Posts Tagged March cleanse

March Cleanse: Days 15 – 18 & Wrap-Up

March 21, 2010 at 9:21 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Well, I said that I was going to extend my cleanse until tomorrow, but I quit a bit early.  After work on Friday I was tired, stressed and hungry and I grabbed a burrito, and it was delicious.  While I enjoyed the food I had on the cleanse, it was a lot of work to prep it all every night, so I was ready to give it a rest!

Day 15:

water with lemon & chia seeds
breakfast juice:  cucumber, celery, orange, ginger, kale
green tea
snack smoothie:  banana, strawberries, hemp protein, amazing grass powder, udo’s oil, almond milk
salad:  leaf lettuce, radish, green onion, adzuki beans, mandarin orange, sesame-almond-ginger dressing
snack:  raw sprouted hummus with broccoli florets & asian pear slices
dinner:  fajita leftovers with tortilla chips, detox tea

Day 16:

water with lemon & chia seeds
breakfast juice:  cucumber, celery, carrot, apple, kale
earl grey tea
snack smoothie:  same as day 15
salad:  same as day 15, with asparagus & dulse flakes

snack:  raw sprouted hummus with broccoli florets
dinner:  white chili with potatoes & cilantro, sauteed swiss chard, detox tea

Day 17:

water with lemon & chia seeds
breakfast juice:  fennel, orange & kale
cinnamon black tea
snack smoothie:  same as day 15
lunch:  same as day 16
snack:  tortilla chips
dinner:  same as day 16, detox tea

Day 18:

water with lemon & chia seeds
breakfast juice:  fennel, carrot, green apple, kale
green tea
snack smoothie:  banana, pear, amazing grass, hemp protein powder, udo’s oil, multigrain milk
lunch:  raw cauliflower couscous, braised spinach with mustard dressing
snack:  raw sprouted hummus, broccoli florets
dinner:  same as day 16

I set out to make cauliflower “rice”, but I processed the cauliflower a little too much, and the texture was smaller than rice, so I’m calling it couscous.  The other ingredients were red bell pepper, jalapeno, carrot, lemon juice, salt, cilantro and parsley.  It was tasty but a little hard to chew all that cauliflower.

The “braised” spinach was adapted from The Raw Revolution Diet.  I didn’t have all of the ingredients for the dressing, so I changed it up a little, and also sprinkled some nutritional yeast on top.  To braise the spinach, you just mix the dressing in then massage it with your hands until it appears “cooked”.  The dressing was sweet, which was nice combined with the slightly bitter greens.

Thoughts on the cleanse:  It was relatively easy to follow.  I didn’t have a big problem eschewing gluten, sugar or coffee.  I quickly identified my vices though – tortilla chips and beer!  If there are tortilla chips around, I’ma eat ’em!  And, if it’s Saturday night, I like to have a beer or two.  I don’t think that those things destroyed the purpose of the cleanse though, as I do feel that I’ve reclaimed my appetite, and I feel a little lighter in my loafers.  The biggest pain in the butt was prepping everything the night before, and cleaning my juicer and blender every single morning.  I would definitely recommend a plan similar to this to anyone who wants to jam a whole lot of healthy foods into their body!

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March Cleanse: Days 8 – 14

March 14, 2010 at 9:48 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m more than halfway through my cleanse, and so far I’ve done pretty well.  I slipped up one time, but other than that my self-control and preparation have been good.  And, I’ve lost a few pounds!

Day 8:

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast juice:  sweet potato, celery, apple, chard and cinnamon
snack smoothie:  banana, pear, kiwi, udo’s oil, almond milk, hemp protein powder and Amazing Grass
lunch salad:  romaine leaves with broccoli-tahini pate from Raw Food Revolution Diet and buckwheat sprouts, two clementines


snack:  carrot sticks and hummus
dinner:  citrus-braised butternut squash and red cabbage with quinoa, chamamile tea

The broccoli-tahini was tasty, although it just kinda tasted like…broccoli and tahini.  I like the technique of pouring hot water over broccoli to “cook” it.  However, Dave said the pate smelled “like farts”, so I may or may not make it again!

Day 9:

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast juice:  sweet potato, celery, apple, swiss chard and ginger.  This juice combo was extremely tasty!  Also had earl grey tea.
snack smoothie:  same as day 8
lunch:  same as day 8, but with tangerines instead of clementines
snack:  same as day 8
dinner:  same as day 8, detox tea

Lots of repetition that day…Makes it easier to follow such a strict plan.

