Day 15: Find a Routine

Today begins the final week of the three week cleanse.  Counting today (day 15), I am 71% done. Woohoo!  Throughout the past 14 days, I've developed a routine for shopping, cooking, and eating to help me save time and make life (and digestion) more predictable.  I buy the same things at the grocery store every time I go, cook a ton of lentils at the beginning of the week, and eat the same basic foods all week long.  Below is a typical day.

Before Breakfast
16 oz warm water with lemon

Breakfast
Smoothie made with 1 c. frozen fruit, 1 c. spinach, 3/4 c. carrot juice, 1 tsp. omega-3, 1/2 tsp. probiotic
16 oz herbal tea (usually ginger, Throat Coat, or other warming beverage - to help melt icy smoothie)

Morning snack (sometimes I eat "morning snack" at home and smoothie at work)
3-5 oz chicken breast or salmon
1-2 c. vegetable saute - mushroom, onion, garlic, zucchini, paprika and other spices

Lunch
Smoothie (I make a double batch at breakfast and save the second half for lunch)
Salad: 4-6 c. spring mix lettuce, 1 c. kale, 1 T. chia seeds, 1 c. red lentils (heated, to wilt salad)
Dressing:: 2-4 T. olive oil + balsamic vinegar, as dressing
8 oz water

Snack
2 c. raw cabbage (red or green)
1 c. butternut squash, if I'm still hungry or planning to exercise after work
8 oz water

Dinner
Smoothie made with 1 c. frozen fruit, 1 c. spinach, 3/4 c. carrot juice, 1 tsp. omega-3, 1/2 tsp. probiotic
3-5 oz chicken breast or salmon
2 c. steamed broccoli or cauliflower
Sweet potato, baked or made into sweet potato fries, seasoned with fresh rosemary from my garden
Apple or pear for dessert, if I'm still hungry
8 oz water

Before bed
8 oz water

Misc - whenever I feel like I need more calories
Baba ganoush
Celery
Carrot sticks
Sauteed eggplant
Tomato slices
Fruit juice + 10-20 g protein powder (on hard exercise days)
1/2 c. brown rice - but I rarely eat rice because the lentils are much more filling (and I have to choose one or the other, can't have both)

I haven't checked my weight since last week, when the gym scale's batteries died, but I will make an effort to re-measure soon!  Just a reminder, my goal on this cleanse is to gain weight!  Or, at least, not lose weight.

Day 12: "real" protein is wonderful

Choose wild-caught (not farmed) salmon 

Yesterday I ate chicken for breakfast.  Along with 2 cups of sauteed vegetables.  But let's focus on the meat for a moment.

On day 11 of The Cleanse (which I am currently in the middle of), you are allowed to add 2-4 servings of lean meat (chicken or fish), with 1-2 servings being fish.  Since one serving of protein is 3-5 ounces, I automatically interpreted the recommendation to mean "eat up to 20 oz of animal protein per day!"

As you can tell, I was super excited to implement my new-found plan...until I realized just how much protein that is!  For perspective, I rarely eat more than 10 oz of "meat" in my "normal" diet - an egg (1 oz) for breakfast, tuna (5 oz) for lunch, and chicken (3 oz) with dinner.  Therefore, I will probably never eat then full 20 oz of animal protein.  But, on the bright side, I am very much enjoying the addition of new flavors and meal options to the very limited diet that is The Cleanse!  It is SO much better than the whey protein isolate ("fake" protein, i.e. not whole food) I had been eating to maintain my lean body mass.

Day 8: Never eat "fat free" dressing

Yesterday was my last day of using the intestine scouring SP Cleanse supplement.  Hooray!  I promised my friend Ali that I wouldn't talk about the end products of digestion, but I think it is OK if I share how excited I am to get back to a "regular schedule."

Actually, things have been getting better in that department for a while.  Perhaps I am not consuming "half total vegetable amount raw," as recommended.  Or maybe I've figured out how to survive the cleanse by adding enough oil to my raw food to slow down its transit time.  Yes, fat slows down, and enhances, the digestion of raw vegetables, especially leafy greens like lettuce and spinach.

