Another very successful day with Jerry Lee with probably 6-8 miles walked total. After the second long walk when he jumped in the truck he got in the front and refused to move for 30 seconds. I think he had enough. Currently he is napping. As our time with Jerry Lee winds down we are getting ready for our four day juice (plus smoothie & soup) cleanse which starts tomorrow morning (eek!)

A few days after returning from our trip to South America, Andrew and I headed over to Green Goddess, a local food market, where we stumbled upon a flyer about their juice cleanse offering. This was after a rough vacation of failing pretty miserably in sticking to our usual diet of fresh veggies and grains and our stomachs had been paying for it. So, after talking about it a bit we decided that this sounded up our ally. I actually started salivating thinking about the juices I would be having (beets, ginger, carrots!!). We decided at that point to give it three really good weeks at the gym (5 times a week) and then do the juice cleanse, followed by another 3-5 weeks of the gym.

Well the gym was an epic fail. We were still pretty tired from our trip and just sluggish. We weren't waking up for our 5am gym time and since the afternoons were so pretty, after work we preferred to go for walks around the lake instead of catching up at the gym. After realizing we were not going to hit our stride with the gym, we decided to move the cleanse up a week.

*Disclaimer, when I say diet I don't mean we are on a "diet". Andrew and I on regular basis have a morning smoothie that consists of greens, fruit, veggie and seeds, lunch that includes cooked vegetables, rice/quinoa/kasha and then dinner varies between a pizza, gnocchi, vegetable sandwiches, etc. Most everything is homemade and organic. We do treat ourselves with occasional sweets but even with these we try our best to be diligent in checking the ingredients. So, when I use diet I am referring to our lifestyle, not a momentary change in meal plan.

Goals: Looking to refresh my body with a pure veggie/fruit diet and maybe get a boost in slimming down some more. All of the descriptions listed with the juices, smoothies and soups sounded delicious and productive. I also am looking to see how eliminating certain daily items and then bringing them back affect me, for example: goat cheese, breads, black tea, alcohol, hot peppers. I do get an occasional hive (yes singular, not a full breakout) when I eat and so maybe this might help in figuring out the culprits (I already know wine causes a full on breakout so I stay away).

Perks of the Juice Cleanse: Based on the descriptions listed in the suggested juice cleanse, there are so many great benefits from the different juices, smoothies and soups available I don't believe we will feel like we are missing anything in our diet (but who knows, I might think differently tomorrow). Unlike a detox which typically includes water and juice from lemons, grapefruit, or some cayenne peeper, this one replenishes your body with the proper nourishment. I am not against the other form, but due to our healthy lifestyle I don't believe there is anything that toxic to get out (for example my mom did a detox, but she also has been on numerous pain medicines for her different ailments and just needed a clean palate). The other nice thing is with it being middle of winter and us not receiving our veggies form a local CSA in bulk, not having to prep these items from scratch is wonderful. My CSA carrots are usually 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter, while right now they are the size of my pinky. I would be miserable peeling and juicing these carrots. If it was mid Summer I would highly recommend prepping and making these items yourself since the available produce will be easy to prep and you will get a lot from it.

Pre-Cleanse Diet: Andrew sent me a post regarding how your diet should pan out pre and post cleanse. During the week I have tried spacing out my food consumption and eat smaller potions, in hopes to make myself less likely to want to snack at work next week. They also recommended drinking 8 glasses of water. Yesterday we scrolled through the article again and realized we were an epic fail on keeping it light and fresh. I think I speak for many people that when we know we are about to cut something out of our life we want it ten fold. Well that happened. Yesterday we ate garlic knots, a big sandwich, pancakes, cookies and I had a slice of cheese pizza. Other then the pancakes, that was 90% more white flour then we normally consume. So today we are trying to be a bit better about it, so while the pierogies are not the best idea, we are sticking to some light salad and lentils this evening. Plus I switched to herbal tea ( I had three cups of black tea yesterday). And I am drinking some water (that's a lie, I am thinking about it and will go grab a glass right now, okay I have it (as of 5:00pm I have only consumed 4 cups, sigh, i am really bad at drinking water)).

Our cleanse starts tomorrow morning. We have to pick them up at the store at 8:30am as they make everything fresh in the morning (I would imagine they make the soup ahead of time, or else that would be a very busy morning). I will share a photo of the pick-up tomorrow and how I am doing. I have a positive outlook on this so I am hoping the hunger pains are minimal.