Coming Down From Too Much Holiday Eating

5 Easy Detox Tips

Let me guess, now that the holiday's are coming to a close your feeling bloated and stuffed. The good news is your not alone and there is an easy way to get back on track to feeling more energized. Today I wanted to share a few of my favorite tips for getting you back on track.

Often my challengers will ask me how do you know if you should do a detox or cleanse? I ask them how their sleeping habits have been. What their energy levels look like. What they are craving. If they feel or look bloated. If they ever have "brain fog"  and what their current nutrition looks like. Typically they have many of these symptoms and often confess that their nutrition ins't so hot. Sometimes I will encourage them to do an actual cleanse or detox like the 3 day refresh. I recommend this to someone who is at a weight loss plateau or to someone looking to kick start their new eating habits. but sometimes I simply suggest they start with these easy action steps and see where that gets them.

These are some before and after pictures of my husband and I after we did a 3 day cleanse. We don't do them often but when we do we are always happy with the results.

1. I am a huge fan of doing the gallon challenge. Normally I suggest that my clients drink half of their weight in water each day but when you are coming down from an eating binge, I actually suggest they up their intake and strive to drink an entire gallon of water. When I am trying to eliminate bloat I go for distilled water but I don't drink distilled water all of the time. It can actually be hard on your body to process.

If your not a fan of plain water just add in fruits and other herbs or spices to give it some extra flavor. 

2. Gotta sweat out those toxins. If your looking to lose the bloat, I would encourage you to kick it up a notch for a week and do some sort of cardio workout on  Monday, Wednesday and Friday and do some strength training on Tuesday and Thursday. I would only go for a 30 minute session. Consistency will be key compared to spending hours in the gym. 

3. Nutrition wise, I would encourage you to up the number of proteins you are consuming and decrease the number of carbs and fruit. I make an intentional effort to cut out all junk food and sugar. In a typical day my nutrition would look something like this below. The second image shows what it looks like when I am upping my protein and decreasing my carb intake. Keep in mind this calculation is for my body type. Depending on your height and weight the formula for what you are eating may look different. The cravings you may be having for sweets and salty things will go away after a few short days.

Normal Meal Plan Day 

Higher protein, less carb kind of day

4. If you do start to notice you are having some cravings, use green tea to curb your appetite. Not only will it help, but it is also a natural antioxidant. When I am trying to get rid of bloat, I typically will have three hot green teas in a day and not have any coffee. On a normal day I would only have green tea once in the evening to help with my night time snack cravings.

5. My last tip would be to be mindful of what you are doing and the things you are craving. The more aware you are of the things you are putting into your body, the more likely you will be to stay on course. I encourage you to use a food journal or use an app on your cell phone to keep track.  My fitness pal and Loose It are great apps for this.

If you are interested in getting your nutrition back on track and would like some help from a coach please fill out the application below and I will be in touch.

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If You Want To Test Your Will Power... Try A Cleanse

3 Day Shakeology Cleanse Recap 

Well all I can say is that was really, really hard. My willpower was truly tested over the course of the last 3 days. I had gotten off track with my nutrition during the last few weeks. My extra snacking was becoming more often, I was hitting the drive- thru at Starbucks a few times a week. Basically, I was starting to slip a little from my typical disciplined habits into my old ways that I had worked so hard to change. I knew I needed to take some time and focus back on the foods I am fueling my body with. I had done the Shakeology Cleanse in the spring and found results so I decided I was going to go for it again. I planned to start on a Sunday and end on a Tuesday. I found that hands down this is much easier to do if you are working, extremely busy or distracted. I was feeling doomed when I was home and the pantry was tempting me. My advice – keep yourself away from food as much as you can unless you want to be miserable.

Here is how I went about it:

7:00 am - Breakfast: Shakeology with banana in it

9:00 am – 8 oz of green tea and an apple

11:00 am – Shakeology

2:20 – Shakeology

5:30 - Large salad (3 cups of greens and 1 grilled chicken breast cut up) Non – diary dressing

8:00 pm – 8 oz of green tea

In addition to this I drank 60+ ounces of water each day. You would want to strive to drink half your weight in ounces plus some!

