Elimination Diet Day 6

Well today was our last day on the elimination diet and I'm feeling great.  I've noticed I'm starting to have a lot more energy.  I've been waking up ahead of my alarm clock during the week and now I'm doing it on weekends.  I work up at 5:30 am this morning, needless to say I forced myself to go back to bed.   While we wont start clean until tomorrow we basically did a practice run today.  So what did we eat?

8 am - Berry Smoothie with Coconut Milk and Cinnamon + vitamin/supplements
2 pm - Adzuki Beans and Brown Rice + supplements
7:45 pm - Green Smoothie

Then like normal I drank a lot of water with mint and a coconut water.  Despite the fact that we only had one solid meal today I never felt hungry.  It was hard for me to finish my lunch today and after our smoothie tonight I feel stuffed.  The reason our lunch was so late today because we didn't get to the store early in the morning like we normally do.  I'm hoping this past trip to the store was the list time we will have to by new staples used heavily on the clean program (ie chia seeds, almond butter, etc).  Some of them are rather expense, especially when purchased organically, so between that and the great increase in organic produce we are purchasing our grocery bills have nearly doubled.  Although I will say it is rather nice doing 90% of our grocery store shopping in the produce section since it makes the trips really fast since you pretty much skip the rest of the store.  I figure in the end the larger grocery bills probably even out since we wont be going out to eat anymore which is something we used to do at least once or twice a week.

I can also sense my palate changing.  While I still talk about how much I want to go out to various places or how I want to eat a whole cake if I think about it, I really don't anymore.  Although I have noticed that in general since we started eating considerably better even when I would allow myself to buy something that was bad for me it never tasted as good as I remembered it tasting.  It usually just ended up tasting way to salty and fake.

I know I said I would post my stats and pictures today but I forgot to weigh myself this morning so it will have to wait till tomorrow.  Stay tuned...

Elimination Diet Day 5

So I think both the week and the change in diet have finally caught up with me.  While I had energy today at work, I'm now exhausted.  We even ate two solid meals today due to the fact that we need to do some yard work tomorrow.  Over all though I'm happy about how all this is progressing.  I do in fact feel better.  It is weird to think though that I haven't had any packaged foods or sugar in several days.  That said, I have thoroughly enjoyed all the meals.  Tonight I tried quinoa for the first time and I look forward to using clean as a way to expand my diet.  So what else did I eat today?

8 am - Apple, Ginger, Lemon & Spinach Juice + vitamin/supplements
12:45 pm - Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar, Garlic, & Rosemary Wild Rice Pilaf + supplements
6 pm - Roast Salmon with Broccoli Rabe & Quinoa

Than like normal I drank lots of plain water and a coconut water.  I think I may also try some herbal tea tonight and just try and relax.  Tomorrow is our last day on the elimination diet and Sunday we will start clean!  Tomorrow I'll make sure to post pictures along with all my stats so as each week progresses we can see the progress.

Elimination Diet Day 4

Today we once again stuck to using only clean recipes.  I also stopped taking my allergy medication in preparation for starting clean on Sunday.  Luckily living in the South most of the trees (which I'm allergic too) have bloomed by now so stopping my zyrtec only leads to a runny nose every now and then.  I also stopped having my morning snack this morning.  I just decided not to pack it today and in the end I didn't even miss it.  I think my morning snack was more of a mental thing because most of coworkers eat then too, rather than me actually being hungry.  So what did I eat today?

7 am - Pineapple, Lime & Mint Juice + vitamin/supplements
12:30 pm - Easy Pineapple and Avocado Gazpacho + supplements
6:30 pm - Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar, Garlic and Rosemary Wild Rice Pilaf

So basically today was a sample of what it will be like when we start clean.  Additionally I drank lots of water with lemon and mint.  I have to admit, since we have scaled things back slowly this wasn't a huge challenge.  I wasn't really even hungry most of the day. I even found it was hard for me to finish my gazpacho.  I also turned down a cookie offered to me by a coworker!  I have noticed I am starting to loose weight again as well.  Lastly, I think I'm beginning to see some signs of detoxification taking place.  Manly I'm starting to get headaches off and on now.  However, the generally go away if I drink a bunch of water.

