Planning for Success

Hey friends! Thank you all so much for helping me count down to my glorious day of freedom last week :) Your kind words always help me get through the busy times! I enjoyed my day off by spending some time with Delilah and then relaxing and watching a bunch of TV. Probably not the most productive way to spend my time but I was able to rest my body and I was happy to be able to do that.

Today's post has a little bit of everything I think! I have a meal from yesterday, some planning for the week and some inspiration :)

Last night's dinner was really yummy. A home made Chipotle bowl with rice and beans, salsa, daiya and avocado. I served with with a tortilla since I'm too much of a spazz to roll a decent burrito that actually stays together. After this meal I put the rest of my Daiya in the freezer because a) I've been eating it too much lately and b) It seems to be lasting forever! Seriously the bag just won't end!

The perfect bite!

Today I took a ton of time to get a lot of fruit ready for smoothies for the week. I really want to get back into the habit of drinking smoothies every day and being prepared is key. I added 4 more bags of cherries to my other two in the freezer (I'm going to make these last!) as well as some strawberries. I had the bananas already and just added them to the pile so you could see how much fruit I have ha! I also have half a bag of frozen blueberries as well as some frozen pineapple. I think I'm set on smoothies for a while!

While I was cleaning I found this old fortune and thought it was so perfect for the headspace I'm in right now. "You'll never know what you can do until you try." This is so true!

So I have a question. I just tried to upload another photo and it said that I'm out of space in my Picasa account or something. I didn't even know I had a Picasa account and when I clicked to get details it said I had 5 GB of drive space that I wasn't using. I'm confused I guess and if I don't upgrade does that mean I can't upload any more photos at all? Has this happened to any of you, and if so did you just pay to upgrade? Please let me know, I'm so confused! 

I hope that you all had a great day and that Monday wasn't too tough for you!

Working for the Weekend

Hey everyone! I'm sorry it has been a few days since I've posted. As you know I had a very busy weekend and I was feeling the effects of that yesterday. My entire body was sore and I was incredibly exhausted. Other than working a few hours in the morning I barely got out of bed. I'm going to grit my teeth and get through this week and then I can finally enjoy some time off this weekend.

On the plus side, I've been eating some great meals. Today's meals are exceptionally yummy.

Breakfast was a delicious and refreshing Cherry Chocolate Smoothie. The fresh cherries that I froze are absolutely amazing and this breakfast tastes more like a decadent treat than a healthy breakfast smoothie.

For lunch I made myself another tomato and spinach tofu scramble. The seasoning is so simple but so delicious. All I use is salt, pepper, garlic powder and nutritional yeast. It was so flavorful! Served with a brown rice tortilla and a peach.

For snack I'm going to bring some seaweed snacks and a larabar. I really need to make sure I eat every few hours to keep my energy up and my metabolism firing.

Dinner will be this dish of stuffed grape leaves, pickles and carrots. I ran out of hummus, I need to make sure I get to Trader Joe's this weekend!

My appointment with my Dr. went well other than the fire alarm and subsequent evacuation of the building. She said my blood work results were excellent and I've been doing all the right things to take care of my shoulder. She told me that I need to be on top of my nutrition and that skipping meals (unintentionally... it happens because of my schedule) is not an option and that planning is key. So, I plan on planning :)

OK friends, hopefully I will be able to pop in throughout the week with yummy meals to share. I'm so excited about having the weekend off! I'm planning on relaxing and hopefully prepping lots of meals for the week. Just have to get through the next few days and then I can enjoy my freedom. :)

I hope you all had a great weekend and that Monday treated you well :) Have a great day!

WTF Wednesday!

Hey everyone! Happy Hump Day! I'll be very happy when today is over since it is my long day at work. I started off my day by taking some time to prep my meals, make homemade walnut butter and come up with a new smoothie (which means you all get another recipe!). A pretty productive day so far and it is only 9:20 AM!

I woke up this morning feeling a bit tired and wanted a bright and sunny smoothie to wake up me and to bring a little sunshine in to the day (it is a gross, gray day here). Check out this gorgeous smoothie!

