31rst

We went to a friend's place and spent the whole of 31rst and 1rst with them. The 1rst also had a birthday party at Anjappar Restaurant. So, lot of food, rules were broken.... We also baked a few muffins and the fruitcake (that I was supposed to bake before christmas. All that soaked goodness of those dried fruits in that cake was yummm!)

Breakfast:
7 am - smoothie with greens, protein pdr, apple, stevia, flax meal, water
9.30 am - dosa with ghee drizzled coconut chutney

Lunch:
dosa with ghee drizzled coconut chutney

Dinner:
Tandoori chicken
mutton curry
Idlis
I skipped the rotis, but ate a small piece of the dark colored khalakand which has been recently re-christened as 'milk halwa'.

Night time Tea:
None

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:

Fresh Lemon juice - NO
Raw EV Olive Oil - NO
Flaxseed meal - Yes
Protein powder - Yes
Greens - Yes
Veggies - Yes
Fruits - Yes
Supplements - Yes
Dandelion Root Tea - NO

Its not biscotti , but energy bar today :( Homemade snacks are my downfall!

Breakfast:
Green smoothie with baby romaine leaves, green apple, EV coconut oil, flax seed meal, protein powder, stevia! I didn't like the coconut oil in the smoothies. That's a bit puzzling to me because I can eat a tablespoon of coconut oil straight from the jar.

Midmorning snack:
GF sugar free egg free cookies

Lunch:
Brown rice + sambar + beetroot poriyal

Afternoon snack:
Argh! Crap! My oatmeal energy bars! :( Its got sugar (not much, but really I shouldn't be eating it) and then it has tons of dried fruits - currants, cherries, apricots, etc.. :(

I have to make some oatmeal bars with nuts, coconut, seeds pumpkin sauce/apple sauce and just a dab of honey.

Dinner:
Lean Turkey burger at Licks.

Night time Tea:
Dandelion Tea

Exercise:
none

In retrospect:

Fresh Lemon juice - No
Raw EV Olive Oil - No
Flaxseed meal - Yes
Protein powder - Yes
Greens - Yes
Veggies - Yes
Fruits - Yes
Supplements - Yes
Dandelion Root Tea - Yes

Just another day

Breakfast:
Green cocktail smoothie - Baby romaine leaves, protein powder, flax seed meal, water, stevia, apple

Midmorning snack:
Gluten free sugar free Egg free cookies! They are such a blessing.

Lunch:
3 biscotti (Don't ask!!) After going on this gluten free brown rice cleanse, I notice how much discomfort eating wheat and sugar cause... I wasn't prepared for lunch and this tin of biscotti was lying right next to the laptop. :(

Afternoon snack:
none

Dinner:
- Brown rice
- Onion Sambar
- Stirfried Beetroot with onions and spices
- Garlicky Chicken breast cubes... with tons of garlic [about 10-11 cloves very finely chopped], a decent amount of red chilli powder, salt, a tiny pinch of cinnamon and clove powder! Yumm!

Night time Tea:
Rosehip Oatstraw Tea

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
If not for the biscotti, the would have been better!

Fresh Lemon juice - NO
Raw EV Olive Oil - NO
Flaxseed meal - Yes
Protein powder - Yes
Greens - Yes
Veggies - Yes
Fruits - Yes
Supplements - Yes
Dandelion Root Tea - NO
Other herbal Tea - Yes

A very good reason to work out!

Flowing water never stagnates.
Active hinges never rust.’
Sun Ssu-mo
Chinese medicine doctor ~ ­­700 AC

Day 25

Breakfast:
Green smoothie with baby romaine leaves (new food), flax seed meal, apple, protein powder, and stevia

Midmorning snack:
Gluten free sugar free egg free ginger snaps sweetened with BS molasses and just 10 ml honey (that's 1 dessert spoon). I used amaranth flour (that I made myself by grinding amaranth grains) and buckwheat flour. Used flax seed meal with hot water to use as binding agent. coconut oil was the fat.

