Cleanse: Day 1 and 2

Yesterday marked the first official day of my cleanse, and as I stated before it's no gluten, no dairy or no soy. Piece of cake! Eat clean and healthy and oh yea..no alcohol. Bye-bye wine for a month, so sad to see you go! ;( I can already see that this might be a tough one to clear out of my diet for a month.

So since I stated that...I did, however, have one minor slip up yesterday regarding the what I shouldn't have or drink.

I had ONE beer yesterday... ::Palm to forehead:: Oops.

I met up with some friends yesterday and headed to downtown Livermore for it's annual Art and Wine Festival. THe sun was out and the weather was beautiful! I couldn't resist having a cold beer at the Ale House.

Just ONE minor slip up, it won't happen again. I promise.

I did make it to a yoga class with Erika, so that made me feel a little better about the slip up. Just a little.

Here's what my day one meal plan looked like:

Woke up: Had a huge glass of water (Which is pretty standard for me in the mornings 'cause I am always thirsty when I wake up). A cup of herbal detox tea

Breakfast: Green Monster Protein shake- 1cup vanilla almond milk, 1/2 medium banana, 1 tbs. ground flax, 1 scoop Arbonne vanilla protein powder, 1 scoop fiber, handful of spinach and 1 tbs. almond butter. 

Mid-morning drink: Green tea

Lunch: 2 brown rice cakes with hummus and a bowl of strawberries

Mid-afternoon drink: Glass of beer (Oops)

YOGA class @ 5pm

Dinner: Chicken with asparagus and mushrooms

Nighttime drink: Water

Today is the second day of the cleanse and it went great! No slip ups! Woke up this morning and had some water, detox tea and for breakfast I had a bowl of gluten free overnight oats. This bowl I kept it simple. Just 1/4 of oats, vanilla almond milk, ground flax, chia seeds and a squeeze of agave nectar. 

I spent part of my morning outside in the sun just soaking it up! Oh and getting a little tan on. ;)

Walked around my yard taking more pictures of the pretty scenery...and Jack.

I see you...

Snoball flowering plant

One of the many rose bushes in my backyard

Actual color of the rose. So pretty! One of my favorites.

The VOO held me over until lunch time where I made myself a protein shake that consisted of:

• 1/2 an apple cut up
• 1 cup Vanilla Almond Milk
• 1 1/2 scoops Arbonne Vanilla Protein Powder
• 1 scoop fiber
• 2 dashes of cinnamon
• 1 tbs. ground flax

There was more, but I drank most of it before taking the picture.

Super delicious and it got me through my work out of 40 mins on the elliptical and then abs, core and weights. Had a cup a detox tea and relaxed until I made dinner.

Tonight's dinner tonight was baked sweet potatoes and chick peas with shrimp and chard salad. My garbage bowl of delicious eats.

Chick Pea Sweet Potato  salad with Shrimp and Chard


Ingredients:

• 1/2 Sweet potato cut up into chunks
• 1/2 cup chick peas, drained and rinsed
• Shrimp (however much you'd like)
• handful of chard
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic powder or crushed garlic
• dried basil and thyme

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with foil. Chop the sweet potato. In a bowl, add the chick peas and sweet potato and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, thyme and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix together to coat the sweet potato and chick peas. Spread them out onto the covered baking sheet, pop into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. While the sweet potatoes and chick peas are cooking, heat a pan with olive oil and add the kale and shrimp. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the kale has wilted and shrimp are pink and cooked through.  Add into a large bowl. When sweet potatoes and chick peas are cooked, remove from oven and add along with the kale and shrimp, toss to combine. Plate and enjoy!

My garbage bowl of yummy goodness!

I had some leftovers from dinner which will be my lunch tomorrow! Yum!

I have set for myself exercise and eating goals, not because of this cleanse but as an everyday boost of motivation and to get a routine down. I go through days where I just don't have the energy to work out or I just wanna gorge myself and stuff my face with food that isn't the healthiest for me. And when I do I am always left feeling not so good.

So I typed up exercise and Eating goals and taped it to my computer, a place that I will see it everyday.

Just a quick update on how the cleanse is going! It's only the second day and I am finding it quite easy! 

Hope you all had a great Monday!

XO

Honey Dijon Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Chard

It's hump day!! Just a few more days till the weekend. No exciting plans as of now, but that's ok. A chill weekend would be nice!

I really want to go see "Water for Elephants" starring Robert Pattinson. So hot. Haha. Plus I read the book a while back and absolutely loved it! I read it in 3 days, I couldn't put it down. Maybe I'll go see that this weekend.

Today, before the gym, I made a Trader Joe's and Fresh and Easy run. Stocked back up on some of the necessities. Just to name a few: Almond butter, Bob's Red Mill GLUTEN FREE oats (SOOO happy when I found these at Fresh and Easy. I can still have my oats while on my detox cleanse!) agave nectar, baby spinach leaves, pistachio nuts, dried tomatoes, dried cranberries.

Earlier today I marinated some chicken in olive oil, honey, Dijon mustard, crushed garlic and some salt and pepper and let it sit in the fridge for about 5 hours. Cooked it up tonight with some sautéed chard with bell peppers (that I had left over) and baked sweet potatoes. When you see the picture of the sweet potatoes you might wonder why they aren't orange. Reason why is... most people are cooking with YAMS, not sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes aren't orange in color, yams are. Yams and sweet potatoes don't taste much different from each other. If you didn't know the difference before, you do now!

On the left is a typical yam that is sold in the U.S. and we see in stores,
on the right is a sweet potato that is also sold in stores.

Okay, continuing on!

Chard cut up and ready to go!

Chicken cooking in the pan.

Doesn't it look good! It smelled good as well.

Finished product! It was so delicious! See?? Sweet potatoes really aren't orange. But they taste just as good, if not better!

I brushed the sweet potatoes on both sides with just a little olive oil and seasoned with basil, thyme, salt and pepper. Baked in a 425 degree oven for about 30 mins. Unfortunately, I do not have the exact measurements for the marinade I made for the chicken. I eyeballed everything according the the amount of chicken I had. It wasn't large quantities due to the fact there was only 3 chicken tenders cut in half. I'll make it again and I'll be sure to measure and I'll post the recipe!

Hope you all had a great Wednesday!

Now time for some t.v., psychology reading, shower and bed.