The End of the Beginning

25 pounds in 21 days!!! Here's what we had for dinner tonight at our graduation party. I'm off to bed, but will write more in a few days when I get back. I can hardly believe its over and that life is about to begin...stay tuned for Act Two!

Otto & Dr. Oz

Day 19!

So anyone who knows me at all, knows that there is no way "Otto" will go 19 days without chewing the foods that she loves, drinking her twice a day latte and settling into the evening without a glass or two of red wine. If you've spent three consecutive days with me you can figure this one out.

I've spent years cultivating and perfecting those unhealthy habits and was skeptical that I could go cold turkey on any of them. So waking up on Day 19 I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment, know that the scale is going to reflect this dedication, and am looking forward to life on the other side.

Act Two of this will play out as an integration between the 21 previous days and my new, going forward principles of consumption.

Breakfast: I will drink my antioxidant acai berry drink (pictured on the left) with some protein (veggie omelet or chocolate protein drink)

Mid Morning Snack: Green drink (pictured on the right)

Lunch: Grilled Salmon & Salad with olive oil, lemon juice, no-salt seasoning, and pepper

Afternoon Snack: Lemonade Drink (pictured in the middle) with some plain yogurt mixed with stevia (a natural sweetner that you can buy in packets like Equal or Splenda)

Dinner: Baked Chicken or Fish with steam vegetables three times a week, homemade vegetable soup twice a week, two dinners out with David (Sushi and Indian food)

Lattes & Wine: Two lattes and 2 glasses of wine per day on Fridays and Saturdays

My exercise regimen will continue once I go home, but will be more focused and planned out to diversify cardio, core strengthening, and weight work. Spinning, Swimming, and Jogging on the Trails 4 days a week for cardio, Pilates and Yoga twice a week for corework, and weights twice a week. I'm going to look to my fitness guru, Shannon Carr, to review and make any changes to this plan, but that is what I'm thinking so far.

Ok, so off for a beautiful day of a colonic, a massage, a couple client conference calls, a walk at the beach with Samantha Jo, and a steam tonight!

I'll leave you with an excerpt of a blog I found off of MSN this morning that features what Dr. Oz has to say about acai berries and colon cleansing...

"I found out that Dr. Oz is a strong advocate for Acai because it's so high in antioxidants. Acai has twice as high an antioxidant content than blueberries, and it's even better for you than pomegranate. I found something else, though. I found out that Dr. Oz not only was a big fan of Acai, but that he also recommended colon cleanse for weight loss. He said that the years can add layers of filth to your colon, which not only sounds gross but also adds inches to the waistline. Toxins build up in there, and soon your colon is practically filled with garbage. And there you have it, inches of sludge on your waistline. Dr. Oz made it sound like anyone would be crazy not to just cleanse their colon- since it was so easy to do! Ridding your body of that sludge can help your body in ways that diet and exercise just can't. The toxins don't break up through exercise, though, and getting rid of the toxic sludge is the only way to get rid of the inches they put on the waistline. "

Blissfully Cruising to the Home Stretch...

Day 16!!!! Yesterday was our 2nd "Weigh Day" and I lost 5 more pounds! Thats a whopping 17 in total so far and only 4 off of the marked goal for the 3 week program. I celebrated the accomplishment by helping our House Mother, Linda, make our 1 p.m. live juice that consisted of cucumber, celery, and carrots...it was yummy. Christine and I both feel fantastic, have gained alot of mental clarity in the last week, and are sleeping like babies at night. After our weigh in yesterday, we went for a sun-filled 90 minute walk through trails in the woods to a beautiful lighthouse and back along the coastline. We talked about the wedding and bachelorette weekend, worked our arms with 5 lb weights on each side, and tracked 800 burned calories along the way. It was so nice. Once we arrived back at the retreat, we gobbled down our "Cream of Broccoli" soup...which is really half broccoli and half cauliflower. The reason why it is called cream when it contains zero cream is because when you mix or blend broccoli is has a creamy consistency to it and so it looks like it has been creamed. I threw a little cayenne, curry, and italian seasoning in it and thought it was delicious. I'm sure you are all thinking, how can this really taste so good Anita? Aren't you just trying to keep yourself psyched up by telling yourself this? I guess that's partially true...I mean it doesn't taste like any of my favorite Mexican or Indian dishes. But when you cleanse, your palette is cleansed too, so you begin REALLY tasting the wonderful flavors in carrots, celery, cucumbers, beets, sweet potatoes, swiss chard, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and many others. I'm so excited to pack up Sammy Jo and go home on Monday, throw my arms around my Love, and spend time with him. I miss David so much and that's been the hard part of doing this... I'm also looking forward to "Act Two" of my program, which I will explain later. I'm off to the dance capsule with Pam to sweat my rear off. :)

Is This For Real???

