Detox Week 1, Day 5

I'm feeling good, very "light" and more energetic. I know that I have a tendency to overeat and I noticed that with this diet, I've been feeling full faster and eating smaller portions. And as a result I don't feel as sluggish and heavy. I worked out yesterday for 45 minutes so that contributed greatly to how I feel. I'm definitely going to continue on with it.

So on to the food! I realize I kind of "freestyled" it and didn't make anything from You Are What You Eat today.


Breakfast was a mug o' oatmeal. I cut back my portion a bit, 1/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup. I added bananas, raisins, sesame seeds and mixed in some homemade date syrup.


Mid-morning and pre-workout snack was this delicious strawberry-banana-soymilk smoothie.


Lunch was a small salad w/ 2 tsp goddess dressing and lemon juice.

Late afternoon snack was a brown rice cake w/ peanut butter and a drizzle of brown rice syrup. And in the evening after an hour walk with Buster, an apple and half a carrot. (no pictures!)


Dinner was a grilled tofu wrap in a sprouted grain tortilla with veggies, fresh homemade salsa and guacamole. The tofu is extra firm and was marinated in olive oil, low salt soy sauce, garlic, black pepper and salt-free seasoning.

Today I took Buster for a walk with our neighbor Shannon and her dogs Wendy and Lucy. It was a lovely walk in the rain through a one-mile oval of neighborhood streets (that was initially laid out to be a race track back in it's day) and afterwards Shannon produced a bag of homemade vegan Snickerdoodle cookies! Imagine my delight! Too bad I can't eat them now as this diet forbids sweets but I have carefully wrapped each cookie in cling wrap and froze them for after the diet. Can't wait to eat them! Shannon by the way creates a cute and funny comic strip featuring both of her dogs called "The Adventures of Wendy and Lucy". Check it out: http://www.taowal.blogspot.com.


I even got a recipe!

Detox Week 1, Day 4

Last night husband and I were talking about our cravings. I kept saying the word "cake" and he kept repeating "pizza". Oh dear, it's only day 4...

But today's foods were awesome.

Breakfast: Strawberry-Dates-Banana-Collard Greens Smoothie (no picture sorry!)

To make up for the missing breakfast picture, I'll show you what I got at the local health food store today. I was supposed to just go to the post office but when I passed by, I couldn't help but pull into their parking lot.


Salt-free brown rice cakes, brown rice syrup, salt-free peanut butter, ACV, and some bulk items from L to R: aduki beans, raisins, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and whole wheat flour (for the healthy pizza I'm making next week!).


I had to make a mid-morning snack with some of this stuff! I spread a little peanut butter on a rice cake and drizzled it with brown rice syrup and sprinkled sesame seeds on top. Yum! I haven't had a rice cake since high school when I used to yo-yo diet. I will continue to buy them, they're so nice!


I wanted to have a large chopped salad for lunch and needed a good salad dressing. I found this easy, delicious Goddess dressing at oneweekraw.com (Scroll down to Day 5 to get the recipe.)


For lunch: chopped salad with green leaf, spinach, red peppers and cucumber. And a sprinkling of flax seeds. To make it lower in fat, I diluted about a TB of dressing with some lemon juice. Worked very well and gave my salad a lot of flavor!


For dinner we had vegetable sushi rolls. The rolls had brown rice, red peppers, carrots, cucumber and avocado. They were delicious. We didn't eat all of these! I ate about 6. My husband ate a lot. The rest are for lunch tomorrow.


I served the rolls with Crunchy Walnut Coleslaw with sesame miso dressing. Recipes from You Are What You Eat Cookbook.

Detox Week 1, Day 3

Sweet craving go away! I was watching the Food Network yesterday and there was a show about cake decorating and looking at the chocolate layered with buttercream, I almost died...just a little. I had some grapes. I think I need to get more exercise, way too much tv watching. After the holidays I did a lot of couch sitting with a bag of chips. I was quite the lazy bastard! So definitely need to get in some exercise. I usually do a half hour to an hour walk with my dog everyday but it doesn't feel challenging enough. Shall I get out my Tae Bo dvds? We'll see...

