We Be Cookin’

Breakfast – Oatmeal

Snack – Soy yogurt

Lunch – Hummus sammie with veggies on multigrain bread

Snack – Celery and peanut butter

Snack – Almonds & dried cranberries

Snack – A peach

Dinner – veggie burger and a baked sweet potato with earth balance “butter”

I’ve finally made it a week through this thing. I wish I could say it was getting easier but I still think about all the food I can’t eat, rather than what’s good about what I’m eating. I miss wine and I miss cheese. My body definitely likes the no-dairy me, but what does my body know? nothing, that’s what

I think after this cleanse is over, I will try my best to keep my carb/gluten intake to a minimum and remain as vegetarian/dairy free as possible. One thing I’m noticing is that the cleanse definitely takes time when it comes to cooking. It’s difficult to put together a quick meal when you’re in a hurry which is where the baked sweet potatoes have been saving my life. Also a great thing to know is that tots are on the list of foods to eat while on this cleanse and man, tots are totally awesome.

Breakfast – two bites of nasty oatmeal which I threw out because it was nasty, Pineapple

Lunch – Left over brown rice pasta

Dinner – Veggie burger on multi-grain bread with mustard and veggies

I didn’t eat much yesterday because I was just ridiculously busy with work and the my dentist appt. and then cleaning up my room, changing out lightbulbs in my house and organizing things. As a result, I’m STARVING today and have already eaten my breakfast, and lunch and it’s only 11:45am here. Oh well. I do know that if you’re busy, it’s helpful to have easy to access/eat/cook items handy.

Breakfast: Tots

Lunch: Brown rice pasta (gluten free) with tomato sauce

Snack: celery with hummus

Dinner: Sweet potato with Earth Balance pretend butter, salad

Dessert: Piece of dark chocolate

Day six was the first day that I didn’t wake up with a ginormous headache and actually started feeling like my old self. I’m starting to get the hang of this thing and I feel less crappy from sugar/caffeine deprivation so that’s definitely a plus. I’m also starting to feel like I have more energy because to be honest, I haven’t been exercising as much as I had wanted to because I’m just too tired all the time.

Breakfast – Tots

Lunch – French fries, hummus and veggies

That’s all I ate yesterday. Due to some unforseen emotional issues, I had no will to eat anything else. This cleanse so far has left me feeling tired and down all the time. I hope I normalize soon.

Breakfast – tots

Lunch – baked sweet potato, small bowl of gluten free pasta and sauce

Snack – hummus and veggies

Dinner – Not a cleanse dinner

So on Saturday, I had reservations for The Moss Room, the new organic and sustainable restaurant in the new Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate park. I made reservations long before I decided to do the cleanse and I didn’t want to have to wait again so I went off the cleanse just for dinner. We had salt cod fritters, sweet bread, and Louisiana prawns as appetizers. For dinner I had the ginea fowl and the boy had the fresh catch of the day. I guess the good part was that the meal was dairy free because I told the waiter that I was lactose intolerant. I also felt good that everything was organic and sustainable but I also felt bad about veering off the cleanse for one night. I’m selfish though and I didn’t want to give up my reservations.

Breakfast – Oatmeal and a banana

Snack – Soy Yogurt

Lunch – hummus and veggie sandwhich, tots

Snack – Veggies and hummus

Dinner – Stirfry eggplant and tofu with white rice

So day three had no improvement in the caffeine headache and to make matters worse, I had a concert to go to on Friday night and I had half a beer. The boyfriend had got it for me and I didn’t want to be rude so I sipped mine until he finished his and gave him the half that I didn’t finish. Oh wells.

Breakfast – Oatmeal with raspberries, flax, and agave syrup

Lunch – Baked sweet potato, veggie burger sammie on whole wheat with sprouts, salad, cucumbers, and avocado

Snack – veggies with hummus

Snack – soy crisps

Snack – two pieces of dark chocolate

Dinner – salad, brown rice/gluten free pasta with tomato sauce

Day two felt a bit better than day one because my headache was not as bad. I still have a bit of a headache but it’s not as pounding and painful as day one. I’m getting more used to not starting my day with a cup of coffe and instead I’m having caffeine free herbal tea. It’s kinda nice.

