Dr. Joshi Detox Day 18

wow!  Day 18!

Breakfast:
the usual.  One thing I started doing is mixing a little almond milk in my yogurt, which gives it a lighter consistency that i like.

Lunch:
Went out to lunch w/ hubby and had an omelet with chicken, spinach and feta.  Held the potatoes!

Snack:  Brown Rice Rice Cake and Almond Butter

Dinner:  I made Heidi Swanson's Kale Market Salad for the 2nd time tonight.  I feel like you need to make recipes twice before determining if they are keepers or not....so i tried it again, and Im glad i did.

This time i was better at using the mandolin so i got my fennel and carrots really thin.  I also used Dino Kale - and this Kale def worked better than the kind I used before....and my avocado was perfectly ripe this time, so that worked better as well.
Loved it this time around, where as before i felt so so about it.

That's it!

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 16 & 17

i didn't journal my food for 2 days but i did pretty good!  I was at work ...and the office was moving so we had no fridge and i had to order all of my food in.  Can be a little challenging, but i found some good options for each day.

just a recap of what i had...

the breakfasts were the usual.
for lunch & dinners i had chicken breast and broccoli soup from California Chicken Cafe, steamed veggies, brown rice and chicken satay w/ no sauce from a Thai food restaurant.  One day i picked up Whole Foods salad bar stuff and had that.  Another night i had breakfast for dinner!

Just a few days left...no more work...so i hope to make a few good new recipes in the next couple of days!

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 15

Breakfast:  The usual!

Lunch:  went to Whole foods and got a garbanzo bean and tofu soup.  Good thing about Whole Foods prepared foods is all the ingredients are listed, so i'm able to check if it's all good. 
Also had a tiny bit of broccoli and quinoa.

Snack:  Rice Cake & almond butter.  Brown Rice Cake of course.

Dinner:  Chicken breast, broccoli and quinoa w/ Braggs Liquid Aminos all mixed up in a bowl.

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 14

Breakfast:  Did the gluten free bread and almond butter. 

Lunch:  Big salad made of feta cheese, greens from the farmers market, avocado, red onion, grilled chicken, beets, and lemon juice and olive oil.

Snack:  Green Gobs Juice, banana

Dinner:  Leftovers.  Beets and greens, carrot and white bean salad, and a rice cake.

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 13

Breakfast:  Back to the usual!

Lunch:
Kind of a weird lunch - we ordered Korean at work, so it was a bit challenging.
i got a "Healthy Rice" they have on their menu that is brown rice, black rice and some beans.
I also got steamed asparagus and soft tofu.

Snack:
green juice
banana

Dinner:
brown rice salad from whole foods that has brown rice, tofu, kale and olive oil.
leftover carrot, dill and white bean salad.

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 12

Breakfast:  finally something different!
2 slices of gluten free bread (basically made of quinoa and millet)
almond butter

Lunch:
hard boiled egg and a banana
leftover carrot, dill and white bean salad

Dinner:
went to Umami Burger w/ friends.  Got the turkey burger w/ no cheese and no bun (just avocado and sprouts, and they wrapped it in butter leaf lettuce)
mixed greens on the side (no dressing)

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 11

Breakfast:
The usual, except i had a banana before spin class, and then the yogurt and banana + honey after!
that Sweat Shoppe spin class is hard work!

Lunch:
Heidi Swanson's Carrot, Dill & White Bean Salad.
Turned out delicious. This is my 2nd time making this salad, i think it's officially for the vault.

Dinner:
haven't eaten yet, but i will be out for the eve so I'll write it now!
I know I'm going to Terroni for dinner, which is going to be torture.  Delicious italian food.  I checked out the menu in advance, and they have a beet salad w/ goat cheese that I'm going to have. ugh.
I will have a little chicken breast and hummus before i head out to make sure i'm not too hungry.

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 10

Food Journal:

Breakfast:  The usual!

Lunch:
Thai Tofu and Mixed Veg Soup
Brown Rice

Snack:
Green juice:  carrots, wheatgrass, spinach and celery
holy alkaline!  spinach and celery are in the top 7 most alkaline foods.  I'm sure wheatgrass would be there if that was in a "food" list.

