Wild Rose D-Tox Review + Tuesday Thoughts

Good afternoon : )

As you know from yesterday's blog, today is a day off and so I have extra time to do fun things like blog and go to yoga and read.

On the outside, my life is pretty simple and some would say basic. I go to work, I come home and either work out or relax. I do laundry and clean on my days off (and after the work day is done). I meal prep, and I might run some errands. I blog and work on blog-related things. I spend time with Ryan, and sometimes we'll go out and adventure. Although for some people who may crave social interaction all the time, I feel the most like myself when I am either with Ryan doing nothing in particular or by myself recharging and doing my own thing.

Take today for example. I had zero plans other than hot yoga at 9:30am and a nature walk with Brownies tonight at 6:15pm. Normally my brain would be pulling me in so many different directions, but because yesterday was so go go go, it was nice to take a breather. Although I didn't wake up itching with the motivation to run as mentioned in yesterday's post, I woke up in such a good mood and simply enjoyed my morning coffee and chatting with Ryan before he went to work. While he was getting ready, I did my planner for the week and just sat there feeling pretty darn thankful for the life that I do have. Do you ever just sit there with your thoughts and feel almost overwhelmed with gratitude? It was one of those mornings for me, and it was a pretty cool feeling!

After I got ready for yoga, I drove down to the studio. Fortunately it is only about a five minute drive away from my house. I found parking right away, and I bit the bullet and signed up for the six month pass. Alright, here goes nothing! I am actually looking forward to this to see how my practice will improve and develop. I have yet to step foot in the gym the last few weeks, and at this point, I am more willing to just work out at home with my resistance bands and dumbbells to save some cash, ya feel?

Major bonus of the day: one of the students at yoga makes these wonderful cookies and brought them to share with today's class. They are amazing and a nice post-yoga treat!

I believe they are called everything cookies. As you can probably guess, there's a bit of everything in there. Cranberries, blueberries, raisins, oatmeal, apple sauce, sea salt, flax seeds, chia seeds, chocolate chips, etc. Delicious! This is my kinda cookie ; )

Once I got home, I showered, put on a face mask and just lounged. My appetite isn't crazy after yoga, so I made a green smoothie with coconut water, almond milk, frozen mango, a small banana (nice and spotty, people!), spirulina, spinach, and avocado. So tasty and so creamy it was like drinking a milkshake. I sat outside on the deck with my smoothie, green tea, and lemon water (does anyone else have a million liquids going at one time?) and started to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I know, right? Rewinding back to like, grade three when I first read the Harry Potter series. For the longest time I wasn't really into Harry Potter - I didn't understand the hype, I breezed through the books for the sake of saying I read them - I basically half assed the whole Harry Potter experience, so now I am bringin' it back. So, while laundry was on the go, I was out there on the deck reading, sipping my fluids, etc. Relaxed, nothing too crazy to see here!

So, because I haven't touched on this yet, I wanted to give you my HONEST review of the Wild Rose D-Tox program.

It is a twelve day cleanse, and I made it ten days before I called it quits.

Wait, what?

Why did I call it quits?

(NOTE: Maybe a little TMI here for those who don't want to read about womanly functions)

I randomly got my period mid-cycle while on this cleanse. I was reading about it online, and apparently that is something that can happen to those who are sensitive to herbal supplements and ingredients such as licorice root, which the Wild Rose cleanse has lots of. This period came almost a week after I had just finished my period, so I immediately knew something was out of whack. Part of me was like. Hmm, maybe I should just continue seeing as I only have two days left. However, the more articles and reviews I read online, the more it cemented in my head that this isn't the cleanse for me. Obviously my body is confused and my hormones are disrupted from this cleanse. Maybe it's all part of the cleansing process. Who knows. Either way, I figured that my personal health wasn't worth a few more days of taking six pills every day and 40 drops of some wizard magic that was throwing me all out of whack.

How did I feel physically while on the cleanse? I was in a bit of a fog for the first little bit, but I did wake up one day feeling significantly less bloated. After that bloat free day, I felt pretty much the same going into the second week. Really. It was nothing like what I read online about people feeling SO light and SO refreshed. Of course, if you are interested in something I highly encourage you to try things for yourself, as everyone has different experiences. I can see the positives to the Wild Rose D-Tox, though I can also see the negatives as well.

Has anyone experienced this before? Regardless, I will honestly say that I PERSONALLY do not feel the Wild Rose D-Tox is worth the hype and worth the money. Why? Just eat clean. Eat whole foods, don't stuff yourself full of dairy, don't be eating processed junk all the time. Is this rocket science? No, it's not. However, if it takes a cleanse for you to kickstart into healthier habits, then so be it. I can understand that 100%. All I am saying is that this detox was not a good fit for me.

