Cleansing the Soul - Conclusion

Another quick post on my cleansing for 2010. I am finally back on regualr diet and I must say I feel great! I am not feeling so heavy and my energy is up. Due to these obvious changes, I can now stick to an AM workout schedule (which I have been).

After getting over day 3 of the lemonade, it was all down hill from there. I only did the lemonade part for 5 days as a first round of cleansing my body...but in the future I will go for the recommended minimum of 10 days. Eating just fruits and veggies is SOOO easy to me now...but my body definitely wants some tuna...and eggs...lol.

I plan to post on my overall results. Are my clothes fitting looser, how much weight AFTER the initial four lbs did I loose, how is my skin and hair looking and/or is my endurance higher....I guess we will see.

Thanks for your support and staying tuned in...until next time. Be blessed

CTS 5-7 - Lemonade Day #3-5

A quick note family, for I know I am behind. I was with family this past weekend and could not get one via my Blackberry to update my entries.

I am still going strong. Day 3 and 4 of the lemonade was very difficult. So much distraction and temptation around me, but I stuck to my guns. While my family is very supportive, some of our views on eating clash...but I still love them. How did I combat this temptation....I went shopping....lol....seriously don't suggest you do this but it worked.

Today was the usual. Back at work and drinking loads of water. By the way, I use water to break up the juice and its so relieving. Its even helping to keep the coating of the tongue down, which always a good thing.

As for my workout today, I did great. Jogged 2.65 miles on the treadmill, along with doing 1.35 miles on the elliptical. In total, I burned over 400 calories! So proud of myself.

I'm almost to the end family...wish me luck and keep me lifted! Be blessed....

CTS 5 - Lemonade Day #2

Good evening family,

Man....I can't believe it...its actually day 5 on the overall diet plan and day 2 on the lemonade....wow....to think that I have been cleansing my body, mind and soul for a week...very motivating right now.

I have to say implementing the ACV over the cayenne pepper was a great decision. I owe that edition to a great distant friend and adopted big sister, who has been coaching me threwout this entire process. Not only do I feel confident that I will stay consistent on the rest of the diet, but I am so motivated to see this threw to the end.

Today I drove in to see family and just hung out...you know...to get a break AND to attempt to celebrate before I have to go to work....begin to travel again...events/programs, etc and I just wanted to relax. Well, little did I know that I would be surroundede with smells of my fav foods and be tempted to quit and eat them...but I remembered WHY I am doing this diet and the results I will see in the end. That is what kept me focused...that and my handy bottles of water. Lol.

In the end, day 2 on the lemonade was not that bad. I still have 4 more days of the juice to go.... While the substitution of ingriedients helped, the coating of the tongue (from the lemons and maple syrup) is becoming harder and harder to bare. Again, I am dedicated to finish this "mini cleansing" so I can be confident that I can do longer ones in the future.

Until tomorrow family....be blessed!

CTS4 - Lemonade Day #1

Family I am not going to even front....today was uber hard! While I knew that it would be, I guess I didn't REALLY prepare myself for what was to come. I'm not talking about wanting to eat foods, but overall how I feel. Let me explain....

I got up this morning LATE and went to the gym. Did good...ran 2 miles on the treadmill and did 1.37 miles on the elliptical...overall much more than what I've been doing. Today let me know that I can do more than just walking/jogging. Came home afterward and realized that it was almost 11am, and I had not had anything to eat (drink) for breakfast. Due to this, I quickly made my Lemonade Diet.

For my first batch, I have to say that I am proud of myself. It really didn't taste that bad...until i added to much cayenne pepper. Lol. The drink (and my mouth/chest) was literally on fire! But I dranked it....like the G that I am. Again today, I didn't even realize that I had not eaten any solid foods. This makes it so much easier to stay focused and to not cheat (even though there was visions of Twizzlers all around me. lol).

