well, this past week I've eaten the usual stuff plus almonds, eggs and I did introduce corn and that multi-grain bread. I think the egg and almonds are ok but I had PMS symptoms and then a cold that kind of got in the way of me noticing any different feelings. I have not eaten any more corn or bread. For the most part, I think I can continue to avoid those foods without too much trouble.

Today I made it to the gym and had a very good workout and then I had my shake for breakfast but did not get a chance to eat my usual fruit snack at 10 because I was out running errands...well, I developed an excrutiating headache that has stuck around all day. I have experienced this before where I'll get a headache if I go too long without eating; sspecially following a tough workout. But of course it has me thinking that maybe it was the egg I ate yesterday. So I don't know. I checked my blood pressure and it is higher than what it normally is.

Anyway, tomorrow we're going to have dinner at a friends home, Surf and Turf. I'll eat the abalone but plan to only taste the beef...I have not had any beef in a long time and I don't want my system to suddenly revolt. I'll probably also have wine or beer. Hopefully I'll stick to just one glass. I plan to take a platter of veggies to help me get through the night. I'll report the results.

Caught a cold

Well so much for introducing foods and looking for a reaction..last week it was the PMS symptoms and this week it's a cold. I did try to introduce wheat...I didn't notice anything other than my stomach sure did a lot of gurgling trying to digest it. My stomach didn't hurt it just made noises trying to digest this strange food it hadn't seen for 28 days. So for now I'm just going to continue with the basic diet...a shake for breakfast, fruit for morning snack, lentils and squash/yam for lunch, veggies for afternoon snack, and it's usually a big salad for dinner followed by my evening shake. I try to eat fish once a week, usually on Thur or Fri. Other than that, I don't have a hankering for meat. At some point I want to try other type of legumes like black beans.
Because of this cold, I haven't been working out. That's a bummer. I had such a good routine going. Oh well, there is always next week.

Wowee!

I weighed in today and I've lost another 3.5 lbs! That makes it a total of 12.5 lbs lost in 28 days. You'd think I've been starving myself but I'm not. Now, I am not eating like I used to and I have not yet started to eat regular foods like pasta, bread, deli meats, canned foods, alcohol, but to tell you the truth I don't miss those foods right now. This weight loss is the most successful I've ever had with any type of weight loss program I've tried. I think that I have finally found the program that I can stick with. That doesn't mean I'll never eat those foods I mentioned earlier, it just means for the most part this will be the norm for me. I know, I know, I'm starting to sound like born-again Christian.

I will at some point need to eat regular foods and learn how to deal with it. Soon, like later this week, friend's bday + a BBQ at her house on the weekend. I plan to take some healthy foods to share.

So, the weekend went well. I cooked some more lentils to eat for lunch during the week. I was going to introduce wheat today but decided to hold off until my congestion clears up. I woke up congested and with a sore throat, probably because I breathed through my mouth all night and I didn't have Jim there to elbow me to roll over!

Corn

Saturday, had a very good workout. Ready to introduce corn. I had my usual breakfast shake and for lunch I added half a cup of organic corn kernels to my lentils. Within an hour I noticed developement of phlegm. Just to complete the introduction I added some high fructose corn syrup in the form of good old Karo Syrup to my afternoon shake then I ate some tortilla chips. I had some more corn for dinner. More phlegm and congestion. The good thing is that when I ate the chips I didn't feel like I was out of control. I ate a small amount and stopped whereas before I would have had cravings to eat more. And the Karo Syrup really didn't add much sweetness to the shake. I was thinking I would have this wonderfully sweet smoothie and that I would have a hard time going back to my regular smoothie, nope. I'll take my regular stevia-sweetened smoothie thankyou.

So I wonder if phlegm and congestion are the only symptoms. So now that I know what it does, I'll try to avoid foods with corn.

I'mI going to test wheat next. I bought a little round multiple-grain loaf from Sprouts. That will the first piece of bread I'll have eaten in over 28 days. I guess I'll be testing other grains too. I should have just bought 100% whole wheat, oh well. And I'll also be testing gluten too I suppose.

Meanwhile, other than testing these foods, I'm still eating vegetables and fruit. Today I cooked some more butternut squash and yams and tomorrow I'll cook up some lentils. I can't believe I'm not absolutely bored with this food yet but I'm not.

On Monday I weigh in again. So on day 21 last week, I had lost 1/2 lb. more giving me a total loss of 9 lbs for the purification part of the program. Not bad! Nine pounds in 21 days. Of course I want to continue losing weight so I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing.