Adapted from Ginger cookies by Jugalbandi folks. Thanks Jai and Bee! I could enjoy it guilt free.

Lunch:
bronw rice, sambar, brown rice idiyappam

Dinner:
burger

Night time Tea:


Exercise:


In retrospect:

Fresh Lemon juice - Yes NO
Raw EV Olive Oil - Yes NO
Flaxseed meal - Yes NO
Protein powder - Yes NO
Greens - Yes NO
Veggies - Yes NO
Fruits - Yes NO
Supplements - Yes NO
Dandelion Root Tea - Yes NO

Day 24 - a day out!

Breakfast:
An apple
Idlis, Sambar - even more yummm when somebody else makes it!

Lunch:
Lunch at another friends place. yummy food again!

Mushroom biryani
Chicken curry
Egg drop curry
drumstick chicken

pound cake that a little one baked and gladly shared. :)

Afternoon snack:
None!

Dinner:
Potato poriyal and small serving of mushroom biryani

Night time Tea:
Lemon water

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
Great day!

Fresh Lemon juice - Yes
Raw EV Olive Oil - NO
Flaxseed meal - NO
Protein powder - NO
Greens - NO
Veggies - NO
Fruits - Yes
Supplements - NO
Dandelion Root Tea - NO

I was out all day and wasnt able to stick to my diet or supplements. I had a great day though.

Day 23

Breakfast:
A green smoothie with arugula leaves, protein powder, apple, stevia, flax seed meal and water

Lunch:
Brown rice,
Onion sambar
Green beans poriyal

Dinner:
potluck dinner at a friends place and sleep over!

Cranberry juice
Nonveg rolls
Chicken curry
Mushroom biryani
(I forgot what else I ate)

A cake that I baked! It turned out yummmm ... with a lot of AP (unbleached organic), fat and sugar of course. I had never attempted to bake one with THAT much fat and sugar yet... so I was a bit horrified when I made it. But hey, I brought the cake over for dinner where I could eat a small piece and not over do it. :)

Night time Tea:
None

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
Bake the cake one day before you need it! Last minute baking/cooking creates hypertension for everybody in the family.

Fresh Lemon juice - NO
Raw EV Olive Oil - NO
Flaxseed meal - Yes
Protein powder - Yes
Greens - Yes
Veggies - Yes
Fruits - Yes
Supplements - Yes
Dandelion Root Tea - NO

Day 22

Breakfast:
Green smoothie with lot of arugula leaves, an apple, 2 tbsp flax seed meal, interactive nutrition whey protein powder (I love it! apparently I can eat this whey protein even on this diet! which is good because it makes the smoothie very filling!), stevia

yummmm! I think buying that box of arugula turned out to be a good idea after all. I had salad in mind when I got it, but this is even more easier and I've started liking the taste now.


Lunch:
Brown rice mixed with kothamallai thuvaiyal (cilantro, spicy dip?)

Afternoon snack:
gingerbread cookies Mmmmmmmm yummmm!
I have to find a recipe that is gluten free and uses molasses (or just skip the sugar and use the molasses!) I'm allowed unsulphured molasses though which makes it easier.

Dinner:
- Rohu fish from a Bangla store as I suddenly wanted to eat fish and all other stores were closed.
The fish was okay, a bit on the dry side and was incomparable to amma's grilled fish.

- 1/4 cup brown rice + cilantro thuvaiyal

- a small piece of Banana bread. Why do I eat it with a :) and then after 2 hrs regret it like :(
I got some pumpkin squash to make a gluten free bread. The health food store was out of xanthum gum AND guar gum. Are that many gluten free people around in TO? :o

Night time Tea:
None

Exercise:
None... new yr resolution is on the way :)

In retrospect:
Good day! Christmas was good! Memories were made... DD enjoyed it a lot.

