A New Food-itude

Well, people, yesterday was my first official day off the juice, so to speak.  I did start the day with a pear-blueberry-banana smoothie, just 'cuz it's so damned delicious!  But by mid morning, I was ready for some mastication.  (I love that word... it sounds so dirty, but it's not.)  More than anything, I've been craving vegetables.  Crazy, right?  A week off food and all that talk about motor-boating pizzas, and now all I can think about is salad?!  'Tis true, I'm afraid.  I wasn't hungry enough to put together a salad, but I had some steam-in-bag frozen butternut squash in the freezer, so I nuked that.  I tossed it with a little coconut oil, some maple syrup (grade B... since I've got like 3 jugs of it left!), some cinnamon, and a little salt.  It was so delicious and comforting, not to mention beautiful... that bright yellow-orange with flecks of cinnamon?  Come on!  It was exactly what I needed to get me through the rest of the morning.  The husbie and I decided we'd hit up Whole Foods for lunch, but we wouldn't be able to leave until The Precious finished her nap.  It's like she knows when we're waiting around for her to wake up and decides to sleep even longer just to be a pain in the ass.  But if I'm counting on her to sleep so I can get things accomplished, she's wide awake in less than an hour.  Sigh.  Can't win.  I microwaved some edamame to munch on while we waited for her to wake up, but I forgot Jake won't touch soy with a 10ft pole if he can help it (something about it raising estrogen levels in men and giving them moobs - that's what happened to Jeremy Piven, allegedly), so he opted for carrots and cucumber w/ dip.  I should note that he no longer feels the need to don the "cloak of shame" during snack time.  Baby girl finally woke up, and in a good mood! Bonus!

We got to Whole Foods and opted to eat first and shop later.  I hit up the salad/hot food bar and started taking spoonfuls here and there of various things that looked good or that I'd never tried and wanted to.  I wasn't feeling any of the meat dishes, so I grabbed some veggie stuff and a couple of different pasta salads.  I didn't grab a huge amount of food, but I still couldn't even finish half of it.  The stomach has definitely suffered some shrinkage.  (Not that I mind - my portions pre-cleanse were a little out of control.)  A few of the dishes I got were completely off-putting.  I can't really pin-point the specific flavors I found foul.  I think it was more that there was just too much of the flavors.  I tried the smoked mozzarella pasta salad that had been calling my name since the first day I started shopping there, and was, unfortunately, disappointed.  The cheese was just a little too... I don't know, mozzarella-y?  Any cheese cravings I've been having have been for bleu, goat, parmigiano, aged gouda, and things like that. Funky cheese - that's what I want!  (I totally just opened things up for a Fromunda joke, didn't I?  You know who you are, and you can Shutty!)  It didn't help that all I could taste in the pasta salad was mayonnaise.  There was just too much.  It needed some acid like vinegar or lemon juice to cut through all that fat.  It's something I'd like to make at home and Fabulize.

I didn't really have a shopping list, something which always elicits a whiney "Oh, noooo!" from my husband.  He LOVES for me to mosey through all the aisles going, "Oooo - look at THIS!"  He LOVES it.  Especially when The Diva is with us and putting on her usual performance.  Good times!  NOT.  But I did get some cool stuff... red quinoa, chia seeds, hemp protein powder, du puy lentils (which I'm gonna use to make Ina Garten's insanely delicious warm French lentil salad), organic whole grain baked chicken nuggets for the kiddies, all natural bacon-ranch(!) popcorn, and Vosgue's alderwood-smoked-salt-and-BACON dark chocolate.  Oh, yeah, baby.  (I draw the line of my vegetarian tendencies at bacon.)  You just can't find this stuff at the regular grocery.  I was in heaven!  This makes me a total foodie nerd, I know, but I own it.  One other thing I picked up was Arctic Zero.  Have you heard of this?  I know all of you TAM-ers have, because it's on the food plan as a dessert option.  I'd never seen it anywhere before this, so I had to check it out.  It looks like pint of ice cream, but it's made from whey protein (safe for most dairy allergies) and has 150 calories in THE WHOLE PINT.  I grabbed the strawberry flavor for me and the mint chocolate for Jake.  On the way out of the store, I stopped by the cafe and bought a few of their mini-cannolis - I'd been drooling over them for weeks, and since the craving wasn't going away, I indulged and got a traditional, a pistachio, and a chocolate one.  They were each about 3" in length and about an inch around, and I thought the four of us could share.  We ate them when we got home and were NOT disappointed.  That shit was da bomb, yo.  I had one or two bites of each one (about the equivalent of one whole mini cannoli) and was so satisfied.  I didn't feel guilty or like I'd over done it.  It was just right.  I love when I can have my cake and eat it, too and not feel like a gluttonous fat ass afterward!

