I headed to Boulder, bright + early this morning, to hang out with Laura and have a fun work day together. It gets a little boring working from home everyday. Today, my morning routine went like this.

alarm –> snooze 10min
out of bed
dry brush, shower, dressed
lemon water chug
finish getting ready
make oats + eat oats
make smoothie for me + smoothie for chris
check email
out the door

= 1 hour, not bad right?

I made a small-ish bowl of Bob’s Red Mill high fiber cereal this morning. I used about 1/4c, with almond milk and 1/2 banana. On top I added coconut butter and unsalted/unsweetened peanut butter.

2 confessions.

1 – I JUST found out, thanks to reader Evan, that this hot cereal has wheat in it!! Detox fail. Whooops. I bought this a few weeks ago in the bulk bins, and totally forgot that wheat germ + wheat bran were in the ingredient list. It’s also made up of oat bran, flax, and a few other things. I was so glad he brought this to my attention, because my goal was to rid my body of all wheat. I didn’t even think to check this! No big deal though. Now I know. :)

2 – I’ve been buying jarred peanut butter. Yes, the nut butter queen, has not been making her peanut butter at home. There is however, good reason. Lately, Whole Foods and another local health store [Natural Grocers] have had Maranatha organic peanut butter on sale. On top of the sale, I’ve also had $1 off coupons. This has brought the total cost of a 16oz jar of organic peanut butter to a whopping $1.50. I’ve gotten 3 jars at this price in the past 2 months. The latest jar I bought was unsweetened and unsalted. It also doesn’t have the added palm fruit oil, which is used as a stabilizer. There was oil on top, but I mixed it up and it was the perfect drippy consistency. I don’t mind unsalted peanut butter and really love this brand! I was getting a little bored with the plain almond butter, so this is a nice change of pace.

Eating organic peanuts is extremely important to me and here is why.

Peanuts rank among the top 10 foods contaminated with persistent organic pollutants, says the Pesticide Action Network. These chemicals linger in the environment for years and can also build up in the body's fatty tissues.
Read more at Wholeliving.com: Organic Food and You

I’ve read and heard this from numerous other sources as well.

Back to breakfast…

I really wanted something warm this morning, but was also set on making a smoothie. I tried to make 1/2 versions of both, to equal a full breakfast. I’m not sure on the fat/protein content, but I estimated the total calories around 550.

Purple slurple time!!

This creation included:

1/4 avocado
3/4c frozen blueberries
~8 frozen strawberries
2T amazing grass vanilla chai protein powder
1T chia seeds
~1c almond milk
1/2 frozen banana

I scraped some coconut butter on top and then poured it into a water bottle after taking the photo above. I loved the crunchy pieces of coconut butter shell throughout the smoothie, as I consumed this in the car.

Laura and I got to work at at Barnes + Nobles. I also did a little blog reading. Can you tell whose blog I’m reading?

We met Natalie [my sis in law] and my friend Lauren for lunch at Whole Foods. It was a detoxers dream!! The Whole Foods in Boulder just expanded and it is bigger than you can imagine. The prepared foods/hot-cold bar area is the size of an entire store. I had no trouble at all finding many things to eat.

I love how Whole Foods labels things so well. I was looking for the “vegan” tags first and then checking for soy + wheat. I started by making a salad, filled with:

spinach
mixed greens
garbanzo beans
red quinoa
sprouts
sunflower seeds
cucumbers
artichoke
topped with: olive oil/apple cider vinegar/lemon juice/balsamic vin

I also found:

grilled veggies
black eyed pea + sweet tater salad
Mexican rice
cumin potatoes

Everything was SO good. I think my favorite was the rice. I checked the ingredient lists for salt as well. I don’t know how much salt was used, but tried to keep the hot bar items to a minimum. They actually didn’t all include salt, either!

Laura + Natalie [mommy to be!!] + Lauren

There I am!

Since I was away from home until 9pm, I didn’t get a chance to drink my detox tea. Darn. ;) However, I did have three cups of tea today, that I would like to think did some good. Below was a delicious peppermint herbal tea. It was so amazingly flavorful. I hate weak teas, so this was great!

I picked Chris up for work, on my way home, and the sky looked amazing. I wish you could see the mountains behind that hotel. They looked incredible today. It was super clear + sunny, but snow covered day. A lovely view almost everywhere!

When we finally got home, after some errands, it was 9pm. Today I snacked on:

rice cake sandwich with peanut butter + raisins [I love Lundberg rice cakes..even the salt free are so tasty!]
larabar [had one lying around but going to make my own soon!]
apricots
apple

I was already planning on leftovers and really excited about it.

To spruce things up a bit, I sautéed mushrooms in a pan and added leftover black eyed peas, millet, brown rice pasta, and brown rice to the mix. Then, I turned off the heat and stirred in about 3c of raw spinach. It wilted every so slightly. Not a big fan of mushy spinach!

Then I topped with a lot of saucey goodness!

I gobbled this up and just ate a delicious apple.

What a lovely day!

Day THREE in review:

I felt great this morning. No unusual exhaustion to report.
I felt more energized throughout the day, than usual.
Definitely less bloated today.
I missed my lovely coffee again, but had no problems avoiding it, even when I brewed some for Chris.
Getting out for lunch was really fun and totally doable, especially if you have a Whole Foods nearby.
The lemon water wasn’t quite as bad and is definitely moving things along, in more ways than 1. I really want to try Teri’s fresh lemon + ginger tea! Ginger is awesome for digestion as well and I bet this would be a great way to start the morning.
My skin is feeling much softer, which I attribute to dry brushing.
I was a little jealous of Laura’s bagel this morning. ;)
Today I was consistently thirsty.
I didn’t work out today because there was no time!
Again, I ate + drank whenever hungry/thirsty.
I didn’t have any bad cravings, but a chocolate chip cookie sounds pretty good, hehe.

Nothing too crazy to report at all! Feeling great so far! Thanks again for all of your comments and interest. I’m trying to respond to your questions as thoroughly as possible!

While I wasn’t tired throughout the day, I am now officially exhausted. Night!!

<3 Ashley

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pre-toxing

detox day 1 – part 1, part 2

detox day 2 – part 1, part 2