It’s still a work in progress, but heylovedc.com is now live and officially migrated over to a self-hosted blog on Wordpress! Maybe just don’t click on any links in any posts until I have updated them all :)
Update your bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc.
This tumblr page will still exist but it will no longer be updated.
I decided to finally bite the bullet and purchase heylovedc.com! Over the next week I will not only be changing addresses but also changing platforms! I’m happy to report I will be over on Wordpress so I can have more creative control with this blog. I am hoping to bring more fun content as well. Stay tuned! :)
Man, Pitbull always makes me want to dance!
Sorry for the break in the series - this girl needed to take a trip away!
Photo from my Instagram
So when we last spoke I decided to just power through Day 3. I have all the goods, I paid all this money, why not see it through the end, right?
Day 3 went swimmingly. I didn’t have any issues like I did in Day 2 and I stayed on track. I didn’t even have a cheat meal. Go me!!
It felt really great to have drank that final green juice then finish the cleanse off a few hours later with the yummy cashew milk.
For the post-cleanse I decided to modify what BPC recommended. I made a salad with avocado and lemon as the “dressing” and I packed a ton of carrot sticks, cucumber slices, apple slices, and fresh mango for the road. The email confirmation said our hotel has a refrigerator so I packed a lot.
Photo From my Instagram
Eating went really well. I had a mason jar meal in the car and I munched on the fresh produce. Unfortunately, our room was missing the fridge!! So while I was able to borrow a friend’s fridge for the trip, we didn’t move the food until it had already gotten warm so I was paranoid they were spoiled. What a bummer.
For my first meal that night, unfortunately we went to a Mexican restaurant out in the country so the options were very limited. The safest bet was a grilled shrimp salad over a bed of lettuce and green bell pepper strips. And you know what? It was tasty! So plain but so yummy. I had never been so excited to eat something so plain. I also happened to have a couple glasses of sangria and in the end I was fine. No crazy bathroom stories to share, no feeling sick to my stomach. I think preparing myself all day eating fresh fruit and vegetables really helped out. Let me tell you though, resisting all the chips and salsa was really hard!
The rest of the weekend I tried to eat a lot of salad so by Saturday night’s wedding I was prepared for whatever was offered. There may or may not have been moonshine served at this wedding.
In the end I am glad I did BPC because it really helped me feel good about myself and jump start a healthy lifestyle again. However I wish I had read all the before and after prep that is involved because had I known about everything you have to do after the cleanse, I probably would have picked this current week instead. While I did pretty great at eating well during my trip, I knew there was no way I could exclude alcohol given where we were going.
Would I do this again? Totally. Would I do more than 3 days? Heck no. I think 3 days is plenty and even one day of cleansing makes you feel great. Next time I may try doing it with what Whole Foods has - the only difference is the green juice is not the same. It would be a lot cheaper since I don’t have to pay for shipping and I can just do it on a whim.
I’m also really happy that my experience has inspired several friends to try this whether it’ll just be for a day, all three, or even more. I think the fact that I had such a positive experience helped. The last time I did a “flush” it left me irritable, hungry, and fatigued. I think at one point I thought I was going to pass out while shopping. Shopping! That is not exactly a physical sport. But BPC kept me energized, focused, feeling lighter, and feeling good.
Would you try BluePrintCleanse?
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Please note this experience was purely my decision. I was not sponsored by BPC or anyone and I paid for everything myself. These posts have just been a (very wordy) recap of my experience.
Photo from My Instagram Feed
So if you read my last, very long, post, you already saw the excitement I woke up to on Day 2 - I lost 3 pounds! I totally was not expecting to see anything like that so soon not to mention I’ve never seen my scale budge so much! I wouldn’t be surprised if I gained that back once I go back on solid foods but it was nice to see something different.
So I was feeling good Wednesday morning. No headaches, I had energy, I slept GREAT. The first half of the day went just as well as Day 1.
And then I tortured myself. By looking at photos of food. I had convinced myself that I was just going to do 2 days and spread the 3rd day’s juices throughout the weekend as a supplement (see last post about my concerns about my weekend away). So I started looking up clean and raw recipes. Bad idea. Also take note: avoid social networks when doing the cleanse. The photos your friends post will kill you.
I also keep having mixed feelings about the green juice. Most instances I’m so over it. Having to drink it three times in a day is just boring and repetitive. I even started chugging it just to get through it faster. Then in some instances (usually the first few sips) I’m thinking “this is good, mmmm!” I’ll tell you one thing, if you can develop a taste for this juice you can also stand to survive eating a lot of bland things.
