Day 11

I've realized that it's soooo easy for me to stick to my cleanse diet when family isn't around... especially pushy in laws!

9am - got 7 hours of sleep, so I am ready for a full day of action with the in laws! Took 4 Paranil with water.
9:15 - drank 1 scoop of Colonix fiber with 2 cups water
11:10 - dim sum at Lam's Garden... it was very difficult to find stuff to eat, so I stuck with chrysanthemum tea, bean curd wrapped shrimp, bean curd wrapped pork, fried tofu, and ribs with black bean sauce. I was sooo stuffed!
3pm - got a cup 'o sweedish meatballs from Ikea! Yum! (I also cheated and had a few licks of Eugene's ice cream)
8pm - boiled peanuts
8:45 - random mixture of foods for dinner: baby romaine lettuce mix, 4 falafels, 1 leftover bean curd wrapped pork, sauteed chinese veggies with garlic, more boiled peanuts, roast pork, and pineapple... I think I ate too much again!
10pm - medium BM that was hard to get out!

It's been a long and exhausting day, so I'm glad that I'm going out with a friend to the craft fair tomorrow! It'll be good to get some space from the in laws ;-)

Day 10.. fun with the in laws

Picked up my in laws from the airport around midnight last night, so I didn't get to bed until nearly 2am. They were a lot more agreeable than I had expected, so I was able to sleep happily =)

8:30 woke up, took 4 paranil
9am fiber
11am - half cup kefir, small handful pumpkin seeds
12:30 - fried tofu, half spring thai roll, 3 prawns in green curry, thai beef salad with cashews
2:05 - large BM that floated...
3pm - handful of pumpkin seeds
4pm - spicy beef jerky
7pm - tasted the chinese roast pork that we're having for dinner... mmm, I haven't had that in a long time! Grandma "imported" it from NY =)
7:30ish - snacked on boiled peanuts (which I know are a no no on this diet, but they're just so good! Plus I was hoping the boiling killed all chances of mold...)
9pm - finally dinner time! made quinoa flakes with flax seed and flax seed oil to eat instead of rice, and had it with roast pork, sauteed chinese veggies, and chinese broth (sorry, I can't get more specific than that because I have no clue how grandma made it or what she made it with!)
10:45 - weirdest BM ever where they were all uniformly sized, almost perfectly round pellets!
11:50 - KleriTea time!

Day 9

Even after 8 hours of sleep, I still felt really tired when I got up this morning. Maybe it's because it's such great sleeping weather now! But today is when my in laws come in, so I have a million things to do plus work is uber busy, so I gotta get cracking!

• 8:30 - got out of bed and yippee, a BM first thing in the morning. It was fairly small, but I noticed in the last... errr... clump, that there was some white mucous-looking stuff as well as a spot of red that could have been blood. Hope it's nothing...
• 8:40 - took 4 Paranil with water
• 8:55 - full scoop of Colonix fiber with 2 cups of water
• 9:42 - 3/4 cup kefir
• 10:30 - 1/4 cup almonds
• 11pm - large BM, woot!
• 3:30 - turkey cobb salad (with blue cheese picked out... what a pity!)
• 6pm - 2 cali rolls with brown rice
• 10pm - Quinoa concoction and supplements

Work-wise, today was an awesome day, but I am absolutely exhausted now! I would love to just crawl into bed, but I need to do some more cleaning before we go pick up my in laws from the airport at midnight! Oy!

Day 8... still nada!

I had forgotten what it's like to have such great sleeping weather! We've pulled out the down comforters and it was so nice and warm under the covers, that when the alarm went off at 7:30, it was soooo hard to get out of bed! Luckily I was motivated by the beautiful day outside, so I sprang out of bed and put on some fleece pants and a long sleeve tee... and I plan to stay in them almost all day!! (Gotta love working from home!)

• 8am - 4 Paranil with water
• 8:15 - full scoop of Colonix fiber with 2 cups water
• 9:30 - 10 almonds
• noon - Quinoa concoction
• 4pm - 10 almonds
• 4:30 - broccoli with chicken and ginger, also took supplements -- totally forgot this morning!
• 6:30 - snacked on some cherry tomatoes at an event and it took all the willpower in me to not eat the delicious smelling brownies that were right there in front of me the whole time! I did slip and have a little square of cheddar... mmm, I had forgotten how good cheese is!
• 9pm - was hungry when I got home, so I had some more broccoli
• 11pm - ever since I started peeling the skin off my sprouted almonds, I've been absolutely addicted. I sprouted a little more than usual yesterday, so I had a lot to eat today. I should have stopped myself, but I ate probably another 20 almonds!
• 12:10am - almost forgot to have my KleriTea, but luckily I remembered right before I was about to brush my teeth. I steeped it for a whole 6 minutes today. This was especially important since I haven't had a BM in two days! Eek!

