Getting My Cleanse On: Follow Up

I woke up Friday morning, the day following my three days of cleansing and felt absolutely amazing. My head was clear, I felt lighter (if that makes sense), I was rested and felt like I could go run a marathon (instead I stuck to a couple workouts from my Beach Babe DVD since I was running short on time).

While I was getting ready for work, I chugged a bottle of water and then grabbed a hard-boiled egg - my go-to breakfast. It was fantastic.

I missed you, little buddy

I wanted to ease back into normal eating, so I packed a container of fruit for my mid-morning snack. Lunch was a meeting in the buffet (no wonder I eat badly, I have two buffets, cafes and steakhouses at my disposal every day) and I filled up on a salad with loads of veggies and may have snuck in a crab rangoon. :) I was beyond stuffed.

I definitely noticed that I wasn't as hungry as normal and didn't have the urge to grab a snack in the afternoon. For dinner, I had a piece of sea bass and bread from the steakhouse (see? a long day at work meant eating two meals there) - while I'm very lucky to have this perk, it's very tempting in a negative way.

After work I met my bestie, Angie, who was in town from Houston for a couple drinks and then met Nick, Cruz and the fam at Tony & Marcy's BBQ and let me tell you after a couple glasses of wine there...THIS girl got sick as soon as I got home. Like hovering over the toilet sick. :(

A couple of things about the cleanse:

• Drink the juices cold…and I recommend quickly
• As of Friday morning, I had lost 3.5 lbs, although I wasn’t doing this to lose weight, just as a detox 
• Like it states in the directions, if you are a caffeine drinker, definitely don’t have any one to two days prior if you can help it. I did one day prior but had a big headache end of first day and morning of second.
•  Drink tons of water – sometimes I milked the juice and it took an hour or so to drink and I should’ve been drinking water in between.
•  I recommend doing it during the work week – if I would’ve been on it on my days off I would’ve been too tempted to cheat.
•  I did end up having a piece of fruit each day – the first two during the afternoons and tonight it was when I got home from work
• If you enjoy imbibing in a cocktail or two as I do, I definitely recommend easing back into it...or you too will be hovering over the toilet in no time.

About the juices - I definitely have my favorites after drinking these bad boys for three days. And I've decided some are just plain terrible but you can still manage through them. My scale of judgment is based on whether or not I would purchase these outside of the cleanse to drink them. The first three? Absolutely. The last three, um I would rather do without.

• #1 - Vanilla Cloud
• #2 - Fuel
• #3 - Green Supreme
• #4 - Glow
• #5 - Fiji (this is a close tie for last place)
• #6 - Purify

Would I do the cleanse again? Absolutely - I would consider doing this quarterly or if I get back into an eating rut, it definitely set me back on track and made me feel great.

Ok...this is the last time post about this damn thing. Sorry for boring you all!

Getting My Cleanse On: Day Three

And onto Day Three.

Again, woke up feeling great. Not hungry, full of energy. Then I got into my car and realized someone (not me) had left it on empty and I was going to be late for my first meeting. {Enter crabby Katie.}

7am - I drank Glow on the way to work and all but finished it.

10am - arrived to work and was over the car / no gas situation and started Fuel (one of my faves) but didn't finish the last drop until 1:25pm since I was busy in meetings all morning. I was hungry at this point, but that's because I missed drink #3 Purify in there somewhere. Not the biggest loss since I'm not a huge fan of it, but I did gulp down half right after finishing the rest of my Fuel.

I spent some of the afternoon setting out taste test cups of the juices for my co-workers to try. I have to admit I quite enjoyed the looks on their faces as they tried to make it through some of them. This provided me much amusement today. It's the little things, people.

Around 3pm I started Fiji and finished about half of that before I couldn't handle the celery, cuke and lemon taste any longer. I will say one thing with Day Two and Day Three versus Day One - I'm not sure if I was giving the juices more credit on the first day, but by Day Two it was evident I was not event the least bit a fan of Purify or Fiji. Although, I did manage to drink them because, let's be honest, it was the only thing I had!

I drank half of my Green Supreme on my way home from work around 7pm and got into play mode with little man as soon as I walked into the door.

Another cave happened when I cut up some fruit for Cruz that night and I had a couple pieces, not a full piece of fruit, but I definitely ate some of it. (I've gotta be honest!) And I about crumbled when I was making him and Nick a PB&J sandwich (chef extraordinaire right here) and he kept bringing me half of his sandwich, saying "peanut butter, mama?" When I told him no, he had the saddest little face that I had to fake eat it.

Then I pulled out my Vanilla Cloud - the last juice of my 3-day cleanse - and enjoyed it while Cruz climbed all over me asking me if he could have some "choco milt" too. I gave him some and he must've liked it because I got this face:

Don't mind the blurry photo - I'm too lazy these days to use anything by my iPhone

I started feeling really tired after putting Cruz to bed, so I finished up some work emails and then called it a night.