I'm calling this my Good Morning, Sunshine Smoothie! It was so delicious and definitely brought a little cheer to my day :) Here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

1 small frozen banana

5 fresh strawberries

1/2 cup frozen pineapple

3/4 cup favorite plant milk

1 serving vanilla protein powder*

Directions:

Blend all ingredients and enjoy!

*I always use Vega One protein powder because it has my greens, probiotics and omegas included. No need to add spinach unless I want an extra green boost!

For lunch I'm having a hummus plate including stuffed grape leaves, 2 farmer's market pickles, 2 carrots all sliced up and some hummus. This is going to be so good!

As I mentioned I whipped up a batch of Gabby's Banana Date Walnut Butter! I am going to have it as my afternoon snack with a sliced up gala apple. I'm bringing the little container with me but threw the mason jar with the rest of the batch in the photo. I only made a half batch because I only had 1 1/2 cups of walnuts. I tasted a bit of it (how can you resist) and this stuff is amazing! I also had to substitute some agave for the dates because I used all of mine up in the VaVaBars. I used 1/2 tsp because I didn't want it to be overwhelming with sweetness and it is perfect! Great recipe Gabby!

Here is the walnut butter in all of it's glory :)

Dinner is an unpictured salad.

I realized I haven't updated you guys with my pantry challenge situation! I've been doing amazing with it, really dwindling down my pantry and using up lots of grains, beans, nuts/seeds, dates, etc. I'm really happy with how well that has been going!

I also decided to add an item to my summer list and that is to add tags to my 400+ posts. It is a daunting task but I feel like it should be done! Hopefully I'll be able to make some progress with it :)

I hope you all have a great day! Sorry this is a rushed post but I have to finish getting ready for work. Hopefully the day goes quickly!

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse Take 2: Day 15

Hey everyone! I was going to skip this post because it is more of the same with the blasphemous use of recycled pics but I decided to do it anyway. My phone is charging for the long day and my equipment is packed so I had to use some photos I've already taken of meals I've already eaten. This will be a quick post ;)

Woke up early and was at the gym by 8. I decided not to do impact running because I have a long day of being on my feet so I did 45 minutes of intervals on the arc trainer and 10 minutes on the rowing machine. Very light rowing but I figured it would be different!

This is what I'm guaranteed to be eating today:

Post workout I had a Blueberry Banana smoothie. It's very similar to one of the recovery puddings in Thrive by Brendan Brazier so I figured it was a good choice.

For lunch I'm going to have a Mexican Quinoa Bowl. I figure the high protein and some added healthy fats will stay with me for a while and fuel me through the first part of this long day.

VaVaBar as a snack. Again the dates are a great way to re-energize and the nuts give it some staying power :)

Cocktail hour is around 7 I think so it will be perfect and hopefully I'll be able to feast on some raw treats there. I've worked at this hall before and know how the vendor meals work so I won't be eating dinner so I'll make sure to fuel up at the cocktail hour :)

As a side note, I saw on Twitter that "Team Vega," a bunch of hardcore employees at Vega are training for Tough Mudder and have been posting videos on Youtube! I'm definitely going to be following!

Sorry for the boring post but I guess that's what the day calls for. Tomorrow should hopefully be far more exciting! Less than a week left of this cleanse, I'm in the home stretch! Feeling great!

Have a great Saturday!

Fun Friday: Summer List!

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I hope your week has treated you well and you are all ready for the weekend! I have one more day of work to go until I get to my day off and I can't wait for Sunday! I'm still planning on waking up really early and taking a nice 30 minute drive to the opening day of one of our Farmers Markets! Assuming I can get up of course. Today I did some more running and I'm feeling really good about it. Starting to build distance. I should be back up to my two miles in a week or two hopefully! I'll also start to strength train after my runs. Gotta get that upper body super strong for all the climbing I'm going to be doing! Who knows, maybe if I can get my arms all buff I'll have a reason to start a half sleeve tattoo ;)

OK so for today's Fun Friday I was inspired by Ingrid's Summer List that she posted a few days ago! Summers are really busy for me because of the wedding season, so I think it is really important to make this list because it will be a constant reminder for me to take the time to do things for myself. It is the best way to keep my sanity, my motivation and my happiness going when things get crazy.