Hope tomorrow brings a least one BM!! :-P

Sprouting Almonds

I have always loved eating raw almonds, so I'm really glad that they're a healthy snack that's full of protein. What I recently discovered is that they actually provide way more health benefit if you sprout them first! That's just a fancy way of saying soaking them, but you don't just dump a handful in water, here's a simple step-by-step guide to properly sprouting almonds:

1. Arrange almonds in a glass container so that there's only 1 or 2 layers of almonds. I am currently sprouting a quarter cup of almonds.
2. Add cold purified water to the container and make sure there is at least double the amount of water than almonds (so I added 1 whole cup of water).
3. Mix it up a little to make sure all the almonds are surrounded by water.
4. Store the container at room temperature away from direct sunlight for 10-12 hours.
5. Optional step - after a few hours of soaking, rinse the almonds and repeat steps 1 - 3 and store for remainder of sprouting period. (I like to sprout mine overnight, so I skip this optional step.)
6. Once the almonds are sprouted, rinse with cold water and store in airtight glass container in refrigerator.

A few notes are sprouted almonds:

• The water that the almonds are sprouting in may turn brown, and that's totally fine -- it's just from the skin of the almonds.
• Taste one almond after each rinse in the process to make sure that it's okay.
• I've been told not to sprout broken almond pieces, you only want whole almonds.
• If you don't use up all the almonds, make sure you rinse and drain the almonds every day. It will keep for about 4 to 5 days, but if they smell or taste funny, then throw them away!

Happy sprouting!!

Day 7 -- one week mark!

Woke up this morning at 8am to a frigid 71 degrees inside my house! Even during the summer, we usually set the thermostat at 83, so I had to put on all the fleece clothing I could find! (Even my coconut oil is now solid!)

• 8:15 - I remembered to take 4 Paranil today
• 8:30 - full scoop of fiber with water plus 1 extra glass
• 11:30 - had my Quinoa concotion
• 12:30 - ate two mini whole wheat pitas with turkey
• 6pm - 4 walnuts (still no BM today!!)
• 8pm - dinner at Chi with Kimmy, had steamed tilapia in a scallion and ginger brown sauce with broccoli, cabbage, water chestnuts, and snow peas over small bowl of brown rice (I was sad that I had to leave the mushroom, carrots and baby corn on the plate because I love eating them!)
• 9pm - took supplements, drank half cup pure pomegranate juice, ate 1 almond

I'm a bit worried that I didn't have a single BM today thought I did have a little gas. Since I'm in the second phase of the Colonix program, I don't drink KleriTea tonight. Hope tomorrow brings some exciting changes!

Day 6... time to switch to phase 2!

Since I went to bed super late again, I didn't get up as early as I wanted to... plus we had a brunch date that we were going to be late for, so I kinda forgot that on Day 6 you're supposed to switch to 4 Paranil caplets... oops!

• 9:15am - took 2 Paranil with water
• 9:30 - remembered the new rule and had a full scoop of Colonix fiber with water + extra glass
• 10:15 - large BM, pretty easy, very solid
• 10:30 - brunch at Bistro on Park Ave, had 3 egg omelette with spinach, garlic, onion, green pepper, and tomato with tomato slices and fresh spinach. The waitress remembered me from a few weeks ago and my crazy cleanse, so she brought me fresh minced garlic without even asking! We left her a good time =)
• 11:35 - another large BM, this time loose... wonder what that means
• 11:45 - 1 bite of baked salmon
• 4pm - 1 cup of kefir
• 7pm - dinner at Kata with E, had king crab miso soup, chicken salad appetizer with lots of raw red onion and ginger, futomaki with brown rice, 1/3 of salmon skin roll with brown rice (no sauce, so it's really bland)
• 8:35 - drank water with clove oil and oil of oregano to take supplements (feeling a little gassy, blech!)
• 11:40 - had another 1/3 of salmon skin roll with brown rice
• 12:10 - drank KleriTea that was steeped for 5 minutes

I will definitely remember to take all 4 Paranil caplets tomorrow morning!!