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!!

Day 5... so hard to not cheat!!

Really slept in today and got a full 8 hours, woohoo! I love the weekends! =)

• 11am - took 2 Paranil with water
• 11:15 - took half scoop of Colonix fiber with water followed by another cup of water.noon - Quinoa concoction and garlic supplement, wanted to wait at least two hours before taking the others
• 2:40 - large BM (thank goodness! I was starting to get worried that something -- or someone! -- was clogged!)
• 3:15 - okay, I was totally starving and with nothing at home, I cheated a little. I inhaled a mini whole wheat bun with beef and pastrami in a minute flat... and it was so good!
• 3:30 - still hungry so I had a cup of kefir
• 5:50 - ACV with water
• 6:20 - dinner with Frank, YanYan, and Cris at an awesome hidden gem. I don't want the secret to get out, so I'll just say that it's a tiny Mexican place that I've passed a hundred times before! I can't wait to go back after my cleanse is over because the mofongo looked awesome and they have guava flan! Today I had the shredded chicken sope with beans, super spicy guac, shredded lettuce (in lieu of the tortilla) and extra pico de gallo.
• 10pm - 4 walnuts and handful of raw sprouted pumpkin seeds, water with clove oil and oil of orgeano
• 12:20am - steeped KleriTea for 3 minutes this time because I think I need something stronger.

As an aside, I seriously need a teapot! I started boiling water at 11:30, then went to do some work, and totally forgot about it! By the time I remembered 40 minutes later, there was no water left and the pot was scorched! Oy!!

But to end the post on a high note, I'm super happy that I haven't had any headaches today!

Day 4

I was so tired and headachey yesterday that I decided to sleep in today -- gotta be well rested for the weekend, right?! Anywho, since I was so bad at tracking my BMs yesterday, I decided to start today's post early and just keep updating it as the day goes on.

• 9:30 - Still felt a tinge of headache, but definitely felt well rested after 9 hours of sleep
• 10am - took 2 Paranil with water
• 10:14 - large solid BM
• 10:16 - took half scoop of Colonix fiber with water followed by another cup of water. Normally after I take this, I don't feel hungry or anything, but today my stomach just feels kinda empty -- it seems like hunger, but not exactly the same feeling.
• 11am - quick 20 minute stregth workout for abs, legs, arms and stretching
• noon - ACV with water
• 12:20 - mixed greens with grilled chicken, fresh salsa, guac, extra raw onions
• 3:35 - medium BM, greenish (salad?!) with little black spots
• 4pm - 2 walnuts
• 5:31 - scrambled egg whites with kale and also took supplements with clove oil and oil of oregano
• 8:20 - had a mediocre, but expensive dinner at Everglades Restaurant at the Rosen Center Hotel which consisted of tomato grits, steamed asparagus, and grilled grouper. Thinking back now, I probably shouldn't have had the tomato grits. Darn it, I fed the aliens again!

I am going to do some work and then have my KleriTea... I'll update again if anything exciting happens! ;-)

Edit: I started editing a draft of a new booklet that I'm writing and before I knew it, bam, 3 hours had gone by! So I'm boiling water for KleriTea now (2:35am), and I guess I'll be sleeping in a bit tomorrow!

Day 3... still going...

I'm meeting up with the Happy Hookers tonight (it's a crochet group! Get your mind out of the gutters!), so I figure I'd post early since there was nothing super exciting and add more later.

• 6:25am - Got out of bed to get ready for an important morning meeting, was still really tired since I only got 5.5 hours of sleep (hmmm... can't remember if I had a BM this morning, this is what I get for not writing it down immediately!)
• 6:45 - took 2 Paranil with water
• 7am - took half scoop of Colonix fiber with water followed by another cup of water
• 7:30 - drank half cup of kefir
• 8:30 - drank ACV with water
• 9am - somewhere around this time, twice I went to the bathroom thinking I was going to have a BM, but both times it ended up being just a tiny, little brown slimy stuff... hmmm...
• 10:30 - ate my Quinoa Concoction
• 12:45 - large-ish BM, easy, still more pellet-sized rather than banana-like (like it used to be before I started cleansing)
• 3:50 - more ACV with water