Overall, if you already eat a diet of whole foods and minimally processed foods, then you most likely do not need to cleanse. The body cleanses itself naturally, anyway.

Check out my work station for the afternoon. Cozy, right? I have been typing away listening to The Skinny Confidential Him & Her podcast. I am loving it and taking away so much good information! As you can see, the lemon water is still comin' in hot as per usual, and I had some tuna salad on plain rice cakes for lunch. Simple, delicious. I am all about easy food! I still have a few hours left to hang out, blog some more posts for you guys, and read Harry Pottah - win!

I hope you guys are enjoying the day and let me know in the comments if you have done any kind of cleanses before and what your experiences were with them. 

Until next time, friends! : )

My Go to Breakfast + Wild Rose Cleanse Day 8 Review

Hello from my little desk here! Side note: that orange/yellow picture has been hung up now. Bless you, handy man Ryan!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. What did you get up to? Anything fun and exciting?

I must admit that the saying, "A Sunday well spent brings a week of content." rings true. Since Ryan and I had nothing to do yesterday, we took it nice and easy and got lots done around the house. I even slept in until 9:45am, which is unheard of for me since I am the first one up and about on any other day! The house is spic and span, laundry is done, bedding is washed, and our deck is coming together nicely! The patio furniture is out, BBQ is clean and shiny, and we purchased a few plants for the deck, too.

Voila! The BBQ is on the other side of the deck, but here's a preview of the plant decor.

I am looking forward to drinks on the deck, that's for sure! We also headed to a local cafe for lunch - The Garage Cafe, where I had a rice bowl with steamed veggies like kale, swiss chard, carrots, beets, etc. It was pretty darn tasty and always a go-to choice in our area.

And now we are at today!

My go to breakfast (pretty much everyday): oatmeal with frozen blueberries (or raspberries, or a little bit of both) with almond butter. In my coffee I just take unsweetened almond milk. I used to put stevia in it (or previously flavoured creamer, though we haven't used that in months!), but now I have acquired the taste sans-sweetener. I am not yet finished my book, FYI, though I am hoping I will be done by the end of the day!

This morning was another hot yoga class. I purchased a two week pass, so this is my second week participating in bikram yoga. Truthfully, I do really like it. There is something about being familiar with the poses that is almost comforting, though you can push yourself as much as you feel comfortable during each class. While it is challenging, I feel I have approved immensely since this time last week! Like any exercise, consistency makes a huge difference, and I can attribute that to my practice improving. Will I continue after this week? I am still trying to decide, as the price kind of deters me. If any of you are familiar with hot yoga, you know that it is not exactly budget friendly (depending how big your budget is, of course). Perhaps after this week the benefits will outweigh anything else!

After yoga, I came home to start meal prepping and get cleaned up for day. On the list today: passport pictures (Ryan and I are wanting to go away this summer and of course my passport is totally expired), Home Depot, and the local community farm store - simply because I haven't been there in a while! Mondays are my ME days, and although I loved spending the day uninterrupted with Ryan yesterday, I like being by myself too : ) Gotta have that balance!

Thoughts on the Wild Rose Cleanse, now that I am 8 days into it:

I honestly don't feel too different now as compared to my day to day life. Yes, I do feel less bloated. Yes, you go to the bathroom more often (especially number two. TMI, maybe, but that's what happens when the supplement you're taking is called LAXAHERB, lol!) Yes, my choices are more mindful now that I have a (mostly) structured way of eating. This includes no wheat, flour, dairy, etc. However, those are things I typically don't include in my diet anyway, simply because dairy triggers stomach cramps, aches, and bloating, and both wheat and dairy trigger eczema flare ups for me. I know standard Western medicine hints that eczema is not diet related, though in my experience it 100% is. Usually if something is happening on the surface, that means something internally is out of whack! Anyway, that is another note, but I do find that my eczema flare ups have been slim within the last week because of my diet. Well, that and the hot yoga, probably. Friday marks the last day of my cleanse, so I will either recap it on Friday or on Monday to give you guys an idea of how I feel.

Note: I have not weighed myself while on this cleanse, though I feel any weight that I may have lost is water weight only.

So, there's the update for you! I hope you all have a lovely evening & we will chat later : )

Wild Rose Cleanse Day 3 Review + Yoga OOTD + Bikram Benefits

Good evening, party people!

Hope you all had a great Wednesday. For all you Monday to Friday peeps, you are now over the hump!

