I’ve been putting this post off because I knew it was going to be a monster, and also between preparing for a friend to visit, said friend’s visit, and preparing for Dave’s birthday party this weekend I’ve been a very busy girl.
Day 22
This breakfast smoothie had banana, strawberries, peanut butter, flax, cocoa, agave, coconut milk. This is probably my favorite smoothie combination, and for that reason I don’t let myself have it very often. Saturday mornings are a good excuse! I also took my multi and coQ10 and had coffee with coconut milk. After breakfast I headed to the farmers market with no particular plan in mind.
kale, spinach in the back, persian cucumbers, celery, corn and okra
blueberries in the bag, peaches, baby eggplants, carrots, shallots, zucchini (they’re yellow and light green!), multicolored potatoes and a canary melon
When I returned home I had napa cabbage salad with spicy peanut sauce and smoked tofu. I skipped my morning and afternoon snacks to keep it light in preparation for the evening’s activities – a vegan potluck housewarming party hosted by Megan and Kelly, The Sisters Vegan! I decided in advance that I was going to cheat on the cleanse a little bit (how could I resist trying everything at a vegan potluck???), so I tried to make my contributions as healthy as possible. I made my Potato & Fava Bean Salad with Miso-Mustard Dressing, except there were no favas at the farmers market so I went with lima beans instead. A good substitution, but not at all the same as favas. I didn’t get to snap a picture of the dish because I was running late.
I also wanted to make a wheat- and sugar-free dessert, so I consulted Diet, Dessert and Dogs and found a good looking recipe for Jam-Filled Turnovers. Of course, I didn’t have any sugar-free jam at home, so I made my own and it probably wasn’t quite thick enough. I also didn’t have coconut oil and couldn’t get any without driving almost an hour round trip, so I substituted canola oil and hoped for the best.
They didn’t turn out so well. I could tell when I rolled out the dough that it was much too oily and soft, but I tried to put together some cookies anyway. They were edible for sure, but not potluck party worthy, so I bagged ‘em up and left ‘em at home. I don’t think this is the recipe’s fault at all – I think it’s a good recipe and I just made bad substitutions.
Oh, did I forget to mention that while I was baking and cooking I had two vodka tonics? Yeah? Well, there it is. Again, that’s what Saturdays are for! I had a great time at Megan and Kelly’s place, their house is super-cute! Here’s my plate o’ food.
Sorry for the crazy redness, I couldn’t get my camera to take it any other way. From top left going clockwise, this is hummus and some jalapeno sauce with pita chips, a delicious bagel bite with the new Daiya cheese made by Melisser, fruit salad, pesto pasta, my potato-lima bean salad, part of a sundried tomato scone, part of a blueberry muffin, and TWO types of corn dog nuggets with an awesome spicy-sweet mustard. (Thanks for sharing wheat products with me Melisser!) This was a really great meal, and far more than I should have eaten. Now I see why people rave about those sundried tomato scones – so good! I didn’t take a picture of dessert, but if memory serves me I had a snickerdoodle, a small chocolate thing (truffle?), a brownie, and there may have been another cookie involved. This is why I shouldn’t wait almost three weeks to write blog posts. Aaaand I had a few beers at the party too.
Day 23
Sunday morning, I didn’t have anything I wanted to put in a smoothie, so I made fruit salad.
Strawberries, banana and grapes with flax meal. I also had coffee with coconut milk, a multivitamin and b complex supplement. Lunch was napa cabbage salad with spicy peanut sauce and smoked tofu, along with spirulina and (four) jam turnover cookies. Afternoon snack was a grapefruit. I was planning on leftovers for dinner, but when I went to pick Dave and a friend up from bart and he suggested that he might pay for taqueria if I took them…
…this happened. Rice, beans, salsa and chips. It’s technically cleanse friendly, except for the rice not being whole grain. It was also technically delicious. Along with dinner, I had a beer or two.
Day 24
I woke up with a raging headache Monday morning and decided to stay home from work. I don’t get migraines or anything, but I could tell this was the kind of headache that was going to stick around all day.
Luckily, I had already prepped my smoothie with spinach, banana, raspberries, chocolate hempshake, udo’s oil and coconut milk. I also took my multi and coQ10 and had blueberry green tea.