Fresh Lemon juice - NO
Raw EV Olive Oil - NO
Flaxseed meal - Yes
Protein powder - Yes
Greens - Yes
Veggies - Yes
Fruits - Yes
Supplements - NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Dandelion Root Tea - NO

Day 21

Breakfast:
Dandelion Tea

Midmorning snack:
Brown rice - lentil dosa with mint based Rajma curry

Afternoon snack:
An apple and an energy bar hot off the oven

Dinner:
Brown rice with the rajma curry
2 tiny ginger bread cookies
1/2 a biscotti

Night time Tea:
None

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
I didn't do much of the stuff on the list - no lemon juice, olive oil, flax etc.. but did a ton of baking - Energy bars, Almond biscotti, gingerbread cookies and cleaning the house.

I ate a small piece of energy bar, two tiny gingerbread cookies and a small piece of that biscotti. :) I'm doing that cleanse in Jan for 2 weeks, ain't I? heheeee!

The gingerbread cookies are a first time for me. I can do the biscotti and the energy bar in my sleep. :) So, I was very skeptical about doing a cutout cookie for the very first time esp. since I heard people say that the dough is very sticky and has to be chilled for at least 2 hrs. But right before her bedtime, M decided she wanted to make gingerbread cookies and leave it for santa. So, I chilled most of the dough [to appease all the cut-out cookie gods] and made some right away ;) It worked!

Merry Christmas, everyone!! :)

Day 19

Breakfast:
Looks like I did partly learn from my mistake yesterday.
Green Smoothie - lot of baby arugula leaves, an apple, protein powder, stevia, water

Lunch:
Lemon flavored Brown rice vermicelli with lot of green peas

Afternoon snack:
- Yikes! Organic Cheese twists (cornmeal, cheese and many unmentionable stuff) and some WW cookies .. Headache follows this. I don't know if the liver supplements dont work well with wheat/corn/cheese/unmentionable stuff or if I'm gluten intolerant.
- Those b.l.a.n.d Brown rice crackers

Dinner:
Brown rice dosa, with left over doro wat from the Ethiopian place we went last night. [I picked up the wrong kind of brown rice from srilankan store, it was a bit stickier than usual, so I used some green mung flour to make it not so sticky. I've left it ferment with some Ragi [sprouted finger millet] to increase the enzyme activity. Hopefully it works.]

A small cup of brown rice vermicelli with lemon juice and green peas

Night time Tea:
None

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
Decent day!

Fresh Lemon juice - Yes
Raw EV Olive Oil - NO
Flaxseed meal - NO
Protein powder - Yes
Greens - Yes
Veggies - Yes
Fruits - Yes
Supplements - Yes
Dandelion Root Tea - NO

Day 19

Today was a major crappola! :( It was whole wheat all day when I'm not supposed to touch wheat at all. :(

Breakfast:
None. It started with this.

Midmorning snack:
Cashews
Toasted whole wheat bread with extra virgin coconut oil slathered on it.

Lunch:
Toasted whole wheat bread (with EV coconut oil) with roasted peppers, mushrooms and onions. That stir fry! It sure tasted GREAT!
3 wholewheat cookies for dessert (!) What was I thinking? .... No, I wasn't thinking. That was the problem.

Evening food:
A WW bagel toasted, with butter

Dinner:
Dinner at Lalebela, Ethiopian restaurant. Good food! DH really liked it! The service was very good. I liked it!

Injera [I think they might have put some white flour in it]
Doro wat
Lamb Tibs [a bit rare for my liking, but the fact that I couldn't stop eating it is another story]

Night time Tea:
Rose hip tea

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
The Whole wheat stuff was bad. I had moodswings because I didnt eat breakfast and had to eat 'some'thing!

No lemon, no olive oil, no veggies, no fruits, no seeds, no flax seed [stocked on that one, finally. Stocked on the protein powder too!]

Tomorrow is yet another day.

