Done.

As I sit here (with beer), I can't help but smile. The cleanse is officially over. The goal of today was to "gradually add in normal food".  My adds today were:
-1 shot of espresso (Yay!)
- granola
-a grapefruit
and
- 1/2 a beer.
- Maybe corn tortillas with dinner...

I'm very happy to be finished with the cleanse. I had energy all day- yay food! - and pooped twice!! (2 green poos)

I'm excited to be on a path of healthy, clean eating, and doing some sort of exercise every day. It is time to build the "Fall Foundation" and I'm excited about it.

I'm happy the cleanse is over. I'm happy I gave it a try. I'm happy to never do it again.
:)

Almost!

One day. One day (actually less than 10 hours) until I can have espresso, oatmeal with granola, and chips.

When I wake up, I'll be on day 10 of my cleanse. I'll be able to slowly add "normal" food back into my diet. I'm excited.

Nothing much as changed the past two days. I'm still having small green poop, still eating beans and white rice. Today, being day 9, I got to eat oatmeal, and had more choices of fruits and veggies.

Today, I had enough energy to barista for 6 hours, do coaching work, go to the gym, and go on a dog walk-- something four days ago would have killed me. Carbohydrates and calories rule!

Tomorrow, when I have my first shot of espresso in 10 days, I'll wonder "was it worth it?". Do I feel "better" or "cleaner" now? Well, one thing is for sure; as I get further and further away from days 5-7 I do feel better and have more energy- but I'm pretty sure it's because I'm able to eat more and eat more carbohydrates. If nothing else, this cleanse reaffirmed that my body likes carbohydrates and fat far better than it likes protein and meat.

10 days ago, I started the cleanse with the goals- "I'm doing it as a personal challenge and to try to figure out what, in my every day eating, gives me such bad gas".


I was challenged. Big time! This cleanse was hard and, honestly, I'm not sure I want to do it again- ever.

A large amount of beans give me gas.
I'm also curious about peanuts and their effect on my gassiness. I guess I'll find out when I eat them again. Same with corn.

For now, I can go to bed looking forward the morning and it's routine instead of dreading it.

Days 6-7

The theme of Day 6 was bean farts. Goal #1 accomplished of the cleanse- a large amount of beans gives me gas. They were horrible.

I'm pretty over beans, but when that's the only option other than apples, pears, white rice, and select veggies, beans it is.

I had hard time eating dinner. Too much spinach, a super boring meal, and more beans to add to my all ready happening bean farts.

People keeping asking, "how's the cleanse going?" Well, it sorta sucks. I have a mild headache that doesn't seem to go away, food isn't inspiring, I'm not all that hungry until I get dizzy and almost fall down, and my poops are small and unrewarding. Plus, I don't feel all that good. Worth it? Not sure.

The good news? I pooped green this morning. Word has it, that green poop means the cleanse is working. 

Today was day 7, the last day of the super restricted food choices. I think I broke the rules by eating salmon today instead of beans, but after yesterday, I couldn't handle beans today. I needed some real protein and no farts. The salmon gave me energy to do a small gym workout, take the dogs for a walk, and do some chores around the house.

Tomorrow I get to add in all fruits and veggies! Still no oatmeal, but I'll survive.

I won't lie, I'm looking forward to the cleanse being over.

Turning the Corner

This morning started much like yesterday morning. Sorta sucky and very hungry! I was hungry in the middle of the night- annoying. I had a headche, felt like ass, and the smallest poo of the entire cleanse. Why am I doing this? 

I was cracking- or had cracked. When you eat beans and collard greens for breakfast, that's just not normal. I wanted oatmeal so badly. Any kind of carbohydrate would do.

I emailed Dr Andy for help. Told him I was thinking about quitting- ready to quit. Did he have any suggestions?

He said, stick with it. It's worth it. If you get hungry, EAT! He gave me some new ideas and recipes and said since I wasn't taking the shakes or pills I could try plain white rice. Rice?! Magic to my ears.

Eat, I did. An entire can of beans doused with oil olive and a ton of lettuce. That made me feel a lot better! Still very low energy, but no more headache and able to function.

Then, several hours later, I ate white rice with baked apples. It was magic in my mouth. I never knew white rice could taste so good. Instantly, I felt better. I was able to take the dogs for a walk, and do a short Pilates session.

With the addition of rice, I now believe I can finish the cleanse. 2 more hard days left.

Not so fun anymore

Days 1-3 of the cleanse have been pretty easy. Despite the caffeine headache on day 1, I have felt fine and been able to eat the somewhat limited diet.

