#cleancleanse

Alright, I'm just doing a quick update for tonight because I need to get to sleep, but today went pretty smoothly as well, besides the fact that I am SUPER SORE from my run yesterday! I took it easy today though and although I was on my feet a ton, the only "exercise" I really did was a 15 minute bike ride from work to meet my boyfriend at my other work location, where he was working on his computer. Did that make sense? Probably not. Whatever. It's not really that important...

Anyway, I had a smoothie this morning made with Vegan Protein powder, kiwi, mango, avocado, coconut water, spinach, kale, and chia seeds. I didn't really eat again until about 6ish when I got home, and I scarfed down an apple with almond butter, and some gluten free bread dipped in the rest of the avocado leftover from my morning smoothie mashed up. Inventive, right? I was so hungry that I didn't even want to think about trying to make myself an actual meal... so that makeshift meal was good enough.

After that, I went to the beach with my boyfriend and his second family and then we headed home where everyone else got to enjoy pizza, brownies, ice cream, etc. to celebrate Caleb's graduation... and I had a handful of raspberries and some veggies. I snuck a few chopped walnuts in too to get some protein. I have to say that I'm really happy I didn't convince myself it was a special enough occasion to eat any of the treats. Not even a bite of a brownie :) I didn't want to take the risk of upsetting my stomach... or being able to use the celebration as an excuse to break the cleanse for a day. I'm only 3 days in, I can't falter yet!

All in all today was pretty good, but my only problem is that I feel like I'm probably not eating enough. I don't feel overly hungry though, but after yesterday I kind of feel like I should make it a point to make sure I am getting enough calories. My smoothies are usually fairly high in calories and healthy fats though, because they usually have seeds and/or coconut oil, avocado, or the vegan protein powder. However, I just don't want to do this cleanse the wrong way. Is there a wrong way? I don't even know. Maybe I should do more research.

Anyway, this short update sort of turned long. I'm not that good at keeping blog posts super short and sweet, but that's ok. Pretty sure I'm probably the only one even reading them anyway...

Pro tip: If you are not a runner, it is probably not a smart idea to wake up and randomly decide it is a good idea to run 7 miles. Your knees may never recover.

That said, you can probably guess what I did this morning. Pretty proud of myself for getting up and running, but I suppose I could have been a bit smarter about it. I’m definitely not a runner, but I’m hoping to start to become one, or at least a better one than I am now. Main reason being that it’s free and I have all of the supplies for it, and I can workout wherever, whenever as long as I have my running shoes.

So, anyway, I started day 2 off with a nice long run. I then came home, showered and got ready, and made myself a smoothie with coconut oil, pineapple, kale, chia and hemp seeds, coconut water, and raspberries. The smoothie was overly sweet, and I’m still working on finishing it to be completely honest. 

I was then going to drive to work because I figured that, with my run, I deserved to not have to bike. But, then, as it was getting time to leave, I figured I would be happier and give myself a pat on the back if I biked too, so I biked the 6.5 mile trek to work (which isn’t that bad). 

I think that since my body isn’t used to the endurance running, my bike ride was just the icing on the cake to throwing my equilibrium off. I couldn’t really stomach my smoothie and when I tried eating any of the snacks I brought with me, I could only take a bite or two before becoming nauseous. I knew I needed to eat, but I couldn’t really bring myself to.

I came home feeling weak and nauseous, and flopped onto my bed. I managed to force some rice chips down before falling asleep for a short nap. I woke up feeling slightly better than before, and made myself some carrot-almond soup along with leftover warmed up sweet potatoes from the night before. Unfortunately I could only stomach a few bites of sweet potato, and the soup was incredibly rich, so I couldn’t get much of that down either. I’m trying to at least force down the final remains of my smoothie so I can get some calories and nutrients in my body. I know it will probably hate me by morning.

So, I am going to reflect on yesterday first, and then post today's reflection as a separate blog post, to prevent the overload of text on one post.

