Sunday Sunday Sunday!

Well everyone, this is it. My last day before starting the Crazy Sexy Adventure Cleanse for 21 days and possibly adopting a new lifestyle. They say it takes 3 weeks to create new habits so maybe this cleanse is exactly what I need to get in the wellness game for good.

As planned I started off my day shopping for groceries and also a water filter. I know I know, I should have had a water filter all along, but it just was never something I really gave much thought to. I decided that if I was going to do this cleanse I needed to really dive in which mean getting a filter.

I didn't take a picture of my groceries because I was a little overwhelmed by them! First, it was really great, about 70% of my groceries were green :) I expected my bill to be HUGE but it was pretty much exactly the same as my regular shopping. The only difference is I walked out with twice as much stuff. Go figure!

Since I didn't take a pic, I figured I'd list out what I got so you can get an idea of my haul (everything organic):
4 stalks of broccoli, 1 bunch green swiss chard, 1 container mesclun greens, 1 huge container of baby spinach, 8 carrots, 4 zucchini, 3 english cucumbers, 2 avocados, 7 carrots, 1 lg bunch basil, 7 limes, 3 lemons, 3 heads garlic (small), 1 package shiitake mushrooms, 4 pears, raw agave, toasted sesame oil and a small container of mellow white miso.

Yeah, that's a lot of produce! I can't wait to cram it in my face ;)

So, now that you have a little peek of what's to come, let's check out what I ate on this last day before my cleanse:

For breakfast I had two of my Carrot Cake Pancakes and a banana.

For lunch I finished the last of my veggie soup and blurred out in the background is a slice of millet toast with mashed avocado. This was a really great meal.

For an afternoon snack I had my Cashew Cranberry Orange Zing Bar and decided to try some herbal tea. The lovely Isobelle included some Sweet and Spicy Herbal Tea in my Vegan Care Package and for some reason I forgot about it until now. I know herbal teas are good for you so I decided to give this one a try. OMG it is so good! It is certainly sweet and certainly spicy so drinking it straight up was perfect. I feel like if I added almond milk it would make a lovely chai latte substitute. Hmmm, I like the sound of that! The Zing bar also had a nice flavor...a nice citrus punch and it is much lighter than the rich chocolate coconut flavor. It also has a lovely texture from brown rice crisps that they add. It is very good but I'd probably favor the Chocolate Coconut over this one.

For dinner I had my leftover moo shoo veggies. Very delicious.

OK everyone, that's all I've got. Starting tomorrow it's alkaline city. I'm actually really excited about it, and I hope that it'll help me stay healthy and heal quickly. I'm always sore after workouts for longer than I should be and it takes me forever to heal from cuts and bruises. I have 3 bruises that are a week and a half old on my arm that still have a few days left. Totally ridiculous.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'll check in tomorrow with my Day 1 eats. Expect a lot of green ;)

Saturday R & R Success!

Hey everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your Saturday. I certainly did. I got my bum up at 7:30 to make sure I was at the gym at 8. I did an hour of cardio, showered, made some breakfast then hunkered down. I read through Crazy Sexy Diet (I'm a very fast reader) and it is amazing. I'm so excited about this cleanse. I made a shopping list which I'll do at the crack of dawn tomorrow. I have a feeling this is going to be an expensive cleanse but my health is worth it. I also figure that what I spend at the store will be balanced out by what I won't be spending on coffee and meals out.

So lets check out the food from today.

After the gym I had a brown rice tortilla, spicy ff refried beans, avocado and a banana. Very delicious and really filling. I also had a half of a cup of coffee. Hopefully by Monday I'll be ok without it.

Breakfast was so filling that I wasn't really hungry for lunch. I just had some stuffed grape leaves with hummus. Really yummy.

For dinner I had some moo shoo vegetables (make sure you check the sauce and specify no egg!). I love this dish because it is all veggies and the cabbage mimicks noodles. It is actually one of the better options you have when eating Chinese food, again, just make sure you specify your vegan adjustments.

I had snacked on some almonds between lunch and dinner. I'll probably have some clementines for dessert. That's just how I roll.

Have a good night! I'll try and post my inevitably green haul from Whole Foods tomorrow.