Here's the list!

I'm sure it is obvious that Tough Mudder training is on the list. Running, strength training, endurance are all on the list. My nutrition goals are also tied in to Tough Mudder training.

Spend more time on the beach. I realized this past weekend when we were on the beach for the portraits how much I love the beach and how genuinely happy I was for the 30 minutes we were there. My absolute favorite time to go is first thing in the morning before anyone is awake. I like to watch the surfers and soak it all in and leave before the crowds get there. 

Go to the farmer's market more! I usually only go a few times every season because ours is so small. I should try and seek out larger ones and start buying locally grown produce. I chose this image because it is what I wish my farmer's market looked like! I really wish I had access to the Winter Park Farmer's Market I went to in Florida. It was so amazing.

Experiment with my dehydrator! I finally got it after lusting after it for at least a year so I need to make sure I get use out of it! I'm going to dehydrate everything in sight ;)

Eat mostly beautiful, raw foods. I have been feeling amazing on this cleanse (day 14 today!) and I want to keep it going so I'm going to try and maintain a mostly raw diet as a lifestyle instead of a cleanse. It'll be a little more lenient than the cleanse but I'll be following the same principles :) 

Be creative and crafty and complete more DIY projects. First up is this beachy hair spray! 

Finally (for now), I'd like to try and create more recipes. I feel like most of the food I eat is simple and I never write a recipe for anything because I feel like it doesn't need one. In reality, I should be writing down recipes because it's probably not as obvious as I think it is? And I figured I'd start off on this by including a recipe for you today! This is a recipe for my breakfast Carrot Cake Smoothie (pictured above). I've tried many Carrot Cake Smoothies but decided it was time to make my own!

Carrot Cake Smoothie!

1/4 cup oats (I used gf)

3/4 cup plant milk (I used Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk), plus a few tbsps

1 tbsp raisins

1 tbsp chopped walnuts

pumpkin pie spice to taste

1 giant carrot or 2 small carrots, grated

1 serving vanilla protein powder (I used Vanilla Almondilla Vega Energizing Smoothie Powder)*

As much ice as you like (you could probably also use a frozen banana!)

Directions:

1. The night before, combine oats, milk, raisins, walnuts and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl. Mix and cover and place in fridge overnight. 

2. Put contents of bowl in blender and add protein powder, carrots and ice (or banana).

3. Blend until smooth and add plant milk until you reach desired consistency. I added 2 tbsp.

4. Enjoy!

*I use the Vega Energizing smoothie powder because it has 2 servings of greens in it :) No spinach required in this one!

OK that's all for today! I will try to post something tomorrow before I leave for the long day of work. Tomorrow also officially starts the third week of my cleanse :) Home stretch my friends! 

I hope that you all enjoy your Friday evening! 

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse Take 2: Day 11

Hey everyone! I hope that everyone is finding their post holiday transition back to the grind to be smooth. At least it's only a 4 day week right? Well no not really because I have a wedding on Saturday but it's all good :) I'm getting used to the one day off a week deal again. I've gone way longer with no breaks so I make sure to enjoy every minute of my free time.

Today started off really well! I woke up and got my butt to the gym for some more running. I did the same 2 miles of intervals but switched it up a bit and shaved a minute off my time. It's still a pretty slow time but my motto for this training is "baby steps" ;) Not only did I improve my time but I felt so much better doing it. My breathing wasn't as labored, my legs weren't as sore and it seemed to be just a bit easier. And I am also comforted in knowing that it'll get easier every day. Progress people! After the intervals on the treadmill I hopped on the arc trainer and did 15 minutes just as a cool down.

