Clean Gut Starts Today!

Food for week 1

Oh man, here we go again! Yesterday was exhausting but we are now ready for week 1 of the Clean Gut program! As I discussed here, this year we not only decided to switch from the Clean Program to Clean Gut for our annual cleanse, but I also pre-planned our menu for the entire 21 days. It took a while but it definitely makes it easier. We did our grocery shopping yesterday and prepared our food for the week (minus the weekend) in about 4 hours. We make our shakes in the morning but everything else is pre-portioned and ready to go! Also, I stated before that I didn't know which supplements we would take but we have decided on magnesium, a B complex and a probiotic.

The only slight adjustment from the calendar I posted is that the "three tastes noodles" are now made with tuna instead of anchovies (oops) and I used lemon juice, tomatoes and garlic instead of the seasonings in the recipe available on the Clean Program website. I don't know if I'll like it but the taste test wasn't too bad. I'm really excited about the Zucchini Mushroom Cashew Chicken though, which just smells and tastes amazing. We're having it for lunch 3 times this week, so hopefully I will think it's amazing after day 3 :)
Ryan made the split pea soup, roasted tomato soup and veggie hummus (although our food processor sucks and it didn't turn out like the picture!).

For our shakes, we use 1 scoop of Garden of Life raw vegan protein powder (unflavored, the flavored versions are made with Stevia and I hate Stevia) with 8 oz of unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 cup of mixed berries, some frozen kale, unsweetened coconut flakes and cocoa powder. I made sure to blend the protein powder with the almond milk first after reading Amazon reviews that said it might be "chalky" otherwise. After reading those reviews, I was really scared to try this powder b/c the bad reviews went from "tastes like vomit" to "the worst thing I've ever eaten". It really wasn't bad. Still kinda chalky and bland but definitely drinkable. The only thing I would suggest is to make sure you blend the chunks away...it's somehow unsettling to chew kale or coconut in a drink.

We began the Mayor's Fitness Challenge last week so I'm a little concerned how our cleanse will work with the added exercise. From what I've gathered on the Clean Gut forums, it is important to make sure we get enough food and protein. Ryan and I have decided to bring our dinner soups with us to work to consume right before we leave so that we have something in our tummies before going directly to our weeknight workouts. We will eat our salads after the workouts and hopefully that will be enough. I'm thinking we could add some eggs or something if we're really hungry and we'll still be able to maintain the 12 hour fasting window.

So there you have it! I'm feeling very optimistic and ready for 21 days of cleansing! It's easy to be cheerful and optimistic when you've only been cleansing for 3 hours though :)