Notes From the Cleanse (Day 10)

I'm on day 10 of the Conscious Cleanse based on the book of the same title by Jo Schaalman and Jules Peláez. So far, I feel great and am feeding myself and my family healthier than I ever have. Life without sugar, dairy, and gluten (plus a bunch of other stuff) has been easier than I thought it would be.

And . . . I've decided to start easing off of it 5 days early.

The funny thing is, when I first decided to stop, I couldn't quite figure out what food I would add back in, or how. (I guess this shows that I'm not giving in to cravings for one particular food.) I have a menu all planned out through the end of the cleanse, and I was mostly happy with it until the last 2 days when I'd already decided I wasn't going to attempt an all-liquid purification.  But I knew that Ben and I needed to cut it shorter than 2 weeks. Here's why:

• I started this cleanse because I needed a kick in the pants to get me back on track with eating healthier. My snacking was out of control and I had zero willpower when it came to portion control. I wasn't technically overweight, but I'd gained 5 pounds in the past year, all in my belly.
• After a week, I figured out that the issue for me is sugar and salt. Cutting sugar, and my go-to salty snack foods (it's really hard to find crackers that don't contain processed sugar, soy, potatoes, or corn) took care of the compulsive snacking.
• I also figured out that I need to double up on the veggies for every meal. Make it a habit to fix two kinds of veg plus salad. When my family isn't filling up on carbs, they actually will eat the veg! (I'd gotten into the habit of basing meals on the pasta/bread/potatoes/etc. because those and meat were the foods my family could all agree on. We can't afford to fill up on meat, so dinner was often pasta or rice mixed with meat and some vegetables).
• Doubling up on veggies is harder if you have to be super vigilant about what you can add to them. The cleanse started to feel counterproductive.
• Eating healthier feels great, and is something both Ben and I want to continue. But, eliminating foods--except for sugar--isn't much more than an inconvenience for us. We don't feel any different, better or worse.
• We're starting to tire of salads. I've been making fabulous salads with homemade dressing for lunch every day. Ben went from a boy who barely touched his salad to an enthusiastic salad eater. As the days wear on, though, no matter how much I change up the ingredients, salad is starting to feel ho-hum to me. If we're looking at making lifelong changes, we need to start adding more variety before we both feel like we never want to look at another salad again.

So, we added wheat back in yesterday. It was not very dramatic. We had multi-grain cooked cereal for breakfast (well, kind of lunch, I guess, after our breakfast of blueberry green smoothie), with coconut milk, walnuts, and maple syrup. Think I'll make pasta (I have rice pasta, so I'll probably mix that with regular) with pesto and lots of veggies for dinner tonight. Ben also cheated (for the first time!) with some popcorn yesterday at the movies, so I'll probably add corn to my diet tomorrow.

Then we'll add back dairy, soy, or nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant) on Saturday--I'm going to let Ben decide, since he'll be at a party/sleepover Saturday and I know there'll be something there to tempt him. (We both agree that sugar needs to wait until the end). He's just going to have to text me and let me know what I can eat! And then, something else on Monday, which brings us to the end of the 14-day cleanse on Tuesday.

So far, the cleanse--even this amended version of it--has been really worthwhile. I'm thrilled to see my whole family eating more healthy foods (though Evan still runs on a large amount of pb & j and grilled cheese sandwiches) and I'm inspired to keep it up. Many of the recipes in the book are keepers. I'm totally sold on the green smoothies (I should do a post just on that--in fact, I just took some pictures of my smoothie-making process, so let's call that a plan).

Oh, and incidentally, yes I did lose that 5 pounds.

See my report from Day 2 of the Cleanse here.
Check out the Conscious Cleanse website or their Facebook page.

Notes From the Cleanse (Day 2)

We're on Day 2 of the Conscious Cleanse I posted about on Monday, and here's what I've learned so far.

1) It's really hard for me to drink a lot of water. I'm totally failing this part of the cleanse, actually. I'm supposed to drink a quart of lemon water in the morning before I eat anything. I can manage a fourth of that. I made this wonderful spa water I found on Pinterest, and it makes it so much easier to keep drinking throughout the day, but still. If I drink anywhere near what I'm supposed to, I start to feel all bloaty and sloshy inside.

Source: mamaearth.ca via Alison on Pinterest

2) If you feed a 16-year-old boy only whole foods with no gluten, he will be hungry All. The. Time. Even Ben didn't have any idea how much he was filling up on junk (crackers and so forth). I can't keep up with him!

3) If you make a big salad with lots of stuff in it for lunch, teen and tween boys will wolf it down. (And then they will want lunch again, 10 minutes later.)

4) Green smoothies are da bomb! I've been resistant for so long, but like everybody told me, it works. Great way to start the day, and my boy who doesn't like to eat breakfast has drunk every single one I've made with enthusiasm.