Something I've come to realize in this cleanse is that my raw:cooked ratio is easiest for me to maintain when I just do one cooked meal and then the rest of my food for the day raw. I have a hard to doing a some cooked food and a big salad all in one meal. I prefer to eat a big salad pretty much every day for one meal and then just cook my other meal (breakfast is pretty much always a smoothie and when it's not, it's raw anyway). And my cooked meal tends to have a bunch of raw elements in it anyway so I'm definitely maintaining my mostly raw goals :) It'll be even easier once I get my dehydrator up and running! Of course today my cooked meal is all cooked because I said that but you know what I mean!

Here's what I ate today!

I tried to be mindful of using my breakfast to aid in post workout recovery so I chose my smoothie ingredients carefully. I used banana for the electrolyte replacement, frozen pineapple because it's an amazing anti-inflammatory, Vega protein powder and a big ol' handful of spinach because greens are great! It was very sweet so I only got through about 3/4 of it but it was good and hopefully it'll help my recovery :)

Late morning I snacked on some of my yummy strawberries.

Lunch was SOOOOO good! I made a veggie packed quesadilla with a little Daiya (1/8 cup) and a little avocado. I packed it full of spinach, onions and a portobello mushroom. It was so delicious and filling. The only thing that bummed me out was that it got really messy. Everything was falling out, I think because of the Daiya but I just shoved it all back in and continued on ;) I served it with a little roasted cauliflower. I am SO FULL! Oh and this is Kris Carr approved which is so awesome! She has a quesadilla recipe in her book, I just switched up the veggies.

For an afternoon snack I am going to have one of my cookies from One Lucky Duck! I forgot about these! After I eat this one I still have 4 left! Definitely making them last :) I still have some of those crackers too actually...

For dinner is a big raw salad! This one has spinach, carrots, cucumber, sun dried tomato and I mixed it up and threw in some raw broccoli! I have a hard time with raw broccoli but I figured chopped up small in a salad won't be too bad and it's always good to throw in a little extra green! Oh, and notice the spinach in every meal today ;)

That's all for today! I have to work until 9 tonight and I can't wait to get home and relax. I feel like I spent all of my spare time this morning doing laundry and prepping meals so it is definitely time to relax when I get home tonight.

I hope you are all well! I also just wanted to thank you all so much for all of your support and positivity you've thrown my way through this entire journey of me being sick and trying to improve my physical and emotional health. I'm so lucky to have "met" all of you and it comforts me to know you have my back! So thank you all so much!

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse Take 2: Day 10

Hey everyone! I've hit the double digits in this cleanse! I'm so happy to say that I'm feeling great and definitely noticed some differences yesterday during my 12 hour work day (which I'll get into in a minute!). I was really happy that I was able to keep up with my cleanse at work as I was concerned that I would be limited at the catering hall but I ate a Larabar as a snack while we were running around during the day and was able to load up on raw foods at the cocktail hour. The place was nice enough to make me a plate of veggies as my dinner too! I was happy that I was able to stick with it in a less than ideal situation. Staying hydrated really helped too and I'm usually bad at that on the job but I was mindful of it yesterday :)

I have to say that I had a really great day yesterday despite being at work! I was pretty bummed because my family was having a Memorial Day get together with some of our family friends yesterday and I was missing out on the festivities but I'm kind of used to it. I miss a lot of events during the summer because of work which sucks but it's all part of having a job that fluctuates with the seasons. Yesterday we spent a lot of time at a little beach community that has an 11 block radius. I loved it there. It made me want to move to the beach really badly actually. Everyone was riding around on their cruisers and I was so jealous! This is what I saw in front of the church!

A whole row of bikes! I love that people actually rode their bikes to church. I was obsessed with the orange one in front. I think my new dream is to move to the beach :) We shot their portraits on the beach and I was enjoying every moment in the cool ocean breeze, got a nice little tan on my face and soaked up the vitamin D. I also realized how much my change in eating has affected my thinking when I found myself thinking, "yum, that looks so good!" every time I saw bright green seaweed washed up on the beach. Ha!

