Oh yeah, that Crazy Sexy Diet thing.

So, the mister and I did the Crazy Sexy Diet, but we only lasted 2 weeks. Actually, he complained waaaay more than I did, and supposedly I am the one who hates vegetables. :) But I have done things like this before, much harder diets. I did a 40 day juice fast back in 2001 or 2002. Now that was torture. This wasn't so bad. I was just curious to see how I'd feel if I cut out dairy, wheat, sugar, eggs, meat, pop, and basically anything processed. My two very favorite dinners were "quinoa with black beans, corn, onion, spices, and avocado" and a "buddha bowl" which was brown rice, tofu, carrots, brocolli, onion, avocado and bragg's liquid aminos. LOVE braggs and LOVE avocado. Those were my "junk food" during the 2 weeks. Salt and fat!! And, we were also allowed dark chocolate (70% or higher) every once in a while, but that "every once in a while" turned into every day! As time went on, I got more lenient with the diet. We stopped juicing every morning. For the first 9 days, we had juice every morning that I made in our new juicer. It had cucumber, celery and apple. Sometimes I put in kale, ginger, and romaine lettuce. I also bought this delicious "green powder" which was actually brown because it was chocolate flavored. It was full of vegetables and other green goodness, as well as digestive enymes. We mixed that with hemp milk and this was also one of my favorite things to have! It tasted like a chocolate shake (ok, maybe not as good).  I realized later that the hemp milk had quite a bit of sugar, whoops. :) It was fun to try to make some of the other recipes in the book. I made miso soup with lemongrass and ginger. I made thai vegetables (with an almond-butter coating). I made tahini dressing for salads.

One thing that I did during our cleanse, and that has STUCK, is morning exercise. I started getting up earlier and walking about 2.4 miles. Now, I have started slow jogging that same route (this started because I got up late one morning and needed to hurry!). I love walking in our neighborhood in the morning, smelling the wonderful air ... especially before it gets too hot. I am fond of routines and so I do the same route every morning.

I didn't feel that I had more energy during the cleanse, but my stomach did feel less bloated. I went to the bathroom more often (tmi?) and slept better at night. I did lose about 6 pounds, but have since gained back about 3. I never had any sugar withdrawal headaches, which made me think that maybe I never ate that much sugar in the first place. Oh, who am I kidding? Today I ate 4 cupcakes, that should say something right there.

Another wonderful benefit was that my skin looked great! I didn't have one blemish on my face. No itchy bumps, nothing. Funny enough, the day after I stopped the cleanse and started eating sugar and dairy and everything "naughty" I got a couple of tiny little whiteheads. Nice eh?

So, there you have it. My summary of the cleanse. I was pretty obsessed with food almost the whole time. I daydreamed about going to restaurants, looked online at recipes, etc. I was pretty proud of myself, though, because TWICE I resisted temptation at work. My boss bought us all Panera and I said I couldn't have any. Another time, we had pizza at work and again, I said I couldn't have any. Ugh! And of course, there were cookies, bagels, and other treats to resist. I did learn that some things just aren't worth it. I am trying to drink less pop. I am going to try to eat less dairy, because apparently dairy is the worst thing. Ahhhh, cheese I love you so. Come to think of it, I had a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner tonight. Hmm, maybe I need to think harder about what I am ingesting! Anyway, that is all for now. We survived the cleanse of summer 2011. The mister says he's never doing it again! I might, though, ya never know.

starting over

The title of this post is "starting over" because I did write my first blog entry a couple weeks ago, but decided I would just trash it and start fresh. There a few things I think I would like to use this blog for --> 1) documenting changes (hopefully positive changes? haha) in our house, like projects and upgrades, or just artwork; 2) keeping myself motivated to become a healthier person; 3) expressing creativity or just sharing something creative; 4) random stuff, of course!

Today in the mail I got the book "Crazy Sexy Diet" which I got because one of my friends on Facebook is doing it (it's a 21 day cleanse). She was posting these pictures of green drinks, which got my attention, and sounded interesting (drinks that have kale, cucumber, celery, apple, and other healthful things). I also bought a juicer and am very excited to use it! N and I will be starting this after his vacation in a couple of weeks. It will take a bit of planning and of course I have to read the book first so I know what I'm doing. I want to document how I'm feeling during the cleanse, and I want to write everyday so I can stay motivated.

Yesterday, N and his dad and I went to a Tigers game. I realized that I haven't been to a Tigers game since 2008 and that's so sad! It was a gorgeous day and the game was great (and the Tigers won which doesn't hurt). Here is the view from our seats (usually we sit way in the back, and this time we were on the first level):

I really want to try to do more fun things in my life I spend so much time at work, probably 45 hours a week, and I just feel like I don't have enough time in the day just to experience the fun parts of life. When I get home from work, I am often just too tired to do much of anything. I just need to make more effort to plan things on the weekend. I also want to do a lot of my chores before work, so that I don't have to spend my entire Saturday doing housework.

I have a 4 day weekend coming up, and while I do plan on getting a lot of work done (painting the bedroom!!), I also want to plan some fun things. I am mostly just glad to NOT go to work!