Edit:

• 5:15 - 2 walnuts
• 6pm - more ACV with water and Panera's chopped chicken cobb salad with tomatoes, bacon, and hard boiled egg (no cheese or dressing)
• 7:45 - broke down and had two bites of home-baked goodness that one of the hookers brought for us - a bite of pumpkin bread and something with almonds - it was sinfully good!
• 10pm - was still hungry when I got home and E hadn't eaten yet, so I made some egg whites with tomatoes, kale, and leftover pork from E's dinner. Also took my supplements including probiotic.

I was bad about recording my BMs today, I know there was another one in the afternoon... but can't remember exactly when. I'll definitely be better tomorrow! I had a slight headache all afternoon again, so I'm boiling water now to have my KleriTea and plan to go to bed early.

Edit: Didn't end up taking KleriTea until closer to midnight... so it wasn't an early night after all! I did steep the tea longer, but still only about 2.5 minutes or 3 minutes max. Hope this helps me to go a little more regularly!!

Day 2... not for the faint of heart

For most people this post is going to seem like it's TMI, but for those that are really want to find out if this cleanse works, I hope this will be helpful! Here's how day 2 went:

• 6:1am - Woke up early to make hubby breakfast and experienced some mild cramps... maybe the KleriTea is working!
• 7am - went back to bed for an hour so that I could get a full 7 hours of sleep in
• 8:15 - felt a bit gassy and had a medium sized BM, no effort needed for these pellets that sank
• 8:30 - took 2 Paranil with water
• 8:45 - took half scoop of Colonix fiber with water followed by another cup of water
• 9:30 - this is weird... had what I thought was a BM, but instead only this little white mass the size of a silver dollar came out that looked like an amoeba, maybe it was mucous?
• 9:50 - drank half cup of kefir and ate small handful of raw walnuts and sprouted organic pumpkin seeds
• 10am - medium BM, larger and easy
• 12:15 - lunch at Bikes, Beans, and Bordeaux consisted of a bowl of black bean soup and a greek salad (no dressing or feta cheese... the good parts)
• 1pm - realized I forgot to take my supplements, so I took my usual combo of milk thistle, Florify probiotic, multivitamin, calcium, Omega-3 supplements, and arnica plus an aged garlic extract
• 4pm - had a slight headache in the late afternoon (it might have been my TMJ acting up from chewing salad during lunch - oy!)
• 7:30 - had delicious (not!) cup of ACV with water
• 7:45 - cooked dinner at home tonight, had baked cod (seasoned with liquid aminos, cayenne pepper, white pepper, sea salt, paprika, thyme, garlic, and allspice), sauteed onions with garlic, and sauteed kale

It'll be a while before I go to bed, so I'll take the KleriTea later, but just wanted to make sure I got this posted in case I got busy. Work has been crazy lately and I have been up late working on a new logo and business proposals. I have a full day of back to back meetings tomorrow, so I hope this whole BM thing doesn't get in the way!

Edit: Had a cup of KleriTea around midnight and had another BM about 10 minutes later!

Exciting first day... well not really...

It's day 1 of my new cleanse and I followed the program to a T! Here's what my day looked like:

• 8am - took 2 Paranil with full glass of water
  
• 8:15 - mixed half scoop Colonix fiber with water (not as gross as I had expected, but not yummy either!), drank extra cup of water as directed
  
• 8:30 - did 20 minute strength training workout - abs, arms, legs, back
  
• 9:10 - teeny tiny BM that was really hard to get out (tiny pellet that sank to the bottom)
  
• 10:15 - drank half cup of plain, low fat kefir
  
• 12:15 - I guess this is considered brunch since it's kinda late for breakfast. I had my usual "Quinoa Conconcotion" which consists of 1/3 cup quinoa flakes (I didn't measure exactly, but it cooks up to about 1.5 cups of "oatmeal") with raw coconut flakes, coconut oil, ground flax seed, flax seed oil, freshly ground raw pumpkin seeds (I love my coffee grinder!), chopped walnuts, ground ginger, ground cloves, clove oil, and a few drops of stevia. I usually will grind up fresh, organic cinnamon too, but I didn't have time to do it today. Also, took milk thistle, multivitamin, calcium, Omega-3 supplements, and arnica (for my sprained ankle).
  
