Thirsty Thursday...Shakes!

My calendar tells me it's once again Thirsty Thursday...

I have a confession, though. I'm not feeling so thirsty this Thursday (but shhh, don't tell Jerrica or she might have my head on a platter, then I won't be able to announce when my new book comes out later today).

However, fear of certain death at the hands of Ms. Knight-Catania does not make it any less true.

For the last three days I've been doing a Dr. Oz Detox Cleanse.

For anyone who hasn't heard of this, you basically blend/puree/liquify fruits and vegetables together and drink them for three meals a day for three days straight. It's delicious!

Here's breakfast:

Starts out promising with raspberries, bananas, water and flax seed...

Toss in some spinach and almond butter...

BLEND! and ta da: breakfast.

Lunch:

A few of the ingredients: apple, lime, cucumber (not pictured pineapple and Kale, among other things).

Here's the result! Yum!

There we go, all ready to be made into a smoothie.

My kids' lunch and mine. Hmmm, which looks more appetizing to you?!

Dinner:

I forgot to take a picture of what all went in it, but there are blueberries, avocado, mango, coconut water, flax seed and cayenne pepper all blended together. Yum!

I decided to do this cleanse because, well, I'm nuts. No, actually, I've always struggled with my weight. As a teen, I struggled to keep it on and there were times as a junior or senior in high school when I only weighed 88 pounds. Not because I didn't eat, trust me, I ate everything. Then at 18 I got married and a few months later I got pregnant and in that nine months I gained seventy pounds! I went from 90 to 160 and thus began my struggle to keep weight off!




As it is, I watch calories and take note of pure trash that I might eat. I also ride my bike a lot, stand during the day when I can, Zumba when I must, and jump on a trampoline as often as I can. Unfortunately, nothing I do has shown me any results so when I heard this cleanse wasn't necessarily a quick way to lose weight, but rather to kick-start my metabolism, I was off to the grocery store—iPhone in hand. As it would happen there were several things on the list of ingredients that were like UFOs: I'd heard of them before, but never seen it.

Anyway, here are my results:

Monday:

• I was ravenous as a bear in the morning and thought, “Oh, no, what have I gotten myself into?” However, I didn't want to let myself down without giving it a chance, so I holed myself up in my office away from any food temptation and wrote 6,500 words.
  
  
• I had to literally choke down the shakes. I won't lie, they were really, really gross.
  
  
• Because of my human weakness and wanting to eat, I didn't watch any TV so I wouldn't see food on a commercial, I made my husband make lunch and dinner for my kids and I even made my own kids pour their cereal while I cowered in a corner as they ate it.
  

Tuesday:

• Best day by far as far as not being tempted to eat. Not only was I not tempted when I went into the kitchen to get water or just passing by, but from shake to shake, I didn't even feel hungry.
  
  
• I learned that if you keep blending the shake for an extra 30-seconds, it makes it more liquid-y and not as thick and chunky, allowing it to go down easier.
  
  
• I don't know if it was mind over matter or just realizing how far I'd come, but as I went to bed that night, I was more determined than before I started to finish the cleanse.
  
  

Wednesday:

• Confession time: due to not eating anything else, I actually thought two of the three shakes tasted good by Wednesday (the dinner one was still pretty hard to handle).
  
  
• I was totally tempted on Wednesday because I made all meals for everyone else. While it hadn't been a problem to sit at the table while they ate their food and I drank my liquid veggies, actually touching, sniffing, and preparing their food made it hard. But I did prevail.
  
  

Thursday:

• As I write this, it's not yet breakfast time and in a way I'm really looking forward to eating solid food again—just being more careful about my selections. I've been a vegetarian who doesn't eat vegetables for six years now and I've spoken to so many people who are like, “Oh, when I became a vegetarian, I had so much more energy and lost all this weight.” I always stare at them as if they're nuts. I didn't notice a bit of difference in either area, but that might be because I don't eat a lot of vegetables... Something that, now after doing the cleanse will change. The amount of energy I had was amazing as was the fullness I felt between each meal. So is this an effective way to lose weight, I don't think so and I haven't even weighed myself to know. I don't think it's meant to be, but it has certainly opened my eyes about how important it is to eat better!
  
  

*Stepping off my sopabox*


Post in the comments section what the hardest, most unpleasant thing you've ever had to choke down is and you'll be entered to win a $10 gift card to Jamba Juice (or whatever is the equivalent in your area).