Diet

For the past 3 weeks Sam and I have been eating a very strict diet. We have been calling it a cleanse but that has been confusing people. It is really considered more of a "purification". I read about the cleanse on my chiropractor's blog and thought it was something I would benefit from. Then I started working on convincing Sam to join me on the cleanse. I knew this would be hard for him and was actually surprised at how quickly he agreed.

So, what was our cleanse diet? The way it is designed is that for the first 10 days you only have fruits and vegetables along with some supplements and protein shakes. Then the next 11 days you can add to that lean, organic meat, eggs and brown rice. Since I am still nursing Caroline I was to start on the second half of the program. Sam also started on the second half because that was the only way to convince him to join me.

Typically for breakfast we would have a fruit smoothie made with coconut milk, green powder, protein powder and fruit along with 1-2 eggs. For lunch and dinner we would have salad, veggies and a main dish that had a meat in it. We were given a lot of recipes that were normal food but without dairy (except butter), grains (except brown rice) or any processed foods. The food we ate was delicious.

The hardest things about the cleanse were all of the time spent in the kitchen, finding acceptable snack foods and eating out. I enjoy cooking but it is really hard with a 1 and 3 year old to spend the time to cook everything from scratch. There was a lot of chopping, sauteing and preparation. We did finally find snack foods other than carrot sticks. We loved the Veggie Sticks and Veggie Chips dipped in hummus or guacamole and raw nuts. To satisfy my sweet tooth I would eat unsweetened raisins or medjool dates with almond butter or coconut.

By the end of the three weeks we were sick of balsamic vinegar and olive oil for our salad dressing and we were really ready to have cheese and bread again. Of course my sweet tooth wants sweets but not as much as I thought it would. Really after 21 days I told Sam that I wanted to continue to eat as much like the cleanse diet as possible.

So, our plan is to continue to eat breakfast like on the cleanse rather than return to our typical bagel and cream cheese. For lunch we want to only take sandwiches when it truly is more convenient and eat leftovers more. I will continue to cook dinner as much as I can but allow ourselves recipes with cheese and grains though not as the main ingredients.

The goal of the cleanse was to eliminate as much of the junk in our bodies as possible that we have built up due to consuming processed foods, non-organic foods and junk. Sam felt this more than I did because he was taking one supplement that I could not take due to nursing. We both feel good and we both lost weight. Sam lost 12 pounds and I lost 9. I had lost 6 pounds in the 6 weeks prior to the cleanse for a total of 15 pounds lost since Labor Day.

I encourage anyone to consider doing this type of a cleanse. It is great for your health.