The longer a food is in the stomach and small intestines, the more time the digestive enzymes have to digest it and extract nutrients from the mess of fibers in which they are entangled.  Eating fat with raw vegetables also aids in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as D, E, and beta-carotene (the precursor to vitamin A).  It is not what you eat, but what you absorb!  So all you people who like to eat your healthy salad with "fat free" dressing, think twice!

Lunch: mix spring greens, topped with kale & chia seeds.
Dressing: balsamic vinegar olive oil (no added sugar)

I am still struggling to get enough calories because I get full so quickly on this diet.  To compensate, I find myself eating every 1-2 hours.  Yesterday I ate at 8am, 9:30am, 10am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, 3:30pm, 5pm, 7pm, 8pm, and 9pm.  That is ten separate meals!  I feel like a whale, eating tiny amounts of calories, continuously throughout the day.

Science Lesson: Did you know that blue whales (80 ft long) can eat up to 8000 pounds of krill (2.4 inches) per day.  That is 4% of their body weight!  The whales swim along, hunting for areas with high concentration of krill.  When they find such an area, they open their mouth and ingest the krill, along with copious amounts of seawater.  Then, whale spits out the water, but the unfortunate krill remain, stuck in the whale's baleen plates, and are subsequently swallowed.

Yep, I have become a baleen whale.  I spend my whole day hunting low-calorie fruits and vegetables and drinking copious amounts of water.  Except that, unlike the whale, I do not spit out my water.

Day 6: The cravings begin!

I really wish I could eat Chipotle, or drink hot chocolate, or have toast with butter.  But I can't because I am doing The Cleanse.  Instead, I just ate a teaspoon of unrefined coconut oil.  It went down easy.  Then I added 10 grams of protein powder to grape juice.  It almost tasted like sorbet.  Almost.

This is the first day I've had serious emotional cravings.  I think it is because my day was so long, boring, and disappointing.  I will spare you the details.  But I'll say this: I hope the next 15 days are not like today!

Let's focus on the positive.  I am glad to be eating 1 cup lentils instead of 1/2 cup brown rice (way more flavor and calories).  I have used my new cast iron pan almost every day (yay for residual beef fat from pre-cleanse steak).  And I am very much looking forward to adding chicken and fish on Day 11.

Ok, I don't feel so bad anymore.

Day 5: Health care professional required

I think I finally ate enough calories!

And I strongly encourage everyone who does The Cleanse do so under the supervision of a health care professional.  Preferably under the supervision of registered dietitian, like myself.  Without expert support and direction, how else will the cleanser know if they are getting enough to eat?  Some people feel awful on The Cleanse because they are mobilizing toxins within their bodies but are too constipated to eliminate them.  Others feel awful because they are only eating 50% of the calories they need.  Heck, I'm a registered dietitian and it's taken me five days to figure out how to get enough calories while eating only fruits and vegetables!

I didn't waste any of this apple

As a side note, I really wish I could eat nuts and seeds on The Cleanse.  It would make my snack of raw fruit much more balanced and satisfying.  Fact: the protein and fat in nuts and seeds help to slow digestion and lead to increased satiety.

Fact: The Cleanse does not support vigorous exercise.  While hiking for 2 hours today, I first prepared with a BIG breakfast (461 kcal, 19.5 g protein) and then ate a pear and an apple during the hike.  Unfortunately, the apple and pear digested quickly without protein and fat to slow down the acid and enzymes in my stomach and I was soon hungry again  And I didn't waste any of the fruit, either.  Most people leaving a lot of the flesh on the core when they eat fruit.  But I ate the WHOLE thing, except for the seeds, which are poisonous (see picture on right).

When I returned home from my hike, I ate a large and satisfying late lunch of 650 kcal and 42.5 g protein.  It felt so good to be full!  And I stayed full all the way until dinner.

Day 4: Sweat it all out

Today I signed up for a free 3-day pass to my local gym for the sole reason of utilizing their sauna and steam room.  Best. Idea. Ever!  I'm naturally a cold person.  My fingers and toes have a tendency to feel like ice cubes, especially in the winter. All the frozen fruit smoothies and raw vegetables (which have a cooling effect) that I have been eating exacerbate the situation.  So it felt extra nice to sit in the 185 degree sauna for 15 minutes and let the sweat bead up on my skin.

