Tag Archives: Raw

Crazy Sexy Diet Wrap Up

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I contemplated how to wrap up my crazy sexy diet 21 day adventure cleanse and rather than droning on about what I liked and disliked, here is a quick run down.

  • I love basing my meals around greens. Green smoothies, huge salads, green juices, stirfrys etc. Are incredibly energizing and satisfying
  • It is a time commitment in the beginning but, like any other lifestyle change, a plant-based diet soon becomes second nature
  • My cravings dissipated.
  • I don’t need as much (animal) protein as I thought. Beans, quinoa, nuts and greens are plenty.

Since finishing the cleanse, I reintroduced the foods that were eliminated for the cleanse in extreme moderation. I did my best to follow an 80/20 approach.

Wheat: Tends to cause a heavy feeling a few hours after eating

Dairy: Highly addictive and causes bloating and phlegm (gross)

Sugar and caffeine: Addictive and I feel the adrenaline going immediately after consuming

Alcohol: Toxic. One night out drinking left me a shaking, bed ridden mess for an entire day.

I mentioned in my one week recap that I don’t intend on engaging in a cycle of detoxing and retoxing. Of course, my diet fluctuates, some weeks I eat more kale and some weeks I really like wine. I really work to create a good balance of healthy foods with a few care-free indulgences. While I recognize the benefits of clean, whole foods, I have also seen the unpleasant side of obsessive restriction, so yes, I’ll maintain a heavily plant-based, high vegan diet. But I don’t intend on eliminating anything completely from my diet. I intend to make some of the foods that were eliminated from my diet into once in a while foods, rather than staples. Eg. I will go for gelato with a friend, but I won’t eat a yogurt mess for breakfast every morning for weeks on end. I will unwind from a rough week with a latte or a glass of wine, but I won’t be relying on a cup of coffee every afternoon to get me through my afternoon slump. I expect to reintroduce eggs into my diet more frequently but only from the best sources. Sea food will most likely make it’s way onto my plate a few times a week as well. If I want meat or dairy, I can have it, but I will be picky about where it came from.

So there you go! Crazy Sexy Diet, done. I learned a lot and if you have any more questions please feel free to email me at mycupofteablog{at}gmail{dot}com !

Crazy Sexy Adventure Day 19: Kitchen Cleanse

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How is it possibly August already?

This morning I made yet another green smoothie

Frozen banana, cherries, chia seeds, almond butter, cinnamon, almond milk, and a new to me protein: Vega Vanilla Almond.

I liked the taste but there was a wee bit of chalkiness in the texture. I’d have it again though.

More Dexter, some Body Combat, and then it was time for lunch!

Kitchen sink salad: I needed to pack in the produce today in order to avoid any food waste. This had romaine, cucumbers, snap peas, olives, tomato, fresh corn, black beans, banana peppers, nutritional yeast, and hummus. I’ll be making cucumber juice tomorrow to take care of the surplus of them in my fridge.

I went to work for the afternoon and dinner was a strifry of tofu, broccoli and snap peas with  sesame oil, braggs, fresh orange juice, garlic and ginger.

Once again, this is not all I eat! Picture a Macrobar, a hundred fistfuls of blueberries, some pieces of frozen mango, and a couple of peanut butter dipped spoons after and in-between meals :)

Operation kitchen clean out is a go! I should probably start packing…

Crazy Sexy Adventure Day 18: Vacation Procrastination

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I leave for Miami the day after tomorrow. I plan on throwing whatever is clean into my luggage 15 minutes before departure and cursing myself the entire time I am away that I didn’t plan more efficiently. Acknowledged. Progress.

I’ve been enjoying the same chocolate cherry milkshake smoothie for breakfast for the greater part of this cleanse. If it aint broke… It’s simply frozen banana, frozen cherries, a heaping spoonful of cocoa powder, chia seeds, almond butter and almond milk with a few big handfuls of spinach or kale (or both!) I sometimes add a handful of raw oatmeal if I’m hungrier.

