Crazy Sexy Juice Fasting!

I made it through the weekend (and this weekend included a juice fast)! And trust me — there were plenty of temptations all up in my face all weekend. But I did it! I've done this Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse and similar cleanses every January for years, but I'm constantly amazed by my own willpower. Or perhaps I'm just really stubborn, and when I say I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it just to prove myself. That's more likely. ;-)

On Friday and Saturday, I had pretty much the same things I've been eating all of last week, so I'll spare you the same pics again — Morning Glorious Juice, Warm Kale & Quinoa Salad, Asian Stir-Raw with Miso-Ginger Sauce, rice cakes with hummus, veggies and guacamole. I had a giant bowl of air-popped popcorn with nooch on Friday night as Paul and I watched a movie called Thanks for Sharing.

And I had a special treat on Saturday night. I took myself out to eat and ordered the healthiest thing on the menu at Imagine Vegan Cafe. They're not known for their healthy options because that's not why you go to Imagine. You go to Imagine for sinful vegan delights, like pizza, country fried "steak," and the most decadent vegan layer cakes. But I was strong, even as Greg ordered the special of day — Caribbean Jerk "Chicken" Sandwich and French Fries. I went with the Southern Staple — black beans, brown rice, collard greens, and a garlic sauce. It comes with sweet cornbread, but since this cleanse is gluten- and sugar-free, I gave that to Greg.

This was so good, and I even saved some for leftover dinner this coming week. But I have to admit that Greg's fries looks pretty awesome. I kept staring at them throughout the meal, as if I could will one into my mouth.

Later Saturday night, we went to my friend Shara's birthday party, and I didn't drink! Some years, when I do other cleanses, I factor in a cheat day for Shara's birthday, and I'll have a few glasses of wine. But Crazy Sexy Diet seems more strict to me, so I stuck with it. Granted, I was a little bored without any booze, and I certainly wouldn't want to make a habit of not drinking in social situations. But it's okay for a few weeks.

Sunday (today) was my weekly juice fast. It's an option on the Crazy Sexy Diet to juice-fast every Sunday. I planned to do one today and next Sunday. From the time I woke up at 10 a.m. to about 5 p.m., I ate no solids but just drank juices made from all this lovely produce.

I'm not gonna say it was easy. It was hard. Very hard. I had a busy day planned, and my tummy was growling at every event I went to, even though I sipped on juice ALL DAY. Juice just doesn't fill me up for long. I even resisted homemade vegan wontons and spring rolls at a party at Cassi's house this afternoon!

But as with the last time I did Crazy Sexy Diet, I opted to have a light dinner rather than fast all day. I made this Miso Broth with Zucchini Somen and Mushrooms from Crazy Sexy Diet. It was supposed to be a raw soup made with lukewarm water, but I took one bite and thought that was totally gross. Miso just shouldn't be cold. So I zapped the bowl in the microwave for a few minutes, and it was perfect.

I also had some Steamed Broccoli with Nooch on the side.

I was so damn hungry by the time I ate this stuff, so it was extra tasty. I'll be glad to go to bed tonight so I can wake up and eat three meals and snacks!

Crazy Sexy, Day 4

Day four on my 21-day Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse was all about leftovers! Buying enough produce for a week's worth of meals is no biggie, but add in the amount of produce for daily fresh juice and a Sunday juice fast (yep, that's coming up soon), and it can get very expensive. So I'm relying on leftovers to get me through this cleanse without breaking the bank.

On some days where I don't have new dishes to show you, I'll probably talk about other aspects of the cleanse — neti pots, dry brushing, meditation, etc. But tonight, it's late and I'm lazy. So I made a pic-stitch of all today's meals (all from Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Kitchen), even though you've seen different shots of them in my posts earlier this week.

The morning started off with my usual Morning Glorious green juice. And then I had the AJ's Power Smoothie (almond milk, raw almond butter, kale, cinnamon, strawberries, blueberries, and peaches) at my desk around 10 a.m.

Lunch was more Warm Kale & Quinoa Salad. And my afternoon snacks were Curried Cashews and a few mini sweet peppers. Dinner was another bowl of Lentil & Chard Ragout with Millet.

Yep, same stuff. Different day. But everything was just as delicious today! I did have a few boiled peanuts and a handful of stove-popped popcorn at my friend Shara's house this evening as we caught up on American Horror Story: Coven. Peanuts are not recommended on the cleanse because they're often sprayed with lots of pesticide (unless they're organic) and they're really acidic, but I'm not stressing over a few peanuts. Popcorn, however, is perfectly okay so long as it's not some gross microwave stuff.

