Bye bye to our friends....

Last weekend we had a Sunday brunch with friends of us who are moving back to the US. These are the friends who gave us the 5 bunnies; Marny, Sam, Zack, Zane and Emma.

The guys had their last round of golf in the morning and after that we invited them for a brunch. However, I am still on my detox diet but since they are leaving next weekend, we couldn't do it on another day. So I decided to make a few dishes that I could eat as well.

While I was preparing the dishes in the morning I was drinking my green shakes and herbal teas... in the meantime the house started smelling just wonderfully with all these yummy aroma's and I couldn't eat them!!


So what did I make: A yummy Broccoli crunch salad, with apples, pecan nuts and this super duper almond vinaigrette. (I ate this veggie dish).


A savory asparagus bread pudding. (I didn't eat this one) A seasonal family style recipe that you can easily prepare the night before, although I didn't.


And a Ricotta Zucchini Cheesecake (which I also didn't touch) Although it is named a cheesecake there is no cream cheese involved. It's a bit lighter and less egg-y than a quiche. Very yummy according to Dirk!

I added a green salad with home made dressing that I could eat, but all the rest of the goodies, like a cold platter with different kind of cheeses and cold-cuts, 3 kinds of breads. All these delish things I didn't eat, and just enjoyed my green salad and broccoli salad. And for dessert a bit of fruit salad while the others enjoyed home made brownies with vanilla ice cream.

Talking about willpower or what?? Cooking for a big crowd and sitting with them on the same table and NOT touching a thing that wasn't good for me!!

But you know what? I had NO problem whatsoever... REALLY. Since it was my 19th day and I feel the last week on this detox diet I didn't care for all these heavy dishes anymore. Even though they weren't that heavy, I was more interested in these crunchy broccoli and green salad leaves and I was probably the one that enjoyed this brunch the most!

By the way: I am on my LAST DAY of my 21 day Detox and tomorrow I start with my 11 day AFTER Detox. That means that I will be adding 1 food group a day, so slowly building up to a full spectrum of foods again. During these 11 days I will have mostly my green shakes, but now I am adding some protein shakes to the regimen, and then salads, cooked vegetables, brown rice, and some fish and chicken. Red meat is NOT advisable and I won't go there either.

My total weight loss in 3 weeks in 15 lbs, not bad huh?

I can recommend this diet to anyone who has the stamina to go through a rigorous cleansing of your body. Because it feels amazing!!

I will keep you updated on my progress on the after results!
Have a Terrific Tuesday!
Mireille

Fabulous Friday

The girls are totally excited these days to wake up and come back from school... why? Because we have 4 bunnies! The first thing in the morning they want to feed the bunnies and after school the first thing they do is run into the house and go straight to the yard to greet their new friends ;-)
A friend of us is moving back to the US and had 5 bunnies, one is still at her house, they can't seem to catch him. But as soon as he is caught we will get that one too, so then we have 5!
Today Jasmine and Juliet invited 4 of their friends to have a play date at our house, so all their friends can come and see the bunnies. They are very popular these days, since everybody in their class wants to come over and see the bunnies... yeah, is it not the cute girls they want to play with then it is the cute bunnies LOL!

Jasmine feeding Scamper, the mom bunny


Juliet feeding Thumber, the black-white boy bunny.


Jasmine with Winter, the albino bunny with red eyes.


JJ with Thumber, he is her favorite because he comes to her!


And this is Spots, still a bit shy.


The only one that is missing is Fio, he is a black male. Our friends are trying to catch him for days now, but he won't let them ;-) And then the bunch is complete. Pfew, 5 pets at once, for somebody who isn't used to animals, that is quite a lot. But at least these bunnies stay outside!! That was the only reason for me to take them.

And if you are thinking that soon we will have more bunnies, no, no, no! These are neutered, so no more bunnies!! LOL

And in case you want to know how I am doing, since the girls are doing great! Well, I have a little sit back here. The last 2 days I didn't loose anything, and this morning I even gained 1 lbs!! Shocking to me, since I follow the Detox Diet so well! I am not cheating, so what is going on?? Not too happy with that! I also feel very bloated and a little discomfort. I am glad I have an appointment for a colonic later this morning, maybe that helps. So I am on Day 17, but my weight loss is only 12 lbs.

In the meantime I am craving wholesome veggies to start after my detox and this is a totally yummy recipe I found on 101 cookbooks, but this could have been MY recipe since I do almost always do my cauliflower like this. Especially if you burn it a bit, it gives it this nutty taste that I like so much. So try it out, it is delish!
Here is the link for the recipe.



Have a Fabulous Friday!
Mireille

Looking ahead....

So I am on my 15th day of my Detox Diet and it is going very well. I feel good, my spirits are uplifted and have a lot of energy. And my total weight loss so far is 13 lbs. But I am looking ahead. Only 1 week left and then I have an 11-day After Detox program. Since you can't just go ahead and eat a steak, you would end up in the hospital! In the After Detox program you add each day 1 food group. And I am craving for sushi, miso soup and edameme and wonder... could I do that?? Maybe not the first day, but the third day??

