21 Day Detox Cleanse: Week 3

by Liz Hurley on April 23, 2013

Cleanse Blog Week 3 – Becoming Powerful.

Week 3 of the cleanse was a breeze. I kicked up my workouts a notch because I heard sometimes in the third week people hit a little bit of a plateau in terms of weight loss.  I had my routine down and it really flew by.  I was actually even enjoying it, I resisted peer pressure to drink wine with dinner, and said pass to dessert, I just kept thinking “7…6..5..more days.”  I met with Cara to talk about what to do after the cleanse, and how to add back certain foods to figure out what had been upsetting my stomach before I started the cleanse.  It turned out, when I was done on Friday the only thing I added back was almond milk, my morning smoothie was creamy and delicious.  I stopped drinking 3 shakes a day but otherwise kept my diet the same.  That weekend I also added back eggs, I baked them (recipe to come in a future blog).  It was Easter weekend so two days after finishing the cleanse my family went to Easter brunch at the Angus Barn.  I had BLACK decaf coffee it tasted heavenly.  My lunch was rather healthy…I knew that there was dark chocolate waiting for me at home so I refrained from eating any chocolate chess pie (that was a first for me at Angus Barn).  Since then I have slowly added back a lot of coconut and almond products, I am pretty sure that dairy was upsetting my stomach so I wanted to avoid it as long as possible.

 

The Results: Post cleanse I felt amazing, much more awake, so much more energy much less bloated.  I had Nestor measure my body fat using skin fold calipers and measure my circumferences pre cleanse and post to figure out what changes occurred with very little exercise and the cleanse diet.  Here are the numbers:

I lost -3% body fat March 5th and March 29th and 11 pounds.

Circumferences:
Bicep: -0.25in

Waist: -0.25in

Hips: -0.75in

Thigh: -0.5in

 

My main goal with doing the cleanse was to feel better, but these were nice side effects as well!  I know this post was short and sweet but I will be posting some of my favorite recipes soon! I just wanted to finally share the results with you all.

21 Day Detox Cleanse

by Liz Hurley on April 8, 2013

Liz Hurley Style – Week 2: 

To kick off week 2 of my cleanse experience I was going out of town.  Yikes. My younger sister was running her first half marathon in Virginia Beach, and for the first time I was going to be on the cheering squad at a race (mixed feelings about this, I would always rather be running).  I brought plenty of Cara’s soups –  our hotel room was going to have a mini kitchen (this is vital for the 3 smoothies/day and Maddy’s pre-half marathon pancakes).  I am wishing now I had taken a picture of my bags for this 2 day trip so you could see how ridiculously prepared I was.  My motto (excuse) was “failing to plan is planning to fail.”  I brought 4 bags –

1)      My rather large duffel full of clothes

2)      A tote full of apples, spinach, oranges, bananas, cleanse supplies, measuring cup, and my Ninja (yes I really brought my blender, and it was huge, and heavy).

3)      A cooler with my soups, flax oil, carrots, frozen fruits

4)      Purse

Don’t be scared to travel with me, I am normally NOT a heavy packer.  But when I’m with my family and on the cleanse my true colors come out.  I am comfortable with them harassing me about my planning and obsession to succeed on the cleanse.  During this trip I snacked on apples and carrots between meals, made my 3 shakes a day, got up both mornings and went to the hotel gym (one morning at 4:45am before my sister’s race…I need to make sure I get credit for that).  We did a lot of walking around, exploring, and shopping (one of my favorite past times if I cannot eat, I shop to preoccupy myself).  We went to a restaurant called Leaping Lizard Café,  we saw it on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives .  It is all local, organic, no nonsense, vegan friendly aka totally cleanse approved.  I had my first piece of meat there, it was flounder, and it was delicious – see the picture below.  At this stage, unfortunately I was still wishing I could eat the giant chocolate chip cookies my mom and sister got for dessert…I was a little bitter.  We also found an amazing restaurant for dinner where I had Salmon cooked Grecian style (olive oil, lemon juice etc) and half a sweet potato and a salad with oil and vinegar.  On the way home Sunday we stopped at a Whole Foods. (I would’ve been a lost cause on this cleanse without my iPhone to help me scope out cleanse friendly restaurants).  When I was in a pinch for time the Whole Foods hot/cold bars were an amazing way to get some on the go cleanse approved foods.