Dinner:
Arugula & Goat Cheese salad w/ 2 poached eggs on top.  Dressing - simple olive oil and lemon juice.
Roasted asparagus on the side.

Desert:
Lemon Zinger Tea
Brown Rice Cake w/ Almond Butter & Honey

Now that it's the weekend, i have to make some new recipes.  Tomorrow I'm making another Heidi Swanson recipe for lunch...and need to find another recipe for Sunday!

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 9

Breakfast: the usual

Lunch:
California Chicken Cafe - got a chicken breast, broccoli soup. and side of squash.

Snack:
Banana

Dinner:
West Hollywood Farmer's Market Tamale stand - gluten free and vegan.  fit the bill!  w/ a side of beans and cabbage salad.

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 8

i just counted how many different veggies I've had in the last week and it's 15!
cabbage
carrots
arugula
kale
beets
radish
celery
onion
spinach
wheatgrass
fennel
lettuce
garlic
and today...baby broccoli and cauliflower!
Wow!


Food Journal:

Breakfast:  the usual

Lunch:
pureed cauliflower (just steamed cauliflower in a blender w/ a bit of chicken broth)
brown rice
steamed baby broccoli

i haven't mentioned that I use Braggs Liquid Aminos as a soy sauce type replacement almost everyday. And def a few sprays on this lunch today to liven it up!

Snack:
Banana (after spin class)
veg juice w/ celery, spinach, wheatgrass and carrot

Dinner:
Salmon over arugula w/ crumbled goat cheese and lemon juice / olive oil dressing
more pureed cauliflower on the side

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 7

Breakfast:  the usual!

Lunch:
Chicken breast
Brown Rice
Sweet Potato Kale Bites (leftover)

Snack:
Carrots
Banana

Dinner:

2 small corn tortillas (they are gluten free!)
then i chopped up red onion and lettuce
heated up some leftover black beans from the sweet potato kale bites
chopped up a left over piece of chicken
and mixed up some yogurt & cumin, and assembled little tacos.

And - 1 week down!

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 6

Food Journal:

Breakfast:
lemon + hot water
greek yogurt + banana + honey

btw, i eat Trader Joe's Organic Non-Fat Greek Yogurt. They sell the small, one serving containers for $1.69/each.  The usual brands of Greek yogurt, like Fage & Chobani, aren't made organic.  Or if they are, I haven't seen them.

Lunch:

Lentil Soup
Chicken Kabob
Hummus

Today we had lunch brought in from Gaby's Mediterranean.  I ordered their lentil soup.  I called to make sure it was vegan...and it is.   It's just pureed lentils & spices.

I love pureed lentil soup, and want to try to make it at home.  I've been reading recipes for Red Lentil soup that look good...need to get an immersion blender first!

Snack:

leftover Lentil soup from lunch

Dinner:
Sweet Potato and Kale Bites
Yellowtail Sashimi (6 pieces) - ordered from Sushi restaurant (work was ordering!)
Miso Soup - same



Last night i found a recipe for these sweet potato and kale bites.  Turned out pretty good.  I didn't notice the recipe said to use a MINI muffin pan.  I used a regular, and my "bites" are pretty soft.  They hold their shape by like 25%.  So you should either use a mini muffin pan OR cook them for longer. 

My sister Micki cooks a lot, and has a recipe box that she adds really good recipes to.   Her husband refers to this as "the vault".  So when we cook a recipe that we love, we either say it's for the vault, or not for the vault.  Are these Sweet Potato bites for the vault?  I think i need to make them again before i can decide.

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 5

Food Journal:

Breakfast: 
Lemon + Hot Water
Greek Yogurt + Banana + Honey

Lunch:
Leftover salad from last night's dinner w/ chicken

Snack:
Veggie Juice - we went to Pressed Juicery in Weho today....the only problem was all of the veggie juices had cucumber.  So a little cheat w/ the cucumber...had a carrot, spinach, parsley and cucumber juice.

Dinner:
More leftovers!  Beans and Rice again....plus a side of steamed asaparagus.