Here are today's eats:


Breakfast: Oatmeal with bananas, raisins, macadamia nuts, poppy seeds and a tiny drizzle of maple syrup. Delicious! It kept me full until lunch.


In case you're wondering, Gillian's plan allows natural sweeteners like maple syrup, barley malt syrup, brown rice syrup and so on. Just in small amounts. I made homemade date syrup a few days ago. I should have put this in my oatmeal but I forgot about it until just now.




Lunch: Green Leaf/Spinach Salad w/ beans, Spinach Soup w/ pumpkin seeds(from You Are What You Eat cookbook)


Snacks: 1 Braeburn apple, thinly sliced. Just how I like it.


Just how Buster likes it too!


Dinner: Baked Aubergine and Mushroom Stack (YAWYE cookbook). This was served with brown basmati rice and a green salad.

I'm really enjoying eating all this great, healthy food. My normal diet doesn't stray too far from this but includes way too many white foods (white rice/bread/pasta) and far too many sweet treats filled with sugar and calories. Eating this way is new for my husband who is stuck on delivery pizzas, hot dogs (the non-vegan kind), microwave popcorn, kraft mac n cheese, chips, soda and beer. I'm glad that he's trying new things and is going along with it well. I'm secretly hoping that after the three weeks, he won't mind giving up his pizza here and there to have a healthy meal that is good for both of us.

Detox Week 1, Day 2

Yesterday was a great first day. I actually didn't feel "hungry" like I thought I would or have any cravings for chocolate or sweets. I ate lots of fruit which probably curbed any sweet cravings that would have arose. I was on the post punk kitchen forums a lot and looking at all the wonderful food porn (cinnamon rolls, cake, muffins...) was a bit hard but it didn't make me want to start baking or anything.

So our second day went like this:


Breakfast: Green Smoothie (banana-date-blueberry-collard greens)


Lunch: Leftover pasta from last night, a bit of leftover turnip soup, green salad/bean salad (pictured), a bunch of red grapes

Snacks: banana, nuts/seeds/raisins, celery and carrots w/ sunflower paté, red grapes, herbal teas


Dinner:Baked tofu with leeks and spinach, baked sweet potato, green salad. The tofu was based on the Baked Salmon recipe from You Are What You Eat cookbook.

Gillian McKeith Detox Week 1, Day 1

So today is the day we start Gillian's detox!
Things to eat: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, tofu, nuts and seeds. Things not to eat: sugary sweets, chocolate, coffee, alcohol, white bread, white rice, white pasta, processed foods, sodas and junk.

I'm not worried about the amount of food I'll be eating as there are plenty of things to eat, I'm just afraid of the day when I'd kill to eat a whole french baguette and a piece of cake. Three weeks without dessert. Can it be done? Dates are on the menu and they are pretty darn sweet and good thing I love them. But I'm sure too many dates aren't that great for you either. We'll see how this goes!

So every morning I will pack my husband's lunch as well as a set for myself. This morning for breakfast we both had a strawberry-date-banana-blueberry-spinach smoothie. Yum.

Today's lunch and snacks:
A thermos of turnip and leek soup (from You Are What You Eat cookbook)
A small green salad with spinach, pumpkin seeds and dijon vinaigrette
1 apple
Celery sticks stuffed with sunflower paté and baby carrots (paté from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen)
Nuts/Seeds/Raisins/Dried apricots/more fruits
Lemongrass herb tea/ Dandelion tea

That's quite a lot of food isn't it? I normally don't eat that much at lunch. My husband looked at his lunch bag with disbelief. I told him if he couldn't finish it all to let me know and I will pack slightly less food tomorrow.


Turnip and Leek Soup. It was very straightforward recipe: turnip, leeks, celery, onions, veggie broth powder, water, parsley. I added a little unsweetened soymilk to make it creamier. I also added a tsp. of low sodium miso and low salt soy sauce (which is allowed) for some flavor. The soup was very nice. Kind of sweet with a delicate flavor.


A sampling of snacks we'll be eating during detox. Celery with some kind of spread (in this case, sunflower paté), carrots, fruits, raw and unsalted nuts, seeds, raisins etc.


For dinner I made brown rice pasta with oven roasted grape tomatoes, spinach, olives and lots of crushed garlic.