**For those of you who have asked, I weighed myself again on this morning and was down 2.4 lbs total. Again, it wasn't about the weight loss for me, but more about just detoxing and cleaning out my body that I was going for.

Getting My Cleanse On: Day Two

So...yeah. Um this right here is what my "lunch meeting" looked like at work today.

Are you kidding me?

Anywho...

Day 2:

I woke up Wednesday morning feeling good...not how I expected. I expected a growling stomach and a growling Katie rampaging the house for some food. And I really thought I would have taken up sleep walking over night and wake up to find myself hands deep in a bag of baked Doritos. But that didn't happen either. Maybe I do have a tad bit of willpower.

And although my wake up time was 4:36am, I felt rested and alert. I jumped on the scale, not because I've been trying to lose weight with this cleanse, but I was curious and have wanted to share my entire experience because I know some people do them to lose weight. I was down 0.9 lbs from the prior morning. Nothing earth shattering.

I cracked open my first drink of the day at 6:50am after a glass of hot water and lemon. I'm not going to go through all the dirty details of the day, but to give an idea of how I felt. I completed the first drink on my ride to work, but the rest of the day I found myself having trouble finishing the entire bottle of the rest of the juices. I also found myself drinking more hot decaf tea with lemon throughout the day.

Lunch was a bit difficult (did you see the picture above??). If you know me, you know I can clear out a bread basket like no other. Seeing that bread basket and the yummy cake staring at me as I was chugging down the Purify juice was not easy. I'm proud to say I didn't cave one bit.

Once I got back to work from lunch, my hunger took over. And I'm not sure what it was about the afternoon - I must be a snacker - but I caved again and ate a peach. I needed something of substance and that did the trick.

I worked straight up until 7:15pm and then had to rush to a day care appointment to meet Nick & Cruz. On the way I sucked down part of my Vanilla Cloud and almost finished it on the way home. After taking care of some work emails, I called it a night.

How I felt:

• Tired - I had many yawning spells throughout the day and seemed more tired than usual despite how I felt early in the morning.
• Hungry - I definitely had hunger spells. My stomach growled loudly but really only when I didn't get to my juice on time because of a meeting, etc. I think if I would've been better at sticking to my timeline and finished the entire bottle, I wouldn't have felt this way.
• Jealous - Nick was at home with Cruz all day and took him to lunch at La Mesa (my fave Mexican restaurant) - of course he had to send me pictures. Really?! And then later that night after an appointment with a prospective day care, he stopped at Firehouse Subs (my fave sandwich shop) for those two AND I had to feed Cruz his sandwich. I may have muttered some angry words under my breath at that point. Did he not realize how unfair that was? :)
• Tempted - I think I walked over to my pantry no less than 10 times when I got home. Looking for what, I don't know. Or better yet, why? I don't know that either. I would walk over, open the door, take a look, shut the door. Repeat. 
• Clean - I feel differently inside. Just good. Clean. I can tell that I haven't been filling my body with junk - Coffeemate in my coffee, complex carbs, junk food, wine. That is the best part of this whole experience. Well, that and the fact that I haven't caved yet and binged on a box of donuts.

All in the day was not bad. I'm proud of myself for sticking with it and happy with the way I feel. I don't notice dewy skin or a silky, shiny hair that I've read some people experience, but let's be honest, my skin is already a bit oily and my hair is drier than a bird's nest. I don't think a fifty day cleanse could help that.

Getting My Cleanse On: Day One

On Tuesday, I woke up feeling pumped, excited and just ready to start this little cleanse.

Here is what my day consisted of:

• 5am - I started the day with hot water and lemon on my way to meet Britt at what has become our regular Tuesday morning workout - Spinning/HIIT class at Sweat, Cycle and Soul. Lydia kicks our asses each morning and I love getting my workout done and doing something different than just running.
• 7am - halfway through getting ready for work and time for my first juice of the day, Glow. This is the first time I've had it and at first sniff I wasn't excited. The cucumber was evident and this girl is not a fan of cukes, however, after a couple drinks it wasn't too bad. I ended up milking it through my car ride to work.

• At work the Keurig was calling my name - I saw my regular coffee buddies walking by my office getting their piping hot caffeine fix and I was a bit jealous. Nope. I.Can.Do.This.
• 9:45am I opened my second juice of the day, Fuel. I have had Fuel before and really like it. I love carrots, although they aren't overpowering, and it's also filled with tons of fruits so it's sweeter and pretty damn good. I had gotten busy at work by this point and actually didn't end up finishing it until 11:45am.

