August is vacation month for me! I’ve already been to Disneyland and had a friend visit me here in San Diego for a week! It was fun to vacation in a hotel here in my own town, which is vacation town. SO much fun! Tomorrow I’m off on a Road-trip with my 16 yr old lil sister in the Big Sister League of San Diego! She’s been my lil sis since she was 10! We’re driving to San Francisco then down the coast for visits to Pebble Beach, Monterrey, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, Jelly Belly Factory, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Solvang, Malibu, Santa Barbara….etc…!! We are bringing our bikes to ride along our visits down the coast! Gotta get in that exercise!
Had a fantastic Doctor’s visit…in 3 months if my numbers are still this good, she’s taking me off a lot of the medications! Whoohoo! I’ve been walking/running for a few weeks…until Sunday! Had to go to the ER for severe knee pain. Apparently I have a Baker’s Cyst! No, it’s not from watching the food channel too much 
Hahaha! It’s caused by the arthritis and the patella femoral pain syndrome I already have! That’s all I need is more reason to not do ANY lower body exercising!!! It’s completely driving me crazy these limitations!
Ok, so sorry for being non-existent lately. Hopefully in September when I’m back in the swing of things I’ll be able to track and write again. I really miss it and miss talking to all of you!
I hope everyone is having a great healthy summer!
I know…I promised some more updates from the amazing cleanse that I had. I’ve been extremely busy with some very unexpected issues that have happened in my life. I wanted to apologize to those who I owe emails to…
I’ve been exercising like a madwoman! It feels good. I’ve not recorded ANY of it…oh well. I’ll get back to that when I can. Mostly my routine has been 50 to 60 mins of the recumbent bike at lvls 8 to 10 and the elliptical at lvls 4 to 6. I love my new routine of only doing 10 mins at a time rotating between the two. I’ve been able to last an hour because I can do 10 mins of anything, right? It’s about 3 to 4 songs worth then I switch to the other machine. Most of the time I go to the gym when it’s not as crowded and am able to go back and forth. I really like it. From there I hit the sauna for 10 to 15 mins to keep the heart rate up and sweat out those calories!
I’ve been going swimming after each cardio session. I’m using my pull-buoy. I do freestyle the whole time. Lately I’ve been kicking butt. On Sunday I did 102 laps which is about 1.5 miles and then on Monday I did 120 laps which is about 1.86 miles! I’ve calculated that 130 laps will be 2.0 miles. I can’t wait to accomplish that. Yesterday I just wasn’t up for the full workout. I only did 25 mins of cardio and about 30 laps…just didn’t have it in me 
Ok, gotta run – hopefully I can update more often now that things are calm for the moment anyway. I’m reading all your posts. I see everyone is still moving forward to creating a healthy lifestyle!
I had several personal goals and reasons for doing this 20 day master cleanse in each area of physical, mental, emotional & spiritual. I achieved and learned much in each of these categories.
Let’s start with The Physical:
- I lost 18 1/2 lbs and 10 inches total by day 20 (If I gain anything back due to eating again, it should only be a couple as I’m continuing to eat healthy & take in less than I’m expending in exercise)
- My tongue is a very pretty pink color (no white film indicates the detox worked)
- My skin is so soft
- I have very little if any inflammation in my body
- I feel ‘clean’ inside; the detox worked
- I’m only craving healthy & nutritious foods
- My energy level feels great and higher, as long as I get the proper amount of sleep
- My knees feel normal, I can bend them with zero swelling (unless I stand or walk too long…inflammation is still an issue but not as bad as prior to the cleanse) For those who don’t know I have Patella Femoral Pain Syndrome & Arthritis in my knees/hips
- I’m a type 2 diabetic who does not take insulin, when checked, my bs numbers where below 100 most of the time
- I seem to be wanting to drink water more (prior to cleanse I never thought about it therefore a difficult thing for me to to accomplish)
- The other physical benefits I won’t know until I get the blood work done through my doctor in August.
Coming off the cleanse experience: I really liked squeezing my own oranges for the OJ ! All I had on Friday was the fresh OJ. It certainly acted like a diuretic so I’m sure on Friday I lost at least the other 1/2 lb to be at a 19lb loss. Saturday morning I had OJ again and began cutting and preparing all the veggies for my vegetable soup. I’ve never made it before so this was a first for me. I didn’t follow a specific recipe but looked at many and took what I liked from various ones to make up my own. Basically here’s what I did to make the soup…
Ingredients: All fresh from Henry’s and a lot of it was organic. This is off the top of my head, I may be missing some of the ingredients. My camera is not working or I’d take a picture of it. It came out great and I loved it!
