Archives for May 2015

No, I haven’t fallen off the edge of the earth. I can’t believe how long it has been since I have written a post.  This time of year is usually a bit crazy but this year even more so with my oldest getting ready to graduate from elementary school. I feel like I am inside a tornado and occasionally I get peeks out to see the possibilities and then I am swept back inside.

I had every intention of posting regularly even if I had to cut back on a few posts but boom… time was not on my side.

So let’s catch-up!  The last time we were together, I was sharing the beginning of my 21-day cleanse.  I am proud to say I am down to the last few days (4 to be exact) and I did not cheat and stuck to my exercise routine and sleep routine throughout. I’ve learned a lot about myself in the process. I feel great and I have re-united with my love for cooking with real food.  I love that I have only fed myself whole organic foods throughout this process. That is no easy feat particularly financially. I have been shopping Trader Joes more frequently and I am pretty sure they know me now at Whole Foods. But cooking with fresh vegetables,eating paster-raised organic eggs, and humanly treated meats has really been eye-opening. I enjoyed all the meals I had except for 3 and that’s pretty good in my eyes. I definitely intend on keeping many of the recipes moving forward. I am also going to stick to clean eating in general and limit my processed foods. Here are some pictures of some of my meals over the past few weeks:

This cleanse by no means was a deprivation diet where I ate crackers and yucky stuff. I had hearty delicious meals that included fish and meat.  So I don’t feel like I am missing out on much.

One of my favorite meals was the zucchini noodles with a homemade beef bolognese sauce. I could have eaten this every day. And Apollo loves using my spiralizer to make the noodles for me!

One of my favorite snacks was slices of cumber with avocado spread on top with a dash of salt.  Pure yummy. After I complete this cleanse, I will slowly reintroduce the trigger foods to help to determine any problems.  What a facinating journey that I found daunting as I approached the start date but now reflect and know that this was right for me and will help me to continue on my goal of great health.

I will probably resume my normal posting schedule next week, as I try desperately to grab the reins to this extremely active time. I hope that you all are well and hope you have been crafting, reading and finding time with nature now that the weather has warmed.

Have a blessed day!

Belinda

Hello Everyone! I apologize for missing my regular post of Project Life yesterday.  I went to Afternoon Tea with my bookclub on Saturday at a beautiful teahouse and had a special Mother’s Day with family on Sunday. I think I was just enjoying life so much I lost track of my schedule.  Next week, I will be back on schedule with Project Life.

However, I would like to share with you something new I am doing.  First, let me say, that I have always tried to lean towards healthy choices in my life and this year, I have chosen to continue on this journey and have been researching different healthy options. Recently I have been reading up on this 21-day Gut Cleanse by Dr. Allejandro Junger. He has written several books on eating clean and he also has a Clean Cleanse Program.  But I felt drawn to the Gut Cleanse to ensure that I maximize my opportunity to detox my body and more specifically my digestive system.

The plan is that I will eat whole foods minus the 5 common toxic triggers:

• gluten
• dairy
• sugar
• alcohol
• coffee

This cleanse is based on the teachings of functional medicine and the 4 Rs of functional medicine are:

1. Remove – Remove most common toxic triggers (such as sugar, wheat, gluten, dairy)
2. Replace – Replace toxic triggers  and any processed foods for organic whole foods which will help to replenish nutrients like magnesium and fiber to name a few.
3. Reinoculate – Bring balance to the digestive track by improving the body’s good bacteria (intestinal flora).
4. Repair – Any good cleanse should aid the body in it’s repair functions. This is done by having a liquid meal, which reduces our intake of toxic triggers while eating from the cleanse diet. In other words, it allows the digestive process to not be taxed by toxins and hard to digestive foods, so that the body can efficiently and effectively run through it’s proper digestive process daily.

I am of course simplifying this for a post but I have been reading both his Clean book and Clean Gut literature from his website.

So yesterday was my first day. I thought I would keep a journal to record my thoughts and experience along the way and would like to share some of this via a regular post on the site for the 21-days. Now I will definitely journal daily through this process but will not add more pressure and promise to post daily. But I will commit to regular check-in posts to share my experiences.

The things that I will be tracking and closely observing throughout the process are: my energy level, my mood, my digestion, my sleep, my weight and try to identify which triggers are problematic for me so that moving forward, I will move away from them in my regular eating.

My goal is not only to lose a little weight but to improve my digestive system, release the toxins that are currently in my body and to move closer to more clean foods on a regular basis after completing this cleanse for a more healthy energetic life.

Yesterday I had a smoothie called Dreamy Blueberry smoothie for breakfast. It was pretty good and filling. I had a Vegetable Frittata for lunch and in order to not overburden the process since my family will be eating a separate meal, I will portion and save leftovers for future lunches so that I don’t have to cook everyday.

The formula is a fortified smoothie for breakfast and then a substantial clean lunch followed by a clean light dinner.  There are snacks and I will be exploring that soon. My first big, oh boy, was not including my morning green tea with breakfast. Since it is naturally caffenated, I will not be drinking it throughout the 21-day. This isn’t the big thing for me. I think sugar is going to be my challenge. I love me some dark chocolate like the next but all processed food and sugar is going to test my will power.

I have been telling all of my friends I am going to do this so that I will first of all stick to my start date and push through the plan.  I don’t know if I will make it for the entire 21-days but I am going for it. I chose to do this after Mother’s Day because I didn’t want to miss out on the grilling and other yummies I had for Mother’s day. I also think it would be a great time to detox all the naughties I had like (gluten, sugar and alcohol).

Yesterday I enjoyed everything which I was glad for a good start.

Today I can’t say the smoothie was my favorite. But it was filling.  So far I am feeling pretty good. I will update you soon on my progress. Until then, I wish for you good health and happiness.

Belinda