Form and Function Pilates

I’m absolutely loving the salads that come in the Glow package. Today for lunch I had the kale salad with julienned apple, pomegranate seeds, pumpkin seeds and a citrus-based dressing and it was soooooo good! Their salads have to be my favourite part of the program. I could honestly eat those for lunch every day and be happy!

Today I’m feeling great. I’ve enjoyed the drinks, the tea is a real treat and was a nice replacement for my usual cup of morning coffee. My headache has fully disappeared and I feel good.

So I’ve completed 2 out of 3 days of my benourished juice cleanse.

Going into it I decided I would get plenty of sleep at night, as I know that sleep deprivation can lead to lethargy which in turn can increase the appetite as the body seeks energy from calories to get through the day. With that in mind I wanted to ward off excessive hunger pangs, so I got a solid 8 hours of sleep the night before I embarked on my cleanse, and last night.

Also, to help in the process of detoxing, I dry brushed my skin before showering and also applied a body scrub while in the shower to slough off any dead skin that could slow down toxins leaving my body. Not a bad start.

As for the juice fast itself (remember I’m only “fasting” during the day, having a mid-day light salad and a meal at dinner time), I was excited to get started. I’ve juiced in the past and enjoy vegetable drinks. So I can honestly say that each of the 4 juices included in my program have been tasty to me. My breakfast juice, an alkalizing celery blend juice, was tangy. The follow-up juice, a couple of hours later, a lemonade with maple syrup and cayenne, was a surprisingly good one. I really enjoyed the heat of the pepper as it traveled down to my stomach. The salad I ate at lunch which comes with the Glow program was delicious. I could eat like that every day! And the beet, carrot, ginger  juice and the pineapple juice were also tasty. That last one is actually quite delicious, and my 12 year old daughter who asked to taste it kept coming back for more.

I was feeling hungry by the time I came home from work and snacked on a handful of grape tomatoes and raw carrot sticks, as well as some nuts for protein. For dinner I had a portion of meat, green beans and a couple of baby potatoes.

As far as how I felt, well for most of the day I was happy and feeling satisfied. However, I did develop a headache mid-day that got progressively worse as the day wore on. By evening it was a full-blown migraine. What it was due to could be a number of things: low blood sugar, barometric pressure changes in the air with drastic temperature changes, detoxing, or the fact that it was the first day of my menstrual cycle (or all of the above). Thankfully, today I felt much better.

Hunger today was kept to a minimum. In fact, I don’t recall feeling hungry after my drinks or salad. By supper time I enjoyed a piece of chicken breast, peppers and wild rice and felt very satisfied. No signs of headache now. I think Day 3 for me tomorrow will be quite easy.

What I have realized is that although my medical condition may not allow me to fast or even just juice fast, I can substitute occasional meals with a nutritious juice and not feel the worst for it. The juice is giving me vitamins and nutrients I don’t always get in my regular diet in a convenient way and helps to keep me satisfied, hydrated and nourished with minimal calories. It’s something I think I could incorporate into my life quite easily on a regular basis.

Every spring I have to suffer through itchy, watery eyes, hives, itchy ears and throat, abdominal bloating… etc etc. It isn’t pretty! I have found in the past that targeting what I eat and reducing foods that can be considered irritants has allowed me to better cope with those allergens in the environment that I can’t do much about. Yes, I could just continue to eat what I normally would and just cope by taking an antihistamines, administering eye drops, inhaling nose sprays, and so on, but really, why put more stuff into my body when I don’t need to (or at least put it off until it’s absolutely necessary).

A couple of years ago I came across a book titled Clean by Dr.  Alejandro Junger, an integrative doctor who combines his medical degree with holistic and nutritional healing. He has a big following among celebrities, Gwyneth Paltrow, being one of his more well known devotees. The book piqued my interest. It promotes juicing as a method of cleansing, followed by whole foods that do not trigger allergic reactions. In following some of Dr. Junger’s advice I realized I was particularly sensitive to wheat and dairy. More so during allergy season (in Toronto that could run from March until the end of summer). I did find that following his program helped me better cope with spring allergies and helped me feel less inflamed. However, being a busy mom of 3 and career woman, I have little inclination to be spending much time or energy on juicing numerous times a day, and prepping foods that I will eat and my family has little desire to partake in.