My amazing first piece of meat/fish on the cleanse

My amazing first piece of meat/fish on the cleanse

Also – during week 2 I discovered I could drink hot tea.  This was monumental – the Starbucks employees didn’t have to miss me anymore! For the last 14 days of the cleanse I drank red, decaf tea.  My favorite was the vanilla rooibos tea from Starbucks.  Kale chips, apples, and tea definitely kept me going on the cleanse…these were my staple snacks that I looked forward to eating every day.  The grouchiness was gone during week 2, I had lost 4-6 pounds and my jeans were fitting loose so I was PUMPED! After our vacation I was so proud that I had survived it that I knew I could do anything.  I added back some chicken and salmon, but not much during the rest of the week.  I had baked chicken a few nights that week (recipe to come!).

The last monumental thing about week 2 was that people kept telling me my skin was glowing and I looked great  (this is always motivational and reassuring that you are on the right path.)  As Cara had promised my face was finally clearing up and I was FULL of energy.  I think that about sums up all the monumental happenings in week 2 of my cleanse.  Stay tuned later this week for my summary of the cleanse and round up of my results!

Nestor’s Power Smoothie

by Liz Hurley on April 4, 2013

Nestor’s Morning Power Smoothie (Serves 2):

Picture of Nestor's Power Smoothie Ingredients

Blend. Serve. Dominate.

1 cup vanilla soy milk (or almond milk)
1 cup plain low-/non-fat yogurt
1 banana
1 cup frozen mixed fruit (your choice; I like Dole fruit medley with peaches, pineapple, strawberries, mango, and grapes)
1/2 cup fruit juice (your choice; I like mango/passion fruit)
2 scoops vanilla soy protein powder (can use whey if you prefer)
2 tbsp ground flax seed
Blend. Serve. Dominate.
Comment below and let us know if you try Nestor’s Morning Power Smoothie!

Brandi’s Granola Recipe

by Liz Hurley on April 3, 2013

Here is our Massage Director, Brandi’s favorite breakfast, the recipe for her homemade granola is below.  Here’s what Brandi has to say about this delicious looking breakfast:

“I workout in the morning before breakfast and almost every morning I eat a bowl of granola with milk, 2 eggs with feta cheese and spinach and fruit.  It keeps me full until lunch.”

 Picture of Brandi's breakfast of granola, milk, fruit, and eggs with feta cheese and spinach

Brandi’s Granola:

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup of raw almonds

1 cup of raw cashews

¾ cup of raw sunflower seeds

¾ cup of sweetened or unsweetened coconut

¼ cup or slightly less brown sugar

¼ cup of maple syrup

¼ cup of sesame oil

1 cup of raisins

½ cup of mini chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, seeds, coconut, and brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup and oil. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and chocolate chips mix until evenly distributed.

 

ENJOY – Comment below and let us know if you try it!

21 Day Detox Cleanse:

by Liz Hurley on March 27, 2013

Liz Hurley Style – Week 1:

For those of you that do not know me…my name is Liz Hurley, I am the group fitness coordinator and a personal trainer at EMPOWER.  This is my summary of Week 1 on “The Cleanse.”  If you are unfamiliar with it- the cleanse is a 21 day liver detox our nutritionists here at EMPOWER can help you do.  The cleanse is a great way to jump start a weight loss program, get back on track with a healthy diet, or just generally help you to feel better.  Now, I know your first thought upon hearing the word “cleanse” is – you starve yourself and only drink shakes for days.  This cleanse is not like that at all, I was actually surprised during my initial meeting with Cara (one of our nutritionists) about how much I COULD eat.  You do eat vegan the first seven days, and then you can reintroduce chicken and fish.

