Detox: The End!

David and I decided last Saturday to end our Detox. I know we didn't make it the full 21 days, but we did complete two weeks of it. In the end, it was more of a hassle than anything else. We did however learn some valuable lessons from the whole process
Here is what we've learned:

• Eat more vegetables! I'm adding some edamame to our list of favorite vegetables. I've grown addicted to it and could eat it all the time. David on the other hand is protesting all vegetables!
• Eat less! Our portions of food have become smaller and we don't snack as much as we used to. I've actually not gone to get my Doritos yet but am still craving them. Hopefully, these are just natural cravings, and not a sign that little Detox is on his way!
• Don't eat out as much! David is dying with this one. I've had to create new rules with this aspect of our lives. We are allowed to eat out on Saturdays and Sunday afternoon, ONLY! One Friday night, before the detox, I made a pizza and it was actually good. So we will continue this and probably make it a family tradition. We even eat leftovers the following night or at least within that same week. If you know David and see him this week, give him a huge hug. He needs it with his wife being such a food Nazi now.

Hopefully we are able to remember all these as we continue off this program. I have high hopes for us!

Detox: Day 9-11

There are many words that I would like to give this program, but unfortunately they are no more than 4 letters and are not appropriate. It's amazing, when I was on a bland diet over the summer it did not bother me. A lot of chicken, cooked vegetables, applesauce, yogurt, whole wheat carbs, anything easy to digest; NOT A PROBLEM! Shakes, pills, chicken, organic vegetables, and some fruit; PROBLEM! I guess because I was not the one to initiate this and am just being supportive, my heart is not in it. I crave everything under the moon and I know it does not help David. I feel like the worst wife ever, because I'm ready to call it quits and I know he's easy to tempt.
The program says that you are to see the following things while on this and here's how I feel:

• Lose Weight= Check- I've leveled out at 5 lbs, and David has leveled out at about 10 lbs. If you look at him, you can really tell that he's lost in his face and stomach area. He looks awesome!
• More Energy= Failed- I've actually felt less energetic while on this. On Monday, I was still stuffy and dragging after resting a lot this past weekend. So Tuesday, I quit taking the Complete powder that comes with the program and replaced it with the liquid vitamin that David and I were taking before. I've felt so much more energy throughout my day. So I've continued the vitamins and am okay that I'm cheating in this aspect.
• Trained Yourself to Eat Better= Depends- I've also added Kashi Heart to Heart Cereral back for my snacks, which is nothing different for me from before this program. With all the vegetables/shakes that I was eating/drinking, I just couldn't seem to fill up. With adding that and continuing to eat chicken other times, I've noticed that I don't eat as much. So although I'm craving all these foods, I would like to think that my smaller portions are under control. I will though be going to buy a small bag of Doritos next week!
• Better Health= Questionable- While I was taking everything and eating only veggies, I was sick. I was still stuffy at the beginning of the week. The day that I took my liquid vitamin, I was no longer stuffy that afternoon. Did my whatever just run it's course or was this program not helping aide in the fight? Since then I've been great. I've even had 6 students go home sick with the flu this week, and have felt nothing! ALWAYS A POSITIVE!!!

With all of this said, David and I question quitting every step we take. It's seriously more of a battle than anything. I can handle my sixth graders better than I can this, which I know doesn't say a lot. We came close last night to quitting, but David backed out when he knew that I would blog about it. So we've decided that we can make it until next Friday and will probably never do this again! If you're questioning on whether or not you should do something like this, my greatest advice is that your heart has to be in it. In fact, we have tons of material still left! ;)

Detox: Day 5-8

There have been many changes to our wonderful little detox, besides the many mood swings that come with it.

Health: We're still stuffy and coughing, but getting better. We finally had to cave in for poor David, and take him to the doctor's office on Sunday. Thankfully, we have him on some antibiotics. I've been able to get better on my own. Although, I went to school today with tons of hacking and sneezing on everything. A few had fevers, and were still sent back to class. I had about three boys that just found a corner and slept in my room. Hopefully, my body will not go backwards since it has not fully recovered.