Having a sauna or steam room is not just warming, it is also therapeutic.  Sweating is a great way to open up pores and rid the body of toxins.  Or at least the water-soluble ones.

As a side note, my sweat smells like curry.  Which is curious because I have not eaten any curry.  It must be an ingredient in all those supplements I've been taking for The Cleanse.

Thank you, http://www.mccoysauna.com/, for the picture!

Day 3: Tired (and cranky)

The Cleanse is exhausting.  Food preparation takes so much more time and energy when eating only fresh food - the shopping, the chopping, the assembling or cooking.  It makes me realize how much I rely on convenience foods and grains for energy.  Eating fresh foods takes longer, too.  It took me 15 minutes to eat a head of raw broccoli today.  Yeesh, that is half of my lunch break!  Did you know that eating celery actually burns calories because it takes more energy to chew and digest than there are calories to be digested?  No wonder our ancestors struggled to get enough to eat - by the time they cooked and ate their fiber-rich whole food, it was time to go hunt and gather again.

(added on Day 5: can you tell this was my worst day on the cleanse?)

Day 2: Old Tricks, New Dog

It is nearing the end of my second day on The Cleanse and I finally figured out some tricks to help keep my calories up.  The funny thing is, I knew these tricks all along.  Only I had been using them in opposite.

Usually, I prescribe and follow the "get fit, stay slim" diet - lots of watery soups and vegetables to fill you up and keep you full.  And that is how I have been feeling for the last two days - always very full of fiber and water, yet frustratingly undernourished because I can't get in enough calories!  Which is good for weight loss, but not so good if one is trying to maintain lean body mass as I am.

Trick #1: No more soups!  I plan to lightly saute my vegetables in oil instead of simmering them in liquid for 30 minutes.  This will increase nutrient density (heat x length = destroys vitamins), increase calorie density (oil has 40 calories per teaspoon) and decrease water volume in my tummy, which will allow me to eat more at one sitting (yay, more calories!)

Trick #2: Modify the oil rule.  Since my goal is not weight loss, I am going to break the rules in the rule book (page 15) and eat more than 7 teaspoons of oil each day.  7 tsp x 40 calories/tsp = 280 calories from fat.  For a 2000 calorie diet, that is only 14% fat.  The acceptable range for total fat intake for adults, as establish by the Institute of Medicine, is 20–35%.  Using the low end, I can eat at least 10 teaspoons of fat per day (that's 120 more calories).

Trick #3: The perfect smoothie.  One cup frozen fruit + 3/4 cup carrot juice + 20 g protein powder = the perfect consistency and about 300 calories of deliciousness (depending on the type of fruit used).  I thought the carrot juice would make the smoothie taste bad, but it actually complements the fruit flavor.  Also, using carrot juice increases raw vegetable intake for the day :)

Fruit combinations I've tried and highly recommend:

• 1/2 c. strawberries + 1/2 c. blueberries
• 1/2 c. mango + 1/2 c. pineapple
• 1/2 c. strawberries + 1/2 c. mango

The Cleanse: Day 1

Today was my first day on The Cleanse and a very busy day at work.  I didn't eat enough for breakfast because I had gorged myself the night before and, therefore, was not very hungry.  When lunch time came around, I was too busy with work to eat all the food I had so carefully and painstakingly packed for lunch.  Big mistake!  By the time I got home I was barely functional.  I felt tired, unfocused and unmotivated....and was seriously craving chocolate and bagels!  But I decided to be "good" and eat foods of The List instead.

The Standard Process Purification Program tells me that I can eat an unlimited amount of vegetables from The List (page 12), but they recommend I consume half of my vegetables raw and that my vegetable intake should be twice that of my fruit intake.  In other words, I should be eating in a 1:1:1 ratio.  For each cup of raw vegetables, I can eat a cup of cooked vegetables and one cup of fruit.  Let's see how I did.