For dinner, I made Tracy's veggie-protein soup, minus the protein.  It's basically just carrots, celery, and broccoli simmered in vegetable broth with some parsley and black pepper thrown in at the end.  I added some lemon zest, as well.  You can add tofu or chicken or whatever floats your boat in the protein department.  I hadn't made it for months, and I remember the first time 'round adding coconut milk, cilantro, scallions, lime juice, and siracha to boost the flavor, because I found it a little blah.  A week of cleansing, however, has apparently reset my palate.  Not only did I have to dilute the broth with water because I found it too salty, but both Jake and I were marveling at how amazingly tasty the carrots were.  CARROTS.  What?!  But they were.  They were sweet and delicious.  The kids liked it, too.  And they went nuts for those chicken nuggets, by the way.  Even out of the microwave!  My little guy, who is quite the kid food connoisseur, said they were "waaaay better than McDonald's."   (So if you can get your mitts on some Earth's Best Baked Chicken Nuggets, they're kid tested and approved.)  Later, we tried out the Arctic Zero.  Not. A. Fan.  Especially of the strawberry.  Hurl.  It tasted like a strawberry protein shake.  If strawberry protein shakes are your deal, then getchur freak on, by all means.  You can have mine!  The only way it's gonna get used up in this house is if I put it in a beet smoothie.  Because maybe the beets would mask the taste.  In other words, raw beets taste better than strawberry Arctic Zero.  Hell, asshole might taste better than strawberry Arctic Zero.  I haven't tasted asshole (other than in hot dogs), so I can't be sure.  The mint chocolate was bearable, but it's got a weird aftertaste.  I just asked Jake to describe what the aftertaste is like, and he said, "Bigfoot's dick." 

So there you go.  Personally, I'd rather have a half cup of Haagen Dazs than a pint of Bigfoot's Dick.

I put off the workout until almost 9pm... downer.  But I sucked it up and cleared some space and did my first day on Level 2 of Meta.  Cringe.  I remembered hating Level 2 the first go round, and this time was no different, unfortunately.  Remember that whole promise to myself to do full reps?  Well I fucking LIED.  I was able to do more than I did when I first started Level 2 back in November, and I was able to go full reps on some of the moves.  But those damned planky-kicky-moves get me every time.  Those, and that damned half triangle thing she does at the end.  I pushed through to 3/4 of the reps on the really tough moves on the right side, but by the time I switched to the left, my right (supporting) leg was in Muscle. Failure.  I almost busted my face on the mat a couple of times from falling over.  I did more like half the reps of the tough moves on the left side.  If I keep this up, my ass is gonna be its own before and after pic.  I love Tracy Anderson, but by the time the cool-down started, I was ready to tell the bitch to fuck OFF.  And I mean that in the nicest way possible, Tracy.  Really.