• 2:05 - medium sized BM, a little less strenuous this time, clumps
  
• 2:30 - had 1 hour acupuncture session
  
• 4pm - was hungry in car, so ate 2 walnuts
  
• 6:15 - water with ACV (raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar)
  
• 6:30 - dinner at Infusion Tea, had tempeh chili with mixed greens. Also took my probiotic supplement.
  
• 10pm - needed a little sumthin sumthin, so I had some sprouted organic pumpkin seeds and leftover sauteed onions and tomatos from E's dinner
  
• 11:30 - drank one cup of KleriTea (steeped for 2 minutes)
  

All in all, it was a fairly uneventful day, but I didn't expect any miracles to happen or anything. I didn't want to write all the water breaks in the log above, but I did have a full 8 cups today. I usually drink a ton of water, so it's business as usual for me. I'll keep logging my days and hope that these two months will go by pretty quickly =)

By the way, I did have my personal trainer friend, Julie, come over today to help me do a full body fat analysis and body measurements. (She's awesome and if you need a personal trainer, she's the one to talk to because she knows her stuff!) I just thought that it would be interesting to see if getting rid of these little suckers in my gut would help improve my weight and body fat. I'll keep you all posted!

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step

It's finally here!! The UPS man dropped off my cleanse package this afternoon, so tomorrow, I will start a new two month cleanse! (I know I'm weird, not many people get this excited about detoxing!)

You see, just a month and a half ago, I found out that I have intestinal parasites (I know, TMI!!). Since then, I have been following a strict cleanse diet for parasites and candida. I spent two full weeks researching what natural alternatives there were for me to get rid of the aliens, and while I don't think I have candida overgrowth, I learned that it often goes hand in hand with parasites, so I figure I'd try to kill two birds with one stone... just in case!

Everyone thinks I'm crazy for following this strict diet -- it was as if I were diabetic, had celiac, was lactose-intolerant, and on the Atkins diet... plus more rules like no mushrooms, no preservatives, etc. I've been taking oil of oregano, clove oil, eating lots of pumpkin seeds (yummy!), grapefruit seed extract (it's ridiculously bitter and gross!), raw garlic, and drinking raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar (with the "mother"). Eating out has been extremely difficult, often resulting in my ordering a grilled chicken salad with no dressing... blech! Plus, I have been getting acupuncture on a weekly basis to help fight the battle, in addition to improving my circulation and other good stuff.

I felt great the first few weeks on the cleanse, but then I sprained my ankle while playing tennis. I've been a little down because I'm so used to being active all the time and now I couldn't even go grocery shopping while on my crutches. It kinda sucks to be eating all this protein and not be able to exercise, and I've noticed definitely muscle atrophy. Oy vey!!

So last week, I decided that if I'm putting myself through this difficult diet, I better get the results I want so that I won't have to go through it again. Let's kill those little monsters inside of me once and for all!

I spent countless hours researching cleansing products and finally settled on Dr. Natura's Colonix and Toxinout programs. Tomorrow, I will start Colonix for the first month, and then add Toxinout during the second month. I'll continue to follow my diet and document my food log here, along with all the fun details of my bowel movements. (I will hereby refer to them as BM.) I'm documenting it all for a few reasons:

- I found it immensely helpful to read others' reactions and wished that I could find more details, so I hope this will help others too
- I want to share all the information that I've learned over the last few weeks
- I hope this will help me stay accountable and on track -- especially through the holidays!

So let's take this journey together, and if you're also cleansing, I'd love to hear your thoughts, advice, and will try to answer any questions you may have!

Happy detoxing!!