21 Days of Cleanse: Day 8

This weekend wasn't particularly hard except last night was my nightmare night.  Adelaide woke me up at 2:30 with her banshee screaming and I couldn't go back to sleep until 4:30, my stomach rumbling the whole time.  When 6:30 came, my usual wake-up time, I wasn't in the mood to get up, and thought I may skip my workout.  Then 6:45 came and I crawled out of bed and weighed myself:  193.2 - exactly 10 lbs smaller than my starting point of 203.2.

So I lost 10 lbs in one week!  I was very excited and hustled downstairs to workout.  I stopped to take a picture of myself, to compare belly sizes from last Monday.  It was amazing how noticeable it was - another motivating factor. 

Overall, the cleanse is not that bad.  Some of the organic smoothies and juices are surprisingly good, the biggest surprise are the beet-based juices.  I guess if you think about it, it's not that big of a surprise, since beets are full of natural sugars, after all, you have sugar beets.  But it sure makes my grunt look red and scary.  What?  You didn't want a description of my poop?

The worst part is getting past the snacking habits.  For example, after I put Hench in bed, I usually eat a bowl of ice cream or pop some corn while watching TV with Mel.  But, nope, can't do that.  Or I like to have sugary snacks in the afternoon.  Or munch on goodies while we play games with our friends.  Nope, nope, nope.  Just say "nope".

Mel has been the key here, the real hero.  She has been making all my meals, and I'm glad, because I tend to snack when I cook.  And just fetching the ingredients - going into the pantry to get the quinoa, you have to reach past the brownie mix, the Corn Nuts (my favorite salty snack), and the Chili Cheese Frito's I got for Christmas (we don't get Chili Cheese anything out here-I'm saving them for a special occasion).  But I don't have to deal with that, since Mel is cooking.  Saturday's lunch was amazing - this chicken/acorn squash/rutabaga taco salad with rice tortillas made into chips and the best guacamole ever as a topper.  I was stuffed and satisfied for the first time all week!

I've been impressed by these "clean" meals - some of them are quite delicious.  They are, however, quite time-consuming to make and the ingredients are expensive.  I wonder how much of it is that I'm starving so everything tastes amazing.  I made some Kraft Mac & Cheese for Hendrik on Friday and it looked delicious and I've hated that stuff since high school.  I don't like any of the "plastic" cheese products.  JoEllen's children tell me it's because I'm white.

However, Mel is leaving me next week, possibly for another man, but most likely just to see her parents.  So that means the final week might be quite tougher.  But maybe by then I'll be dead?

A special shout-out to Lorana for reading each one of these and leaving encouraging comments.  Thanks!