The rest of the day went all right - switching between fake hunger and wanting to give up. Thankfully a few encouraging words from friends motivated me to keep going on the third day. At least for half of the day, then maybe I could ration the rest throughout the weekend. By the evening I was convinced I was done so I let myself indulge in a quarter of an avocado - totally allowable on the “cheat” list. Except I ate four quarters of an avocado. Heh.
I sure paid for it because the rest of the evening I was gassy and I woke up this morning (Thursday) with a headache. Oof.
This morning I decided to continue with the third day of the cleanse thanks to motivations from a couple of my besties and my man. I spent all this money on it, why not? Plus I head out of town tomorrow and I already have a day’s worth of “meals” so no need to visit the grocery store.
So for those of you who are curious about how to break the cleanse and why I’m struggling with it with my out of town trip, here’s what BCP suggests:
Day 1 – A few pieces of fruit spread out through the day, or some fresh squeezed non-pasteurized juice (green/citrus/fruit). If you wish to drink some freshly squeezed juice, be sure to dilute it with some water.
Day 2 - Raw or lightly steamed vegetables, e.g. spinach, broccoli, try to avoid the more starchy veggies like carrots, beets, squash etc. You may also have a raw green leafy salad with some vegetables.
Day 3 – Green salads should be your staple at this point. If you’re craving some more sustenance, you may choose plain brown rice (a small portion), or a yam or sweet potato.
Day 4 – If you eat meat, you may incorporate some now - lightly steamed or poached fish, with veggies and a salad of course!
Day 5 – Other more “dense” foods are now able to gradually make a come back to your diet.
I’m going to modify it and just eat fresh fruit and vegetables all day tomorrow (on the road) then whatever we end up doing for dinner I’ll just try and eat as clean as possible (maybe a soup and side of veggies if that is an option). Then the rest of the weekend just keep munching on those fruits and veggies (thank goodness the hotel has a fridge!) and choose as wisely as possible. I don’t know what my meal is at the wedding and I can say for certain there will be drinking, so I really hope my body decides to cooperate and doesn’t rebel a strike against me!
To be honest I could probably have one drink and be crunk, haha.
Day 3 and post-cleansing posts may be delayed as I head out of town Friday morning. Have a great weekend!
(My Instagram Photo on Day 1)
I was tired. I was lazy an unmotivated. I was too busy to cook a meal or even think about what to eat. So then that bad cycle happens where you pick up something convenient, generally somewhat in the bad-for-you category, which then made me more sluggish, which gave me absolutely no motivation to go to the gym, and the cycle just repeats into this downward spiral of laziness and sluggishness.
I had enough. Last week I randomly picked up a couple bottles of BluePrintJuice from Whole Foods to try for “breakfast” and was pleased at the taste and how good it made me feel afterwards. After reading more about BluePrintJuice then finding out about BluePrintClease, or BPC, and coincidentally just having got paid a “bonus” paycheck (got paid 3 times this month!) I decided to fork over the money and give it a shot. I knew I had a weekend of binge drinking and snacking ahead of me since it involved two exciting bridal festivities so I thought starting Monday I am going to get on track!
These were my goals:
Why I Chose BPC:
So on a whim I inputted all my credit card and shipping information. I chose 3 days of the Foundation Cleanse, which is the “average” level of their 3 levels. They offer descriptions of each to help you choose. Each day consists of 6 juices which you drink in number order and run about $10-11 a pop, so imagine spending $65 per day, then next day shipping. In the end I spent $225 for 3 days for juice.
You can pick your jaw up from the floor. Yes, I know, it’s expensive, but I felt like it would be worth it. The juices are made on a hydraulic cold press, all organic, raw, vegan, etc, and they deliver it right to your front door. Apparently I’m eating about 20 pounds of fruit and veggies each day. And again, I was feeling rich that day, haha!
Since they make their juices fresh and ship it out next day, you could only start on a Tuesday so that gave me one day to prepare for the cleanse. Had I done proper research, I would have seen that I need about 3 days to prepare. Oops. They advise this so that on the first day your body doesn’t rebel against you. They also advise not making your “last meal” anything overindulgent (steak and martini dinner) or your body will really hate you. I prepared by eating as light and clean as possible. I didn’t eat as raw as they advised but in the end I was fine.
Tuesday morning came and I patiently waited for my juice which was promised to arrive by 10:30 a.m. I sipped on warm lemon water, as advised, until they came. Boy, was I getting hungry. When the driver arrived I got a nice heavy box full of cold juice. They even gave me a cooler bag which was a nice perk as I didn’t order one! It’s a nice insulated bag so you can tote your juices around.