Day 18

Breakfast:
Green smoothie with baby arugula leaves [new food, yes! DH says I'm sneaking in a lot of new foods in December to increase the count. :) He isn't believing that I didn't really think of this tab when I got those green leaves!], apple, water and stevia

Midmorning snack:
a smallish cup of brown rice, red lentils with methi leaves

Late Lunch:
Late lunch at Karaikudi, Scarborough. They strut their 'Chettinadu' cuisine, and the menu said their chettinadu chicken was much sought after. Hmmmmm..... Nope! It just barely okay! I won't eat that again. The fish biryani was okay tastewise, but VERY hot. The chicken tikka, which we specifically asked to make it very mild and said it was for my 3 yo DD was superhot for even me! Not much flavor, too much heat in all three dishes!

We might try their buffet sometime in the future before writing them off.

Dinner:
Brown rice, Red lentils with fresh methi leaves, some leftover fish biryani and chettinad chicken masala. The fish biryani was better now with more depth in the flavor. I have to find a recipe for this one and try my hand making the fish biryani in a slightly different way.

Night time Tea:
Dandelion tea

Exercise:
None, if you don't count my retail therapy. :)

In retrospect:
GREAT DAY!!!!

Day 17

Breakfast:
A green smoothie made with raw dandelion leaves, apple, flax seed meal, soaked almonds, stevia

Lunch:
Lemon rice (this is easy to get my daily dose of lemon juice and olive oil.) I squeeze fresh lemon juice and olive oil on cooled rice, then add a seasoning of spices.

Afternoon snack:
Rose hip tea

Dinner:
- Brown rice
- Wilted dandelion leaves with sesame seeds, garlic, olive oil, crushed red pepper flakes and seasalt [Dandelion leaves is a new food for me this year, along with the root tea that I've been taking. The leaves taste a bit bitter but better than karela! :)]
- Red lentils dal with fresh methi leaves and spices
- Rice vadagam (just 1)
- I also made mushroom-peppers-onions spicy stir fry which smelled so good, I didn't eat it. I should try this same stirfry with broccoli or cauliflower.

Night time Tea:
Rose hip tea

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
Good day!

Flax seed meal - yes
Raw Olive oil - yes
Raw lemon juice - yes
Dandelion tea - yes
Greens - YES!

:)

Day 16

Breakfast:
Lemon Rice made of Brown Rice [This tastes better the next day when the brown rice has had time to absorb the lemon flavors. It tastes just barely okay when you try it right away.]

Midmorning snack:
Dandelion tea

Lunch:
Big lunch - A baby shower
Variety rice - in almost all colors made by S. The palette was complete with my Beetroot halwa, which was gobbled up in no time. S's food was so good, mild, not too spicy. DD loved it!

Afternoon snack:
Beetroot halwa(!) I have made up my mind to do justice to this detox in January. Until then, I'm going to consider this a trial run.

Dinner:
Some tamarind rice, green rice

Night time Tea:
Rose hip tea

Exercise:
None, just a small walk

In retrospect:
good day!

Day 15

Breakfast:
8 soaked almonds

Midmorning snack:
Puttu made with a combo of Red rice puttu flour, sprouted Ragi flour and shredded coconut [Yummm!] I'm going to reduce the amount of red rice flour in it, slowly and see how far I can go.
Chicken curry

Lunch:
Dandelion tea
Brown rice + chicken curry


Dinner:
Lemon rice made with Brown rice, spices, fresh lemon juice
Chicken

Night time Tea:
Lemon water

Exercise:
Yoga (yay!!) Nothing like an early morning yoga.

In retrospect:
Good day! Big shopping trip... too tired! Got tons of greens to make salads and stuff.

Day 14

Breakfast:
Dandelion Tea
Smoothie with an apple, blueberries, flax seed meal (yayyyy!), stevia

Lunch:
Red rice Puttu (sooooo convenient to make in the steamer!) with 1/2 tsp of sugar(!)

Afternoon snack:
Brown rice crackers. I have to make some spicy ones, these taste B.L.A.N.D.

Dinner:
Brown rice, Roasted chicken, Chicken curry

Night time Tea:
Lemon tea

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
No veggies. No greens. No raw olive oil. Rest of the things okay.