Anyway, as I was saying before, I noticed how the cleanse has positively affected me in relation to work. 10 hours is a long day to be on your feet, constantly moving and carrying about 40 lbs of equipment. The photographer I work with a lot once made a joke about how I "turn" during cocktail hour. Meaning I go into bitch mode. I used to get really cranky before the reception because of a lack of energy, lack of food and what was an apparent caffeine crash! I didn't realize how much the crash would effect me! Last night I had energy and was in a great mood. I really truly believe it is because of how I've been treating my body.

Anyway, this morning I woke up feeling a bit tired but not anywhere near as bad as I usually feel the day after a wedding. I went out to do some Memorial day shopping with my mom and look what I got!!

A DEHYDRATOR!!! Finally! It's not an excalibur or anything but it'll do for now! I'm so excited to try it! And I also got a little $10 mandolin slicer to help cut down my prep time since it seems to have gone up quite a bit since eating more raw food. I'm so excited about the dehydrator and I have plans for it! I'm hoping to get to the store on Thursday and start dehydrating on Friday!

OK this post is already long and I haven't even gotten to the food yet from today so I'll make it quick!

It's been more of a snacky day but I think it has been fine and my dinner certainly added some bulk to the day :)

Breakfast was not so shockingly another smoothie. The same as the other day, frozen banana and strawberries, almond milk, Chocolate Vega and spinach.

Some watermelon and a few more strawberries as a snack when I got home from shopping.

A little while later I ate a roasted sweet potato with some organic, all natural ketchup. So good!

Then a little while after that I ate some unpictured seaweed snacks. Because I was craving them from yesterday ;)

For dinner I made a new quinoa bowl. It had quinoa, shredded carrot and zucchini and some lightly steamed broccoli. I topped it with some hummus as my seasoning and to make it a little creamy. It was very delicious but I think I added a bit too much hummus so I only ate 2/3 of it because it was kind of rich (if that makes sense?). Super delicious though!

So there you have it. I'm about halfway into my cleanse and feeling great. I have added some variety into my diet in terms of the meals I'm eating and I'm trying new things. I looked through Ani Phyo's cookbooks today and found some things I'd definitely like to make so that'll be good too. I saw a raw corn chowder that I'm dying to make! I'll wait until we get further into corn season though :) Oh and if anyone has any really great dehydrator recipes that I must try please pass them along! I can't wait to play!

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend! Back to the grind tomorrow, including my running. Enjoy the rest of your night!

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse Take 2: Day 5

Hey everyone! I'm sorry this post has to be a bit quick but I have to get out a bit early today. I am running low on groceries as usual by Wednesday so I'm going to grab a big ol' chopped salad for dinner (and it'll probably end up being lunch tomorrow too, they are seriously that huge!). Today is my long day at work and my boss is taking head shots of me and my coworker for a promotion we are doing which is anxiety inducing for me, ha! I'm SO uncomfortable in front of a professional camera so I hope he gets what he needs!

Anyway, more of the same. Feeling a little better every day except my shoulder is still feeling pretty bad. I'm still not taking the anti inflammatory meds because of the cleanse and I'm just so tired of guessing what's wrong. I just wish I knew the answer. I feel like they should have an MRI done on my shoulder to make sure it isn't just an actual injury but I'm not a Dr. I'm going to call my Dr. on Friday and schedule another appointment to see if she has any other ideas.

Anyway, here's the yummy food for today (minus my salad for dinner)!

I decided that I wanted to start to move toward following Kris Carr's green smoothies a bit more than I have been. I find the veggie based smoothies a little tough for me since I'm just used to sweeter, fruit based smoothies so I'm going to slowly work toward adding veggies and cutting fruit. Today I used a frozen banana, cut down to 1/2 cup frozen blueberries and added a big chunk of cucumber instead of the other half cup of blueberries I normally add. It also has almond milk, Vega and spinach. Baby steps my friends.

Check out this yummy lunch plate! Hummus, stuffed grape leaves, celery, grape tomatoes, carrots and some home made gluten free tortilla chips.

