Clean Gut Cleanse: Week 1

Day 1
Felt great in the morning...but I think I still had some delicious sugar and garbage in my system because by the end of the work day, I was hungry and had a headache. Went to bed early because of the headache.

Day 2
Still have frickn' headache! Starting to feel grumpy and hungry. Tried listening to binaural beats to help with headache since we're not supposed to take ibuprofen or aspirin. Helped a bit but it's still lingering and even though I just ate my lunch (the cashew chicken smells phenom...taste is pretty bland....might have to alter it for other days) I still feel grumpy and unsatisfied. Was it this bad last year??? Sugar withdrawal maybe? I want chocolate cake with chocolate icing...well, if I really think about it, I don't want that but I do want something to make me feel better about feeling deprived. Breakthrough!

Day 3
Broke down last night and took a single ibuprofen...and another one this morning. I'm not sure if this headache is related to the cleanse because I have a history of headaches/migraines but I do know that if I didn't do something, I wasn't going to get any work done! Unfortunately, getting work done is key to remaining employed so get over it Cleanse!

Dinner was pretty good last night...had the roasted tomato soup and a salad with a hardboiled egg and dressing made from avocado, lemon juice, garlic powder and a little sea salt. Pretty satisfying for me but Ryan was hungry by dinner time. I need to remember to feed him more...
Tonight is our second body bootcamp for this 10 week Mayor's Fitness Challenge...just getting over being sore from the one on Saturday so I'm a lil scared. Made some quinoa today to eat with lunch along with some extra tamari. Figured the extra food would be a good idea to get rid of cravings and prepare me for the workout. Spent entirely too much time on Google yesterday trying to find snack options...going to try to make chocolate covered coconut macaroons this weekend...without any sugar. Wish me luck!

Day 4

Discovered yesterday afternoon that if I mix my strawberries with coconut flakes and raw cacao nibs, it is delicious and much more satisfying than eating them separately!

Last night's bootcamp was not that bad and I can't be sure if it's because I took it easy or I'm getting stronger (probably not yet) or they just made it easier. My headache finally broke yesterday and I have been in a much better mood ever since. I still get really hungry near the end of the workday but I think if I bring an extra shake or snack, that should take care of the problem.

Reviewed the menu for this weekend and next week and I am changing a few things up: can't imagine eating another bland zucchini dish so "Zucchini Wrapped Cod" is probably changing to "Turkey Bacon Wrapped Cod". I have no idea how turkey bacon is allowed on a cleanse but I'm not going to argue with Dr. Junger because that sounds really delicious and it will be a nice weekend treat. Found a fabulous recipe for coconut flour pancakes that I can't wait to try...maybe that will be dinner tonight? Also decided to switch up the "Unpeanut Noodle" thing because I need a break from "Asian" inspired foods. This stupid cashew chicken is really getting on my nerves and I made too much so it's been cashew chicken alllll week. Also, we switched up our shakes today: instead of the usual we used lite coconut milk (the kind in the can), blueberries, lemon juice, kale and it tasted almost exactly the same as the other shake. Oh well, I tried.

Day 5
Made the coconut flour pancakes last night and they were so good. Maybe not regular food good, but for Clean Gut? I was in heaven! I left out the sweetener and added apple pie spice (which is basically just cinnamon, I think maybe nutmeg and something else). To top it off, I used almond butter and frozen raspberries. I heated them up in the microwave and mixed them together but if I made it again, I'd probably keep them separate. If you're craving bread/sweets, this is a great cleanse hack to beat the craving with "Clean" food.

I also made these chocolate dipped raspberry macaroons but I used unsweetened coconut flakes, no sugar, no salt, unsweetened/dairy free baking chocolate, frozen raspberries instead of fresh and 3 egg whites and a 1/4 cup of coconut oil to make up for the sugar being absent. I have to admit, the first few bites are tough. Chocolate without sugar is bitter (duh), but after a few bites, you start to appreciate the flavors without the sugar. I could have added a Cleanse approved sweetener (ugh stupid nasty Stevia) but for me, I'm trying to train my tastebuds to like less sweetness. I took a crappy picture with my phone but you can still see how beautiful these suckers turned out.