I ate one airpopped popcorn which was sitting in a pretty bowl, next to my laptop. Only when the taste was different, I realised what I was doing. I moved the bowl right away out of reach.

Brown Rice Cleanse - day 13

Breakfast:
Dandelion Tea

Midmorning snack:
None

Lunch:
Red Rice flour puttu with kadala curry (When I made the curry, I saved some aside for the puttu)...... Ah! Bliss!!

Afternoon snack:
I ate the cheesy crust of the wholewheat grileld cheese sandwich I made for Mischief. :(
and suffered the after effects. Yikes!! Not good at all.

Dinner:
Puttu with kadala curry

Night time Tea:
Lemon Tea

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
Good day! Very productive! I got a lot of work done!!

No veggies, fruits, flax seed meal, etc...

Brown Rice Cleanse - Day 12

Breakfast:
Dandelion Tea

Midmorning snack:
10.20 AM Brown Rice, Kadala curry

Lunch:
none

Afternoon snack:
Cashews, apple
Spiced up brown rice

Dinner:
Broiled Chicken livers

Night time Tea:
Rose hip tea

Exercise:
Yoga

In retrospect:
Not so good on the food front - veggies, flax seed meal, lemon jucie, olive oil - all missing!

Brown Rice Cleanse - Day 11

Breakfast:
Dandelion tea

Midmorning snack:
Cashews and banana [Instant headache with banana! Argh! I had been out all morning and got back very hungry and ate the banana before I could find anything else. Bad mistake! If there's one person who doesn't learn from her mistake, it's me!!!]

Lunch:
Salad made of Boiled chickpeas, Grated carrots, lemon juice, EV olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.

Afternoon snack:
After an hour -
A small cup of sambar saadam (lot of sambar and 2 tbsp of brown rice)

Dinner:
Small serving of Brown rice, Kadala curry [An adaptation of this and this! Yummm... ] Thanks Indo, for reminding me of this yummy dish. I might have to make some puttu tomorrow. Have some red rice puttu flour begging to be made into yummy stuff.

Night time Tea:
None

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
Yayyyyy for finally getting the lemon juice, olive oil in. Forgot the flax seed meal. I should make a checklist, me thinks! Too much to remember.

DH thinks that I'm single handedly supporting our TPL. [You know how. ;) ]
And I ask 'Isn't that a good thing to support your library?'

What say you?

Brown Rice Cleanse - Day 10

Breakfast:
Dandelion tea

Lunch:
We had friends over today - a couple that we really enjoy spending time with.

White rice
Sambar (drumstick, carrots and onions)
Garlic Rasam
Zingy Carrot Salad
Tandoori Senaikilangu varuval (Steamed and broiled) - Yummmm!
Fried Vadagam
Paasiparuppu paayasam. Yayyyy! :)

I also made kathrikai poriyal, but I didn't eat it.

Dinner:
A very small serving of sambar saadam, tandoori senakilangu varuval and carrot salad

Night time Tea:
Dandelion tea

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
Great day! :) A great weekend too.

Brown Rice cleanse - Day 9

Breakfast:
Dosa made of brown rice flour, yellow mung dal flour, sprouted grain flour(which has a ridiculously small amount of sprouted wheat in it), vinegar, baking soda, water flavored with scallions and green chillies. Didn't need a side dish.

Lunch:
Lunch at a friend's place who had just got a new house - Mutton biryani, Chicken and Fish. Nice food! Nice house, too!

Afternoon snack:
Bhel puri
Sweet - milk halwa ;) - we then visited a friend who had just delivered a baby and they offered this. The milk halwa was the dark version of the khalakhand, my most fav. sweet ever! [The only other sweets I like being pooran poli, adhirasam, kozhukattai and paasiparuppu payasam] I just couldn't refuse it! Every other sweet other than the ones in this list, I'll gladly pass.

Dinner:
A small serving of biryani and chicken

Night time Tea:
None - bad mistake! The biryani was a bit too much for dinner esp. after having all those for lunch. A tea or lemon water would have helped.

