21 Day Detox Challenge - Day 1

Wow! It's been 7 months since I last posted. Work and life kind of just got in the way, but not to worry I have been working out, eating and repeating ;) But honestly, I haven't been extremely diligent with it, which is part of the reason for my latest challenge, a 21 day detox program my friend's gym is doing. I was intrigued when I heard about it because I wanted change things up a bit, and it being only $21 I decided to take the plunge.

This past Wednesday I went to a meeting with about 50-60 others who had signed up and the gym owner stood up in front of us for an hour and explained why we were doing this and went down the list of what we could and could not eat during this detox. No grains, no sugar, no alcohol, no dairy (except eggs), no caffeine/coffee.... wait, what? You could hear the exasperated sighs and groans all throughout the room. I'm not sure how many people decided to drop out at that point, I know I almost ran for the door but then he said we could have green tea, so I decided I could live with that and sat back down. I guess the benefits of green tea outweigh the detriments of caffeine (although I don't believe coffee is terrible for you). He also says we should have 3 meals a day and allow between 4-5 hours in between meals to allow the digestive system to function properly and to keep leptin levels normalized. But I don't know if that will work for me. I had about 5 meals today, including my snacks. I feel like I can't keep going without a small healthy snack in between the bigger meals.

The plan reminds me of a Paleo or Whole30 type diet, basically you can have vegetables, fruit, healthy fats, and quality protein for 21 days. So I perused some recipes provided by the program as well as some found on the internet and went to the grocery store and dropped a bunch of cash on organic fruits, veggies, and meats. And here we go...

Day #1

Weigh-in day, I drove down to the gym to get my weight and BF% measured and also have a before picture taken. I might share those results with you later if the final outcome is to my liking. Then I went home and ate breakfast along with a cup of green tea. Breakfast was egg whites and one whole egg cooked in coconut oil, broccoli, half a yam, and avocado.

Meal #1 10:00am

Then I sat down and made my grocery list and went out and ran my errands. Before I left I had meal #2, half a banana and a tablespoon of almond butter. Then I was out for about 4 hours and when I got home I was starving. I bought this kale snack at Whole Foods, I read the ingredients 5 times and I think it is acceptable: Organic Kale, Organic Pumpkin Seeds, Organic Lemon Juice, Organic Chia Seeds, Organic Extra Virgin Oil, and Himalayan Crystal Salt.

I snacked on that while I prepared my next meal, leftover crockpot chicken (made with chicken, all natural salsa, organic chicken broth and garlic powder), over a bed of greens, avocado, yellow tomatoes, lemon, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

Meal #3, aka lunch at 4:00pm

My dad is here from out of town for a couple more days and he had wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes (also known as Souplantation in some states) which is one of those all you can eat salad buffets. Before we went I did some googling to figure out what other like-minded people ate there and came across this blog which did not inspire confidence but was definitely entertaining: http://paleojen.blogspot.com/2009/08/poop-plantation.html 

I ate a boring salad with olive oil and vinegar and watched as my sister and dad and the rest of the restaurant ate croutons and wonton strips on their salads, pasta, cornbread and other starch-filled options. In retrospect not all the ingredients on the salad may have been "detox-friendly", who knows where those beets came from, but I refrained from eating any bread or quinoa or cheese today so I think I still win.

Meal #4, 7:00pm

I also cooked some pork tenderloin with pineapple in my crockpot today, tomorrow I'll be making ground beef chili (sans beans). I'll post the recipes later....

Overall I felt okay today, besides being mildly hungry all day and a bit foggy probably from lack of my usual cup of strong AM coffee... also Aunt Flo is in town... energy level was about medium to low.

20 days to go...