Wanted to eat up the leftovers tonight so i can start fresh tomorrow!

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 4

Food Journal

Breakfast:
Lemon & Hot Water
Greek Yogurt + Banana + Honey
1 hard boiled egg (Dr. Joshi says you can have 3 - 4 eggs a week)

Lunch:
Same lunch from yesterday.
This is the beauty of making a pot of beans - there is always leftovers.
And I find it totally necessary to cook and make enough for leftovers while doing this diet.  Dr. Joshi prefers all freshly cooked foods - but i have a job.  I can't make every meal right when I'm ready to eat!

Snack:
1/2 banana
Veggie Green Juice:  12 oz of celery, spinach, wheatgrass and carrot.  No FRUIT.  Might be my first ever just veggie juice.

Dinner:

Heidi Swanson's Kale Market Salad that I mentioned yesterday!  Pretty pics of it on her site here.
I took a pic of mine too.  Not as pretty as hers.
Did i love this salad?  It was pretty good.  But i think i prefer kale sauteed or steamed and NOT in a salad.  But good.
I did poach an egg on top - her suggestion to make it a more "complete meal".  I have never had a salad w/ a poached egg on top, but i'd def do it again.


Modifications and notes on ingredient list:
I used brown rice instead of farro.  (farro has gluten).  For this receipe, brown rice that is NOT sticky seemed key....so i used a method that I found on Saveur awhile back.  Perfect.
There is tons of avocado in this receipe - which Dr. Joshi says you can have occassionally on this diet....so i left it in. 
Another question i have is about the almonds - i have read on other blogs that you can have almonds and walnuts on this plan.  You don't necessarily read that in the book, it just says no nuts.   But many blogs say you can - and talk about eating almond butter too (fresh ground of course!) .  I had intentions on throwing almonds in, but I completely forgot.

All in all, a good day.  BTW, my face is all broken out!  Could it be i'm really detoxing?   

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 3

Food Journal

Breakfast:
The usual - Lemon water and Greek Yogurt + Banana + Honey

Lunch:
This one I love!
Beans & Rice (brown rice of course!) with Sauteed Kale

I made the beans the other night - Good Mother Stallard Beans from Rancho Gordo.  Have I told you how much I love these beans?  I love them.  They are so easy to make - just soak and cook for a couple of hours, and hardly need anything else.

I use a recipe from Eating Well for the sauteed Kale that I love too.  You can find that recipe here.  It's really easy and great.  Trader Joes sells bags of Kale that make this even easier.  I had to omit the red wine vinegar and crushed red pepper, but I didn't really miss it.

Snack:
Hummus and Carrots

Dinner:
Havent hit dinner yet, but i already know what I'm having....
Mixed Greens with Golden Beets, Radish, Celery, Red Onion, Corn, Chicken Breast and a dressing of Olive oil and Lemon.

I subscribe to Heidi Swanson's blog...101cookbooks....and today she had a recipe for a Kale Market Salad that is Dr. Joshi Detox diet friendly....less the almonds.  I might try to whip this up - inspiration to get a mandolin.   Check it out here!

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 2

Food Journal:

So, as a side note, my day got kind of blown at work today...so you'll see I pretty much ate today exactly what i had yesterday!  But the good thing is I packed up leftovers from dinner last night and brought them to work - just in case i needed to eat it here.  And i did.  My eating will be more adventurous tomorrow - i already have that menu planned!

Prebreakfast:  Lemon + Hot Water

2 cups of green tea in the morning

Breakfast:

Greek Yogurt + banana + honey

Lunch:

Another Bowl from Axe!  Just like yesterday, but with Salmon today. I had to look up Salmon is OK on Dr. Joshi’s plan… it is…just no Tuna or Swordfish.  Something to do with the amount of mercury in the fish.

Dinner: 

Same dinner as last night.  

Boring, I know.  Stay tuned for changes in the menu tomorrow.   

Oh - and i had a banana for a snack.  I need to pack some snacks and bring them to work.  Hummus & Carrots ....something like that.  But i don't want to eat bananas all day when i'm hungry!