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
Seeing the new born baby was a melting moment! :)

Brown Rice Cleanse - Day 8

Breakfast:
Dandelion tea
A simple fried rice made with Brown rice, sprouted mung beans, onions and spices.

Midmorning snack:
A few potato chips [I blame my DH for bringing the damn thing into the house! ;)]

Lunch:
Fruit salad

Afternoon snack:
Fruit salad

Dinner:
A chili kinda dish made with blackbeans, lima beans, onions, ginger garlic, spices, chicken broth and 2 tbsp brown rice.

Night time Tea:
Dandelion + Rosehip + Oatstraw tea

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
I had a very good day today. We ventured out in the chilling mind numbing cold and came back hungry, tired and refreshed at the same time.

Brown rice cleanse - Day 7

Breakfast:
7 AM - Dandelion tea. I made an infusion yesterday night and warmed it up in the morning.
8.30 AM- Brown rice, black beans curry with grated carrots, avarakkai (a type of green beans)

Lunch:
Walnuts
A cup of black beans curry with grated carrots, transformed into a soup

Afternoon snack:
Diluted apple juice

Dinner:
Brown rice
Chicken

Night time Tea:
Rose hip - Oatstraw tea
Lemon water

Exercise:
None!

In retrospect:
The gym is not working out - The lights there along with the LOUD BLARING music is triggering a migraine every time I get a workout. Need to cancel the membership while I still have time to do so.

Forgot flax seed, olive oil, greens and fruits.

The right weather for herbal teas makes it even more enjoyable experience. Nothing like curling up with a hot cuppa and a new book, after everybody's gone to bed! :)

Brown Rice cleanse - Day 6

Late Breakfast:
Quinoa Pilaf with lima beans, carrots, onions and spices. Yummmm!
I soaked the Quinoa overnight, rinsed in the morning and used an equal measure of water for the pilaf, not twice as usual. Perfect pilaf!

Midmorning snack:
None

Lunch:
Walnuts - wasn't hungry to eat more. Breakfast was heavier than usual. Maybe I could have eaten an apple?

Afternoon snack:
Rosehip tea

Dinner:
Brown rice
Black beans curry
Avarakkai / (a kinda green beans?)

Night time Tea:
Dandelion root tea

Exercise:
Exercise bike + stepper + abs + stretches = 35 mins

In retrospect:
Good day!! doing good on veggies, not on fruits. Still forgetting lemon juice + olive oil + flax seeds.

Brown Rice Cleanse - Day 5

Breakfast:
Smoothie with half an apple, wild blueberries, soaked almonds, flax seed meal - 2 tbsp, a cup or more of water, stevia

11.20 AM:
Velvety Pumpkin - Lentil soup....

That's just a glorified name for left over lentils + stir fried pumpkin, warmed up and blended. Tasted really good though. :) Mmmmmmmm..... Red lentils and Jamaican pumpkin go well together.

Lunch:
Brown rice - 2 tbsp, Stir fried beetroot

Afternoon snack:
Roasted gram dal (pottu kadalai)
Diluted apple juice

Dinner:
Buckwheat-oats-paasiparuppu maavu dosa/adai with sambar

Night time Tea:
Dandelion root tea

Exercise:
Yes!

Total 25 mins cardio on stepper and treadmill
10 mins strength training
15 mins abs and stretches

In retrospect:
Good day - diet wise, workout wise!!

Remembered the flax seed and tea. DH picked up the wrong protein powder from the natural food store. [with chocolate and sugar! :)] That goes back tomorrow for the right one. Forgot the lemons and raw olive oil too.

Brown Rice cleanse Day - 4

Breakfast:
Buckwheat-oats pancakes - 2
made with buckwheat, quick oats, apple cider vinegar, water, flax seed meal, salt with Cilantro chutney.

