Days 11 and 12 - the weekend!

Had an interesting weekend.  I don't know whether it was easier or harder to be home with this plan.  I was fine on Saturday - except that I didn't have my third shake of the day. I had gone to visit my daughter and by the time I got home and in bed it was late and I was tired and was NOT hungry.  I actually brought dinner to make at her house and it was wonderful:  We had Chilean sea bass and haddock, a vegetable dish (carrots, celery, chard, zucchini) and something else that I don't remember now (lol) - might have been sweet potato.  She thought everything was delicious, as did I.  I drank a shake in the car on my way to her house so I wasn't that hungry to begin with, and certainly not hungry when I got home.

Sunday morning I was having a mini pity-party...oh how I miss my coffee and "normal" breakfast.  My friend was quick to point out that normal is a changing situation, and now my normal is a shake - deal with it! LOL  Once I got through the disappointment of my new normal, I was fine.  As a matter of fact, I did some of my NORMAL Sunday afternoon cooking for the week, that I had been missing:

Fish chowder
Sockeye salmon
Butternut squash
Sweet potatoes
Roasted brussels sprouts with apples
Baked apples
Roasted cabbage

That sort of does me for the week.  I made up three lunches-to-go of salmon, sweet potatoes, roasted cabbage and brussels sprouts.  I made an extra big pot of the fish chowder because I actually thoroughly enjoyed that last week when I made it, so that will be dinner with butternut squash and baked apples.

Actually this strict phase (the metabolic cleanse) is almost done and I made it!  On Wednesday I get to add back in ALL vegetables, ALL fruits and white rice.  The chicken/turkey/lamb and other grains do not make it back in until the last week of this.

My husband said that it looks like I have lost weight but I don't want to be a slave to the scale through this, so don't know what is doing in terms of numbers.

What *I* notice is that I have much more energy (except this morning... must have to do with being Monday and having to use my alarm clock this morning!) AND I had a pesky rash under my belly that has gone away without any ointment.  I think it was something yeasty - so that has totally cleared up!  So far so good...

Miriam

Day 9 (Continued) and Day 10

A lot less blue today!  Last night after work I stopped at the mall and got some walking in - by the time I got home I had over 6,000 steps.  My moderate goal is 5,000 a day for now (I actually will increase to 6,000 next week) so it was nice to receive an "atta girl" from Fitbit when I synced the device when I got home.  Unfortunately I did some shopping too!  I had to go out to my car to get my wallet, as I walk with just my iPod and keys.  Mall walking can be very dangerous.  I used to go before the stores opened in the mornings (they open at 6AM for walking while stores open at 10AM - except for places like Dunkin Donuts and Au Bon Pain - smart to open early to catch the walkers) so I didn't have a shopping problem. 

I had a shake on my way home from work and wasn't hungry until I got home around 8.  I was thinking while I was walking how nice it is to not be famished on the way home from work.  I know I complained yesterday that I miss being hungry - yes and no.  I don't miss being famished and making a beeline for the fridge, but I miss an appetite. I eat because it is time to eat. HOWEVER, not so right now as I am finishing up my lunch.  I didn't have any fruit and a tea as a mid-morning snack because I was visiting my mother so I actually was very hungry for lunch and now that it is finished I am still a bit hungry.  Maybe my body just needs some time to adjust to the new routine and new calorie content.  Also, with increased activity maybe I can expect to be a little more hungry.  I actually hope that I don't go back to being really hungry, but a little bit is okay.

My husband has some sort of a wonderful dinner waiting for me.  He got some wild-caught haddock and he is marinating it in lemon and olive oil.  I am sure it is delicious but seriously?  ENOUGH FISH ALREADY! LOL  I am just really resistant to eating legumes which are allowed at this time.  I have been eating Paleo for so long and have absorbed all their reasoning and now I just don't want to go back to legumes.  I was so happy when I read that I could eat legumes, but now when faced with them I just don't want to.  So... fish it is!  Actually, each shake has 23g protein so I could technically not even have the fish if I wanted an all vegetable meal.  By the time I figure this all out my 28 days will be up anyway! LOL

So I am eating according to the rules, drinking the water required, and moving more.  So now I have to move on to sleep.  I have been doing very well but I am finding lately that I am very tired in the morning and dread getting out of bed.  I am going to make an effort to shut everything off by 10:30, moving it up little by little, for a solid bedtime of 10.  I usually fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, so if I sleep 10-7 I'm good.  I don't sleep uninterrupted (at least once up to go to the bathroom).  I would eventually like to get up earlier than 7, as I am at my best in the morning, but right now I will tackle going to bed earlier not just waking up earlier. 

Looking forward to the weekend!

Miriam

Day 8 (continued) and Day 9

So last night I was REALLY blue and feeling sorry for myself.  I told myself that I would have to share that with you today so you don't think it's all roses with this detox.  I was missing my coffee and my soda.  I was missing my beef and onions and tomatoes and vinegar so that I can enjoy salads - lemon juice just doesn't do it for me  I really tried....(vinegar is allowed but the doctor wants to balance out the PH of my body so none allowed during this period).  Nothing that I could eat appealed to me for dinner.  I treated myself to a sea bass, and although the fish guy did take off the head, tail and scales and took out the guts, he left the fish relatively whole.  I thought it would be fileted so that I could enjoy it with the stuffing I made.  I did bake the fish, then threw it out.  I was afraid that I would never want to eat again.  (LOL - Poor me poor me...)  I thought about people who are so hopeful and excited about getting gastric bypass surgery, and how depressed they really must feel when they no longer can eat what they love in quantities they enjoy. 

