Past the halfway point

An update on the cleanse:

GOOD:
- I'm enjoying cooking.
- Plenty of fodder for my food blog
- The Wii Fit claims I've lost 2 lbs. (I'm not sure)

BAD:
- I WANT BAD FOOD.  I want wine.  Cheese.  A Runza.  Chocolate.  Tacos.  Banh Mi.  Egg rolls.  I want to be able to snack & drink beer when I tailgate this Saturday.
- I'm getting sick of doing dishes.
- Every vegan or clean eating blog I read says "My hair is so shiny & my skin glows!"  What. Ever.  That crap does not happen to me. In fact, both times I've done this cleanse, I've gotten a major breakout on my face.  What gives?

5.5 more days to go. (and starting Saturday, I'm allowed eggs & gluten-free grains!)

Food Fantasies

I'm finishing the last day of Phase 1.  This is the most restrictive phase.  Tomorrow, I can have salmon and lentils!  I'm putting a root vegetable mulligatawny in the crock pot tonight - yum!

The cleanse feels easier this time around for many reasons:
First and obviously, it's shorter.  12 days seems so much more do-able than 21, and I'll be able to have turkey in time for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully, this'll have me craving a side of brussels sprouts, too.

Second, I've done this before & know what to expect.  I'm comfortable with all of the "rules"", so I've experimented more with the "legal" foods & created my own recipes.  I knew that after two days of caffeine headaches, I'd feel much better.

Third, I have a juicer!!  It's almost impossible to mess up juice.  It's an easy breakfast, and I've gone through two whole bunches of kale in four days!

Finally, I'm doing it with a friend, which makes it so much better.  The work "lunch bunch" ate together today, and I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything.

Tonight, I went back to Open Harvest for only the 2nd time since I was last doing the cleanse.  I'm in love.  I looked in the deli case & they have so much homemade YUMMY stuff.  I bought 2 types of hummus to eat tomorrow :)  Plus, they have weird vegetables that I want to try!  I bought some bok choy, a persimmon, a pomegranate, a turnip, a ginger root, a black radish, and some lacinato kale.  I've never even heard of those last two before!  Plus, I picked up some dried pears, dates, and raw cashews.

Unfortunately, they also have a lot of healthy delicious food that's NOT on the cleanse diet, like a whole cooler full of mouth-watering cheeses.  I think I crave cheese even more than the leftover Halloween candy lurking in my house.  When the 14th hits, I'm throwing myself a Harvarti Parti. nom nom nom  Other food fantasies:  beer cheese soup & lavosh from Lazlo's and banh mi.

Eating for One

Well, I'm at it again.  I'm on Day #2 of an abbreviated 12-day cleanse.  In January, I did Whole Living's 21-Day Action Plan.  Basically, I went 21 days without:

- processed foods
- added sugar
- dairy
- gluten
- caffeine
- alcohol

This time, my friend Audrey & I are shortening it to 12 days, & I'm armed with a juicer.  I drank some green juice this morning, and I've got a sweet potato in the oven.  You can check out my other blog, http://whatnikkiate.blogspot.com, to see what I'm eating.

Yesterday, I was talking to my parents on the phone & mentioned the cleanse.  My mom asked why I was doing it.  "Well, I just feel like my eating habits have gotten out of control, and nothing even sounds good to me lately.  Even meat is grossing me out - you know what I mean?"  My parents were quiet for a second, and then my mom mumbled something & giggled.  She thought I was pregnant.

Not quite, Mom, but I am getting plenty of folate!

Learning about sweeteners

I’m on Day 6 of no artificial sweeteners, and I’ve gotta say – this is a useful “Without”.  When I used to look through the list of ingredients on a wrapper, aside from sugar & aspartame, I had no idea which sweeteners were natural and which were artificial.  Everything ending in –ose started to freak me out.  Now, I’ll try to avoid saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, and neotame.  I’m cool with Truvia (stevia).

Even though I’ll try to avoid them altogether , starting Monday I’m gonna make Ben do a blind test with me and some waters sweetened with various stuff so I can nail down which one is the culprit!