I wonder when I'm going to crack

I'm still going strong...I am mostly able to stay on track because I accepted that this is a sustainable eating style for me. And the longer I can keep eating like this, the more natural and normal it becomes...so to that effect, I am purposely avoiding tempting situations....I did not think "when the 21 days are over, I'm going to have a cappucino and a piece of cake". Instead I continued as if I were still on the program and I'm following the re-introduction guidelines. I still have not had coffee or alcohol or sugar...well I think the almond milk probably has sugar in it.

In fact, tonight I baked some cookies and I was tempted, but I said to myself, "tomorrow I'm going to introduce corn and I really think I'll find out I'm allergic to it...I can't have any cookies because if I get a reaction, I won't know if it is from the corn or from the cookies" So for the first time in my life, I baked some cookies and did not eat any. (I did save two in the freezer) The rest of them are going with Jim on his trip.

So all this goodie two-shoes attitude is making me wonder when I'm going to crack...probably next weekend when we get together with some friends. I hope I don't over do it when I do crack!

It feels very comfortable and natural...

to eat this way..really. Today I had my usual shake for breakfast and I had a cup of the almond milk. I also took 2 oz of almonds to work and ate them as snacks...this was in addition to my apple and orange that I eat as a snack. I also had about a cup of lentils that I had cooked up with a bunch of vegetables earlier in the week, and some cut up zucchini. For dinner I had a large salad with that special salad dressing and 1 oz of almonds and then another shake.

So, almonds were introduced today, in case you hadn't noticed. Again, I developed a headache by the end of the day. But again, I think it is a PMS symptom and not due to the almonds....I guess I'm going to have to go through this all over again next week, just to make sure. Oh well.

I played volleyball at lunch today and I played longer than I planned to...my boss is out on vacation. I was very tired that last game and I think my headache is partly due to the fact that I played longer and ate a very late lunch - around 1:40.

So, I don't have any challenges this weekend - Jim is leaving for a week so I should be able to have a very smooth week where I don't need to worry about temptations.

I'm liking this...and you know what? My legs feel slimmer, it's weird...I don't recall feeling this way when I was on weight watchers. My pants slip on a lot easier, I don't have to squirm to get them on.

If I could lose 5 more lbs before we go to Illinois I would be ecstatic....that's three weeks away. Gonna try to keep this going as long as I can.

I'm still here....

I've been busy but I'm still here and I'm still detoxing....during the post purification program I am following the same food plan as days 11-21 - fruits, veggies, lentils, rice, lean organic meats and high quality oils. However, now I get to introduce a new food every two days and I need to listen to my body for signs of an intolerance or allergic reaction. According to the information in the e-mail (a link in day 19) I should start with the 5 big offenders: Wheat, Dairy, Corn, Soy and Egg. I started with the Egg. So on Day 1 of post purification, I ate a hard boiled egg for bfast and one for lunch. I developed a really bad headache....but I'm not ready to blame the egg yet...I think my headache was due to PMS. It felt like one of those headaches. So instructions say to introduce a new food, make note of any unusual reactions such as gas, bloating, headaches, congestion, itching, that kind of stuff. After eating the egg on day 1, I'm not supposed to eat it again for 3 days and then, if I want to try it again, I can. The instructions also say I should introduce a new food every two days. So tomorrow I'm going to try almonds, just because I bought some almond milk and I want to drink some!

So, according my chiropractor and to all the information that I've read during this process...there are some foods that our bodies do not tolerate. Upon eating these foods, our system is not able to fully digest the intolerant foods and it ends up storing it in the fat cells - some of culprits are the food additives and preservatives, some are just foods that for some reason we are allergic to.

Today on the Health section of cnn.com, there was an article about the 4 reasons women have trouble losing weight. And one of the reasons was exactly what I mention above. The 4 reasons are 1) sluggish thyroid, 2)whacked out hormones 3)food intolerances 4)prescription drugs. I definitely fall into the category of having trouble losing weight...I try so hard, especially with exercise and the weight just hangs on. I used to wonder if it was a thyroid issue, but I've had my TSH tested and I do not fall into that category based on the guidelines in the article. I did not have the symptons as listed for the whacked out hormones and I don't take any prescription drugs. So I suspect it is food intolerance...and I bet I'm going to find out I'm intolerant of corn or wheat. I think corn because, growing up, we ate a lot of corn products, corn tortillas, tamales, and mom cooked everything with Mazola corn oil. As a kid I was always the fat one....I was never skinny like my sisters...now I'm slimmer than they are but I'm still overweight. So anyway, that will be interesting to see what my body does, I think I'll try corn after almonds, so that will be on Saturday that I'll introduce corn.