Midmorning snack:
Diluted unsweetened apple juice

Lunch:
- A tiny cup of bowl of bean salad

- 3 cookies that I made today - all healthy stuff, less sugar BUT made of wholewheat - which is a no-no for this cleanse, [esp. with the supplements I'm taking for this cleanse]. Gave me headache within 15 mins of eating it. Felt crappy for quite some time after that. Yikes! Not following the rules comes with a nasty penalty!

Afternoon snack:
Handful of Soaked Almonds

Dinner:
Brown rice
Stir fried beetroot with spices
Stir fried pumpkin with green chilies and spices [I used to hate this as a kid, ]
Red lentils dal spiced with a pinch of dried fenugreek leaves and spices

Late night tea:
Dandelion Root Tea with stevia .... the pinch of stevia leaf powder didn't cut it, so I added just a tiny dab of honey. Wasn't sweet, but made the tea palatable. Next time, I might try increasing the stevia and adding it while the tea is brewing, not after.

Exercise:
Have a reason (not an excuse this time). Will workout tomorrow.

In retrospect:
Good day! Did well on veggies, need to space out the veggies over the day and eat some fruits as well.

And oh! It snowed very lightly ........and it was beautiful! M and me broke into an impromptu song about the song (we made it up) and it was a really beautiful moment that we shared.

Brown rice cleanse - Day 3

Breakfast:
Dinner leftovers - A little of brown rice, channa masala, green beans

Midmorning snack:
Diluted unsweetened apple juice

Lunch:
Baby shower at a friend's place. Ate white rice and mostly allowed stuff - 3 pieces of potato chips. I couldn't just eat one. :)

Afternoon snack:
Diluted apple juice

Dinner:
An apple,
Brown rice, some boiled channa (too tired to cook!)

Exercise:
None. tomorrow, definitely!

In retrospect:
Wonderful day spent with friends! :)

forgot to get the dandelion root tea and forgot to eat the flax seed powder as well. not good on veggies and greens as my list suggests. got to work on it.

Brown rice cleanse - Day 2

Late Breakfast:
dosa - made of buckwheat, passipayaru maavu, rice flour, vinegar, baking soda, salt. Pretty decent!
coriander chutney

Lunch:
apple, grilled chicken

Afternoon snack:
unsweetened apple juice diluted in water

Dinner:
brown rice, channa masala, green beans poriyal, rasam

Exercise:
maybe marathon cleaning the whole house counts

In retrospect
Decent day! added tomatoes in channa masala by mistake, have to watch out for that. I'm not sure if I can use tamarind(rasam), got to ask.

Brown rice cleanse - Day 1

Breakfast:
Brown rice, Adzuki beans curried in coconut milk, Stir-fried broccoli
(Dinner leftovers came to the rescue of this unprepared girl)

Midmorning snack:
almonds and gojiberries (I ate goji berries and then reread the guidelines she gave me, no dried fruits! huh!)

Lunch:
Kitchidi made of steelcut oats, moong dal and spices (not bad at all, steel cut oats looks like a great sub for rice in bisibelebath)

Dinner:
- Roasted fish (basa) soup with veggies. The veggies were mushrooms (I had a few) and red peppers that I didn't eat. I should ask her about the mushrooms, the other article I read about brown rice cleanse mentioned about no mushrooms.
- A big bowl of papaya

Exercise:
None

In retrospect:
Headache day, as I wasn't eating enough today - all the snacks we currently have at home, except the nuts, were off limits. I have to do some shopping and baking, real quick. The headache could have also been because I had very less sleep the previous night.

Where am I right now?

Before I go in there, Here's a good news. I joined a gym! :) F.I.N.A.L.L.Y! Yayyyyy! They have a lot of classes and a tons of machines. They even have quite a few of my most fav. workout machine - the stepper! I plan to work out 5 days a week.

Now, where am I with my current weight and where do I want to go from here?
My new Naturopath (whom I originally went for Acupuncture) did a total body composition analysis yesterday.

