Cleanse Post Mortem—What’s After the Cleanse?

Dear Gentle Reader: Calloo, callay—what a glorious day! The Orenda 10-Day Detox is over. I lost a little over 6 lbs. in 10 days. I’m now lighter than what I weighed before I got married 21 years ago—go me!

So what do I eat first? What do I miss the most? A juicy bacon deluxe hamburger and Culver’s cement mixer? A freshly-made, warm almond or chocolate croissant from the bakery? Bread pudding a la mode? Molten chocolate cake? Chicken pot pie? Potstickers? But then I remind myself not to go too crazy. This is what got me into trouble in the first place.

What I liked most about the cleanse was the quick results in a relatively short amount of time.

Mission Health

Dear Gentle Reader: These past two years have been a challenge on the health front. I had to be hospitalized for surgery twice. First to remove my ovaries and uterus due to a pelvic mass the size of a baby watermelon (19 cm). Ten months later, I had to get the tail-end of my pancreas, spleen, and gall bladder removed because of a benign but aggressively growing pancreatic cyst.

For the longest time, I took my doctor’s warning about high cholesterol and blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, in stride. It was not until the cysts which gave me a rude wakeup call.

Springing Back into Fitness

Since I quit my membership at the health club due to COVID-19, I’ve been on my own in terms of fitness. In the beginning I was good about doing the Zumba classes offered by my instructors on Zoom as well as doing the Zumba videos on Prime. However, I’ve fallen off the wagon. Now I’m making do with my biweekly walkie-talkies and treadmilling, which is better than nothing, but sadly not enough to help me whittle away the COVID-19 weight gain.

The struggle is real… (Mural photo taken in the streets of Dublin, March 2019)

A friend from college posted an idea for an experiment after reading an article about how exercise won’t help you lose weight. (What?! Back up…) Of course, exercise is important for weight loss. My sister, Julia, joined Burn Boot Camp and got back from mama hen to her trim high school gymnast form. However, her success wasn’t so much from the working out, but the combination of watching her macros (the proportion of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins), eating cleanly, and tracking what she ate until she can guesstimate her intake relative to her activity throughout the day. Much of her weight loss was from the combination of diet and exercise.

The article points out that the body gets smart and acclimates itself with an activity so it doesn’t burn as many calories as it did before. The challenge is to keep the body guessing. One way is by changing up the activities.

The Experiment.

Battling My COVID-19 Weight Gain with the Orenda 10-Day Cleanse

I knew my stress eating was getting bad when I saw I gained 15 pounds since the stay-in-place order in March. It also didn’t help that I stopped going to Zumba and didn’t follow through with my intention to participate in the Zoom classes that were available. On top of everything, I developed a biscotti addiction and dalgona coffee habit, which I’m sure contributed to my Pillsbury dough mama belly.

Anyway, after squeezing into my “fat pants” and noticing the bountiful muffin top overflowing the waistband, I knew it was time to make some changes.

I remembered how the Orenda Clean Burn Shape 10-day Cleanse helped me reset before, so I ordered it again to jump-start my road to recovery from sugar addiction. (I also ordered one for my friend who wanted to get back to being gluten and dairy-free.)

How was it?

Review: Orenda Clean, Burn, Shape 10-day Cleanse

Let’s face it. I love bread, sugar, processed foods. I am the poster child for stress eating, and come Shark Week, bring out the potato chips and baked treats. No really, I love my four main food groups—pasta, potstickers, potatoes, and pie (ok, dessert in general).

Just before Halloween, I decided to reset my body by using Orenda’s Clean, Burn, Shape 10-day cleanse. Previously I had tried the 2-day sampler which my trainer gave me and was impressed with the results—a five pound loss! (Sadly, life got in the way and it didn’t last.)

Nevertheless, I figured I had nothing to lose except weight (inflammation) and perhaps curb my sugar addiction, start some new healthy habits, and break some bad ones. I thought of this as a jump start to weight loss through clean eating.

So, how did it go?