I tried to add the link to the article but something is not quite working. Look for it at Cnn.com, scroll down to the Health section.

I am really enjoying eating like this...sometimes I have a desire to eat regular foods but it's not an urgent craving. I'm really trying to make eating rich foods/drinks for special occasions. Today I went to Costco, and the pizza and hotdogs smelled so good and I just had to tell myself..."step away from the food court, this is definitely not a special occasion!"

One more day to go.

I had another dream where I messed up...I went to a store that I used to frequent and it had a coffee bar and bakery and I just automatically ordered my coffee with cream and whole wheat toast. I proceeded to eat and then I was at a meeting where someone brought goodies for the meeting and as they were offering the goodies to me, I reached out to take one and that's when I remembered I couldn't eat that stuff and then I looked down and realized I had already messed up with my coffee and toast! Oops! Good thing it was just a dream....I think it was warning me to be extra vigilant when I socialize with friends so that I don't fall back into my old bad habits!

And so with this warning, I made it through the weekend! Made it through the pool party and my birthday. The biggest challenge for me was the tortilla chips. I love tortilla chips and they are so easy and tasty to eat. But I managed, I stuck to the veggies and I made some chicken shish-ke-bobs and some yam+butternut squash + apple and blueberry and cinnamon dessert....well, it really can't be called dessert, it just wasn't sweet enough but if you used your imagination, it worked.

I still can't believe I really stuck to this.

My next step is to figure out what I'm going to introduce first. I'm thinking oatmeal because I would like to have something more to eat at breakfast than just the shake but, according to the guidelines that I read from the Day 17 e-mail, I should include protein with every meal. So now I'm not sure....the things that I want to re-introduce - nuts, seeds, oatmeal, beans.

I don't want to drink coffee except on special occasions. Same thing with bread. Alcohol, only one glass per occasion and only if it is really good.

Ok we'll see how I really do with these guidelines.

Another normal day...

eating healthy foods.

Nothing much to report. The usual breakfast, lunch and for dinner I had some soup with chicken...had to add cilantro, salt and seasonings, much better.

I am a little sore today from the hike yesterday...mostly my shoulders.

Day whatever

I can't believe it but I'm not counting the days anymore...I've found a good rhythm and I am not thinking "how much longer" or "when is this going to be done with" I just hope I can keep it up after the 21 days. Even though I'm no longer counting days and waiting for this to finish, I do have to make sure that I make it through day 21, that's on Monday.

I hiked by myself today and I pushed myself...I carried a 20 lb backpack. Ten minutes into the hike, I started to think this wasn't such a good idea, I was feeling it. 20 minutes into the hike I was debating whether to return and ditch the backpack. I decided to man-up and I soldiered on. The biggest problem was that the weight was on my shoulders, my already stressed out shoulders. But after a while I kinda got used to it. 3 hrs 5 min later, I was happy to be done. Polar watch stats: 1246 cal, 45% fat, Max HR 166, Ave HR 127.

I came home and fixed a huge salad with spinach, mushrooms, tomato, avocado, broccoli, kale. Followed it up with a yummy shake.

Then I took a hot bath with Epson salt.

Day 15

I made it to the gym! Did 50 min on the bike and then some lunges and ball squats (6 sets held for 30 seconds each). Polar watch stats: 1hr 16 min, 610 calories, 35% fat, Max HR 168 ave HR 139.

Breakfast was the usual shake, with flax seed oil - boy that really makes it feel like a real smoothie. And the blueberries and strawberries and banana - wish I had discovered this combination earlier. It seems line an obvious combination by I was reluctant to eat strawberries cause I had generally had bad experiences with tasteless ones. I wash them and de-stem them and store them in a baggie that I put in the freezer. Same with the banana, I peel and cut them in half and store them in the freezer.

Lunch was apple, orange, peach, lentils, zuchinni, butternut squash, yam and mushrooms and celery.

So last night I cooked some chicken into like a chicken vegetable soup. I had it for dinner tonight and I was quite disappointed, it just wasn't tasty. And the chicken was tough. I had heard that organic meats taste really good but I am yet to be persuaded. I ate 4 oz of it for dinner plus the broth and vegetables. Then I had another shake.

I have not had any cravings. Today, someone offered a piece of cake and I had no trouble declining it.

The toughest part may be this weekend but I know my friends won't let me mess up!

After the 21 days, I don't plan to go bonkers and eat everything in sight. I hope I'll be able to continue these healthy eating habits more often than not. Which is why it is important that I don't lose total control, cause as soon as I do that, I know it will be hard to get back on track. I'm glad to be getting the e-mails and I understand that I'll continue to get some post-purification support and guidance.