*Edited to Add* I just opened the pH strips I bought only to find that the box was empty. I thought it was light but I also thought that test strips weren't that heavy. I'm really pissed because I spent $20 on them and it's not like the store would believe me if I called them and told them the box was empty. That $20 should have gone toward groceries so I'm really upset by this because I'm already low on funds right now. I am just going to have to start spending more time at work I guess. Sigh.

Happy Friday!

Hey everyone!! We made it through another work week. I'm very excited for my mostly shut in weekend coming up. I say mostly because I'll still go to the gym tomorrow morning but after that, it's hibernation time! Very stoked.

Let's check out my Friday eats!

For breakfast I had some Carrot Cake Pancakes I made the other day. I put all the leftovers in the freezer so I'll eat it probably one more time before the cleanse and then I'll save the rest of a treat after. Served them up with an orange...my last one! I've read that lemon, lime and grapefruit, although acidic, actually have an alkalizing effect on the body. No word on oranges though. Anyone know?

Here is an Instagram pic of my midmorning snack. I'm trying to be smart this time and I'm weaning myself off of the coffee rather than going cold turkey. I had a small coffee (half regular half decaf) and a pear. Hopefully three days of weaning will be good enough because that is what makes me the most nervous!

My lunch was very random but consisted of exactly what I wanted so I had a slice of gf millet toast with avocado and some stuffed grape leaves with hummus. Very delicious!

After lunch I decided to do my nails. I don't paint them often enough at all and I got tired of looking at naked nails. I would say 7 out of 10 times I paint them I end up taking the polish off because I become too impatient to let them dry and mess them up. This time they survived! The color looks a little more red in the bottle and brown on but I still like the way it looks :)

After my nails dried I decided to have a Zing Protein Bar in the Chocolate Coconut flavor. It was really really delicious. It tasted like a candy bar and not a protein bar. This is the perfect alternative to the Vega Protein Bar since it is the same exact flavor and I can NEVER find the Vega Bar. Yum! I'll have to remember this as an occasional treat after my cleanse. 

Dinner was another bowl of that delicious soup from last night. I switched bowls so you could tell I took a new pic ;) Just as delicious tonight! One serving left...will I eat it tomorrow or Sunday? Riveting cliffhanger, I'm sure.

I have only read a few parts of Crazy Sexy Diet (I plan on reading it through this weekend) and I'm completely inspired. Her story is amazing and really truly inspiring. I know that green smoothies are going to be my breakfast for the 21 days so I've been looking up alkaline green smoothie recipes and collecting them so I can have a little variety over the three weeks. It is going to be difficult for me to drink my breakfast for 21 days so I figured as long as I have a little variety it'll be a little easier. I'll share the recipes as I try them. I found a few that sound really good so I'm excited to try them. I'll probably stick to spinach as my greens of choice but maybe I'll be bold enough to try kale eventually.

I should be back to check in throughout the weekend! I hope you all have a really lovely weekend. I plan on resting and cleaning....then resting again ;) Enjoy!

Thursday, January 5!

Sorry everyone, I couldn't think of a title so I just went with the date :) I'm so glad it is Thursday! I made the conscious decision to take this weekend and basically not leave the house after the gym Saturday morning. I'm going to start my big cleaning and just relax. I'll go to the gym as soon as it opens in the morning, then I'm taking the weekend completely off. I can't wait!

Let's check out the food!

For breakfast I had this big, beautiful bowl of oats. This one is oats, cinnamon, raisins, walnuts and coconut. SO GOOD!

Midmorning snack was an unpictured pear.

Lunch was stuffed grape leaves, carrots and hummus. Yum.

After my workout I made a protein shake and just drank it out of the mini blender cup. The all natural pea protein powder I got is not very tasty so I just try to get it down quickly. We did weight training today so it was a must.

Dinner was some veggie soup out of my gorgeous measuring bowl turned soup vessel ;)

Finally, I found an old gift card that still had money on it so I decided to treat myself to Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr. I've wanted to read this book for a while. I have the general idea that your body should be alkaline (but I don't know HOW) and that you should be gluten free (which I am for the most part) and low glycemic (again don't know HOW) so I decided that this book will help. I hate that I get sick so easily so I decided to see what this book had to say and maybe I'll try the 21 day cleanse she discusses. I'm not going to lie, I bought pH testing strips already so I can see what the difference is from beginning to end. I've been inspired by Bianca of Vegan Crunk to give it a try. I'm going to read the book this weekend and hopefully be ready to give it a go by Monday. We'll see :)

Hope your week is going quickly! Happy Friday tomorrow!