I am finding that I get tired at like 9:30 at night now. I just say I’m channeling my inner old lady.

Otherwise known as day of wanting to cut someone… Caffeine and sugar withdrawals = BAD news for me

Food for the day:

Breakfast – attempted to eat a packet of just plain instant oatmeal with flax but failed twice. Instead, had a soy yogurt

Snack – Raspberries

Lunch – Leftover lentil soup with brown rice crackers

Snack – Celery and peanut butter

Snack – Orange

Dinner – Morning Star meatless buffalo wings, a salad and a baked sweet potato

Dessert – Piece of dark chocolate

I felt great in the morning with the exception of the oatmeal fiasco (dropped the cup into the trash at work, hey at least I didn’t make a mess. Second attempt was not hot because the hot water spigget didn’t work and I was too lazy to get up again and walk to the break room and get hot water).

At noon during our staff meeting I had a bite of homemade brownies that one of my work colleagues made just for us so I felt bad for not having a bit (and i figured they were homemade… it was my day one cheat I guess. At around 2:00pm my head was pounding so badly from caffeine withdrawls. I felt like puking and it was bad. I took some ibuprofren and hoped for the best. I suffered through the rest of the work day, through Greek school, and then when I got home and at dinner (at 8pm) I felt a little better. I pretty much went to bed at 9:30pm because I just couldn’t stay awake.

I wanted to get up and go swimming this am but when I woke up at 5:30, my head was still hurting and it sucked balls. I went back to sleep for an hour and a half and felt marginally better. I had to take more ibuprofren this morning and felt pretty crappy till I ate my lunch. I’m hoping that tomorrow my headache is much better. Esp. if I have Jury Duty.

Today’s a bit easier so far but it’s not over yet. Mostly I’m noticing the caffeine headache and that my body does not register that it’s full or satieated until i ingest some sort of carb which isn’t happening so I feel hungry all the time. Hopefully this feeling goes away once my body learns that it’s not going to get any carbs. Tough love!

I haven’t cooked anything yet except for the soup so no recipies so far. Soon though. Thanks to M for sending me some of hers!

Similar to other bloggers before me, I’m giving this whole Quantum Wellness cleanse thing a try. I wanted to wait till I was done training for the various triathlons as I was worried that I would not have enough energy. Right now I’m really focusing on my swimming and making sure to swim at least three to four times a week so doing the cleanse should be totally mangeable. I’ll be tracking the recipies and general cleanse feelings here.

The main aspects of the cleanse that I’m keeping are: no dairy, no meat, no caffeine, no alcohol, and 95% Gluten free. I’m allowing myself one serving of whole wheat bread or cereal a day because with my schedule and waking up at 5:30am to swim in the morning, i know that somedays I will only have time to make a sammie for lunch or something. Other than that, I’ve stocked up on tofu, beans, soy yogurt, fruits, veggies, brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa, etc. I’m hoping to see a difference in the way my body handles the food I put in it. As many of my long time readers know, I have tummy problems and while many of them spring from being lactose intolerant and being helplessly addicted to cheese, sometimes I get sick when I haven’t eaten any dairy. I think this cleanse will help me be more aware of different eating choices and while I love meat (especially fish – I *heart* sushi!), I love animals and the way they are treated in the meat preparing process just sickens me. I can no longer support eating meat and during/after the cleanse will only eat meat when I know that I’m eating fully organic, free range, grass fed meats. and only rarely because meat is actually really hard for me to digest.

To kick off the cleanse, i made my lentil soup last night but used veggie stock instead. It required more salt than usual but it tasted OK. I had it for dinner last night and that will be my lunch for today. Tomorrow, i’ll have what I ate today and my first impressions. In the mean time, I’ll continue to dream about coffee.