Today is Day 13! The sun is shining, the weather is warming, and Christine and I feel great! I look in the mirror and see results that fuel my fire to finish. From a medical perspective I am also doing great. My blood sugar - 103 My blood pressure - 118/78 The urinalysis turns dark red on ketones so I am burning fat at a really fast rate. I've gotten lots of phone calls saying, "Anita, I support you in what you are doing because you are an intelligent person and I trust you've asked the right questions, but I don't understand how and why this is healthy for you? How can not chewing food and only consuming liquids be good for you? How can losing weight so rapidly be good for you? Why are colonics and coffee enemas important? What do you do after the program? I realize I've only really talked about the experience and measurable results so far, so over the next week I'm going to also going to give you the low down on the program...today I'll start with the digestive system question (#1). We live in a world that is filled with toxins (in our air, water, food, beauty and household procucts, etc.)...they are everywhere! Our bodies do release toxins through going to the bathroom and sweating, but much of them don't get released and are absorbed into our cellular system. The American diet contains a lot of crap, we eat way too much, and we don't chew our food enough. Our digestive systems weren't initially designed to do what we make them do today so they have to work overtime to process what we give them. After we eat a huge dinner, feel exhausted and go into a food coma, the body begins to work. It works all night while we are sleeping to process, disperse what nutrients we give it, and put the rest of it in our body's "trash receptable" - the colon. So really its just our mind that wakes up the morning after because the body has been working all night. When its working overtime to process and purpose it doesn't spend enough time or get to the repairing and renewing of our cells...that's when disease and decay invade. When we detox we are consuming large amounts of pure nutrients (live vegetable juice, pureed soup, juices from fruit, and herbal supplements) that feed the body at the cellular level. We purposely don't consume any of this in raw form because we want to give our digestive system a rest. This allows it to spend all of its time (whether you cleanse for 3, 7, or 21 days) repairing and renewing the body's cells. 21 days is how long it takes to completely renew and turnover a new cellular system... Ok, enough of that, I've got a great day ahead!!! I'm off for a morning walk with Samantha Jo, get a probiotic implant at 11 a.m. (more on that soon), a meeting to discuss my progress and program with Dr. Roni, and massage at 3 pm., off for another walk this afternoon, steam and sauna this evening for an hour. Yippee!!!

It's All In the Seasoning

Yesterday was a banner day!!! CB and I started the day by walking to the retreat and weighing in on the scale for the first time since we arrived. To our pure delight, both scales I stepped on registered 12 pounds less than a week ago! Yippeeeeee!!!!!! Now I know that a good part of that is water weight, but listen folks, I'm working my tail off to make the most of everyday I have here, and it is such sweet satisfaction to see AND feel the results. Linda made a delicious green soup last night with okra, kale, collard greens, watercress, broccoli, celery, and garlic. Now on it's own it isn't the taste I'm going for, but when you add apple cider vinegar, a little squirt of fresh lemon, and some cayenne pepper, it is a culinary delight. Seasoning is one of the big "aha's" I've had since arriving. Here's what's on the table to put in your soup or broth anytime, season it up and enjoy health benefits.

• Cayenne pepper
• Curry
• Italian Seasoning
• Herbal Seasoning
• No Salt

After a great dinner of soup and wonderful conversation with the girls (Sarah, Elaine, Christine, Roni, and Linda) I came home to have a wonderful detox bath that anyone can make themselves. 2 cups of epsom salt, 1 cup of baking soda, 1/2 cup of kosher salt, a little essential oil and a candle for aromatherapy, and oila...you've made a beautiful "end of day detox soak". I slept like a baby... So, I'm off to begin day 9 and am looking forward to every minute. It's snowing on the Vineyard today, so Sammy Jo and I are going to go play in it and make snow angels together. :) Enjoy your day!

Time Flies When You Are Cleansing...

Ok, so I fell off of my blog for a few days...I've had an amazing first week, but found that there wasn't time to do anything but focus on me and my cleanse. Here's a first day "before" picture and here's the summary of "what went down" for the first week...