Just a few more days.

Day 14

Yippee! I've lost another 2.5 lbs! And, my fat percentage went down 2 percentage points from 39% to 37% (I have one of those scales that measures this...I don't know how accurately it measures fat% but I use it more as a comparative guideline)

Today was a very good day. I tried some new vegetables that I've eaten before but so far, had not eaten on this program - broccoli and kale...Actually, I'd never eaten kale before but according to the e-mails and to my chiro, cruciferous vegetables are very important this last week of purification and for my ongoing weight-loss goal.

So I steamed some up and made a very healthy dinner salad and added the cooled broccoli and kale into my salad. I also added about 2 oz of salmon that I had cooked the other night.

There is a little discrepancy between the patient guide and the e-mail as to how much protein I can start eating. The patient guide says "Total servings: 2-4 per day with 1-2 servings being fish" serving size is 3 oz. The e-mail says "you can have up to two portions per day, if desired" I'm following the second guideline, and probably not eating up to the 2 srvgs per day. I'm still eating lentils at lunch time for now.

Following this program takes a lot of time...buying, cleaning, chopping, cooking, washing dishes... It's ok, it keeps me from sitting in front of the TV. Tonight, I
cooked up chicken in a soup using organic vegetable broth and I threw in carrots, celery, onion, garlic and zucchini. I haven't decided if I'm going to eat some of this for lunch tomorrow or if I'll stick with lentils...

This is going very well. I'm very happy with how I feel and of course with the weight loss!

I never thought I'd be eating like this without hating it. It's actually kind of fun trying to figure out how to make things more tasty....

BTW, the best shake I have determined to be is what I call, Red White and Blue: Strawberries, banana, blueberries then I add the two scoops of powder and 1 Tbs of Flax seed oil and 7 drops of liquid stevia. yummy...the flax seedoil is better than the coconut oil because the coconut oil is a solid at room temperature and often it does not blend in very well.

7 more days to go!

Days 12 & 13

Wow, this is really starting to feel like it's normal to eat like this. Saturday and Sunday went very well, no challenges. I even went out for breakfast on Sunday and found something I could eat...large bowl of fruit. I'm sure it wasn't organic but it did the trick.

What I'm really pleased with is that I've re-discovered how good fruit tastes. I think that because of my Weight Watchers mentality of having 2 fruits per day, I had just relegated myself to eating the basic apples, oranges and bananas. Yesterday I ate the most delicious nectarine and I've bought fruit that I would not have purchased before because of this "limitation".... strawberries, blueberries and kiwi, figs, peaches...I also remember having this idea that fruit had too much sugar and calories...compared to what? Water? I'm sure my weight problem is not because I've eaten too many bananas!

It's funny because even when vegetables were unlimited on WW, I did not eat as much as I do now, and I didn't make an effort to make a healthy salad or to experiment with cooking different squashes or whatever. But limit me to just eating fruits and vegetables and I start looking at vegetables in a whole different way...How can I cook this? Wonder how this tastes?

So, I experimented with cooking butternut squash to make it more tasty....I put it cut side up in a pyrex dish, I brushed it with olive oil, I sprinkled it with cinnamon, I put fresh blueberries in the cavity part and then I put slices of apples on top of all the pieces and baked it for about 40 mins. I really liked the outcome.

Tomorrow is day 14, again, If someone were to say "Don't eat bread or pasta or cheese or sugar for 21 days." I would have said "nope, can't do it". One more week to go and I know I'm going to do it!

By the way, my iron level for my blood donation was just fine, not even borderline.

In about a week, I get to see the cholesterol reading....that will be interesting.

Day 11

Today was a really good day...went to the gym and did intervals on the treadmill for 1 hour. The intervals are 2 mins at high elevation slower speed (3.3 mph - 3.6) followed by 1 min at lower elevation faster speed (3.7 to 4.0 mph). I followed that with lunges and ball squats and stretching. I really pushed myself.. polar watch stats: 1 hr 23 min 650 calories, 35% fat, Max HR 165, Ave HR 137.

Very normal day, the usual for my breakfast and lunch. You'd think I'd be getting bored by now but I'm not.

For dinner, I cooked the salmon...that was a bit of a challenge for me and I ended up getting a splatter burn on my forearm. I survived and the fish was edible, actually it was pretty good. There is still some left over so I'll probably have that again tomorrow.

I hope the rest of the 21 days are smooth sailing like today.