I only started to feel a little nauseated around 2 pm after chugging a gang of the lemonade (I started late so I wanted to catch up....so not a good idea). The light headedness and nausea comes from the toxins moving out of my body. The body starts to feel as something is "wrong" when in actuality its feeling the "norm" (i.e. wanted to eat what you usually eat). Since I already eat decently healthy anyways (push the fruits and veggies), I really didn't experience to much of this. Honestly, I think the majority of it came from the huge amount of pepper I used.

For tomorrow, I plan to replace the cayenne pepper with apple cider vineger (ACV). For those of you who follow my blog, know that I implented this into my diet a few months ago, thanks to Coach Johnson of MVP Fitness. I spoke to "my big sister" (lol) who is well versed on doing the Lemonade Diet, hipped me to this substitution in the juice, who said that it does just as well if not better. PLUS my body is already use to this stuff AND it definitely helps with releasing the toxins daily from the body (movement).

So far so good family! I look forward to progressing threw. OH I FORGOT TO TELL YOU ALL....I also weighed myself today and I've already lost 4lbs! Keep in mind, that I am not even in the middle part of the lemonade phase yet. This is uber excited all....really.

As always, I wil keep you all posted of my experience and findings.....be blessed all and Happy New Year!!!!

CTS Day #3 (100% orange juice, maple syrup, water)

Today was a little tough....well at least in the morning. While I slept GREAT last night and awoken enerigized and ready to conquer the world, I did have a slight headache around 9am. They say that when you have the "hunger pains" (which in my case is the headache), you are to "take a shot" of your juice. So that is what I did....SHOTS FOR EVERYONE!!!! Lol. To also help "fill me up", I chased the orange juice (remixed) with purified water. This not only helped to take the headache away, but I am also staying hydrated as well.

For those who may not know, when I consume to much citrus (especially oranges) my face starts to break out. Some of you may experience the same, but many I know are not effected at all my to much citrus in there system. Me don't likey that...lol...but I feel the water as a chaser will help to keep me silky smooth...lol

I was a little confused on actually how much of the juice I was suppose to consume for today. If you look back at the link I provided for the information on the diet (click here), it doesn't really say how much on day 3 of the "ease in" phase you are suppose to consume...but 2 liters has been a consistent measurement throughout this entire process, so that is what I am trying to stick with. To be honest with you all, by the time I got to 9:30 am this morning, I only had 12ounzes of my first liter to finish....so I took a break and started on the water..that helped me a lot.

To switch things up a little (for my metabolism was on fire last night), I decided to go do my work out during my lunch time versus after work. This way, when I returned to work, I'm keeping myself busy as my body begs to be fed. I actually did 2.71 miles of JOGGING on the treadmill! Yaaay me!!!!! I have to definitely keep this progress up.

At around 4:30 pm today, I experience my "downer" moment. This is when my body started to get tired and wanted to sleep ASAP. To combat this (and a slight case of tongue coating from the juice...yuk!), I started drinking some purified water to fill me up and wake me up. That seem to get me back on track to finish strong at work and then to be productive for the evening.

Right now, I feel ok. I am tired, not weak, and just want to go to sleep. I definitely got my 2 liters of juice in....even though I am craving one of my homemade juiced fruit...but I will get threw it. Tomorrow starts the actually lemonade diet...and on NYE at that...lol. But I am sure I will be ok. Up until now, my body is use to not eating all my fav foods (like twizzlers, chips and salsa or pretzels and cheese.....I mean I can go on and on family...lol).

Day 3...out of the way...BRING ON THE LEMONADE. Lol. Be blessed family!

CTS Day #2 (all juiced fruit and veggies)

You all will be so proud of me today! I actually made it to the gym to work out. I did 3 miles of walking/light jogging on the treadmill. Since I am taking in way less than usual, I had to alter my work out plan to fit my current (and temporary) needs. I burned about 300 calories and walked about 2.5 miles in the process!

On today's menu, I went back and forth on soup broth mixed with vegetable juice and blended (juiced) fresh fruit. Heating the broth up and drinking it like tea was very fulfilling and I was able to "psych" myself out as well.