Dr. Joshi Detox Day 1

Food Journal:

Pre-Breakfast:  Hot water with Lemon.  I’ll be having one of these daily per the book’s instructions.  I wanted to remind myself what the benefits of drinking hot water with Lemon are this morning….boosts your immune system, balances your PH, helps w/ weight loss, aids digestion, is a diuretic, clears skin, freshens breath and a bunch more!

Breakfast:

Greek yogurt + banana + honey.

Did I forget to mention yesterday that you can have honey?  You can.  I’ll pretty much eat this breakfast daily.  Either this, or steel cut oats + banana + honey.

Lunch:

Ordered the Basic Bowl with chicken from AXE in Venice at work.

The “basic bowl” is just brown rice, bean sprouts, cucumber, onion, shaved cabbage, carrots, peanuts, fresh herbs, & a sesame lime dressing along with whatever protein (chicken, salmon, sausage or tofu) you want.

I ordered with a few modifications:   no peanuts, no cucumbers (nightshade!), and quinoa instead of brown rice (just a preference).  I didn’t use the dressing they give though  – but used Bragg’s Liquid Aminos that I have at the office instead.

I have to say, eliminating the nightshades on this detox gets tough.  No tomatoes & cucumbers? No hot sauce?  UGH.  I decided to read a little more about nightshades today, as I wasn’t exactly sure what they are or why we are avoiding them.  I learned a lot that I didn’t know….basically nightshades are a group of plants that create a toxic substance (like their own pesticide!) to keep insects away.  That substance or toxin (alkaloids in this case) can cause an allergic reaction or food sensitivity in some people.  It can result in joint or nervous system disorders, digestive problems, loss of calcium in bone, or increase of calcium in soft tissue, and more. 

Dinner:

Went to whole foods and picked up a rosemary grilled chicken breast.  Love these. 

Made a delicious salad at home:

Arugula

Crumbled Goat Cheese

Rosemary Chicken Breast

Lemon juice

Olive Oil

touch of sea salt

20 more days to go!

Tomorrow I am starting Dr. Joshi's 21 day detox diet (from his book, Joshi's Holistic Detox),  and then moving on to his 28 day Life Plan.  I did this detox diet in Feb of this year, but didn't follow up with the maintenance program that he has in his follow up book, Joshi's Total Health for Life.  This time I want to do both - and decided to blog or "log" about it ....really because I read other people's blogs everyday when I first did the detox diet and got ideas about what to eat.  I'm sort of repaying that now and putting this log of food out there in the world.  Maybe that will help someone out there get food ideas like other's blogs have helped me.
So this will really be a LOG (thank you Marlo for helping me name it) with my food journal, weight loss, and maybe a few thoughts during the next 21 + 28 days. 
For those of you who know, I'm going to France on day 23 of the maintenance part for 3 1/2 weeks....not sure how to deal with that yet, but I'll think about that more as the time gets closer.

Here's a quick summary of what this detox diet entails:

The basic idea is to get your body to a more alkaline state, break bad eating habits, and generally detox and give your body a break.  More about all that can be found through google or his book of course.

For food journal purposes, here is what i will be refraining from:

• No wheat, gluten or yeast 
• No sugar, chocolate or sweets
• No dairy (except plain Greek yogurt and goat’s milk)
• No fruits or fruit juices but bananas
• No artificially produced flavourings like ketchup, vinegar, mustard, hot sauce, etc.
• No red meat
• No nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms etc)
• No toxins such as alcohol, caffeine, carbonated drinks, decaf coffee, etc.

What can I eat?

• Most veg except the nightshades
• Eggs
• Vegetable juices
• Brown rice, lentils and beans (gluten and wheat free grains basically)
• Olive Oil
• Soy products and tofu
• Lean, white meats and fish

I definitely noticed differences in how I felt after I did this last time.  It DOES help create new healthy habits - for example, I pretty much quit coffee afterwards.  I now just have a latte or two a week, when I used to have 4 -5 cups of coffee a day.  I also started eating brown rice - before i did the detox diet the first time around, I didn't think I liked brown rice.  Now I love it.  Those are the 2 biggest changes - we'll see what I pick up this time!  

That's pretty much it!  Does anyone want to join me????