Day 21-what's next?

First a little debriefing of day 19 (Friday) and 20 (Saturday):
Friday was a typical day. Donuts at school which are not even an issue anymore. Ate the typical and had some leftovers from the week for dinner. I did have a 2 by 2 piece of the family's homemade whole wheat pizza, so a little gluten and a little cheese.

I had been a little apprehensive for Saturday to come all week long. I had a 16 mile run planned and the furthest I had run since Columbus marathon in the Fall was 12 miles. The turned out to be sunny and about 30 degrees, and I have to say my run was a JOY. I ran out in Amish country, very few cars, a few Amish buggies. I felt great until the last 1-2 miles. Pace was better than expected. No issues with my knees or hips. I think this diet is helping with the inflammation. I was a little sore the rest of the day and this morning, but after 16 miles that is to be expected.
Of course, after burning over 2000 calories on my run, I needed a little extra as the day went on. I had a chocolate almond smoothie from the Thrive Diet book in the afternoon and a homemade energy bar.
We went to 5pm Mass and then had to go directly to see my neice in a play at 7pm, so dinner was a bit of an issue. I brought an apple and a Larabar and a bottle of water, but was starving...so I had stopped at Subway for my daughters. Lizzie got a veggie delite and so I had about a third of her foot long. Again gluten, and it had ranch dressing so some dairy. I also then had some popcorn at the theatre, with butter so more dairy.

I think to take care of those problems I just needed to bring more food with me, especially after a long run day.

So here we are on the morning of DAY 21.
When I started I was hoping to:
* get control of my cravings, which I feel I have for the most part

*lose a little weight, as of this morning I have lost about 7 pounds in these 21 days

*become more conscious of what I was eating before putting it in my mouth. I think I have improved on this. I want to continue making progress on this.

*see how some changes in my diet would make me feel. I feel like I have MORE energy, my skin is clearer, my body seems like it is recovering quicker from workouts, I feel lighter and my mood is better.

OTHER things that I did not expect:
I did not expect to feel like I wanted to give up all animal products for good. It had never crossed my mind that I would become a Vegan. Because of how I feel, and because I am immersed in reading The China Study, The Thrive Diet, and Quantum Wellness I do not feel like I should go back to animal products. It is partly for humane reasons, but mainly for health reasons.

I am not going to be an EXTREME vegan, which may offend vegans out there. I may have a piece of cheese pizza every once in a while. I may have soup that is made with Chicken Stock, or has cream in it every once in a while. I may have buttered popcorn. But in general these will be things I will avoid.


So...what's next?
When day 22 comes tomorrow, I will have 50%caf/50%decaf coffee beans in my coffee maker (Actually I am trying it out right now as I type this) and so reintroduce that small amount of caffeine into my diet.

I will reintroduce a glass of wine once or twice a week.

I will still avoid added sugar as much as possible. I will keep gluten to a minimum, but will reintroduce a piece of whole wheat bread now and then.

So for the most part, things will not change. My typical day will continue to be:
oatmeal
almonds/dried apricots
Big leafy salad
apple/energy bar
dinner of lots of vegetables and a little bit of grain (quinoa/brown rice...)

Hoping to keep out between 'meal' snacks and after dinner snacks. After dinner I will have Teavana tea as my evening 'treat'.

Hoping to lose another 7-8 pounds for vanity and to help me run faster.

I also want to continue to make progress on making my diet healthier. In the Thrive Diet Brazier talks about trying to stay as RAW as possible. He also suggests NO soy. He has some very different recipes in there. I want to continue making progress toward eating HEALTHIER. even more leafy vegetables, less of anything that is not WHOLE foods...there are lots of improvements I can make.

I would highly suggest people that are out there thinking about trying this to JUST DO IT. 21 days is such a small percentage of your life. You can do this for three weeks. Plan your meals, prepare some things on Sunday, as you walk out the door have something that you can eat if you are going to be out for a while.
See how you feel.

as I posted on my facebook status yesterday...not perfection, just progress!

day 17 and 18-crusing along

Wednesday workout: 6 mile run with 4 mile Tempo (8:23 pace)

Thursday workout: 4 mile run

nutrition:

same as usual for the day, dinner Wednesday was leftover Brown Rice and roasted broccoli, red pepper and green beans

Dinner Thursday: rice noodles with a sauce of Roma tomatoes, pesto, broccolini, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, garlic (recipe from Tosca Reno's Clean Eating Cookbook which I love. It is not Vegan, but has lots of recipes that are very vegetable based)

Feeling great. I really feel like my recovery is easier. I am not feeling sore at all from my runs. This Saturday is a big test. I have a 16 mile long run. Hoping to have a good one.