The weight - 138.4 lbs (weighed at 2 pm)

Body fat composition is 31% (not good at all, should bring it down to 22%)

Muscle mass - 31 (She was impressed! Apparently I have the muscle mass of an athlete! hehe.. Maybe that's the leftovers from the rigorous strength training I did ages ago. Maybe that's how my body's composition, naturally is. but it sure feels good! like an athlete, huh!! :)

The last time I did a total body composition was in 2001, I don't remember the muscle mass at the time, but I remember getting the body fat composition from 31 - 22. It has been done before, it can be done now.

The weight, ideally I'd like to goto 115 lbs. so, I'm changing the goal from the original 120 to 115. Gotta lose 23.4 lbs. I can do it! Anybody wants to join in on a get fit/weight loss journey? [No, you don't have to follow my crazy diets, Stick to what works for you! And no deadlines! We'll just tag along and encourage each other.]




My Weight Chart:

Back to dieting, with a new diet this time - The brown rice cleanse!

I still haven't got my tests done, that's just me being me. But there's a change in the plan! And the diet. My new Naturopath has put me on a brown rice cleanse for 3 weeks starting today. She thinks I really need to get this done first to detox my liver and gut before we go forward with any treatment.

So much for holiday season! Sigh! I was just gearing up to make a million cookies with DD. And I was not prepared for the diet being thrown in to my life without much notice. NO! I'm not upset with my naturopath. Just upset with my life. Not everything comes up giving you ample time to be prepared... Well, we all gotta go what we gotta do. After a few expletives (#$@#$ #@%@ $#%$#%@ $ #%@#$%$%$# @%$@#%) that I have to do all these diets, Here's me sucking it up and getting my butt in gear for the diet. :)

Do's
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The liver cleanse supplements + the usual million and one supplements that I'm taking + protein powder + probiotics
Lemons
Grains (brown rice, amaranth, Quinoa, millet, buckwheat, steel cut oats)
A cup of Dandelion root tea is a must, all other herbal teas allowed.
Fresh fruits (NO citrus fruits like grapefruits, oranges etc.)
Fresh veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, broccoli sprouts, onions, garlic, artichokes, beets, turnip greens, bok choy, kohlrabi, sweet potatoes, asparagus, rapini, check for the NO list of veggies)
Ground flax seeds - 2 tbsp everyday
EV coconut oil and grape seed oil for cooking, EV olive oil for salads
Chicken and Fish are allowed
Lentils and beans are allowed
Raw unsalted, Nuts and seeds are allowed
Condiments- sparingly, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, naturally fermented soy sauce or tamari, culinary herbs, a tad of honey as sweetener.
Drinks - water, herbal teas, lemon water, almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk
Drink 2-3 litres of water a day. no liquids around mealtime!
slow down, Take time to eat well, chew, esp, the grains. :) I've always eaten like I'm almost late for the train, so this will be interesting.
Dry skin brushing (This one is really good, I used to do it before and loved it!)
Alternate hot and cold showers - yikes! I hated them when I tried it the last time (that was in 2002), maybe I'll alternate warm and hot showers ;)

Don't s
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No wheat/barley/rye/spelt
No sugar/sugar substitutes, coffee, preservatives, additives, etc
No dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, butter, cream etc)
No eggs
No red meat and cured meat [Not a problem, since we don't like/eat them anyway.]
No corn and corn products
No yeast
No veggies list [tomatoes, eggplant, white potatoes, bell peppers]
No bananas or dried fruits
No caffiene/Black / tea (I don't drink these, so not a problem)
No alcohol (I don't drink, so not a problem)
No chocolate
No high fat foods
No peanuts

Not getting back on diet for a little while ...

I'm not getting back on the diet wagon right away, because I have a long list of tests to be done and I don't want my low-grain diet to affect the results. So, I'm continuing with the normal diet that I'm eating now. All fruits (including bananas and clementines as well), all grains - whole grain and some white rice in between, all veggies etc.. That way, when the results come back, it's going to reflect on what problems I have right now. Then I can work with my naturopath to figure out what we can do about it.

But I do miss logging about food. It gave me a sense of accountability towards myself. Hopefully I can get my tests done come back to blogging and dieting soon.