Running on Empty

I am embarrassed to post this, but that is one of the many purposes of this blog - so you can learn from my mistakes. I came home and immediately hopped onto the computer just to tell you about the most recent.

Today I felt hungry. Hungry after breakfast, hungry after lunch. This should have been a big clue to me, but alas, no. What it needed to be was a huge sign - neon lights and all - saying "Girl, you are stupid! You obviously did not get enough to eat." Instead, I simply thought that I was feeling particularly voracious and needed to settle my meddling mind & stomach down.

After work I went to the gym as I do most Monday-Thursday and found that I was having difficulty on the elliptical  - the elliptical, folks. This thing isn't even as hard as a treadmill and I can't get my legs to move? As I was 3/4 mile into my exercise I got to thinking about what I had to eat today.

--Well, I had 13-14 oz of smoothie this morning and 26 for lunch. That's normal.
What went into this smoothie: 2 apples, 2 bananas, 2 C spinach & 3 C water.
What the hell was I thinking?!  If you are good with numbers you will realize how many calories that I was attempting to consume as my daily intake:
Calories in a medium-large size apple: 95-115
Calories in a medium-sized banana: 105
Calories in a packed cup of spinach: 14

Okay, you math whizzes, have you done your calculations?
That is a whopping 468 calories!!
This is what I was hoping would get me through the day - 468 itsy bitsy, raw calories! Dumb, folks. I'm dumb. And on top of this I am going to the gym 4-5 days a week and burning at least that each day. Running on Empty!  The goal of this cleanse isn't to starve myself & it isn't to loose weight either; but apparently that's the road I'm headed down. What has happened is that I am not measuring my smoothies by their contents, but rather their quantity. I haven't been thinking about calories and have merely been thinking about how much smoothie I am consuming in one day. Now, granted, some of these smoothies are much thicker (less water - more substance) than others. Today's smoothie - not substantial enough on its own.

I will not be continuing down this path of self-destruction & starvation. In fact, after the realization hit me mid stride on the elliptical, I decided to save today's calories and head home. What I need is a new plan - a plan to consume more calories. This would seem easy, as one would simply say - "Well, have more smooties." This is a great idea, except for the fact that even though I have a "real job" I am still rather poor. I shop at Greenlife http://www.greenlifegrocery.com/www/docs/1 which I love, but organic is pricey & produce in general is too. Example: I picked up ingredients the other day to make 4 smoothies - $18 and I already had many of the ingredients at home. And if I need to have 2-3 smoothies per day then I am going to go broke trying to go green here!

I'd like to reach out to anyone who has any good ideas of how to make this cleanse work within a reasonable budget. Is is feasible? Do I shorten the cleanse? Do I call it quits?
While I try to figure things out I will still be having smoothies - just many more of them.