This weekend is the 'end' of the cleanse. It has been everything I had imagined and more. When Monday and day 22 comes along. I don't think my nutrition will change.

I want to be 90 years old, taking NO medications and very active!! Hoping good decisions made TODAY will help make that possible.

Day 16-just a quick check in

I feel like this is getting to be routine. I really don't feel much like I am 'on a cleanse' these days. The only thing I am really missing is my morning coffee. Other than that and a glass of wine here or there, I won't change anything when day 22 arrives.

workout: rest day

nutrition:

bf: the usual steel cut oats w/ protein powder/ blueberries/ agave/slivered almonds and V8

morning: the usual almonds and a few dried apricots

lunch: big salad/ homemade salad dressing/ and cup of celery root soup (all very tasty, I totally enjoyed my lunch)

afternoon: apple/ larabar

dinner: leftover risotto/half sweet potato/unsweetened applesauce (could have used more vegetables here between the sweet potato and risotto dinner felt carb-filled)

getting ready to head off to be and read so I guess that is it for the day. Scale has been stuck at about a total of 6+ pounds lost in the 15 days, but clothes are looser fitting and I believe that as I continue this plan, the pounds will continue to slowly move in the right direction. I would be very happy to lose about 10 more pounds over the next few months, preferably before I run Boston in April.

As I said in my opening sentence, this is becoming routine. I don't miss the dairy/eggs/meat at all. I NEED to keep the sugar away. I believe that eating added sugar causes sugar cravings and so I do not want to fall back into that habit. I will try to keep sugar only for a special occasion here and there.

Lizzie has decided to try vegetarian for the 40 days of Lent, which start tomorrow. She is not a big meat eater anyway.

Day 15

workout: 5 miles outside, on a hilly route about 9:40 pace felt good, although I didn't feel as fast as I would like.

nutrition:
bf: steel cut oats/v8/decaf coffee

before run: gluten-free bread/almond butter

lunch: big salad and leftover celery root soup

afternoon: smoothie from Thrive Diet chocolate/almond

dinner: roasted broccoli/redpepper/green beans and brown rice, unsweetened applesauce

after dinner: blue corn chips/salsa

I spent most of the morning making two batches of energy bars. one of them were Bree's Puaoko bars filled with walnuts, blueberries, maca powder, flax, cocoa nibs, and a few other things baked for 40 minutes.

The other were from the Thrive diet, pear/grated ginger/ hemp powder/and a few other things just processed in the food processor and then rolled out sprinkled with sesame seed and cut into bars/wrapped in plastic and put in the freezer.

I can post recipes if anyone out there is interested, let me know.

I also spent almost and hour preparing 7 big salads. Four of them for my lunches at school this week and the other three for Liz, Meg and I for lunch today. They include beet greens, kale, arugula, romaine and then topped with beets, tomatos, avocado, artichoke hearts, olives, chickpeas, red pepper. I had to take a picture because they looked so good. I also made some tomato basil vinegraitte from the Thrive Diet book. With enough leftover for the week at school.

Confessions-Liz made brownies for school tomorrow and I stole a spoonful of batter. why? who knows.

Other than that, and I really am now wishing that I would have had something other than the blue corn chips for a snack this evening. my stomache is already protesting. They are not agreeing with me.

We are now starting the third week. When day 21 comes, I will be reintroducing a moderate amount of alcohol, a little gluten (but I want to keep that really low), and maybe some added sugar here and there (I would also like to keep that very low). I also REALLY miss my morning coffee. Decaf is just not the same and my Teavana tea is just not the same. I would really like the taste that I get from my strong, dark coffee without the caffeine that comes along with it. I think that I will be allowing myself 1 big mug of caffinated every few days.

The animal products are going to stay gone. I am not going to get extreme about it, at least for now. But I am going to really give this Vegan lifestyle a try. I am not missing it. And I feel better without it. And I think it is the healthiest way to go. And I think it will help me keep my weight where I would like it to be. And the ethical reasons.