The Home Stretch

Days 6 and 7
The past two days have been full of pulp.  Pulp in and pulp out.  In fact, I've changed the term pooping to "pulping."  But at least I won't be carrying around that "roughage baby" for the next nine months.  Yesterday was kind of uneventful.  The highlight was discovering the deliciousness that is the pear banana blueberry smoothie.  I food-gasmed.  Twice.  I guess I hadn't realized how much I'd missed bananas.  A little later, Jake's hunger got the best of him, and he gave into a snack craving - a small serving of jalapeno ranch Chip-Ins (gluten free popcorn chips by Popcorn, Indiana).  Jerk.  I'm just kidding (kinda)... he's done far better and lasted far longer this week than I ever imagined he would, especially considering the wild game of musical cleanses I dragged him on.  He's not quitting our smoothies, but he needed to... supplement.  And he was feeling some majah guilt over his lack of willpower.  This is how the little cheater my darling husband spent his snack-time:

The bag of chips is under there with him. 

I did get in my Metamorphosis Level 1 Omnicentric muscular structure workout.  I am OUTTA SHAPE, though, lemme tell ya.  I hadn't worked out in over 2 weeks and have lost some lean muscle on the cleanse, and I could definitely feel it.  Level 1 is much less challenging by TAM standards (and my body was grateful last night!), but even so, I could feel a huuuuge difference doing it last night as compared to 6 months ago when I did it the first time.  I was more comfortable with the moves (having done them all before), my form was much better, and I could really feel the moves deep into the muscles.  It was almost like I could feel my accessory muscles waking up... but more like from a long nap rather than from the full-on comatose state they were in back in October.  It was encouraging.  I decided not to push myself too far and attempt cardio.  I was feeling pretty shaky, and I think I'm going to wait to start adding cardio until Monday.  After my workout, it all of a sudden occured to me that I've reached my weight loss goals.  (That pesky .2lbs of excitement "pulped" its way out.)  I kind of just sat there for a minute, absorbing this.  It's been such a long road that it feels odd (in a good way) to not have to be constantly trying to lose that next pound.  (Not that I was psycho about it, but it's always been in the back of my mind.)  It's all about maintenance now.  I'm planning to be careful, of course, but it's like I've been holding my breath for nearly two years and can finally let it out.  I have A LOT of work left to go in the toning and tightening department, but I know if I keep up with my workouts and eat in the "naturally thin" kind of way, I'll be able to wear my skinny jeans whenever I want.  It was a pretty amazing feeling, and one that I haven't felt in a long time.


Today I had a mid-morning hair appointment, so I was a little nervous about all the "pulping."  Thankfully, it was a non-issue.  It was amazing to get away from the kids and have nearly four whole hours of "me" time in the salon chair.  My blood sugar got a little out of whack since I kind of missed lunch, but I had a smoothie as soon as I got home and felt a lot better.  The most exciting part of the day was our trip to the grocery to buy SOLID FOODS. What, what?!  Ohhh, yeah - tomorrow we are CHEWING AGAIN.  We picked up some things for soup and salad.  We might even go CUH-RAZY and hit up Whole Foods for lunch.  I have been dreaming about the vegetarian wonderland of their salad bar.  I'm not a vegetarian, but that's the kind of food I've been craving.  (Okay, so I'd LOVE a grilled shrimp quesadilla, too, but I'm trying to ease myself back in a little here!)  The grocery trip was actually a little overwhelming.  I've had so little in the way of choices lately that the sudden unlimited amount of them has me filled with indecision.  I'm gonna have to pull out the cookbooks (that I've been avoiding like the plague!) and start getting ideas for the week.  I'm still going to be drinking smoothies (they were already a part of my everyday, or maybe every-other-day, life before the cleanse) for breakfast most days.  Caffeine will no longer be off limits, but I'm not planning to go back to my morning cup and a half of coffee everyday.  I hadn't even really been enjoying it anymore, at least not during the week.  I think I'm going to save it for weekend mornings when everything's more relaxed and I actually have time to sit and savor it.  That's not to say there won't be the occasional stop at Starbucks during the week, though.  I haven't gone completely off the deep end!  Tonight I still have to do my second day of Meta Level 1, but it's comforting knowing that it's the last time I have to do the moves... starting Level 2 tomorrow!