Yummy Tuesday!

Hey everyone! I'm finally back with a full day's worth of food, including one amazing treat (which is actually pretty nutritious!).

Check out what I made with the carrots I bought yesterday...

Isa's Carrot Cake Pancakes from the PPK site!! I made mine gluten free by using oat flour and added the suggested walnuts.

So naturally it is no surprise that for breakfast I had...

Instagram pic of my pancakes with blackberries. I ate my pancakes with the tiniest bit of Earth Balance Coconut Spread (I'm talking 1/4 tsp between the two) and 1 tsp of maple syrup. HOLY YUM! These things are SO delicious you must try them. They are also probably the healthiest pancakes I've ever eaten with the oat flour substitute.

Lunch was spicy fat free refried beans in a brown rice tortilla with 1/2 avocado. I tried to get a new angle of it today :)

For snack I'm bringing an orange with me to work. Such. A. Citrus. Freak.

I made another stir fry to bring for dinner tonight. This one has brown rice, broccoli, zucchini and tofu. This is going to be delicious!

So that's it for today! Working 2-9 then hopefully get to relax for a bit. I feel like I've been running around cooking all morning! Hope you all have a great day!!

Great Start for 2012!

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a nice Monday and your 2012 is off to a great start :) I had to work this morning but had a chance to rest after before my double training session (an hour and a half). The session was so great, I felt amazing after. It was definitely the perfect way to start the year. We did lots of different exercises, switching from hitting pads, to hitting the bag to circuits to abs to rowing back to abs. He saved the best for last where we did attack/defend drills for 7 - 3 minute rounds where I basically was on offense throwing punches (boxing only) at him while he defended. I kept up for 7 rounds after an hour of training so it felt AMAZING and I was really proud of myself :)

I also learned something that seems pretty obvious but never really noticed until now. Everyone knows that they should not go grocery shopping when they are hungry, but I've learned that the best time for me to go grocery shopping is after a workout. I cleaned up then decided to go shopping tonight so I could relax and get some cooking done tomorrow morning and I realized that I'm far more inclined to walk out with a completely clean grocery haul since I'm feeling good and healthy and energized. We all know how easy it is to sneak little treats in our baskets, but I had zero desire to do so. So, no matter how lazy I'm feeling, I think I'm going to start to do my shopping after a workout :)

Check out what I walked out of Whole Foods with...

Zing brand protein bars in Chocolate Coconut and Cashew Cranberry Orange flavors. They haven't had the Vega protein bars for the past few weeks and I wanted bars with a decent protein count. These have 10g of protein so I took the two vegan flavors I saw to try. I'll let you know how they are when I try them. They are gluten, soy and dairy free.

Veggies - Brussels sprouts, avocados (on sale 4/$5!!), broccoli, zucchini and carrots (I have plans for these carrots, check back tomorrow to see!).

Navel oranges (which I'm currently obsessed with), pink lady apples and bosc pears.

From the fridge I got 2 containers of stuffed grape leaves, replaced my Earth Balance which I FINALLY finished, and some fortified tofu (figured I'd give it a try).

I'm pretty stoked about all of these yummy ingredients I bought! I see some stir fries, a delicious breakfast treat that I plan to make tomorrow and sweet snacks in my future. 

See you tomorrow! Time to figure out dinner :)

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! Happy new year!! I hope you all had a super fun, safe evening :) Mine ended up being quiet because I wasn't feeling well. I was planning on drinking some of that delicious Red Electra wine, but I had to swap it out for tea. Wah! Oh well, I woke up feeling much better so that is all that matters!

I was out for most of the day so I only have 2 meals to show you. I FINALLY replaced my power cord for my computer so I am very happy to say that I can now move my computer around again which is nice.

Check out the eats.

For breakfast I had some spicy, fat free refried beans in a brown rice tortilla with a half of an avocado.

For dinner I stir fried up some leftover tofu, broccoli and brown rice into a quick, tasty meal. So good. And yes I used my new chopsticks! They are awesome! Great way to slow down a meal :)

Not looking forward to going to work tomorrow but I'm definitely looking forward to the double training session I scheduled! An hour and a half of fun, yay!

Have a great night everyone and Happy New Year!