Day 6: Downhill Slope ... & Cake

Well, here we are with just one day left of the modified GM's cleanse. I feel like it's been an uphill climb for the last six days, and now I'm on the downhill slope.

This morning I got up and cut up the biggest cucumber I've ever seen. I packed a snack box full of cucumbers, celery, and veggie hummus. With snacks and herbal tea in hand, I headed off to work.

Although I'm not a musician and I only sing sort of well in the shower, music is a big part of my life. It can honestly completely change my mood. It wakes me up on the five hour drive to Destin that I've recently been making frequently. It gives me strength to push through a good workout. It allows me to pour out my heart to God with words that I am not clever enough to come up with, but that I truly desire to express. It taps into emotions that I'm feeling, whether I'm mad or sad or hurt or excited. And honestly, it sets the tone for my day.

I'm a big fan of shuffle. There are very rare occasions when I select a specific artist or album that I want to listen to, especially on my drive to work. It's kind of like a little surprise every three or four minutes, and it just makes life more interesting. Whenever I get a "good shuffle" in the morning, I know I'm going to have a good day. This morning was one of those times.

Can you guess what time I have to be at work?

I have time for about four songs on my way to work. And these four songs just made my day brighter. Jason has been gone for eight days, and I really miss him. I was overly excited that our song (Goodnight Moon by Go Radio) came on right as I was turning onto the exit for work. I try not to listen to that song a lot because I don't want it to get it old, but today was definitely a day I decided to sing along!

When I got to work I headed downstairs to fix my water and prepare my cucumber for breakfast.

Nothing exciting...just cucumbers.

It's strange how I've always boxed in certain foods as "breakfast foods" and I get so upset when I'm out of boiled eggs, oats, cottage cheese, or yogurt (my usual rotation of breakfast options). Usually when this happens, I just throw in the towel and head to McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin. Now, due to these veggie days, I know that I can eat healthy at breakfast even I only have lunch/dinner foods around. Now the Egg McMuffin can be something I choose to get on a day that I'm wanting to treat myself to something a little less healthy, rather than get it out of "necessity".

Over the last six days, I've had to withstand a lot of temptation. There's been an invite to Pinkberry, which is probably my favorite yogurt shop. I've had 64 K-Cups delivered to my apartment. My roomie and her fiancé made chocolate chip cookies one night. My roomie and her fiancé made curry one night. My roomie and her fiancé made Mexican food one night (okay, basically I live with someone not doing a cleanse, which is okay, but it's been hard). We went to Rojo yesterday for lunch. Each of those things have come and gone though. If I just got through that meal, it was over and I'd made it through. Then, we had a wedding shower at work. The leftover cake has been sitting in the kitchen and it's literally torture. Today this happened: 

The first thing that went through my mind was Matthew 6:23.
Maybe a little dramatic, but it was such a temptation...all..day...long.

I've always identified with this little guy, but thanks to self-control that can literally only be from God, I have not even tasted the cake!

Source

I just love that. That literally describes my relationship with "dieting" and food perfectly.

Today for lunch I met up with two friends from the Children's Homes. We decided to go to Moe's because they have Thank You Thursday. I'd never heard of such a thing, but I quickly learned that it means you can buy one meal and get the second for $2.99 and you get two large drinks. Awesome deal! I opted for the Alfredo Garcia Streaker, which means a chicken fajita with no tortillas. I went without cheese and only got veggies. 

Fajita chicken + grilled onioins + green peppers + cucumbers +
pico de gallo + shredded lettuce + corn pico = delicious!

Needless to say, real food tastes amazing. But it was also super high in calories. Probably not the smartest idea for a cleanse, but I'd only had 25 calories so far today. I'd say with the taste, price, and fellowship, it was totally worth it! It's also awesome that I was able to meet friends for lunch without going off the cleanse.


As soon as I got home from work I hit the ground running heating up leftover chicken and squash and making my soup. Let's just say I had to run the dishwasher and our entire dish drying rack is now full. 

Here's my dinner:

Dinner:
About 6 oz. leftover crockpot chicken
About 4 c. leftover zucchini and yellow squash
Salsa

I also got tired of the Hunger Games cup and I found this lovely cup in the back of my cabinet. Roll Tide.

So, here are a few shots of the process of making the soup:

Cabbage, chopped onions, Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix, celery, diced tomatoes

And here's the finished product:

Soup Recipe:
1 Head of cabbage
1 Onions chopped
Celery chopped (I used my leftovers from veggie days)
2 Cans plain diced tomatoes, no salt added
2 Packets Lipton Beefy Onion Soup mix
9 c. Water
Bring to a boil and stir frequently.