- Organic Leeks
- Sweet Onion
- Red & Green Peppers
- Minced Garlic
- Organic Celery
- Plum Tomatoes
- Organic Zucchini
- Organic Crimini Button Mushrooms
- Carrots
- Spinach
- Green Beans
- Sweet Corn cut from the Cob
- Small White Potatoes
- Parsley
- Organic Low Sodium Veggie Bullion Cubes
- Distilled Water
- Olive Oil
- Veggie Mix of Organic Dried Barely, Lentils, Split Green & Yellow Peas
- Sea Salt & Pepper
I sauteed the Leeks, Onions, garlic first with some olive oil in the pot for about 7 to 8 minutes, then slowly added the other veggies except spinach and parsley. In the mean time I dissolved the Bullion Cubes in hot water. When the veggies were becoming soft I added the veggie broth and distilled water as needed. When it came to a boil I began adding dried mix of beans/peas then the spinach & parsley. Let simmer for an hour or so, adding more water or broth when needed. I kept trying the broth for flavor. Adding the salt & pepper to taste. Loved it!
I was able to eat some of the broth by 11:00am and then have the full on soup with the soft veggies by 2:00pm! Had another bowl of soup later around 6:00 or so. My system took it very well. No problems.
Sunday I woke up and had the last of my freshly squeezed OJ and some honeydew melon a nectarine and a few grapes. It was heaven! I had fruit and soup most of the day. Last night I tried my first raw salad with some oil & vinegar. It was very good.
Today so far I’ve had some fruit salad with strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, grapes and nectarine! Had a snack bag size of unsalted roasted and raw cashews, almonds, peanuts, pistachio, hazelnut & filberts with a little raw shaved coconut! Been munching on that most of the day. Had a salad just now with balsamic vinaigrette. I think I ate too much salad as I became full. I also put too much of the balsamic on it. I will scale that back next salad. I haven’t felt full in 24 days! Opps…I’m learning. I even used a smaller bowl than before the cleanse. Guess still too much.
In an upcoming post I’ll share the emotional & mental aspect of what I went through and learned during this cleanse. This is the harder post to write as I seem to have had the most benefits in this area. I want to be able to articulate what I’ve learned as the emotional eater that I am!
Wow! I can’t believe I did it! 20 days, who knew?! I feel amazing physically as well as proud of myself. I’ve got my grocery list for buying the ingredients for the veggie soup I can have while coming off the cleanse. Coming off the cleanse is very important as to not upset your digestive system and get sick.
Here’s my plan for the next few days:
1st day: 
- I’ll be drinking Fresh Squeezed OJ, slowly and lots of water. I can have the lemonade if I choose….I’m guessing, not.
- I’ll be making my Veggie Soup tomorrow as well. It will be hard to make and smell it without eating it until Saturday.
2nd day: 
- Morning – Fresh Squeezed OJ, slowly and lots of water
- Afternoon - Veggie broth only
- Evening - Veggie broth w/all the soft veggies…YAY!!
3rd day: 
- Morning – Fresh Squeezed OJ & Fresh Raw Fruit
- Afternoon – Veggie Soup
- Evening – Veggie Soup with a Raw Salad, dressing will be a little Oil & Balsamic Vinegar
4th day: 
- Morning – Fresh Raw Fruit & Nuts
- Afternoon – Raw Salad with salad beans and Oil & Vinegar Dressing
- Evening – Outback Steakhouse! I can’t wait to eat a good Rib-Eye Steak! Of course my stomach is the size of a peanut now…hahaha…I’ll only be able to have like 3 bites of it or I’ll get sick!
So that’s the plan for coming off of the cleanse. I have so many thoughts about what I’ve experienced in the last 20 days. I can’t wait to share them all with you in future posts! What I can say to you now is, it was a total success in my eyes. I grew spiritually, emotionally, and physically (well not grew, lol I shrank! but gained knowledge).
I wanted a change so therefore the new look! However when I go to the Exercise Log and Recipe pages it doesn’t show the sub-pages where the logs and recipes are…hmmm. If I can’t figure out how to get them there, you may see another new look with a theme that can do everything I want!
Any suggestions?
These last four days are killing me! Hahaha. When I first started I knew I needed to just settle in as it was gonna be a long ride, therefore the great mindset and attitude. Now that I’m so close to the finish line…I’m anxious for this to be over! This means I’m a tad more grumpy…
Had a great workout both Friday and Sunday! Friday I did 35 mins between the elliptical and the recumbent bike as well as 45 mins in the pool doing laps. Sunday I did 50 mins between the elliptical and bike with 35 mins in the pool doing laps! I tried my under water lap, which I haven’t done in so long. Not there yet but getting closer. I’m able to swim on top of the water and get all the way across with no breaths (25 meters)!
I had a very emotional bad day on saturday. Fought with a friend, which left my heart heavy. Going through this cleanse for 20 days has taught me, should I say forced me, to not go to food to relive me from my emotions….UGH!!!
Short post, just wanted to say I’m looking forward to eating some good healthy foods. I’m craving beef, salad with everything, watermelon and raspberries! I kinda want a baked sweet potato too…oh and some nice grilled smoked salmon…oh yea that would be nice!
Ok, I have to stop thinking about food…
