Detoxing - I survived!!!!!

FITNESS COMPETITION:

Saturday morning I went in for my assessment at like 6:20am because I was so excited to see how I had done. When I started the competition I weighted 143.41 pounds, my body fat was at 22.9%,fat mass 32.81 and my BMI was 23.1. On Saturday I was down to 133.0 pounds, body fat 21.0%, fat mass 28.01 and BMI at 21.5!!!!! I had also lost 11 inches between my chest, waist, thighs and butt! What What!!!

Not only were my numbers improved but I killed my assessment test as well. The first assessment I did at the beginning of the competition I was able to do:
42 squats in 1 minute
11 pushups on my toes/18on my knees in 1 minute
33 sit ups in 1 minute
Held a plank for 3:02

This past Saturday I did:
52 squats in 1 minute
42 pushups all on my toes in 1 minute
44 sit ups in 1 minute
Held a plank for 5:12!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not one to toot my own horn but, freaking TOOT TOOT! I am terrible about following through with things and I really found the competitive streak in myself. We still don't know who has won or placed in the competition yet and I really really hope I do but if not, I am still oh so proud of myself. 

Left: The beginning of the competition and a true "before pic" Please ignore the disgusting post workout hair and my overall chub! Right: At the end of the detox before the weigh in!

DETOX EXPERIENCE

First off I would like to give myself a HUGE pat on the back. I, Brenda Pluid, actually followed through doing a smoothie detox last Wednesday - Friday. My main goal was to stick with it because on Saturday was my final weigh-in for the fitness challenge at my gym and boy oh boy I wanted to win!!!  A lot of people have asked what I did & how it went so I thought I would tell you all about my experience and I will share the smoothie recipes with you and my tips to make them tolerable! =)

I will be honest. I am not a huge smoothie fan. Josh kind of soured me on them by adding pure grosness to one smoothie with kale, ginger, cucumber (yuuuuck), celery and then like one piece of fruit. It was practically vomit in a drink in my opinion. He drinks that like every morning and the smell alone makes me gag, seriously. So I was super apprehensive to the fact that I would be living off liquid for three whole days. I freaking love food. Like more than a person should so I knew this would be difficult for me.

So day one I woke up at 5:30, cut up a small gala apple and ate it on my way to the gym for  my 6:00 class. I was told to always always eat something small before you work out early morning. It helps kick start your metabolism and wakes your body up. Hell, if anything kicks my metabolism to start moving faster and earlier I'll do it! When I get home from the gym I immediately make myself a protein shake. We order this awesome protein from All Pro Science. It is a company from a guy who is an ex-Chiefs football player (I believe...) and they offer either a complete grass fed whey protein or they also have a vegan protein. We personally love the chocolate and the strawberry. I mix it in our shaker with about 8oz of water and chug it down. You can absolutely add the protein to your morning smoothie but I take a while to drink mine and its best to get your protein in within 45 minutes of your workout.

^^These are the recipes I used for my detox. I repeated the same ones for the three days.

Then around 8:00 I made my breakfast smoothie. Gulped it down as quickly as I could and it really wasn't super gross. There is barely any veg in this one so its kinda tasty. To my surprise it kept me full for quite some time. If I were to get hungry before the lunch smoothie I either snacked on raw carrots or celery. I have really developed a liking for plain carrots, plus their packed with water so they keep you full for a while as well.

I would make my lunch smoothie while I fed the kids their lunch around 12:00. This one is the largest smoothie of the day and packed with the most vegetables...therefore its not so delicious. The first day I did it I literally gagged on the last drink and it took everything in me to keep it down. But by god I was NOT going to throw up everything I managed to get down!!!!! However a friend of mine gave me this amazing stuff called Sweet Leaf Liquid Stevia that was Vanilla Creme flavored. Its super sweet, natural, and 0 calories. I literally think I put like 10 drops of it on my day 2 lunch smoothie and it was SO MUCH BETTER. If you cannot find this particular stuff (you can get it at Whole Foods) I would add regular Stevia and then maybe some drops of pure vanilla extract. Trust me, it needs it!

Typically in the afternoon is when I crave sweets. Therefore, I would snack on grapes, which surprisingly satisfied my sweet tooth and again, they are very water based so they tied me over until dinner. I would make my dinner smoothie around 6:00 and this one I was scared of because it required cayenne pepper and I do not do anything spicy, I am a weenie with spicy foods. I don't think I put in as much as it required but this smoothie was actually kind of tasty!