Day #2 I got my first ever colonic...an experience I will never forget. I won't go into the gory details (you can read all about them on your own) but what I will say is that it wasn't as bad as I thought, and more importantly, I physically felt great afterwards. My therapist, Pam, is a hysterical chick that knows how to make ANYTHING fun. We listen to great music, tell jokes and funny stories, laugh till we're crying, and all the while, she is getting the job done!!! Linda, our Housemother and also a Naturopath, made a brilliant soup that evening of kale, dandelion green, celery, collard greens, parsnip, zucchini, onion, garlic...I couldn't believe it at first, but it was excellent! I thought it would take 2 weeks before my palate would enjoy a concoction like this, but the vegetables were so fresh that it tasted scrumptious. Just in case: Naturopath: system or method of treating disease that employs no surgery or synthetic drugs but uses special diets, herbs, vitamins, massage, etc., to assist the natural healing processes.

Day #3 I started getting cranked up on the program...I had the routine down, was focused, and had Christine to get me through when we saw a "Hot Pizza" sign on the way home from a health store. The highlight of my day was Pam's, aka Queen Latifah, alpha spa bodywrap treatment. This is where she wraps your body, sticks you in a body capsule that heats to 180 degrees and we jam to the tunes for 40 minutes. I keep my body dancing in the horizontal position for a little exercise and drop a cool 450 calories.

Day #4 Was a dream! I no longer cared about not "eating" food and was on a natural high. This was due to an organic coffee enema...Let me tell you, this is the way to get your coffee! I felt amazing, energetic, focused (but not jittery) all day. Christine and I took a powerwalk with hand weights, I walked Samantha Jo for a total of an hour, went to a 75 minute yoga class, and did the steam room and sauna for 90 minutes! I was on fire all day, slept like a baby all night, and can't wait for the next one.

Day #5 As a life-long lover of foods and drinks, I couldn't believe it when it came. I felt clear headed, empowered, and motivated to stay focused on making every hour of the day count. I walked for an hour, did Yoga, and took in 30 minutes of "Far Infrared" light (white lights that help with SAD, otherwise known as winter depression). I am no where near depressed this season, so the lights just made me feel good and gave me time to reflect on all that I am grateful for.

Day #6 Fantastic! I got up from a wonderul night's rest, took Samantha for a brisk 45 minute walk, and headed off to my morning massage. Aaaah!!!!! I sat in the steam room for 15 minutes and headed off to get my 2nd colonic...awesome. The Martha's Vineyard Holistic Retreat has this state of the art colonic machine that makes the process so easy. I learned that my body needs to lay off of red wine for awhile because it is creating an army of yeast in my system, but otherwise, I look pretty healthy! Soup that night was a delicious sweet potato, carrot, and a bunch of other good veggies.

Day #7 Sunday was a wonderful day filled with 2 treatments, an hour at the dog park, and a beautiful hour long detox bath to end it...I've made it a whole week on the program and am doing great!!! After 7 days of rest from having to digest food, my body is really beginning to show the results. My skin is bright and vibrant. My head is clear and focused. My belly is flattening. My face and chin are thinning. My teeth are whiter. I am ready for week two!

Rule #1: Don't Talk About Food!!!

So the first day of my journey was a success! Christine and I walked to the Vineyard Haven Holistic Center yesterday morning with excitement and anticipation. We were greeted, ushered into a cozy room with a warm fireplace and filled out our paperwork. Within the hour we were getting an ionic foot bath to begin releasing toxins while getting "the skinny" from the other "detoxers" who were leaving that day. Naturally, I was starving. So as we were waiting for our first "antioxidant berry drink" of the day, I began telling these women who hadn't chewed food for a week about my tapas "last supper" with David on Saturday night. I described the whole spread: cheese fondue, assorted grilled marinated meats, chocolate fondue with strawberries and pieces of bundt cake, a wonderful bottle of red, and some port wine to go with our dessert. Yummy!!! I think I almost got kicked out of the Center right then and there. The response I got was 4 angry women telling me "Listen! Rule #1 is you don't talk about food!" By 4 p.m. I could totally understand how they felt. I was grumpy, had a headache, and wanted to go find some good food. But I held strong and kept to the program. The culinary highlights of the day was the wonderful soup Linda, our housemother, made of squash, carrots, some fresh herbs and a little nutmeg on top. Needless to say, we were drained from the day and headed to bed quite early! One day down, 20 more to go!