For a snack, I cut into the canary melon from my CSA. I had never had canary melon before, but apart from the bright yellow rind, I’d say it’s really similar to honeydew.
Lunch was the last of the napa cabbage salad with spicy peanut sauce and smoked tofu, as well as a probiotic, two blueberry jam turnovers and wild sweet orange tea. My afternoon snack was also what I had prepped to take to work – carrot sticks, squash slices, red bell pepper and cucumber with white bean pesto dip. Dinner was the last of the sesame tofu scramble with greens, yams, mushrooms and dulse over savory oat bran, two blueberry jam turnovers and camomile tea. I was feeling much better by the end of the night and was able to work on some food for the next day.
Day 25
I was running late for work, so no picture of the smoothie, but it had spinach, banana, strawberries, berry pomegranate hempshake, udo’s and coconut milk, and I took a multi and b complex. Morning snack was canary melon, a nectarine and black tea. Also no picture of my lunch salad, which had leaf lettuce, baby romaine, mexi-millet from Veganomicon, black beans, guacamole and salsa. There’s a picture below under Day 26 of basically the same salad. I also took a spirulina with lunch, and my afternoon snack was carrot sticks, red bell pepper and cucumber slices with white bean pesto dip.
For dinner, I made a curried stew with many of the veggies I bought at the farmers market, plus some stuff hanging around the fridge. This stew included onion, garlic, ginger, red jalapeno, curry paste, zucchini, eggplant, okra, corn, swiss chard, coconut milk, tofu and cilantro. I was really happy with how this turned out and kind of wished I had written down a recipe. After dinner I had two blueberry jam turnovers and wild sweet orange tea.
Day 26
This very tasty smoothie included spinach, banana, raspberries, vanilla rice protein, almond extract, udo’s, almond milk and agave. I really liked adding the almond and vanilla flavors, and also took my multi and coQ10. The morning snack was a peach, canary melon and black tea.
Here is a picture of the salad mentioned above – leaf lettuce, baby romaine, mexi-millet, black beans, guacamole and salsa, with bonus cilantro and green onions. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the mexi-millet, but I quite liked it. It was nice and flavorful and moist. With lunch I took a probiotic, and had almonds for an afternoon snack.
The curried stew thickened significantly sitting in the fridge overnight, but still tasted great. After dinner I had the last four blueberry jam turnovers and sugar plum spice tea.
Day 27
Thursday was a great day, if only because I was taking Friday off to hang out with our friend Mike who was visiting from Florida. This smoothie was made from spinach, banana, strawberries, chocolate hempshake, udo’s and almond milk, and I took my multi and b complex. At work, I had coffee with almond milk and more canary melon. Lunch was a similar salad to the day before, with leaf lettuce, baby romaine, mexi-millet, black beans, avocado, salsa and lime juice, and I had almonds for an afternoon snack.
After work I headed downtown to pick up Dave and Mike, who had been afternoon-bar-hopping, and went straight home to have time to prepare for our first fantasy football draft. I always get really nervous before drafts for some reason, so I cracked open a beer pretty soon after arriving home to sooth my nerves. After a few beers and what I consider a pretty good draft, I had more of the curried summer veggie stew.
Day 28
Friday morning I slept in, and we were too busy chatting and planning our day’s activities for breakfast. To introduce Mike to the taqueria experience, we went pretty soon after they opened for what would have to be considered brunch. I had chips and salsa and a taco salad (lettuce, tomatoes, rice, beans, guacamole, salsa). I took only a few nibbles of the fried tortilla taco shell. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up tailgating supplies for the Giants game, and upon returning home I had coffee with almond milk.
We left for San Francisco in the early afternoon to meet Dave’s bandmate Brendan at Anchor Brewery, where he works. He was finishing up a tour, just in time to give us a few samples and our own private tour! It was very cool to see the inner workings of Anchor.
My food at the tailgate and game weren’t nearly as interesting as the game itself. For a snack and dinner I brought a peach, a banana and leftover curried summer veggie stew. In the game I snacked on some peanut, pistachios and a few garlic fries, and of course I had a few beers.
Photo essay on the wonder that is Tim Lincecum:
I love watching Lincecum pitch, but I’ve gotta say that the kid needs a haircut!
