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...

Gluten-Free Pasta with Butternut Squash

In my last post, I talked about making this pasta later in the week. Well, later in the week turned out to be a day later...

A few things I learned from this dish:

1. The brown rice pasta I used smells funny when you cook it but tastes just like pasta when mixed with sauce. I used Tinkyada brown rice fettuccine.

2. If you accidentally buy frozen cooked squash instead of the cubes, you get to skip a few steps like cooking and running through food processor. Also, I probably used too much squash after looking at the photo on the Chefuality blog.

3. You can add extra garlic and scallions to ANYTHING and it will be awesome. Ditto for red pepper powder and garlic and onion powder.

4. If you add chicken, it's a bit heartier. We added 1 humanely raised breast and it added a nice flavor but it would have been fine without it too if you're trying to have a meatless day.

5. This dish is okay but it's not as good as the broccoli tahini :) I think I didn't like this dish as much because I don't really like butternut squash. I keep trying to eat it in different recipes and convince myself otherwise, but it's a little sweet and doesn't work for me as a savory dish. If it was a pie, that might be a different story! ***UPDATE*** The reheated leftovers tasted a lot better than it did right after it was cooked. The flavors settled and it was pretty darn good!

6. Again, really impressed that this rice pasta tasted like regular pasta! For those of you who are intolerant of gluten, you do not have to miss out on pasta because this stuff is just the best. Make sure to rinse it off after it has cooked, like it suggests on the package.

To accompany my pasta dinner, I also made some fresh squeezed lemonade with half a lemon, a bit of Stevia in the Raw and some filtered tap water. This really helped my craving for a sugary drink like soda.

Clean Program-Week 1

(My face after eating our terrible Macro Veggie Bowl)

Our latest adventure isn't taking us to another country or even outside of Jacksonville...out latest adventure is: the Clean Program. duh duh duh! (Suspenseful music)

The Clean Program is basically 3 weeks of eliminating toxins from your system. This means liquid breakfast, liquid dinner and a solid lunch. Our diet now eliminates preservatives, chemicals, caffeine, dairy, tomatoes, grapes, oranges, soy, corn and a slew of other items on the "exclude" list. So what are we allowed to have? Well, instead of telling you everything we can have, I'll just tell you what we have consumed so far (NOTE: All chicken used is humane certified):

Day 1
Breakfast: Juice made with cabbage, kale, green apple, and celery.
Lunch: Macro Vegetable Bowl-quinoa, aduki beans, buttercup squash, seaweed, miso, cilantro, fresh ginger and garlic. Next time we need to cut the ginger into smaller pieces, every time I think I'm biting into a delicious piece of cauliflower and get a mouth of ginger I want to die.
Dinner: Smoothie made with raw cacao, blueberries, unsweetened, vanilla almond milk and coconut milk.

During the first day, Ryan and I were very hungry and craving pizza and candy bars...it's the middle of Day 2 and I can woefully report that this is the state I'm in now as well. We are allowed to have small snacks of raw almonds if we want to, but when you want mozzarella sticks, almonds are a sad alternative. We are eating plenty of food, but I'm so used to snacking on candy and crackers all day that it's a strange feeling that I can't satisfy every whim. Normally, if I'm craving an Almond Joy, I break into my stash o' candy or at the very worst, drive a few blocks to Walgreens to get one. Maybe it's too easy to get "food" that isn't really food at all. Maybe I should think of food like medicine...if I'm not nourishing my body with healthy, good medicine, why should I expect to get better?

Day 2
Breakfast: Juice made with cabbage, kale, green apple, spinach, and carrots.
Snack: Raw almonds and raw chia. I also had a prune, which I'm not sure if I'm allowed to have, but I couldn't find anything that said I couldn't!
Lunch: Macro Vegetable Bowl (I am eating mine without seaweed today, I hated it)
Dinner: Green smoothie made with avocado and fruit (I can't remember what's in it, I don't make it until tonight, so I'll update this later)UPDATE: Almond milk, coconut water, kale, avocado, mango and ice.

I'm currently eating my lunch and I don't want to finish it, but I know if I don't, I'll be starving later. It's not terrible, there are parts of it I like for a few bites, but then I get sick of it and there is so much to eat. UPDATE: Took me about an hour to finish. Ryan (human garbage disposal) called while I was eating and told me that HE even had a hard time choking it down and his had the seaweed. We have agreed never to make this recipe again.

I definitely want to give up, but we have a fridge full of fresh veggies and something about that tells me I'm on the right path! I may as well give it a shot and find out if this makes me feel healthier. I'll keep you posted!

