cleanse & detox {in photos}

As promised, I wanted to share with you what my cleanse & detox weekend looked like. In all honesty I have to say it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. And granted I can easily say that now that it's all over, but seriously....wasn't that terrible. It was actually nice to know that for two days I was eating nothing more than whole, natural foods, that were minimally processed and as close to it's natural state as possible. I really feel like I got a lot of crap and toxins out of my body and felt refreshed (though a bit weak) come Monday morning and felt like I even lost some water weight. And who knows, maybe this did nothing at all for me, but mentally I feel like I did something good for my body (almost like hitting a restart button) and definitely getting a much needed jumpstart on that bikini body. Because you know what they say, summer bodies are made in the winter. I guess that would be spring for me. Boo! What a slacker I am, I'm already behind.  Check out the exact cleanse diet in stuck to in {this post}.

Breakfast

This was the least painful meal since the last 2 weeks I've gotten into this green smoothie kick.

Granted this one had no greens and less fruit - so I have to admit less filling.

It also incorporated peanut butter (and don't get me wrong, I love peanut butter) but I didn't care for it mixed with the shake. Believe it or not, I'll stick to the spinach, kale and fruit smoothie.

Lunch

Okay, I'm going to admit right now D and I did some cheating. But it's not what you think, I swear! We weren't sneaking in scoops of Ben and Jerry ice cream or anything, however I was taking our "two snacks" during the day and incorporating it into our lunches and dinner. Mainly because I wasn't hungry for a snack during "snack time" but also because it bulked up our meals. Yeah, maybe it defeats the purpose of following an exact meal plan, but hey -- at least I'm trying right?

As you can see above, I used the cup of cucumber allotted for a snack and made a salad that included a spring mix and broiled chicken that I seasoned with garlic and onion spices. And the dressing was made with olive oil we were allowed to have, mixed with balsamic vinegar.

Dinner

Similar to lunch we "cheated" and made our asparagus snack as a side for our dinner. This time I topped the chicken on a bed of arugula which has a nice peppery flavor. I did the best I could to make these meals look appetizing, and I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. 

Drinks

Other than water, we were allowed to have green tea. So let me tell you, we went to townnn on the green tea. I am already a tea freak and have over the years gotten D hooked as well so this one saved us. Having a hunger pain? Have some tea. Getting cranky because you're starving? Have some tea.

Tea. saved. our. life.

With our cleansing weekend we also had a a nice chance to reconnect. 

As I've mentioned before I'm in my crazy busy season at work, so for the last two months I have been working late 3 days a week and getting home around 10:30. That has been sucky, and means I never see D, let alone have time to blog. There's just never any time!!

Remember that episode of Saved by the Bell where Jessie Spano has so much to do, gets addicted to caffeine pills and crashes and burns.

Yeah that's me.

But this past weekend we had time to drink tea on our fire escape and watch the world go by....

and that I loved.

Feeling cleansed and ready to take on the world weekend!

xo Steph