Not today. So far, day 4 has totally sucked. I've been really busy the last 3 days with work, errands, and stuff doing, so I didn't miss my "normal" food and coffee routine. However, today, I'm at home and I miss coffee. It's not so much the coffee as the routine. It gives me something to look forward to each morning. My breakfast that I eat every single day, gets me excited for breakfast and I look forward to eating it. Now I can't have either. It's totally a bummer.

I feel like I should go back to bed. I'm hungry, achy, and tired. Maybe all this "yuck" I'm feeling is my body getting rid of the junk. Perhaps the cleanse is working, but it still sucks. Doing this for another 5 days? That's going to be hard. I'm ready to throw in the towel and eat my dang oatmeal, nuts, and granola.

I'll make it through today. I'll probably make it through tomorrow, but it'll suck too.

Hopefully, I'll turn the corner and begin to feel better instead of worse. Hopefully...

Day 2

I'm feeling better. Very little caffeine headache today. I kept expecting it to come and it did later in the day, but it's a very dull ache that I barely notice.

I'm also pleased to report I have not had any gas today. That's right, not one fart. That's amazing.

One thing I wish was better was my morning poo. Usually coffee assists my poo-ing and without it, these past two days have not been great (they've been OK, but not "cleansing" feeling). But with no farts, I'm not too worried about it.

It's amazing how cleanly I've been eating. No processed food. No corn. No sugar. The corn thing is big for me as corn is my favorite food. I hope all this clean eating pays off.

Tomorrow I cut out grains, nuts, and milk substitutes. That means no Oatmeal for breakfast. Bummer.
I've been enjoying eating quinoa, but that has to go too. I can still eat yams, so that's good.

The cleanse I'm following was suggested by Dr. Andy at Peak Sports Chiropractic in Boulder. It's Clear Change by Metagenics. I'm supposed to have started supplementation yesterday, but with USADA fear, I'm skipping the pills and powers and trying to do it through diet only. It's a little bit of an experiment but so far so good. I'm eating healthy, feeling better than yesterday, and not farting! Success already.

Headache

Day 1 of the cleanse has felt like one big giant headache. The headache started around 10am and progressively got worse until 1pm where it has stayed the same, annoying, no caffeine pain.

The diet itself was pretty easy today. Oats, quinoa, fruit, veggies, salmon. Normal stuff minus salt and added sugar. It feels good to eat super "clean". It does not feel good to have a no coffee headache.

I hope tomorrow's headache will dissipate- though the last time I gave up coffee the pain lasted 5 miserable days.

Looking foward to day 2.

Day 0

Tomorrow, I'm starting a 10 day cleanse. Mostly I'm doing it as a personal challenge and to try to figure out what, in my every day eating, gives me such bad gas.

Little did I know that the personal challenge part would start before the cleanse even started. You see, during the cleanse you can't have caffeine or alcohol. Alcohol, no problem. But the caffeine part? Yikes! So, I decided I should wean myself from coffee a little bit today so that when I can't have any tomorrow, it won't suck so badly.

It didn't go very well. I was off the entire day. While working at Salto, I struggled to park the car, actually it was the worse parking job I have ever done, I f'd up the French Press making, cut my finger on the cash drawer, then to top it off, crashed my CX bike on a trail I have done a gazillion times. All this followed by a headache.

Really? I usually only have 2 shots of espresso each day. Today was one shot and I was a disaster. Wonder what tomorrow will bring.

I'll update each day about the cleanse and how I'm doing and feeling. Stay tuned...

Official Time Out

Some call it a "post season break". I call it a "time out". Time out from racing bikes, riding bikes, eating healthy, and just plain being an athlete.

I'll call "time in" soon, but for now, it's still time out time. After 9 months of riding my bike, being a bike racer, and thinking about bike racing 80% of all waking time, I need to rest. My mind is cooked, my body is cooked, and the wind has returned (I don't like riding in it).

When I'm ready, I'll begin riding and training again. The unhealthy eating lasted about 10 days before I felt so bloated, fat, and unhealthy that I couldn't stand it anymore. After 2 weeks off, I've started to stretch again (dang that feels good), take longer and longer dog walks, and split wood. A lot of wood splitting. It's fun in a weird way and splitting wood is a great upper body workout. I see Pilates soon in my future, followed by the weight room. No bikes yet. It'll be soon enough when I'm packing on the clothes, filling the thermos with hot chocolate, and riding my CX bike on the snow covered roads. But not yet. And it's windy and I hate the windy.

My race season officially ended in Vail at the Tour of Vail Crit. Robin and I raced and it was the weirdest race I have ever done. Lapped the field, negative racing, small field, giant prize money, and a crash on the last lap. I had a majorly bad feeling that day about the race. I have never felt that way about a race. I knew something bad was going to happen. It did. Major bummer for Robin as she used all her prize money at the ER. Thank goodness she is ok. She'll have another scar on her elbow, but what bike racer doesn't?

Time out.