Day 10:

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast juice:  carrot, celery, apple and ginger, lemon tea
snack smoothie:  banana, kiwi, almond butter, almond milk and flax seed.  This was a surprisingly good combination.
lunch:  chef salad from Smart Alec’s (lettuce, cabbage, chickpeas, corn, carrot, tomato, sprouts, tofu and sesame dressing)
The salad kept me full for a while, so no afternoon snack.
For dinner, I met up with some PPK compatriots at Gracias Madre, a new vegan organic Mexican restaurant in San Francisco.  I had tangerine agua fresca (which tasted like tangerine juice without any agua), and the enchiladas mole rojo, which came with mushrooms, cashew cheese sauce, kale and refried beans.  Muy delicioso!

I got home from the restaurant pretty late, so I didn’t have time to prep much food for the next day.

Day 11:

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast:  I was out of good juicing ingredients, so I had fruit salad with apple, pear, oranges and flax seed
smoothie:  Mango Cogo by Columbia Gorge Organic.  There was no added sugar, but it was almost too sweet.

lunch:  raw red pepper soup with avocado and the raw sampler from Cafe Muse.  For the sampler I chose the raw sushi, miso-coconut caesar salad and pad thai,which turned out to be a salad.  The dressing was really delicious on the pad thai salad, and the whole meal was under $12 with tax, so I will definitely go back and try more next time I don’t have a lunch to bring.

snack:  romaine leaves with broccoli-tahini pate
dinner:  same as day 9, wild sweet orange tea

Day 12:

water with lemon and chia seeds
juice:  carrot, celery, romaine, red apple, green apple
snack:  two tangerines, peanut butter, lemon green tea
lunch:  massaged kale salad with balsamic vinaigrette, dried cranberries and flax seed

I sorely underestimated how much food I would need that day, so I was still hungry after this salad and I ate some tortilla chips that were in the office.  They were soooo salty!
snack:  cranberry trail mix, sweet & spicy herbal tea
dinner:  white chili with potatoes.  This soup was really good, but I want to make it again to make it even better before I post a recipe.  I also had some hibiscus flavored kombucha.

Day 13:

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast juice:  cucumber, carrot, apple and ginger, mango black tea
smoothie:  banana, strawberries, hemp protein, amazing grass, udo’s oil, almond milk
lunch:  massaged kale salad with balsamic vinaigrette, cranberry trail mix and nutritional yeast, two pickles

snack:  popcorn, apple juice with sparkling water
Then, I caved in and had a few beers.  I was trying really hard to exercise self-control, but we were playing music and I caved!  Alcohol does aid the creative process…just sayin’…
dinner:  white chili with potatoes

Day 14:

I woke up late this morning, plus it was the start of daylight savings, so I skipped right to my smoothie.
smoothie:  same as day 13, lemon ginger green tea
lunch:  raw sprouted chickpea hummus, carrot sticks, broccoli, asian pear, cranberry kombucha.  In case you’re wondering, asian pear and hummus go together really well.

snack:  apple with peanut butter, mango black tea
dinner:  I was planning to have more chili, but Dave came home and wanted to go out, so we had Mexican.  I ordered veggie fajitas with corn tortillas, which wasn’t too bad, but I ate too many chips and salsa, as I always do.  I can’t help myself around chips and salsa.

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March Cleanse: Days 4 – 7

March 8, 2010 at 9:28 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

I got through our weekend in Reno just fine!  I haven’t lost much weight on this cleanse so far, but between our weekend activities and the fact that I haven’t been able to exercise as much as I wanted to, I’m not surprised.  It’s been nice that I haven’t really craved coffee much, and relatively easy to forgo gluten.

Day 4:

water with lemon
breakfast juice:  cucumber, parsley, kale and green apple.  It was very green and very tasty!  I also had cinnamon black tea.

snack smoothie:  banana, kiwi, strawberries, udo’s oil, almond milk, hemp protein and amazing grass.  This is one of my favorite smoothie combinations, ever.
lunch salad:  spinach, mixed greens, arugula, chickpeas, broccoli, Organicville goddess dressing and buckwheat sprouts (added after I took the picture).  I was going to use Annie’s goddess dressing but it isn’t gluten free, so I gave the Organicville a shot.  It’s different from Annie’s but still good.