You would repeat this each day for 3 days.  I still worked out each day while doing it. I made sure to get it in early in the morning so I had the energy for it. I felt fatigued by the end of each day. Here are some recaps from the journey.

Sunday

I think Sunday was the easiest day for me. I did some aerobic activity that morning and spent most of the day traveling for a few hours in the car. I had my green tea and apple in the car. That afternoon I went to a party at a friend’s house and struggled a bit to not want to eat the healthy snacks she had. Went for an iced green tea and held strong. My salad never tasted so great! It felt good to eat by dinnertime!

Monday

Started Monday morning off with 30 minutes of cardio from the 21 day fix. It really got me hungry right away. My shakes were able to ward of the hunger pains for the most part that day. I about cracked twice at work. 2 different groups that I was working with had pizza delivered in. It felt painful turning it down, but I didn’t cave. After dinner that night I broke and had 12 pita chips (yes I know it’s only 12 but it was still a cheat). Green tea was my saving grace that night. I was kind of grumpy by the end of the day. Knowing you still had one more day to go was a bit discouraging, but I was determined to finish what I started and make it happen the next day.

Tuesday

The scale was showing a 2 lb loss so far. I was hoping for more right away, but I need to remember that I am thin to begin with and it takes a ton of work for me to lose any weight because I am mostly all muscle now. My body fat percentage how really dropped since I started this journey seven months ago. Tuesday felt better during the day. My body was starting to get used to it. I decided that being able to complete a cleanse is simply a mind game, a hard one at that. Tuesday night I was not able to wait until 5:30 for dinner because I had missed my afternoon shake at work so I came home ready to chew my arm right off! Talk about being ready for dinner! After I ate my salad I waited two hours and had my 9^th and final shake.

"You wouldn't know it but this picture was taken at 4:30 am after only getting 4 hrs of sleep, being hunrgy and havng a million excuses. BUT I pushed play anyways and rocked day 3 even when I didn't feel like it anymore."

Wednesday Morning

It felt good to wake up and know the I was having oatmeal for breakfast today! When I got on the scale I had lost a total of 4 lbs during the time. Not a huge deal, but I do feel lighter and my stomach looks a lot less bloated. Plus I am focused again on my nutrition! 

It felt good to be able to say I did it. It also felt good to be able to cut out my sugar, salt and carb cravings. It was also nice to have the support of my challengers in my challenge groups. Not only did they help hold me accountable but also checked in on me at work and at home. It was nice to have the support!

If you would like to learn more about the cleanse, please send me an email: S.Griffith27@gmail.com I would be happy to talk with you about your goals and plans for the cleanse and well as help get you started.

Green Tea - Why You Need To Be Drinking It

Green Tea 

I will be completely honest – I did not like green tea until I changed my lifestyle. I remember trying it many years ago and not liking it. When I did the 21 day fix for the first time it was recommended that I use green tea in the evenings to ward off hunger pains in the evenings when I would crave snacks. I did not really want to have “plain” green tea so I went with the Lipton Green Tea- The Superfruits kind. They have a bit of flavor mixed in with the teabags. My favorite is the blueberry one and also the peach flavored one.  I had cut out coffee because I was putting too much junk in it. I was drinking half and half with it as well as 3 teaspoons of sugar every morning to start my day. I decided that if I was going to change my life the coffee was going to make an exit as well. It’s not that coffee is bad for you its just I was making it bad for me with all the extras. These extras in turn were extra calories and sugar I did not need. I had a headache for a few days when I cut it out but now four months later I don’t even miss it. Now instead of coffee in the morning I have a shakeology and I enjoy a green tea in the evening as I wind down. I actually look forward to it each evening now. When I drink it I am pretty plain - I simply heat the water and put in the teabag. Occasionally I might put in some lemon, other fresh fruit or some honey to jazz it up. But it still tastes great even if you drink it plain. 

Below is the Lipton brand teabags that I LOVE! 

If you are not already drinking green tea you should consider adding it into your every day routine. The benefits are incredible.