The Dr. Oz Cleanse vs. My Cleanse

Remember this post where I was all excited about trying a cleanse for the first time? 

Something about the word "detox" just lures me in every time. Like our bodies have some kind of Chemical X floating around and the only way to get it out is via magical cleanses.

Well...let me tell you about that cleanse. If you're interested in trying it out, here is my experience. It could be completely different for you, but I don't think I will be trying it again anytime soon.

So the day before I started it, I cooked up all the food and felt pretty excited to try it all.

This is the quinoa with prunes and almond milk breakfast. I actually thought it was pretty good with a bunch of nutmeg and cinnamon added to it.

(I took pictures of all the food but some most of them are gone...)

So the day I started, I went about my day and felt fine until lunchtime. The breakfast and mid-morning snack were good and kept my pretty full. 

But then I got really hungry at noon. When I had a teeny tiny berry smoothie to eat for lunch. Seriously, it was like a cup of smoothie.

As someone who eats CONSTANTLY, that had me a little worried. 

So I drank that and was still starving. Then, after two hours of shaking and lacking focus, I got a Snickers bar. (Probably not part of the cleanse?)

I immediately felt better and more stabilized. This means one of two things:

1. I hadn't had enough calories at that point and so the Snickers bar helped fill me up.

2. I am a complete sugar junkie who needed a fix.

I think it's probably a little of both.

So I kind of fell off the cleanse train by the evening. I was still eating well, but added a lot more substance to the vegetable soup dinner.

Then the next day I craved a cheeseburger like crazy (thank you PMS) and proceeded to eat my weight in chocolate the rest of the week. 

I'm thinking my timing was a little off.

Because we leave for Ireland on Monday, I wanted to eat well this week to keep myself healthy for the trip. So I set up my own kind of "cleanse" that I could actually stick to.

To give you a rough idea of what I had, here is a typical day:

Breakfast:

-Hot water with lemon (and cinnamon, sometimes.)

-Oatmeal with almond milk, almond butter and berries. (My all-time favorite breakfast. One of the only meals that keeps me satisfied until lunch. Or, well...at least 10 a.m.)

Mid-morning snack: 

Plain yogurt with strawberries and agave nectar

Lunch:

-Hot tea

-Spinach salad with apples, mushrooms, avocado, walnuts and a little olive oil.

Mid-afternoon snack:

-Half an avocado with cottage cheese and a dash of garlic powder (or any spice of choice) on top.

Dinner:

-Lemon Parsley soup (recipe here.)

Additional snacks:

I am hungry constantly, so I eat these throughout the day as well:

-Almond butter and banana smoothie

-Any fruits/ veggies

-Carrots and hummus

-Any kind of green smoothie (I prefer one with a few handfuls of kale, half an apple, juice of half a lemon, a few stalks of celery, a banana and some pineapple.)

So that's what I've been doing instead to prepare for spring break and just generally feel good overall. I have also been doing daily workouts from Blogilates, which I LOVE because all of her workouts are fun and usually filmed somewhere pretty, like the beach, and makes me forget that my life looks like this right now:

Happy Wednesday!!

My thoughts on...Dr. Oz's cleanse

In the spirit of spring cleaning, (and going off of last week's detox post,) I have decided to try a cleanse.

For me, I'm not looking to lose weight. I just kind of want to "spring clean" my system, and undo a little of the damage from the past two weeks or so.

(i.e. croissants, cupcakes, cake, beer, etc.)

But if a cleanse also helps at getting the ol' body ready for bikini season/wedding season/peeling off the sweater season, then so be it!

So the cleanse I have decided is the Dr. Oz 48-hour cleanse. Pros? It does not involve starvation, and the recipes seem like they're probably pretty good and easy to make. 

Cons? Well, nothing yet. Except that I have never done a cleanse before, and am not sure what it will be like.

Some of my preliminary thoughts on this:

-Why in the whole, wide world of produce are artichoke hearts in a smoothie? Because Dr. Oz said so. He could probably tell me to toss in some sardines and I'd do it. Begrudgingly.

-I don't know if I can handle the lack of baked goods/chocolate. Seriously, I am a sugar addict. I eat pretty well most of the time, but that sweet tooth gets me every time! However, I do like a good challenge, so bring it on.

-Epsom salts baths, eh? I tried one tonight. Personally, I'm just excited that someone reminded me there are alternatives to showers, and they are awesome. 

-The weekend would not be a good time to start a cleanse. Just throwing that one out there. The weekend is the time for pancakes and wine and all that. 

So I start this up officially today, and I will report back on my thoughts periodically over the next 48 hours. Get excited!!

Has anyone tried this cleanse, or something similar? What are your thoughts?

Happy March! 

My thoughts on...detoxing

Ello poppets!

*Sorry. I don't say that ever...*

Yesterday I decided this week I would do a detox. And I guess what automatically comes to mind are the endless juice fasts that graced the blog world after New Year's. 

Not that kind of detox. But sort of?

See, I believe in all that mind-body connection mumbo jumbo. And I wanted to have a very relaxed week. Even if the events of the week are not relaxed, I wanted my attitude to at least seem calm and happy. Because, well, our weeks are numbered.

Morbid but true.

And I don't want to waste my time being anxious and worried.

I think food plays a major role in that as well, so I am just trying to simplify what I eat, what I have and what I worry about.

I mean, an instant pick-me-up would be some springtime weather, but that's just gonna have to wait. Especially since we are bracing for another winter storm. Not breaking out the peep-toe wedges anytime soon.

So yesterday I kicked off the week with a trip to the grocery store and did some cooking. I spend every Sunday doing at least 2 hours of cooking to prepare for the week. It's pretty therapeutic, actually.

Yesterday I cooked up some chickpea salad wraps and sassy water, both of which I highly recommend.

Then I went for a run around campus in the cold, which was pretty, but...cold. Or refreshing, depending on how you look at it.

Then I felt like a plant would be the perfect addition to any detox week, (logical? who knows) and I found this little guy.

He looked WAY worse yesterday when I picked him up. The poor thing was fifty percent off and so thirsty. I couldn't just leave him there.

Here's to hoping he's around for awhile, because sometimes, as I have admitted to before, things don't work out so well for my plants.

Also, I will take this time to give a shout-out to my wonderful newspaper staff. Together we took home ten awards at the ICPA newspaper awards in Chicago, and made a lot of weird (and awesome) memories.

Here is a crappy photo of the view from my room!

The detox plan continues this week with the following:

-At least 7 hours of sleep each night (One night achieved!)

-Lots of green tea and water

-Some additional workouts from the videos at blogilates

-Getting the paper out in a timely manner

-Spring cleaning in preparation for March! Which is Friday, if you can even believe that.

Have a good week, everyone!