Why We're Ending Our Cleanse On Day 12

I convinced Ryan that we should stop the cleanse on Day 12! I joke a lot about wanting to quit to eat ice cream and because I'm a baby but here is the conclusion I've come to and what Ryan agreed to:

First of all, we had to consider our reason for doing this cleanse: 1. To remind ourselves to eat healthier throughout the rest of the year, 2. To eat whole, "clean" food for a period of time to reset and "rid ourselves of toxins"...I hate that phrase because it makes you sound insane but there it is, 3. To be healthier so that we can find adventure throughout our very long and happy lives!

If our reason for doing this cleanse was to prove to ourselves that we could do it, well, we have done it! 3 years in a row! I'm not saying this is right for everyone but when we took the time to think about what is important to us we realized that our biggest take away from the cleanse each year is to achieve a better balance in our normal lives.

So, here is what we're going to do: Every three months, we are going to do a 7 day "Clean Program" cleanse. We hope that this will serve as a better reminder throughout the year to improve our health and eating habits. Let's face it....3 weeks of clean eating at the beginning of the year meant 49 weeks of progressively worse eating throughout the year for us. 7 days is a lot easier to achieve and won't leave us feeling deprived and terrible (which is how we felt on Day 12 and led to this decision).

As always, I did pick up a few more good habits from the cleanse this year: we are going to continue our morning protein powder shakes for breakfast (and only have other breakfasts as a treat on the weekends or when family is in town), we are continuing our vitamins and probiotics, we are still going to make that awesome lentil soup in our regular lives, we are going to do our best to maintain the 12 hour fasting window between dinner and breakfast and...very exciting: Ryan is replacing his morning coffee with tea and only drinking coffee as a treat! Instead of his life blood!

This is what we think will work for us and we challenge you to find what works for you in your quest for a healthier existence :)