I am now officially three days in to the Wild Rose D-Tox Cleanse. So far, it has brought me back to how I typically like to eat, meaning whole foods without additives like excess sugar or sauces on my meals. My ideal, super-fit self would eat whole foods all the time, less animal products, and would not be tempted by desserts if I truly didn't want it. Does anyone else see a dessert and think, Well, I better try it because it's there? Happens to everyone, don't lie! Regardless, the past three days have been a reset for my taste buds. Here are a few of my current thoughts:

1. Day one (Monday) was not bad at all. I had the day off, so I was able to get into a groove on my own time without worrying about rushing here, there, and everywhere. 

2. Day two (yesterday) I was in a brain fog for most of the day. Tuesdays are typically my longest day of the week anyway, so it would have been nice to feel extra focused for work and Brownies right after. I had a bit of a headache throughout the day.

3. Today: My lingering headache from yesterday carried into this morning. I made sure to drink tons of water, and also had a green tea mid-day before yoga class which was a nice boost. Overall I feel good. My tummy does not feel overly bloated, and I am seeing some slight (and when I say slight, I mean SLIIIIGHT) ab definition in my upper abs, where I usually see any shred of definition first. We will see what happens. Day six, six pack? What? No? Okay. Moving along.

One thing I do enjoy about this cleanse is that it forces you to be more conscious about your food. Sometimes I am guilty of having food be an after thought, meaning I throw together meals without evaluating what I actually want to eat. It is easy to toss things together for the sake of having SOMETHING, but have you ever done that and then when it came time to actually eat your food, you were uninterested in it? This cleanse is making me think outside of the box and listen to my internal needs - and no, those needs do not include chocolate or wine!

Knock on wood, but I am actually surprised I have not craved any of that the past few days. Hopefully it keeps up!

Side note: I promise I normally make the bed! Ryan has been home with a really nasty tooth pain the past two days (hello, root canal tomorrow), so I was a nice girlfriend and let him be, all snug as a bug in a rug in the bed!

Tonight's yoga outfit is brought to you by Lululemon. Can they ever do any wrong? Can they? I don't think so.

Shorts are the Boogie Short (I believe? I got them over 5 years ago)

Tank top can be found here

And sports bra (from last year) is the Free to Be style

Tonight was another hot yoga class with the same coworkers I went with on Monday morning. A different teacher taught the class tonight, and I appreciated all of the helpful instructions she gave us throughout the class. I am no yogi by any means, but I found some poses clicking tonight. You know when something feels hard, and then one day it just works? That was me in Eagle Pose tonight. Suddenly my leg was wrapped around my other leg, my toes were facing the front and I was staring at myself in the mirror like. Holy shit, we really got somethin' here! Of course, not every pose is like that, but that is the great thing about yoga. It is your practice, your time, and you can move into whichever pose feels best for you in that moment.

Wow, doesn't that sound like some yogi granola talk, hey? In all seriousness, I find myself wanting to go deeper into poses and learn how to master them. One class at a time, of course. I am trying to make the most out of my two week pass before it expires, so we are back to hot yoga tomorrow!

(Some) Benefits of Hot Yoga:

- Detoxification: You literally sweat out of every single crevice and pore from your body. Gross, I know, but this allows toxins to flush from your body and the sweat (believe it or not) helps cool you down.

- Stabilizes high blood pressure and helps relieve arthritis

- Helps relieve pain from the body. Example, shoulders, back, neck, etc. Work at it little by little - no need to go balls to the wall right away - and soon you will find relief!

- Skin health: The skin is the largest organ of our body, and since you are flushing toxins from it, this helps produce natural lanolin to release from your pores and help improve your complexion.

- Stress, anxiety, and respiratory issues: Hot yoga helps bring this to balance as the practice promotes resetting your nerves, relaxing your muscles, and making you feel more calm. I definitely feel this calmness during the end of the practice in savasana (when your body is laying still), as that is where you reap the benefits of your practice.

Have you tried hot yoga before?

Yassss! Until next time, friends : )

One Day, Three Workouts + A New Cleanse

Happy Monday!

What's up? How's life?

I hope you all had a great weekend, and a big Happy Mother's Day to all you mama's out there! Yesterday was a busy day jam-packed with family, so the day flew by and there was little downtime. Despite all the running around, it was so good to see people from both my side and Ryan's side of the family, and I am happy we could fit (mostly!) everyone into one day.

My family (as in, mom, dad, Sarah & her friend Sarah) came over for dinner, where Ryan BBQ'd some balsamic marinaded chicken. I made a big quinoa salad with black beans, as well as some grilled zucchini sticks and a spinach salad. Lots of food and lots of laughs, as we played Cards Against Humanity afterwards. Does anyone else love that game? It is one of those games where it's like. Hmmm... Do I really want to play this in front of my parents? Nevertheless, it was hilarious & my sister's friend had never played it before. Crazy! It was definitely a fun time and the day was FULL OF FOOD!

