Healthier Twist

If you’ve been following along here or are subscribed to me on Facebook then you have seen my post more than once about how I really, really, don’t like gritty texture. I’m the girl, who, if I get a bite of eggshell in my food is DONE – I’m pushing back and walking away.

SO over the past 15 months, I’ve had to learn to COPE, because sometime smoothies are gritty, because they’re designed to be that way (that insoluble fiber has a pipe cleaning job to do).

Usually, I make all my smoothies and shakes for the Clean Program  in the Vitamix – that way it is more smoothie like and less gritty. Well, in having to travel last week, I simply couldn’t take the blender with me, and turns out a Magic Bullet wasn’t the solution either. I don’t check luggage if I can help it, and they probably wouldn’t have let me on the plane with the blades. SO I had to opt for a  Blender Bottle.

And to tell the truth, it works pretty well, and I am coping with the grittiness — my Mom would be so proud.

TIPS

Making a shake – USE THE Blender Ball Thingy (not shown in my picture)

1) If you are making a 12 oz shake (this bottle has measure lines) – add 8 oz of your liquid first and reserve 4 oz to add when you get close to the bottom – to help get all the goodies into you.  This may not seem like a big deal, but sometimes I was using individual bottles of coconut water and the first time I dumped it all in, and at the end I had lots of the mix left in the bottom, and no way to get it out.

2) Liquid first – not powder first – it really seems to help it blend up better.

3) Shake / Sip/ Shake / Sip— Shake with every sip, that seems to help get the mix redistributed – and not so much grittiness in any one sip.

4) WASH FAST! Don’t let your bottle sit around – clean and rinse it as soon as you can. Make sure you get in all the crevices too. Otherwise clean up later (especially when travelling) is a pain.

Other uses for your Blender Bottle – WATER BOTTLE!

The Blender bottle can double as your water bottle on the road. I like the snap tight lid – so if I knocked it over no worries. I didn’t try carrying it in a bag with it full and sealed, but I think it would hold up OK. As long as you aren’t bouncing around to much.

5) Use lemons from the Tea Tray at your conference (or buy lemon juice). I would grab a lemon slice  in the morning and one at the afternoon break, squeeze and drop. It made the hotel water all so much better.

6) REFILL OFTEN … the lid screws off easily … and you need to stay hydrated!

There you have it … a few BLENDER BOTTLE TIPS.

And remember … don’t stay THIRSTY, stay HYDRATED MY FRIENDS!

I had the privilege to see a video clip while I was away at the local marketing conference.

Here’s what I know about working my way back to health – I wonder if you can relate:

This is hard, it’s too hard for me to do …

I can’t go any further, I need to take a break …

It literally hurts, I need to stop, so the hurting stops ..

I can’t do this any more, I want to quit.

Take 7 minutes and watch this video – I dare you! Then post your comments below and tell me what you think.

Well, I just couldn’t help myself. Normally as part of the detox section of the 21 Cleanse – it’s a Shake for Breakfast, Meal for Lunch, and Shake for Dinner. My Wellness Coach, Jessi, from the Clean Program contacted me to earlier this week to check in, and when I mentioned I was in Austin, recommended I try Casa de Luz – well, lunch timing just doesn’t work when you’re at a conference, so I splurged last night and had a dinner, instead of a shake. I mean how often would a girl from Jacksonville get to eat at a Macrobiotic, organic eatery.

It was wonderful – they had a fixed menu and I was so full I actually couldn’t finish it all. And for only $12 that’s saying something. I think it had a lot to do with the combinations of the food, too.

Here’s what I had:

Soup
Carrots and Cauliflower with Coconut Milk
Salad
Mixed Greens with a Sunflower Seed and Dill Dressing
Entree
Red Lentils
Quinoa and Amaranth with Nori Condiment
Steamed Kabocha Squash
Blanched Greens with a Pepita Cilantro Parsley Sauce
Pickled Carrot and Daikon

YUP, I survived it! Today was the first day to be in the conference, and trying to adapt my schedule to theirs. Actually, because of my little trip to Whole Foods — it went perfectly. At lunch I skipped up to the room and grabbed my salmon and berries salad, and found a nice sunny spot to get outside and get grounded for a bit. I even went out for dinner with other attendees – I simply had my shake at the hotel, and then went to the restaurant and had a club soda. However, I did bow out when folks decided to the pub walk down 6th Street – I had sat through a dinner while others were eating Texas BBQ and having tequila and beer – not sure my will power could take in all the sights carousing without imbibing. And the folks I was with were quite supportive, and didn’t give me any grief about staying on program – that was probably the very best part, not having anyone trying jedi mind tricks of sabatoge . Success!

