Day two of "Diet"

Well, the first day of the cleanse went better than I expected. I titled this post “diet” instead of “cleanse” because I decided that's kind of what I'm doing here. I ditched the cleanse.

BUT I will say that doing it for a day helped with the mental side of it all. Dieting, or as I would like to simply call it, eating right/healthy, is freaking hard. There's so much temptation out there, especially where I live (the Bay Area). I swear this place has the most amazing food in this country. It’s very eclectic—it has cuisine from all different nations/cultures. Anyway, the point is, starving yourself for one day is not necessarily a bad thing. It helps put things in perspective and for me, it said: Hey, you can do this.

So this is how day one went in a nut shell: I ate fruit such as oranges, a banana, strawberries and blueberries all morning and had the soup twice at work that day with the spirulina. Oh! I also had a large ice coffee with no milk or sugar. Let’s say it was so bland and flavorless that it was borderline unbearable. Just put your mind to it and drink that bad boy.

I decided not to work out too hard that day because I was really tired. This was the least calorie consumption I’ve had in a pretty long time. So I decided to bicycle (which I do anyway everyday), and decided to take on the more “hilly” parts in my neighborhood.

Before I did the bicycle ride, I decided to tweak this cleanse/diet. I decided to eat as organic (not man-made, comes from the earth) as possible and stick to a meal plan. I tried to find organic yogurt and milk, but I decided that as long it was Greek yogurt, non fat or soy then it’s all good. Also, I got the most AMAZING organic Martha Natha peanut butter. Check it out here:

MaraNatha Organic Peanut Butter

I went to Trader Joes to also get some chia seeds, more fruit, nuts, and flax seed bread (oh ,another not so organic thing) and went back home. I consumed an English muffin with the peanut butter, chia seeds, banana, and a little bit of organic honey. And that’s what I ate for dinner.

This morning, I decided to start a “diet.” I ate Greek yogurt with strawberries, bananas and blueberries, and then I sprinkled a little honey and chia seeds. I then snacked on a pack of mixed nuts. I then had some of that AWESOME veggie soup (insert sarcasm here) with the spirulina. I then had baked chicken and a sweet potato and finished it off with a juicy black plum.  I finished worked, ran a few errands (bought kombucha drink to get me pumped for my workout) and back to Berkeley I went to the gym.

So my routine at the gym is pretty basic. I run for about 3.3 miles in 32 minutes. I then do an all over body workout. I do arms, legs (lunges, squats) and abs (use exercise ball, sit ups, crunches, etc). I'm feeling like my body is FINALLY getting conditioned. Now, I’ve been going to the gym for almost a year now and am just starting to see results. It’s been a long process, but one that I finally decided to take advantage of just a month ago. Meaning, I really decided to kick my ass and sweat/feel the burn!

I can TOTALLY see a difference. My legs, slowly but surely are definitely getting toned. I have abs, but there is still a bit of fat there—you know ladies, that small “pooch” and with a bit of love handles on the side. I want all that gone and completely toned. My face is thinner and is slowly but surely clearing up (started suffering from adult acne at 25). This has all really been a process, but again, you just have to wake up and one day say: NO MORE. And this week has FINALLY been the week I said that. NO MORE splurging on weekends. I'm keeping at a strict diet for a month. I am so freaking close.

Overall, I do physically and mentally feel better. I have a good amount of energy and my appetite has already been tamed! I used to eat a lot people. I could down fries for hours I swear (never did, but I know I could). Today I actually craved something healthy. I couldn’t wait to get home to have a banana, blueberry, peanut better smoothie! However, my aunt decided to boil seafood (shrimp, oysters and clams). Organic enough so I will eat that. But I kinda would rather the smoothie. Weird huh? Weird, but exciting! I am confident I will reach my goal.

Five Day Cleanse- Day 1

Main image from cookdiary.net 

My co-worker and friend, Katie approached me about doing a cleanse. I’ve never done one and wasn’t too excited about the idea. I mean, who would be? You could only consume liquid for a week!

But the more research I did, the more I thought to myself, "You know, this might be a pretty damn good idea!" You see, I have IBS and lately I’ve been having an upset stomach (ah! What’s new?)

Anywho, I figured I needed to get down to the root of my issues, start fresh as you would say. From my research, toxins will get in your body one way or another and the goal for me wasn’t too detoxify as much as to start from the basics. Stop eating anything that is manmade and start organic. Slowly start to incorporate healthy/organic foods and hope the stomach will balance out and no longer be upset.

After doing a bit of research, I agreed and told her I’m in. I started again looking around the internet to find soup cleanses. The most popular one I found was something called the Cabbage Soup Cleanse. It was packed full of sodium and it didn’t look very appealing. So I decided to tweak the recipe a little and the overall cleanse was also tweaked.

As mentioned earlier, the goal for me is to get back down to the basics. I want to be able to feel/look better too. I’ve been battling acne since I turned 25 and I want to be more focused. You see, I want to race sportbikes, specifically for the AFM, which is a local motorcycle club out here in Northern California. To make a long story short: I need to get my ass in shape!

The plan: Make the cabbage soup, eat only fruit and veggies for the first 1-2 days. Also, if I consumer anything else, make sure it is organic (grown from the earth). Then incorporate small amounts of protein such as eggs, yogurt and milk. I will also incorporate nuts and peanut butter as the days go on. By the fifth day I just want to make sure I have incorporated all food groups (meat and such) and nutrients my body needs. I will hopefully feel AMAZING by then. But again, we shall see and hence this blog to keep track of my progress. Today is going to be the hardest because it’s the first day and I am only having fruit and that tasteless vegetable soup.

So far it’s only been almost three hours since I’ve been awake. I decided to get a large iced coffee (I wake up at 5:15am and I couldn’t imagine not having any, especially for five days!) But I got it with only ice: no milk no sugar). So far, I am still feeling tired, but I am in it to win it! I have a track day coming up later on this month (well hopefully) and bikini season is right around the corner as well (would like to head to Santa Barbara to soak up some rays, and some fish tacos). Looking and feeling good, I believe, is the key to longevity. Also, it is the key to a boyfriend, which maybe I will get one of these days hehe (jk, I like being single but it’s always nice to have someone to roll around in the hay with, am I right ladies?).

Oh! I almost forgot, I also ran down to Blue Hawaii (that have the most fabulous Acai fruit bowls) and got some spirulina. Spirulina is good for your overall cardiovascular health, eye and brain health, as well as gives you energy and builds a healthy immune system. My allergies are kicking, and this is the only medication I will take for it. So imma sprinkle some of this stuff in my soup as well.

Okay so here is the ingredients/preparation to the soup and I will keep a diary of what I consume on a daily basis as well as my weight. When I weighed myself this morning, I weighed 148.4 lbs. So here we go!

Ingredients to soup:

-Whole clove of garlic

-Whole medium sized onion

- 2 green bell peppers

- 4 stalks of celery

- 3 whole red tomatoes diced

- Container of mushrooms sliced

- 6 green onions

- 1 head of cabbage

- Organic vegetable broth

I filled a large soup pot with olive oil and threw in the first five ingredients and let them simmer. I then added the veggie broth (which is just adding more veggie, into veggies. I would assume for more flavor you would add chicken broth instead, but I am not a cook…yet). I then added eight to 10 cups of water because it’s a lot of veggies! Let them all cook for 45 minutes to and hour and that’s it! Not a lot of flavor at all, but definitely edible.

Back to work I go and I will post how day 1 went tomorrow.