cleanse 1/day 10 and some wildlife

This morning when I went out in the back garden, I saw this guy. Squeeker, the outside cat was just sitting on the path watching this little fella walk by about a foot away from him. I walked up to get a closer look and he wasn't even scared. He moved really slowly. Has a strange pig/raccoon/rat look to him. There are tiny little tusks or fangs coming out of his mouth and that flat pig nose! My thought was maybe this is a possum....I'll have to google it. Second thought: I hope he won't stay long. I made a noise and he slowly moved toward the fence and with great effort climbed up and just sat there.

the cleanse report:

DAY 10!!

I finally got to Whole Foods and stocked up my fridge again with some fresh veggies and fruit.

I made a really good green smoothie today with apples, apple juice, kale, spinach, and a teaspoon of green super food powder. It was really good.

I haven't really been eating too much the last few days. This morning I had a hand full of walnuts before going to work.

I did have some pasta this afternoon with some asparagus, shitake mushrooms, and zucchini cooked in a little Bragg's and coconut oil. 

This is the pasta I made. 

I have never seen it before and have heard so much lately about how the wheat we have now is so different from the wheat from forever ago and how it has affected so many though gluten sensitivities and allergies. Since I am not giving up wheat just yet, but have limited my consumption, I thought I would try it. If you are gluten free, this will not work for you, but it does have less than typical pasta and I didn't have that super full, bloated feeling after eating it. If you want to know more about what einkorn wheat is you can visit here and here.

The texture is the best I've ever found for whole wheat pasta. THE BEST. The box says to cook 12 minutes, but I found it to be done perfectly at 9 minutes. Sprinkled nutritional yeast on the pasta and some good quality olive oil and topped with the veggies. 

The roundup:

In the last 10 days, I have eaten vegetable soups (A LOT), life changing bread, fruit, hummus, avocados, and leafy greens. I had pasta 2x and and rice 2x. 

After 4 days, I had coffee. 2 glasses of wine. And some chocolate. 

I met my water quota everyday.

I have to say that the water consumption was major for me. That and getting off of the crackers habit. I honestly never even thought about cheese. So all in all I consider it a success!

I plan to carry the water quota on with me and my intention is it just becomes a habit. I will continue to keep track of it though, until it's second nature. It made such a difference that I really feel...plumper. In a hydrated way :) 

I also will commit to 3 green smoothies a week. I want to say one everyday, and maybe I'll get to that, but 3 a week feels like a goal I can easily meet. Micro steps!

The last word on this for now it that I would probably have done better doing this in the warmer time of year. I just have a hard time with raw food in cold weather. I may do another little bit rawer cleanse this summer. I'll keep you posted!

Any thoughts, opinions, words of advice or comments in general are welcome.

cleanse 1/day 3

All I have to say is habits can be formidable foes. I didn't break down and have cheese or anything like that, just not drinking enough water and I can really feel it. For me the symptoms are fatigue and dullness. Plus I had pasta last night with some cooked and some raw veggies, but I think pasta can do that to me too. Sigh. Oh well, chin up, right? Tomorrow's another day and really can't believe I haven't had coffee yet, so that's a huge win! I'm not 100% I won't ever drink it again, I mean really, let's not get too crazy, but I want to go the 10 days.

I had a shot of wheat grass juice while I was at Whole Foods today and I swear I had an allergy attack (itchy eyes, ears, nose) for a couple hours afterwards. Later I heard that the pollen count has been high here, so maybe it was that, but I'm suspicious, because I've had seasonal allergies involving grasses and pollen most of my life, and especially since I've lived in Arkansas. It never occurred to me that wheat grass might trigger that reaction. If anyone knows about that, I'd love to hear from you in the comments. My green smoothie was like the 1st day's: apple, apple juice and spinach. It was refreshing, but not quite as enjoyable because of the wheat grass/pollen reaction.

Tomorrow I'm going to spirilize some zucchini. I think I need a bit more raw added to the mix. (I had some brown rice at dinner with avacado and it was so delicious with just a squirt of Bragg's Liquid Aminos and black pepper. Also, I am making the Life Changing Bread tomorrow and I'll post about that and one of my favorite blogs and veggie chef blogger.

Btw, when I find the need to purchase veggie broth, this is the one I buy:

It's the only one I've found that has ONLY vegetables, herbs and salt. That's it. And they are all organic. The other brands I see around have really long ingredient lists with weird and questionable stuff in them.