Day 14-2 weeks done

workout: 1 hour 20 minutes of AeroBaseBuilder Spinervals workout with Coach Troy
After doing a 14 week bike trainer plan, and working my butt off on the bike, I can say that working out with Coach Troy has become much more managable for me. I used to be DEAD by the end of the workouts, and he would say something like, "this is our easy day" I felt like I could keep up with the Cadence and the gear ratios pretty well today.

nutrition:
bf: steel cut oats and the usual with V8 and one piece of gluten free bread w/ almond butter

snack: Larabar

lunch: 1/2 cup brown rice/roasted vegetables

bike ride: 2 scoops of Accelerade in water bottle

dinner: AMAZING! I used two recipes the The Conscious Cook and they both were soooo good.
The first I was a little scared of, but it turned out great--> Celery Root Soup
and the second was a Lemon Asparagus Risotto, I am not sure if the risotto is gluten free but the recipe looked good and I couldn't resist.

My whole family enjoyed both of them and I made some chicken breast for them also. Lots of leftovers so I will be eating them as the week goes on.



I spent three hours grocery shopping today. After reading parts of the Thrive Diet I made another trip to the local health food store Mustard Seed Market. I stocked up on Hemp protein, Hemp Oil, amaranth, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, roasted carob, pumkin seeds, Quinoa, and more.

I am going to make some more energy bars tomorrow, and my lunch salads for the week. I am excited to try out for greens in the salad some beet greens and Kale along with romaine and arugula. I will top them with chickpeas, beets, red pepper, cucumber and avocado.

I started reading some of The China Study today. I have warned my family that after I read this I may not be able to with a concsious buy them any animal products to consume anymore. I was only half kidding. The book really gives all the research that animal products are cause for many diseases.

I felt like I had plenty of energy for the bike today. And one other thing I noticed today is that I had no residual soreness from my run yesterday. Even going up or down stairs my quads and hamstrings didn't feel sore.

Some Teavana tea for the evening, watching the Olympics, the All-Star game and grading some Geometry tests.

Day 12 and 13-getting through some tough nutrition obstacles

I have gotten behind a few days because of being at swimming sectionals the last two evenings. The title of this post comes from some of the obstacles that I overcame in the last two days, and the hope and promise that these provided to me that maybe I have FINALLY gotten close to the point where I am going to make good nutrition decisions for myself beyond the 21 days and on into the rest of my hopefully long, healthy life.

On Friday, we had inservice day at school and were served contintental breakfast of muffins/bagels/etc...I had already had my steel cut oats for breakfast and so had no problem staying away. In the past I would have definitely had some.

For lunch, we were served pizza, salad, chocolate chip cookies and brownies. I had planned ahead and brought my own salad and vegetable soup. The thing that really struck me is that I did not miss the pizza at all. I feel like many of my cravings are really totally under control. I enjoyed my salad.

Friday evening we had boys' swimming sectionals. The bus left at 4:30 and we didn't get back until 11pm. The have a hospitality room for the coaches where they had taco salad, meatball subs, just to name a few things. I knew there would be nothing in there that I would want to eat and so I brought almonds and a bowl of quinoa w/ sundried tomatoes. I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt very satisfied and not hungry at all.

This all starts over again on Saturday. My niece's birthday party was at 11:30. I did my long run for the week (only 9 miles because this is a recovery week) and had a gluten-free English muffin with almond butter for recovery after the run. I brought some roasted vegetables in case I was hungry at the party, but didn't even bring it in to the house because I didn't feel very hungry. They had pizza and salad for their meal. I had some salad with craisins and balsamic vinegraitte and noone even noticed that I was not eating the pizza. I declined on the cake and ice cream later in the party and made it through that obstacle.

Repeat of the evening when we had Girls sectionals. (still waiting to see if Lizzie made it to districts after finishing 7th at our sectional)

I had a good meal of quinoa and roasted vegetables at 3pm, and then was satified with some dried fruit and almonds during the evening.

I have always wanted to be the person that could stay away from the foods that the 'shouldn't' have, but always seemed to be the one that always ate what was offered. I feel like I have finally gotten some of these cravings totally under control.