On The Juice

Day 5

Woke up with a sore throat today.  Boo.  It's the first one I've had since we moved to Hawaii.  I don't get sick often, so maybe this is a sign of toxins leaving my body.  It could also be from the weakened immunity that comes with cleansing.  Or maybe it's the universe mocking me for complaining about tasting cough drops!  Probably.  No midnight trips to the toilet last night, so that was a bonus.  I did have some movement first thing in the morning.  Made me feel worthy of this badge of honor a friend shared with me...

I got on the scale to check the numbers, and it read 120.2.  Actually, it read 120.0 the first time - seeing my goal weight stare back at me was wonderful!  So wonderful that I wanted to see it again and again, so I got off and back on several times just to make sure it was real.  The universe scoffed, and on the third or fourth attempt, it rose to 120.2 and stayed there.  Apparently, excitement weighs .2 lbs.  Sorry, Universe.  I'll try and contain it next time.  But .2 pounds wasn't going to put a damper on my day.  I grabbed my skinny jeans out of the "one day" pile and tried them on.  I was able to button them a couple weeks ago, but when I stopped sucking in for all my might, the muffin top made a full 360.  Not a good look.  (Though this doesn't seem to stop a lot of women from rocking it, does it?  Very unfortunate.)  Today, however, those puppies buttoned and NO MUFFIN TOP.  Woot! Woot!  I haven't been able to wear those jeans since July of 2009!  (Which was when Jake came home from Afghanistan and our Happily Ever After also became a little Heavier Ever After.)  I took the jeans off (before the universe decided to split a seam in the crotch!) and went downstairs to get my juice on.

I don't own a juicer, so I've adapted some recipes from The 3 Day Cleanse to fit my blender, so my "juices" will be more like smoothies.  Here's the menu for the next 3-5 days.

 
These are the ingredients for each smoothie.  I'll be adding enough liquid to each (coconut water, Silk Coconut Milk, or unsweetened vanilla almond milk, depending on what I feel like at the time) to get everything blending in my Vitamix.  I may also add a little stevia for sweetness, just to make some of these more palatable.

Greens w/ Apple

1 handful of spinach, 3 stalks kale, ½ of a cucumber, 2 golden delicious apples, 1 lemon, ½ a handful of parsley

Spinach Blueberry Apple Lemon

  1 handful of spinach, 2 c. frozen blueberries, 1 granny smith apple, 1 lemon

Spinach Carrot Pineapple

  1 handful of spinach, 2 medium carrots, 1/3 of a large pineapple, 1 lime

Apple Beet Pear Ginger

  2 small granny smith apples, 2 small pears, 1 beet, 1” piece of ginger

Pineapple Orange Celery

  1/3 of a large pineapple, 2 oranges, 3 stalks of celery, small handful of mint

Carrot Apple Parsley Beet Orange

  2 medium carrots, 2 granny smith apples, 1 beet, 1 orange, small handful of parsley

Carrot Apple Ginger

  3 medium carrots, 2 granny smith apples, 1’ piece of ginger

Pear Banana Blueberry

  2 pears, 2 fresh (not frozen) bananas, 1 ½ cups frozen blueberries, ice

Strawberry Banana

  2 cups frozen strawberries, 2 frozen bananas, 3 cups almond milk

Nut Milk

  1 c. raw nuts soaked 1 hour in 2 c. water and drained, 2 c. water, 3 tsp. coconut oil, ½ tsp. vanilla extract, 4 tsp. agave nectar, pinch of cinnamon, pinch of salt.

The first cup of the day was greens with apple.  It was pretty... bleck.  All I could taste was grass parsley.  But I'm not a fan of parsley anyway, so no big surprise there.  Will definitely be adding a packet of stevia to this one in the future.  But it was really filling, and it felt good to have that "bulk" in my stomach.  Mid-morning I had the apple-beet-pear-ginger.  I went ahead and added the stevia, just because I have had beets in my smoothies before and know how strong their flavor can be, plus my pears were hard as rocks.  It was SUPER tasty. And gorgeous!  So gorgeous, that I have to show evidence.