And tomorrow, it's leftovers again. But I'm okay with that. I'll keep this post short tonight, but I''ll be back Sunday night with a weekend recap. I've got some fun stuff planned for the weekend!

Crazy Sexy Diet, Day 3

Another day gone by! Only 18 more days to go on my 21-day (mostly) sugar-free, (mostly) gluten-free, processed food-free, alcohol-free, coffee-free Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse.

This morning started off like the last two with a big glass of warm water with lemon, a cup of iced green tea, and a glass of Morning Glorious Juice (kale, romaine, green apple, broccoli stems, lemon, celery, and cucumber).

Mid-morning, I had Avo Toasts (avocado spread on sprouted grain bread with crushed red pepper, black pepper, lime juice, and sea salt) at my desk at work. Since I photographed these on Monday, I failed to do so today. I did remember to take a picture of this Organic Ambrosia Apple that I snacked on around 11 a.m. before my noon-time yoga class at Envision Memphis. I've been dividing the work day with lunch yoga every Wednesday or Thursday for some time, and it's just lovely.

You know, in case you didn't know what an apple looked like ...

Lunch, eaten at my desk after yoga class, was a new dish — Warm Kale & Quinoa Salad from Crazy Sexy Diet.

This was yummy and simple. When I read the recipe, I thought it'd have more kale and less quinoa. But that raw kale really shrinks up when it's tossed with the warm quinoa. There are also pine nuts and raisins tossed in, and it's seasoned with lemon, olive oil, salt, and pepper. It's still pretty cold outside (thanks a lot, Polar Vortex), so it was nice to have a warm salad for lunch.

Around 3 p.m., I wanted to drink something toasty. But coffee is out of the question on this cleanse. Lucky for me, I had a sample bag of Hazelnut Teecino on my desk. LOVE THIS STUFF! It's an herbal coffee alternative that's caffeine-free. It's soooooo much better than tea. I just don't love hot tea. But this was thick and bold and slightly bitter like coffee. Yum.

Dinner was another serving of the Asian Stir-Raw with Miso-Ginger Sauce (raw veggies tossed with a spicy miso sauce and served on a bed of spiralized zucchini noodles. You can see a picture in Monday's post, but I thought you might wanna see my spiralizer in action.

I rarely use this thing, but I'm so glad I have it. Before I bought one, I used a veggie peeler to make raw "fettucine" noodles from zucchini, but it's just not the same.

Crazy Sexy Diet, Day Two

I made it through a whole day on the Crazy Sexy Diet! And it wasn't even hard. I love how these whole foods cleanses just feel so natural and clean. Today, day two, went very smoothly too! It started with another glass of Morning Glorious Juice (kale, romaine, green apple, broccoli stems, lemon, celery, and cucumber), sipped at the breakfast table while I read the local and national headlines online.

Mid-morning, while editing stories at my desk, I went to the breakroom fridge to grab the AJ's Power Smoothie from Crazy Sexy Kitchen that I'd made before leaving for work.

This is supposed to be a green smoothie, but it's more blue-green. That's probably because it has blueberries, strawberries, peaches (subbed for the mango in the recipe since I just happened to have frozen peaches that needed using), almond milk, raw almond butter, and kale. It wasn't as sweet as I'm used to with my stevia-sweetened Vega smoothies. But that was okay. The lack of sweetness really brought out the flavor of the raw almond butter.

Lunch was another Chopped Salad from Crazy Sexy Kitchen (romaine, chickpeas, sunflower and sesame seeds, and flax oil & vinegar). I probably won't show pictures of the same things over and over, but there will be a ton of leftovers on this cleanse. That's the only way I can afford to do it!

I decided to go to a Bikram Yoga class in the afternoon. I have an unlimited month of classes that ends on January 10th, and I really can't afford to sign up for a full membership right now. So I wanted to squeeze in one more yoga class in a 105-degree room! Honestly, it's so cold outside that I welcomed that intense heat for the hour-and-a-half class.

Before class, I snacked on a date and some Curried Cashews from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. 

These were awesome! They're soaked cashews tossed with curry powder, onion powder, coconut sugar (a low-glycemic sweetener, so I'm allowing that on this no-sugar cleanse) and cayenne and then dehydrated for about six hours.

Dinner was a new dish — Lentil & Chard Ragout Over Millet. 

The lentil dish is from Crazy Sexy Kitchen, and I opted to serve it with millet. Lentils are simmered with onion, Swiss chard, peas, garlic, nutritional yeast, and fresh parsley. I topped my bowl with home-grown sprouts. It was the first hot meal I've had in days, and I welcomed it on this cold night.

