Almost there!!

 I swear I will get recipes on here soon!  I have some really good ones!

2 days to go, I can’t believe it!  It’s been a lot easier than I thought it would be and I think I can attribute that to other people’s food suggestions and doing lots of homework before starting.  And cheating on a couple weekends.  Not a lot (aside from wedding weekend), but it kept me that much more focused the rest of the time.  I passed up a piece of cake and tons of cupcakes last week (still proud of myself for that one) because I knew I would get a piece over the weekend.  And the cake I ate gave me a tummy ache.  Guess that’s what I get for going for a piece with half a frosting flower.  Mmmm frosting…  I digress.

I wish I had taken more pictures of what we’ve made, but I always forget until I’m almost done eating it and, well no one wants to see a mostly-eaten dinner!  Last night we had amazing chicken nuggets.  They were coated in brown rice flour, spices, and brown rice sesame crackers.  I threw everything but the chicken in the food processor, let her rip and out came a pretty fine mixture.  Coat the chicken, put them in the oven for 15 minutes and voila!  Delicious, but not very attractive, chicken nuggets!  We paired the nugs with baked sweet potatoes that ranged in thickness from buffalo chips to regular chips.  Seems I didn’t apply even pressure when the food processor was chopping.  Doesn’t matter because the end product was a mixture of super soft and super crispy orange discs.  omg, OMG! I love sweet potatoes.  Whoa, I just now made a mental comparison of sweet potatoes and cake.  Which would I rather have right now?  A sweet potato.  I just blew my own mind….

Tonight we had blackened tilapia, a recipe from a detox cookbook I have and it was nothing special.  All blackened is is herbs and spices, right?  So why did this have no flavor?  Major disappointment.  But we did have a lovely salad and more of Giada’s herb quinoa.  Now I want something sweet, but a potato will take too long and I’ve already eaten about 6 lbs of fruit today..  One more can’t hurt, right?

PS Dear anyone reading, please don’t make fun of me for my use of “omg”.  Thanks, KO.

20 days down, 10 to go!

Only 10 days left!  I can't believe September has gone so quickly!

I said last week was a blur.  Well so was this one!  My detox has become an all the time but Friday and/or Saturday evening sort of thing since we never seem to be home.  I have to say though, I am pretty proud of myself after this past Saturday.  We went to the Illini game and a sponsored tailgate ahead of time.  We all thought since it was a pretty nice one, there would at least be a piece of fruit and some chicken.  We were wrong.  Well, there was some fruit, but it was swimming in cream or something.  Didn’t look too appetizing…   The entire spread consisted of red beans and rice, gumbo, corn bread, the weird cream/apple soup thing, and cookies.  I stuck with the red beans and rice and a little gumbo (and one vodka drink..).  I passed on the cornbread and cookies.  I still don’t know how I was able to do that.  I love baked goods…. 

But that left me pretty hungry come halftime.  We left our seats to use the restrooms, grab a water, and see what the concession stands had.  Then I saw it.  A plump hot pretzel with cheese like substance.  My brain started firing and I decided it would be okay because I was so hungry.  I went to the first stand and watched a patron walk away with the last pretzel.  I still wanted one, so I went to the next stand to watch a patron leave with the last hot pretzel.  Then I tried a third and a fourth only to watch someone leave with the last pretzel from each stand.  At this point, I had been to one end of our side of the field and back.  I was hungry; I wanted that pretzel.  I went for it and tried the 5^th and final stand at the other end of our side.  There it was: a pretzel warmer with at least 10 pretzels!  I was shocked to see so many but thought it must be fate.  I walked to the counter with my $4 and asked for a pretzel. “Sorry, these just went in.  It’ll be about a half hour.”  Feeling dejected, I met up with the bf who had just finished his nachos and said we should just go back to our seats.  I was too broken hearted to eat anything else.

Foods/recipes I've been eating to follow shortly.  Chicken nuggets, kale chips, quinoa pilaf, and Steve's famous taco chicken to name a few...

What a week!

I cheated.

This past week has been a blur!  Over my long, 4 day weekend, I was all over the suburbs and the city running errands, watching friends and family get hitched, and watching my brother compete in his first half marathon (and watching Apollo Anton Ohno, only I didn't know he was running!).  Tiring, yes, but an amazing weekend.

I knew when I started this 30 day detox, this weekend was going to be trouble so I decided for that 24 hours (just enough time for both ceremonies and receptions), I was going to try to stay on the diet.  As the days approached, I just accepted I would probably blow it completely.  I ended up eating my weight in a lot of the things I've been avoiding: wheat, dairy, beef, wine, sugar...  It was delicious but boy did I pay for it.  I got the mother of all headaches at the end of that 24 hours.  It was the kind of headache where you just don't want to move, talk, eat, or even sleep.  Sure, it was a stressful few days and my regularly schedule life had been interrupted, but I haven't experienced a headache like that in I can't even remember. 

I knew the receptions would be a lost cause, but I failed to realize how difficult it would be to travel and stick to this diet!  I was super hungry at one point and almost bought something but luckily my sister has some carrots.  Life saver!!  I know, I know, I could have just gotten something and it wouldn't have been a big deal but I knew I would be cheating hardcore, so I was glad when I didn’t break down.