So blue....

I don't think my pity-party had to do with my food limitations.  I think it had to do with lack of hunger.  I have never really experienced that before. Even when I got home from surgery (several times in the past decade) I couldn't wait to eat - no pain or pain medication stopped my appetite.  I was always ready to eat.  Yesterday I had my shake after PT (around 5) and I got home with absolutely no appetite or hunger feelings at all (that probably had more to do with my throwing the fish out than the fact that I was disappointed it was not fileted). 

So that ended Day 8.

Today is a new day!  I had my shake for breakfast on the way to work, along with some avocado and my supplements.  I was worried there is not enough fat in the shake for the fat soluble vitamins I take.  About 11 I had an apple.  At 12:30 I had my fish chowder - which is actually VERY good! - and also some roast cauliflower and 1/2 of a sweet potato.  I will have fruit and a second shake in the late afternoon, then maybe the third shake for dinner.  I don't even want anything until 7 or 8.  If I am hungry later I will have fruit again.

I like having a "big" lunch (haha - what I just described was BIG? not by olden-day standards! LOL) and don't mind not having dinner.  I think tonight I will make a soup - maybe escarole and white bean or maybe something with lentils for tomorrow's lunch.  It's not that I am fished out, but I need some better variety. 

I am feeling less blue today.  Last night's mood came out of nowhere.  (I am sure it had a source in something but I am ready to let it go.)  I will drink more tea, think about coffee less.  Today I took a hot to-go cup of tea with me in the car... that sort of helped. 

Looking at the calendar I can see I am almost a third of the way through this.  It really isn't bad in terms of what I can eat and how much I can eat if I wanted... it is just an adjustment to not being hungry (if I were even that darned fish would have looked good last night!). 

How am I feeling?  I noticed that I don't want to go to sleep at night instead of praying for it to be 10PM soon.  (If I sleep any earlier I wake up after an hour and then am up for several.)  Instead I look and I have to force myself to stop what I am doing and go to sleep so I will have enough ZZZs to get me through the next day.  So I suppose I can say I notice I have more energy.  That's good! It's a start!

Miriam

Day 7 (continued) and Day 8

So I figured it was time to get creative in the kitchen so I wouldn't get sick of fish.  I spent the evening cooking (Day 7) and with some GREAT success!  Thanks to my friend Elaine who was on Facebook with me to advise about seasonings, I made two fantastic dishes:

First, I made a vegetable stuffing for a whole striped bass: Sauteed carrots, celery, zucchini, rainbow chard stems and leaves seasoned with paprika and chives.

Then, I made a clear fish chowder with carrots, celery, chard and cod seasoned with thyme, basil, Old Bay, bay leaf, salt and pepper.

I was looking forward to coming home and having the chowder for dinner, but now that I am writing this out I remember that I have the bass!  So much fish - so little time. The chowder will keep so I will make the bass tonight while it is fresh.

I am finding an abundance of wild caught fish and it is hard to keep my purchases to just one or two things at a time - I would rather buy fresh and cook, than freeze, but it is so hard not to buy one of everything!.

Today for lunch I am having wild caught coho salmon, sweet potato, beets, and roast cauliflower. I have been buying cut up melon from Whole Foods - they have a lovely mixture of cantaloupe, watermelon and honeydew - and everything is perfectly ripe and sweet.  Honestly - when people ask me, "Then what can you eat?" I have to answer that I have never shopped or cooked more healthfully in my life - and believe me, I was already cooking fresh and healthy!  This is not to say that I might not be able to look at fish for a month after this, but so far, so good.

Last night I didn't time my shakes right and so landed up having a shake for dinner and one later in the evening.  Today I am going to make sure to have a shake on the way home from work so that I will be able to have dinner, then save the third shake for the evening.  I think replacing breakfast with a shake is enough of a meal replacement - I don't want to do more than that (nor do I have to).

Today I added "Intuitive Eating" to my labels because with this plan, I find that I am really tuning into my hunger, fullness, desires, tastes, etc., and it is a much more natural way of eating - more so than any excursion I have made in the past into Intuitive Eating.  Granted my available foods are not endless (which is one concept of IE), but I find that within the boundaries of what I am allowed to eat, I am picking and choosing most naturally.  I like that the dietitian said that this period is not about losing weight, it is just about getting healthy.  That instruction has freed me from monitoring every bite that goes into my mouth (other than being sure it is on the allowed list).

I am so excited that yesterday I almost met my step goal on Fitbit and the day before I exceeded it.  I find that I am moving more with it.  For instance, I took stairs up and down at work yesterday where I might normally have taken the elevator.  It is so much more fun than a pedometer - I enjoy reading all the tallies at the end of the day and seeing what my friends are doing too.

