Frest Start 21: Cleanse

Julian turned 7 months old last Friday.  This means that I have not been pregnant for exactly 7 months and five days (hello math!).  So clearly that means I've lost all my pregnancy weight.  Ha. As if.  That's funny.  You could say I have stalled.  You could also say I haven't really tried and have no motivation or energy to work out.  (It would help if Julian started consistently sleeping through the night.)  But something's gotta give. 

 

I gained over 65 pounds with Lukas and lost it all within a year. I gained far less with Julian - roughly 40 pounds - so I thought my postpartum weight loss would be much easier this time around.  I mean, I was already starting out 25+ pounds down from last time!  But no.  I am about 7-10 pounds heavier now than I was 7 months postpatrum with Lukas. Sigh. And as of this weekend I had about 20 pounds to lose to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight.  Double sigh.

 

I joined weight watchers months ago, but every time I try to follow it my milk supply plummets and until recently Julian was only drinking milk so my vanity and waist size did not win.  Making milk for my little man won.  As it should have.  But Julian started eating food around Christmas and is up to 3 baby food meals a day in addition to his milk.  And he'll drink formula if I give it to him and I'm OK with that.  He is also too busy to nurse most days and we've been having some breastfeeding issues, so it's possible the end of our nursing days are near anyway.  So I decided it was OK if my supply dipped - I can just up the amount of formula he gets.  No biggie.  So, it is time to lose some weight.

 

Rather than start a normal exercise/diet plan, I decided to try something new.  Something I've never done before.  I signed up for a 21 day vegan cleanse.  I'm on day 3.  I absolutely love it, although parts have been rough, mainly the caffeine-withdrawal headache of yesterday.  (But check in with me in a week and we'll chat.)

 

So here's how this happened.  In January I did a 30 day green smoothie challenge via Simple Green Smoothies.  It was free and helped me come up with new green smoothie recipes.  A few weeks later I received an email about a cleanse, The Fresh Start 21 Cleanse, that the same folks put on.  And if I signed up that day, I'd get 20 or 50% off (I don't recall).  So on a whim I signed up. 

 

I wasn't sure what I was in for, but figure that it can't hurt my overall health to go vegan for three weeks.  In fact, it could help - you see, back in college I had some serious digestive issues and after seeing doctor after doctor who just diagnosed me with IBS, I went to a naturopath.  He did some tests and we found out I have intolerance to eggs and casein, the protein in dairy.  So for a few years I cut out eggs and all dairy products - the easiest way to do this was to follow a vegan plus meat diet (it seems contradictory, I know, it was, but by following vegan recipes, I knew I wouldn't be using ingredients with eggs or dairy). This did help relieve many of my issues.  Fast forward a few more years when I got off birth control and all of my stomach issues went away.  So thinking the pill was mostly to blame, I upped my diary and eggs over time. And I have mild stomach issues now. And I generally feel bloated all. the. time. I've never been tested for a gluten intolerance but wouldn't be surprised if that was an issue too because I notice I eat a lot of bread products.  I'm a carb-aholic.  Always have been.  But I eat them and I feel weighed down.  So I was excited to learn the cleanse was also process-food free.  Meaning, no bread, crackers, cookies, pasta or any of the things that make me feel blah.  I was also nervous, what in the hell was I going to eat?

 

Well, the Cleanse is very regimented in the sense that it tells you EXACTLY what to eat morning, noon and night. Plus snacks and what to drink.  So there is ZERO guesswork.  I love this.  One of my least favorite activities each week is meal planning.  This has been done for me for the next three weeks.  And the food just happens to be vegan. 

 

There is also no alcohol or caffeine allowed on the cleanse.  I'm not sure which I'll miss more, my red wine or my coffee.  So far my headache from yesterday is telling me its the coffee!

 

And in a strange turn of events, my milk supply has INCREASED over the past three days.  I definitely was not expecting that, but am super excited about it because I really do love nursing and hope to continue breastfeeding Julian until he is at least a year old, but I fear his plans won't mesh with that goal!  The only thing I can think of as to why my supply has gone up is becuase I'm actually eating a LOT of food, it's just very clean and unprocessed food.  So I don't think my calorie count has gone down, which is good for making milk.  I'm also drinking a TON of water.

 

Check back to see how I do.  As of this morning I was down 3.8 pounds in two+ days!  (I know, I know, it's probalby all water weight, but don't rain on my parade.) Oh and did I mention that the husband is doing the cleanse with me!