We have also began the process of detoxifying our lives.  We have been making an effort to buy greener products and use less plastic.  We are also starting to switch over things like our deodorant, mouthwash, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc. that contain chemicals that can be harmful.  The one area I am sort of resistant to go green is in our cleaning products despite the fact that I know this is where most of the toxins in a home are.  We tried several green cleaners previously and found that while many of them do work (some don't) its a lot more work.  Although I guess at the end of the day thats just an excuse.  Either way we are only changing things out as we need to replace the old ones.  While I would love to just toss everything thats potentially harmful that would not be very cost effective or realistic when you live on a budget.

For those of you who read my entry on a few of our favorite things I just found out there is also now an app available for the iphone, etc. for "How to Cook Everything," & "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian."  For more information you can go here.  The apps are $4.99 each, however there is a free version called "How to Cook Everything Essentials."  You can read about it here.  There was also recently an interview with Dr. Alejandro Junger about Clean that includes some more great looking recipes.  I think when I finish clean I'll celebrate with some Coconut Seduction Brownies!  You can read it here over at The Chic Foodie Report!

Elimination Diet Day 3

Today was a huge success for me.  Today was the first day where I only ate things off of the elimination diet.  It was a lot easier now that we don't have anything tempting left in our house.  I'm still working on getting rid of my AM snack.  Today I just ate half of what I normally would and my hope is by Friday I no longer need/want it.  I also can't explain it, but I am starting to feel different.  So what did I eat today?

7 am - Tropical Smoothie + vitamins/supplements
9 am - 1/4 cantaloupe
11:30 am - Chilled Cucumber Soup with Mint; a few pieces of cantaloupe + supplements
6 pm - Warm Salmon & Asparagus Salad w/Pesto (pictured below).

All of these items were from the clean recipes.  To get an idea of what it will look like once we are on the clean program remove the cantaloupe and switch the Salmon and Soup.  As you can see the portion for your daily meal is plenty!

You can actually find the recipe for the Warm Salmon & Asparagus Salad w/Pesto online here (its on page 34).  All I had to drink today was plain water, water with mint or coconut water (the coconut water is in addition to at least 64 oz's of pure water).  I'm also finally starting to get in the swing of things and the routine in general which is making it easier.  

We have also found that it works really well to transport all our liquid meals (smoothies, juices, soups) in canning jars you can buy at the store.  This way if we need to make them ahead of time (the night before) we can just put them in the fridge and then grab them and go.  It is also nice not having to worry about it possibly spilling.  They also now have plastic lids you can buy for the jars that can go in the dishwasher which makes cleaning all of them really easy.

I'm still drinking the 2 tablespoons of olive oil at night.  We couldn't find any alternatives for this so I have decided to just tough it out for as long as I can take it.  I found if I drink it like a shot its easier and then I drink water/brush my teeth right away to get rid of the taste.  Tomorrow we are upping the challenge by adding a juice as our AM breakfast rather than a smoothie.  During the clean program to increase its impact we plan on doing at least one day of juice only, probably on the weekend so we don't have to do anything.  I'm becoming increasingly excited as we move forward and hope others will join in!  If you need some motivation did you see what came out today about potato chips?  YUM!

Elimination Diet Day 2, Almost!

So today was the second day on the elimination diet.  It was a lot easier.  I was able to stay on the diet until dinner when we had to finish off the rest of our tilapia and ice cream (ok so we didn't have to finish off the ice cream, but I wanted to!).  The biggest thing I am struggling with at this point is skipping my morning snack.  Once we start the clean program we are only supposed to eat three times a day, while you can have an AM/PM snack, its better if you don't.  I would really like to get the most out of the program so I really want to be able to avoid it.  I also thankfully didn't miss my coffee as much today and was able to drink all my water for the day at work.  Drinking 64 oz's of water a day has always been a challenge for me mostly because I've never been a big water drinker.  It's helped though trying to make it more interesting by adding lemon or mint.  I also take two 32 oz nalgene bottles to work with me so I can keep track of how much I'm drinking.  So what exactly did I eat today, its as follows:

6:45 am - Blueberry, Cacao & Almond Milk Smoothie + vitamins/supplements
10 am - Organic Apple
Noon - Spinach w/olive oil and red wine vinegar; 1/2 to 3/4 cantaloupe; handful of raw almonds + supplements
6:15 pm - Baked Tilapia w/lemon, brown rice & steamed broccoli
6:30 pm - ice cream