Recipe: My Trainer Alex’s pH Balancing Anti-Inflammatory Tonic

My awesome trainer, Alex, shared his pH balancing/anti-flammatory tonic recipe with me. Although he didn’t spell out the exact proportions, I decided to take the plunge, make it my own, and see what happens.

This tonic came at the perfect time. I was not only fighting an allergy/cold, but recovering from spraining my foot. (I was wrestling with the vacuum hose while cleaning the stairs, and the hose won.) As much as I was tempted to nurse my wounds and ill-health with a fruity martini, I opted to try Alex’s pH balancing tonic instead. Wow.

I think it helped me recover from my injury and illness sooner than expected. I also felt less congested after drinking the tonic. It helped break up the gunk in my respiratory system. 

Recipe: Mama Sophia’s Healthier Tex-Mex Corned Beef Hash (Dairy-Free)

One of my food challenges that my trainer has for me is to come up with new breakfast ideas that incorporate protein and veggies, is low in sugar, and has no grain involved. It’s tough because most of my breakfast go-to’s involve grain or fruit. Though most people would consider my choices healthy, they haven’t been helping in my efforts to get back down to my ideal weight, which is about 15 pounds away.

I love corned beef. It was a grown-up discovery and not something I grew up on, but it was an instant love. My daughter loves corned beef, too, which is strange because she doesn’t like boiled beef.

In any case, I had made some corned beef in my slow-cooker recently and had some leftovers, along with fingerling potatoes. I thought why not add some vegetables and make it into a Tex-Mex corned beef hash skillet with a fried egg on top. To make it Tex-Mex, I served it with medium-spicy salsa, and it was so good, I didn’t mind the vegetables that happened to be there. ;-P

What I like most about this dish is that it keeps me full with the protein and fiber. Plus, I’m getting some veggies in without too much effort.

Recipe: Mama Sophia’s Healthier Tex-Mex Corned Beef Hash (Dairy-Free, Grain-Free)

Mama Sophia’s Magic Feather: How to Lose Vacation Weight-Gain in a Snap

I dreaded stepping on the scale after coming home from our Spring Break vacation to Orlando. Although I walked more than I have in a long time (20+k steps daily), I also ate lots of food that are weight-loss no-no’s—fried fast foods, sweets, alcoholic beverages, dairy. It was no big surprise that I gained 5 lbs. over the course of six days.

With a heavy heart, I headed back to the gym and got back to my training and exercise classes. I’d asked my trainer, Alex, if he had any Orenda Burn-Clean-Shape packets for a jump-start, but he had run out. I was on my own.

First two days of hardcore exercise—nada. Then I decided to try something else—something which I’d always had in the back of my mind. Why not cut out refined sugar and limit grains to one meal and see what happens?

Happy New Year Personal Reset (How I Lost 5 lbs. in 2 Days, Gained Back 4, and Lost It All Again—One Month Later)

Sometime before last Thanksgiving, my trainer gave me 2 days worth of Orenda Clean trial packs to try out. I was skeptical and leery about using it. First, it’s from a company that appears like a pyramid organization, which I despise on principle. Second, I noticed the powder mixes contain stevia, which I also dislike. Third, it had before/after pictures of people losing 40 pounds after using the program for 90 days—which made me wonder, is this weight-loss sustainable, or will I gain everything back (and then some) once I return to regular food. I put the packets in my drawer and forgot about them.

After the New Year, my trainer asked me if I’d tried the samples. I told him that I had been saving them for after the holidays and was planning to try the very next day. (Liar-liar-pants-on-fire, who got caught and was trying to save face.) So I kept my word and did the program for two days and was amazed at the results.

Move It and Lose It: Tricks to Sneak in Exercise Throughout the Day

I always thought I needed to allocate a huge block of time to exercise in order to lose weight—a couple of hours each day. Who the heck has that time, especially after punching the clock, doing Mom duties, et al.?

As much as it would be nice to have the luxury of a huge block of time to exercise, it can be accomplished in bits throughout the day—as I learned from my trainer. It’s just a matter of changing your perspective and challenging yourself to sneak what you can throughout the day.

Here are some tips: