21 Days of Cleanse: Day 2

I didn't think the first day was going to be nearly as rough as it was.  I ate lunch at 12 and at 1 I was ravenous.  The prospect of going the next 18 hours with just a glass of juice was daunting.  Was every day going to be like this?  Would I ever get used to it?

I got through it with a few "allowable" snacks - almonds.  I ate about 15 of them, drinking lots of water in between each one to help them go further.  It sort of worked for the afternoon, but by the time I got home at 7 I was starving and despondent.  The glass of juice helped - but not that much.  Melanie emphasized that I couldn't eat anything until the next morning to allow my body to clean out toxins or whatever, so I knew this was an important moment.  I was also exhausted - my body didn't have any calories to keep me going - so I went to bed at 9.  I was worried I'd wake up starving in the middle of the night and not be able to go back to sleep, while starving the entire time.  This is my nightmare.

Instead, I slept well, got through Day 1, and now I'm feeling much better on Day 2.  One of the main reasons I feel better is because I weighed in at 200 lbs, 3 lbs down from yesterday.  Even though I realize that a 3 lb drop will not happen each day, and there's also a chance to go back up tomorrow, it certainly is motivating to know that yesterday's discomfort has paid off.  Now to do it 20 more times, lose 60 more pounds, and show up at the family reunion skinnier than Kurt.

Ha!  My actual goal is to get down to 185 lbs, the top of the range for the desired weight for my height.  It would be great to get down to 180, or even 175, but I don't want to lose much more than that - my new size 36 pants would be too large.  185 lbs would be a loss of 18 lbs, and I think that's realistic.  I also plan to control my snacking and my sweet tooth afterwards, so hopefully I don't just put the pounds right back on. 

Neil told me that when he did the cleanse, he was doing so well that he kept right on going, so I think he lost 50 lbs over 40-50 days, but I'll have to ask him.  I'll be ecstatic to lose 20 lbs in 21 days, and there's a chance that I may go a few extra days, but that's bit of a pipe dream right now. 

I have been exercising, but pretty minimally.  I'll do 10 minutes on the elliptical, and then my normal biking to the train stop and walk to work, but I'm keeping it very low impact.  I don't want to go overboard here, and focus first on my eating.

The biggest challenge of today is that I have a client dinner, so my main meal will be at 7.  That puts essentially 30 hours between eating actual solid food.  Also, I'll be in a restaurant, surrounded by delicious smells, and I'll have to order something tame.  For lunch, Mel made a disgusting-looking-but-delicious-tasting gazpacho.  It's sitting pretty well with me, and I'm going to try and not snack on almonds today.