Afternoon snack will be a Chocolate Brownie Pure Bar.

I'm planning on getting greens, carrots, cucumber, sun dried tomatoes, chickpeas and broccoli in my salad. Yum! I'll go grocery shopping tomorrow after the gym which means I'll have to get a grocery list together tonight after I catch up on your blogs :)

Have a great day everyone!

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse Take 2: Day 4

Hey everyone! I'm so happy to report that I woke up today feeling much better. I have more energy, feel less cloudy, I'm more alert and am in a better mood. My shoulders are still sore but maybe down the road they'll start to feel better? Last night was really rough, it took forever to fall asleep even though I was exhausted. I never got my appetite back after feeling sick at the gym so I never ended up eating my Buddha Bowl but managed to get down a Vega Protein Bar instead. Day Three of the cleanse is where you hit the wall according to Kris Carr and there you have it! I can't believe I hit it that hard but I guess I had more toxins to get rid of than I thought.

I've been doing  everything I can do to be as healthy as possible. I dug out my Vitamin B complex and Vitamin D supplements and will be taking those daily. I also took a little extra Vitamin C since that is supposed to help seasonal allergies. Even though I was sore from yesterday (my trainer mangled my legs!) I still did my 45 minutes on the rebounder. For the record, it is incredibly boring but I'm glad I did it.

I'm also eating some great food today! Check it!

I woke up pretty late this morning so I got a late start on my meals. I drank half of this smoothie before my workout and half after. It has frozen banana and blueberries, almond milk, Vanilla Vega Shake & Go Powder, and spinach. Brendan Brazier says blueberries and bananas are good for post workout recovery so it was perfect! I wanted to get some calories in before since I had eaten so little after my workout last night. I love the photo too. The reflection of the ridges on the lid make it look all wavy :)

For lunch I had a big spinach salad (later drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette)...

...and the other half of my zucchini boat. It was so good and I love how it makes the house smell like pizza! I had to blot a little bit because the Daiya got a bit greasy but it was still good.

My afternoon snack will be a Orange Coconut VaVaBar. Yum!

For dinner I'll eat last night's Buddha Bowl at room temp (no microwave folks!). I'm looking forward to this meal!

I'm glad that I'm starting to feel better. It was making me anxious to be feeling so poorly which doesn't help! Hopefully I'll feel better every day! 

Hope you all have a great day!

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse Take 2: Day 3

Hey everyone! I think I'm hitting my stride here with this cleanse. I took some time to plan last night and I have my meals planned through Wednesday which definitely helps. I made another batch of VaVaBars and some quinoa for the week and I feel like I'm ready to go. The next step is to start a shopping list for my next trip to Whole Foods :)

Basically today is more of the same. I woke up and my entire body hurt, I keep getting headaches on and off throughout the day, I'm exhausted and I literally look like I got punched in the face. I look like I have two black eyes, it is crazy! I researched foods to help fight inflammation and found a bunch of links including this and this. I feel like I already eat these foods and began to get frustrated again. My next step is to see if I can get allergy testing done. Turns out these symptoms are often overlooked symptoms of food allergies, and I wonder if I've been eating foods that have been causing me to feel like crap for years. I don't really know how to go about doing this but I'll figure it out.

I've been trying to increase my exercise as well. I did 30 minutes of cardio and then my 45 minute training session. I had a tough time during my session and then right before the very last stretch I felt really dizzy and nauseous and like I was going to pass out. It was horrible.

That aside, at least I had some really good meals today. I'm really glad I decided to try the cleanse again. It's a lot easier now that I don't have to deal with the caffeine withdrawals :X I'm so glad I never went back to coffee, it is one of the best things I've done for myself! Anyway, here's the grub!

My goal of greens for breakfast was accomplished this morning :) As I mentioned, I had planned my meals last night and by coincidence I planned the same smoothie that Maud had posted over at Food Feud! I made mine a bit differently but it was the same idea. I was happy to read the post and see that it had gone over well and I was definitely looking forward to breakfast this morning! I made mine with a frozen banana, 4 fresh strawberries, 3/4 cup almond milk, Vega Choc-a-lot Shake & Go powder and lots of spinach. So delicious.

