Day 5 of the Fat Sick and Nearly Dead Reboot

Sorry for the delay.

I had 3 juices on day 5. I had some of the green detox soup and an apple in the afternoon.

I went to a friend’s birthday party and was hungry, so I ordered the only pseudo healthy thing on the menu…Glazed carrots.
I’m not sure what it was glazed with but it looked and tasted like grease. So I limited my intake of those carrots.

Day 4 of the Fat Sick and Nearly Dead Reboot

 

Day 4 was… Bananas!!

I started my day with a whole banana. Not necessarily on the meal plan, but I didn’t think it could hurt.

For a bit of a change, I found a few new recipes on this website and tried those today.  I altered some of the recipes based on the ingredients I had and my taste buds.

 

 

 

My first juice of the day was my take on the Pineapple Cloud:

• 1/2 a pineapple
• 1 head of romaine
• 1 zucchini

I liked this juice, it was a slight twist from the Mean Green Juice.

My second juice of the day was the Funky Monkey:

• 2 pears
• 3 carrots
• 1/2 inch of ginger

This juice wasn’t too bad, but I definitely could taste the cabbage and that ‘dirt’ taste, but it wasn’t overwhelming so I was able to finish it.

The last juice I made was my take on the Sweet Spice Cider:

• 1 sweet potato
• 1/4 a head of red cabbage
• 1 apple
• 1/2 inch of ginger

 

I don’t know if it made a difference that I didn’t start drinking this juice until after 3pm, but it was not as tasty as it had been when I sipped it in the morning as I bottled it.  It tasted like baby food.  The sweet potato taste was so thick.  I drank maybe a 3rd of this, before gagging and throwing it out.

We had a going away lunch for a few co-workers today at Mission BBQ and I had to attend since one of the guys, works for me.  But I was strong, and just drank my Funky Monkey and suffered in silence while pulled pork and bbq trays floated around me.

Since I didn’t finish the last juice I was a little hungry by the time I got home from work.  I ate two bananas.  Shortly after eating the second banana, I could literally feel the banana digesting.  And about an hour later decided to make the Green Detox Soup. I followed the recipe below minus the broccoli.

Green Detox Soup
Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
1 leek
small head of broccoli
6 kale leaves (Tuscan cabbage)
1 zucchini
2 celery sticks
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups (1 liter/32 oz) vegetable stock
handful of parsley, chopped
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:
1. Chop the garlic and all the veggies.
2. Warm the oil on low heat, then add the leek and garlic and cook slowly for 3–5 minutes.
3. Add the stock and the remaining vegetables and bring slowly to a boil. Cook for just
a few minutes, until the zucchini is soft. The less you cook the vegetables, the better.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste, then blend or process the soup to the desired
consistency, from smooth to chunky.
5. Serve the soup in bowls and sprinkle with parsley.
Note: You can make your own veggie stock using leftover pulp from your juicer.
Visit the soup recipe section of our website (rebootwithjoe.com) to find instructions.

Why I Have Been M.I.A. Lately…

Several weeks ago I was in a horrific accident.  I had to be airlifted to the hospital and was in the Intensive Care Unit for over a week. I remained in the hospital for several more weeks. I sustained major injuries, and I am still in the recovery process and still don’t have full use of all my fingers and hands. There is so much to share and I hope to get that chance soon. I certainly haven’t abandoned my blog but it’s just not practical to be able to type to update it at this time.

 

Day 7 of the 7-Day Diet

Finally, the last day of this diet. I can’t call it much of a cleanse because in my opinion when you cleanse you put cleaner foods in your body. Mostly fruits and veggies. Red meat is already harder for your body to digest so that just seems counterproductive to me.

Weighing in this morning I was down less than a half pound.

For breakfast I had an apple, and for lunch I had some more of the soup, I also had the last piece of flank steak. Later I had an orange and some pistachios with a decent amount of water.

You can probably tell, I’m no longer committed to this thing. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I was expecting larger weight loss and I know that following other plans would have likely resulted in the same or greater results but with slightly less food restriction.

If I were to do it again I would likely alter the plan to include fruit, veggies, soup and no meat for 3-5 days.

Overall, my total weight loss was 6.2 pounds and that was without working out or exercising. If I’m down more lbs. in the morning, I’ll edit this post to share.

Thanks for following me on this short journey.

 

Related articles

• A Word About Detox (nourishednutritionblog.wordpress.com)
• Five Proven Cleansing Diets (healing.answers.com)

Day 3 of the 7-Day Diet

I woke up at about 4AM this morning, probably because I was hot. I weighed myself and went back to sleep. (Told you have a slight obsession with that damn scale). I don’t remember what the scale said because I went back to sleep and weighed myself before I showered and again after I showered and it was difference of about 1 pound less.  I will only count the scale’s reading prior to the shower to be consistent. But I was down 1.8 pounds. Still not what I had hoped for or expected.  Any diet I’ve done I’ve been able to see the best results in the first week. But this is a bit different.

In January 2012 I did a raw food diet for the whole 30 days (Well really 28, something happened those last 2 days of the month). But I think I had lost 11 pounds that first week. BTW, I don’t recommend doing a raw food diet in the dead of winter. Fruit salads are fun and cool in the beginning but after awhile you realize it’s too cold to be eating frozen smoothies and cold foods. Wintertime means hot hearty meals.

Today’s regimen called for a mixture of fruits and vegetables.  I started the day with a smoothie made with pineapples, mangos, and strawberries.  For lunch I had  more of the smoothie and some black grapes.  By lunch my lips were burning, like I had little cups all throughout my lips, probably due to the citrus in the pineapples.  About 4PM I had a bit of a fruit salad I made with Cantaloupe, Honey Dew, and Pineapples.  About 2 hours later I had an apple.