In all the above situations, there was not 'self-talk' to stay away from the junk food. I just didn't want it. I had a plan to get through. I didn't let myself get too hungry. And I really think staying away from the sugar helps with the sugar cravings.

I am almost done with two weeks. I have definitely made the decision to stay Vegan for an extended trial. I am reading through the Thrive Diet and trying to incorporate some of the ideas in there, slowly. I have also gotten The China Study book on my kindle and will be reading that over the next few weeks.

my goal: a LONG, HEALTHY life To be able to compete faster would be nice too :)

Day 11

workout: 4 miles on the treadmill, which was supposed to be 6 miles. Good thing this is my recovery week, just can't have a good relationship with the treadmill this week.

nutrition:
bf: the usual oatmeal before swim practice

morning snack: almonds/dried apricot/decaf coffee

lunch: salad with lots of veggies/ blue corn chips

afternoon: apple/ Larabar

dinner: quinoa w/ sundried tomatoes/roasted vegetables and squash leftovers

evening: energy bar made last weekend

I was hungry quite a bit of the day or maybe just restless, I haven't decided yet. My stomache was bothering me this afternoon and evening. Can't figure it out. I don't know what I could be eating to cause this.

Weight is back down and at my lowest point for a long while.

This way of life seems to be becoming somewhat of a habit. Donuts at school again today and I didn't even think about them. There is really very little that I am 'missing'. I am really believing that with a few modifications I am going to give this a try even after the 21 days is up.

Starting to look at vegan websites and I was on Beginner Triathlete forums today reading through some threads about being vegan/vegetarian.

I have Boys swimming sectionals tonight. They have a room there to feed the coaches. I will be taking my own food. I might be able to snag a piece of fruit and a water bottle from that room, but that is about it.

I also have inservice day at school today. 'Lunch is provided'. I am taking my own.

If you are reading this, leave me a comment so I know you are out there :)

Day 10-thinking about the future

I title this 'thinking about the future' because I feel like I am to the point that I need to think about what I am going to do after day 21. I am keeping all that decision making in the back of my mind as I go through these days.

I am waiting for the Thrive diet to arrive and want to take a look at that, but I know that it will even be more 'extreme' than this cleanse will be. It is mainly raw foods, and lots of new things that I have never tried before. I would have to 'lean' into that way of life slowly.

workout:
6 miles on the treadmill, snowy,windy, messy, yucky outside today.

nutrition:

bf: same oatmeal combo as the last few days (I am cooking 4 more servings of steel cut oats right now)

morning snack: almonds, dried apricot, another serving of mixed nuts that I have as a 'backup" in my school bag. I felt pretty hungry this morning and probably had too many of them.

lunch: BIG salad, 1 cup soup

afternoon: Larabar, pear

RUN

dinner: 1/2cup brown rice w/ salsa, leftover roasted potatoes and pears, acorn squash

As I said, I felt pretty hungry today. Then came home from school and found the house smelled of banana bread that Lizzie and Megan had made on the snow day today. Almost had a slice and then rethought that decision.

A little disappointed that my weight is back UP 2 pounds over the last 2 days. WTH?!! I am again blaming it on that time of the month. We will see how tomorrow goes, and I definitely know how fickle the scale can be.

Day 9-a step or so backwards

Just when I thought I was rolling along, not feeling any cravings and thinking that I could do this for the long run, a day like today comes along.

I do not know what was different, or what triggered this but it felt like a struggle today to follow the plan. I didn't veer off the path, although someone put brownies AND chocolate candy in the teachers' lounge AND someone put cookies and candy in the office. But...I felt a little deprived today. I think I could have eaten a whole pizza and 4 or 5 brownies. But the good thing is that I didn't.

That time of the month has arrived and I am going to blame that, and hope tomorrow goes a bit better. It has also been a pretty stressful last week or so at school and finishing up the swim season. That doesn't help.

So...

WORKOUT: roads are a mess and I got home late from school, rushed to the treadmill and only had time for 4 miles (of planned 6) before I had to take Megan to gymnastics.

