Day 4 was the day of change. I didn't have to drink the fiber drink. I just had to take two pills with breakfast. I can't seem to remember what I ate for breakfast... I guess that's a good thing, because don't have any traumatizing stories to go with it. I took a left over chili for lunch. This was the first day that I didn't really feel hunger. This was the first day it wasn't THAT big of a deal. It wasn't all that I could think about.
We had a late arrival day at school--meaning teachers are there at 7:00, but the kids didn't have to come to school until 9:30. In my department meeting, my sweet student teacher was eating a muffin. She turned and looked at me saying "Oh, I'm sorry I'm eating the muffin in front of you." My response was that it wasn't that big of a deal. I could see other people eating stuff and it didn't bother me. (I think it is harder when I am alone. I find myself thinking "I could totally eat this cheese stick... and no one would know." Clearly that's not true, God would know and so would I. I think the thought of the guilt that would come with cheating is what has kept me true to the cleanse so far.) But then later, when the students showed up... a student walked by with a Chick-Filet breakfast biscuit, and I changed my mind... that looked good!
We made taco salads for dinner with ground turkey. Bryan mixed in a can of Rotel, so it had tons of flavor. Bryan wasn't please that I bought a spring mix package of lettuces (and I mean I bought a HUGE package)... but hey... spinach is good for us! I thought it was delicious. I had the spring mix, turkey, carrots, tomatoes, a couple scoops of the home made salsa I made earlier in the week and a nice topping of Pace Pacanta sauce as the dressing. I thought it was super yummy. Bryan splashed some lemon juice with his and ate his first helping. He was still hungry, so he got one of those cardboard tortillas (read previous post) and made himself a taco. He really enjoyed it. I stuck with my salad... if you know what I mean?
We took our pill with dinner and then the cleanse pills later that night.
At dinner Bryan and I started talking seriously about me adding the second phase (max phase) to the end of it. For those of you who don't know much about Advocare, they have this thing called the 24 Day Challenge. The 24 day challenge is broken down into 2 phases: the cleanse phase (days 1-10), and the max phase (days 11-24). The cleanse phase is designed to rid you body of toxins that build up in our systems over time; it jump starts your body and it's digestion system. It gets your body ready to digest food the way God designed it to. The max phase is designed to help get your body into overall wellness, and for many that includes weight loss. Bryan and I started discussing me taking the max phase with him staying on the strict diet with me.
Day 5 started off and followed very similarly to day 4. I wasn't hungry. It didn't consume my life. I had fruit for breakfast (I still need to find a protein that I can eat at breakfast that I like...), nuts for a snack, chili for lunch. Bryan left for a men's retreat last night so our original plans were dinner on our own, however we found we had a little extra time with each other so we threw the turkey back on the skillet to warm it up and had taco salads again. Hey, there is nothing wrong with left-overs!
I am still on the fence about continuing to the max phase or not. Part of me is thinking that I have gotten this far and I will finish day 10, what is 2 more weeks after that? The other part of me is thinking that I really want to go to a Mexican restaurant and have some chips, salsa and queso. My adviser has told me that my body has done all of the work on days 1-10, and that I will really see results on days 11-24. But then again... can my will power hold up that long? I keep going back and forth. Bryan has been so supportive. In a dream world I would wait until day 9 or 10 to decide what I want to do, but I have to order the products and give them time to be delivered. So I really need to order them by early Monday... What do you think? Should I continue or not?
Hey there, you are doing great! Note that this is just my opinion (as a person who has never done a cleanse of any kind)! I believe that at least *some* of the results people see are from the clean diet and restricted caloric intake that goes along with the cleanse. This seems like a sort of spiritual fast for you as well as a digestive cleanse, so that's great if you are having other accomplishments (like increased self-control, etc)! But, you could probably see similar results by doing something just food-oriented without having to order a bunch of extra products (maybe like "Whole 30" or something like that). Either way, I enjoy reading your updates!
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