Cleanse Day 7 Skin Brushing & Gardein Giveaway

I have missed a couple of days in recording my progress with this cleanse and I apologize.

I don't usually blog every day (just Monday through Friday) so that is my excuse :)

Things are progressing nicely.

I still haven't had any issues with hunger or headaches and I don't find myself craving sweets (which were previously a downfall).

I still crave bread, but on Twitter the other day Laura gave me the idea to make some flax crackers.

I found a couple of recipes that I liked but then I haven't made them...yet.  However when I found myself at Earth Fare I bought these:

These fit the ingredient requirement of my cleanse and they are pretty darn tasty.

Now I will make my own crackers this weekend when I have a little more time, but until then these will hold me over. 

I wanted to share with you a simple tool you can use to aid your body in flushing out toxins...the dry skin brush:

In Clean Dr. Junger suggests using a skin brush before showering to:

• stimulate blood and lymph flow
• remove dead skin cells
• stimulate hormone and oil glands
• reduce cellulite
• strengthen immune system
• stimulate nervous system, tone muscles, and tighten skin
• nuture your body

Your skin is the largest organ of your body and is responsible for eliminating 1 lbs of the toxins in your body.  When your skin can't release the toxins you may get rashes, acne, hives, itchiness, body odor, eczema, or psoriasis.

By using the dry skin brush you are helping the skin do its job to the fullest and hopefully preventing some of those irritations.

To use it you start from your feet and work you way to your neck, and always brush towards your heart.

The process should take anywhere from 5-15 minutes.

I have enjoyed it tremendously.  My skin feels invigorated and alive (plus a little pink...but that goes away after my shower).

I do believe I will keep up this practice each morning even after I've completed my cleanse.

Now that I have provided a brief explanation on skin brushing I want to change gears and provide to you a GIVEAWAY!!!!

The people at Gardein have been kind enough to provide one of my US readers with a prize pack to include:

1 "Cheat on Meat" t-shirt
4 coupons for free Gardein products

Are you familiar with Gardein?

They produce meat substitutes which are full of protein and come in quite a variety. 

I know at my house the seven grain crispy tenders are popular with my kids:

Just look at the nutrition information on these tenders:

I must say though that my personal favorite is the BBQ sweet and tangy wings:

So would you like to win the giveaway and score this awesome t-shirt along with 4 coupons?


All you have to do is leave a comment (show me some love) any comment will do.

For additional entries:

1. Tweet this giveaway with a link to this post and @rachelkyle0402 mentioned (then leave a comment that you did this).
2. Follow me on Twitter
3. Follow Gardein on Twitter

The giveaway will be open until Sunday March 4th.  I will announce the winner on Monday the 5th.

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Cleanse Day 5 Vegan Black Bean Soup

Two posts in one day I know I can barely contain myself.

However I meant to post Cleanse Days 3 & 4 yesterday, but I was having too much fun to do so.

Sooooooo I will post twice today and give you the skinny.

Speaking of skinny (although that is really a frame of mind) I have dropped another lbs from 154 to 153 now.

And I have to share, while we are on the topic of weight, that Owen (who is 9) told me last night there were two things he enjoyed about being on a vegetarian diet:

1) Having more energy
2) Seeing that I am skinnier

Well I know who is my favorite son now :)

Just kidding!  No really he is my favorite.

Back to Sunday.

Sunday was a great relaxing day.

It was also a day where I needed to get back on the cleanse horse and make sure that my eating was up to par.

I had a fantastic pineapple berry smoothie for breakfast, eggplant for lunch, and for dinner...this:

Vegan Black Bean Soup

Vegan Black Bean Soup

3 cans (15 oz) black beans
1 onion (chopped)
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
3 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano


In a pot put your olive oil and onions on medium heat.

Cook for about 5 minutes and then add garlic, cumin, chili powder, and oregano.

Puree 1 can of black beans (with liquid) and add to pot.

Add a second can of black beans (with liquid) not pureed.

Take your third and final can of beans drain and rinse them...then add to the pot.

Allow the mixture to simmer for about 15-20 minutes.

Remember to stir frequently.

I am very happy to report that this is delicious.  My family loved it and I think the only addition I will make is to serve corn bread with it (the sweet would be a nice complement to the spice).

I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon and I will be back tomorrow with Day 6 of the cleanse and a giveaway (not cleanse related).

Come join SoupaPalooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeast and Le Creuset

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Cleanse Day 3 & 4 and a WINNER!

First of all let me congratulate my winner Ashley, from The Vegetable Life, on the sriracha giveaway from WIAW The Day Before My Cleanse. 

Ashley you will be enjoying some rooster sauce by Wednesday :)

Now let me start of by saying Happy Monday to you all.

It was a wonderful weekend in my neck of the woods. 

My aunt came down from Virginia and stayed with us till this morning.  My kids LOVE having her come down and do pretty well taking turns for her attention.

Her visit made the weekend a little problematic for my cleanse, it isn't her fault though.

See we have 3 birthdays in one month and we all got together this weekend to celebrate (Kyle on Feb 7, my dad on Feb 22, and my brother March 7).

We had pizza and ice cream (Roman Raspberry sorbet from Talenti for me).

However it meant that I sort of didn't eat what I was supposed to on Saturday night.

I was sure to forgive myself and get back on track Sunday.

One thing I do want to say about Clean is that Dr. Junger points out even if you veer off track you can get back on the cleanse and don't beat yourself up about it.

You are supposed to be taking stress and toxins out of your life not creating more.

So I may do an extra day or two to make up for the ground I lost, but I still feel really good.

One thing I did want to talk about is the type of sleep I have been having, and in one word:

WONDERFUL!