Only at around 2:30pm did I start to get a headache. I am still trying to determine where this headache is coming from.....hunger....psychological.....nerves, etc. In the end, it did not win (lol) and I did. Usually the headache is a cue to me that it is time for me to eat...so I broke out my veggie broth...yummy.

They say the way you handle the first few days of "easing in" will determine the success of the over all cleanse.....I guess we will see if I make it threw huh. So far, I've only experienced one time of ultimate hunger and two headaches. Again, I stopped and went to the thrown and asked for MORE strength and used scripture that I know by heart as personal motivation. I also received a woman's encouragement/inspiring/motivational book from my mother for the holidays...I began my day with a reading from it and plan to end on the same note.

Day 2 of the Lemonade Diet............SPANKED!!!!! Lol. Stay encouraged and be blessed family.

Cleansing the Soul (CTS) Day 1

A very quick check in from me tonight family. So far, day went great! No cheating and I stucked to my eating plan (click back to previous post). I will say that I did start to get headaches around 3:45 ish tonight, but I decided that maybe it was time for me to eat (lol), and I had dinner, water and some sugar free gum. In order to help conquer this (mind over matter), I actually stopped and said a small prayer to refocus me on what I was doing (folding clothes..BTW) and soon the headache was gone.

I wanted to share with you a neat thing I did with my veggies today. I steamed some corn and green peas. Threw both in a mixing bowl and added some chopped tomatoes...and discovered a delicious healthy dish. I only used pepper (black) and a hint of Mrs. Dash (no salt, butter, etc were used). The tomatoes gave the veggies some kick and added sweetner to help coat them to taste. After this is all over, I must try this again. I ate on this for lunch and dinner. I also warmed up some vegetarian broth and had as a snack..the morning was a little difficult so I had this in my stash.

Tomorrow is all juice. Fruit and veggies have to be in liquid form. Since I do not have a juicer, I have taken out ALL my frozen fruit and plan to blend it with some water to "juicify" (yes I just made up a word) it. Instead of the herbal laxative tea, I actually continued on with my ACV to help with daily toxin release until I start fully on liquids...then the tea will come into play.

Originally, I had planned to work out, but since I was up uber early for work, I decided to pass. Tomorrow, however, I plan to do 2-4 miles on the treadmill (walking...no runnin). I decided to take my work out down a bit for I know how my adrenaline gets pumping, and heavily desires food afterwards...but I will be on total liquids and water so that is a no go. Lol. I guess we will see.

As for vitamins, I was suggested to not take any, but I did take my allergy meds and some of my all natural supplements (joints, etc). This will all cease by Wednesday of this week.

Until tomorrow family...the orAKAle has spoken......

Cleansing the Soul for the New Year!!!

Merry Christmas family! I know I have been gone from this blog for awhile, but I have not forgotten about YOU all and my goals. I hope you all have been successful with any and all of your weight loss goals and want to encourage you to stay prayed up and motivated.

To enter the new year right I am planning to cleanse not only my body, but my soul (and hopefully loose a little weight in the process of it). Starting Monday, I plan to embark on my first lemon diet experience. I have never done this, but am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead (cleaning the body of unnecessary toxins, focus and weight loss). Below I have listed some details of how I plan to progress threw the process:

Day 1-3 = "Ease In" - 12/28-30/09

Day 4-8 = Lemonade Diet - 12/31/09 - 1/4/10

Day 9-11 = "Ease Out" - 1/5-7/10

Day 12 = Regular Diet (transition into live food ONLY)

Please note - Only purified or distilled water can be used in the lemonade mixing. Daily I will drink an herbal laxative tea to assist with the removal of toxins in my body. Also, I plan to drink plain purified water in between the liters of lemonade.

My ultimate goal is to use this as a platform to move me into NO MEAT (including fish) at all. I also plan to implement a raw food diet for the new year as well...TBC on that one...lol

I plan to use this blog to journal my daily journal. While I know this will not be easy (especially once I get to day 2 of the lemonade diet stage), it is worth it to get healthier and more focused. If you want to join with me, feel free and leave a comment so I will know.

Enjoy the rest of 2009 and hope you have a blessed 2010!