The salad didn’t really fill me up, so I ate my snack of trail mix right afterwards.  I get more hungry during, ahem, certain times of the month and forgot to bring more food on account of it.  After a few hours I caved in and grabbed an Odwalla chocolate chip peanut butter bar from a little store near my office.  It’s cleanse approved except for the dehydrated cane juice in the chocolate chips, so I didn’t feel too bad.
dinner:  same as day 3, detox tea

Day 5:

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast juice:  fennel, kale, carrot, celery and green apple, earl grey tea
snack smoothie:  same as day 4
lunch:  same as day 4
snack:  trail mix
We left for Reno right after work, so I brought along some food and drinks.  For dinner I had a packaged Indian meal of dal, tofu-spinach curry and rice that I had bought from Whole Foods.  It was fine, but it was cold and didn’t really satisfy me, so I caved in and got some french fries from In N’ Out Burger, where the boys were getting food.  I had a few beers after we arrived and was getting hungry again and craving something crunchy like crackers or chips.  I exercised self control though, and snacked on cucumber sticks and this Amazing Grass bar.

It was pretty good…tasted like berries.  I’m not a huge “bar” fan, especially when everythings been pulverized into one texture, but it did the trick for taking the edge off my hunger.

Day 6:

breakfast juice:  Odwalla Superfood, which was mostly fruit juice.  I also had green tea.

snack smoothie:  Amazake Hazelnut shake, naturally sweetened and very filling!

I couldn’t find a decent salad in our hotel (Silver Legacy), so for lunch I ordered tofu and vegetables with rice from the “food court”.  The veggies were nicely cooked, but there were all of three pieces of tofu.

I was full for a long time, so I didn’t eat again until dinner.  We were tossing around the idea of going to the buffet, but some of us didn’t want to pay that much so we scoped out a taqueria across the street, Los Gallos Taqueria.  The girl at the counter knew right away that their refried beans weren’t vegetarian but their whole beans were, so I got a taco (corn tortillas, beans, lettuce, guac and tomato), rice and more beans.  We also had chips with pico de gallo and spicy avocado sauce.  It was extremely tasty and filling, but I noticed after sitting down that they had a big picture of a cock fight on the wall, which made me sad.

I stayed hydrated throughout the day with this kombucha – raspberry, ginger and lemon flavored.

Day 7:

breakfast juice:  all manner of veggies.  This blend actually had some beet juice in it, which made me wary, but I drank it with no problems.  So, I think my beet juice issue last week was maybe because it was so MUCH beet juice in one glass.

The boys wanted to get breakfast before we left for home, and I was getting hungry so I ordered some oatmeal with sliced banana, and drank some pekoe tea.  That only held me for a few hours before I wanted solid food again, and the best I could find on the road was a burrito bowl from Chipotle with rice, beans, salsa, guacamole and hot sauce.  I enjoyed an Odwalla Red Rhapsody smoothie during the rest of the car ride, and also munched on a Jocolat mint chocolate bar.

dinner:  After arriving home I wasn’t very hungry, but I knew I needed to eat some form of dinner so I had some carrot stucks, hummus and a pickle.

Then suddenly, just before bed I became ravenous and the best thing I could find in the pantry was some oil-free popcorn, so that was my snack along with detox tea.

And today, I’m back to my raw veggie and sprout eating ways!  I didn’t look too hard for vegan options in Reno since I brought some of my own food, but I did notice a veggie burger on three separate menus, so maybe Reno is coming along a little in the veggie-food department.

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March Cleanse: Days 1-3

March 3, 2010 at 11:02 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged , , , , ,

So far, so good.  I didn’t take any pictures of juices or smoothies, cause the juices are generally green, and the smoothies brown.  Perhaps I’ll make a prettier smoothie soon.

Day 1:

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast juice:  fennel, carrot, celery, collars, ginger and a green apple, green tea.  Fennel juice is surprisingly good, as long as it’s mixed with other stuff.
snack smoothie:  banana, strawberries, kiwi, hemp protein, almond milk, udo’s oil and amazing grass
lunch salad:  spinach, red leaf lettuce, black beans, radishes, green onions, mandarin orange, liquid gold dressing from Raw Revolution Diet, cranberry apple tea

snack:  cranberry trail mix

dinner:  sweet dumpling squash with tamari-glazed tempeh and bok choy, hijiki and miso-coconut sauce, roasted purple kohlrabi, detox tea.  Kohlrabi is my new favorite vegetable!

