Wednesday. Okay first week of the CLEAN (http://www.cleanprogram.com/) program is done. I won’t say it was easy because I had a headache for pretty much the entire week but I will say that today I woke up 5 pounds lighter and feeling pretty fab. My head feels really clear, I seem to have decent energy (I was feeling tired for a couple of days last week.) The actual number of pounds that I lost was crazy but I am not going by that because when I stepped on the scale last Wednesday morning it was abnormally high. So I’m going by the number from Thursday which seemed normal and I’m 5 lbs down from that. The last week was about preparing my body for the cleanse. It was my week to work my way in — get off coffee, alcohol, sugar, wheat (gluten), salt, soy and basically anything else I was eating… The only difference between the pre week and the next three weeks is that my breakfast and dinner will be smoothies (or soup is fine for dinner). Other than that everything is the same.
Oh and btw, if you check out the website, I am only doing the whole foods version. I’m not buying their powders and such. I have my own protein powder and I will be making my smoothies from whole foods not from mixes. This is also not a juice fast (so no worries about me screaming from hunger.) I can eat. And if I’m hungry I can snack but it just has to be approved foods and hopefully I give it a couple of hours between nibbles. So far I’m doing okay and not feeling the need to forage in the kitchen. This is really about detoxifying and eating whole, organic fresh foods. It is supposed to lighten my mood as well as my weight. Hopefully this is a nice kick start and gets me on a path I can maintain. I have to admit, I’m feeling pretty optimistic because today I really do feel the way they said I would.
I did fine with the food and hunger (I really wasn’t hungry) but the headache was a drag. (Yesterday was the first day that I didn’t have it.) Of course at first I assumed it was caffeine withdrawl but when it didn’t go away after a couple of days I thought maybe I had some kind of sinus problem. Though after meeting with my group last night, pretty much everyone said they had a headache for the week and now were fine. So it was just my body detoxing. I also found myself feeling weak a couple of days. The interesting part is I was eating plenty of calories. I was eating probably better than I have in a long time. But my body just wanted to rest, it was as if it was saying “yeah, thanks about time, now let me do what I have to do to catch up.” Now today I feel fine. So I guess that was just part of the process.
I am intriqued by how much I am a creature of habit. Good and bad, large and small habits. For the longest time I resisted having a smoothie for breakfast. “I want something warm” for breakfast (which is still true but doesn’t mean I’m going to pass out if I don’t get it.) “I want to chew my food, not drink it.” True, but I have to say, smoothies are fast and clean up is a lot faster than a lot of dishes. Anyway, I have been having smoothies for breakfast all week only because I couldn’t think of anything else to eat for breakfast. Just trying a smoothie for breakfast kind of woke me up. It’s not the end of the world if you just try something. Now I’m kind of into them.
Juicing is encouraged but frankly I can’t take the mess and what seems to me like a lot waste. Smoothies are much easier.
I can have brown rice (along with a few other grains like Quinoa, Amaranth and Millet) on the plan so that is kind of my saving grace. No wheat or corn or any derivatives of wheat and corn. I really like steamed veggies and brown rice and throw in a couple of beans, it’s a nice lunch. So for breakfast today I made a smoothie. Almond milk (I’m supposed to make my own but let’s not get crazy), plain plant-based protein powder, a nice cup of blueberries, a small handful of cashews and a spoon of Cacoa powder for interest). I wasn’t starving when I woke up even though it had been over 12 hours. Had that at 7:30 and was fine until 12:30 when I made a really nice lentil/brown rice burger (very easy too) and some awesome kale chips (outdid myself on those!).
Snacks are allowed so that is not a problem, the only thing is there has to be a 12 hour rest between your last meal of one day and your first meal of the next. That’s not been a problem because I have been doing that for years. I eat dinner really early (Senior Citizen special). And it is always at least 12 hours before I eat again in the a.m.
I am happy with the weight loss though the idea behind this cleanse is to get rid of the toxins that are poisoning me and causing everything from weight gain to depression. For me this is a chance to wipe the slate clean and get back to good habits. Wine can sit out for now (and as training progresses that will probably be limited to small quantities anyway). Coffee out (though I’m sure I will go back to coffee). Chips are gone (sorry old friends) as is bread. What I’m hoping is that after 3 more weeks, all my cravings for a glass of wine and something salty will be tempered. Frankly, I’m one week in and I really don’t crave anything at all! Not even chocolate — go ahead try, you can’t tempt me!
Workouts going well. New pilates instructor is good. I committed to twice a week for month of February. It’s expensive so after that I have to drop to one time a week. Already though I am seeing progress. Those hidden core muscles are starting to wake up. Made it to Spin class twice last week plus another core class. I got one run in and two long walks though by the weekend my long walks were rather slow because I was starting to fade. For the next three weeks I’m going to be modifying my long workouts according to how I feel (well I do that anyway).
So for now I’m pretty impressed with this CLEAN program. I have three weeks to go on the cleanse and I hope to just keep eating this way afterwards. The only thing that might be different is I would eat real meal at night and not a smoothie.
I’m taking my Floradix for iron, I’m also taking the recommended milk thistle and probiotics.
I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going but so far so good.
Namaste
Stole this cartoon from my friend’s facebook page:
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