The only thing I drank today was water.  Starting tomorrow we will be on the full elimination diet as we are now out of everything that isn't included on the diet.  One tip I can share is if you do decide to do this it will be easier if you eat or throw away everything you aren't allowed to eat so you aren't tempted, or better yet plan ahead so you can eat it all.  This will give us 4 full days on the elimination diet before we start clean.  It should be enough for us since the majority of what we were eating was already on the approved list.  How long you have to do the elimination diet prior to starting the clean program is based on your diet.  Obviously the more junk food, prepared foods, and take out you eat the longer you will need to be on the elimination diet to give your body time to adjust.  Even eating pretty clean before I have found it difficult to make a full switch.  While we ate healthy we still allowed ourselves to go out or eat things like ice cream.  You may also notice that everything I ate before dinner tonight was not cooked which is again something that takes some getting used to.

All and all though I feel pretty good.  I had more energy today and I didn't get a headache.  Although due to all the water I did have to go to the bathroom what seemed like every 10 minutes.  I am excited to see how I feel tomorrow once we are on the full elimination diet.  We are also going to have two liquid meals, a smoothie for breakfast and soup for lunch out of the clean recipes.  Actually even our dinner tomorrow comes from the clean recipes.  Although once we are on the actual clean program we will have our liquid meals for breakfast and dinner and our actual meal at lunch.  We are just trying to ease into this to give our bodies time to adjust and to make sure we don't just get frustrated and give up.

So I have two more things before I wrap up my entry today.  The first is another tip for if you decide to do this program.  Due to the number of supplements you should take while you are on it I recommend you either buy them online or go to GNC and get their gold card.  You have to pay for the gold card, but it gets you additional savings on top of the sale prices.  We were even able to get the gold card on sale and its already paid for its self.  Originally we bought some of our supplements at Whole Foods while we were grocery shopping and I'll just say I now get the joke "Whole Paycheck."  However, keep in mind that the good supplements are always going to cost more than the cheap ones, as with everything in life you get what you pay for.  You can also buy them from on the clean program website. For anyone who may be tempted to try this program there are two places online you can get free recipes that are part of this program (these are not the ones included in the book).  You can find them here and here.  These recipes were designed to go with the program sold online, however I'll warn you it isn't cheap!  Although I guess based on everything we have bought over the past few days it wasn't cheap either.  However, if you have patience (I don't) and can wait and buy stuff over time before you start it shouldn't be too bad.  Also, keep in mind if you do the program odds are you'll do it again, so consider it an investment.  At least when it comes to the juicer and blender anyways.  Plus who doesn't love a good mixed drink?

Lastly, you will need a good blender since you are replacing a large number of your solid meals with liquid ones.  Like most people we had one that was ok for the occasional mixed drink but really wasn't for every day use.  So we did a little research and found a great and affordable blender.  It is the Kitchen Aid 5 Speed Blender.  You can find them pretty much anywhere, however we got ours at Macy's on sale and were able to use a coupon.  We have used it several times now and can't believe how well it works compared to our old one.

If anyone has any specific questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them!  Starting tomorrow I'll start posting pictures of some of our meals.

Elimination Diet Day 1, Sort of...

So today was our first day on the elimination diet, sort of.  I say sort of because we still were trying to eat everything that was not part of the elimination diet that would go bad before we finished clean.  As it is we had already have thrown some stuff away, but you have to draw the line some where.  I drew it at the cupcakes and the last of the Easter chocolate.  The big thing I eliminated from my diet today was coffee.  It turned out to be harder than I thought.  I usually drink 3 to 4 cups every morning.  As a result I've been some what tired all day and have had a headache.  However, I'm comforted by the fact that by tomorrow hopefully it will be better.  My lunch also did not meet the diet requirements because it was left overs from last night.  That said my breakfast, morning snack, and dinner will meet the requirements.

So what exactly is the elimination diet?  Its a dietary program based on removing all the foods from our diet that are known to cause food allergies, sensitivities, and disruptions to the digestive process.  It is used as part of the clean program because when your body generates allergic responses to food you may have eaten it is consuming energy that could be used to detox and repair functions.  For a list of what is and isn't included in the elimination diet click here.

