As many of you might remember, Nina is on a mission to get her post baby body back in shape! She joined the gym, started training, and started being mindful of her diet (i.e. protein and heavy carbs). That was what she thought she needed to get started – because last time it worked! Well not this time. She was literally training 2-3 times a week and taking 1-2 classes a week and her weight did not budge, not a single pound! She was literally dumbfound – how could she not have dropped a single pound. CRAY. So she decided to ask her super awesome, super fit friend, Shefali, for some advice on how to drop those numbers. She enlisted Shefali to be her “nutritional coach” to clean eating and helping her figure out what all she was doing wrong. After their “first session” she determined that Nina had too many processed foods in her life – including, but not limited to anything that came from a can, bag, jar, wrapper. Even things Nina thought were healthy, like granola bars, cereal, bread thins, etc. So Shefali said, “first things first, you need to do a cleanse to get rid of all the junk and toxins in your body.”
None of us have ever been the “cleansing” type – we didn’t believe in restricting ourselves to juices and shakes to lose our weight. And the last time Nina looked into doing cleanse, it entailed taking 300 pills of some sort with 8 gallons of water every day, and not eating anything else. Ya, no thank you. But Shefali recommended this: JJ Smith’s 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse. So what is it about this that Nina jumped up in excitement and commitment? Well first, she knew her mindset had to change because her body already did. She had to come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t 28 anymore and her post Naya body just wasn’t going to magically reappear like it did then. The second thing she loved about this “cleanse” is that you make everything at home, with fresh ingredients from the store, and you can eat fruits and veggies in between! You make one batch of smoothie in the morning and drink that throughout the day. 10 days, 10 different smoothies, no thinking needed. WIN WIN WIN. It was the first time that Nina actually thought, yes I can do this!
So the first thing she suggested was that Nina look at her social calendar as with any events within the 10 days would make it hard to stay clean. She found a weekend that was clear of events (or so she thought) and decided that was a good time to start. Nina enlisted Mommy Vaid to do the cleanse with her, but told her that she could do the modified version ( 2 smoothies and 1 clean meal) since Mommy Vaid needs her morning chai :). She also ended up with a group of 5 friends that were going to do the cleanse with her – which helped tremendously because you definitely need the support to stay on track for the first few days when you are literally CRAVING everything in sight. Then the 10 days began. No caffeine, no dairy, no carbs, no treats, no alcohol!
After the first day in itself, Nina was down 3 lbs, couldn’t believe it!!! She thought this is insane, but it gave her the motivation to keep going. Yes there was the caffeine withdrawal headache, but being busy with the kids didn’t give her much time to think about it. The smoothies were delicious (she didn’t add the Stevia) but she was definitely hungry – so she snacked on fruits, veggies, nuts and had 2 hard boiled eggs through the day to keep herself not thinking about food. She also did a detox tea that was great every morning to help her get through the no chai part. However, by day 5 (Friday night) she and the group of mommies were all ready and desperate for a “modified” weekend. At that point she was down 7 lbs! So the weekend was 2 smoothies and a meal. BOY were those weekend meals DELISHHHHH! But — Nina realized that she could only tolerate a small amount of food before feeling sick to her stomach! WIN!
By the end of the 10 days – Nina was net down 5 lbs – but – she was completely off sugar (no sugar in tea/coffee/anything!), she was off caffeine (although she is back on a little bit here and there but by no means requires it every day anymore!), she eats small meals throughout the day rather than 1-3 huge meals, she drinks green tea/detox tea everyday, she feels leaner, less bloated, craves less crappy food and reaches for fresh food (ex. before: tostidos and hummus/ now: carrots and hummus), AND has a green smoothie every day! The author says, it’s a lifestyle change, not a quick fix, and boy is she right! Nina didn’t realize how much junk she was putting in her body – but now understands better what clean eating is.
What does she eat while on the cleanse beyond the smoothie? And to maintain, what does she eat since I’m also a vegetarian
Yay ?
That’s awesome!! How did your mom make out with the modified diet!
Thanks! She stuck to it for a day or two, however, her lifestyle didn’t help. She found it hard to survive on mostly juice, so she did the best she could.