Dinner time was difficult for me. I was ready to give up, I really want something with some more sustenance.  I haven’t been creative enough to whip anything up. So it was a struggle to eat more fruit and veggies.

Ultimately, I had 2 tomatoes with a little salt and pepper, a can of string beans and and a can of corn.  I also had an orange.

I wasn’t as diligent with drinking my water as I still have 5 hours left until bedtime and I’ve only consumed about 30 ounces.

Related articles

• Raw or Guffaw? (findingnutrition.wordpress.com)
• In Honor of Women’s History Month, The 7 Day Raw Foods Cleanse is Focusing on Women to Lose Weight on a Raw Foods Diet (prweb.com)
• Raw Food: what are they? (drsusansolutions.wordpress.com)

My Beauty School Highlights

In April 2012 , about a year ago, I got my hair highlighted.  I went to a beauty school and was really pleased with the turnout

In this picture, taken about 8 months after it had been highlighted, you can see my hair straightened and some of my highlights.

Here’s a better view of my hair from September 2012 (about 5 months after I got it highlighted), This is the work of my main hair stylist. The before picture on the left is my hair freshly washed, the middle picture is blown dry and the last is a shot of  the left side of my hair flat ironed.

I must note that I didn’t experience any damage or breakage due to the color and my hair was lightened without the use of bleach.

Why go to a beginner or someone learning how to perform  such a permanent process?

Some might say “Why go to a beginner or someone learning how to perform  such a permanent process?  But my reasoning was that there is a skilled instructor overseeing the whole process. Someone who’s job it is to teach the proper technique to eager students. The trainer for my student stylist oversaw the process and and I felt that my stylist was pretty confident. So as previously stated I was happy with the outcome and the price and didn’t have any complaints.

Related articles

• Hair salon secrets to save you big money (abclocal.go.com)
• What’s wrong with a little color? (blackgirlnerdy.blogspot.com)
• Highlights are one of the most difficult hair colors to master (elisemarcussalon.com)

Day 1 of the 7-Day Diet

North American “cantaloupes”, actually a type of muskmelon. Deutsch: Cantaloupe-Melone (Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Waking up this morning I was a bit hungry and since I had a physical scheduled I had to wait almost until lunch to eat anything. I emptied my bladder and weighed myself.

Not that it really counts for anything but I weighed myself before bed last night, and I was down two pounds after weighing myself this morning.  I have a slight obsession with weighing myself daily. Mainly because my weight fluctuates a lot from day to day. I can loose pounds quickly. 3-5 in a day sometimes, but I digress.

I snacked on about 24 ounces of watermelon and 3/4 of a cantaloupe for most of my work day. The cantaloupe was delicious. I didn’t really drink as much water as I needed to, but I still have about 6 hours before bed so hopefully I can get another 48 ounces in.

At this point my schedule during the week is a bit hectic to try and add consistent exercise, but I hope to get a few daily walks in if nothing more.

Tomorrow’s post will show the lbs. gone from today’s fruit regimen.

EDITED to UPDATE:

I got in about 72 ounces of water for the day.  And I made a pretty awesome smoothie for dinner.  The smoothie was made with mostly frozen fruit including:

• Blueberries
• Rasberries
• Peaches
• Mango

 

Related articles

• Cantaloupe for Weight-Loss: 5 Reasons it’s the Best Breakfast (healthyvegasvegan.com)
• GM Diet Cleanse (khimelman.wordpress.com)
• Day One of the GM Cleanse (khimelman.wordpress.com)

7 Days to Lighter Me

Whole Foods (Photo credit: bookgrl)

Yesterday I stumbled upon the 7 Day Diet/Cleanse found here. Since it was already late I decided I would go shopping today and start on Tuesday.

Whenever I decide to eat a mostly fruit or veggie diet, I always visit my local Whole Foods Store. I’m not really sure why because they’re almost always priced higher than most normal grocery stores and that’s for non-organic products. Anywhoo, I spent about $108 in Whole Food preparing for the next 7 days and of course I forgot something…the cabbage, but since I don’t need that until Thursday, I have time.

I plan to share my experience with this diet/cleanse including my weight loss. The plan consists of a strict regimen of fruits, vegetables, lean beef, and lots of water and estimates a 10-17  pounds weight loss. I won’t go into the detail of the plan here because the full story is linked and I’ll give the details how I followed it, on each days post.

…Wish me luck

 

Whole foods (Photo credit: parislemon)

Related articles

• The GM Diet (General Motors Diet): Does It Work? (mommyofamonster.com)

No Lye, the Last Relaxer

On 21 April 2009 I had my last relaxer. I had just come out of microbraids and was surprised at the amount of length I had retained after just the five or six weeks. I don’t remember what exactly happened that made me decide that I wanted to go natural. However, this was my second attempt, as I had tried to go natural the previous year for about 10 months. Here is a photo of my hair about a month after my last relaxer in late- May 2009.

This picture was taken in August 2009 about 4 months after my last relaxer.

     Anyway, I transitioned from relaxed to natural, and around March of 2011, I cut about one inch of the remaining relaxed ends off my hair.  I was officially a natural hair girl.

I started experimenting with more natural styles and having some fun rocking puffs, and bantu knot outs. At this point I had become grossly addicted to hair care forums, I was learning a ton and quickly becoming a product junkie.  I knew there were lots of videos on YouTube, but for some reason at this time I found the forums and webpages I could read, more helpful than watching someone do their hair.