My first day of the clean cleanse went fairly well. For breakfast, I had a smoothie. This was the first smoothie I tried putting Maca powder in, and also the first smoothie that I could almost not stand to drink. It must have been the combo of Maca and Kale/Chard, but it made the smoothie have almost a sort of tomatoey aftertaste. For anyone who doesn't know, tomato is like my least favorite food on the planet, so this was obviously pretty unpleasant for me. Regardless, I sipped the smoothie through a straw because I was not going to waste it.

The entire contents of my smoothie consisted of: 1 tbsp. hemp seeds, 1 tbsp. maca powder, 1 tbsp. chia seeds, a large serving of kale and red chard, frozen pineapple, frozen mango, frozen raspberries, and coconut water. The taste of the smoothie was alright, it was just the aftertaste that killed me!

For a snack at work, I ate almond butter and raw cacao atop a brown rice cake and a dried fruit and nut mixture.

For dinner, I had a small slice of salmon, grilled pineapple, sauteed kale, spinach, and chard with garlic and onions, and a small serving of sweet potato.

Overall, yesterday was pretty successful! I only had one smoothie, though, and I am trying to figure out if I will be able to even stomach another. It seems that one nutrient packed smoothie that I sip on throughout the day, a small meal, and a small snack seem to do it pretty well for me. Maybe if I spaced out my smoothie consumption to half at one time and half at another it will work, or maybe if I make lighter smoothies. I'm just going to see how it plays out. 

So, I doubt anyone will really read much of this, but that's ok. It's more for me to track my own progress/feelings/etc. than anything, but if you are interested, feel free to follow along! :)

Basically, I am trying the Clean Cleanse out as a way to hopefully try and naturally heal myself, and I am going to be tracking my progress over the duration of the cleanse to 1) motivate myself to keep going, 2) track how I feel/see if anything is different, and 3) to hold myself accountable so that I don't convince myself it's ok to cheat. 

The main proponents of the Clean Cleanse are to detox yourself from allergens and to identify your "toxic triggers", or foods that trigger either an allergic reaction, or just a negative reaction within your body. You start the day with a smoothie or shake, and then choose a meal to eat from the elimination diet, and end the day with another cleansing smoothie or shake. Snacks are allowed in moderation as well. The main things you are supposed to eliminate are Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Alcohol, and Caffeine. Other food categories that are eliminated during the duration of the cleanse are nightshade veggies (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc), banana, strawberries, sugars, peanuts, and other allergens. 

I am doing somewhat of a modified version, I guess you could say. I am following the cleanse mostly on point, except for the fact that I am only moderating my caffeine intake, not completely eliminating it. One reason being that if you drink just plain black coffee or espresso, with no milk or sugar added, and have within the recommended serving amount, coffee actually has a lot of health benefits to it. The other reason being that I work at a coffee shop and not only would it be difficult to eliminate my caffeine intake, but my headaches would most likely make me suffer more than I want to think about. HOWEVER, if I feel that my body is not cleansing as properly as it should be because of this, I am willing to consider eliminating it as well...

The other modification I am making is that I do not necessarily do the cleanse meals in their order. I usually drink a smoothie to start my day (or at least as a first "meal"), and then have a small snack, followed by another smoothie, and have my solid meal as dinner. One reason being that if I do not actually eat dinner for dinner, I think my tummy would not be happy. Another reason being that when I usually have my "lunch" I am at work, and I love drinking smoothies at work (plus it is very difficult for me to actually have a meal at work). And probably the main reason is that I want to be able to eat a meal with my babe, and dinner is usually the meal we have together. But, I will still be following the cleanse meal plan, just not necessarily in that order. I figure that should be allowed :)

The last modification is that I am allowing myself to eat sweet potatoes, which the cleanse for some reason disallows. Sweet potatoes are not nightshade veggies, and they are packed with nutrients. Also, they are something I can cook really easily and have as a meal when I feel too lazy to plan out and make a big dinner. SO, since they are not a common allergen and they are super healthy for me, I am allowing them :)

So, this cleanse is supposed to last 21 days, with the week following as a "reintroduction" week to identify the toxic triggers. Today is my first day, and has gone well so far :) I will write an update either when I am finished with dinner, or tomorrow.