Day 8 - Cleansing - A Pure Taste

Breakfast:

I think I am officially on the oatmeal train! That is good news for a Southern girl. I eat grits, not oatmeal. However, leaning about the positives of oats has increased my interest. I always wanted to like oatmeal, but all I had to jump-start that interest was something like this:

Gross.

Anyhow, I have researched many options and the first successful one I've tasted is shown in the picture up top. I cooked Quaker Oats on the stove in 1% milk (because I would imagine that to be better than cooking it in water). It brewed for about 20 minutes. Now that's legit.

When it was done I put a spoonful of :

... a few sprinkles of granola cereal in, and the best part of all!:

Frozen blueberries!!

They thawed out immediately once I poured them into my steaming hot oatmeal.

Sounds Delicious right?

They key is to add flavor to a flavorless dish, without adding tons of sugar. My roommate can/prefers to eat it with nothing mixed in! How she does it, I do not know. I also like some different textures involved, like a crunch here and there. 

Dinner:

This is the first time I've eaten tuna without a couple of spoonfuls of mayonnaise, mustard, and pickle relish dumped in. It was a challenge, but the fact is, is that I enjoyed my meal and I was very full afterward.

To add just a little flavor to my canned tuna I drizzled some red wine vinegar on top, along with some cracked pepper (I mean I put this on E V E R Y T H I N G). I like tangy, hot, wild, exotic flavors...so vinegar is always a winner with me!

Also I poured some fat-free Raspberry Vinaigrette in a little dish and put it on the side. That way I could dip the spinach leaves in it for even more flavor, but not have everything else on my plate soaking it up.

Lastly (my favorite part) I  chopped up two hard-boiled eggs and place on top of the spinach.

Breakfast & Lunch Cleansing Update

I haven't mentioned breakfast or lunch in these posts, but they are definitely included in the cleansing process.

Breakfast:

• oatmeal (stir in Chai mix, blueberries, granola, etc.) 
• mix baggie of Cheerios + unsalted peanuts + granola
• toasted Thomas Bagel Thins
• yogurt + banana
• eggs with toast
• egg sandwich with tomato slices

This is all of have come up with so far, but it's entertained me enough.

Also, I always accompany b-fast with my Crystal Light caffeine drinks.

Lunch:

• turkey sandwich with spinach leaves and tomato slices
• turkey sandwich with honey mustard and granny smith apple slices
• dinner leftovers
• tuna sandwhich with strips of green bell pepper
• soup
• black bean, bell pepper, and (minimal) cheese wrap (heated)

Again, still experimenting and researching for every meal of the day.

Day 7 - Cleansing - Re-organizing the Fridge

We're taking turns buying little wooden boxes full of clementines (as seen here), but more importantly, we each get a box to put our own personal fruits in. Once we all have boxes I will take pictures and post our personalized fruit flairs. It will be fun. (I'm big on grapefruits.)

Welp, it has come time for us to re-organize the fridge. We have many unhealthy (pre-cleansing times) items prevalent in the there so we shoved it all to the back (in case we completely crash one day).  

Veggies and fruit have taken there place on top (as it should be), while deli meats, cheeses, yogurt, and eggs are on the second shelf. The bottom shelf houses all of the things we probably should stay away from: all of our juices (apple, cranberry, and grapefruit)...But this shelf also contains items that are tall, and okay to eat.

But you know...we still eat salad dressing, mayonnaise, cheese, milk, honey mustard, (not really sour cream, even though you can see like five containers in there), and other condiments...

but we just use them sparingly.

Actually I have found that I enjoy those little things to pump up my meals, since I'm mainly eating vegetables and fruits all the time now. I feel that I deserve it, and hey, it's okay!

My consistent weaknesses that I have cut out of my daily diet:

• cereal
• cookies
• fruit juice (even if it's "100% juice")
• rice
• pasta
• orzo

Day 7 - We Made It Through an Entire Week!

 (I apologize for the quality of all of these "cleansing" pictures. My apartment doesn't offer much light and these meal-time shoots usually take place at night with bad tungsten lighting...and I really can't stand flash.)