Late morning I enjoyed the other half of my mango from yesterday's breakfast.

For lunch I had lots and lots of green! A big S&M salad with lots of spinach, dulse, hemp seeds and avocado. So delicious. This is a nutrition powerhouse and Brendan Brazier talks about the benefits of all of the ingredients in Thrive. I felt so virtuous eating this salad!

For snack I made Mexican Chocolate Chia Pudding! I halved the recipe in Crazy Sexy Diet when I made it over the weekend and it still made a ton. Like I said it was a bit sweet so for my snack today I used 1/3 cup of the pudding and mixed it with 1/2 tsp of cocoa powder! It made it rich and chocolatey, cut the sweetness and combined perfectly with the cinnamon already in it. So good!

I drank a Pineapple Vita Coco Coconut Water when I got home from my workout to try and restore my electrolytes and get my blood sugar up.

For dinner I made my version of a Buddha Bowl from CSD. I could have sworn I bought broccoli but didn't see any in the fridge so I used the rest of my roasted cauliflower. There is also chickpeas, carrots and sun dried tomatoes and it is seasoned with garlic, pepper and I sprinkled the top with nooch. I also used quinoa instead of rice to get in some extra protein. I haven't eaten it yet because I'm still not feeling great after my workout.

I'm happy with my meals today. I achieved my goals that I set yesterday, was full all day and enjoyed every meal (that I've eaten so far). I really need to figure out what's going on because feeling sick is really exhausting.

Goals for tomorrow: 45-60 minute run on rebounder.

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse Take 2: Day 1

Hey everyone! As you know I've been feeling like shit over the past few days. Headaches, stuffiness, complete exhaustion, extreme flare up of my shoulder and now a major stiff neck. This all made me start to do a little evaluation of what may be causing the problem and I have a feeling processed foods may be part of the problem. I've been a bit lazy lately and have been eating a bit more processed than usual and I think my body may be feeling the effects. I decided that I was going to try the 21 day cleanse in Crazy Sexy Diet again. I was going to wait until Monday to start it but I felt so crappy last night that I decided not to wait and to start today.

I was a bit unprepared for it and didn't have meals planned so I had to wing it today. I think I did ok though!

For breakfast I had a blueberry and banana smoothie with Vega (greens, probiotics and omegas!) and a small handful of spinach. I loaded up on spinach today so I can add more to my next smoothies :)

Watermelon and strawberries for snack.

Big raw plate for lunch! Perfectly ripe mashed avocado, celery, carrot, grape tomatoes and some of the raw cheese-y quackers from One Lucky Duck. It was so good! The crackers were great. They were super savory though so you can only eat a few at a time.

For an afternoon snack I had some Roasted Seaweed. So obsessed with this stuff.

For dinner I had a zucchini boat and a big serving of salad. I got the idea for the zucchini boat on Pinterest and just made a few changes. This is just a half of a zucchini with the seeds scooped out, filled with a few tablespoons of organic, all natural sauce and topped with 1/8 cup of Daiya. Soooooo good!

So overall, a really good clean day of delicious food. The Daiya was the only processed bit of it and I only used a teeny bit (and it's Kris Carr approved!) so overall not bad :) I'm going to make another batch of VaVaBars either tomorrow or Monday and I have a few Larabars to hold me over if necessary. I'm really glad I decided to start it. I don't know if it's mind over matter but I already feel my energy improving.

Tomorrow I am probably going to go to a street fair in the city with the usual crew. I'll do my best to document what I end up eating. Most likely a salad will appear haha :) Wait until you see my breakfast! My goal is to do a green smoothie 5 days a week and a healthy, clean meal the other 2. Tomorrow is going to be so good!

Hope you all have a great night! The Strikeforce fights are on Showtime tonight so I'll be watching that and rooting for Gilbert Melendez! Happy Saturday!