cleanse | days 1-3
i decided to share my journey with the clean program, for anyone that might be interested in doing this cleanse in the future... i'm doing the clean program with my dear friend, em (thank goodness!!). i can't share how much it has already helped, doing the cleanse with a friend -- sharing our food choices, different ideas, our moans & groans, etc. we both decided that we would skip the elimination diet and just go right into the cleanse. i had already been eating well since new year's eve, so i considered those few days an ALMOST-elimination diet.
DAY 1 -- breakfast: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, almond milk, spinach, kale, berries & pineapple) shot of brown rice protien powder (mixed in 4 oz water) lunch: roasted chicken & quinoa salad dinner: organic split pea soup (kind of gross)
i start each morning with a glass of water and probiotics. then i have a cup of green tea. i wait an hour or so before having my smoothie. i gagged like crazy on the protein powder, to the point that i had tears strolling down my cheeks. i already had tried the rice protein powder in my smoothie the day before and it was terrible. sooo...my rice protein powder was dumped in the trash. and i've switched to whey for now. i also purchased the program's nourish powder and will see how that compares.
i was pretty hungry the first day and basically thought about food all day. i climbed 42 flights of stairs (training for this). although i don't think i'm going to do that again until i'm through a full week of the cleanse. my calves still hurt three days later.
my biggest complaints on day one were that i had this weird cotton mouth feeling all day, even though i was very well hydrated and i had the most raging, killer headache at night. i laid on the couch at 6:30 PM and never got back up, until i went to bed at 9:30 PM.
DAY 2 -- breakfast: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, almond milk, spinach, kale, berries & pineapple) snack: carrots & homemade hummus lunch: applegate chicken sausage, a few bites of quinoa & 1/2 lara bar snack: 1/2 lara bar dinner: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, almond butter, kale, berries & pineapple)
day two went pretty well. i was less hungry and no raging headache. my head did nag a bit at one point but no big deal. the toughest part of the day was when my family had pizza and i had my smoothie. went to bed at 10:30. overall, a pretty good, satisfying, not too hungry kind of day.
DAY 3 -- breakfast: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, almond milk, spinach, kale, berries, mango & pineapple) snack: carrots with hummus lunch: smoothie (protein, fiber, water, spinach, berries) snack: some fresh pineapple & a bit of guacamole with brown rice chips (skyler said the chips taste like paper) dinner: chicken burger, avocado & onions on a bed of lettuce and spinach with homemade salad dressing (dijon, oil, vinegar, lemon)
i've decided that i'm going to eat a couple dinners with my family every week. so i did liquid for breakfast and lunch and burgers with my family for dinner. :-) my back bothered me all day -- kind of aching, kind of hurting. by the end of the night, my back was killing me along with another headache. i'm assuming it's all part of my body working to detox all the crap out.
all in all, the first few days were a wee bit painful. i had the cotton mouth, headache, backache and felt a bit sluggish and cloudy-headed. but today, the beginning of day four, i'm feeling pretty good. i feel less fluffy-puffy already and that feels awesome. no ailments at the moment, but i KNOW that could easily change throughout the day. the thing that bothers me the most is that my thoughts are always on food. normally, i never think about food. i eat when i'm hungry and that's it. i'm not usually a bad eater except during the holidays, when i get into the cakes, pies & cookies. also, it's not easy to prepare my daily meals separately from the rest of the family's meals. it takes a lot of time, thought, commitment and will-power (as i smell donuts, coffee, pizza, etc. that my family is eating).
to read why i'm doing the cleanse or simply learn a bit more about the clean program, check out my blog post HERE.