Thursday, June 9, 2011

My story: Fruit flush, final thoughts

Yesterday was the third and final day of the Fruit Flush! 

I complained a lot more yesterday because I wanted to eat something with more substance than fruit.  Don't get me wrong, I love fruit, but two days of only fruit was overkill for me.  Besides the fact that I ditched the protein shake last night, I completed the 3-day program!

Yay!

And... I lost 5.7 pounds over those three days, even though I didn't really feel like it was flushing anything out.

In conclusion, I'm honestly not sure if I can hack the protein shake day again to repeat the Fruit Flush, but I'm thinking about adding some fruit, ice, and soy, rice, almond, or coconut milk to make more of a smoothie rather than just the straight up protein and water.  Then I might be willing to try it again... 


Oh, quick quiz:  What do you think I had for breakfast this morning?  Did I stay with the fruit trend and have my usual morning apple?  Did I take the lazy way out and drive through the McDonald's line?  Did I skip it altogether?

Answer:  Heck no!  [None of the above]  I made myself some good 'ole oatmeal with a little bit of dried cranberries, sliced almonds, and maple syrup.  Yum!  Then I ate it on the way to work and spilled some of it on my shirt.  Oh well.  :)

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

My story: Fruit flush, day 2

I got busy yesterday and didn't post anything about day 2 of the fruit flush... so here it is in a nutshell.

Although eating fruit is more enjoyable than choking down those chalky protein shakes, I feel more hungry on the fruit than the shakes.  I truly experienced how consuming a lot of protein really can fill you up!  I also went to salsa cardio workout and yoga classes in the evening and that was a little rough since I had only consumed like 600 calories (you are only suppose to exercise lightly while performing the fruit flush... oh well!).

The thing that is annoying me is that I haven't noticed any flushing of toxins happening, so it feels like I'm doing all this for nothing.

Although I did weigh in 2.7 pounds lighter, after two days I'm not impressed.

Monday, June 6, 2011

My story: Fruit flush, day 1

So, my new adventure is a detox program designed to flush out the body system and kick-start some weight loss.  It's called The Fruit Flush 3-Day Detox and it's created by Jay Robb.  Jeff somehow came across this book on the Internet and told me about it.  After reading the book, I took about a week to consider whether or not I really wanted to do it.  Jeff said he'd do it with me, so that made me more eager to go for it.  Misery loves company.

Basically, the cleanse consists of consuming 5 protein shakes every two hours for one day, followed by a healthy, green lettuce salad with 3 to 6 ounces of lean protein for dinner.  Then on days two and three, you eat a serving of fruit every two hours for ten hours, followed by another healthy, green lettuce salad and a protein shake.

My opinion of protein shakes = blah! 

However, once I decided I was going to try the program, there was some research I had to do to make it vegan.  I had to get rice, soy, or hemp protein powders because typical ones are made from whey (milk protein) and egg (chicken fetus).  Also, the powders have to contain basically nothing more than the protein and some natural flavor (no aspartame, sucralose, fructose, sugars, acesulfame-K, acesulfame potassium, and/or artificial flavors and colors).  This proved a little bit challenging... but with the help of the Internet these days, you can find anything.  I decided I wanted a rice protein powder and thought I had found one in a chocolate flavor that met all the requirements; however, when it was mailed to me I ended up getting a vanilla-flavored soy protein powder.  I guess I got confused as I jumped from page to page to page...oops!

Side note:  Over the weekend, I mentioned all this to my wegan friend, Kate, who said that she tried hemp protein powder and wanted to know what the rice protein tasted like, because the hemp is "okay... it tastes like dirt."  Glad I didn't go with that one.

So far today I've had the first three protein shakes made with FoodScience of Vermont Soy Protein Powder in vanilla flavor.  I made a 40-ounce batch in the blender at 10 AM, and added a packet of Stevia and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract to my first 8-ounce serving, because I could tell it was going to need it for me to be able to choke it down!  To my surprise, it wasn't bad; it tasted room temperature and frothy.  Not great, but not as horrible as I thought it would.  I saved the rest in the refrigerator for servings two and three... and, unfortunately, each serving since has been harder and harder for me to get down!

Jeff said this before serving three:  "I'd rather just not eat."

For my next two shakes, I'm going to add some cocoa powder in addition to the Stevia packet and see how that goes.  In the meantime, I have some errands to run and cleaning to do around the house to try to take my mind off of all this.

Honestly, though, I've never looked forward to a plain salad as much as I am looking forward to this one tonight at 8 PM!