I bummed around for the morning, watching a few episodes of Dexter — I plough through TV series’ like no body’s business. In the last little while I finished LOST, Mad Men, Arrested Development, Community and Girls. It’s a wonder I get anything else accomplished.

Eat – TV – Eat again

Traditional chicken salad has never really appealed to me, but the thought of veganizing the popular, gloppy mess of a sandwich staple sounded fun.

Chick-Un Salad

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/4 block extra firm tofu, pressed and diced

1/2 apple

1/2 c. grapes

2 tbsp. walnuts, chopped

1 celery stalk, diced

2 tbsp. red onion, diced

1 tbsp. hummus

1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 tbsp. lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix and serve with crackers, in a sandwich, wrap or over a bed of greens.

Come to think of it, this would have made a great stuffing for lettuce wraps.

After lunch I declared the day to be TO beautiful to sit at home and watch a handsome serial killer murder other serial killers (seriously, how do they come up with this stuff?) I put on some people clothes and took a stroll to the natural foods market to do some window shopping and pick up a couple of food things to take with me to Miami — protein powder sample packs and a few different kinds of bars, “just in case” things. We’ll probably do a quick grocery trip once we get to Miami because I’m so high maintenance according to my loving family :)

My walk accidentally ended up being about a 4 mile loop! Carrying groceries on the way back! Afterwards I took my favorite hot and sweaty class at Yoga Passage so basically my laziness earlier in the day was effectively cancelled out. It’s science.

Crazy Sexy Adventure Day 17: Rest Days

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Sometimes I have trouble deciding whether I am listening to my body or just being lazy when I take a day off of exercise. I’m usually pretty energetic and have the physical capability to do something every day. I don’t formally plan rest days because I just figure eventually life will get in the way and I won’t have time to exercise (it does), or there will just be a day that I’m not feeling it. Like today for example. I laughed in my alarm clock’s face when it tried to get me to go to spin this morning (to be fair, I had gone to bed only four hours before) and felt very apathetic towards a yoga class after work. Instead I skipped on home, I am now in my stretchy pants and I have no regrets.

I also made an awesome salad. Spinach, celery, cucumbers, grapes, sunflower seeds, tofu ricotta and home-made balsamic dressing.

Crazy Sexy Adventure Days 14, 15, 16: Weekend Warrior

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Hello! I decided to take the weekend to just relax and recoup. I cannot believe that there are four days left of my adventure cleanse where did the time go?!

On Friday I took advantage of my morning off and went to work for a Chiropractic treatment (my first ever!) followed by a Naturopathic appointment. I am so, so lucky to work where I do. Continuing on with my healthy momentum, I took a lunch hour class at Yoga Passage and then settled into work for the afternoon. Once I arrived home, I declared a night off of greens in favour of something a little different

Sweet Potato Blackbean Quesadilla

Serves 1

Ingredients

  • 1 tortilla (I used Food for Life brown rice but sprouted wheat would be great too)
  • 1/4 c. grated sweet potato
  • 1/8 c. fresh corn
  • 1/8 c. blackbeans
  • 2 tbsp. chopped cilantro
  • 1 small clove of garlic
  • sliced white onion
  • 1/2 tsp. coconut oil

Directions:

In a small pan, quickly sautee the sweet potato in the coconut oil until brown. Add in the rest of the ingredients and cook together until the corn is slightly softened and the sweet potato is cooked through. Spread hummus onto the surface of your tortilla and sprinkle with nutritional yeast. Place your sweet potato mixture onto one half of the tortilla, fold over and bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes until browned and bubbly.

Saturday was a long day at work as well as juice fast day.

I drank green juice until I got home at 5:00  and then made a big chocolate cherry green smoothie with almond butter and a sprinkle of granola.

Sunday was all over the place. Before going to bed the night before, I poured some almond milk over some of my quinoa granola and left it to soak overnight. In the morning I added berries and dug in. I think this is what people call muesli. Thoughts?