After dinner I headed to the Summit to meet a friend I was buying a Kindle from. I'm so excited to finally have some sort of digital reader.

Last, but certainly not least, it was time to pack! I'm leaving from work to go straight to Destin tomorrow. I had to store my soup and pack an ice chest to take fruit home.

Fruit on the left, soup on the right. What's up road trip?

I'm not used to packing food, so I hope this all goes well. It has to sit all day tomorrow at work and the 4.5 hour trip home.

As much as I'm ready for this cleanse to be over, I have to admit that I'm a little nervous about not having the strict food restrictions. I'm hoping and praying that I have an easy transition out of the cleanse and a seamless move into a healthier lifestyle.

Here is my calorie count for the day:

And now it's time to quit rambling and go pack my clothes...LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!

Day 5 (Part 2): Tomaeto/Tomotto

The dreaded day arrived. It came and went swiftly. I'm not sure how I did it, but I ate tomatoes today.

So today was tomato and chicken/turkey day. I honestly meant to make a trip to Publix last night to get some turkey from the deli, but I was just too tired. Today was all about me, tomatoes, and chicken.

In case you're interested on why tomatoes, you're not alone. I asked myself the same thing. I was hoping to get out of eating tomatoes. But I had to eat them.

Here's what I discovered: the blog I got this cleanse from says to drink plenty of water with each tomato consumed because you're washing out the uric acid. I am not a science person, so I searched for what uric acid is and does. Basically, I had to eat tomatoes because I haven't been eating meat. My body is no longer accustomed to the 10-12 oz. of poultry I consume on a daily basis. Meat has uric acid. Too much uric acid causes gout. Tomatoes clean the uric acid from your system.

Now, I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist, so I don't know if this is the exact process that our bodies go through, but this was the gist that I got from Google. If you have gout and you're wanting to heal yourself, I don't know if you should eat tomatoes. I didn't go that far in my research.

Moving on...

I've never eaten a full tomato. One bite usually makes me gag. But at 10:30 this morning, I found myself sitting in front of this:

Tomato sliced. Large glass of water. Tea.

First bite made me gag.

Then I decided to chase each bite with a big swig of water. 

I did make it through, but I did not like it one bit.

About 45 minutes later I had to eat lunch because some of my co-workers and I were going to Rojo for a goodbye lunch. One of my friends/co-workers has taken a job at another company, so we took her out to lunch to bid her farewell :(

So around 11:15, I found myself in the kitchen making this lunch:

Plate before and plate after. Also, lots of water.

Lunch:
5 oz. of boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked in the crock-pot
1 tomato diced

I never thought I would put tomatoes on my plate on purpose, but this time was much better than this morning. Each bite had chicken and tomato, so I didn't have to wash the tomato down with water as many times.

I was so excited to eat chicken again though! I'm a carnivore...hooray!

Rojo was the first restaurant I've stepped in to since I've been doing the cleanse. I have to admit that I was worried I'd throw everything aside and order a huge burrito. But I did not. I fixed myself a glass of water and made some good conversation. I left without one bite of this yummy goodness:

Rojo is definitely one of my favorite restaurants in Birmingham.

I must admit that last night I was praying for self control and God sure did deliver.

Around 2:30 I headed downstairs to the kitchen at work. I cut up another tomato at ate it plain. I stayed down there to eat it, therefore there isn't a picture. I figured I would just stand and eat it at the counter in an effort to eat it faster. It worked sorta, but I have to confess that I threw the last two bites into the garbage can. Then I made some green tea.

I made it through the rest of the work day just find, but when I got home I was ready for dinner.

I whipped up a nice little concoction of chicken and tomatoes.

I'm not sure if this is a full pound, but that's what myfitnesspal told me it was.

Dinner:
1 lb. ground chicken
2 cans of diced tomatoes

Dinner tasted a lot like spaghetti at first. It was delicious and I scarfed the first bowl down way too fast. I was still really hungry though because I'd only eaten about 200 calories thus far, so I went back for seconds and ending up eating the entire meal.

Many times I make something similar but I throw in a lot more veggies and usually some salsa and taco seasoning. That usually makes 2-3 servings if I eat it without anything else. I'm glad that I'm full now, but I'm kind of regretting the pound of chicken I ate.

Other than water and some herbal tea, that's a wrap on my food for today. Tomorrow should be much more interesting! I cannot wait to eat poultry and veggies!!

Here is my calorie count for the day:

Hope you all had a wonderful Wednesday. If you haven't read "Part 1," please take a few minutes to check it out!