Each morning when I wake up (before my alarm every day mind you) I feel refreshed and as if nothing troubled me in my sleep.

I try to take the extra time I have in the morning to practice deep breathing (pushing out lots of CO2) and just meditate (or try to make my mind calm...which is a little difficult for me).

It makes for a more put together me in the morning so that I don't get all frazzled when there are 3 different breakfast orders and I need to make 4 lunches. 

Everyone starts off on a better foot.

You are supposed to take time and do things for yourself during the cleanse.  And I am particularly looking forward to this (i.e. massage, yoga, facial, body wraps).

This week I have a body wrap scheduled.  I don't know if I will do anything else (just depends on what awesome Groupons or Living Social deals pop up).

As aside I have noticed that there are tons of Groupons and Living Social deals for massage and the like, which is making it easy to treat myself.

Which brings me to my question of the day.  Do you use these on-line coupon sites?  If so what was your favorite/best deal?

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The Cleanse Day 2

To keep myself accountable for my cleanse I am hoping to blog each day and journal how things are going.

So just to recap I have started a cleanse and am following the 21 day program designed by Dr Alejandro Junger in his book Clean.

Day 2 of the Elimination Diet went well.

It is recommended to drink plenty of water, but as that can get boring it is good to have a back up plan.

For me that is hot tea (although it is a bit more difficult to drink in 77 degree weather).

Anywho the tea I picked up was Green Tea Kombucha from Yogi.

It is completely delicious and really quite filling.

I am still not suffering from hunger.  In fact I told Kyle last night that I felt I was listening to my body and realizing that most of the time I am not actually hungry that it is just a feeling I have (possibly from boredom).

I don't think I describe that well, but I have found that I don't really need that much to make it through the day.

I still feel good and full of energy. 

In fact I went to the Y and lifted as well as did a little light cardio for about an hour.

Avoiding constipation while on the cleanse is of utmost importance as that is one of the primary channels for expelling the toxins you've built up.

Dr. Junger suggests a number of things to make sure that you stay regular while on the cleanse such as:

• 2 Tbsp of olive oil at night
• Natural Calm (a magnesium supplement)
• Fiber
• colon hydrotherapy
• exercise
• drink plenty of water

You get the idea. 

Well to make sure that I stay ahead of the curve I went ahead and chose the least invasive and bought some Triple Fiber from Earth Fare (my local natural grocer) and have to say it doesn't taste all that good.

But I wasn't expecting it to. 

It did make me a little bit nervous when it said on the label it could cause choking.

I thought holy cow will this end up killing me?

To my families displeasure pleasure I am still alive and well.

The one bit of advice I do have for you is that when it says combine 1 scoop with 8 ounces of water...do that. 

Don't get creative and try to drink it with more water (it only prolongs the experience as I speak from personal experience).

You do need to drink it quickly after mixing so that the mixture doesn't thicken.

I won't gross you out with any further details, but sufficed to say I feel fine.

Well I think on that note I will leave you for today. :)

I hope you have a glorious weekend.

Get out and enjoy the great outdoors!

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The Cleanse

So I decided this year for Lent (and my general health) that I would complete a cleanse.

Are you making a face?  Because all of my family members have made a face when I announced this.

It's ok.  I promise it won't be weird and in the end I think I will have learned a lot.

My motivation came from two wonderful bloggers Laura of Sprint 2 The Table and Melinda of One Green Generation.

I have read along while Laura has gone through two cleanses and was struck by her ability to stick to it and to find plenty of enjoyable things to eat.

As for Melinda she completed the same 21 day program and blogged about it, starting with day 1 here.  I read all of her posts and have taken her advice in prepping for my own journey.

The program I am following is from Clean by Dr. Alejandro Junger

The book gives you Dr. Junger's background (spoiler alert...he is a cardiologist) and his own journey to a cleaner lifestyle.  There are stories about some of the people he has helped, as well as a wealth of information as to why cleaning your internal system can affect everything about you (in a positive way).

Wednesday February 22nd was Day 1 of what is termed the "Elimination Diet."

To prep for it I had a body wrap on Tuesday to help speed my bodies elimination of toxins and I was sure to drink plenty of water.

The purpose of this diet phase is to pull yourself off of caffeine, sugar, and wheat (main allergy causing ingredients).

You are supposed to eat only from the Elimination Diet foods.

So what did I eat?

For breakfast I had a delicious Cinnamon Roll Smoothie...seriously it was like drinking a roll.  I promise it is WAY more appetizing than it looks.

Lunch was eaten at my favorite grocer, Earth Fare, where I had a plate of greens (spring mix, kale, spinach, broccoli, and sprouts) with a side of spinach hummus as well as regular hummus and a few chunks of pineapple.  To drink, a new love of mine, kombucha (cherry flavor).

Dinner was a serving of brown rice spaghetti topped with artichokes, olive oil, and some nutritional yeast (no picture, but it was really all that pretty).

All through out the day I drank a bunch of water and probably had to pee every hour, which is recommended by Dr. Junger.  I got a little tired of getting up so much...but it is all for a good cause.

As for any potential negative side effects...none.  I wasn't hungry and I didn't get any headaches.

I felt really good and am excited to start day 2 as I have already dropped 1 lbs (155 yesterday morning to 154 this morning).

This isn't about weight loss, although I need to drop some weight, but I am hoping to eliminate many years worth of toxic build up in my system and become a more energetic and youthful 34 year old mom and wife.

I intend to blog about my cleanse partly to keep myself accountable and to share the experience, but I will also have recipes and food (that I am not eating but the family is) so that I can continue to write about what I love...FOOD.

I hope you all are having a wonderful day and just want to know have you ever completed a cleanse?  If so do you have any advice?

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