Toasted coconut is gorgeous and delicious

If you're unsure about the bitterness of the chocolate, you could eat these without the chocolate covering and it is slightly sweet naturally from the coconut. 

I think I'm going to make a roasted chicken this weekend because it sounds awesome. Feeling a lot better than I did earlier in the week! 

Day 6

Another body bootcamp this morning on the beach in balmy 45 degree weather. Had our shakes before we went and it kept us satiated throughout the workout...nice. Went to the farmer's market afterwards and there was also a street "home and business expo" so we had to walk past kettle korn, a food truck, and the smell of bacon coming from somewhere in addition to the usual delicious fresh baked goods, coffee and cheese of the farmer's market. THEN, we made the mistake of going grocery shopping after all this temptation and about 4 hours away from our last meal...psychological torture is going past the bakery and buy 1 get 1 massive bags of candy and not being able to eat either! It was a rough morning. At least we had a delicious lunch to look forward to..oh wait, no, we didn't. Somehow we still have leftover cashew chicken. We have eaten it every day this cleanse except for the first day when we ate the 3 taste noodle variation. And guess what? There is plenty for lunch tomorrow! I know it's very bratty to complain about having more than enough food to eat but I think we're well past that. This throws off my original food plan but it works out because Cleansing is damn expensive and it helps to not have to purchase grass-fed (and humane certified) stew beef. Since I'm not making that anymore, I have some cauliflower that is no longer needed later this week. Popped it in the oven at 400 degrees with some olive oil, sea salt and pepper and I'm waiting to find out if it will be awesome or an utter disappointment. I am such a complainer but hopefully, if you're reading this and doing the cleanse too, you know exactly what I mean. *Update: cauliflower "poppers" are awesome

Autumn Slaw

Day 7

Made a roasted chicken today because it sounded like a good idea. Ate it with autumn slaw (made with carrot instead of apple) and it was pretty good...especially with some savory roasted nuts sprinkled over slaw. Was feeling super grumpy again that afternoon, so we made coconut flour pancakes again for dinner and afterwards I felt like a superhero! I had energy again and I didn't want to curl up in a ball and cry anymore. I had so much energy and happiness that I even started creating our food for the week! Asparagus Truffle Oil Soup? Done! The best lentil soup I've ever eaten? Done! Chopped strawberries portioned into containers? Shazam! I'm finding that my biggest cravings aren't for sweets anymore, nope, straight up BREAD! Croissants, baguettes, texas toast, health nut bread with peanut butter...drool...Onwards to Week 2!

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 :)

Clean Program: Clean Gut Monthly Meal Plan

I'm feeling pretty smug about this...yes, I realize I'm not the first person to discover meal planning but this is a revelation for me! It took some time, but I have completely planned out our 21 day cleanse! If this picture makes it look like I created this calendar with 1993 Word, it's only because I have a child's understanding of creating jpg's. You should be able to get the gist of it though. I have pinned pretty much every recipe that I'll need here and the rest are from the Clean Program's website. For breakfast, I simply put "shake" in each slot...I just purchased Garden of Life raw protein powder (in chocolate) and I think each day will be some variation of that with berries, kale, almond milk, coconut milk, chia, almond butter, cashews, lemon or lime juice etc. According to the reviews on Amazon, this protein powder tastes awful but it's supposed to be really good for you so I can gag it down. Update: Made the mistake of reading some of the 1 star reviews...all I can do is pray that the giant container of protein powder I purchased doesn't: taste like vomit, taste like rancid coconut oil, cause vomiting or some other problem that has yet to be discovered. 

