Post juice - Days 1 and 2

I had my first proper meal on Friday night, woo! I was so excited, it was really simple, warm chicken and rocket salad with brown rice cooked in chicken stock, and grilled asparagus, it was really tasty, but the funny thing was I put the same portion I would have done before the detox, strangely enough I was full pretty early on, I had to leave some of the chicken and leaves.

I noticed almost straight afterwards that my heart seemed to be pounding, I think I'd forgotten how much blood is needed in digestion, it was slightly alarming to hear it beating so hard, but I didn't feel uncomfortable. I resisted the peach and barley squash in favour of plain water, and took myself off to bed fairly early. No night time trips to the loo this time, and slept really soundly.

Sat morning I was awake fairly early and snoozed for a bit, my energy levels were no where near where they'd been even the morning before, and the mental clarity that had come with the detox seemed to be waning slightly, the fuzzy morning head was definitely back. I made myself a  breakfast of galia and cantaloupe melon, a sprinkling of gluten free oats, apricot and blueberries, it was amazing. I was starting to feel peckish again close to 12 so I rustled up some tuna mayo and had half of that with half an avocado and some cherry tomatoes, yum! I made myself a juice to take with me to Em's so I wouldn't be tempted to have biccies while we were gardening, that was cucumber, apple, carrot, ginger, spinach and kale, also tastey good!

While we were out I bought some corn thins, and peanut butter, I snacked on three of the thins straight out of the packet before we got back to Em's and then 3 more with peanut butter before we started in the garden. I was stuffed! Admittedly I was full after the first one and a half nut butter ones, but I kept going because they were so nice, Oooops!

After 3 hours sorting out the garden and generally having an ace time with Em, we called it a soggy quits and she dropped me back at home. I had 3 more corn thins with the remaining tuna mayo from lunch and then experimented with my gf pasta spirals, I cooked some garlic in oil, and chucked some white wine in, then wilted down some spinach with some cherry toms, and topped it off with slivers of grana padano and a good lot of freshly ground black pepper. The pasta was great, almost no difference to regular stuff, except less slimy, the sauce wasn't that tastey though unfortunately, I think a bit of stock in with the spinach liquid would probably have perked it up a bit. I was fairly desperate for something for pud after dinner, so ended up nibbling the icing off of a gf cherry bakewell from Asda, they're ok, except like a lot of free from foods, they make up for the missing ingrediants with sugar, so the frangipane is painfully sweet, so I chucked that bit away. I started to snooze on the sofa in the evening, so took myself off to bed around half ten.

Sunday morning was a real struggle, I'd woken up a few times but wasn't nearly awake enough to get up, I felt shattered. Mental clarity all gone :( there was a lot of time spent aimlessly wandering around the bedroom before brekkie, which was peach, blueberries and cherries, and two corn thins and peanut butter. I thought that might be a good idea esp. Since I'd be running at 12pm. My mood was quite low on the way to running but I was looking forward to some activity after a fairly lazy couple of weeks. The running was great and I wasn't at all hungry when I finished, apparently I impressed Chris after getting the technique pretty much spot on after 1 session and 1 practice run, it was feeling really natural as well, we got the machine up to 9.1mph and I was amazed by the energy I had. Was dripping by the end of it, but it was ace and really boosted my mood.

Trip to Sainsbo's for more fruit on the way home, and a skinny new yorker for lunch - 4 corn thins, each with half a slice leardammer, a slice of pastrami and three slices of cucumber, yum! Was pacing round the kitchen for sweet stuff afterwards!

So its skinny roast chicken for dinner - chicken breast pieces marinaded overnight in lemon juice, 2 cloves of garlic, handful of rosemary, parsley and oregano, mashed in the pestle and mortar with a glug of olive oil. I'll be putting those on skewers, doing roast sweet potato, peppers, courgette and poss. Haloumi and a tomato, basil and mozerella salad. NOM!