Day 10

Made it through another day. Today is the last day of just fruits and vegetables. Tomorrow I can start eating organic meat. My Day 10 e-mail says "by now, you should be craving meat".....it's more like I'm craving cheese and pasta and bread and Mexican food! Tortilla chips and margaritas! Ok, I gotta calm down, take a deep breath and remind myself that this is temporary, I'll be able to eat all those foods, if I want, when this is over. I also have to remind myself how good my system feels right now. I do feel good, my stomach doesn't get upset, I don't have gas, I've lost weight and the fruits and vegetables agree with me more than all those processed foods I was eating before. I paid good money for this program and I can't blow it. I'm about half way through and I'll get through the rest of the way.

By now I have found a very regular food routine. Shake for breakfast, lunch is Lentils, butternut squash, 1/2 yam, an apple an orange and 1 or 2 containers of cut veggies. The fruit I eat as a snack between Bfast and lunch. One of the containers of veggies I eat in the afternoon. On the day I hike, I double the lentils to a full cup.

Dinner is where I will vary from day to day. Sometimes it's a salad, lately it's been stir fry. If I'm still hungry I look for something else I can eat...then I have a shake after dinner.

So tomorrow I plan to eat Alaskan salmon for dinner tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see how my body responds to it.

Oh, tomorrow I have an appt to donate blood....I'm curious to see if I have enough iron.

11 more days! I can do it! I will do it!

Day 9

Much much better today. I turned my alarm off last night and made sure I got to bed by 10:00pm (Ideally, I'd like to get to bed by 9:30 but lately I've been working from home late in the evening after I post my blog). Of course, on the morning I turn off the alarm I'm wide awake at 5:00. That's Ok, I got up and caught up on some of my personal stuff. I did not go to the gym cause I'm hiking tonight.
I took my Gastro Fiber (GF) pills on an empty stomach and prepared my shake around 7:00 and took the Green food pills with my shake.

The GF pills are to be taken on an empty stomach, three times a day. I take the first batch when I get up, around 5:30 a.m. I don't know how long after I've eaten or how long before I plan to eat that I should wait before taking these pills. Should have asked the Doc. Oh well.

Today, rather than waiting until I felt hungry, I ate my fruit at 10:15.

Lunch was satisfying and I saved the extra container of veggies for my afternoon snack at 3:30pm.

Hike was a little shorter today. I felt good, strong. Polar watch stats: 2 Hr 36 mins, 740 calories, 55% fat, max HR 150, Ave HR 107.

I cooked a stir-fry for dinner, olive oil, 1/2 onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery, 1 zucchini, seasonings and topped it with a layer of spinach. It was very tasty. I followed that with a shake.

I'm going to try and make it to the gym tomorrow morning, well see.

Day 8

Today was a struggle. I did not make it to the gym this morning. I had my usual shake for breakfast and I was hungry by 11:00. So I ate my fruit. Lunch was the normal, 1/2 c. lentils, veggies which included, cucumber sprinkled with lemon juice and salt, zucchini, carrot and celery. Not quite a full zucchini or carrot cause I cut these up last night and put some of them into my salad. I also had the 1/2 yam and butternut squash. Felt hungry come 3:30 and when I got home I had 1/2 cup lentils, spinach and cucumber salad and 1/2 of avocado plus my shake. That was satisfying.

Tomorrow is my hike day so as I prepared my lunch I did a full cup of lentils, two containers of veggies, 1 orange, 1 apple, butternut squash, 1/2 yam and I'm taking another orange just in case I get hungry before the hike.

I made it through another day. Kinda hard to believe I haven't had any meat, bread, cheese or milk in 8 days. On day 10 I get to add organic meat, I'd almost rather eat more legumes. But I'll give it a go...probably eat fish for my first meat meal, we'll see.

Day 7

What a great day! Of course it started great after my weigh-in. :) Now, I have to clarify... remember the 5 lbs I lost last week...I had gained back 4 of those lbs when I started on Day 1. So, now I'm down those 4 lbs plus 2 more.

So the day started great because I got such a good nights sleep. I felt good and I made it to the gym. Today I did 40 minutes on the Step Mill. The Step Mill is not like a stair master where you have two pedals that you step on. Instead it is a big machine with revolving stairs, of all the cardio equipment, I find this one to be the hardest. Normally, I do 20 minutes on there followed by 20 minutes on the bike or treadmill. One thing I noticed that was different today...usually, after 10 minutes, I have to pause and stretch cause my lower back starts to bother me. Today, I didn't have to pause at all and I was able to complete the full workout without any discomfort. I followed that with lunges and a little bit of stretching. Polar watch Stats: 55 mins, 411 calories, 40% fat, Max 158, ave 133.
In comparison, my stats for the bike workout - which I forgot to list on that post -
53 minutes, 396 calories, 40% fat, 157 max, 134 average...I guess this was just as hard, very similar stats.

