BluePrint Cleanse – post cleanse feelings

I had three main take-away’s from my cleanse experience:

My previous misconception #1: I ate lots of veggies.

My current understanding #1: I didn’t eat nearly enough veggies!! When I realized how many vegetables are jam packed into each juice I had last week and how many veggies I ate before and after the juicing as stand alone meals I realized that I need to increase my intake. It makes me feel better!

My previous misconception #2: I enjoyed my food and took my time eating it.

My current understanding #2: I can benefit from slowing down even more. Taking the time to chew my food thoroughly. Taking the time to sit down every time I eat and not be reading or on the computer. Give attention to eating!

My previous misconception #3: I ate enough whole foods.

My current understanding #3: I have stayed away from processed foods for a long time but I can do even better than that. I need to incorporate more nutrient rich grains like quinoa, barley and brown or black rice. I also had a bad habit of eating protein bars or cereal and milk for breakfast. I need to eat fruit or smoothies/raw juices in the morning. I need to prepare a nutrient rich homemade breakfast like I do for dinner. Protein bars should be a once-in-a-while-backup-plan not an everyday. Today I had an apple, some raw almond butter and a cup of unsweetened almond milk. Tonight it took me 2 minutes to make some Better Than Yogurt Chia Pudding that I  will enjoy for breakfast in the morning.

Lastly…but not least…I have lost 7 1/2 pounds since January 1st! Working out 6 days a week and cleansing have awesome benefits! I’m halfway to my weight loss goal, happy and motivated to continue!!

BluePrint Cleanse – Juicing Day 3

January 25, 2013- I felt so much better today than in the whole past week! No more lightheaded-ness, I’m in a good mood and I can chew food tomorrow! I even went to the grocery store and prepared. Got some avocados, radishes, turnips, spinach, collard greens, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro and apples. I already had carrots, cabbage, lemons, bananas, sweet potatoes and celery left from my last grocery store trip last Sunday.

Look at this radish from Farm to Family! I got two of them and plan to slice them up and dip them in homemade edamame hummus!

Think it’s weird to go to the grocery store when I hadn’t had any solid food for three days? Well, then I got home and made gazpacho. I wanted it to be nice and cold and ready to eat when I get back from my walk in the morning! I left out the jalapeno peppers (figured that would shock my stomach), added only three tomatoes (because the organic tomatoes are expensive!) and doubled the cucumber. Cucumber is one of those easy to digest and packed with water veggies that is supposed to be good to have a lot of after a cleanse.

8:00am

• Had my green juice while looking over spanish notes. I had a quiz at 11 to study for.

Exercise

• Did 4 miles on the treadmill.

10:30am

• My last pineapple, apple, mint, water drink!

12:30pm

• Home from class. Had green juice while planning my shopping menu.

3:00pm

• Last spicy lemonade drink!

6:00pm

• LAST GREEN JUICE. Yay!!

9:25pm

• Oh, cashew milk! I love you! I am completely inspired to make my own version of a nut milk. I saved this recipe for almond milk yesterday and will try it out soon! As soon as I get a Vitamix…
• My brother Jeremy was in town from NYC and I went to Starlight (a local bar) to see him. Only a club soda for me. I had to leave after about an hour when all the talking and loudness started making me feel dizzy.

BluePrint Cleanse – Juicing Day 2

Today I felt light-headed off and on and I kept dreaming of grilled cheese/pasta…otherwise I felt normal and I have about the same amount of energy. I’m also maybe slightly grumpy at times but Travis has been supportive by telling me that I look really healthy and that he’s proud of me for keeping this up 🙂

9:00am

• Devin’s school had a two hour delay due to the light dusting of snow we got late last night. I had my warm lemon water before I left home and had juice #1 in the car.

Exercise

• 50 minutes on the elliptical set on level 4. 

11:25am

• Leaving home for a chiropractic appointment and then headed to my 12:30 class…I had juice #2 also in the car.

3:00pm

• My first class on Thursday is from 12:30-3:10. I have decided that I hate the people in my classes that had cookies, Fritos and energy bars! Didn’t want to answer questions about my green drink with the big #3 on it so I decided to wait until he let us to “enjoy” it. Finished it before my next class which started at 3:30. 

4:50pm

• Travis picked me up from class and I immediately went into my cooler bag for juice #4. The spicy lemonade drink is my second favorite (next to cashew milk, of course).
• I had 2 cups vanilla chai tea while studying after I got home.