Juice Reboot - Final Day - 5

So, I'm feeling all energetic and stuff today which is a massive relief to the last few days of lathargic coldiness :) Snoozed for a bit longer this morning but woke up feeling pretty fresh, got my last 2 juices on the go, brekkie was a hodgemodge of  carrot, lemon, orange, half a beetroot, ginger, sweet potato and blueberries - yum! And lunch/afternoon snack were carrot, kale, cucumber, melon, apple, sweet potato, lemon and ginger, another one that's not exactly on-plan. After last nights failed experiment with the avacado I've decided to leave that out and have it as a delicious solid food this eve with a yummy salad.

Pinterest is amazing for food ideas! I've been doing reseach and pinned about 40 recipes (a lot involving chicken or salad), and I'm hoping this new regime is not only good for mine and D's waistlines and wellbeing but also gets me out of my food and cooking rut. My mouth has literally been watering with all the tasty looking treats, and going gluten free is actually relatively easy, lots of lean meat and fish and fresh fruit and veggies, and substituting flour and pasta for gluten free versions, simples :)

Also the puddings you can make look incredible!

Stomach is rumbling now, it's 3:20pm, I've tried some nuts to see if they stave off the hunger a bit and it turns out brazil nuts taste disgustingly like TCP but pecans are lush! I'm seriously looking forward to going home via the shop to get something yummy for dinner. The plan is warm chicken and avocado salad with a grilled asparagus and feta rice - nice! One thing I have to stop myself doing is rewarding myself with sugary foods for doing so well this week, that's my usual thing and I'm noticing myself thinking things like - I'll just buy some really dark chocolate instead of pudding - actually I don't need pudding at all, and rewarding myself with dark chocolate, no matter how good it is supposed to be, will only lead to sugar cravings, so for now, no sweet stuff except fruit, juices and smoothies for me! :)

I might do a measure and write up a final results at the end of the day today and then carry on with my blog after I've started back on the healthy solids, it's been really fun writing my thoughts down for the last few days.

Juice Reboot - Day 4

So it's lunchtime on day 4 and I am feeling REALLY tired, I'm guessing it's the combo of my on-going cold, getting up in the night to pee - only once last night, but it has been up to 3 times, and general lack of energy due to less calories. I have cancelled my running session tonight and moved it to Sunday when I'm hoping I'll feel loads better. I have been seriously thinking of finishing tonight, but I might just see it through til tomorrow and then have something proper for dinner - I've got my eye on steamed llightly smoked salmon, and loads of veggies in butter and black pepper, maybe some new pots for good measure :) Not too fussed on pud though, so will try and enjoy that for as long as possible before the sugar cravings kick in again, am goingto try and go with a fruit based pud if I do get a hankering for the sweet stuff after dinner.

So green juice for lunch has perked me up a bit, I think it was too much rushing about this morning that did me in early on. I did just try and experimental cashew nut and found it really hard to swallow, guess your throat gets smaller in the same way as your stomach does when you reduce your portion sizes, very wierd! Also the feeling of food stuck in my teeth was horrible.

Dinner was another modified green juice/soup, this time with blended avocado and basil, the after taste was lovely, like a really tasty stock, but the look was gloopy greeny/grey and the initial taste was fairly unpleasant so I ended up drinking half a bowl full with a straw, while trying not the heave and then eating half an avocado instead which was delicious! Pudding was made up again, carrot, peach, apricot, lemon, blueberry - it was nice and much thicker like a smoothie. The only thing is the wastage from the stone fruits was really high relative to the amount of juice I got, so given the choice I think I'd go for eating the whole fruit instead.

Energy levels were really high but my legs were aching from lack of exercise, so I did 20 mins of yoga to stretch things out a bit and that helped loads. D was shattered so we headed to bed just gone ten, but I was so awake, but then again, as soon as I started reading, I was out like a light, and only one nocturnal trip to the loo!