Of course, Sunday morning means Body Combat. After class, a quick shower and a smoothie, my mom and I went to wander about the mall for a few hours and then I was off for the best night I’ve had in a while! Before I get to that, let me show you dinner

My favourite summer salad is spinach, quinoa, strawberries, walnuts and feta with a balsamic dressing. The flavour combination is perfection, but, of course, feta is not Crazy Sexy approved. When the craving struck I made a quick batch of tofu ricotta and it was so, so delicious, I had several spoonfuls before even putting it ontop of my salad. It offers the salty, sourness that I love so much about feta cheese in this salad.

This past weekend was the Calgary Folk Music Festival. I have known about it for months but, being me, I put off buying tickets until it was too late and they were sold out. Basically crushed, as Iron and Wine, one of my favorite groups, was going to be the closing act of the festival. While lying in bed on Saturday night, I was having nagging thoughts to track a ticket down. After a quick scan on kijiji I was so lucky to find one for the regular price! Even better, the girl selling the ticket goes to Yoga Passage so exchange was simple enough. Sometimes things are just meant to be.

Like finding the perfect spot for Sam Beam to serenade you. I got home late and went to sleep late and missed spin+core this morning but who. cares. This was epic.

Crazy Sexy Adventure Day 13: New Protein and Dining Out

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Doop-doop dingle ding ding-ding-ding.

I slept through the sound of my alarm (above) for eight whole minutes this morning! This never happens. I wasn’t tired once my eyes actually opened so I pulled on some stretchy pants and headed to Body Pump.

6 am classes are fun because for the first half I have no idea what is even happening. How did that bar bell get there? Why am I doing push ups right now? What is this!? By the time I fully wake up the workout it half done and my endorphins have taken over.

Green monstrosity.

Not long before I started this cleanse, I began incorporating organic whey protein into my smoothies. I really enjoyed the texture, flavour, and staying power that it offered. The ingredient list was short and recognizable and the stats impressive. Since the cleanse is dairy free, I have eliminated my protein from smoothies (subbing in a few tablespoons of chia seeds, coconut flour or a hefty scoop of nut butter) but I decided to sample a vegan source of protein. Yesterday I picked up a sampler pack of Vega Sport Performance Protein: a plant-based protein supplement with a blend of pea, sacha inchi, sprouted brown rice, hemp and alfalfa proteins.

It offers 26 g. of protein and 8% of your daily fiber requirements per serving. It is also delicious! I have heard that plant-based protein powders are notoriously bitter, grassy and gritty, but this was lightly sweetened with stevia and vanilla and blended well with the ingredients in my smoothie (frozen banana, cherries, almond milk, cocoa powder, and spinach)

I met my friend Natradee for a lunch hour yoga class. It felt amazing to stretch out my muscles from this morning’s Body Pumping. Afterwards we headed to lunch, I realized that it was my first restaurant meal on the cleanse!

Playing it safe, we went to Gratitude Cafe, since many of the entrees there are already cleanse friendly, however my friend Christa recently wrote a post about how to take control and enjoy a healthy, vegan and gluten-free meal at any restaurant.

We each started with smoothies. Nat had the banana ginger with e3live and I enjoyed the mango basil with e3live.

Both were delicious and unique flavour combinations and absolutely perfect after yoga.

For lunch I had the I am grateful: Raw Mexican enchilada lettuce cups. I subbed hummus for the guacamole since I can’t do avocados.

This dish was so satisfying and flavourful. Light but packed with so many different tastes and textures. I cleaned my plate.

I also had a bite of Natradee’s Eggplant Canape with cashew risotto which was rich and buttery, but maintained a wholesome, healthy appeal. I can imagine how delicious this dish would be on a cold winter’s day.

Once playtime was over, I headed to work for the evening where I also had dinner: a quick salad from home and a cup of celery-cauliflower soup that I took to go from Gratitude. There was also a few pieces of raw, dark chocolate with hazelnuts enjoyed.