Oh so craving for sushi!

So what am I going to do to maintain the weight loss and what is a good plan for ME, that I can stick to? This is actually a bigger challenge than the whole detox to me. I really want to go back to basics food wise. We discovered that I have candida, so that means I need to go at least for a month on a anti-candida diet. Meaning absolutely NO sugar, wheat, vinegar and fungi food, like mushrooms etc.. There is quite the list that you have to avoid. The reason why I had such a hard time to loose a few pounds was probably because I have the candida. So I have to tackle that first before I can even start eating 'normal' again. But the normal should not be like the OLD normal. I want to eat healthier and start cooking more without the help of bottled sauces, marinades, dressings etc... Since in EVERYTHING is SUGAR and SALT, among other things that are not good for you!

So I am planning to make fresh, wholesome and simple meals out of the most fresh es ingredients and everything from scratch. I used to do it before, but I strayed lately and the results were not good. So I am going back to basics.

Thai green mango salad, aloy maak!

But I need some new inspirations, so if you guys have some great websites I can browse through, please send me a link! I already have a few, like 101cookbooks and foodgawker, but I need more and hope to get some inspiration from YOU!! I hope to receive some sites from all over the world, since I like to eat HEALTHY ETHNIC food.

I am already looking at all these good for you, but great tasting as well recipes and can't wait to try them. Funny huh, I am on this detox and looking at those pictures of the best looking foods available on the web or in magazines and still don't eat any of it!! But I can sure have a look at them ;-)

It is funny, I am NOT craving any fried stuff (I never did really) but even now, I am craving healthy stuff, small bits and pieces, candy to the eye stuff.. I don't want to put anything bad into my body anymore... LOL we'll see how long that takes!! But for now my attitude towards food is changing so much through this Detox, it is just amazing!

Goat cheese, asparagus and beet salad... yummy!

Have a wonderful and yummy day!
Mireille

Day 1 went smooth...

OK, the next 3 weeks I will let you in on my emotions and results of my Detox Diet. I know some you of are maybe not that interested, so I try to write about the kids, hubby or other things that are happening around the house. Since I put my social calender on hold for these 3 weeks, not much else is happening.

Let me know how you feel about me doing this diary, if nobody is interested I will keep it to myself and find some other stories to blog about!

So what can I eat?? NOTHING, only drinking, this is my schedule. Every day the same:
8:30am
Berry drink = antioxidant supplement
Herbal Cleansing, some herbs mixed with water to flush harmful toxins & elements
Herbal tea
8 0z water
10:30am
High-density drink mixed with 8 oz. water = green drink derived from green vegetables
Herbal tea
12:30pm
1 cup green vegetable juice
1 enzyme capsule (to speed up digestion & minimize the effects of food allergens)
Herbal cleansing
8 oz. water
2:30pm
High-density drink mixed with 8 oz. water
Herbal tea
Berry drink
6pm
1 cup cleansing soup (made from fresh vegetables and pureed, so it is drinkable)
1 cup broth (the broth of soup above, NO salt, so tasteless!)
Herbal tea
1 enzyme capsule
Herbal cleansing
8 oz. water
7:30pm
Water or Herbal tea
bedtime
Aloe vera (supplies anti-aging antioxidants, helps to restore pH balance and repair cellular health)

Whenever you feel hungry you can drink more cups of the soup you make fresh everyday. Which so far I haven't felt hungry, just the cravings of chewing was hard for me last night. When I was watching American Idols (and I vote for Adam!) I wanted a cookie with my herbal tea, but CAN'T have it!! During the day I was fine. Preparing the drinks and having every 2 hours something to drink keeps you quite busy.

And then each day I have a special treatment, yesterday I had my first colonic, which was great. It cleanses out the colon with a machine that has a tube that gets inserted in the back. Water flows into your bowel, the therapist massages your belly and then it gets released. It actually is quite soothing and my belly is already a lot flatter, although not much came out, it was full of air bubbles. So I was more bloated than I expected! Tomorrow I have en encore, and I hope more will come out. Today I am having a lymphatic drainage massage. Tell you more about it tomorrow!
But on top of these special treatments I do at home, walking, trampoline, dry brushing your skin before showering, sauna. All this helps to detox better. Yes, did you know exercising on the trampoline helps a lot!! So if you have one in your backyard, start jumping :-)

So, all in all I had a good first day! It went smooth, and oh I lost 1,7 lbs... but I realize that that is mostly water, since I had to pee at least 20 times!

The girls had at school a 5,3 or 1 mile walk. The elementary did 1 mile, so fun to see all the kids exercising together. They had fun, here some pictures with their class mates running around the football field.

Sonia, Svenja, Jezz, JJ and Divya. Proud of their medals!


Here JJ running in the front almost completing 1 mile, you go girl :-)


JJ and her friend Lyng.


JJ and her friend Divya.


The school grounds with view of Johannesburg in the back.

Have a good day y'all!
Mireille