I promptly took everything out of the box and into the fridge, took note of the little cards that were included (one that advised everything is organic and one little card that showed you what you could “cheat” with. Good to know!
So this is how the rest of my day went (I also sipped water in between):
11:00 a.m. - Juice 1: Green. I had heard this was pretty nasty to some people and loved by others. My thoughts? Yum! I think 2 years of drinking green monster smoothies has trained me to enjoy drinking leafy things, however I could distinctly taste the celery and I DO NOT LIKE CELERY. I also drank all my drinks through a straw to make it more enjoyable. I heard drinking it over ice will also help.
1:00 pm - Juice 2: Pineapple, Apple, Mint (or P.A.M.). I actually had this before when I tried it from Whole Foods. It’s pretty tasty! The mint is very light but just enough to give the drink a little pep.
3:00 pm - Juice 3: Green. By now I’m surprised at how not hungry I am leading up to this point, but I knew I had to drink my juice since I got a late start to the day. I’m also over the green drink. Blah.
5:00 pm - Juice 4: Spicy Lemonade. Most people would say this is like the “Master Cleanse Lemonade” and personally I’ve never had it, but this was good! Don’t expect it to taste like lemonade, it’s more like lemon water with a kick. At this point in the day I knew I wanted to go to the gym but I knew I needed to drink the juice on time, so I just took it with me. The website claims this drink is energizing so I thought it was perfect. I may or may not have choked on the cayenne while trying to chug it on the elliptical, haha.
7:00 pm - Juice 5: Green. By now I’m just chugging this thing because I’m so tired of drinking it. I also had a really hard time in the evening because my body was craving food mostly out of habit. I wanted to chew on something while watching TV and I couldn’t have that. The next 2 days I have plans so that will help with boredom. Just make sure you have a crafty project or something if you get bored and are tempted to graze.
7:30 pm - “Cheat.” I wanted to get the green taste out of my mouth so I had a cup of warm, low-sodium vegetable broth, which is allowed. It wasn’t tasty but it was nice to drink something that was neutral tasting.
8:30 pm - Juice 6: Cashew Milk. The final drink of the day! This was really a nice and sweet treat after a day of juicing. The Cashew Milk juice tastes just like a milkshake but with a thinner consistency. It is a little gritty and the bottom has a lot of the extra “cashew meat” clumped up, so just keep shaking it up as you drink.
By 10:30 I was ready to pass out. I was surprised how easy everything went. The numbered juices keeps you from having to think about what you’re supposed to have. I didn’t get as hungry as I thought I would, and I peed maybe a million times. For anyone wondering about bathroom issues, I’m doing okay. I just have to pee a lot.
This is totally something you can do for a just a day because I feel fantastic!
The nice surprise this morning was that I hopped on the scale and saw I lost 3 pounds! I totally wasn’t expecting to see anything like that so soon, so that was a nice pick-me-up today.
Okay rambling time (feel free to skip, haha):
I’m contemplating just doing this for 2 days (Tuesday and Wednesday) because I’m headed out of town for a wedding on Friday and I have absolutely no idea what kinds of meals we’re having. I think it would be good to have Thursday to be my “break the cleanse” day (and just modify it from what BPC advises, which is 3 days of breaking), pack lots of raw fruit and veggies on Friday for the road, and eat as clean as possible while on the trip (I can already tell you it will be difficult to avoid alcohol). Then I’ll save the 3rd day of juices for Monday because they should still be good by then (no, I can’t freeze them). Or see if a willing friend can take it off my hands.
I just don’t want to finish up Thursday night then put my body into shock over the weekend. I feel like that one buffer day would really help.
See? This is why I should have read all the before and after prep before purchasing. It ends up being about a week of “cleansing.” If you’re going to spend a ton of money on something like this, you want to follow it as closely as possible, and I’m kicking myself for not being able to do as much of the before/after prep as they advise.
I know I’ve been MIA - but I loved this playlist so much that I had to jump on to share it. Enjoy!
I would like to think we did a thousand butt circles and booty pops this week in class.
Oops, a couple days late. Happy weekending!
Desnudate
Woohoo ft. Nicki Minaj
Dirrty ft. Redman
Not Myself Tonight
Welcome
Genie in a Bottle
Fighter
Can’t Hold Us Down ft. Li'l Kim
Candyman
Tell Me (Diddy)
Glam
Bobblehead
Bionic
Walk Away
Birds of Prey