Tonight I altered one of my favorite regular dishes. I mean I usually make this dish but I add a bunch of orzo and feta cheese.

I sauteed onions and garlic in olive oil for about 5-10 minutes, then added in the green bell peppers, put the lid on and let it cook together for a few minutes.

I put olive oil in a pan, put in my Tilapia fish, seasoned it with rosemary, oregano, salt, and pepper and let it cook in the oven (covered with tin foil) for about 20 minutes.

Wah-lah! And I am not lying when I say the veggies were better than the fish! (Although that probably has something to do with my lack of knowledge in how to flavor/cook fish.)

Day 6 - Cleansing

We couldn't stop thinking about that vegetable pizza we made a few days ago...So we made that for dinner again last night. Delicious. The difference between last time and this time was the fact that I became full before I finished my second half!

This cleansing is amazing so far. I have already lost weight in my pants. At this point I can say this will be a lifestyle change, rather than a diet cleansing. I have never seen such results before because I have never been this persistent.

The impact seems bigger because I haven't been exercising.

What great results without even exercising!

Cleansing Day 5 - A Sushi Treat!

Tonight we treated ourselves to sushi at Ru San's.

It was delicious...as usual.

Today was a little rougher than usual. I ate a mixed bag of cheerios and peanuts this morning for breakfast, and wasn't hungry until 3:00 in the afternoon. I tried to eat tomato soup around 12:00 but my stomach was not taking it. I think my body is realizing that my diet is not a 2-day thing. It's a little shocked! I'm sure it is after I've been eating: Crap, broccoli every 20th day, cookies, fruit here and there, ooh cheesecake!, then there was the casserole my mom made me...

Cleansing Day 4 - Stopping to Eat in a Vegitable Garden

Topped Thomas Bagel Thins with pizza sauce (jar kind) and fresh tomatoes!

(mmm...my favorite part...the best layer)

So we wouldn't eat our hands, we snacked on carrots while we waited for our pizzas to cook.



We steamed some broccoli and created the next layer.

Spinach leave galore.

By this point I'm am feeling the vegetable love.

Finally, I finished these bad boys off with some shredded Parmesan cheese.

All there is left to do is pop them in the oven (350 degrees) for about 15 minutes or so.

I like mine crispy.

This is MK's version of what we have termed the "vegetable garden pizza".

She put minimal pizza sauce and heavy chunks of tomato on a platform of her favorite wheat tortillas. She also used reduced-fat white sharp cheddar cheese.

I'm okay (most of the time) just drinking water, but the 17 Day Diet thing really pushes Green Tea.

It's not half bad.

So after not too much work (and might I say WAY better than the avocado experimentation) you've got a very healthy, guilt-free pizza!! It was delicious.

Cheese is not a weakness of mine (cookies are though!) so I think I could have left the Parmesan off completely and been fine.

Also! Don't forget to add some seasoning! Even though this pizza isn't covered in cheese and grease, it can still have that great pizza flavor with a little Oregano and crushed red pepper

 (if your a spice fanatic like me).

Cleansing Day 3 - What's for Dinner?

Spice-Dusted Avocado with Mango & Crab

(Origin: Zanzibar)

My experiemental Avocado dinner...was interesting.

I chose a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks (an Indian Ocean Spice Route cookbook!)

You can purchase it on Amazon.

It's actually called: Where Flavor Was Born.

An interesting mix of spices...

Mix continuously over high heat for 1 minute to release the flavors.

I'm not an avocado fan, but my roommate let me try a cube of hers one night. She put a little salt on it and I downed it. My reaction? I re-thought the judgement I had passed on to this poor fruit.

Enter the (fake) crab.

A little scary, since I know the difference!!

My daddy cooks crab legs whenever I come home to visit.

Frozen organic mango.

I am also not much of a mango fan.

As I'm writing this post, I am wondering what caused me to "cook" this meal.

Oh yeah, the photography in the cookbook.

Mette Randem

But this is my photograph. And it still looks good.

I wish I could say it was delcious, but it was just different.

This dish is from another culture and it was just a lot of new tastes for someone who doesn't eat mango or avocado (which makes up 95% of it!)

But similar to sushi (with the crab meat and avocado combined).