MC 2025: Day 10

9 days 10 and lost about 4kgs. I’ve created a tracker here

This is easy and tough at the same time huh..

Easy because its simple, you squeeze your lemons in the morning that make 9 servings, and sip that throughout the day. No fuss no muss.. no plates, no cooking, not a lot of mess and dishes to take care of. AND at the end of it, you know you will be losing 1lb per day. Btw how is that? Its been that amount of weight loss per day, inspite of age or activity level??

Ive done the cleanse several times before, and ive been active this time, keeping up with my usual exercises and activities for the past 10 days. And yet, the weight lost is 1lb per day.

Difficult because you miss the taste of food. The texture, the flavor and the variety. It doesn’t help that my sense of smell got better from Day 3! I can smell everything! Even lettuce from the next table (shamefully enough I didn’t recognize that smell was from lettuce leaves :D).

Right now Im on Day 10, and Im just craving for fried food! Fried chicken.. French fries.. etc.. I know Im not really hungry. I haven’t felt real hunger yet so I know this is me, just craving the things I used to eat.

Im also surprised that I can keep up with the pilates. On  my first week, I went to 3 intermediate pilates classes and did about 20mins on the stairmaster, plus 2 sauna sessions I think. This is mostly my routine on my pre-cleanse time. No wonder I wasn’t losing weight.

Yesterday, I felt it. How better I moved in the pilates class. I felt lighter and more flexible? No.. more in flow. Or maybe the class was just easier? Lets wait for Dana to come back on Monday and will see how it is. But I do feel better.. and I love it! I don’t want to lose this feeling.. the feeling of finally progressing in your practice.

After pilates, I went for an incline walk on the treadmill for 30 mins. Tbh.. to meet my step count (which still fell short :D). This one I felt out of breath.. similar to the stairmaster… I find that one much difficult than my pre-cleanse days.

Whenever the temptation creeps in.. whether from craving or boredom, I just pull these out:

• the goal look in mind and I really get into it – i.e. think about what I would wear on Day 35, how I would look, and that simple flex on IG stories.. hey, im only human, and plus i want to stick it to someone.. hmp!
• Reason that its just food, and it will still be there after I finish easing out – and that too food in South Africa! I will be travelling soon
• Think that there are temptations everyday, If I keep giving in, then I wont get anywhere. That same temptation will be there the next day and the next etc.
• Occupy my mind by planning on how to hit my protein targets once Im off cleanse and travelling, I don’t want to gain it all back. This one really a bit of a worry. Not the protein part, the carbs part. Im guessing we will be heavy on meats the whole 3 weeks.. its just the pairing that needs to be sorted

Week 2 in, lets see how I finish this week. I hope I get down by at least 7kgs down by after Day 14, which is on Monday morning.

ROUND UP 2.0: Week 1 - 4 Results

Hola peeps!

I've got some great news. After 30 days of being on the plan, I lost 8.6 kgs! That's just 100gms less than my 1st go I had with the program 5 years ago without exercise and with deviation (see Food Pushers entry), so I'm pretty happy about it.

Cue in.......

As for the scale that tells me my life 😛, I've seen some nice improvements too, most notably Body age and Visceral Fat have both gone down.

I haven't taken my body measurements when I started, probably because I never thought I could do it again after so many failed attempts. I wanted to do that this morning but I can't find our tape measure. I'm doing that tomorrow so I have better reporting next time ;). 

Observations:

1. Hair and Skin - both definitely looking much better. My hair looks healthier and my skin is not dry. I don't think my hair is falling out than the normal daily hair loss. 
   
   
   Aside from being on the plan, I'm taking a high dosage of liquid Omega 3s (Ultimate Omega by Nordic Naturals), it's quite pricey for a 4 oz bottle. I've switched to their Complete Omega which has a lower dosage of Omega 3 but has Omega 6 and 9 in the mix. It's cheaper and twice the size. So let's see..
   
   
   I'm also avoiding direct sun exposure because I get that a lot of that from Oct-Apr at work. 
   
   
2. BMs - way more regular before I got on the plan. I'm happy about this because I have poor BMs that I take a laxative tea at least once a week to get a good clear up. Nowadays it comes like clockwork in the morning. 
   
   
3. Exercise - I did NADA! On my first try, I was still pretty active and reduced my workouts to yoga at least 3 times a week. Now, all I did was walk for about an hour thrice? I just walked, because I'm feeling like a lazy bum from doing nothing. 
   
   
4. Oranges - I love them! :D I never really ate oranges by choice. Now, I have 1 every day (except for the past 2 days)
   
   
5. Sleep - I'm still struggling with this. Before the Eid break, I couldn't sleep early. But since the holiday started, I'm sleeping more. Was it because I cut the DC? Or maybe I'm not thinking about work so much? NO STRESS LIFESTYLE.
   
   
6. Mood - definitely better. I feel good. Same as the 1st time, I didn't feel the same amount of "dread and depression" prior to my periods. I felt the lethargy and the quick temper, but nothing compared to how I felt each month prior to it. I wasn't sickly as well.
   
   
7. Energy - I can't really gauge, because I haven't done anything that's extra. Overall, I just feel better
   
   
8. Allergies - For years, I've depended on a nasal spray to clear my nose up. My nose is clogged as I type this however, I feel that my use of the spray has lessened. I look forward to getting rid of this nasal spray for good. 

I'm not as strict on meal preparations like before. I don't prepare my meals for the week in advance anymore. I'm trying to establish the habit of cooking my food per day, as I believe that's how it's supposed to be, so the food is fresh.

The plan really works as long as you follow it. It is difficult at the beginning but once you get over the initial weeks, it is pretty easy to be on. On some days I'm craving, but I think its something to do with the timings of my fruit intake or I'm just missing the thought of eating "good" junk. 

But honestly, I'm not hungry and no longer craving. And it feels so damn good to be rid of that dependency on the stuff that's not good for me.

I look forward to the days ahead :)