Homemade Trail Mix & Detox Details

 

Here we are at the start of another week… Trying to get all the items off my to-d0 list before the work week starts for me tomorrow…

I did not have any set plans for today {which is nice on a day off}… I cleaned up around the house and got a little stir crazy around lunch time so I ran a few quick errands and then headed home to create a sweet & salty snack…

Homemade Trail Mix

Trail Mix is one of my favorite snacks… it’s great for a quick energy pick me up… however, since I developed an allergy to nuts I have a hard time being able to find a pre-made trail mix that is nut free… I definitely prefer sweet and salty snacks… If I have chips, I immediately think I want/need something sweet… {favorite movie treat… milkdud surprise: milkduds mixed in with popcorn… I promise it won’t disappoint }

While I was out today I gathered a few ingredients I was missing, and headed home to made some trail mix to have on hand…

In the MIX I included:

• 1 bag of Bold Chex Mix
• Sunflower Seeds
• 1/2 bag chocolate chips
• raisins
• dried fruit mix

{the picture shows m&m’s but when I started to mix it all together I decided to leave them out…}

I figured out the calories and for 1 serving to be 100 calories it would need to be 1/3 of a cup of the mix…

So I portioned it out into baggies… and the whole batch filled 15 baggies for an easy. on-the-go snack option…

I’m so excited to have this available at home and to take with me to work to have on hand when I feel like I need a little energy boost. 

Detox Details

{this might be super boring, and my only intention of writing this is to recap it for myself, so I will not be offended at all if you do not read this haha}

This post should have been saved for this coming Saturday when the detox would have been officially completed, but needless to say it did not work out according to plan so I figured I would take a little time to do a recap and then move on :)

I should start out by saying that I know all detoxes are different, and most certainly effect people in different ways… A lot of factors could have played a part in my experience… but the following is just my opinion and my experience… nothing more, nothing less…

A few months ago {maybe 3ish}, a friend of mine who recently began living a healthy lifestyle told me about this natural, organic detox & deep cleanse she was completing.  Like most things related to health/food/fitness, I was curious and wanted to know all about it… She said her results were amazing and felt completely renewed & refreshed {but knowing what I know now, I can imagine she left out some details}… Well that definitely sounded like something I would be interested in, especially if it only contained natural ingredients and I would be detoxed from all the “bad” stuff after it… I did some research and decided I wanted to give it a try… it’s a 11 day total commitment consisting of 2 sets of 2 day complete cleansing/fasting… {I’ve had the product since November, but decided to save it until after the holidays}… I picked a start date {last Tuesday} and tried to get myself as mentally prepared as possible…

The first two days I drank a meal replacement shake for breakfast & dinner, with a 400-600 calories lunch the only requirement was it had to be unprocessed food {which would be my game plan on non-cleanse days}… no big deal… I made it through the first two days pretty well… temptations seemed to come at me from all angles, but I was committed and wanted to keep going… Then came Thursday my first full cleanse day… No food at all, and I had to drink a 4 ounce liquid cleanse every 3-4 hours… I was nervous, but figured being at work would keep me distracted and I kept a really positive attitude… and I made it… I had energy and did not even feel too hungry throughout the day…. the evening is when it became a challenge… Luckily my sweet husband ate dinner before I came home so I didn’t have to watch him eat dinner… but we had a lot of a time on our hands because it was his rest day from the gym and I was too scared to work out since I was consuming too few of calories… Dan was being so supportive and I love him even more for putting up with my crazy self during this time… he suggested snuggling up to watch TV to keep us distracted… We decided to watch the weeks episode of Biggest Loser thinking it would give me an extra push of motivation to keep going… except the first scene was a temptation for the contestants including a chinese buffet… really?! food is literally everywhere…I think I might have drooled… It really taught me how obsessed I used to be {still am at times} about food… but I knew I still had one full day of cleansing ahead of me, and couldn’t eat a real meal until Saturday at lunch so I changed my focus and decided that I could keep doing this and it would be all over soon…

My goal all along was to detox “bad stuff” from my body… I was not trying to lose a lot of weight fast, because I knew any weight I did lose would come back once I started eating food again… Since  Winter 2009/2010 I have lost 40 pounds the hard & healthy way… changing my eating and committing to a diet full of healthy foods and exercise… No I’m not perfect, I have many slip ups… but my eating habits & attitude towards food & health are a 180 degree difference from where I used to be… This detox in just a few short days made me appreciate my strong and healthy body so much… and most of all made me miss exercise… The detox said I could still work out, but I knew with the few amount of calories I was in taking, I did not want to push it… Friday was hard… I was off work and really started to feel the mental strain of this… I felt like I was punishing myself instead of working towards a healthy goal… and I fought a big mental battle for most of the day… but I tried to remain as positive as possible… around 3pm my body started to act very strange… I would have bursts of energy where I felt so so hyper then a few moments later I would feel really down, almost depressed… very strange… I will leave the details out about the other brutal signals my body was giving me, but by around 5pm I knew this detox was needing to be shut down… Dan was concerned, and we consulted my Mom… and I was given very firm instructions to “knock it off and go eat something… NOW!”… I couldn’t help but feel like I was failing for not completing the full detox, but at the same time I had enough of a scare that I was relieved to be done with it… My mom reminded me how amazing our bodies are, and that our bodies will definitely let us know if something is not right… and I was without a doubt getting knocked over the head with a bat with the signals my body was giving me…

So here I am, not too pleased with myself for falling into the lure of a detox… BUT I did learn so much in just a few short days… I learned that I am so blessed to be healthy… I am strong… I have come a very long way… A healthy lifestyle is so important to me… I learned a lot of the snacking I used to do is out of boredom… I appreciate food & HEALTHY, good food so much more… and I know I can reach my goals and take care of myself by sticking to a lifestyle of healthy eating & exercise… Even if I didn’t end up completing my original goal of completing the detox I feel like I learned a bigger lesson overall… That’s what life is all about right?? Lessons Learned!