Hence the great appeal a ready to consume, delivered to your door program of juice-based cleansing had for me when a co-worker suggested I join her group. be nourished (benourished.com) is a company that prepares freshly pressed juices from fruits and vegetables that cleanse, energize, alkalize (neutralize) the body. It delivers to your door, individual servings bottled and refrigerated and packaged in a to-go cooler bag with ice pack and all! They offer 2 programs: Glow (for the newbie cleanser, including 4 juices per day, a salad and desert), and Sprout (for the more serious or seasoned cleanser, including 6 juices a day). These programs are meant to be done over 3 days, but can be done seasonally for 3, 5 or 7 days (with a maintenance / tune-up program in between).  I am embarking on the Glow cleanse for 3 days starting tomorrow, as I have noticed those tell-tale signs of spring-induced hypersensitivities in my body already.

I should be upfront: I cannot follow a juice-only cleanse. As a person who relies on anti-seizure medication to control epilepsy (which has been well under control for the past 14 years), it is important I maintain blood levels regular so my medication neither spikes or crashes. So, a low-calorie cleanse with little food could put me in harms way. However, the Glow cleanse, with its salad (under a nutritionist’s advice I am including another meal per day) seems to provide the nutritional boost I need as well as the detoxing ingredients that can kick-start my allergy fighting regimen.

I will be posting new commentaries on the juice cleanse as I progress. Stay tuned…

Back from a  month away in Muskoka. Must say, working out outdoors was the best. We had mats set up on the dock, surrounded by the lake, trees, sky, it was fantastic!

Now that I’m back and booked solid I’m going to have to find the time to maintain my workouts. But it’ll be worth it. Looking forward to connecting with all my clients again.

Well, it’s not the easiest diet to follow in that I cannot schedule 4 meals a day spaced 4 hours apart, simply because of my busy schedule. I just can’t excuse myself during a client’s private session to say, “sorry, I need to have a meal now”. However, I did modify it to fit into my schedule. Had 3 meals a day, and did snack after work, prior to dinner (about 2 hrs before).

Continued making good choices for meals: oatmeal for breakfast, usually with fresh or frozen berries, or applesauce and cinamon (yum); salads and soups, or soup and a hot entree for lunch (lean protein and veggies, small amount of carbs); and a similar meal for dinner.

I am proud to say I lost 2 inches from my waist, and another 2 inches from my hips, and sadly another inch from my bust, which in my opinion I couldn’t spare

So, in my opinion this diet does work, even when modified. I think the trick is in incorporating those MUFAs, and obviously eating a well-balanced diet in moderation.

I’ve learned to snack on pumpkin and sesame seeds, and to ensure that I have at least 3 servings of MUFAs every day!

I would recommend this diet to anyone wishing to target belly fat specifically.

Have cheated! Yesterday and today, made bad choices for my afternoon snacks. Today I caved and had a cheese croissant at Tim Horton’s when I stopped to get the kids some donuts as a special after school treat. Lesson learned: Don’t indulge your kids in foods you wouldn’t put into your own mouth when trying to stick to a diet. Share a healthy smoothy with them instead!

Anyhow, I am happy that I’ve made healthy choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner over the past week. Breakfast usually consists of a bowl of oatmeal, fresh berries and a cup of coffee. My MUFA serving is either nuts, seeds or Flax oil. Lunch has been a soup and salad, or a salad and a hot entree made up of a protein serving and a vegetable serving, and water. And dinner will include a lean protein such as fish, chicken, beef or shrimp, vegetables (and I load up on these) and a carb such as rice, gluten-free pasta (though not often), or potatoes. It’s serving sizes that I’m still finding challenging. I love my food and I have to learn to stop at “contentment” and not keep going because I’m enjoying the meal so much!

Working on it.

So glad to be off the 4-Day Anti-Bloat Jumpstart. I’m looking forward to choosing my own meals, cooking some real foods with lots of flavour, and not starving on quick meals that seem lacking in flavour. Did loose 1 inch off the waistline, but I think it was bloat, not fat; hence the “anti-bloat” name of the program .