Since I also want to share recipe ideas, on Sunday afternoon, after eating all that sugar the day before, I wanted ice cream.  Bad.  It was so hot in our living room and all I wanted was something cold and creamy.  Obviously ice cream is not part of the plan, but I did have some frozen fruit.  Strawberries, bananas, almond milk, a touch of natural sweetener (the berries weren’t great) and my food processor, and I may never eat ice cream again!  I started out trying to make a smoothie, but the almond milk taste was too strong.  I added more fruit and made it a thicker consistency.  You know when you have that “I want something but I won’t know what it is until I eat it” feelings?  This was like that but I knew what I wanted.  When I tasted that pureed frozen fruit, it was more perfect than a bowl of ice cream could have been.  Mmm, I think I might go make some more!

Days 4 & 5

Day 4

I can have potatoes!  I don’t know why I thought I wouldn’t be able to, but what an incredible realization!  For breakfast, the bf made a big breakfast of eggs, sausage and toast, while I made some red potato home fries.  The sausage and the toast smelled soooo good but I resisted!  Those potatoes were calling my name and boy did they feel like a cheat item… 

Lunch was wonderful, especially since the bf helped prepare it.  He has this delectable taco style marinade he makes for chicken.  Mmmmm!  Paired with some avocado and Giada's herbed quinoa, it made the perfect late lunch.  And I was able to satiate my sweet tooth with some grilled pineapple which was lightly brushed with an agave nectar, lemon juice, and black pepper mixture.   The only thing that was missing was a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Waa waaaa…

Day 5

Labor Day!  Grilled meats, mayo based salads, chips, and beer!  Yumm!!  Not this year.  :-/  This year was a duplicate breakfast from Day 4, a lovely dinner consisting of grilled chicken and sauteed veggies, and a ton of snacking.  I didn’t think it was possible to overeat with such a seemingly limited diet, but I think I proved myself wrong.  Congratulations to me!!!

My biggest problem so far has been a lack of snacks.  I had fruit, hardboiled eggs, and more fruit.  I know there are tons of snacks out there, I just didn’t have them.  I bought some almond butter and the fixins for hummus (awesome recipe, btw) and pistachios.  Pistachios are incredible.  I forgot how delicious they are and they’re on sale at Jewel!  Score!  I was searching for something to graze on and almost gave in to an open bag of marshmallows when I saw the pistachios.  I don’t know how I went from wanting mallows to needing pistachios, but it happened.  I ate waaaay too many of those delicious little nuggets, but I didn't break the detox!  (I have since measured individual servings to prevent myself from devouring the entire little bag in a few sittings.)  

Between pistachios nosh sessions, I found time to make a lentil soup for lunches and hummus.  The lentil soup was a little lacking in flavor, but I won't eat a full bowl until lunch tomorrow.  The hummus?  I couldn't find enough veggies to dip.  Best plain hummus I've ever made!  

Days 2 & 3

Day 2 

I think my boss hates me.  The first thing he says to me and my department the other morning: “let’s get pizza today.  Oh Kelly, you can’t have any, can you?”  Did he have start tempting me on day 2!?  Luckily I was really looking forward to the salad I brought for lunch: tons of spinach, carrots, cucumber, yellow bell pepper, a small handful of sliced almonds, hard boiled egg whites, and a little bit of avocado topped with a delicious balsamic vinaigrette.  But it turns out, it wasn’t just pizza he wanted.  He also ordered 2 large, soft, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.  After that, he came back with a dozen doughnuts!  (There a total of 5 people in my department.  We gave 9 and a half doughnuts to our mail room. I don’t know what the boss man was thinking…) The pizza and cookies looked delicious, and the doughnuts smelled amazing (oh yes, I inhaled that aroma).  Normally, I would have been all up in it, but it was surprisingly easy to say “no thank you”.  Phew, I still had the resolve on Day 2!

We had quinoa turkey meatloaf for dinner and it was AMAZING!!!  I omitted the ketchup of course, and the egg (oops..) so it was a little crumbly, but oh man was it good.  As I was sitting down to eat, I wasn’t sure if ground meat is ok given it’s processed, but I was at the point of no return - I was super hungry and had nothing else prepared for a dinner.  And I figured if that was the worst thing I ate all day, I was still in good shape.  I can’t wait to make it again!!!

 

Day 3

Saturday started the same way the last 2 days had started (oatmeal) but I added a half banana and for whatever reason, it was like the most delicious this I’ve ever eaten.    

 

After breakfast and we had to go grocery shopping since we were having some friends over.  It is now very clear that I cannot go into a regular grocery store for the rest of the month.  Holy crap, there are chips, cookies, soft drinks, and other treats everywhere!  I mean you walk in, and there are tables full of baked goods!  I love that table, but that’s just wrong.  I was walking around trying to find something and it was just torture.  Of course, stupid me went in hungry so that didn’t help.  Damn.

I was nervous how I would feel when people started eating the bf’s amazing beef burgers on English muffins, potato salad, tortilla chips, veggies with ranch and drinking.  I thought for sure I would try some of the potato salad but lucky for me, “it was weird tasting” and the desire to have a bite flew out the door.  As for the booze…  I thought since we were going to a bowling alley and hanging out drinking I would have wanted a drink as well so I tried to find which alcohol might be the least bad for a detox – I googled “detox friendly alcohol”.  Made sense to me, but I just got a lot of hits for AA and rehab centers.  Whoops…  I passed on the beer at the bowling alley and chose instead to only break one “rule” for the detox with a glass of wine rather than at least 3 with beer (carbonated, alcohol, and wheat).

I know I won’t be able to stick to the plan all day, every day so when I choose my cheats, I am going to try to choose something that goes against as few “rules” as possible. Except the wedding cakes next weekend (one if which will be gluten/sugar free so that works out well for).  It's just rude not to eat the cake, don't you think?  The couple cuts it for their guests and everything....