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The Toughest Challenge Thus Far: Natural Body Cleansing

August 8, 2008 at 11:03 PM Posted by Misti Sandefur, Christian author/freelance writer

With healthy diet foods in my refridgerator now, I offically began my natural body cleansing this morning. Since I'm not much of a breakfast person, I normally skip breakfast. However, all that changed today. For breakfast, I had a peach. Come lunch time I was grocery shopping, so I didn't have any lunch. As for supper, the kids enjoyed hamburger helper as I ate salad with Italian dressing. And truth be told, the salad was more filling than I thought it would be. Aside from Italian dressing, my salad had two cans of tuna, lettuce, shredded carrots, cucumbers, homegrown tomatoes and cauliflower.

Each Friday when I go to the grocery store, I usually buy a Pepsi, but today, I exchanged my Pepsi for an orange juice, and for supper, I gave up my sweet tea for grape juice. Yeap, today and tomorrow will only consist of fruits, vegetables, grape juice, apple juice, orange juice and water -- a part of my natural body cleansing.

Although I'm proud of myself, the natural body cleansing is proving to be my toughest challenge thus far. It's hard not actually eating a meal, and then I watch the kids snack on chocolate chip cookies with milk. As hard as it was not to sneak one cookie, I didn't. Instead, I snacked on mushmelon, one peach and a couple cucumbers that I put in vinegar. The hardest thing is knowing I can't have the same thing the family is, but to do this right, I know I'll have to resist those temptations, and come Sunday, I'll get to enjoy a normal meal, which should make things a whole lot easier.

After this weekend, I'll continue eating healthy diet foods, but I'll return to an actual meal for supper. The only difference is I'll be replacing unhealthy food with healthy diet foods, counting my calories, watching my portions and doing 50 reps on the Ab Lounge. Hopefully this will work out for me and I'll lose a few pounds.

Subscribe to my RSS feed or via e-mail to keep up-to-date on my journey to weight loss. I'll be announcing my first weight-in next Friday, August 8, 2008.

Keep me in your prayers, please.

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5 comments:

  Anonymous

8/15/2008 7:29 AM

Actually, fruit juices are a big no-no when it comes to weight loss. They're full of sugar (even the natural ones and even if you make them yourself from real fruit) and provide too many calories and little to no satisfaction. It's a lot better to actually eat the whole fruit than to drink a glass of juice. Also, skipping meals is really bad when trying to lose weight. You'll do much better eating 4-5 meals a day than 2 medium ones because this prompts your body to burn fat faster, rather than pushing it to hold on to calories consumed because of the fear of starvation (your body really doesn't understand that you have weight to lose).

If you're drinking juices as a way to cleanse your body, stick to vegetable juice or mix veggies and fruits (such as carrots and apples) to downplay the impact on your insulin levels.

Diana (who's actually a nutritionist so she knows what she's talking about... most of the time, anyway).

  Misti Sandefur, Christian author/freelance writer

8/15/2008 2:00 PM

Diana,

Thanks for the tips! Since you mentioned that juices aren't a good idea, what drinks would you recommend? I use to drink sweet tea, so I thought if I switched to juices, it would be better. I can't stand unsweetened tea and I don't like the taste of sweeteners, so if I drink tea, it has to be sweet. I hear smoothies are great diet drinks, so I may look up some recipes for those.

Either way, I'd appreciate any drink recommendations you could give me.

  Anonymous

8/16/2008 3:01 PM

I like my tea and coffee without sugar, so I’m not a big help there. You could try Stevia (sold at health food stores). I’ve used it in place of sugar in recipes and it seems to mimic the taste of sugar quite well. Smoothies MAY be ok, as long as you go easy on the fruits. Otherwise, you still have the same problem of too much fructose (sugar). When making smoothies, stick to fruits low in sugars, such as berries. I prefer to drink protein drinks. You can get low-calorie/low-carb protein powder at the health food store or any gym and make your own shakes by adding milk or water and some fruits. Some of the powders taste really good. Add crushed ice and it sort of feels like you’re eating ice cream. Really. And no, you don’t need to be a bodybuilder to drink those. They’re ok for everybody. I don’t like plain water, so I drink seltzer. Try adding two tablespoons of juice (any juice you like) to a glass of water and voila! you have flavored water (tastes exactly like the bottle flavored waters that cost $2 or more a bottle).
Hope that helps!

  Misti Sandefur, Christian author/freelance writer

8/18/2008 11:22 PM

Diana, thanks for answering my question.

After searching the Internet for smoothie recipes and reading the nutritional information on them, I believe I'll pass. Like you, I'm not a big fan of plain water, so I appreciate the tip on adding two tablespoons of juice to the water for flavor. In addition to water, I'm going to purchase some green tea.

Thanks again for all your advice!

  Anonymous

8/19/2008 1:13 PM

You're welcome. Feel free to pick my brain anytime!

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