Very regular day, food wise. Shake in the morning along with a sm piece of butternut squash.
Lunch was 1/2 cup lentils, 1 apple, 1 orange, 1/2 yam, and a piece of butternut squash. I ran out of the cut veggies so none for lunch today.

After my Chiro appointment, I went shopping at Sprouts and confirmed that not all the produce is Organic. In fact, their organic produce is very limited compared to the rest of their produce. So all last week I thought I was eating organic celery and carrots and zucchini...nope. This time I did buy more organic veggies and re-loaded on my Pure Spring Water.
Dinner was a spinach salad with cucumber, carrot, zucchini, celery, kiwi and the apple cider vinagrette. I followed the salad with a shake with strawberries, blueberries and 1/2 banana.

So far so good.

Ta-Da!

I've lost 6 lbs! And I have to say this has been the easiest 6lbs I've ever lost.

I think it is because in the past, when I diet, I eat foods that cause me to have cravings so it is hard to practice portion control...When I do control my portions and servings, I lose weight but the hard part is doing it....only having 1 Tbsp of peanut butter, only having one serving of whatever. And so I end up losing weight initially (and temporarily) but I'm always fighting these cravings and my thoughts are always on food and "when am I going to eat next" and eventually I lose my resolve and control and I blow it. Then comes the guilt.

This past weekend, I was amazed by my control. I went to a pub, with my family, whom I love to hang out with and everyone is drinking some alcoholic beverage and all I had was water and I didn't even feel deprived. And we had a barbecue, with tri-tip, macaroni salad and garlic bread and chips and dip and again, except for the cowboy caviar, I maintained control without feeling anxious or anything.

I know at some point I'll get to eat regular foods...I just hope I will have a better mental approach and focus on the fruits and vegetables rather than the bread, pasta and desserts.

Reflection

So, after 6 days, how do I feel, what have I noticed?

I feel good/great - but not really any different from before. I would say that I noticed a bigger improvement in how I felt during my pre-prep week when I was "practicing" by eating fruits and vegetables and rice and lentils - even with the caffiene headaches I think this was the week where I noticed a significant improvement in just feeling good.

Day 1 I was excited to start and felt ready mentally for this adventure.
Day 2 was when I did the hike and I did feel a little be more exhausted than normal.
Day 3 was the day I felt out of sorts and achy. I did feel what I think were flare-ups - my ankles and my upper back - from old injuries.
Day 4, 5 & 6 - I felt very normal, I didn't get hungry except for that one day where I had a carrot for dinner. Even though I was hungry, I wasn't out-of-control hungry.

Things I have noticed:
I definitely am surprised and amazed by "newfound control" as the Day 0 e-mail mentions.
I don't know that this has anything to do with this program but I sometimes get the hiccups at weird times...like very late in the evening just before going to bed.

Day 4 e-mail says: "Make sure you are having 1-3 bowel movements each day during the program"!!! Well that is not the case for me... I did have 2 BMs on Day 2 but otherwise, it's just been 1 BM per day which is the norm for me. The e-mail does say that if I'm not, I need to be drinking more water. And that could be true, since I'm sure I did not drink as much water as I normally do this past weekend.
According to Day 5 e-mail my sleep should be improving...I'm not sure I can say that is the case for me - yet.

Oh - the most important part for me...yes, I do feel like I've lost inches, if not weight...Tomorrow I will weigh in so I'll know if I've lost weight.
Drum roll please..........

Day 6

Sunday morning ate fruit and the shake for breakfast. Everyone else had quiche and biscuits and I'm not sure what else...I didn't pay attention since I knew I wasn't going to be eating any.

Lunch was in the car on the way back to the Bay Area and it was an apple, a carrot and celery.

When we got home I had lentils for dinner....proably more than I should have - a little bit more than a cup. And, even though I wasn't hungry, I had my second shake.

Then I did some more cooking and chopping to get ready for lunch tomorrow.

When I finally sat down to read my Day 5 and Day 6 support e-mails....I was a little disappointed....the day that I had some of that cowboy caviar that had black beans and corn in it....the e-mail that I missed said: "Just a friendly reminder: corn is not a vegetable, it is a grain and there are no grains allowed on this program" and "Also, remember that although something may be healthy (such as beans and nuts), it may not be allowed during the purification program due to other factors (such as potential food allergens)."

I know that if I had read this e-mail, I wouldn't have had any cowboy caviar, oh well. Life goes on.

Day 5 - Saturday

Woke up hungry, needless to say. And still achy, I think it's partly the bed we slept in.

Last night I dreamt I was at a class reunion, seeing old friends and I accidentally cheated by drinking beer and eating crackers. One of those situations where you don't even realize what you're doing. When I did realize I had cheated, I felt sooo bad.

No one else was up yet....I was so glad I brought fruits and veggies....and my magic-bullet-like blender. I didn't want to make noise yet so I just ate a small zucchini and an apple followed by a shake when everyone else was eating their regular breakfast.

Lunch was another shake and zucchini and carrot. Dinner was fruit salad and grilled zucchini and about 1/2 cup of "cowboy caviar". This included two items that are not allowed - canned black beans and canned corn. I hope it is not too bad that I cheated this little bit.

We went to the fair, smelled lots of good food. I am soo tired, need to get some sleep.

Day 4 - Friday

Made it to the gym. I was a little late so I only had time for 40 min on the stationary bike plus lunges and some stretching. On the bike I put it on Manual mode and I start with a two minute or so warm up on level 10 then I do what I call cascades where I move the level up to 14 and ride at that level for a quarter-mile then I move it down to level 13 for a quarter-mile and so on down to level 10 for a quarter-mile before I move it back up to level 14. I really feel it at levels 13 and 14, my heart rate gets up into the 150s and my RPMs gets down to the 50s. I have to make an effort to stay above 50 or the machine will think I've stopped pedaling and it stops the program. It took me 25 minutes to do 4 cascades and then I kept it at level 11 the rest of the time. Sweated out lots of toxins on that work out!

Breakfast was the usual shake...I probably should eat something else too but the easiest thing to eat is more fruit and I'm trying to not eat so much fruit. I worked from home so I was able to make a second shake at about 11:15 along with my second batch of pills.

Lunch was 1/2 c. lentils, 1/2 yam, butternut squash, and an apple. I did not prepare my lunch the night before so I did not have my usual amounts. I has less, but I wasn't feeling hungry or weak. I snacked on celery in the afternoon.

Dinner was a carrot. Yep, on the drive to Paso. I meant to eat more but didn't get the opportunity. We got to Paso and there was pizza, I didn't eat any - of course. I should have pulled out another piece of fruit or more celery or something but I thought we'd be heading to the place we're staying - with some friends - so I figured I'd eat then. Well, we ended up going out with my siblings to a local pub. They all had beer and I drank water - boy, they are not kidding when when they say "you'll be surprised at you new-found reserve". I had no problems saying no to stuff I shouldn't be eating. We finally got to bed at about midnight. Good day but I hope I didn't kick my body into starvation mode.

Day 3

I dreamt about zucchini...and about a burrito.....don't remember the details on the zucchini dream, for the burrito, I was going through a burrito bar where you point to all the yummy fixings you want in your burrito and I ended up with a humongous (sp?)burrito. Guess I was hungry.

I woke up sore from the hike, walking down the stairs I was very achy and I thought "I'm back to how I felt before I started seeing my chiropractor". Then I read my Day 3 e-mail and just had to laugh, it said "Don't be surprised if old symptoms you haven't experienced in years begin to return during the program." Now I'm noticing all sorts of aches. I'm going soak in the tub tonight.

I did the pills, the shake and packed my lunch and headed off to work. I take with me a gallon of Spring water and I've been pretty good about drinking 1/2 gallon per day at work. That's about 2 liters and before the program, I drank about 1.5 liters of water and probably .5 liters of coffee/soda, so total liquid intake is not very different from what I was doing before, but now I've replaced the soda and coffee with pure Spring water.....that makes it sound more appealing when I say/write "pure spring water".

I was hungry come lunch time....I might need to start eating some veggies as a snack between Bfast and lunch.

I was feeling really tired today. I even took a break to take a nap in my car.

I was hungry come dinner time...I ate the shake, 1/2 c. lentils, mushrooms and 1/2 carrot with the vinagrette as a dip and I was still hungry so I had some of the butternut squash. Did not get a chance to prepare my lunch for tomorrow but I'm planning to work from home so it shouldn't be a problem. But I also have to get all my stuff together for the weekend since I'll be gone. I think I'll pack a cooler with some pre-made food/fruit packs.

Day 2

Wednesday, I had a great day. Same food plan as yesterday, with a little bit more lentils because of the hike I do after work...I took a nectarine with me to eat before the hike but forgot to eat it.

We hiked the PG&E trail at Rancho San Antonio. Up and back down. I felt good on the hike, did not feel weak or light headed. I did find the hike to be a little bit harder but maybe we were pushing it cause we got a late start. Polar Watch stats: 3 hrs and 3 minutes, 1008 calories burned, 50% fat, max HR 157, ave HR 113

Took my last set of pills right after the hike on an empty stomach and sat down to eat dinner at 8:45. I don't like eating this late but there's not much else I can do. Dinner was spinach salad with mushrooms and zucchini with that dressing and of course a shake.

After dinner I started chopping and putting together my lunch for tomorrow. Same lunch food again...I need to list the veggies versus the fruits to make sure I'm not eating too many fruits:

Fruits Veggies
1 apple 1 orange zucchinni, celery, carrot
1 orange, 1 nectarine 1/2 yam, butternut squash
blueberries, cherries Spinach, mushrooms, zucchinni
1/2 banana cooked veggies in the lentils

The second orange and nectarine, banana and berries are used in my two shakes. The veggies might have a slight edge but not twice as much as the fruit like I'm supposed to be eating. I might have to put more veggies in my dinner salad.

That's it for today...tomorrow will be another good day.

Day 0 and Day 1

Day 0 was Monday.
I went to Sprouts and bought a bunch of vegetables and fruits plus some lentils, brown rice and coconut oil...all this time I thought coconut oil was to be avoided. Hm. I also bought Spring water...it is so clear compared to the tap water I've been drinking.


Then I got busy Monday night - cooking butternut squash, yams, lentils and chopping up fruit and vegetables for my lunch the next day.



I was actually very excited about starting...and I am so glad I practiced last week - finally, no more caffeine withdrawal headaches.

Day 1
I took my pills first thing and then headed to the gym. 1 hour on the treadmill plus some lunges and stretching. My polar watch stats: 499 cal burned, 45% fat, Max HR 152, Ave HR 129

Breakfast was a shake with fruit and 1/2 banana and a tsp coconut oil
I did not eat a snack.

I figured my stomach was empty by 11:00 so I took the second batch of pills

Lunch at about 12:15 was 1/2 cup lentils, 1/2 yam, butternut squash, a "glad container" of vegetables, 1 orange, 1 apple. The vegetables included 1 carrot, 1 sm zucchinni, 2 celery ribs. All of these are raw and cut into spears.
When I first put together all this food, I thought "wow, this is alot of food" I thought maybe I'd bring some home. Nope. Ate it all.


Dinner was spinach and mushroom salad with the apple cider vinagrette recipe in the patient guide booklet. And I made another shake with 1 orange, 1/2 banana and some cherries - pitted, of course.

I'm feeling just fine. I was worried that the pills would upset my stomach. Not at all.

Wednesday - is my hike day, I do a 3 hour hike after work and so I'm increasing my lentils at lunch time and adding a nectarine to eat before my hike.

Pre-Prep

Ok, So I've decided to do the 21-day Standard Process Purification Program. I read the information in the Patient Guide and decided to start practicing some of the guidelines. I gave up coffee - ouch! I cut back on alcohol. I started buying and cooking some of the foods on the program - namely lentils, brown rice, butternut squash and sweet potatoes/yam. I also made up some of the salad dressing in the patient guide. I did not give up bread or oatmeal - I eat these regularly and I will have to give these up when I start the program. I'm not a big meat eater, so I haven't really given that up since I don't normally eat much meat anyway. I did not adhere to the 1/2 cup of Lentils or Rice during this practicing phase.

Believe it or not - I've already lost 5 lbs! No kidding....but I'm coming up to a weekend event and I know I'll be eating and drinking non-healthy foods...will probably be back up those 5lbs I just lost. Oh well....I still feel like I'm better mentally prepared to do this.

Because of the "practicing" I've already done, I have a plan in mind:

Breakfast: SP Complete Shake with 1/2 frozen banana and berries
I'll use water or maybe fresh squeezed orange juice and Flax seed oil

Snack: don't know yet

Lunch: 1/2 sweet potato (or Yam), cooked butternut squash, raw zucchinni (or maybe celery) and bell pepper, 1 apple, 1 orange

Snack: don't know yet

Dinner: 1/2 cup Lentils or rice, Salad with Spinach, bean sprouts, 1/4 avocado, zucchinni, celery mushrooms, salad dressing recipe from patien guide (I might add a kiwi and blend)
SP Complete shake with 1/2 banana and berries.

I'll fine tune all this when I'm in the all the way!