Also, I’ve been missing pop.  Even the syrups for homemade pop have artificial sweeteners.  So does Crystal Light.  Then I found Crystal Light Pure at the store!  Sweet! (pun intended)  And now I just found THIS!

No pain...yet

Hershey bars and beer have no artificial sweetener!  Woohoo!

So far, no painful reactions to anything I’ve eaten.  I made coconut-curry chicken with quinoa last night, and hash browns & eggs this morning (with tomato & cheese).  My friend Brandee gave me a bag full of apples she’d picked, so I juiced them last night & drank my no-sugar-added juice this morning J 

This is making me want to try the cleanse again!

A Week Without Artificial Sweeteners

It’s another food one!  This week, I’m going A Week Without…Artificial Sweeteners.

This one came out of the reaction I was having to drinking pop.  Frappucino doesn’t seem to affect me, so that could rule out caffeine.  Carbonation from our homemade pop machine doesn’t always affect me, either.  I had a bad reaction last night after a very healthy dinner at my parents’ house, so I’m suspicious of the Splenda that my mom put on the fresh strawberries for dessert.  I Googled it, and found several articles like this one.  Could aspartame or Splenda could be the cause??

At home, I’ve got:

-          Honey

-          Sucralose (generic brand Splenda)

-          Simple syrup

-          Agave syrup

-          Stevia drops

-          Brown sugar

-          Truvia

…notice that white, granular sugar is not on that list.  Weird.  In all honesty, I don’t USE a lot of these – unless I’m baking cookies or something.  That’s why they’ve kind of piled up!  Ben & I may have to do an experiment after this week to see if I have a reaction to each of these J

Most of the artificial sweeteners in my diet come from processed foods that I buy (e.g. Coke Zero).  That’s why it was tricky finding a grab-and-go breakfast at Walgreens this morning.  Pop tarts?  No.  Egg McMuffin?  No.  Donut?  No.  Ashamed of my recent breakfast habits?  Yes.

“But Nikki, why didn’t you cook a healthy breakfast at home?”

That’s my plan tonight – to make-ahead a breakfast casserole that I can eat all week.

“Why didn’t you just grab a piece of fruit?”

Why didn’t you….shut up?  (no good excuse here.)

Here’s what I found, which only lists “sugar” and “brown sugar syrup” as sweetening ingredients.

Here’s hoping my week is a sweet one!

Caffeine Reaction?

Done!  My second "Week Without Pop" is in the books, and I'm 99% sure I'm giving up my Coke Zero habit.  It seems I've developed a reaction to it: chest wall pain.

Before you tell me to call 9-1-1 & get into an ambulance - know this:

- I've suspected all along that it is gas or something (you're welcome for that visual!)
- I had all of my numbers checked by the Nebraska Heart Institute at the end of 2010, and they said I was the "picture of health" when it came to my heart
- No heart attack history in my family - just high blood pressure/cholesterol issues on one side
- I live with a hypochondriac heart attack "expert" who wants to rush me to the hospital for paper cuts, and even HE says that my symptoms don't match a heart attack.

I am not a doctor.  My hypochondric husband is not a doctor.  This blog is not medical advice.  I take chest pain very seriously, and if I've learned anything from working with the American Heart Association & going through the BetterU program, you should too!  In fact, this is a good reminder to go get my numbers checked again.

OK - disclaimers said, here's what happened:

Everytime I drank a diet pop, I'd start having chest pain.  Exercise didn't affect it, and it normally happened while I was sitting down.  It seemed to correlate STRONGLY to pop.  So, I gave it up for a week.  Symtoms vanished.  This morning, for the first time in over a week, I had a pop.  Like clockwork, the pain is back.  I think my Coke-Zero-with-breakfast tradition is over.

Sidenote:  We got a soda machine (basically a carbonator) for our wedding, and since my Week Without Pop had ended, I made some fizzy Crystal Light "pop" yesterday.  No symptoms.  I think it could be a reaction to caffeine or another additive.