I am tired of running on the treadmill! :(

NUTRITION:
BF: steel cut oatmeal with protein powder, blueberries, almonds, agave nectar

morning snack: almonds, dried apricot

lunch: salad, 1 cup of fire roasted Vegetable soup from Heinen's

afternoon: apple, Larabar

dinner: roasted pears and golden potatos, jicama salad, unsweetened applesauce

will probably have some peach Teavana roobois tea tonight

Day 8-rolling along

workout: scheduled for an easy 6 mile run BUT... had to take Lizzie to the doctor after school because she can't shake this bad cold. so didn't get home until almost 6pm, did dinner, cleaned kitchen, graded papers and here I am at 9pm. Time to go to bed for early morning swim practice. Tomorrow was scheduled rest day, so will do it tomorrow. But, of course it was sunny and beautiful outside today and tomorrow snow storm is coming in. I told Lizzie she was worth it though :)

nutrition:
Bf: the usual steel cut oatmeal with addings

morning snack: almonds, dried apricots

lunch: big salad, blue corn chips

afternoon snack: apple/Larabar

dinner: gluten free pasta (small portion) grilled zuccini/yellow squash and spaghetti sauce

after dinner: Teavana tea/small portion of the energy bars I made Saturday (tasty)


This morning before swimming practice I ordered from Amazon 'The Thrive Diet', 'Thrive Fitness', and The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnan about Vegan cooking. I feel like I wouldn't want cookbook type books on my Kindle so ordered the 'real' books.

I also got a big food processor when picking up Lizzie's prescription today (she has a sinus infection/ear infection). I have a small food processor, but this one can shred, and hold a lot more for chopping. I made Jicama Slaw with it tonight. I only had a small taste because I didn't get it done until after dinner. It seems pretty tasty.

I have been sleeping really well, and feeling like I am waking up with quite a bit of energy.

I haven't talked about weight yet. I have been waiting until one week was officially up. As of this morning I have lost 5+ pounds in the past week. I weigh myself every morning and it has been slow and steady loss. I am sure this week will not be as much, but am hoping for 2-3 for the next two weeks of the cleanse. That will take me under a big hump that I have not been under since before Matt was born in 1991.

So, I am feeling like I am on a roll... and now I am off to bed for another early morning swim practice tomorrow.

Day 7- the end of one week already!

workout: 73 minutes on the bike with some pretty hard intervals. This was the third hard workout day in a row and my legs are tired.

nutrition:
bf: steel cut oatmeal/blueberries/protein powder/ almonds slivers/agave

green tea on the way to the meet

at Megan's gymnastics meet, left home at 6:45am and home at 2:00pm Again took my bag of treats which included almonds, Larabar, orange, water bottle

at 2pm: vegetable soup and a gluten free English muffin with almond butter

Accelerade in my water bottle while doing my bike workout

dinner: roasted vegetables (beets, potatos, brussel sprouts, carrots, turnips, onion, a little olive oil, minced garlic and dried rosemary cooked covered for about 45 minutes at 375 and then no cover for another 20 minutes.) I will be having leftovers of this as the week goes on.

also some brown rice with salsa

While watching the Superbowl I had a little blue corn tortillas with avocado/salsa. But didn't have much.


At Megan's gymnastics meet this morning I was really hungry, even after having a filling breakfast before going. I think the 11 mile run yesterday and not eating much caught up with me. But... had my almonds and Larabar and that took care of that.

I have a Math meeting all day tomorrow. We were told there will be donuts for breakfast and lunch will be served. I am sure there will be nothing served for lunch that I can have, so my lunch is packed. I think I am beyond the donut pull.

One week into this and I already feel like I have made good progress. I have been 'leaning' into this for 2-3 years. Diet has become cleaner and cleaner. I have read all kinds of information on nutrition, books, blogs, websites. I just needed something to get me over the edge. I needed to find a way to feel totally in control of my cravings and urges. This has really help with that problem, at least so far.

I leave with a quote from Kathy Freston's Quantum Wellness book, as she discusses doing the 21 day cleanse:

"...any time you disrupt a pattern or meet a challenge, you create an enormous space for a quantum leap to happen"

Day 6-getting through the weekend

workout: 11 miles on the treadmill. I was supposed to do 14, but the the movie was over and the satellite had so much snow on it I was getting no signal...so I called it a day. That is a lot of miles to do inside.

nutrition:
bf: before run steel cut oatmeal/protein powder/blueberries/agave nectar/V8

out the door at 9:30 and not back until 2:30 so I took my bag of food with me which included--
almonds, apple, Larabar, banana

before 5pm Mass: energy bar (see below)

dinner: brown rice with roasted red pepper/green beans/broccoli leftover AND leftover tomato panzanella on romaine lettuce

after dinner treat: popcorn/no butter just seasoning salt which I suppose does not go against the cleanse, but felt like a 'cheat'

Went to the local health food store (Mustard Seed Market) mainly to get some ingredients for an energy bar recipe Michelle passed on to me. It made me really feel like a newbie in this whole Vegan world. Lots of products there that I have never heard of before. So this is all a learning process.