Isn't she pretty? TELL HER SHE'S PRETTY!  Oh, sorry... got carried away. 

I got to my "lunch" of spinach-blueberry-apple-lemon smoothie later than planned.  My baby girlfriend fell asleep on the couch, and so cherished is her silence naptime that I feared to bungle about the kitchen and wake her prematurely.  But once I finally drank it, it was tasty.  By the time I got to the pineapple-orange-celery, (which was pretty damn good, I might add) I was so full of fiber that I couldn't finish it.  I think the juice versions of these drinks are about 8 oz portions, but the my blender versions are running more like 10-20oz.  That's a lot of pulp.  So much, in fact, that I was looking 3 months pregnant by late afternoon.  Not exactly food baby... more like roughage baby.  THAT should be fun tomorrow.  I didn't have enough room to finish the spinach-carrot-pineapple, either.  It wasn't bad, but not the best, either.  I pushed my leftovers onto my son with a "Drink it. It's good for you." and a Look that said You Don't Have a Choice In This.  His first taste of it resulted in a wrinkled nose, but he sucked it up. (Literally, huh?)  I waited a couple of hours before attempting the cashew nut milk, just to give my gut some time to make room.  To quote Randy Jackson, "It was just okay for me, Dawg."  Kind of reminded me of canned coconut milk, but not so coconutty.  Within a few minutes, I could feel my stomach going, "What IS this? FATS?!"  I feared there might be an uprising, but the feelings passed.  I really like that this juice cleanse provides some healthy fats, because they'll help the body process all these fantastic nutrients in the juices.  And for the first time all week, I wasn't wanting to gnaw my arm off when I lay down for bed.  I'm thinking tomorrow that I might strain some of the smoothies to remove some pulp.  10lbs of roughage baby is not something I want to "give birth to" every day.

Road Rage & A New Phase

Day 4
I woke up again at 12:30am to a party in my tummy.  I dragged myself into the bathroom and waited for the unwanted guests to trickle out the exit.  I guess trickling out was better than everyone trying to leave at once... wouldn't want to wake the neighbors.  Went back to bed and slept okay - not as crappily (I'm making crappily a word - spell check can suck it) as the night before, but not as blissfully as the first night.  I decided to forgo the poop senna tea in the morning, because the morning dose seems to be kicking in right about the time I have to pick my kiddo up from school.  Waiting for 25 minutes in the pick-up line with a puckered butt-hole while praying things don't escalate into a "full blown shit-uation" (thank you for that, Parker), is not how I like to spend my afternoon.

Anyway, on to orange juice.  All of the Master Cleanse info I read said you should "ease out" of the lemonade diet for a few days to give your very rested digestive system a chance to wake up before you start shoving chili dogs down your pie-hole.  For day one of the ease out, they recommend drinking only freshly squeezed orange juice, before moving on to juices and broths on day two, and fresh fruits and veggies on day three.  So Day 4 of my re-vamped cleansing plan  is orange juice day.  I have to be honest and tell you I was having no part of manually juicing enough oranges for nearly a gallon of juice (had to have enough for Jake, too), so I shammed and bought sent Jake to go buy a couple of jugs of Simply Orange - some with pulp and some without, since I wasn't sure how my tummy would react.  Yes, Simply Orange is pasteurized and therefore probably lacking many important enzymes, and the nutrition police would probably issue me a citation if they knew (don't be narc'n on me, ya'll!), but it was easier to just grab have Jake grab the bottles and be done with it.  So first thing in the morning, I mixed up a glass of half pulp/half no pulp and took a sip to test the orangey waters.  It. Was. Delicious.  Part of me wanted to grab a jug and go straight OTB until no drop remained.  But I stayed cool and continued to sip.  Surprisingly, after a few sips, I found it really rich and actually added some water to dilute the flavor a bit.  Who knew that 3 days of lemonade would turn me into an orange juice wimp?  I continued my morning with drinking diluted juice every couple of hours and water in between.

