be KIND to your body

So I have completed week 1! It was hard, not gonna lie, but I'm glad I got through it and I really feel so much better, can't wait to see how I feel at the end of next week! So a little background info, this is a real diet (just healthy eating really) by a Dr. Anne Louise Gittleman. Here is the direct website to the plan: http://www.annlouise.com/blog/2010/03/19/shake-down-excess-weight-with-delicious-smoothies/

Basically it is two shakes a day as a meal replacement and one meal with a healthy lean meat and as many fruits and veggies from her list as possible! (She has a list of approved best-fr-dieting-fruits-and-veggies-there-are list). And 2 Nalgene's of the 100% cran juice and water a day (that 64 ounces total in one day, leave a little room at the top for about 2-4 ounces cran juice- unfortunately this will stain your Nalgene badly...I am in need of a new one!). So no bread, starches, sugar, complex carbs, things like that. It is a gluten and dairy free diet as well and I have had this lingering cough and it's pretty much gone now! She has a special protein powder that I bought that is also gluten and dairy free, yummy, and made from plant proteins (look it up!). Some things you might not expect: nuts are not on the list but doesn't specifically say "no nuts" (I'd say I'm getting enough protein though), eat as many hard boiled eggs as you want for snacks, BANANAS are NOT are the list (lots of sugar and high glycemic index), "legal cheat" is green tea or black coffee:) SO happy I could still drink coffee and I am now a "black drinker" it's official! (Really helps when it's a yummy organic kind like Walla Walla Roastery or Whole Foods Allegro brand:)) No sugar is hard, and I totally cheated last night after my looong day of school and work and ate the rest of that nummy Justin's Almond Butter I uploaded last week....oops, but at least it wasn't ice cream with chocolate sauce right???

Now for the smoothies, it's the same recipe I have been uploading minus the almond milk! 1 T flaxseed oil, cran-water, her protein powder, any frozen berries, apples, cherries, pineapple, mango, grapefruit, oranges, and 1 T Chia seeds:) (add spinach if you want can't hurt!)

The meat should be lean like chicken, any fish, turkey, or beaf. I had tuna wraps (cheated with the whole wheat wrap from Whole Foods) and put green onions, carrots, Turmeric seasoning (a really healthy spice for you and recommended by her!), and mustard in it or a little nonfat greek plain yogurt for my meal to take to school. I also had organic chicken noodle soup one night with added green onion and a little nonfat greek yogurt and Turmeric. Tonight was friday so my roommate and I went out for salads (mine was chicken, apple, grape, walnut, apple cider vinegarette, celery, and blue cheese-YUM! Okay not totallllly on the diet but really close and still very healthy and low fat.)

I snacked on hard boiled eggs, carrots, grapefruit, apples and cinnamon, and oranges this week. I bought some more different yummy fruits and veggies for this week! The key is to have healthy snacks on hand so when you're hungry you go for those, in case you don't have a Magic Bullet on hand to make an extra smoothie cause that's a legal cheat too! Unfortunately almond butter was not...dang.

In the theme of being Kind to my body this week I decided to take advantage of some classes at the gym to inspire me to workout and just for fun:) I did my normal running Sunday and then Monday did TurboKick which made my arms and shoulders incredibly sore and my legs a little sore, then did Cycling on Tuesday which made my legs really sore, so Wednesday I tried Yoga and LOVED it, Thursday long day I only fit in a 15 min ab cruncher on my Nike App, which made my abs hurt so today I did walking around Whole Foods, Fred Meyer and dancing with Preschoolers, so tomorrow I am craving Yoga again!! (Dr. Gittleman says to go easy on working out on this diet....)

I plan to read lots of fun books this weekend but today I am super excited because I finally got Cinder from the library! A brand new scifi Cinderella story, can't wait! Haha Other than that I read Shel Silverstein Where the Sidewalk Ends this week- my favorite was the poem about the little boy with no concept of money! I want to use it in a classroom to explain that 1 dollar is actually worth more than 5 quarters...and so on :)

Here are some photos of my meals and snacks, black coffee, Dr. Gittleman's stuff, and my yummy snack at Whole Foods before shopping today (very bad to shop while hungry haha). I will upload a delicious meal from this diet I am making tomorrow and at the end of next week another update with a weight loss check (if I lost any haha). Happy Weekend everyone! Do something kind to yourself! I bought some yellow lilies today for our apartment:) I figure better flowers than fatty ice cream or flapjacks, or frozen yogurt, or fun dips....