This is what I ate today:

Breakfast

• 16 fl oz water w/ lemon
• 2 scoops SP Complete (90 calories, 10 g protein)
• 7 capsules SP Cleanse
• 3 capsules Gastro-Fiber
• 1/2 c. blueberries
• 3/4 c. strawberries
• 1/2 c. carrot-orange-pineapple juice (estimate 1/4 c. raw vegetable, 1/4 c. fruit)
• 16 fl oz ginger tea

Lunch

• 2 scoops SP Complete (90 calories, 10 g protein)
• 7 capsules SP Cleanse
• 3 capsules Gastro-Fiber
• 8 fl oz water
• 1/2 c. blueberries
• 1/2 c. strawberries
• 1/2 c. beets
• 1/2 c. carrot-orange-pineapple juice (estimate 1/4 c. raw vegetable, 1/4 c. fruit)
• 2 c. vegetable soup (olive oil, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, mushroom, zucchini, vegetable broth)
• 0.5 c. brown rice

Dinner

• 4 c. mixed salad greens
• 0.25 c. homemade dressing (olive oil + balsamic vinegar + garlic + maple syrup)
• 1 sweet potato (estimate 2 c.)
• 1 c. raw purple cabbage
• 1 c. grape juice + 20 g whey protein isolate 
• 1 apple (estimate 1 c.)

Supper

• 2 scoops SP Complete (90 calories, 10 g protein)
• 7 capsules SP Cleanse
• 3 capsules Gastro-Fiber
• 1/2 c. blueberries
• 1/2 c. strawberries
• 1/2 c. fresh-frozen zucchini
• 1/2 c. carrot-orange-pineapple juice (estimate 1/4 c. raw vegetable, 1/4 c. fruit)
• 1 teaspoon fish oil
• 1 1/2 c. cauliflower + olive oil + salt & pepper
• 16 fl oz water

DAILY TOTALS
Vegetable, raw: 6.25 cups
Vegetable, cooked: 6 cups
Fruit: 6 cups
Water: 7 cups (56 fl oz)
Protein: 63 g  (1.08 g/kg = OK for non-exercise day)
Calories: ~1800 (not enough!)

Ok, I admit it, I just ate 1.5 cups of cauliflower to make my vegetable to fruit ratio look better.  It is such a curious feeling - even though my stomach is so full of vegetable fiber that I can't possibly muscle down another bite, I am still hungry!  My poor stomach cells are working double time to breakdown and extract  calories from the mass of fiber going through my GI tract.

My goal for tomorrow is to eat more food, earlier in the day and continuously throughout the day.  This will help accommodate for the high fiber load and, with continuous calorie intake, allow me to sustain a higher energy level.

New Years Cleanse

I am starting a cleanse in two days.  I've always wanted to do one.  And by "always" I mean ever since I learned about detoxification in coursework at Bastyr University.  I was on the "starving student" diet back then so buying the required supplements was not really an option.  Instead, I did the Elimination Diet and eliminated common the food allergens (wheat, dairy, corn, soy, citrus, peanuts and tree nuts) from my diet for 2-8 weeks to determine food sensitivities.

Thank you Teeccino (herbal coffee) for the picture

Needless to say, I know how to survive on a limited diet of rice and beans/meats and vegetables.  But this cleanse is ever more restrictive.  I am only allowed to eat fruits and vegetables* for 21 days!  (*plus 1/2 cup brown rice + 7 teaspoons oil + supplement regimen)  I do get to add up to 20 oz of lean protein (organic chicken or deep-sea fish) starting day 11.  Oh, but the the list of vegetables is restricted to non-starchy, calorie-lacking vegetables (i.e. no white potatoes, no avocado, etc).

My biggest worry is that I won't get enough calories and I will lose weight and muscle mass.  I am worried that it will negatively affect my ability to work and limit how hard I can exercise.  To prevent this, I plan to document my daily intake and count calories.  I will report this here, in subsequent blog posts.  I will also report how I feel, any physical effects, and any other related things worth mentioning.