That afternoon I had to make a trip out to Whole Foods (which is only about 12 miles away, but with Honolulu traffic the trip can take 45 minutes one way) to pick up some organic veggies and herbs that I needed for the next few days' juicing and that I can't get closer to home.  After the school pick-up, with the kids loaded in the back seat, I made the trip.  The traffic was unexpectedly heavy for 2:30pm, but things were pretty calm in the car, so I stayed calm.  We made the drive in about 40 minutes or so.  Once there, my daughter refused to sit in the shopping cart, so I was carrying her for most of the trip.  (It's times like these that I'm glad she's teeny-tiny, because if she were the size of most toddlers her age, I'd have a hernia.)  Lemme tell ya, shoving produce into those stupid, impossible to open baggies is hard enough without a toddler grabbing at things every 30 seconds.  Grrr.  And for $3.99 per bunch of kale, regardless of how local and organic it is, I feel like there should be a produce boy following me around and doing shit like that for me.  Or they need a kid room where you can drop them off while you shop.  Like Ikea.  Anyway, for all the squawking my diva daughter was doing, my son was being an angel in comparison.  Treats have been pretty hard to come by in the house over the last week (outta sight outta mind, yeah?), so I decided to be a "nice mom" and let him pick out a treat from the pastry case at their cafe.  He picked the mint brownie.  Of course!  It was a 3"x4" and 1" thick block of brownie, with what looked like a whipped mint cream cheese topping with chocolate frosting on top of that!  The kid's got taste, what can I say?  I had them bag it to-go and tried to erase it from my memory.  (He ate half of it that night, and half is still wrapped up. Taunting me.)  This was about the point that my daughter decided she now wanted to sit in the cart.  When it's time to leave. Of course.  I got everyone/everything loaded in the car (well, my son pretty much loads himself) and headed home.  I got about 2 miles before this happened.

Except there were more palm trees and less smog. Fabulous.  As we inched along, I just kept reminding myself that rush hour in Hawaii must be better than rush hour anywhere else.  Because it's Hawaii! Right??  And then this happened in the back seat.

Because she was out of pretzels.  Girlfriend looks tiny, but she's got some lungs.  I did my best not to strangle her to explain things to her, and when that didn't work, I tried to tune her out.  This was about the point that some asshole decided to cut me off.  And then THIS happened.

It only lasted a minute or two, and no one got hurt, but yeah.  That's what 4 days of no solids and a side of PMS will do to you.  Or at least it's what it did to me. :/  Pretty soon, traffic started moving, and we made it home.

Once my little girlfriend was tucked in bed for the night at 7pm, I decided to go back out and finish up the grocery shopping.  The one I usually frequent is open til 9pm, so I headed there.  I have to say, for someone who is very rarely alone in the car, the silence was blissful.  I was feelin' good.  I got to the store, grabbed a cart, and headed into the entrance, only to be stopped dead in my tracks by a sign which read: CLOSED FOR ANNUAL INVENTORY.  Huh??? I was so dumbfounded that it took me several seconds to process that I wasn't going to be getting groceries there that night.  Don't worry, I didn't go all Hulk again, but I'm convinced this was only due to the blissfully quiet car ride I enjoyed just moments before.  It was almost 7:25pm, and the only other grocery that would carry all the produce I needed for the next few days was open til 8pm.  I didn't really have a choice but to try, unless I wanted another day of OJ.  Um, NO THANKS.  So I hopped back in the car and drove with too much determination to notice the peace and quiet.  I made it to their lot and was through their door by 7:35.  Thank God I had a list!  I grabbed everything I needed and checked out and was back in the car by 7:56. Woot! Woot!  If the kids had been present, that same list would have taken me an hour and a half in the store.  I may never go shopping with them again!  In. My. Dreams.

Hope you all have better luck today than I did at keeping your inner Hulks... inner.