Day 3

Breakfast: Smoothie made with pineapple, kale, soaked Chia seeds and coconut water. Really good and kinda slimy from the Chia, but in a very cool way. Loving Chia!
Lunch: Chicken cooked with mustard powder, fresh rosemary from our rosemary tree (we bought one as our Christmas tree!), garlic and olive oil. Steamed asparagus on the side.
Dinner: Raw pea soup....haven't made it just yet, will tell you how it is! UPDATE: Was pretty good, might have enjoyed it more had it been warm but I guess cooking it wouldn't make it "raw" :)

Fell off the wagon today...well, actually, JUMPED off the wagon. I ate more Whoppers than I care to admit...don't judge me, this is hard!! Contemplating whether or not I should tell Ryan....he doesn't read this blog even though it has his name on it and I could be saying terrible things....but I figure I probably should come "clean"...haha oh I kill me!

Decided tonight that I am making an extra juice and an extra smoothie for tomorrow to help ease the hunger. I'm not trying to lose weight and if I follow the rules of no solids in the morning or at night, I think it's better to drink extra than to breathlessly run up to the checkout line at Publix with an armful of Oreos and candy bars...oh, just the smell of the bakery at Publix makes me want to give up and eat every single baked good in their section!!

Day 4
Breakfast: Kale, Celery and Carrot Juice
Mid-morning snack: Smoothie with chia, pineapple, kale and coconut milk
Lunch: Same rosemary chicken meal as yesterday
Mid-afternoon snack: A smoothie I made up: coconut milk, frozen raspberries, raw cacao powder and agave syrup (To help with the chocolate craving!)
Dinner: Cool Cucumber Soup with Dill....(Blended cucumber, raw cashews, olive oil, peeled lemon, salt, fresh dill) Really yummy!

Okay, having the 2 extra smoothies today helped BIG TIME...I was way less hungry and tempted to eat other stuff. I also felt like I had a bit more energy. Other than that, I don't really notice anything major....guess we'll see how I feel at the end of the 3 weeks!

Day 5
Breakfast: Kale, Celery, Cabbage and Carrot Juice
Mid-morning snack: Smoothie with avocado, mango, kale, coconut milk and almond milk
Lunch: Chicken with parsley and spinach salad
Mid-afternoon snack: Ryan roasted the seeds from the buttercup squash we had earlier this week...pretty good snack mixed with some Chia! Smoothie with blueberries, raw cacao, coconut milk and agave
Dinner: ?

It seems to be getting easier! Ryan and I both were not tired last night before bed, even though we stayed up the late hour (for us) of 11 pm. For Ryan, especially, this is huge because he normally falls asleep during movies shown as early as 8:30 pm. This morning, I felt much more alert and ready to get up than I usually do. (Not a morning person!) Drinking herbal tea has helped also when I get cravings for junk. Just wish there wasn't hot cocoa packets in the office kitchen...chocolate and me are too close.

Day 6
Breakfast: Kale, ginger, green apple, carrot, celery, and cabbage juice
Mid-morning snack: Same as breakfast
Lunch: Same as yesterday
Mid-afternoon snack: Green smoothie with mango, kale, avocado, flax and coconut milk
Dinner: Smoothie made with blueberry, homemade nut milk (brazil, almond and cashew), raspberry, flax meal and chia

Now that I'm used the routine, I'm slowly craving junk food less and less. Ryan had the ultimate test when his office went out for lunch at our favorite pizza place and he ordered, "Water. Just water. It was so hard." I can't believe he did it and ate his "Clean" lunch at the office. I think I would have broken down and inhaled some cheesy breadsticks at the very least. Well, we're almost through with the first week...it's hard to believe we have about 2 weeks left!

UPDATE: When I got home that night, I wanted pizza so bad. I wanted to have a "cheat" night but Ryan talked me out of it...I still ate half a teaspoon of Nutella, but I guess that was better than entire pizza followed by an entire chocolate cake (which is what I wanted!)

Day 7
Breakfast: Smoothie with raspberry, blueberry, homemade nut milk, flax meal and chia. (I added raw cacao and a lil agave to mine)
Lunch: Chicken and vegetable stir fry made with wheat-free tamari (a type of soy sauce). We aren't allowed to have soy products including soy sauce but apparently tamari is good for digestion because it has been aged or something. Whatever the reason, it was delicious!

Dinner: Smoothie with nut milk, green apple, blueberry, raspberry, flax seed and coconut water

Today we went grocery shopping for next weeks items and we split our shopping between the farmer's market, the local health food store and Publix. Instead of it being a pain in the butt to go to a few different places, it was kind of an adventure searching for the items we needed. One of the cool things about this detox/cleanse is that it's exposing us to new foods and supplements such as: Chia, aduki beans, wild rice (We've had it in wild rice pilaf but never bought it to cook with by itself!), pro-biotics, hemp protein powder, making our own nut milk and coconut milk, wheat free tamari and a bunch of others. We are also buying and eating more vegetables than ever! It seems like it's more expensive, but since we are not going out to eat because we have such a limited diet, we're actually spending less! (And eating healthier to boot)