I will be following the Standard Process Purification Program.  This program is designed to stimulate my organs of detoxification - the liver, kidneys and intestines - to help me remove toxins from my body, which can build up over time and by constant exposure to synthetic chemicals in my urban environment.  I have no allegiance to Standard Process other than the Wellness Center where I work stocks their products and promotes The Cleanse every January to help clients "start their wellness resolution off right."  I hope this cleanse will help me start off on the right foot, too!

Turkey Vegetable Soup

I would like to share my dad's recipe for this delicious soup, but there is one problem.  He never makes the same soup twice.  I could tell you the basic ingredients, if you like, but there will be no amounts - which would drive my Bastyr culinary instructors crazy.  Instead, I will list the foods you might include.  It is very much a "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of soup.

• Leftover turkey
• Broth
• Gravey
• Onion
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Carrots
• Corn
• Wild rice
• Green beans
• Salt
• Pepper

Turkey Enchiladas!

After the prized white breast meat is cut away from a whole, roasted turkey there is actually quite a bit of edible protein left.  Cleaning the bird requires meticulous determination - especially if you have picky eaters who blanch at the presence of cartilage or bone fragments in their mouth - but the extra time it takes to remove the dark meat is worth the effort.  The darker meat from the wings, ribs, legs and thighs tend to have a slightly higher nutrient profile - more iron, calcium and zinc. 

Darker meat indicates that the turkey used the muscle tissue more during its lifetime.  

More exercise equals more blood flow.  

Where there is more blood flow, there are more minerals like iron, calcium and zinc.

My dad likes to use the leftover dark meat to make his famous turkey enchiladas because the dark meat has more flavor than the white meat.  His recipe is below.

Our vacation rental didn't have a 9 x 11 so we used 4 smaller vessels

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced finely
• 1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies
• Jalapeño peppers, diced (optional)
• 4 cups shredded* turkey
• 1/2 cup bone broth
• 12 oz Monterrey jack cheese, shredded
• 16 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained
• 1 can (10 oz) enchilada sauce
• 16 black olives, slices

Directions:

1.     Heat oil in frying pan over medium heat.  Add onion and saute until soft and translucent.

2.   Add bell pepper, green chilies and jalapeños.  Cook a few minutes more.  (Side note: If you aren't a fan of spicy, don't add the jalapeños.  If you love spicy, add as many other peppers as your taste buds can handle!)

3.     Add turkey and broth to pepper mixture.  Stir over low heat until well mixed.

4.     Remove from heat and add 1 cup (8 oz) of the cheese.  Mix well.  Enchilada filling is done.

5.     Lay a tortilla on a flat surface.  Place 1/4 cup** of the turkey mixture across the diameter of the tortilla and roll it into a cylinder.  If tortillas are dry and cracking as you roll, add a little bit of water to the remaining tortillas in a bag and microwave for 10 seconds to soften the grain and make it more pliable.

6.     Place the rolled enchilada in one end of a 9 x 11 Pyrex baking dish, leaving room on the sides.  Repeat with remaining tortillas until the baking dish is full length-wise.  It's OK if you end up with left-over filling - it can be frozen and used later for a quick taco meal!

7.     Pour beans into the space on the sides of the enchiladas.  Pour the enchilada sauce on top of the enchiladas.  Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup (4 oz) cheese on top of the sauce and sprinkle the olives on top of the cheese.

8.     Cover.  Bake in a preheated oven at 350° F for 30 minutes.  Remove cover and bake about 5-10 minutes more, until the cheese is beginning to brown.

9.     Serve warm.

One turkey enchilada served with spring mix salad, saffron rice, quinoa and black beans

* Use your fingers to pull apart the meat until it is a stringy consistency.  If you want to bring out more of the turkey flavor in your enchilada, you can brown the shredded meat in a separate pan (1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat) before adding it to the onion and pepper mixture.

**This measurement is not exact.  You can place more turkey mixture in the middle of each tortilla for a bigger enchilada or less turkey mixture for a smaller enchilada.  Nutritional note: the smaller enchilada will have more corn tortilla (i.e. carbs) per enchilada while the larger enchilada will have more turkey (i.e. protein) per enchilada.