Clean-Elimination Week

If you read the previous post, you know I am doing the Clean program for the next few weeks. Basically raw food diet, meats cleanse. I decided to do it because I was drinking way too much coffee, eating way too many sweets and putting a bunch of junk into my system around the holidays, and it was starting to take a physical toll on my body and even lead to a few health issues. I decided I would share my mishaps over the next few weeks, more as a means of laughing at myself.

While the program is technically a 3 week program, they recommend that newbies like myself that have never done this before do an elimination week. Since I am at the end of the elimination week, I have determine that they do this, so when we screw up, it is during a "trial" week and not the actual Clean. For example, there is a list of "banned food" that I am not allowed to eat, such as coffee, sweets, processed stuff, dairy and grains with gluten. Makes perfect sense right? Then there are items that you don't think of, like tomatoes, oranges, strawberries, peanuts, etc. There is a reason for those that I won't go into (you can read the book if you really want to know), but my point being you have to think a little harder on these. For example, my second day of the elimination we had a play date and little man was hungry on the way home, so I picked up one of those all natural mango smoothies and a container of mixed nuts and berries. About halfway through, I realized that the base for many smoothies is orange juice and there were some peanuts in my fruit and nut mixture. Little man gladly finished my part of the snack. Then my wonderful loving husband picked up a few gluten free snacks, problem..... they were not potato starch free or tomato free. You guessed it: both banned items. Thankfully I picked up on that one before I ate anything.

Our pantry now consists of several gluten-free grains. Most of which I have to read the labels to figure out what they are, and even then I need to go on the Internet to figure out how you prepare them. I have to admit, it has actually been fun sampling some new foods and seeing Andy's reaction when he comes home from the health food store (he says that it's a little expensive and a bit like shopping in a foreign land with a witch doctor showing you around).

The next obstacle I needed to overcome was being in a world where all of the tempting foods still existed and are eaten in front of me or having to prepare it for little man. I managed to overcome two birthday parties so far, although I think I downed an entire bowl of carrot sticks at my friend Julie's house in an effort not to eat the pizza or cake. And that whole licking your fingers thing when you get peanut butter and jelly on them making a sandwich for your child, it a really tough habit to kick. Thankfully, I am really not a milk person to begin with, so this was not tempting at all. (Pasteurizing the milk).

Then my most epic mistake was my green smoothie. We purchased a new blender for this since next week I will be making a lot of soups and smoothies. Most breakfast foods are on the banned list, and just eating fruit in the moring is not filling enough so I decided to start the smoothies in the morning. Another adventure at the store to get chia seeds(yes, just like the Chia Pet!), agave syrup, almond milk and a few other obscure items and I was set. Problem, I rushed through the first green smoothie and did not blend it enough. Ever drink chopped up kale leaves? I choked it down while my toddler looked at me like I was crazy and when I offered him some, politely (and happily) declined my offer of food. I may be sticking to the fruit smoothies for the next few weeks.

My smoothie counter (minus the wine, that is banned also)(and hubby - showing off his skills at balancing pineapples!)

Overall, I do actually feel better this week and have had quite a bit of fun exploring new food options. Let's stick out another week, on to week 1 of the actual clean. I'll let you know how it goes.