• At this point, my stomach was growling and I'm just plain hungry for real food. I also had a caffeine headache which was to be expected I suppose when my regular day consists of about three cups of coffee. Plus, I made the mistake of opening my desk drawer for a Kleenex and see a chocolate peanut butter Luna bar. Mmm...chocolate and peanut butter.
• 12:30pm was time for the third juice, Purify. Don't be mistaken by the pretty reddish pink color, this is not a fruity treat. No way, no how. The dirty beet taste was overpowering and I had to all but chug to finish it, although I only drank about two-thirds. Have I told you I don't like beets very much? Oh, and if that wasn't enough, just as I got over the flavor of beets came the cucumber taste. Definitely my least favorite so far, but manageable.
• 2:30pm - a co-worker and I had some off property meetings so I had to drink and drive with number four, Fiji. This one had cucumber in it, but I don't know if I was just immune to the taste by this point, but I really didn't taste it. The apple flavor was good in this juice. However, during our drive it seemed we passed every single fast food restaurant in Omaha and all I could think of was pulling off the road and right into the drive-thru. Any food sounded phenomenal at this point.
• I ended up going home to work the rest of the day after our meetings. This was probably a bad idea because I knew I would be tempted by everything that resided in our pantry and cupboards, but I was already so far out west that it was silly to head back to work.
• 4:30pm is when I broke down and ate a banana. You know that whole mind over matter thing? Yeah, I don't have that. I needed to put something in my mouth that wasn't liquid (yeah, yeah, insert jokes here). That really seemed to help the light nausea I was feeling, so while I know I broke the rules, I'm glad I did it because it made the rest of the night more bearable.
• 5pm was time for juice five, Green Supreme. This is another I've had before and one of my faves, so it was easy peasy. Again, the apple flavor in this juice is excellent. However, at this point I was somewhat full - of what, I have no idea - and ended up sharing it with Cruz after he got home. 
• 6:30pm is dinnertime for Cruz and I knew I couldn't get away with only feeding him Green Supreme, so I was going to have to try my willpower in the kitchen in order to whip him up something to eat. Pasta with marinara probably wasn't the best idea I've ever had considering it's one of my fave dishes, but it was bath night and I like to get him nice and dirty before a bath, so that's what we did. Oh, and I may have accidentally licked some of the sauce off my finger from C's spaghetti...intentionally or unintentionally? I will let you decide.
• 7:45pm time for a little Vanilla Cloud while Cruz and I were playing and doing laundry. In honor of the glorious, creamy, cinnamon-y taste I let Cruz have a small glass of chocolate milk. This was a great treat and really felt like I was drinking a shake.

• I ended up going to bed relatively soon after Cruz, being that I would be left alone and to my own devices and didn't trust myself not to have someone watching over me with some accountability.

I definitely didn't drink enough water throughout the day - I'm a slow drinker (unless there is a Corona Light in my hand, that is) and felt I was sipping on so much juice all day that there wasn't time for me to chug down the H2O. I will make sure I do that tomorrow.

Bottom line:
Day one wasn't that bad. Yes, I was hungry. And I really wanted something solid to eat (hence, the banana cheat), but once I kept myself busy it was definitely manageable.

Good night!

"You're Trying What?"

I have heard this exact phrase from Nick more than I'd care to admit.

Yes, maybe I like to try some different things as it pertains to various parts of my life, generally food consumption or my diet.  Like what, you ask? Well to name a few, like trying Gwyneth Paltrow's seven day Goop detox back in 2012 (and stopping after day 4), jumping on the super food bandwagon (this is legit, Nick just thinks it's not), filling the fridge with bottles of sparkling water to help curb my love for Diet Mt. Dew, compiling lists of good-for-you recipes and filling drawer after drawer in our kitchen because I know I'm just going to start making these at some point.  See? Just a few.

Since the end of May I have had a really poor diet, loads of stress, a half-assed exercise schedule and I've probably drank more bottles, er glasses of wine than I care to admit.  I just don't feel like myself. So I  knew I wanted to do something to jump start my health back in the right direction or I was going to continue to feel unlike myself, crabby and have very little energy. But I kept telling myself "next week" and we know how that goes.

So that brings us to the reason for this post.

I had heard about the Suja Cleanse a few months back. At the time, I didn't have the chance to fully look into it. Then it started popping up all over, in some of the magazines I read and blogs I follow.  I took some time to check it out and read some reviews to better understand it. My body has just felt crappy lately and I want to flush out the junk and get back to fueling it with the good stuff. This seemed to be just what I was looking for.

I decided the three day cleanse was the route to go - just enough time to detox, but not too long that I would go bat shit crazy. Let's be honest, these will probably seem like the longest three days of my life. (I'm a bit dramatic, remember?)

Here is where you insert a "you're trying what?" from Nick when I let him know what these next three days were going to have in store for all of us me.

The juices are a bit expensive in the scheme of things, but when you realize that each averages about two pounds of straight fruits and veggies, that makes sense. Fortunately, our Whole Foods had them in stock (and on sale, score!), so I didn't have to shell out $60 for shipping.

Here is what my day will look like.

I will check in each night to let you all know how things are going. Let's hope this cleanse cleans the yuck out of me and puts me back into a better mood. And let's also hope I don't eat my hand in the process...