Cleanse

Thanks to my friend Racheal, I am back to the blog. She is what I consider a blogging professional and insanely good at keeping everyone up-to-date on her and her family's move to Hawaii for a year. After chatting with her yesterday, she gave me the idea to talk about my cleanse.

Last year I HAD to do a cleanse/elimination diet as yet another way to try to figure out what was wrong with my stomach. I bought a book called "Clean" which details a very specific elimination diet to help people determine underlying causes of various physical ailments. I won't even go into all the things you can and can't eat for three weeks but if you are really interested you can look up Clean by Dr. Junger. Anyway, it turned out that food sensitivity was not my problem, and despite how frustrating and annoying the cleanse was, there were parts of it I liked.

So after a Christmas of shoving my face full of sugar and caffeine and processed foods, I decided that a cleanse would be a good way to start the year. I was inspired by a 21-day cleanse I found in Whole Living magazine. This cleanse seemed MUCH more reasonable than my previous cleanse with some simple instructions. First of all you have to avoid the following for three weeks: sugar, caffeine, gluten, dairy, alcohol, and processed foods. Well I can't drink alcohol anyway, and my impetus for this whole thing was caffeine and  sugar, so really the only painful part would be the gluten and dairy. During week one you are supposed to eat only fruit, veggies, and nuts (sparingly). Then week two you can add in lean protein like fish, beans, and soy, and then week three you can add in non-gluten grains and eggs. After that you are free to do what you want.

I am starting week two today. Week one really wasn't so bad, however in full disclosure, I have been adding a few tablespoons of greek yogurt to my smoothies in the morning and I have been eating some beans. I was a little nervous about not having any protein for a week, so I added those in. I haven't really missed sugar as much as I thought I would. However, I did have an epiphany the first day I started. I was sitting in a meeting at school, and there was a candy dish on the table. I reached over, grabbed a piece, popped it in my mouth, and then had this sudden realization that I wasn't supposed to do that. MINDLESS I tell you, mindless eating of sugar! That was the icing on the cake (excuse the pun) that really told me I needed to cut out sugar for awhile. That plus the peppermint pillows that are in my desk that I apparently also mindlessly put in my mouth on a regular basis throughout the day.....

I've been using some of the recipes the magazine suggests and some of my own. I made split pea soup and a squash and kale soup this weekend to eat this week, and I think I'll make a spaghetti squash and top it with my canned (homemade) stewed tomatoes. That should cover me for most of the week. I think I may add rice back in a little early cause ratatouille sounds good too. And one side note...I asked my life partner to be a part of this cleanse with me to which he originally said yes. However, week one is done and now it's "I'll start next week..." and in addition to not doing it, as I've been making these cleanse-friendly foods I have had to deal with him saying things like, "I think I'll have some soup with bread and cheese, want some? It won't hurt to have it just once," or "I'm going to order onion rings you can have one." Which again in full disclosure...sigh...I did. But just one. And damn, it was good.