5) If you leave a green smoothie sitting on the table for a while, its green-ness will rise to the top, making it much less appetizing.

6) I have far more willpower than I gave myself credit for. (We'll see what I have to say about that on day 6).

7) That said... I have my limits.
I didn't read the list of No foods carefully enough. I got the basics--no dairy, soy, gluten, sugar. I got some of the add-ons, which are typical allergenic foods--no tomatoes, potatoes, oranges.
I missed "No Strawberries." Just discovered it today. My reaction? "Are you out of your mind?"

Any other time of year, I'd be fine with giving up strawberries for 2 weeks, but not in June. No way. Oregon Hood strawberry time is a season that Oregonians look forward to all year, right up there with birthdays and holidays. These berries are sweet like candy, juicy as can be, and when they're gone (it'll be any day now) they're gone.

So, yeah, I won't be giving up strawberries. I'm confident that they don't pose a problem for me (surely I'd notice, since we go without them for months in the winter and then gorge ourselves on them in June). I will forgo chocolate chip cookies, coffee, and even my beloved cheese for 2 weeks, but don't you dare mess with my strawberry season bliss!

Photo courtesy of www.tillamook.com

The Conscious Cleanse--Jo Schaalman and Julie Pelaez with Josh Dinar

Lately I've been looking a little . . . how should I say it?
Pregnant-ish?
Which I'm not. Not in any way, shape or form.
I've never had a weight problem, but the middle-aged middle has settled in with a vengeance, and it's starting to bug me. Not to mention the fact that it's really unhealthy. I decided it was time to take action.

Taking action means that, as usual, I went to the library. I pulled eight or ten books off the shelves and brought them home to peruse. Sexy Forever (Suzanne Sommers....and too commercial), The Drop 10 Diet (I kept this one around to use later), Making the Cut (too much hardcore fitness), and a bunch more that I glanced through and returned to the library.

I ended up deciding to give The Conscious Cleanse a try. This book appealed the most because it had a solid plan that looked doable to follow. It's all very good to say "eat more vegetables!!" I've been hearing that all my life, and I try, but that's not going to stop me from eating a chocolate chip cookie or five when someone puts a plate of them in front of me (or beside me.... or behind me....or around the corner from me). The Conscious Cleanse says, "Here is everything you will eat for 2 weeks. Here are the recipes! They will be delicious and filling!"

My husband wasn't enthusiastic about the concept, but here's another thing I like about The Conscious Cleanse: most days for the main meal the authors recommend a specific veggie-heavy entree (with no eggs, dairy, gluten, sugar, or other common allergens), and then give you a choice of adding a protein like chicken or fish, or a gluten-free grain like brown rice or quinoa. On the cleanse, you're not supposed to have both the protein and the grain in the same meal--but there's no reason why the rest of my family can't have both. Looking through the recipes, most of the meals I'd be fixing for my cleanse would work out fine for everybody if they have the added protein and rice/quinoa. In fact, Ben decided to do the cleanse with me (he's interested to see if there's any effect on his allergies and asthma).

The first chapters of The Conscious Cleanse are full of background information about the health reasons behind doing the cleanse (which inspired me to take the plunge). Next there is a chapter for each day of the cleanse, and finally, 70 pages of recipes in the back.

The authors suggest taking five days prior to starting the cleanse, to gradually adjust and give up items that aren't on the cleanse diet.

Day 1: Add more fruits and vegetables (I skipped this day because I'd been working on that anyway).
Day 2: Eliminate Sugary foods and alcohol (this was yesterday for me. Surprisingly, giving up the sugar wasn't as hard as I expected.)
Day 3: Eliminate or reduce caffeine intake (I skipped this, too. I like coffee and tea, but I don't drink it every day, so I don't feel that I need a day to adjust.).
Day 4: Eliminate Dairy, Eggs, and Soy (this is where I am today).
Day 5: Eliminate Gluten.

Then we jump into the cleanse, on Wednesday.
Or, I might go ahead and start it tomorrow, because once I give up gluten, I'm a little at a loss as to what to eat so it seems like I might as well eat the foods on the book's cleanse menu. This is my one criticism of the book, so far: if they're going to recommend a transition period prior to the cleanse, why not include that period as part of the program, with meal suggestions?

I've never followed a diet before, so this will be a new adventure for me. I'll be interested to see if I feel any different. I really don't want to give up any foods long term, so I'm kind of hoping I don't see a drastic change. In any case, I think it will be a good way for me to examine my relationship with food and get a handle on the mild case of over eating that I've been able to get away with for 45 years. If I lose an inch or two around my middle in the process, so much the better.

Have you ever done a cleanse? I'd love to hear about your experiences with it.