Day 2:  I was on a little bit of a different schedule due to our very last day of class.  We went out for dinner afterward and it was surprisingly easy to not order a beer, even while everyone else was.

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast juice:  golden beet, orange and collards*, raspberry black tea
snack smoothie:  banana, raspberries, almond milk, hemp protein, udo’s oil, amazing grass
lunch salad:  same as day 1
snack:  cranberry trail mix
second snack at school:  mashed avocado, hummus, carrot sticks, a few flax crackers and half a small, sugar-free and gluten-free chocolate pie
dinner:  salad – romaine, cucumber, roasted red peppers, olives and balsamic vinaigrette, detox tea

*This was the day I learned that not everyone can drink beet juice.  About 15 minutes after I started drinking my juice I felt very nauseous, and the juice came back up, to put it nicely.  No more beet juice for me, I guess!

Day 3:  My schedule was weird today too, so things got moved around a bit.  I’m still a bit weirded out about the juice incident yesterday, so I skipped the juice this morning and just had a big smoothie.

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast smoothie:  two bananas, peanut butter, almond milk and amazing grass, green tea
lunch salad:  same as day 1, but with no mandarins and added buckwheat sprouts
snack:  apple, cranberry tea
dinner:  same as day 1
I had dinner earlier than normal and was feeling snacky when I got home, so I had two dill pickles and tangerine tea.

So yeah…so far, so good.  Except, despite my resolve not to “cheat”, my plan is going to be derailed this weekend by a semi-impromtu trip to Reno with Dave and some friends.  I considered staying true to my vow to not have alcohol, but really, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.  So, my compromise is to have some alcohol this weekend, not too much, and stick to the food plan as much as possible.  And, I’ll extend the cleanse for three days longer than planned to make up for it.  So, I don’t feel too bad about it, as I do get to spend two nights in Reno!

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Out with School, In with Detox

February 28, 2010 at 10:04 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged , ,

I’m this close to being done with the Natural Chef program at Bauman College.  Our group final-slash-graduation-ish dinner was last night, and we just have one more wrap up class on Tuesday.  While I’m extremely happy that I took on the five month program and I have greatly increased my cooking skills and knowledge, my personal diet for the past few months has been less than ideal, and I’ve gained a few pounds.  So, now that I have time back on my hands I’m going to embark on a cleanse.  It’s a little more stringent than the last cleanse I did just before school started, and a little less intense than the Adventure Cleanse Tune-up that both Bianca and Jessy did recently.  I didn’t have a juicer when I cleansed back in August, but now I do (thanks again, mom!) and I’m excited to include a green juice as a part of my daily menu.  I also didn’t have the guts to completely knock out coffee and alcohol last time, so this time I’m going to give it a go.  We are going on vacation on the 20th, so I expect the cleanse will last 19 days.

Here are the guidelines:

– NO gluten
– NO sugar (maple, agave and stevia are okay in small amounts)
– NO coffee
– NO alcohol
– Very limited processed foods (I will use almond milk, green powder and hemp protein powder in smoothies)
– Abundant fruits and vegetables, moderate amounts of protein and fat, and limited whole grains
– Increased “booster foods”:  hemp, flax and chia seeds, seaweed, nutritional yeast, sprouts, fermented foods, umeboshi plum, etc.

Menu plan
– first thing in AM:  warm water with chia seeds and lemon juice
– breakfast:  fresh green juice, green or black tea
– mid-morning snack:  smoothie (fruit, omega-3 oil, hemp protein powder or nut butter, and green powder)
– lunch:  salad, mostly raw, with cooked protein optional (beans or soy), OR a totally raw meal of some sort
– afternoon snack:  raw veggies with hummus OR raw energy bar OR trail mix
– dinner:  cooked meal including whole grains or starchy veggies and other vegetables, possibly with protein and/or topped with a sauce
– after dinner: herbal tea

That is the plan, and I intend to stick with it.  Better than last time.  No cheating.  I have thought about the possible cravings and weaknesses I may encounter, and have plans for them.  If I feel like having a beer, I will try either fruit juice mixed with sparkling water or herbal tea instead.  My snack cravings tend to be salty/crunchy, so I have a jar of Bubbie’s dill pickles for emergency snacking.

As to not leave this post picture-less, here are two juices I have made recently.

Orange, apple and ginger.  So tasty.

This one was mostly red cabbage.  I know I put other stuff in too, but I remember it tasting mostly like essence of red cabbage.

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