Liz and I started a 3 week cleanse today. I'm pretty excited about it I think it will kick-start us getting to our ideal weights, and let me be not over-weight by my birthday.
I've done a few cleanses in my lifetime. The first one was when I was in my mid-20s. I read a book about fasting and did a fast--I think it was for 3 days. At the end of it, I was so starving, I did just what they said not to do and ate a big meal. I still remember how much pain I was in all night.
The next one was when Katy was living with us. She had done a cleanse using a kit you can get online or at Whole Foods or similar places. With that cleanse, we had smoothies for breakfast and lunch with a mixture that came with the kit, and then had a very simple dinner--my memory was that it was a piece of baked skinless, boneless chicken breast with maybe a side vegetable. We did that for a week. It wasn't too bad, but didn't result in any permanent changes. And it was a bit boring in terms of what we ate. I think we did it again a few months later.
This one is very different for a number of reasons. First, it starts with a week of preparation, and then the clause lasts three weeks. During the preparation time, there were a lot of foods we had to cut out of our diet, like dairy, wheat, alcohol, sugar, caffeine, beef, pork, some vegetables (like corn and peppers), some fruits (like oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, and bananas, and some nuts (like peanuts and pistachios). The idea is two-fold--not eating foods that are common allergens and eating fewer acid-producing foods. The other thing was to have 12 hours between dinner and breakfast--if we finished dinner at 7, we shouldn't eat breakfast before 7 in the morning.
The preparation phase went well. We did it from Monday to Friday and both lost a few pounds. Today we started the actual cleanse. That involves having smoothies, fresh made juices, or light soups for breakfast and dinner, and a full meal at lunch. The book we're doing this from has recipes for everything we eat, to make sure we getting the right nutrients and eating the right quantities. The idea behind it it to have our bodies spend the least amount of time digesting, and maximum time detoxifying.
I thought I'd be starving tonight, but I'm not even hungry. I was starving this morning. I got up at 6 and Liz slept till 8 so I waited for her to get up to make breakfast. I was really hungry, and breakfast didn't do much to alleviate it. We went for a 12 mile bike ride and I was so hungry when we returned, I ate an apple and some almonds (the almonds ere permitted as a snack, not the apple). But I was going grocery shopping and literally was afraid of my driving skills because I was so hungry. But lunch was so filling, I wasn't even hungry at dinner time. I ate the soup I made for dinner, and though it was very light, I still feel full.
The best part is that every recipe we've tried so far is incredibly delicious! I've mad a meal plan that has us eating something different for very meal this week. That pretty much exhausts the recipes in the book, but that's much more variation than we normally have.
So here's where I stand:
I weighed 172.4 when I made the commitment to stop eating dessert and sinking alcohol on March 18th.
I weighed 166.2 on April 16th when we started the preparation phase.
I weighed 162.8 this morning when we started the cleanse.
I just need to lose 7.8 pounds to not be over-weight on my birthday, and 26 pounds to be at my ideal weight. I think the next 3 weeks will get me past the first goal and well on my way to the second!
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