Dave and me after the game.
Day 29
I was seriously running out of fresh fruit by Saturday morning and had no time to shop, so this smoothie included baby romaine, banana, blueberry jam leftover from making the turnovers, mango pomegranate amazing meal, udo’s and almond milk. We were leaving for the whole day, so I took all my supplements in the morning too – multi, coQ10 and probiotic, and had coffee with almond milk.
The reason we were leaving was to go to our second fantasy football draft, at Dave’s cousin’s house about an hour away in Manteca. Manteca also happens to be home to Taqueria Menteca, the sister restaurant to Taqueria Ripon, which is my second favorite place for Mexican food in the world next to Las Margaritas in Gainesville, FL. I had had enough with taco salads and just went for the burrito. However, I still tried to be good by cutting it in half and saving part for later that night. It was nice to have leftover burrito, but that didn’t stop me from grabbing some handfuls of pretzels and tortilla chips. We had some beers during the draft, and afterwards headed to a luau party also going on in town. I did the limbo, tried to hula hoop, and had two veggie spring rolls prepared by the hostess for me and the one other vegetarian there.
Day 30
We got home really late Saturday night, and I slept in far past breakfast time on Sunday. I was really, really out of fruit anyway. I skipped straight to lunch and had another mexi-millet/avocado/black bean salad, as well as my multi, b complex, spirulina and coffee with almond milk. Even though our guest was still in town, I needed to go grocery shopping to prepare for the coming week. He wanted to go shopping for souvenirs, so we headed to Berkeley and he explored Telegraph Ave while I went to Berkeley Bowl. When I picked him up we were both hungry and feeling too lazy to cook, so we picked up some Japanese food from a place just north of campus. I had inari sushi and soba noodle soup with tofu and veggies. It was quite bland, but I was hungry enough to not care much.
Conclusions
I figure I’ll report some conclusions, for anyone who might want to do a cleanse like this, or just for anyone who is curious. I gained a bit of weight the last week (I suspect it was the lack of exercise and extra beers while our friend was visiting), but overall I was still just over three pounds down which is pretty good for a month. After going back to “normal” with exercise and eating I dropped back down a bit fairly quickly.
Energy-wise, I didn’t feel any difference. This was one area I was hoping to see a difference. I get a good amount of sleep and have decent energy all the time, but I was hoping between the b complex and coQ10 supplements, healthy eating and exercise I would feel energized. Not so. I still needed my caffeine every morning and had those evenings here and there where all I wanted to do was sit on the couch.
Digestion. I thought for sure my digestion would be great on this cleanse. In reality, my digestive system was…ahem…unhappy the whole time. Soon after starting the cleanse I noticed my…ah…number two was not in a good state, and this continued through the whole month. For someone who normally does well in this area, this was a definite negative result. I also had digestion pains a few times, probably from increasing the amount of raw vegetables I ate.
The other negatives were the amount of time spent prepping food, and the amount I spent. My grocery bill was a full 30% higher than normal for the month. I’m sure this was due mostly to buying supplements and a ton of fresh, organic fruit. I felt like I spent a LOT of time prepping, especially for my daily lunch salads. I was very happy when I could go back to taking dinner leftovers for lunch.
One positive was that cutting out wheat forced me to try new grains. I tried buckwheat for the first time ever and liked it, and gave millet another shot after having it only once and not being a fan. I will keep these grains, as well as spelt flour, regulars in my diet. I was also shocked to find out how many products I was eating regularly had sugar. All types of soy yogurt, for instance, are made with sugar. So is soy creamer, and a few other products that I regularly consumed. I’m going to stay off yogurt and take a probiotic supplement every once in a while instead, but I’m going back to creamer full force. Coffee is just no good to me with “regular” milk. Creamer is a deal breaker.
One rule I will continue to stick with for weight loss purposes is alcohol on weekends only. It’s a good policy for me that keeps me from having a glass of wine on Tuesday here, a beer on Thursday here…it certainly aids in keeping my calories down. I’m also continuing to exercise four to five days a week, and have started weight training again in addition to cardio.
Overall, I’m happy I did the cleanse (even though I “cheated” more times then I would’ve liked to), if for no other reason than to prove to myself I could do it!
