Cleanse!

It's February and folks are settling into their year. The San Diego "winter" is over. It actually was chilly here for a few weeks - in the 30's in the mornings! Everyone survived, including me, with my now thinned out non-Chicago blood. Did you make a New Year's Resolution and are sticking to it? (keep at it - whatever it is!!) I didn't specifically make a resolution this year, but three weeks ago I decided to do a cleanse.

I have mentioned my dear friend Annette in a few posts in the past. She's a nurse, nutritionist, life coach, therapist, life saver... an all-around God-send to me. She recently expanded her business to include cleansing and to teach people how to cleanse in a safe way, that promotes changing eating habits and your relationships with food for the long term. Not just "fad" cleanses that, for people like me, don't do much.

The cleanse I am in the midst of is broken down into two segments. Basically the 1st half and the 2nd half. Easy enough! For the first half, a diet consisting of only raw foods is followed as closely as possible. Protein is consumed through a specific protein powder blended in fruit or veggie smoothies. Meals consist of smoothies and salads. I "cheated" a bit and ate a hard boiled egg once a day or once every two days as I felt very weak because I was trying to stay on somewhat of a training plan for some races I have coming up. The 2nd half of the cleanse is the same as the first, however lean meats (chicken, fish) are slowly added in. Protein smoothies and salads remain the focus. All throughout the cleanse supplements are taken to rid the body of the toxins that have built up. Hence the "cleansing" aspect.

So I have three days left of my 3-week cleanse. I feel great and have confidence (more than I've had in the past with cleanses) that I'll be able to continue on with my new habits "post-cleanse". Some things I have learned are:

• I can't do nuts. Well, at least not the cheap-y salted nuts. I ate some two weeks into my cleanse and the rest of the day and into the night, I felt like crap. That's sort of the point though... to figure out what foods you are sensitive to that you may have not known about in the past.

• I can go to a party and stay away from the sweet stuff. I went to a friend's Superbowl Party yesterday and managed to resist the sweet goodies and chips that were offered. Granted, my friend hosting the party is an awesome chef (foodsensenow.com), a Kona-Qualifying kick-arse Triathlete and a very clean eater. She had Vegan Cesar Salad and homemade pizzas as food options (Thank you Leslie!) So even though the cookies looked freaking delicious, I managed to stay away. Not so much because one cookie is bad for you... but because I wasn't ready to eat just "one".

• Green Tea with some steamed soy is pretty good and reduces my desire for coffee. I think there are studies about the dangers of too much soy and intolerances but I'm trying to practice moderation. So a bit of soy in a tea (hopefully) won't kill me.

• The new Hammer Strawberry Vegan Protein is awesome. Just mix a scoop w/ some water in the AM or if feeling low-energy during the day. It helped provide me with some energy or get a workout going. I'll be experimenting with some various training nutrition in the next month and hope to discover what works for me for those long training days - especially riding. Have I mentioned that I LOVE TO RIDE! 

• Prep goes a long way! I work a standard 8-5 weekday job and prep has been the the key for me to not grab crappy lunches or sugary / salty snacks. Sunday afternoon, I throw on my favorite playlist and cut veggies, put salads in baggies, roast some vegetables, hard boil some eggs, measure out fruit for smoothies... voila - my meals for the week are pretty much done and easy to grab for work or for going out or for snacks.

• I crave apples for dessert. :)

So there you have it. For more info, the link to Annette's website is: www.thecleanseexpert.com. She has clients all over the world so if anyone is interested, look her up!


XO!
Mer-OoO