Now, Crazy Sexy Diet is a no-sugar cleanse. But Kris Carr does say a little nibble of a good quality dark chocolate from time to time is okay. And after burning more than 400 calories in Bikram, I felt like I deserved a little treat. And the more and more I thought about that, the more I couldn't stop thinking about chocolate. So I broke down and had a small square (about an eighth of the bar) of this Chuao Orange-a-Go-Go bar that Kristina at Spabettie mailed me a few weeks ago. It has orange and bergamot! So decadent!

I won't be eating chocolate everyday, but I also don't want to feel the deprivation I've felt on this cleanse in the past when I was super-strict and militant about everything. A tiny taste every now then over the next few weeks is okay by me. I think that will prevent me from totally relapsing in the end and stuffing my face with five cupcakes in one night (yea, that happened the first time I tried CSD).

Crazy Sexy Diet Kick-Off!

Today was the first day of my 21-day Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse. Each January, I do some sort of cleanse to reset my system and get my healthy eating habits back on track after the holidays. This time, I'd also like to lose six pounds that I've packed on in the months that I've been recovering from the world's stupidest stress fracture.

It's not my first Crazy Sexy rodeo. I've done this cleanse twice before, once back in the old Adventure Cleanse Tune-Up days (2010) and another time after Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet book came out (2012). Basically, the goal is to eat a mostly alkaline diet filled with raw and cooked whole, plant foods. There's no sugar, no booze, no processed food, no coffee (but a little tea and a tad bit of chocolate are okay), and for the most part, no gluten (though I am allowing myself to have sprouted grain bread this time around). Oh, and there's lots and lots of green juice!

I started my morning with yoga, a daily meditation, and a big ole glass of Morning Glorious Juice from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. I made this juice of cucumber, kale, lemon, celery, green apple, romaine, and broccoli stems in my new Breville juice fountain that my parents gave me for Christmas! Thanks mama and daddy!

In her book, Crazy Sexy Diet, Kris Carr suggests only drinking juice until noon if you can stand it. But I need to be creative at my job as soon as I get there, especially on deadline day Mondays, so starving is out of the question. But I will be drinking juice at home before work and having my small breakfasts at my desk as a mid-morning snack. This morning, I had Avo Toasts — avocado, crushed red pepper, black pepper, and sea salt on Ezekial bread.

Lunch was the Chopped Salad from Crazy Sexy Kitchen — a simple and very satisfying salad of chickpeas, romaine hearts, sunflower and sesame seeds, and a dressing of flax oil and balsamic vinegar. Throughout this cleanse, I'll be making all of my meals from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. Last go round, I used the recipes in the back of Crazy Sexy Diet (Kris Carr's book all about this cleanse), but I think I tried nearly everything in that small sampling of recipes. So I ordered Crazy Sexy Kitchen (Kris Carr's cookbook, a supplement to Crazy Sexy Diet) just for this cleanse.

I'll be packing afternoon snacks to enjoy at work as well. Today I had a Lundberg Brown Rice Cake with Cedar's Roasted Garlic and Chive Hummus and some raw mini peppers and carrots.

That held me over until my massive and delicious dinner — Asian Stir-Raw with Miso-Ginger Sauce Over Zucchini Noodles.

This was a totally raw "stir-fry" in which broccoli, red pepper, sprouts (that I grew myself!), cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, snow peas, and carrots are tossed in a sauce made with fresh ginger, miso, sesame oil, and hot peppers (I used habanero to make it extra spicy).

I picked the coldest day on record (10 degrees in Memphis! It isn't supposed to do that in the South!) to eat a mostly raw (and cold!) diet. But fortunately, the spicy peppers in my stir-raw made me sweat.

I'm feeling great so far! I just had a lovely glass of kombucha for a night-cap, and I'm ready to do it all over tomorrow.

Kaeng Raeng Goes Soy-Free

A few months ago, I posted a review of the three-day Kaeng Raeng vegan smoothie detox. But that was their non-gmo soy-containing cleanse. Now Kaeng Raeng has released a new soy-free formula for those sensitive to soy. The new Kaeng Raeng smoothies are made with pea protein. The folks over there asked me if I'd try the new formula, and although a 3-day smoothie cleanse to tough for me (as evidenced by my last go-round), I agreed.

In the beginner pack, you get nine packets of vegan protein powders made with real, freeze-dried fruit. That's three smoothies per day— one for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can blend the smoothies with plain ole water or un-beef them up with fruit juice, plant milk, and frozen fruit. Each packet has 15 grams of pea protein, vitamins, probiotics, and around 200 calories.

