I’ve Moved! Pancake Fridays @ The Pancake Princess + a detox update

WHERE. have I been?

I know. I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been trying to do a million things at once, doing all of them halfway, falling into a state of paralysis and indecision, and doing nothing but watching episode after episode of The Vampire Diaries and Revenge and New Girl and trying to wean myself off my hopeless 12 episodes-in-four-days-addiction to Scandal since it’s not coming back until next fall. NEXT FALL. DO YOU REALIZE HOW FAR AWAY THAT IS?

Okay whew! Someone’s a little crazed.

Here’s the deal: I’ve moved.

http://thepancakeprincess.com is officially my new home! Woo!

And it’s Friday so hop on over there for these long-awaited mystery pancakes!

Thank you all for your lovely comments, positive thoughts, and well wishes for my move! You are fabulous. If you ever need help moving your own blog, feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll help you out as best I can (aka I will talk your ear off about how confusing awful horrible and then suddenly not confusing at all my move was). There were definitely times along the way where I was just like. What. The Heck. Can I please just ask a live person my questions?

And if you have any tips on switching to a self-hosted wordpress, HIT. Me. Up.

Lastly, my detox: I know there are some curious cats out there wondering how it’s going. So basically:

• Then: the first half of week 1 was a stomach-growling adjustment; the second half I felt fantastic and really fell in love with some of the meals! Cauliflower rice stir fry is my jam. Warning: I don’t know if this was because I was like, really toxic or something, but the first two days I felt super bloated. As the week progressed, I felt much, much better! (Although peeing turned into a 10x/day exercise).
• Now: I’m nearing the end of week 2 and just had my first pancakes of the cleanse (banana oat coconut pancakes) and I feel GOOD. I’ve found that getting a lot of sleep is really crucial because otherwise I feel run down and you know how they say people who are sleep deprived tend to eat more? I think it’s true. When I feel crappy, I sometimes turn to food to make it better. Not good. Plus, getting lots of sleep helps the whole going-to-bed-hungry thing. Going to bed sooner = less time awake to bemoan an empty stomach (which I like).
• Getting in tune: I honestly feel so much more in tune with my body than ever before. The first week was such a pure diet that now, when I’ve started to eat grains, fish and legumes again, I can really feel the difference. When I taste-tested just a tiny bit of a sugary recipe last weekend, my tongue literally felt dirty afterwards. When I ate made these delicious cherry-date oat bars and brought them for a snack, I found it left me craving carbs for the rest of the day. Which brings me to…
• Cravings: Although I’ve totally craved cake, pancakes, muffins, cookies, etc, it has been unbelievably easy to pass up the store-bought M&M cookies, kolaches and doughnuts in the office kitchen and I’ve been able to grumpily resist the siren call of my boyfriend’s sacks of tortilla chips, bags of homemade chocolate chip cookies and loaves of luscious chocolate zucchini bread (courtesy of his family and their cute care packages) and the gallon of Blue Bell Dessert Trio ice cream that he keeps in his freezer. How is he so fit? Utter mystery. Anyway, what’s kept me on track is…the fact that I’m on track. And so close to reaching the finish line. And I feel so good, I’m almost afraid to jeopardize my body with sugar. My best tips for curbing cravings: hot herbal tea, fresh or dried fruit, but mostly: DISTRACTION. Meeting friends for coffee, trying to figure out my new blog, going for a walk, doing yoga, reading–works every time.
• Benefits: Do I have more energy? Debatable. I feel super energized during the day, but I get SUPER tired at night, starting between 9-10pm. I never feel bloated and I’ve never woken up regretting what I ate the day before. I’m gaining confidence in my self-restraint as each day of clean eating passes and mentally, I feel like my body is so much cleaner than it’s ever been. I feel in control of my body and what I eat. Plus, I’m totally learning how to cook with garlic and herbs and stuff. Before, I would just cut out anything that looked foreign/too time-consuming, but I’ve been following each recipe to the letter and the flavors are just fantastic–nothing I would have ever dreamed would come out of my kitchen. And I’ve dropped about 5 pounds. But I lose and gain water weight like no one’s business, so I would never advocate this as a weight loss tool.
• Downsides: My grocery bills have been noticeably higher, what with all the random ingredients it calls for that I didn’t have (tahini, cardamom, fresh herbs, unsweetened shredded coconut, mustard, frozen mango and berries, red lentils, etc.). On the bright side, I’ve been buying little sample baggies of some of the spices which is not only super cheap (I got a few tablespoons of curry powder for about 12 cents) but lets me taste test before I commit to a whole bottle. Plus, it’s totally expanded my horizons and I’ll definitely be buying a lot of these new ingredients again. This plan also involves rather a lot of food prep, but I think the most time-intensive meals are in the first week–don’t be scared off, because it gets easier!
  

If you don’t want to read all of that: I LOVE this detox. I’m having a great experience, and it’s totally changing my outlook on food, blogging, life. I would definitely recommend it. If you want to keep up with what I’m eating, I post a lot of photos on instagram. What are your opinions of posting short updates on Facebook? I’d like to do shorter, more frequent updates without spamming you with blog posts. But I don’t know.

Anyway, happy Friday! Thank you for being such awesome followers and friends, and see you at The Pancake Princess 🙂