I just ate a million mini red grapes and am ready for bed. Tomorrow was supposed to be a juice fast day but I think I’ll push it to Saturday as I am still pretty low on produce. Costco trip in the a.m. !

Crazy Sexy Adventure Day 11: Kittens, Oatmeal, Veggies, Yoga

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My friend Jessie is a new yoga teacher and wanted some head shots but the only time that worked was early in the a.m. For convenience sake, I slept over after yoga last night and we were up bright and early to get some pictures of her pretty face.

I packed a green juice. Nerd.

We took a quick snap, snap, met some nice people with a bag of kittens.

Literally a bag full of kittens. 

Once I arrived home I ate some delicious overnight oats in an almost empty peanut butter jar with tonnes of fruit and a little sprinkle of granola.

 

I had a pretty lazy morning which included laundry and a Girls marathon. I had a late lunch of curried lentil soup and a giant salad. I also had some Mary’s Crackers on the side.

Eventually I peeled myself off of the couch and headed to yoga.

My mom once told me that when living in New York she often enjoyed the Hallmark slice of street car pizza for lunch. One day, her boss came to work with TWO slices for herself. The thought had never occurred to my mom that one could eat TWO slices of pizza. I think of that every time I do a yoga double. 4:10 ishta + 6:10 Hot (half an hour in-between classes). Crazy Sweaty Bliss.

Once I got home I threw together some sautéed veggies, brown rice noodles and a generous serving of spicy almond butter sauce.

Goodnight!

 

Crazy Sexy Adventure Day 8: Hot Hot Heat

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A green smoothie sounded so delicious this morning but there were no frozen bananas to be seen! I popped a few into the freezer and had a bowl of quinoa granola and fruit with almond milk instead.

I had work at Yoga Passage this morning and broke for lunch around noon

a beastly salad out of an old peanut butter container – no tupper ware to be found!? Afterwards I took the (extra) hot restorative class. The weather in Calgary is absurd. Hot and delicious. My body craves the restorative class by the time Saturday rolls around. Today’s class paired with yesterday’s juice fast has left me feeling squeaky clean, like a reset button has been pushed on my entire existence!

I came home dead set on an icy cold smoothie. Walking through down town I walked by no less than four ice cream trucks! I needed something refreshing and cleanse friendly and then I remembered a smoothie combination that my friend Christa from Edible Balance recommended:

1 c. frozen mango, 1/2 c. almond milk, 1 c. coconut water and a hunk of ginger. Amazing.

Dinner was another salad beast this had Spinach, lightly steamed broccoli, sweet potato,saur kraut, eggplant bacon, olives, snap peas, edemame millet burger and lemony-tahini dressing. Essentially everything within arms reach went in.

I have no further plans today than to laze around and watch Community. Toodle-oo

Crazy Sexy Adventure Day 7: The {juice} fast and the furious

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Has it already been a week?

Today was my juice fasting day. I went in with the intention to go for 24 hours, but to be ok with dropping out at dinner time, which I did. For some reason I woke up with no appetite at all. I lazed around for a bit, drank my hot lemon/ cayenne water and eventually poured my first of many green juices of the day.

Like Kris says in the Crazy Sexy Diet book, a one day juice fast shouldn’t really cause too much drama. A couple of stomach grumbles and a slight head ache, but both were easily repaired with another swig of juice. I also drank herbal tea, water and coconut water throughout the day. My lack of appetite continued, but I just did my best not to make a big deal out of fasting and overall I think it went well.

After work I went to a barbecue at my friend Shifrah’s house. She is the sweetest hostess alive and made sure there were cleanse friendly foods at the party. This is where I finished the juice fast and munched on raw and grilled veggies and a few corn chips with home-made salsa. It was perfect and I’m glad I didn’t pull an ‘Ariffa’ and just stay home sulking and sip on juice.

SO. Seven days in, how’s it going?