Made the bars and they are tasty. walnuts, coconut, blueberries, cocoa and cocoa nibs, agave, Maca powder, flax meal, flax seed and banana. They made a 9 by 13 pan and I only had one 2 by 2 or so. I will have them as the week proceeds. I am thinking they would have some caffeine in them, but will be 'overlooking' that.

I feel very good today. I have been sleeping quite well, which is usually an issue for me. As I finish this first week tomorrow, I am contemplating what I want to take away with me after these 21 days. For me, it comes down to what is the healthiest diet for me long term. What will help me be a better athlete in the short term, avoid disease and the aging process in the long term?

I do not want to feel deprived for the rest of my life, but I really don't think that pretzels, crackers, licorice ...etc... need to be a regular part of my diet for me to not feel deprived. There are so many great ways to prepare whole foods that are delicious!

So this is just the beginning!

one of these days I will take some time to jazz up this blog.

Day 5-The cravings are leaving !

workout: 55 minutes on the bike with the hard set being 5 by 4 minutes @ 100-105% of LT tough, tough, tough but felt great on the bike. I cannot wait to get outside this March/April I have worked really hard on the bike this winter and hoping it will show. love my bike.

nutrition:

BF: protein shake-non sweetened soy milk/ blueberries/ banana/ protein powder

morning snack: almonds/ a few dried apricots

lunch: Big salad and 1 cup of 'fire roasted vegetable soup' from Heinens

afternoon: apple/ Larabar

dinner: Tomato Panzanella which I totally enjoyed. Tomato/artichoke heart/olives/arugula/broiled gluten free bread/ with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. trying to insert link below-



This fresh365 online seems to have some nice recipes.

Easily made it past the donuts today. There really seem to be very little cravings today. I was NOT hungry today. My calorie intake has got to be well below where I usually am, and I was not feeling deprived at all.

My family had their traditional homemade pizza tonight and when I took it out of the oven and cut it up, I definitely felt like it would be good to have.

But it really was not a big thing to make and eat my tomato salad and I thoroughly enjoyed that. I will enjoy a bit of Teavan tea tonight.

We have quite a bit of snow coming in tonight. I have a 14 miler in my Boston training on tap for early morning tomorrow. I was hoping to get outside for it. But they are also predicting heavy winds. So my plans have changed to treadmill date. I am going to watch the movie 'Hangover' which I hear is hilarious and at time innapropriate. Sounds good.

Day 4: Moving along

workout: mainly a rest day, ab workout and my daily 40 pushups (Today's bike workout will have to be done tomorrow, got crunched by the need to take Megan to gymnastics and getting home from school late)

nutrition:
Bf: oatmeal/blueberries/protein powder/almonds/stevia and a banana

morning snack: almonds

lunch: big salad (no soup today)

afternoon snack: apple/ Larabar/ some blue corn chips after I got home

dinner: brown rice/ roasted broccoli/red pepper/green beans leftover from yesterday

that is it. Unbelievably, there are REALLY no other little bits of this and that. I have made it 4 days without licorice, coffee, or other treats.

Today felt easier than yesterday. I did not feel hungry ALL day today like I did yesterday. I think some of the cravings are slowly going away, and I am getting used to the feeling of NOT being full all the time.

I am still not feeling any surges of extra energy. It is getting to be the end of the week, and I am wearing down as I usually do.

Stomache feels better today, although DIFFERENT than usual. Hard to describe different. Digestion is working differently, I haven't decided yet whether it is better or just different.

Beginning to feel like I am settling in...

Friday is donut day at school tomorrow. On a typical Friday I drive to school telling myself I will NOT have a donut, and then by lunch I have walked into the office, right past the box, and cave in. Obviously tomorrow that WILL NOT happen. I don't even see it being a little war between the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other shoulder. I have smacked the devil to the curb at least for these 21 days. There are no options, or decisions to be made. I will prevail with NO cheats on this!!