Had a healthy piece of chicken breast for lunch, accompanied by a serving of ratatouille and a sliced tomato salad sprinkled with goat cheese. Now this is yummy eating. Did forget to bring MUFA’s with me to work (big oops), so will make it up at dinnertime. It’s going to take some extra planning to pack my MUFA’s with me for when I’m at work. Thinking of marketing small serving size packs to go of various nuts, seeds, olives, oil, maybe some guacamole, and dark chocolate to make it easy for people to incorporate their MUFAs into their every meal or snack. Something to think about…

If you’re following along on your own Flat Belly Diet, I wish you success. The weekend is upon us. Enjoy, but make healthy choices!

OK, so today was easier than yesterday, but it’s not over…

Started with the Day 4 breakfast in the 4-day Anti-Bloat. Thought I’d enjoy a hot breakfast more than cold cereal. That instant Cream of Wheat though is gross. I couldn’t even finish it. I think I had less than half. Had a couple of prunes (dried plums), and the sunflower seeds. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel hungry until 11:30. Again, was booked with a client at the time, so had to wait until 12:30 to eat lunch.

Lunch was a string cheese, a small can of tuna, and instead of the cooked carrots, I ate the tuna on a bed of arugula with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and had a small cup of pureed soup of cooked root vegetables.

Prepared the Sassy Water today, and I really like that. I could definitely drink this all the time. Much more satisfying and refreshing than plain water, and that might be what helped me hang in there until lunch today.

For my 4:30 snack, substituted the pineapple smoothie with another string cheese, a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds and a small can of  peaches (apparently canned fruit are easier to digest than raw ones, so even though I prefer raw, I stuck with their suggestion for the 4-day Anti-Bloat). Still wish I could eat more, but dinner time is coming soon.

Off to prepare dinner.

This is so much harder than I thought!!!  Just dying for the 4 Day Anti-Bloat Jumpstart to be over with already. I think (at least at this point I do) that the actual Flat Belly Diet will be do-able, but this 4 day 12,000 calorie a day plan is not so easy.

Had the breakfast just as the book recommends: 1 cup of unsweetened cornflakes, 1 cup of lactose-free low-fat milk (too much in my opinion), 1/2 cup of applesauce (yuk), 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds (liked those), and a cup of water (didn’t have time to prepare the Sassy Water, and so I drank plain. Have to prepare my Sassy Water for tomorrow tonight).

What I missed most this morning was my cup of coffee, and a hot breakfast; I’m not fond of cold cereal and milk. That’s why I think I’ll do better in the 28 day portion of the diet: I’ll have choice as to what I can eat.

Since breakfast was at 6 a.m. I was very hungry by 10 a.m. However, since I was booked with clients until 11:15, I had no choice but to go longer than the 4 hour between meals rule. I was starving by then and devoured my lunch. Mind you, I couldn’t stomach the thought of eating a whole pint of grape tomatoes, so I managed a little less than half the pint and the turkey and cheese string. That’s another thing, cheese strings are for my 5 year old. I’d rather be eating a serving of really good quality cheese instead, but I’m trying to stick to the menu.

Have to confess though, I did not hold out. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to snack time. My only break was between 12 and 12:30, and then I wouldn’t be able to eat again until 4 when I got home, so I caved and had 2 baby bok choi steamed and a very small piece of salmon (about 2 or 3 ounces) downstairs at the staff cafeteria. Felt much more satiated after that.

At 4:30 had my blueberry smoothie and pumpkin seeds. By 6:30 though, when I was preparing dinner, couldn’t wait to sit and eat. I was starving! Had a hard time sticking to the portions for the fish and potatoes. Kept eyeing my family’s dinner and wanting to go back for seconds, but came downstairs to blog instead.

So there! I lived through the first day, though not having stuck to the rules 100%.

I admire those of you who have, and are, and wish to develop your will power (and a smaller appetite, as portion control is my weakness).

Good luck to those of you doing it with me. Just 3 more days to get through for the anti-bloat program. I think the idea is to probably shrink the stomach and apetite so that once the 28 day program begins, it seems like a feast! Hope so.