Pounds: David has lost about 10 pounds and I've lost about 5. I'm amazed at the fact that I've had the flu, some sort of stomach problem, and detox all within one year and have worked my way back down to my high school weight. Although I see what the scale tells me, but then I look at my body, and totally don't believe it. I guess I shouldn't argue with the scale, though. I mean they don't lie right?

Meals: Okay, so we've cheated. We've been invited to spend Valentine's Day with David's family. WE'RE THRILLED, not only to spend time with them, BUT IT ALLOWS US TO END THIS THING TWO DAYS EARLY! Therefore, in our heads it makes sense to add meat back into our schedule, two days earlier. Tonight we added meat back, and our world was rocked. We decided to go to Outback and share a steak. It was good, but our taste buds were a little out of their element; we're not used to all the spices. We had vegetables and sweet potato for our sides, both things that are on our list of 'Okay'. Our stomachs have also shrunk, because we definitely did not eat as much as we usually do, which is a positive. We also realized over the weekend that I was reading our list of 'Okays' incorrectly, and we could have been having brown rice and lentils. We tried Basmati (a type of brown rice) last night and I actually think that I prefer it to brown rice. I've realized that there are some foods out there that I like on this detox, but am not sure that I like the price tag that comes with it. With the shakes, food, and snacks that I've been consuming my body has been pretty full until recently. It has probably started within the last two days, but my body seems to never be getting enough. I'm not quite sure what to do, but keep snacking on carrots and other things more. Although does this defeat the purpose of us learning how to cut back on our portions?

Cravings: We are still craving everything in the world. Our program says that it should have calmed down if not have stopped by now; I laugh everytime I think of this. For some strange reason, I'm still craving Doritos the most. The weird thing is that I rarely/never ate them when I was not detoxing.

Pills: Yesterday we finished our cleanse pills and today started our green food pills. Don't feel any different with them.

We have two weeks left and depending on the day, it determines who wants to quit. It never seems to fail, one day David wants to quit and I'm the strong one. Then the next day, we've reversed roles and just laugh at each other. It's funny to see our moods change within a few hours.

Detox: Day 2-4

Are we done yet? Let's just quit! These are the only two comments that David and I have said to one another in the last three days. Okay, so we've said more than that, but they are definitely the most common ones. So here's how it's going so far.

Health- Unfortunately, I've caught something (Probably from one of my wonderful students who's parent send them sick to school, all the time. Can't afford a doctor and can't afford to take a day off of work, it's just sad.). Because our systems are so messed up right now, David has caught it from me. It seems that I'm a day ahead of him, so we kind of know what to expect the next day. Although, it doesn't help knowing that you will have a stuffy head, aching muscles, fever, and you just don't want to eat vegetables but some chicken noodle soup. So hopefully in a few days, we will be fever free, no more stuffy noses, and back to wanting to eat.

Pounds- Why is it that men lose weight so much quicker than women do? It just doesn't seem fair. David has lost 5 pounds and I've lost 1. I keep trying to convince my body that it can stay at the same weight but take the cellulite from my Italian buns and thighs, I think it's decided to take it from my stomach instead.

Meals- Nothing has changed in the meals. Shakes all the time, salad for lunch, and cooked vegetables at night. David cooked some broccoli last night and it was delicious. Who knew he was such a vegetable chef? Depending on how David feels later, we may try to get a salad at Jason's Deli and spice up our routine.

Cravings- I'm craving anything that I can't have. I want Doritos, fries, Babe's Chicken, oh the list could continue but it just makes me want to quit this thing.

We've heard that these days are the hardest and that it's all down hill from here, all we can say is that we're hoping they're right!

Day One

Meals

• Breakfast- Shake
• Lunch- Salad with carrots and broccoli (Had to add some balsamic vinaigrette, but it was all organic and all ingredients were okay with our diet.)
• Dinner- Vegetable Medley (broccoli, caulifower, carrots, mushrooms) cooked in butter with added sea salt
• Snack- raw carrots and broccoli
• Dessert- Shake
• Water- 48 Oz. (I felt like a school kid having to go every five minutes.)