7:25pm

• I cooked spaghetti and meatballs for Travis and Devin’s dinner. The thought of drinking another green juice turned my stomach and I thought if I skipped directly to yummy juice #6 (the cashew milk) then I also could go to bed at a more decent time. I have to wait 2 hours after the last drink to go bed and at that rate I would have to stay up until 11.

Tomorrow is my last juice day!!!!

BluePrint Cleanse – Juicing Day 1

(Wednesday, January 23)

I have been wondering how I was going to feel only drinking juice all day. Consensus? Pretty good. I had enough energy to sweep and mop the whole house and do some organizing (my exercise for the day). One weird thing is that I was really cold when I wasn’t doing something (like when I was trying to read for class). Like really cold. Like wear a coat in the house-give me a blanket-where are my thick socks?-kinda cold!

Recap of my day:

6:15am

• I wake up early on Wednesday because I have an 8am class. I took a quick shower and had my warm lemon water.

7:25am

• After I dropped Devin off at school I went to Ellwood Thompson’s. I have class from 8-10:40 and then 11-11:50 on Wednesdays and my juice was supposed to be delivered until 10:30. The “rules” said that on the morning of your delivery you can have fruit but since I was out anyway I decided to buy a juice before class. It had pineapple, strawberry, celery, romaine and cilantro. Very good!!
  

10:29am

• My class that was supposed to get out until 10:40 got out very early today because a guest speaker didn’t show up. I had enough time to run by my chiropractor’s office and run into CVS to get a prescription. As I pulled into my neighborhood I saw the FedEx truck leaving. Perfect timing. I unpacked my juices, put them in the fridge, took a couple of quick pictures and ran to get to my 11am class on time.

12:45pm

• Home from school and doing some cleaning. My stomach was groaning and grumbling and I looked at the clock…time for juice #2! (They recommend drinking them every 2 hours). Pineapple, apple and mint!

2:30pm

• Juice #3 time. I got a late start today and the last juice is supposed to be consumed at least 2 hours before bed…gotta get drinking! Juice #3 is the same as juice #1: romaine, celery, cucumber, apple, spinach, kale, parsley and lemon. I loved it. 

4:50pm

• Spicy Lemonade is up next. It has a little agave in it and cayenne.

7:00pm

• Three of the six juices for the day are the same green juice. It was either because Travis and Devin were eating baked chicken at the table beside me or I was tired of this flavor but I couldn’t finish it. Only had a little more than half of the bottle.

8:50pm

• Cashew “milk”. WOW. Such a treat after only having fruit and veg juice all day! Delish! Can’t wait for the next 2 bottles of this one.

BluePrint Cleanse – Preparation Day 3

Breakfast

• warm water with freshly squeezed lemon
• What I call a “blueberry banana faux smoothie”. Faux because it didn’t have any yogurt or almond milk! It had 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 frozen banana, the juice of one naval orange and little water to get it going in my little blender. It was delish and almost tasted like dessert!

Exercise

• It was 28 degrees this morning so I opted out of walking outside and got on the treadmill for an hour. I did just under 4 miles.
• 1 stalk celery with 1 tablespoon almond butter (eaten on the way to class).

Lunch

• Spinach salad from Rev It Up Cafe. Spinach, diced tomatoes, dried cranberries, red onion and pecans (no blue cheese!) and balsamic vinaigrette. This salad was a generous portion and so good and fresh. I will have this again when I can have dairy and keep the blue cheese!
• Cinnamon spice hot tea also from Rev It Up. I need to buy some of this for home. Very yummy!

Snack

• a honey crisp apple

Dinner

• Saute of fresh kale, spinach, shallot and garlic.
• 2 cups vegetable broth served with some thinly sliced green onion. (I didn’t like having plain veg broth! I forced myself it eat like a kid who wasn’t allowed to leave the dinner table. Will not have this again.)
• Sipped on vanilla chai tea after dinner.

Just a side note about my exercise. I have been working out six days a week since December 21st. I was working out about 2 days a week prior to that. Just didn’t want anyone thinking that I just started doing this the week of my cleanse 🙂

Tomorrow starts my juice only diet for the next three days. I’ll be looking for a box from FedEx in the morning!

BluePrint Cleanse – Preparation Day 2

My day:

Breakfast

• warm water with freshly squeezed lemon
• 1 banana

Exercise

• walked 5 miles
• 1 honey crisp apple

Then I drove to King William to visit my sister Angela and my two beautiful nephews!

Laine is 2 1/2 months old. He makes owl noises (hoo-hoo) and is SO adorable!

His older brother at only 18 months is all about tools. Here is with a “play” drill bit in his mouth. (No! I did not eat any goldfish! Yes, I thought about it.)