My Lemonade Diet Is Going Sour

Day 3

Today is not a good day, people.  I slept like crap last night.  Gone was the peaceful slumber of the night before.  I woke up at 12:30am with telltale rumbles in my gut.  I was back in bed by 12:45, but I woke up what seemed like every hour.  When I got up a little before 7am, the headache from the night before was back.  I weighed in and was down to 122.4.  Even the .8lb loss wasn't enough to brighten my spirits.  I had some tea, but it took a good hour to get the whole cup down.  I wasn't feeling it.  I also wasn't feeling the lemonade.  Just smelling the lemons in the kitchen (the heightened sense of smell common on the cleanse had kicked in) was making me nauseous.  I waited what was probably too long to have my first glass, so I doubled up the serving to make up for it.  It wasn't enjoyable, but I drank it.  But for the rest of the day, all I could taste was honey-lemon cough drop.  This is pretty much my worst nightmare, because I HATE cough drops.  The flavor is up there with cough syrup for me.  Maybe it stems from a childhood full of sickness (before I had my tonsils out and tubes put in)?  I don't know, but the hatred is there, and it's a deep-rooted loathing.  I don't know why I didn't just think to brush my teeth (as Jake suggested later) to get rid of the lingering flavor, maybe the lack of energy was making me stupid.  Anyway, by 4pm, that double dose of lemonade was all I'd had.  I was staying busy, so I wasn't feeling ravenous from the lack of calories.  I'm the type of person who forgets to eat when she's distracted.  But I knew it would be better for me to drink some more, so I mixed up another serving.  Just smelling it was bad, but when I took a drink the gag reflex set in.  I stopped and took a breath and told myself to get over it and try again.  So I did, and this time I almost wasn't able to overcome the gag reflex.  I don't know about you, but cayenne is not at the top of my list of foods I think I'd enjoy throwing up!  It felt like my body was literally rejecting the lemonade.  I thought, "What if I can find a substitute? Like limes?" But even the thought of that was giving me gaggy feelings.  The citrus/syrup blend is just something I can't stomach anymore.  I don't want to give up, but I know if I continue on this track I'll avoid the lemonade at all costs and end up starving myself.  I want to cleanse my body of toxins, not become anorexic!  I talked to Jake about how I was feeling.  He was very understanding and wanted me to do what's right for me.  I felt like such an asshole! Here I was the one who got us started on this whole thing, and now I'm wanting to jump ship?  I told him I would think about it some more before I made any decisions.

I remembered that another blogger Shan had done The 3 Day Cleanse back in January and really liked how she felt afterwards, and I remembered thinking that the juices she talked about sounded pretty yummy.  I went back and read up on it, and it sounded like something I could ease into pretty easily.  As part of the Master Cleanse "Ease Out" you're supposed to juice for a day anyway, so I thought, maybe I can just extend that a few days?  I talked it over with Jake, and he said it sounded like good plan.  We'd spend Day 4 of our cleanse drinking only orange juice to prep our systems for more complex digestion. On Day 5 we'd start juicing and keep it up for 3-5 days, depending on how we felt.  The goal is 5 days.  Here's a link to a kind of recipe cheat sheet Shan put together for her 5 day cleanse.  I don't actually own a juicer, but I have a Vitamix, so I'm going to adjust the recipes to fit that.  I'm thinking I'll just need less of each ingredient for the same volume of "juice" since there won't be any pulp leftover.  I'm planning to drink quite a bit of water to account for all the extra fiber I'll be getting.  I'm also planning to get an early start on my Metamorphosis reboot if my energy level feels up to it upon starting the juicing.  I'm still feeling some guilt about veering off my original course, but I know I have to do what feels right for me.  And this way I'll still be getting a lot of cleansing benefits.  I have to admit, though... part of me is going to miss knowing that all the "waste product" moving out is years of backed up crap.  I'm sure I'll still be getting rid of some of it, but I can't imagine it will be to that same degree.  That part of Master Cleanse was very empowering. 

I'll be pounding orange juice tomorrow.  I have a feeling it will have never tasted so GOOD.