I'm sure changes will be made as the month progresses, but this at least mentally prepares me and will (hopefully) take the stress out of grocery shopping this month. I'm also hoping that it will help me avoid cheating but I have a history of cheating on this cleanse every year so we'll see how that goes!

I am feeling very powerful right now...and strangely clairvoyant...

Clean Program: Clean Gut

At least I'll be able to eat these things

Anyone who has been around me during January (and April last year) knows that Ryan and I do the Clean Program Cleanse every year as a way to detox and remind ourselves to eat more real, healthy foods. The reason they know is because I won't shut up about it...mostly because I am in awe that I'm capable of avoiding pizza and cookies for any amount of time. Also, because it's really tough and it's all I can think about while I'm on it. So what would be better than that? Making it EVEN harder on myself for 2014 by trying the Clean Gut Cleanse! No, I do not want to be miserable but I need to seriously address the amount of sugar I consume on a daily basis. Like diabeetus-causing levels of sugar.

So what's different? I'm still in the research and planning stages but here's what I can tell so far: we can have eggs and tomatoes! I really like both of these items. But, we can't have ANY grains (sorry Basmati) and NO fruit, except for berries. Fruit was my major crutch during the Clean Program, it got me through some hard times...specifically times when I wanted to cram a gallon of ice cream down my throat. We can't have chickpeas, which I'm pretty okay with because "it gives me the wind something terrible" (10 points to anyone who knows what movie that is from) and no to beans and soy too. Other than that, it's fairly similar to the Clean Program in that we cannot have dairy, peanuts, processed foods, alcohol, coffee, sugar, etc. We get to have a solid lunch and dinner (instead of liquid dinner like on Clean) and the liquid breakfast is the same. The supplements are different but we never do the supplements (cheaters!) so I am not sure if we will do them with this or not. A probiotic, B Complex and magnesium will probably be on our shopping list, but I'm going to look into the others a bit more before I decide.

I'm not going to lie, I'm a little scared. One the one hand, I get to eat solids for dinner which is awesome because drinking your dinner is not nearly as much fun as it sounds. On the other hand, no cookies....not even the Clean ones. Also, no apples, kiwi's or other snack fruits to get me through the day. How many cut veggies can I eat before I dive headfirst into a vat of chocolate pudding?! Only time will tell...

The Clean Program: Year 3, Day 1

Terrible handwriting, but yummy menu

Note: Decided to switch up the Clean Program posts a bit. I'm going (to try) to post daily to break up the posts so they're easier to read. 

I'm hurting friends. Good lord. We did a beach cleanup on Saturday with the Volusia Surfrider chapter in Ormond Beach and who knew that one hour of picking up trash could be such a full body work out. My back, legs, arms, shoulders and entire being aches!! Maybe I should include exercise in my "getting healthy" plan. To make this all worse, I cannot turn to coffee or ibuprofen for a boost to get me through the pain. Instead, I have a walnut/almond milk/raspberry/cocoa powder smoothie! I thought it might be hard to drink with no sweetener and it was really good. This gives me hope!! I can't get too cocky just yet though: I had a delicious Easter brunch and tons of goodies (read: chips, candy, soda) yesterday, so it could just be that the withdrawals haven't kicked in yet.

Today's Menu:

Breakfast: Raspberry/walnut/unsweetened almond milk/cocoa powder smoothie

Snacks: Apple, carrots, lemon water **Update 3:30 pm: Ate all my snacks and I'm starving!! Need more snacks tomorrow**

Lunch: Broccoli/Chickpea/Brown rice with Tahini/Garlic/Lemon sauce (love this stuff.....good thing too because it's lunch allllll week)

Dinner: Asparagus and Leek Soup...I messed it up but it still tasted pretty good :) We also split an avocado straight out of the skin with a lil sea salt on there. We were both really hungry and figured it was better than scarfing a pan of brownies from Publix (well I figured that, Ryan would have probably just suffered through).

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