Lunch

• Mixed greens and butter lettuce salad with pomegranate arils, shaved fennel, avocado, shallots and orange with a citrus dressing (orange zest, juice, extra virgin olive oil and a little kosher salt and pepper). I made one for Angela and one for me 🙂
• Earl grey tea

Dinner

• Healthy red cabbage.
• 1 serving of quinoa cooked with 1 leek.

BluePrint Cleanse – Preparation Day 1

Day 1 is about over and so far I’m feeling great!

Here’s what I ate:

Breakfast

• 1 baked sweet potato sprinkled with cinnamon
• 2 large cups Lemon Zinger tea
• room temp water

Exercise

• walked 5 miles

Lunch

• 1 serving quinoa (1/4 cup), cooked in water and 1 leek (cut in half, washed thoroughly and cut into thin half moon shapes)
• 1 can Whole Foods skipjack tuna packed in water. I planned to wait until dinner to have any fish but I was really hungry when I started cooking the quinoa (it takes about 15 minutes to cook).I had planned to do my shopping for the week at Whole Foods in the afternoon so the cupboards were bare.
• 1 cup Lemon Zinger tea

Snack

• My younger brother Isaac works at Whole Foods in Short Pump and I got to see him! Bonus! I bought a container of pre-cut organic pineapple while I was shopping and ate it after unpacking the groceries. 

Dinner

• Baked Salmon with a little pepper and a couple of sprays of Bragg Liquid Aminos.
• Butter lettuce salad with pomegranate arils, shaved fennel, avocado, shallots and orange with a citrus dressing (orange zest, juice, extra virgin olive oil and a little kosher salt and pepper).

Today was a lot of work in planning what I was going to eat over the next couple days and then shopping for everything. One thing I didn’t realize until after I made my blog post last night is that I have to do a three day “post cleanse” after my three days of juicing. The suggested menu is about the same as the three preparation days. That makes a total of nine days of needing to be very conscious about what I eat. Apparently it’s really important to slowly introduce food back to your system.

The brand of juice I decided to go with is the BluePrint cleanse. I ordered three days of their Foundation Cleanse. It’s organic, raw and unpasteurized. There are a couple of reasons I decided to buy the juice instead of making it myself:

• Reason #1: I don’t own a juicer. I have never juiced before and I don’t know how I will feel about it. I want to make sure that I like it. If this works out then I might do this every few months. In between it would be cool to make juices for breakfast or lunch.
• Reason #2: It’s easier. My spring semester at school started last week and the BluePrint juices are bottled and numbered according to the order you need to drink them during the day. I can take them to class in a cooler bag if I need to…EASY!

Quinoa Spinach Mac ‘n Cheese

I’m doing a three day juice cleanse Wednesday – Friday of next week. It requires a lot of planning! For example for three days before the cleanse I can only eat salads, fruit and vegetables (steamed or raw). Tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday are my three preparation days to get my system ready for the three days of juicing. I can have some fish tomorrow but no meat on Monday or Tuesday. The only other thing I can have is some brown rice (or quinoa) or a sweet potato. I also can’t have coffee, sugar or dairy. Coffee, sugar AND dairy.

COFFEE, SUGAR AND DAIRY…ahem. I’ll get over it.

I used that as an excuse to make something cheesy tonight. Cheesy but still healthy. Quinoa and spinach are healthy kick start to the next six days of me being good 🙂

I ate this for dinner tonight along with a baked sweet potato.

I plan to make posts for the next six days documenting what I eat (and don’t eat) and how I feel during my cleanse. Follow along if you’re interested!

• 3 tablespoons butter 
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 dashes nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces, shredded white sharp cheddar cheese
• 3 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 bunches fresh baby spinach (I used a 16 ounce bag of Whole Foods brand organic frozen spinach)
• FOR THE TOPPING:
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Method

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a medium saucepan add 3 tablespoons of butter and flour and heat over medium heat. Whisk continuously until a paste forms. Whisk in milk. Increase heat to medium/high and bring to a boil whisking the whole time. Stir in the nutmeg, salt and cheddar cheese. When cheese sauce is smooth remove from heat.
• In a large bowl mix together the cooked quinoa, cheese sauce and spinach.
• Transfer the mixture into a casserole dish. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
• In a small bowl mix together the butter and bread crumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the casserole. (I skipped this step because I was out of panko. I just topped the casserole with parm cheese and left the extra butter and panko off. I’m sure they would have added a nice crunch!)
• Bake for about 20 minutes, until bubbly.
• Remove from oven and enjoy!

From Two Peas and Their Pod