Desk - before the clean up!

This 21 day kickstart seems to have kickstarted more than my eating habits. Or it could be because I’m back on my thyroid meds after 6 months of not being able to afford them. It could also be the fact that I slept on Friday night from 6pm to 10.30pm, then 11pm unto 10am on Saturday … oops!

Whatever it is, I’m feeling good, less tired and more productive! I didn’t get a whole bunch of work done yesterday, as I had planned, but I did get a head start on cleaning my desk, which – as you can see – was well overdue for a clean! Hopefully now I can get my act together and work from home on a desk rather than from the couch. Even though the couch was comfortable!

I received my doTERRA order yesterday, and had ordered GX Assist, which is a 10-day GI cleanse. I started taking it yesterday morning and hope to see some results soon.  Will report on that as soon as I have something to report! You can explore  the doTERRA range of products here.

The Kickstart is going much better than expected, even the girls are loving the recipes! Today is the last day of the first week, and the menu is as follows.

SUNDAY, JAN. 9: DAY 7

Breakfast: Breakfast Rice Pudding (use leftover brown rice from last night’s dinner) or frozen waffles (with berries, banana, or both)

Lunch: Spinach Salad with Orange Sesame Dressing (add garbanzo beans)

Snack: Ambrosia

Dinner: Whole wheat pasta with Simple Marinara Sauce (add broccoli, spinach, and any other leftover veggies)

and, because I don’t trust myself enough to post daily next week, here’s week two!

I did make enough oatmeal to eat it for breakfast every day, instead of alternating with cereal and plant milk (although I did buy rice milk). I’m looking forward to the Boca burger for lunch today! I didn’t buy enough greens, but I didn’t think much of the quality of the kale at the store I was at. I’ll have to go shopping again today and buy more to use for dinner. I also need to top up the soy yogurt … I found that Ciel does like it. Bonus!

Has anyone tried popcorn with nutritional yeast?

I now need to ensure that I drink 8 glasses of water every day, and get some darned exercise!

TUESDAY, JAN. 4: DAY 2

Breakfast: Cereal, plant milk (your choice), and banana and berries

Lunch: Vegan veggie burger (use whole grain bread topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, and your favorite mustard) and cup of Carrot and Red Pepper Soup (leftover from yesterday’s lunch)

Snack: Air-popped popcorn topped with curry powder or nutritional yeast

Dinner: Southern Beans and Greens (toss in your leftover black-eyed peas here) with side of Couscous Confetti Salad (leftover from yesterday’s lunch)

Image credit: Stock Xchng

This is the third time I’ve started this. The first time I tried I almost got all the way through. The second time, I barely managed two days. This time, I’m not working, so I’m not going to run into the roadblocks I encountered when I was living life “at the office”. I know that I need to finish the whole 21 days, because I know how good I felt those two times I’ve attempted this prior to today.

The holidays are over, there is nobody to enable me … no excuses to make. It’s all on me. If I mess up this time, it’s my own damn fault! I have time to make the recipes, and time to sit and enjoy the food as I eat it. I also have my own mini-vegetarian (Ciel) to keep me in line!

So, what’s on the menu today?

MONDAY, JAN. 3: DAY 1

Breakfast: Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal (make enough for Wednesday)

Lunch: Couscous Confetti Salad (make enough for a side with tomorrow’s dinner) and Carrot and Red Pepper Soup (make enough for tomorrow’s lunch)

Snack: Toast with apple butter and banana (easy option: apple or banana)

Dinner: Hoppin’ John Salad and Kwick Kale

I have to say, I went to a different grocery store than usual and I wasn’t happy with the quality of the kale, so I bought collard greens instead. I totally forgot that I have kale in the freezer from my own garden, but I may just cook the collards anyway! I love my greens “steam fried”, so I’m sure they’ll be just fine.

Image credit: Stock Xchng

I’ve decided to use CinchCast for some of my posts. The reason for this is that many times I go to bed and then stay awake tossing and turning because I keep thinking “I should have blogged about …..” or “I forgot to record …..”

Mostly, I’ll be using it from my phone. I believe that the sound quality is a little less than when recorded directly on the computer.

My first CinchCast reveals a part of the weight loss plan that I haven’t heard much about before, yet it’s critical if you’re trying to work out what your caloric intake should be when trying to lose weight. We all know that you lose weight by expending more calories than you take in, but how do you know how many you expend beyond what you measure for cardio, running, walking, etc?

There is a link referred to in the CinchCast – this is the link: BMR Calculator

Let me know what you think. I think it’s kinda neat!

Today was the last day of the PCRM 21 Day Vegan Challenge, and while I do hesitate to call myself a vegan, I do feel a sense of freedom.

Sure, I slipped up. Ciel got the wrong order at McDonalds, so when they told us to keep the quarter pounder without cheese, guess who ate it? Yup. T’was me. And I feel no guilt or shame. I just know that I won’t do it again for a long time.

But why do I hesitate to call myself a vegan? Because I truly believe that it is a lifestyle. I’m happy to say “I choose not to eat animal products” but I’m not ready to give up my (leather) Doc Martens just yet. I don’t wear make up much, but still I won’t purposely seek out every little iota of information about the ingredients in the mascara I just bought (I have Alicia Silverstone to do that for me!)

Interested in which well-known people are vegan? vegetarian? Roger Daltrey isn’t among them but you have to admit he was pretty hot back in the day! And the song fit.

People have asked me if my children are vegan or vegetarian. I can’t answer for Matt or Kayla, but Paris and Ciel are not. Though I did have an interesting dialog with Paris this evening.

Me: “You didn’t finish your dinner. Weren’t you very hungry?”

Paris: “No, I was hungry – I just don’t care much for meat. In fact I’d rather not eat it.”

Me: “All meat?”

P: “Well, except for bacon and ham.”

Me: “No McDonalds?”

P: “Well, just Big Macs. No chicken nuggets though. I haven’t liked those since about the time my toenail came off and I had to go to hospital.”

Hmmmm

A sample menu for a day for the cleanse would be similar to what I ate today.
Breakfast: green smoothie
Lunch: big “kitchen sink” salad
Dinner: apple

Now, don’t be disillusioned when I say “apple”, this baby was humungous – a Pink Lady apple from my local Fresh Market store. I’ve been drinking a couple of cups of Green Tea Kombucha (Yogi) because the liters and liters of water just aren’t cutting it. I know that’s not the right attitude, my skin is actually really dry so I do need to try to drink more water.

Other things I’ve noticed? Not much, really. I had a killer headache yesterday and could’t bear to listen to TV or look at a computer screen, so I went to bed early with a couple of ibuprofen and slept it off.

Having been “lifted”, I’m now looking forward to the remaining four days.

I just don’t feel good. I have a full blown sinus infection which is not only messing with my head, but my chest too. I think it’s time to just flush the system and start over.

I’ve done this particular detox in the past, and …..

wait …..

I just remembered that Laura invited us over for supper on Sunday. Better make that a Monday start.

As I was saying …

… it is a very tolerable fast, the green smoothies really freak people out, yet they taste so good!

My body is currently overflowing with symptoms of toxicity … I won’t go into them all, you can read them on the divas page for yourself. Let’s just say that I have 16 of those checkmarked “symptoms”, and no, I won’t elaborate on that!

Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds. I can do this again! I’ll keep you updated, of course, on a daily basis. Remember, MONDAY is the starting day!