Day 3-Some things I am learning

workout: 5 miles on treadmill, including 3 miles at tempo pace Felt pretty good during the workout! Tempo pace for me is embarrassingly slow 8:24/mi

nutrition:
Breakfast-protein shake (unsweetened soy milk/blueberries/banana/protein powder)

morning snack-almonds/dried fruit

lunch-BIG salad, 1 cup lentil soup

afternoon snack, before run- Larabar/pear/1 piece of no gluten bread and almond butter

dinner-blackened tofu, avocado, tomato, taco (using corn tortillas) with roasted green beans, broccoli and red peppers


I feel like I am hitting a bit of a wall today. I feel like I could definitely feel the effects of no caffeine this morning. I was dragging. My stomache was also bothering me on and off during the day. I am sure eating all these vegetables and lentil soup gave me more fiber than I normally get and my body has to adjust.

This is also just a really busy week at school, and coaching swimming, and John is out of town today and tomorrow, and winter is getting to be long. These are all reasons that I may have been looking for food as comfort. there are no 'treats' on this cleanse. it does help me see how for me food can be much more than just fuel.

It will be interesting to see how my body adjusts over the next few days. Today, I feel hungry all day long. Not starving, just a slight hunger that I don't let myself get to very often on the typical day. I think it is a 'good' hunger, that I need to let myself feel more often.

What I am truly feeling enlightened about is how much eating I would normally do without even thinking about it. If nothing else this little experiment will help me to become a more conscious eater. THINK about what and when you are eating. don't just grab a piece of chocolate because you happen to open the cabinet that has chocolate in it...

I am definitely NOT a big fan of tofu. Had some tonight for dinner and was not very impressed :(

Moving on to day 4 tomorrow!!

Day 2

Workout: 70 minute bike workout--> 20 minute warmup routine/20 minute at 95-100%LT/5 minute rest/another 20 minutes at 95-100% LT/ 5 minute CD very tough workout.

I had a water bottle with 2 scoops of Accelerade while riding. Against the added sugar, but I burned about 1000 calories on the ride and felt I needed some calories to not bonk.

Meals:
Breakfast: steel cut oatmeal/blueberries/almonds/V8/one piece of gluten free bread with almond butter

morning snack: almonds/dried fruit

lunch: BIG salad (same as yesterday)

afternoon snack: Larabar

dinner: roasted pears and yellow potatos/ half a can of Progresso lentil soup

will have some Teavana herbal tea tonight

Not feeling a whole lot different so far. I am missing some of my little treats like coffee, glass of wine, the pieces of chocolate I might eat while making dinner. But...feel like I am getting enough food. Not too cranky in giving up the coffee.

On the way home from school before my bike workout I felt like I was pretty tired and I didn't know how the workout would go. But once I was on the bike there was plenty of energy.

Day 1- February 1st

workout: 5 miles on the treadmill 4:40-5:30am

food:
breakfast--steel cut oatmeal/blueberries/slivered almonds/stevia/low sodium V8/green tea

morning snack--almonds

lunch--BIG salad including beets, chickpeas, tomatoes, red pepper, arugula, olives AND about a cup of pumkin soup (more on that later)

afternoon snack--apple/nut thin 'crackers'

SWIM MEET this evening-Larabar on the way home

dinner--veggie burger and leftover roasted beets/potatoes/parsnips

I feel like I had enough food as the day progressed. It seems the hardest thing is to do is not just grab the snacks I usually do. I have licorice in my car and at school that I randomly grab as the day goes on. When I get home from school I am usually famished and grab all kinds of random crackers, cookies, whatever is around.

More on the pumpkin soup: I don't know what I was thinking when I made my plan for eating. The pumpkin soup is vegetarian, but as I was thinking about it this evening I looked at the label and of course it contains cream. So no more pumkin soup, I will have to look again for a vegan soup I can have.

I really didn't miss the coffee too much this morning. I made some green tea and had that on the way to work, so that the ritual of drinking warm liquid on the way to work was continued.

I made all my salads for the week on Sunday and so it is nice to just grab them as I pack my bag for the next day.

I have a hard bike workout tomorrow, so I will be interested to see how that goes. Off to do some reading, and sleeping!