I’ll just get right to it. Remember, Arielle’s recipes are here. Mine are here. All this started here and here.

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Day 4

Breakfast

Arielle: Spicy Sweet Potato Hash with red onion, red pepper, jalapeño, and spicy chicken sausage

Us: Sweet potato hash with veggies

Thoughts

• We were out of meat items so we went with a veg version of this. Not bad. Not bad at all. Even Mom got in on this.
• It will be better with chicken sausage.

Lunch

Arielle: Cilantro lime cauliflower rice with black beans, corn, avocado, and lime yogurt sauce

Us: Peanut butter toast and an apple

Thoughts:

• This was kind of out of necessity. We were running around on Saturday so cooking lunch wasn’t on the menu (*rimshot*).
• It was surprisingly filling.

Dinner

Arielle: Grilled Cheese With Lite Mozzarella, Brussels Sprouts, and Apple

Us: Leftover cauliflower rice

Thoughts:

• This was, once again, necessity. No one was around, and we didn’t want to waste anything so we opted for cleaning out the leftovers.

Snacks and Dessert

Arielle

Snack: Carrots

Dessert: Frozen strawberries

Us

Snack: orange

Thoughts

• We should be snacking more. We’re trying.

Day 5

Brunch

Arielle (Breakfast): Sweet potato hash with red pepper, red onion, jalapeño, mushrooms, and an egg

Arielle (Lunch): Buffalo turkey zoodle bowl with onions, celery, and carrots

Us (Brunch): Some kind of made-up version of breakfast tostadas

Thoughts:

• This was actually more like brunch because everyone slept in (except me because I’m a space alien).
• It was quite good but doesn’t really follow anything on the list. It has no added sugar, but there IS sugar in tomatoes, so if you’re going “all in,” keep that in mind.
• One would think this would be quite filling with the black beans and eggs. One would be wrong. Once again, we were being arrogant and probably should have more carefully considered the whole snack thing.

Dinner

Arielle: Grilled cheese with Brussels and apple slices

Us: Buffalo turkey zoodle bowl with celery, and carrots

 

Thoughts

• Arielle doesn’t link to a recipe for this one. Trying to find one is not easy. Therefore, I made this up. Didn’t seem like rocket science, and it turned out really freakin’ good.
• We were, however, hungry an hour later. We are always hungry.

Snacks and Dessert

Arielle

Dessert: Frozen mashed banana with frozen blueberries

Pre-workout snack: Bell pepper slices

Snack: Baby carrots

Us

Snack: Asiago toast (between brunch and dinner)

Dessert: raspberries and blueberries

Thoughts

• We’re learning. Snacks are good. Snacks are our friends.

Day 6

Breakfast

Arielle: Sweet potato hash with red pepper, red onion, jalapeño, mushrooms, and an egg

Us: Asiago toast, blueberries, pineapple, and raspberries

Thoughts

• Work days are hard for elaborate breakfasts. We were grateful to get this in.
• This asiago spread on toast idea is a game changer. Not sure why I never thought of it before.

Lunch

Arielle: Grilled cheese with Brussels and apple slices

Us: Leftover zoodle bowl

Thoughts

• We knew we would be starving by now so I took some carrots and a little container of berries to work. My sister took an avocado and some carrots.
• At this point, we’re starting to realize our work weeks might mean taking leftover dinner for lunch on most days. This may or may not affect the order of our meals.

Dinner

Arielle: Zoodles with spinach, carrots, mushrooms, onions, celery, ground turkey, and low-sodium soy sauce

Us: Mozzarella and sprout grilled cheese

Thoughts

• We’d both been looking forward to this one.
• It did not disappoint.
• I was a bit worried about it not having a lot of flavor since we didn’t use the shallots in the original recipe, but I was wrong. It didn’t need anything more than the olive oil and a little salt and pepper.
• Speaking of that recipe, I bought the cookbook Arielle cites in her article. It’s Skinnytaste: Fast and Slow by Gina Homolka, who is a pretty simple and practical cook if you need such a thing in your life (you do…so many taco recipes). When we’re finished with this detox, I’m going to hit the Homolka cookbook hard! Stay tuned!
• Also, we ate the leftover sprout mix as a side with this. It just made sense.

Snacks and Dessert

Arielle

Snack 1: Raw almonds

Snack 2: Baby carrots and a clementine

Dessert: Frozen mashed banana with frozen blueberries

Us

Snack 1: Carrots and berries (me); avocado and carrots (sis)

Snack 2: Remainder of apple from dinner

FINAL THOUGHTS AFTER DAY 6

• We have none. Our brains have stopped functioning.
• Well, I take that back. They’re functioning but only seem to have one note: Coooooookie.
• We’re quite hungry often. This is a good and bad thing. See, we’re not leaving our meals stuffed and we know we’re using the fuel more efficiently this way. Instead of running on all that sugar, we’re using the actual food.
• The up sides outweigh the downsides. Things move more regularly. Indigestion is less common. The gym is a welcome adventure again. I remember feeling like this. It’s good. I like it.
• My sister says she feels better but isn’t losing any weight yet. It’s still quite early, so we’ll see. I feel like I’m less bloated than I had been the past couple months. I think we’re on the right track.
• We both had a weak moment. It wasn’t too bad, but yesterday, I confessed to my sister that I had to stop at Panera to get a prickly pear hibiscus fresca. I thought she’d yell at me. Turns out we are connected at the brain because she did the same thing. No added sugar so all is well! I wish I had the words for how badly I wished it was a tulip cookie instead.