The last few days..

I've had some computer troubles. I'm looking into getting my laptop fixed or getting a new one. -Ugh, that is not great news, I was fond of this computer, an old friend. It's been good to me.

The good news is I've been eating well, and I think yesterday might have been my best day yet!

On Sunday I had blended bananas for breakfast & lettuce wraps for lunch. The lettuce wraps had raw sprouted beans & shredded veggies in them. -Uh, not a good combo for me. It tasted good, but I felt like it really weighed me down. My stomach felt bloated & unhappy. I think my system craves beans at times but really doesn't like them. The beans could be cooked, marinated, or sprouted/raw, they still bug me. Unless they are mung bean sprouts. Those are fine for me. No trouble at all. (Because they are mostly water.) Anyway, whenever I eat beans I feel bloated, not as peppy & sometimes gassy. (Sorry for the extra info!) OK, now for the really good day, yesterday (Monday) was much better. I had lots of orange wedges for breakfast, blended bananas for lunch & lots of fennel-orange juice for dinner. I had a few medjool dates after that too. I felt really light with even energy. My abs looked flat, (not bloated) & I slept really well. I woke up peppy too. -Yay! Much better. Simple combos & easy to digest water rich foods will give you more energy & better results every time. They definitely do for me.

Today and Yesterday I ate;

Monday~ 2180 calories 

Persimmons

Bananas

Blended bananas

Orange wedges 

Zucchini w/tomato-date-basil-celery sauce

Medjool dates

Tuesday~ 2075 calories

Persimmons

Bananas-basil-celery smoothie

Orange wedges 

Pineapple

Kiwis

Shredded purple cabbage w/tomato-date-basil-celery sauce

Medjool dates

I posted calories today so that you see how it all adds up. 

In addition to what I posted, I have been drinking at least 2 liters a day of water & I usually exercise for at least 1 hour in the morning. (Before it was in the evening, but I don't think it works as well. Exercising first thing after you wake up is key.) I have been feeling really good eating low fat & making sure I get enough exercise, water & sleep, (maybe sun too if I can). This is a big change for me. I used to be a nite owl. I was also very inconsistent with sleep & exercise. Water intake was an after thought if I thought about it at all. Now that I have made all of these a priority, my energy has been very consistent & I usually feel pretty peppy on a daily bases. :)

Today I ate;

2 liters of water

Lots of mangoes (-yay!)

Red leaf-avocado salad w/Bragg's dressing & kimchi 

Spirulina smoothie

Chilled spring pea soup

Plain chai tea

= 1750 total calories for the day

I've got good news! Today is day 1 of my 21 day cleanse. It's kind of a combo. Part of it is based on what I wanted to do back in May (-but I got off track & fizzled out on the idea). The other part is based on the book 'Clean' by Dr. Alejandro Junger. My problem areas are eating too late in the day, too many food combinations that can interfere with proper digestion & eating more than I need to. I feel like the Clean program will help me address all of them. Plus allow my body the extra space (& love) it needs to heal past abuse (-like working with toxic art supplies, too much stress, too little sleep, too much food, emotions not acknowledged or expressed, etc.). Some of the things I like about the Clean program is that it addresses other ways of healing like; meditation, artistic self expression, skin brushing, sweating, massage, laughter, deep breathing, etc.  I do many of these weekly or daily already & it makes a huge difference. I've also tried a juice fast and LOVED the results I got from it. So this 21 day cleanse will be a combination of all of it. I know it will do me wonders if I stick to it. I will be blogging the whole way through. So you will be able to read how it all goes..

This is what the plan looks like;

The Essentials: Do These Daily

1 Plan and prepare your three meals: Liquid meal for breakfast/Solid food meal for lunch/ Liquid meal for dinner, with any supplements you’ve selected.

2 Follow the Elimination Diet guidelines for everything you consume.

3 Leave a twelve-hour window between the last meal of one day and the first meal of the next. Try not to snack in between.

4 Make sure you have a bowel movement before the end of the day. 

5 Drink enough pure water to cause you to pee often. If more than one hour has gone by without peeing, you are not drinking enough.

6 Move. Walk. Take the stairs. Jump. Incorporate more movement into your day, as often and for as long as you possibly can. 

7 Rest. Get enough sleep. And breathe deeply all day long.

The Optional Activities:

1 Exercise. In addition to your increased daily motion, more deliberate exercise practices will pay off big time. Start slowly and increase gradually as the days go by.

2 Five-minute meditation exercise. Clean your mind and emotions as you clean your body.

3 Colonics. Daily bowel movements will do the work. Colonics will accelerate the process.

4 Skin brushing. Spend a few minutes removing dead skin cells before your shower.

5 Hot-Cold treatments. Once in the shower, use this to power up circulation and detoxification.

6 Infrared Sauna. Sweat profusely as often as you can.

7 Massage. Schedule a massage each week if your time and budget permits.

8 Laugh. Try to do something every day that makes you laugh out loud. It changes the body chemistry for the better and releases stress.

9 Lubricate. Drink two tablespoons of olive oil every night before you go to bed.

10 Write. Keep a daily log of what you eat, what your incessant thoughts are about, how you are feeling and how you slept the night before.

11 Record your progress. Take a daily picture of yourself: same angle, same distance.

12 Eat a clove of garlic every day. Have it alone or thinly sliced and sandwiched between two thin apple slices.

13 Read a book related to health and wellbeing, about the food system, or about the environment. Take this opportunity to educate yourself about what is going on today. Understanding will make it more likely that you will want to maintain the results after you complete the program.

14 Express your artistic side. Dance, sing, play your instrument, paint, sculpt. Whatever it is that wets your whistle. This will activate your right brain and more strongly imprint this whole experience in that part of the brain that is more involved with instincts. Far in the future, even if the thoughts of living Clean vanish, your instincts will be stronger than your thinking brain and will guide you to making the right choices for health.