We have also begun trying to modify our normal eating behavior/pattern so it is more in line with the clean program.  This morning we had our first clean program smoothie (Mango & Coconut Milk) rather than our normal bowl of cereal or oatmeal.  I also skipped my afternoon snack and began attempting to drink my full 64 oz of water a day.  I also plan on changing my normal exercise routine since it would be too intense once I start the clean program.  Normally I do at least 30 minutes of pilates, 15 minutes of strength training, and 45 minutes on the elliptical or a 2.5 mile run.  My goal has always been to do this routine five days a week but more realistically I do it 3 to 4 days a week and balance it out with working in the yard on weekends.  I'll be replacing that routine with 20 minutes of pilates and 10 minutes of meditation every day during clean.  I figure I can add stuff back in depending on my energy level.

The other thing we began doing today was taking all our supplements.  I kind of felt like an old person carrying around my little AM/PM pill holder.  I think total for the day I've taken around 15 pills.  We originally tried to eliminate a few of them by doing things like eating a whole clove of raw garlic instead of taking a garlic pill.  We thought this would be easier and save us some money.  Have you ever tried to eat a whole clove of raw garlic?  While it can be done if you like the taste of fire in your mouth and don't mind offending everyone with your breath, I wouldn't recommend it.  Pay the few extra dollars for the pills and learn from my mistake.  The other one I'm having a problem with is taking the olive oil.  You are supposed to take two tablespoons a day.  I thought it wouldn't be a problem since I love the taste of olive oil and we regularly cook with it.  What I do not love is the feel of two tablespoons of olive oil going into and in my mouth.  Today at lunch I couldn't even eat my salad because I could taste the olive oil in the dressing.  We may need to look for an alternative here!

As we go along I'll try and take pictures of the food we are eating, etc.  I also think I'll include pictures of myself along the way since that will be the best way to compare my results from beginning to end.

Welcome

This blog is about my journey through the CLEAN program by Dr. Alejandro Junger.  It is a 21 day detox program designed to help rebuild your body's immune system to its natural state.  The video below explains more about the program.

You can also visit the website which is full of information here.  You can buy the book on Amazon here.  You can visit there facebook page here.  I would recommend this book to anyone just as an informative read even if you are on the fence about a program like this.  Additionally, odds are after you read the book you'll want to do it.

I'd like to take a moment to go back to how all this started.  Back in October of 2010, my partner and I decided we needed had to get back in shape.  We had both always been in relatively good shape, but after college as "life" began to happen we both began to add on the pounds.  We had said we would get in shape multiple times before, we even bought an elliptical for home use (that we ended up using as a clothes hanger).  The real wake up call began when everything I owned no longer fit and I was getting ready to go out of town to a conference and basically spent the day before frantically shopping for new clothes.  When I returned from the conference we bought a scale and on Nov. 7, 2010 I weighed in at 201 lbs, more than I ever had in my life.  This was the final straw.  I went through all of our cabinets and threw out all the crap and decided from now on we had to eat better.  We invested in several healthy cookbooks, began shopping at Whole Foods, stopped eating out, and began buying organic.  I'm not going to say this was easy, it wasn't.  Our grocery budget doubled, we had to adjust our schedules to include time to work out and make our meals and giving up the junk food was harder than I imagined it ever would be.  However, we stuck it out and slowly but surely the weight began to come off, we felt better and we took the time to educate ourselves about what we were eating.  Today, I'm happy to say I weight 150.8 lbs.  Over the past six months I've shed 50.2 lbs (31 of which were pure fat) and lowered my body fat percentage from 26% (considered overweight) to 14.1% (considered healthy).  In another entry I'll list some of the cookbooks we used and some of my favorite new health foods.

It was through my research into food and healthy eating that I came across Dr. Junger's book.  I decided it was worth getting.  I studied Anthropology while I was in college so concepts like this were not totally foreign to me.  I read the book in 3 days, I couldn't put it down.  After that I gave the book to my partner and said we have to try this.  So here we are, tomorrow we began the elimination diet phase.  Since we were eating relatively clean already we are going to do this for the next 6 days and then begin the 21 day detox.  However, I should probably mention we had a last dinner of carbs (pasta, bread & cupcakes) tonight!  I plan on updating this blog daily about my experiences with the program so check back soon!