Well HOWDY Pardner … I’m off for an adventure today in Austin, TX – where I learned yesterday that there are somewhere near a million bats under that bridge on Congress Avenue. The smell is not the most pleasant but the tradeoff is that apparently they have nary a mosquito problem here.  (According to some they can eat as many as 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour). But enough about the Austin Bats (click here to check my other post).

I have managed to stay fairly clean — I purchased a wrap for lunch yesterday – there was a little mayo in it, but I didn’t eat the wrap – I used it more like a bowl.  The Whole Foods is nearby (I don’t see any local organic groceries closer) – so I’ll venture there today.

Also I made a little video for my traveling and eating clean adventure here:  ENJOY! And if you watch all the way to the end you’ll find out how I overcome my blended shake dilemma.

 

Feel free to comment or offer any tips for traveling and staying clean! THANK YOU for your love and support!

 

No updates for you today – as I’ll be traveling to Austin, TX to a marketing conference. Come back by tomorrow and I’ll tell you how the day went.

Ok, so it’s not your traditional Chicken and Waffles like you’d find on the menu in Atlanta, but I tell you what, for this foodie turned health nut, this was a darn close second.  So how did I pull this off and stay CLEAN? Easy …

I grilled the chicken tenders, used greens for my topping and used BUCKWHEAT – gluten free waffles for my sandwich slices. All this topped with a little balsamic vinegar. YUM-O-Licous.

Day 5 and I am feeling great. I have two stumbling blocks – 1 is taking the supplements on time, but I am getting closer, and two drinking enough water. I may have to set the timer to remind myself. I get so caught up in working that I don’t pay attention to my thirst – and frankly by the time you’re actually thirsty, you’ve moved into dehydration mode. I’ll be sure and focus on these more.

I’ll be flying tomorrow, so if I don’t post tomorrow, I will post on Thursday.  Thanks as always for your comments and support.

 

One of the easiest and yet hardest things to do in the clean program is to “Mind the Gap”. The Gap in this case is the 12 hour window where you are NOT EATING. The idea, and I think it makes LOTS of sense, is that our body expends a tremendous amount of energy in digestion – and before last year, I barely gave my body a break.

A little background on me — maybe you can relate, maybe you can’t, but I NEVER went to bed hungry, there was always some goodies to be enjoyed as a bed time snack – even if bed time was 2 AM. And then, as soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning, I would scrounge for food – I woke up RAVENOUS – I literally felt like I was starving. Putting a year in the rear view mirror tells me this:  ’I was starving’.  I rarely fed myself high quality, nutritious foods, it was drive-thru, take out, or something out of a metallic chips bag that I fueled my body with. No wonder I was starving. And add to it that it was rarely more than a few hours between sleeping and waking, my body NEVER stopped digesting, so it could move on to other appropriate bodily functions – like daily detoxification.

In the CLEAN PROGRAM, Dr. Junger asks you to allow your body this 12 hour gap without eating. You can have herbal tea or water, but no food, and here’s why. According to Junger, our body needs 8 hours to digest our last meal – and only after that is digested can our liver go into to clean up mode, which takes another 4 hours. Voila 8+4=12. If you don’t allow your body that 12 hour window (or gap) then it can’t fully process the days intake and outgo needs of your body. Do that day after day, month after month, year after year, and its no wonder so many of us cesspools of illness and obesity.

So if you’re thinking about the CLEAN PROGRAM or some other detox, here’s something you can practice first, that costs ZERO dollars and only commitment from you. Try it for 1 week, MIND THE GAP.  If you finish dinner at 8PM – don’t eat again until after 8AM – give it a try what do you have to lose?

Oh and as for my, the “detoxy” and “puny” feelings of Day 2 and 3 have passed and I am feeling great. I still plan to rest as much as I can, and allow my body the ability to purge the toxins and help propel me to feeling fantastic.

 

 

To summarize day 2 in as few words as possible. “YUCK”. I really felt the affects of the beginning of the detox, even with a couple of weeks practice. I spent most of the day in bed resting.

If you watched my video from yesterday’s post – I planned for the first few days to be rough and intentionally started on the weekend, so I could have time to become acclimated.

Day 3 is off to a much better start. I am not as puny – and I have to venture out to restock the fridge — my bad — I had planned to stock up BEFORE the clean, and while I had bought a few things, I realized I am short on some fruit choices.

All in all, 2 days down – 88 to go!

Thought I would summarize my Clean Program Day 2 start in a little video.

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