Things I’ve noticed

Not a cramp or bloat in sight. I am so used to looking 6 months pregnant by around 3 o’clock in the afternoon and that hasn’t been an issue once all week. It feels strange not to feel strange. Along with possible food intolerance, I think that eating too much and too quickly has a big effect on your body’s ability to digest properly. Kris outlines the importance of chew, chew chewing your food, which I am honestly terrible for. Except for the morning, I usually just cram in my food so that I can move on to the next thing. Taking the time to chew makes meals last much longer and leaves me much more satisfied with simple, clean foods.

Cravings vary from day-to-day. Day three was my desperate for bread day. Yesterday I reeeeaally wanted some yogurt and today I took a good twenty minutes smelling the inside of my mom’s recently emptied coffee cup. I have barely thought about my morning cup of black tea, between the hot lemon/ cayenne water juices and smoothies, I don’t think there would be any room left in my stomach for rich, black tea.

The cleanse has done great things for my energy levels. I generally enjoy a bigger breakfast, but I think that they tend to weigh me down first thing in the morning. Smoothies are typically what I crave on summer mornings, but I’m not about to give up oatmeal any time soon. I enjoy having vegetables as the centerpiece to my meals. I always knew that green-packed meals leave me the most satisfied, but in the end, laziness always won out and I would throw together a sandwich which would eventually lead to a mid afternoon crash which would then lead to a coffee and a sweet to pick me back up (for all of thirty seconds) and on went this ugly cycle.

Plans for the future? I really do enjoy the vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, caffeine free, alcohol free lifestyle. I don’t find it restrictive or boring, on the contrary, I think it makes me much more creative in the kitchen. However, I don’t intend on setting any hard and fast rules ever about how I eat. It might be a fear of commitment, It might be because I don’t want to type up an entire post about why I am now a vegan only to write up another one about why I am no longer a vegan. (or GF, sugar-free, what have you) What I do know is that right now, I feel crazy sexy. As in, the best I have in a really long time in terms of energy, confidence and digestion (gross). So I intend on making the healthiest, most conscious choices most of the time. From experiencing the benefits of taking that little extra time, effort and awareness, saying no thank you to certain foods shouldn’t be that much of a challenge. Something that I don’t aspire to participate in is a life of gorging and justifying that with a cleanse. I don’t find that to be health supportive at all which is why I, like many others, am an advocate of the 80/20 rule. Greens and goodness 80% of the time, and utter foolishness the rest (within reason, of course)

Crazy Sexy Adventure Day 6: Happy Cramper

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Today was a 9 to 7 work day capped off with a glorious yoga practise. Not a lot of food pictures, but y’all know what salad in Tupperware looks like, right?

First thing in the a.m. I chugged a juice.

I made two blends, Green (broccoli, romaine, kale, cucumber, celery, asparagus, lemon, apple and strawberries) and Purple (beets, romaine, cucumber, snap peas, pineapple, parsley and ginger) Both are delicious, I swear. But something magical happens when they are combined. I had a bright red ‘juice mustache’ for the morning.

Once I got hungry I made a chocolate cherry smoothie (banana, cherries, cocoa, chia seeds, almond butter, almond milk) and was off for a day of work at both my jobs.

At Yoga Passage I was able to sit in on one of the teacher training sessions with Ray Hawkins  who talked about Yoga Therapy, Koshas and Herbal Medicine. He had a great personality and an endless supply of information and experience. I could have listened to him talk for days!

After a few hours of work at EHS, I was back to the Passage for Gord’s Hot class. Everything feels great. I got a cramp in my side today and was absolutely thrilled because for the first time in I don’t know how long I had a cramp in my abdomen that wasn’t a digestive related cramp. Just a crappy hydration muscle cramp, which I quickly remedied with water and coconut water.

Tomorrow is my first juice fast day! My goals are to keep calm, be dedicated but not obsessive, listen to my body, and refrain from taking out any potential crazy bitchiness crankiness on others as no one is forcing me to fast, but it is something that I’d like to experience.