I'm starting my 21-day Crazy Sexy Diet on Monday, so I decided to pre-cleanse with Kaeng Raeng this past weekend. Beginning on Friday, I mixed up a Daybreak Smoothie for breakfast using the powder packet, frozen peaches, half a banana, and almond-coconut milk.

Taste-wise, I couldn't tell a lick of difference between these soy-free smoothies and soy-containing ones that I tried back in April. Daybreak is naturally flavored with mango, peach, and pineapple, and it tastes a bit like a mango creamsicle.

For lunch, I whipped up the Joyful Smoothie (strawberry, raspberry, pineapple) with frozen strawberries, half a banana, and kombucha. This one is probably my favorite. Love the tart berry flavor.

Dinner was an Into the Blue Smoothie (blueberries, banana) mixed with almond-coconut milk, frozen blueberries, and half a banana. I like this one as well, but tastewise, it's probably my least fave, which is weird because blueberry is usually my favorite flavor. It's still delicious, just not as good as the Joyful or Daybreak smoothies.

Each of these smoothies are very filling. I could drink one and be full for at least two hours afterward, which for a smoothie, is really saying something. However, I must chew to be happy. Thankfully, you can have all the raw fruits and veggies you want on the Kaeng Raeng cleanse. I stayed away from fruits since I was drinking fruit in my smoothies. But I did eat lots of raw veggie snacks this weekend. Here's a sampling — jicama, mango, & cucumber fries with chili-lime salt, raw carrots, mini peppers, and cherry tomatoes, homemade kale chips, and salads with olive oil and vinegar dressing.

It's Sunday now, and I have one Into the Blue smoothie left for dinner before Kaeng Raeng ends and Crazy Sexy Diet begins. And I have to say, I'm feeling pretty good. I am ready for hot foods, like brown rice and tofu and beans (allowed on Crazy Sexy Diet), but it was nice to get a little pre-cleansing in with just fruits and veggies for a few days. I'm certainly feeling much cleaner that I did when I started the cleanse Friday morning.

My only complaint with Kaeng Raeng would be the lack of variety. You have the same three smoothie flavors for all three days. By the third day, I'm a little tired of the same thing. I'd love it if there were nine flavors, a new one for each meal on the cleanse.

Anyway, if you want to try the new soy-free formula, the folks at Kaeng Raeng are offering a 15 percent off discount when you purchase a pack using the discount code CRUNK15 between January 5th and 12th!

Meatless Select Vegan Meats

Tomorrow, I embark on the 3-day Kaeng Raeng smoothie detox, followed by a 21-day Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse. So that means no processed food for awhile. As much as I love vegan meats, they simply don't fall into the rules of my mostly raw, alkaline, whole foods detox plan for January. But don't worry, I'll be adding my plant meats back in moderation after the cleanse.

Until then, I'll be dreaming of the day I can eat Meatless Select again. They sent me a few cans of their plant meats to review, and another can — of their chili — came in my December Vegan Cuts box. So here's a little rundown of what I've tried.

The Meatless Select Five Bean Vegetarian Chili (and these tasty Beanitos chips) were in the Vegan Cuts box.

I love homemade chili, but honestly, every chili recipe I've ever made has made WAY too much for little ole me. Leftovers for days! This canned chili solves that problem. There are one to two servings in a can, and it's perfectly seasoned. It reminded me of the canned chili I grew up eating on hot dogs. Yum!

Meatless Select mailed me their Fishless Tuna and Vegetarian Taco Filling (which is actually vegan).

I couldn't wait to crack open the taco filling. These are tiny cans with only two small servings per can, perfect for a single eater like me (yes, I have a partner, but we don't share meals very often). The only problem? I didn't want to buy a whole package of taco shells for two tacos. But luckily, I had tortilla chips in my pantry. Nachos!! The meat is seasoned well, almost like the hamburger meat my mom used to season with those handy taco seasoning packets back in the day.

Now, the tuna I wasn't sure about. I've never really liked tuna or any kind of fish for that matter. But for the sake of review, I had to try a Fishless Tuna Sandwich.

I mixed the canned "tuna" with Vegenaise, pickle relish, celery, and lemon juice. And then I piled it onto toasted sprouted grain bread.

The result? Pretty tasty for tuna. Since I'm not a tuna fan, I wouldn't run out and buy this stuff. But it wasn't overly fishy like I thought it'd be. There was a slight fishy flavor, one that I'm certain any tuna lover would be pleased with.

Well, wish me luck, y'all. I'll check in on Sunday with a review of Kaeng Raeng's new soy-free detox before I make the big leap into Crazy Sexy Diet land.