Too much food. You know when you are full, but you keep on eating because, well. It's there! And I don't want it to go to waste. That's exactly how I felt yesterday. I found myself eating things like cookies and chips, when usually I am not tempted by those. Although it was a weird day of eating, I am back on track today.

Before we jump into what happened today, I wanted to let you guys know that I am trying a cleanse. Yes, a cleanse. And not an all liquids cleanse or a soup cleanse or anything like that. I am doing the Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox. You have probably seen it in stores, and to be honest, I had this cleanse kit for over a year and a half before biting the bullet and starting it today. When I first purchased the kit, it was near Christmas time and I was starting my first bikini prep in the New Year. So, I figured prep plus a cleanse was probably too much. Here we are now!

You take the three herbal pill supplements twice per day, as well as the CL Herbal Extract twice per day. It is suggested that the supplements are taken before meals at breakfast and dinner. This is pretty doable, I'd say. The last thing I want is to be hauling out all of my supplements at lunch time at work. I know people would probably be like, oh, okay, because they were used to my food during prep, but nevertheless. It makes it easier to do at home. Additionally, it also comes with a booklet with a list of foods to eat during the cleanse. The usual bread, pasta, candy, ice cream, dairy, sugar, etc. is on the avoid list, though there are things that I eat every day that are on the YES list. This includes berries, oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, chicken, etc. During the cleanse you are to avoid things like added sauces - some oils are okay - and peanut butter. PEANUT BUTTER? That is my ride or die in my morning bowl of oats. However, yeast bacteria thrive on things like sugar and peanut butter. I am going to cut it out during this twelve day cleanse and see how my skin reacts to that. Eczema is a very picky thing, and although I like to think I know my triggers (dairy, bread), even the slightest thing can set it off. We shall see how I fare with this!

Why a cleanse? Why not! As I read through the booklet last night, I immediately thought: do it for the blog. This doesn't mean I am going to do ANYTHING for the sake of writing about it on the blog, but I read so many blogs and reviews before finally jumping in. Perhaps this will serve as a tool for you in case you are ever interested in trying it!

So, with a new cleanse on the go, it was only fitting to go grocery shopping and stock up on some more healthy items. This included more berries, rice cakes, almond butter (this is allowed!), lemons, cucumber, and apples. We'll see how creative I get with this, as it almost reminds me of my prep diet - only with more fruit! Here is a little example of a prepped lunch for the week:

Quinoa, broccoli & baked chicken breast with a sugar free (it is amazing what they put sugar in!) seasoning, which is a medley of spices like garlic, pepper, onion, etc. I also made a big salad for tomorrow, as I usually like having salads on Tuesdays as it is a rest day. More carbs on the days that I work out!

Speaking of work outs, I am absolutely exhausted from my day of working out. Yes, it was pretty much a day. If you didn't pick up on this already by the first photo in this post, I went to a hot yoga class today. There is a studio maybe four doors down from my work, and although I walk by there pretty much every day, I hadn't been inside in a long time. In fact, the first time I ever went was 2009, and since then they have undergone some ownership changes. This meant that I was eligible again for the 2 week intro pass. Myself and two other coworkers arrived at 9:30am to get our sweat on, and holy crap did I ever sweat. It is hard to grab onto your arms and legs in certain poses when literally every pore of your body is pouring with sweat. The class was an hour long, and man did I ever feel good after! There were people of all ages and experience levels too, which was really cool to see. I didn't feel like the odd one out despite not being the most flexible yogi in the room, but that's the great thing about yoga. Everyone is on their own journey and you just make space for what feels good to your body.

After yoga, I came home and started laundry while my oatmeal cooked away on the stove. I got a bit of a late start to my breakfast game (something about twisting around on a full stomach in a boiling hot room didn't sound appealing to me pre-yoga), so I started my cleanse during the first meal. Once breakfast was settled, I thought to myself. Well, what else am I going to do? So what else did I do but go for a run. Crazy, I know, but that's what I did. I ran 5km, then immediately jumped into the shower. After running some errands in the afternoon, prepping meals, and even taking a 30 minute cat nap, I headed off to another workout class.

Yes, another workout class.

Me and the two other coworkers I went to hot yoga with also went to a Barre Infusion class at our local rec centre. It was lots of fun and incorporated tons of squats! Barre generally uses things like the bar (as seen in ballet class), balls, and lighter dumbbells. The repetitions are HIGH, like to the point where I was losing count between what rep and set we were in. My legs are starting to feel sore now, so I know I will feel it tomorrow! It is also a great core workout too. If you have been interested in trying a Barre class I would highly recommend it! It is a good work out for sure.

And with that, I am off to flop on the couch and RELAX! I always tell Ryan that I need one day to just do nothing - yet on my days off I am always so GO GO GO! Maybe next weekend ; )

Until next time, friends!