Day 3: The Underlying Accomplishment

Before I get started, I just have to brag! I have the most amazing, beautiful, and kind-spirited sisters in the world. See how stunning they looked for their prom?!?  I'm pretty sure their prom experience was just about as good as it gets. They both had great dates and they were in a group together with some really awesome friends. They got to dance a ton and they stayed until it was over! I just can't believe how old they're getting. They look so grown up!

Carlee (left) and Julia (right). It must be awesome to go to prom with your sister! Wish I could have gone :)

Moving on before I cry...

For anyone who knows me, you know that I am a coffee...um...connoisseur? Well, more like addict. I have been drinking regular coffee since late middle school (I drank the fancy more of a milkshake stuff before that). There have been times in my life (mainly college) when I drink 3-5 cups of coffee a day. I've always been able to "cut back" on my coffee intake, and for a brief but memorable month or so I drank half-caf. Now, I drink about 1-2 cups a day, and I usually drink tea in the afternoons rather than coffee. But I love coffee nonetheless.

I have noticed lately that if I don't drink my morning coffee that by about lunchtime, I'll have a headache in the afternoon. I have pretty frequent headaches anyway, but these come consistently if I don't reach my quota of caffeine before noon arrives.

So, what does this mean? It means that for this week, April 21st-27th, I am giving up coffee. I, Jessica Sansom, will not drink coffee for seven days.

Although this cleanse allows me to have black coffee with no cream or sweetener, I've decided to forgo my coffee intake for this week in an effort to prove I am not coffee-dependent.

Now, once Saturday rolls around, you better bet I'm going to enjoy a lovely cup of Joe. I even bought new K-Cups for this occasion (I know that's probably a little excessive, but I truly was almost out).

For the first two days of the cleanse, I did experience the off and on headache that I associate with lack of coffee. The good news is, this morning I was okay.

Now onto this morning...

I woke up feeling great. I wasn't hungry, and my pants were fitting a little better. I weighed myself again, and I was just shy of another pound lighter. That puts me at a grand total of 2.6 pounds since Saturday morning. I've read that the bulk of the weight loss in this cleanse comes in days 4-6. We'll see...

If you remember from last night, I had to really prepare for work today. I spent some time chopping and sorting through Tupperware to bring all of my fruits and veggies to work with me. I WAY over packed! But I was just worried that my blood sugar would drop and there is a McDonald's right next door to my office. So I packed my bag and headed off to work.

1. Bag full of goodies 2. Huge Publix bag with my herbal tea ready to go 3. Melon medley before I ate 4. Melon Medley after I ate (not much different than the before picture)

Breakfast consisted of:
Cubed Honeydew Melons
Cubed Watermelon
Cubed Cantaloupe

As you can see, I didn't even make a dent in this huge helping-o-melon.

I discovered another blog that gives a more in-depth description of a very similar cleanse. I'm glad that I chose the one I'm doing for a couple of reasons, but mainly because I would rather eat chicken and turkey over beef any day. I'm not a big red meat eater. But this blog did answer a couple of the questions that I had. If you're considering doing this cleanse, check out this blog for more information about it: Nothing Is Impossible Blog

I cannot stress how important fluids are during this cleanse. I have been sticking to just water and herbal tea, but I've read that Crystal Light, black coffee, and club soda are allowed. This morning when I got to work, I headed downstairs to the kitchen to fix a tall glass of water (still not as big as my Hunger Games cup) and my second cup of herbal tea.

Water on the left and herbal tea in my pretty mug on the right.

I had to work at the front desk from noon until 1:00 today, so I grabbed my almost untouched breakfast and a handful of grapes to snack on until lunch.

After front desk duty, I went downstairs to the kitchen to eat lunch. I mixed a can of mixed veggies with a can of green beans and I cut up an orange for lunch. Simple...yes...but also very satisfying (at least for an hour or so).

I accidentally dropped an orange slice on the floor. I had to throw it out :(

Lunch:
14 oz. Canned Mixed Veggies
14 oz. Canned Green Beans
1 Sliced Orange

Around 3:00 I ate some strawberries and made more tea. And then around 4:30 I ate an apple. I was making sure that I was full before work ended because I was going on a walk with a girl I work with at 5:00.

Oh my fruit snacks.

Our walk was quite successful. We walked for a little over an hour and it was such a beautiful day I didn't even feel like I was exercising.

Don't judge my speed. I have short legs. 

When I got home, I made two delicious bowls of spinach goodness. Only one made the picture because I ate the second one too fast.

Spinach Bowl #1.

Dinner:
2 c. Spinach Leaves
1 Avocado
4 Cucumber Slices
1/2 Lemon Juice
1 package Frozen Chopped Spanach
4 tbsp. Mild Salsa

After dinner I decided to give Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred a try...again. I will stick with it this time...I will! I will! For more information on Jillian's 30 Day Shred, click here.

After dinner, my roommate and I were in for a little show, and we didn't even know it! We were just sitting in the living room, and all of a sudden she pointed out the people across the parking lot from us. They live on the second floor and I guess they're moving out. Instead of taking their furniture through the front door, like normal people, they were tossing it off the balcony. I wanted to go out on our porch and take a video of it, but she wouldn't let me. So I settled for taking a video through the blinds...and thus...here we are:

And to answer her question, yes, they did break the gate beneath them. 

A couple of hours later, I was ready for another snack. My photography skills are getting less creative as the day goes on, so here's my after dinner snack: cucumbers, veggie hummus, and a couple of grapes.

Hunger Games cup is back!

So that's all for today. I know this was a super long post, but it's been quite a day!

Here's my calorie count for the day, in case you're curious.

And here's Jason's dinner plate, post eating. I'm on a cleanse, and he is not :)

Jason demolished his dinner. Yummy in one way, gross in another way.

I would truly appreciate prayers. Tomorrow is banana and milk day. I'm not looking forward to it :(

Enough rambling for today...goodnight all!