Feeling-

• Surprisingly, I wasn't too hungry all day, except right before dinner. Although, this morning I was running a small temperature, so I'm not sure if I wasn't hungry because the shake held me over or because I wasn't feeling too well. I know this diet had nothing to do with me not feeling well, it's the fact that we can go from 60 degrees on one day and 40 the next.
• I'm extremely jealous of those that ate pasta, chocolate, or Girl Scout cookies today. I'm craving those things more than anything right now!
• I don't have a headache, unlike poor David. Who decided that it was so bad, he had to go get a massage today. While I'm at work with a fever, he's getting a massage. Which he wasn't even going to tell me until I smelled his shirt, and recommended that we get it dry cleaned. He finally confessed that it was massage oil.
• I took the first pills tonight, because I wanted to see what the fiber/cleansing pills would do to David's system before I chanced it with school. So far nothing has happened, except that the pills make David and I gag with the taste (This is putting it nicely). We tried lots of stuff, then finally realized that we needed to scoop some of our shake onto a spoon, shove a pill in at a time, and then swallow.

So all in all, it's been an okay day. I'm hoping that this adventure gets easier with time.

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

David and I begin a 21 day detox tomorrow to remove the toxins in our bodies. I've never been one to get into organic food and worrying about spraying chemicals on our lawn. David on the other hand, has gotten into the organic gardening and food. This is primarily the reason why I don't take him with me to the grocery store, my bill seems to double. Although after listening to a seminar last week, I can see how our bodies contain lots of things that we don't know about, and how it can affect everything. So here's what our lives will look like for the next 21 days.

Days 1-10

• Shake- at least two a day but can be up to five, which contain frozen fruit, juice, some special protein powder, and more protein (I have to make sure I have enough energy to keep up with 6th graders)
• Fiber pills- 3 pills, 3 times a day (You know where we'll be partying!)
• Cleansing pills- 7 pills, 3 times a day (Once again more partying!)
• Meals- We can have certain types of vegetables that help aide in the cleansing process. We are to have at least half of these vegetables raw and the others we can cook in butter with sea salt. That's right, I said butter. Studies are finding out that it's better for you than margarine. We can have any sort of fruit that ends in berry. Although we are to have twice as many vegetables than fruit. ( Now after reading this you're probably thinking that I was the one that had to convince David to do this, but it's opposite. This was his idea and I'm being a supportive wife. So pray for our household with him not getting meat.)

Day 11-21

• Shakes- follow the procedure above
• Fiber pills- Oh yeah, the party continues!
• Green pills- 3 pills, 3 times a day
• Meals- Here is where we can bring in some meat. We can have either fish, chicken, or lean steak. Although the piece of meat can be no bigger than the size of our palm and no thicker than our hand. Then we can add in whole grain rice. Keep the same thing with fruits and vegetables.

We're hoping a few things come out of this. Number one we lose some weight that shouldn't be on us. Number two we train our bodies to eat healthy. The last one is just to feel better and build up our bodies that we've been rough on. We're also praying that they are correct in the fact that my birth control will not be affected by this, and we will not have to name our first born Detox.

I will let you all know how this goes, please pray for us!

World Hunger Relief

I love this website, www.freerice.com ! It's a website that will ask you questions with multiple choice answers. If you get the question right then the UN will donate 10 grains of rice for everyone that you get correct to a third world country. The question gets more difficult with the more that you get correct, kind of like the GRE. The question subjects that you can choose from are: Art (famous paintings), Chemistry, English (vocabulary/grammar), Geography, Foreign Language (Spanish, Italian, French, German), and Mathematics (Basic/Multiplication). Not only do I play it with my kids at school, but I'll sometimes get a second to sit down and play. I got to play this morning and am still trying to figure out if it's a good thing that I got more Spanish words correct then I did with English vocabulary. I mean who knows what 'swashbuckling' is?