Anyway - Day 8 and doing good!

Miriam

Days 6 & 7

So today (day 7) starts the really restrictive portion of the food plan.  From here on my sources of protein are only wild-caught fish and legumes.  I am sort of iffy on the legumes because I cut them all out as part of the auto-immune protocol of the Paleo diet, but since I am so limited I might gently add them to some dishes, or go full force to make a nice lentil soup - however I am also missing my onions this week and I have never cooked without onions!  My sources of starchy carbs are sweet potatoes and yams, beets and winter squash.  ALL my favorites so no problem there.

I am up to three shakes a day and have started to have one for breakfast.  I cannot have my frozen berries which made the shakes so delicious but I am allowed peaches, so I threw some frozen peaches in this morning, and although not as yummy, still quite tasty.  I read the calorie count for the shakes and although each one has 23 grams of protein, it only has 145 calories so I am convinced (although I already knew it) that these shakes are not intended as meal replacements.  My plan today is to have a regular lunch (I have wild caught salmon -- that I sauteed up at 7:30 this morning  -- sweet potatoes and beets, roasted cauliflower, and a huge container of a variety of sliced melons.  I will make a shake before going home.  Then for dinner I am going to stop by Legal Seafood and if I can get some wild caught trout that is what I have a hankering for, but if they don't have it I will have the rest of the salmon and sautee up some Swiss chard that is itching to be cooked (again no onions - which is what I usually sautee it with).

Everyone is asking me how I feel.  Well ... I feel the same!  I think the detox is working on me internally at cell level, which is what it is intended to do.  Except for the eggs I had already cut out a lot of the foods that I am sensitive to and would have been culprits with any stomach upsets.  Anyway, today is day 7.  Yesterday, which was Day 6 I had a nice surprise which I suppose does have to do with "how do you feel?"  I noticed at about 10PM I wasn't even tired.  I think I have more energy.  I suppose that counts.  AND, on the way home from work, even though I hadn't had a shake in the afternoon AND had a grueling one hour PT session, I wasn't famished as I drove home from work.  As a matter of fact I stopped to grocery shop and I didn't get home for dinner until 7.

Hmm... more energy and not hungry.... I guess I AM feeling a difference!  How about that?

Miriam

Day 5

Forlorn yet a party....

So this morning I was rather sad.  I think not so much because I missed my coffee and usual breakfast but because I missed the routine of it.  I actually got back into bed after I got up and slept another 2 hours.  I was not tired.  I think I was depressed.  I am not making the most of all I have to eat - I can be just as creative with what I have available to me but I just don't feel the love.  Then I missed my Sunday morning coffee in bed more than you can imagine.  Tea just isn't the same.  

After a long while feeling sorry for myself, I got dressed and sat at the kitchen table with my detox literature and made a list of everything that I can eat starting Tuesday, which is day 7.  I still have a list of "core" fruits and veggies (while avoiding others), fish, legumes, oils, herbs and spices.  That's about it.  I am being so silly.  I can create lovely dishes with everything available to me.  But the other part of this puzzle is that I am just not hungry.  And on Day 7 I go up to three shakes a day.  I just do not know how I am going to do that and eat.  Right now I am planning to do a shake for breakfast, a substantial "real food" lunch, a shake for dinner and my third one in the evening.  Or maybe not.  I am also upping my activity (with a Fitbit that I got on Friday) so I might land up being hungrier than I would think.  

In any case... so last night I went to a party where it was all appetizers.  We brought some and the other two couples brought some, all keeping in mind my food limitations.  Let me just say that I enjoyed every morsel, did not miss a bite, and was too full when I got home to have my second shake of the day.  We brought hommos (which I could not eat because of my sensitivity to sesame seeds which is what tahini is made out of), foul M'dammas (which is fava beans and which was absolutely wonderful), spinach pie (which I did not eat), guacamole (which I could eat), and babaghanoush without the tahini (so grilled eggplant with lemon and garlic).  Other things that I could eat were grilled chicken legs, crudites, and a wonderful paleo risotto made with cauliflower, and fresh strawberries and pineapple.  There were only a few things that I could not eat. 

What is the harm in having "just one"?  I had a nice long running conversation with myself and said I would only be fooling or hurting myself to go off the list of allowed foods.  Like, why bother if I am not going to do this right.  Then I thought of my granddaughter, who is making her appearance in June, and said not only am I doing this for myself, but for my children and grandchildren.  And that stopped the pouting.

.... That and the fact that I am already almost at the end of week one, with ONLY three more weeks to go.  The worst of it is the following 10 days when the list of allowable food is really pared down, but I am determined to see this through.

Miriam

Day 4

So I was worried about constipation?  Not an issue.  'nuff said lol.

I have had no appetite beyond having the shakes - as I scraped my lunch into the trash I was thinking that this is what gastric bypass patients must feel like.  Not a problem but I worry what will become of my life without my total focus on food! LOL  Since this is just a month long I don't think I have to worry about it forever, but it really has caused me to think about people who just don't think about food.  Worse yet are the people you see who just push the food around on their plates without eating. I look upon them like they are aliens.

I am an alien.

Miriam