Rollin Thunder

A thunderstorm's a brewin! The sky is a very dark shade of grey and I can hear the distant roll of thunder. I love summer thunderstorms! It's a good thing I got my run in this morning. 

My post-run snack was another smoothie. Today's smoothie was made with vanilla soy yogurt, frozen mango chunks, and a few frozen misc fruits (1/4 banana, 1/3 orange, berries). I ate it with a spoon so that it would last longer. 

An hour and half later I made a gigantic salad! This salad really did have every color of vegetables imaginable.

Green: 5 lettuce mix

Red: roma tomato

Orange: carrots, sweet potato

White: cauliflower

Purple: cabbage

Black: black beans

Alright, I guess I'm missing yellow and brown ;) I used Homemade Italian dressing. 

I'm starting to get hungry for a snack, but I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for. I'm sipping orange spice rooibos tea while I decide. 

**Edit: I decided I needed carbs for a snack so I made oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins. I should've made half a serving though, because I wasn't hungry for dinner 3.5 hours later!

Banana Cream Pancakes

Who knew being on a cleanse could taste so delicious! I am having fun looking up recipes that fit into the no added sugar, vegan, gluten-free category. I wanted a change from oats so I took out my trusty copy of Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. The first recipe I saw was Banana Cream Pancakes. I checked the ingredient list, and surprise, it fits! These pancakes are made with spelt flour, light coconut milk, and pureed bananas to make an incredibly creamy, light pancake. I halved the recipe and made 3 huge pancakes. However, I only ate two. I topped these delicious pancakes with agave nectar (allowed on the cleanse) and unsweetened coconut and had some raspberries on the side. The raspberries are amazing right now!

The third pancake is looking a little lonely...I might end up eating it. Have a happy Thursday!

**EDIT: Well, in my excitement I forgot that although spelt is wheat-free, it is NOT gluten-free. So my breakfast wasn't gluten-free after all :(

Success

I had a busy afternoon today! I met with my trainer at 2 and had an hour long, hard workout. Let's just say he likes to see me work. Since the weather has been crappy, I decided to run indoors on the treadmill afterwards. The first ten minutes were painful but then my legs loosened up. I didn't want to overdo it so I only ran 3.5 miles.  In between strength training and running, I had half of the JOCOLAT bar. Yum! I think I may like this bar more than the Clif nectar cacao one. I didn't even think to take a picture, because I ate it so quickly! After my run I had the other half. 

I was pretty hungry when I got home so I needed something quick. I tried the lentil rice biryani from Trader Joe's. You just heat it up in the pouch for 90 seconds and let it sit for another 60. 

A serving is half of the pouch. The biryani is a mixture of rice, lentils, chickpeas, potatoes, and spices. It was actually kind of spicy. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy this again, but it wasn't bad. It actually fits into my cleanse so I was happy about that. I obviously want to eat a fresh as possible, but I need to be realistic and have back-ups.

My mom and I spent over an hour at the grocery store. We were that low in food at my house. We bought a ton of produce and other items, but these are the specific foods I bought for my cleanse. Unsweetened vanilla almond milk, buckwheat waffles, and soy yogurt. I know the yogurt has added sugar, but I cannot find plain soy yogurt at my local grocery stores. It is nearly impossible to find products without any added sugar. Like I said above, I need to be realistic and have "go-to" items. As long as I limit my overall intake of added sugar, I'm not going to worry about a little bit of added sugar. I figure I'm already doing my body favor by avoiding gluten, dairy, animal products, alcohol, and caffeine. 

I've been craving sweet potatoes and black beans lately, so for dinner tonight I had sweet potato and black bean tostadas. For the sweet potato/black bean mixture, I used the same recipe as before. The only difference is that I added a little cumin to the mix this time. Instead of tacos, I had tostadas because the corn tortillas got too crispy to fold. I prefer the tacos, but this was still a delicious meal. I spread the tortillas with a layer of chipotle salsa. My mouth was on fire, but in a good way! My side salad was very colorful: green (romaine & spinach), red (tomatoes), purple (cabbage), orange (carrots). 

I'm happy to report that day one was a success :)

Trader Joe's

I went to Trader Joe's this morning for a lot of "specialty" items. When my mom gets off work, we're going to the grocery store for everything else. I thought it might be helpful for all those planning to do or interested in the cleanse, to see what I bought. 

Produce: Asian stir fry vegetables, shredded red cabbage, shredded carrots, lemons, asparagus, bell peppers, raspberries, blueberries, and extra firm tofu.

Pantry: brown rice pasta (spaghetti & fusilli), lentil rice biryani, black beans, refried pinto beans, red kidney beans, white kidney beans, roasted red peppers, vegan black bean soup, vegan split pea soup, light coconut milk, canned tomatoes, and ground cumin. 

Misc: peanut butter panda puffs (gluten free), gluten free waffle & pancake mix, raw almonds, raw cashews, walnuts, orange spice rooibos tea, unsweetened soy milk, agave nectar, black bean & corn enchiladas (gluten & dairy free), and mango-vanilla soy ice cream. 

I love having a stocked kitchen. It makes me excited to cook!

I'm meeting my trainer at 2 so I had a light snack to fuel my workout. A smoothie made with blueberry soy yogurt, banana, and a few mixed berries. It was the perfect consistency today, no chunks! 

Day One!

So it's officially the first day of the cleanse. I'm excited to start this challenge but I need to run to the grocery store because we don't have anything at home! To succeed in this cleanse, I'm going to have to be super prepared and have my meals planned. 

For breakfast I had oatmeal with half a banana, peanut butter, and 2 chopped dates. It was extra peanut buttery today, but I don't mind. I also had ginger tea on the side. 

Plans for today are grocery store, workout, and study. Have a great day!

Still Recovering..

Well it's almost midnight, and I'm wide awake. The whole morning/afternoon I had an intense headache and could barely keep my eyes open. I got home from work and fell asleep until 6:30! My body must have needed rest because I felt a hundred times better once I woke up. I'm hoping things get back to normal tomorrow and I feel 100% better.

Since I was feeling "off" this morning, I just grabbed a pear and a pumpkin spice granola bar for lunch. Work was very busy so I didn't get a chance to eat until 1:30. 

I felt like a zombie the last few hours of work so I skipped my planned workout and headed home. I don't think I could have ran anyways with my throbbing head. I made a quick sandwich on a hemp bagel with hummus and veggies, ate it and fell asleep. 

I'm pretty sure I could have slept through the entire night had my mom not woken me up. I'm glad she did though! For dinner, my mom was making burgers for everyone so I grilled a veggie burger for myself. 

We had two leftover veggie kabobs from Trader Joe's that we had forgotten about in the fridge. They were about to turn bad so I made a quick veggie stir fry. I cut up the veggies and marinated them with fresh ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. After a few minutes, I threw everything on the stove and within minutes had a delicious, gingery side dish. 

I topped my veggie burger with chipotle salsa, mustard, and mixed greens. The stir fried veggies were my favorite part of the meal. 

After dinner, my dad wanted cookies so I followed Becca's lead and made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies using Dreena Burton's recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies. They turned out great and I had two for dessert. (No pic, it didn't turn out well.)

One of the reasons I was feeling so crummy today was that I haven't had any caffeine the last two days. Like Becca, I bought Quantum Wellness by Kathy Freston and am doing the recommended cleanse. I started to wean off of things yesterday (Monday) but I plan to officially start tomorrow. I'm in desperate need of groceries, which is why I haven't been able to start sooner. My reason for doing the cleanse is simple: I want to be more consciously aware of what I put into my body to feel my best. Reading the book, opened my eyes and I really agreed with what Kathy was saying.

This Jump-Start Cleanse will eliminate sources of toxins and allergens, giving the digestive system a break from working overtime to process the substances that inhibit optimum performance the most. Again, increased energy, better digestion, and relief from various aches and pains (including headaches, muscle aches, and joint pain) are just a few of the known benefits. As with each of the practices in this book, this cleanse, which you might think of as something you do for your physical body, has its emotional and spiritual components as well. As you eliminate sugar, for instance, you might experience the feelings you were unconsciously trying to escape by indulging in desserts. Since you no longer have the distraction of the whole cycle of craving a sweet—trying to resist eating it, indulging anyway, and then feeling guilty about it—you are left simply with that feeling you had been trying to avoid. Which might be uncomfortable, yes, but as discussed earlier, awareness is good. Being in touch with our feelings, even if they aren't "pleasant," is key to our ultimate well-being.

And on a spiritual level, when I first did a cleanse, I couldn't believe how difficult it was for me to give up the foods I had become attached to, even knowing that the cleanse would only last a couple of weeks. It became clear how enslaved I was by my habits inasmuch as my mood was ruled by my ability to eat the goodies that I loved and I was used to. I realized that if I was to be on a serious spiritual path, I had to look at all my attachments, including food habituations. If I was to continue growing and evolving, I had to be able to see where I was not free. The cleanse helped me to identify some glitches where I was not able to choose out of freedom rather than habit, and so I was able to focus more effort on becoming more conscious. - Quantum Wellness

I had actually thought about these things before reading the book and hearing about Oprah's cleanse. Right now just seems like a perfect opportunity to do it. I'm not sure how long I will keep this up. The initial cleanse is 21 days, but depending on how I feel, I might choose to completely eliminate certain things from my diet. Well see when the time comes.

For the following 21 days I will refrain from:

• Sugar ( added sugars)
  
• Animal Products 
  
• Alcohol
  
• Caffeine 
  
• Gluten 

I'm sure this will be a challenge, but I feel confident that I can do it. Wish me luck!!

Sweet Oatmeal

I had every intention of bloggling yesterday, but by the time I had a moment to sit down, it was past 10, and I was exhausted. As I said below, I'm still catching up on the lack of sleep from this weekend! Rather than recap yesterday's meals, I'm just going to start fresh with today's. It's a dreary day here so when I woke up I wanted a comforting bowl of oats. I made my oats today with vanilla almond milk, half of a very ripe banana, cinnamon, and almond butter. 

The oats were great, but a bit too sweet for my liking. I'm running low on groceries so I tried a new kind of Almond milk. I bought single servings of Pacific Natural Foods, Low fat Vanilla Almond Milk awhile ago so I used one of them for my oats. I tasted the milk on its own and I really liked it. But combined with very ripe banana, it made my oats super sweet. Next time, I'll only use half of a container I think. 

I have to work today for a few hours. I'm going to be assistant managing the coffee & crepe shop where I used to work! This is only a meantime job, while I figure out what I am going to do. I need money though so this works out perfectly. The owners are very sweet and accommodating and I love everyone that works there. I need to pack a lunch and get ready for work. I hope everyone is enjoying much better weather than we are. I keep waiting for summer to come, but instead we have had a lot of rain lately!