Here is some pre- cleanse background, and I will not lie to you here.  The Thursday night before starting the cleanse I may or may not have taught Bootcamp to Beer, had a delicious oatmeal- coffee flavored beer and sweet potato chips at Doolin’s.  Also, I may or may not  have eaten: 3 vegan chocolate chip cookies from Whole Foods, Tutti Frutti fro yo, and a vegetable plate from Rick’s Diner down the street.  My motto for Thursday night being, “YOLO” (you only live once), and who knows…I may never have a cookie again after the cleanse! (doubtful)  Another disclaimer – I am a coffee feign. I drink between 8-10 cups of coffee DAILY.  I love it, the smell, the ritual, the taste, everything.  My motto is (was, pre-cleanse) “coffee is the lifeblood that fuels the dreams of champions.” This is a quote from my favorite Will Ferrell movie of all time – Kicking and Screaming.  However, I did not tell Cara about this coffee addiction prior to starting the cleanse.  The booklet says no caffeine, so I was going cold turkey.  (Sometimes you can have green tea during the cleanse to help with this but I wanted to do the cleanse 150%, no cheats).  I was in a haze….Friday…and Saturday…and Sunday.  My head hurt so bad I felt sick and EXHAUSTED.  Even into days 4-7 I would get a caffeine headache now and then.  This was by far the hardest part of week 1 for me, just surviving as my coworkers, family and friends drank coffee around me.   Just because I knew how terrible this would be, I started the cleanse on a Friday to spare the EMPOWER community from the inevitable grouchiness due to lack of caffeine.  You are welcome.

Now, enough about my coffee addiction, here is the stuff you want to know.  I embarked on this cleanse journey for a few reasons.  Number one – I stepped on the scale in February (for the first time in months) and saw numbers I have never seen before in my 21 years.  Number two- I have managed to hurt my right hip and I am not able to exercise at the intensity I am used to. So, if I am not going to exercise I figured I might as well do something that made me feel good.  During the cleanse sometimes you do have to adjust your exercise intensity, because you are not eating to support intense exercise.  And finally number three- I generally did not feel well.  I frequently had stomach aches, I stressed my way through my 3 and half years at UNC-CH.  I did not have energy without coffee, and 8+ hours of sleep.  So that was it, I woke up one day and I told Cara, lets meet, I am starting the cleanse Friday.  When I do something, I do it 100%.  I was ready focused and I was going to rock this cleanse.  If you talked to me in the first 3 days, I was not really about that attitude.  But by Sunday night (the end of day 3), I had discovered a salad dressing I was obsessed with (I adapted it from the cleanse booklet), and kale chips…it was on.  I LOVE kale chips, I ate them every day as a snack (see my recipe on our Pinterest and Facebook pages).  And, once I was back at work Monday, days 4-7 flew by. I had a routine, I prepared (that is KEY) and I was distracted by my day to day routine.  If you ask my family, I was less than pleasant to be around these first few days, I think being grouchy is a side effect of the first few days of anyone’s cleanse journey.  Surround yourself with people who will love you even if you say you might beat them up to take the oatmeal they are eating!

A little bit of motivation: the first week is the hardest, but I promise (and you will see in my blog posts to come) it gets SO much better! My advice for week one: have a meal plan for the week, and purchase everything you need to stick to that plan.  If you work outside of your home, make sure to pack more food than you think you might need – so when you are hungry you are not tempted by any treats at the office or eating out.  Do NOT starve yourself, eat when you are hungry and do not eat when you are not.  The first few days are all about experimenting and finding a groove (aka your favorite smoothie recipes and a good salad).  Take care of yourself, I hung out with family, caught up with friends, went for walks, knitted (yes…I love to knit), shopped, cleaned, and slept TONS.  And stay tuned in my next few blog posts:  I will break down my diet staples (favorite smoothies and recipes) AND give you the low down on weeks 2 and 3.

 

 

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