I made it through day one with no cheating, I had energy all day, I never got crazy hungry or bitchy (like I expected to happen) and the next morning when I woke up I felt fantastic. I was up and awake with energy to go to the gym, I was CRAZY proud of myself for actually following through an entire day of smoothie drinking and I had dropped like 2 pounds (water weight I am sure.) The next two days were pretty much the same. I worked out every morning with full energy, drank my smoothies during the day, snacked on raw veggies or grapes if I was hungry in between meals and I survived the three day detox and had dropped about 4.5 pounds doing it!!!! I highly recommend anyone to test this out, I will warn you though the groceries are kind of expensive for just 3 days. I spent about $52 at HyVee and that was for most of the items. I already had flaxseed, almond butter and some of the produce in my fridge. The cost of the items alone was a motivator for me because I am all about not waisting foods! If anyone has any questions about doing this detox I would be more than happy to answer them. I really had a great experience doing it and felt amazing afterwords! Good luck & Happy Monday everyone! =)

A blurry iPhone picture documented Tuesday!

Let me start this off by saying that I LOOOOOOVE Tuesday's. First of all it is not Monday, which is obviously awesome. Secondly, it is the first day of the week that we have lots of fun things to do, I get to see Josh extra and spend more one on one time with Paxton! Weekends are definitely my favorite since we get to have Josh with us for a full 48 hours of awesomeness but Tuesday's are a close second!

After I get home from the gym, get everyone fed and bathed, I get myself ready for the day since I will actually be leaving the house (which is something that does not happen on Monday's!)

 Then we load up the car with H's school bag, snacks drinks and diapers for Paxton and we head out for the morning to drop Harper of at school. At first she was always apprehensive when I dropped her off. Now, she walks in by herself, we do our usual routine of taking her jacket off, hanging up her bag, wash her hands and she then runs to her teacher for a big hug. It is more heartwarming to me than sad because with someone as stand off-ish as Harper to run up to someone for a hug means they are truly great teachers and so kind and loving to her. It makes me happy to see a little independence from her.

Pax and I then go to run whatever errands I may have. Sometimes we do a stop at the grocery store because shopping with one is a tad easier than shopping with two. But this past Sunday J was suuuper awesome and we all went to check out the new HyVee did our shopping then. Score! Therefore we went to the best place to kill some time and spend some money....Target!!! Check out the cuuuuuutest little Easter baskets I picked up for the kids. $2.50! I mean that is practically free!

I also had time to just browse which again is NOT something I typically get to do when I have both kids. I meandered over to check out the shoes. I saw these little beauts which were on clearance for practically nothing but of course they only had a size 11. Bummer!

 Paxton thoroughly enjoyed our little outing and I have so much fun hanging out with just him. I had 16 1/2 months of just Harp and I getting in quality time but it's rare that I have a block of time just Paxton and I. He is such a cool kid and he is so much fun to be around! This little froggy is probably going to have to make it into his Easter basket, I've never seen him love on something like that before. Too cute!

After we wandered the many aisles of Target we then started our way to pick up Josh for work to meet up for lunch. Day Date Tuesday I call it. I look forward to Tuesday lunch every single week. Such a fun little treat to get to see J for a snippet of time in the afternoon and share lunch with him and Paxton. Again, much easier with just one kid to bring along plus it's fun quality time that Pax and Josh get as well. We hit up Chipotle yesterday and had one of their veggie/black bean/brown rice bowls. OMG it was so stinking good! I was sad this morning that I didn't bring home my leftovers to have again today. Oh well, I'll just have to go back soon!!!

Then Pax and I came home to play a little before he goes down for his nap. This tent is the newest obsession the kids have in the house. It's a fun Lion King pop up tent that Nana and Papa brought the kids a while back. They drag this thing around everywhere and have secret little Harper/Paxton play time inside. Sometimes we like to hide from dada and then try to scare him. Basically it's awesome.

 Harper's newest favorite thing is to assist me with cooking dinner. It is always supervised of course and I never let her get near the knives but she helps stir our dishes, she seasons them and will help drop the chopped things in the pan or baking sheet. It's so much fun to have a cooking buddy and to start teaching her things while we are doing so. It's great for counting and measuring and addition/subtraction! Sometimes it helps her become more adventurous with eating things since she is actually making them. She's quite the picky eater.

Last night we made one of Josh's favorite vegan dishes a Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili. It's so crazy good and easy!!!

 Then some more play time in the tent while we are waiting to get Paxton up from his nap.

 Necklaces are also another new obsession in the house.

Of course Paxton has to climb up on Harper's cooking stool to try and sneak a bite because he's basically a garbage disposal. He will eat anything all day every day. I don't think he has ever been full. He has the belly to show for it!

Last, I'd like to leave you with what Josh and I spent our evening doing last night. Making ourselves into Zombies with the hilarious free Walking Dead iPhone app. We actually did one of Harper too but I'm pretty sure its a little too disturbing to go up on the internet. Hope you all are having a great Wednesday!!!