JLooney.com

Weight: 203
Body Fat: 31.8%
BP: 125/83
Heart Rate: 62

I’m pretty much back to eating “normal” food again, and I feel great. Had a delicious salad at Whole Foods today, with a cup of tomato chipotle soup on the side and a ciabatta roll to go with it.

The only part of the day that was distressing to me is that I gained a pound. Now, I’m not stupid – I knew I was going to gain some wait back, but I had an effing salad yesterday and I gain a pound back! Really? And I had less than a teaspoon of dressing with it, just dipping my fork in the balsamic dressing every now and again before eating. Yeah, I know, the salad had pepperoni on it, but a pound? Really?!

Anyway, this whole cleanse thing has been crazy/cool. I’ve learned a lot and I’m looking forward to maintaining healthier eating habits. I’ll post every once in awhile about how it’s all going.

Thank you all for your support, I really don’t know if I could have done it without you!

Next update: Saturday in my tux, I’ll let you know how it goes for sure.

Weight: 202.4
Body Fat: 32.4%
BP: 122/85
Heart Rate: 69

I had this plan going into the ease-out – although yesterday was supposed to be just fresh-squeezed OJ, I mixed it up a bit and included some vegetable juices and other fruit juices. Come to think of it, I didn’t have any OJ at all (can’t even stand the thought of citrus right now!).

Today, soup and broth day, started out with some saag shorba from last night (VERY yummy and just a bit on the spice side), and some organic Greek yogurt to help replenish the bacteria cultures in my stomach that were washed away with the cleanse. It tastes pretty much just like sour cream, which is good, because I like sour cream. I had a little Mexican chicken soup for lunch, and although I didn’t eat much chicken (50g at most), my digestive system seems to be handling it fine.

Now tomorrow is salad day (living foods). I started early with a trip to Firehouse pizzeria for their Rustic Italian salad. Ok, I splurged a bit here. Sue me. It’s got cheese and pepperoni on it, and it was pretty damn good. I ordered the dressing on the side (balsamic, and a creamy Italian, one side of each), and found that the salad really didn’t need the dressings. I dipped my fork into them here and there before taking a bite of salad, but the greens were pretty tasty.

I still feel good, my BP is still down, and hopefully I’ll lose another pound or two before Wednesday morning (my last weigh in). I think it’d be awesome if I was at or below 200.

Which brings me to pretty much the coolest thing that happened today. My dry cleaning was dropped off this morning, but that’s not the cool part. My tuxedo was in my dry cleaning, and the last time I wore it (over a year ago) it was fitting pretty tight around the gut and waist areas. Well, I’ll be wearing it this Saturday, so I figured I might as well try it on and see how it fit.

DAY-ummm! I look really good in it right now! I’ll post a pic on Saturday, but trust me, it fits perfectly right now!

Anyway, tomorrow I’m camping out at the Whole Foods salad bar. Come visit if you want. I’ll be there, stuffing my face with greens.

Weight: 203.8
Body Fat: 31.6%
BP: 123/85
Heart Rate: 80

Oh glorious flavors! How I have missed all of you!

I started the day (after my last salt water flush and accompanying butt tsunami) with a juice recipe I got from my friend Linda. It’s effing awesome, and not just because it wasn’t lemonade. It’s easy, too. Throw an apple, a pear, and a handful of spinach into the juicer. Tada. I put mine over ice.

For lunch I made a salsa juice. 1 onion, 4 tomatoes, 2 cloves garlic, one seeded jalapeno,  and a handful of cilantro. It was pretty good, too.

I guess I sorta skipped dinner, but that’s okay because although I can feel my body is hungry, I’m totally okay. I snitched a few spoonfuls of the saag shorba I made for Megan. I know that soups & broths are tomorrow, but I had to make sure it tasted good for her, right?

So right now I have a half-pitcher of raw V8 juice in the fridge, some left over saag shorba for tomorrow, some home-made tomato sauce (the saag shorba called for it and I didn’t want to use canned with all the sugars and everything so soon after my cleanse), and a stock pot full of veggies simmering on the stove making my vegetable stock for tomorrow’s broths and soups.

The hardest part is holding back and patiently rejoining the world of normal food. Seriously, I was putting stuff away and I opened our snack cupboard and had to consciously step away and close the cabinet so I didn’t dive into a bag of sour cream & onion chips.

I imagine it’ll take me some time to completely break some of these habits and urges, but that’s cool. What I know now is that I’m up for the challenge.

Weight: 203.8
Body Fat: 31.6%
BP: 126/84
Heart Rate: 84

It’s Sunday morning. I fell asleep last night before I blogged, so this is the blog for yesterday.

It was my last day of lemonade, and I’m ever so grateful. I only managed to get in the requisite 48oz, but I satisfied the requirement and that’s what’s important.

I went over to mom and dads today for my niece’s birthday party and spent an hour or so explaining why I was doing the cleanse and what I’d learned. Dad even tried some of my lemonade, but he wasn’t a fan, stating “lemonade and cayenne are clearly not meant to go together!”

Later in the day I went to a birthday celebration for one of my friends. He’d chosen India House as the location, which I KNEW was gonna be torture. Just walking in and smelling all the curries and spices just about did me in. As I sat there drinking my water, watching them look over the menus and explaining to some of the group that had never tried Indian food before what was good and what things tasted like, I thought to myself “this is the last OFFICIAL day of your cleanse, and it’s near the end, anyway. You could order something and still not feel like you cheated at all. After all, the ease out isn’t really a part of the cleanse, it’s just a gentle way to get you back into real food. Why not start with something gentle like saag shorba?”

Yeah, even 13 days in and after 10 days of lemonade, there are still difficult moments. I left when their food arrived at the table, just because I really think I would have cracked.

Anyway, I’m gonna finish drinking my salt water for the last time. I’ll write more tonight.

Weight: 205.2
Body Fat: 29.8%
BP: 135/87
Heart Rate: 65

I hate lemons. I seriously do. The only thing that makes drinking the lemonade bearable is the fact that it’s the only thing I can have. I have no intention of eating another citrus fruit (even limes, which I love and are an integral part of the gin and tonic I so enjoy) for at least 6 months.

I just finished my last cup of tea, and tomorrow will (hopefully) be my last butt-tsunami.

Tomorrow is my last day of this lemonade shit, and it has come none too soon.

On the agenda for tomorrow? Find juice recipes and go buy a bunch of non-citrus fruits and a bunch of vegetables and prepare to start easing back into regular food.

Did I mention that I’m tired of the lemonade?

I couldn’t bring myself to mix my third bottle of it when I got home today (I’ve been drinking three 24oz. bottles a day), so I got in my requisite 48oz. of the lemonade shit and I’m satisfied with that.

I effing hate lemons.