Cleanse

About once every year or so, I get tired of eating so unhealthily. 

Ok, so we really don't eat that bad...we hardly ever eat fast food, and I always try to have fruits and veggies at every meal...but we definitely overdue it on sweets, dairy products, and carbs like bread and pasta. 

So when I start feeling kind of blah from all of this, I convince my husband to do a cleanse with me. This isn't an "official" cleanse, like where you have supplements to go along with what you are eating, but it's just a cleanse that I've adapted over the past few years that works for us and makes us feel SO MUCH BETTER at the end of the three weeks that we normally do it. 

The goal of the cleanse isn't to eat this way forever, but to feel better, lose a little weight, and hopefully establish some habits that will stick for at least awhile. :) We couldn't keep up this kind of eating all the time for two reasons: 
1) the cost (fresh fruits and veggies get very expensive!)
2) the meal prep time (it takes me much longer to prepare meals during the cleanse than it does regularly).

So here's how it works:

What we CAN eat:
-All fruits
-All vegetables
-1/2 c. of brown rice per day
-black beans
-salt, pepper, and other seasonings
-homemade vinaigrette dressings for salads (no sugar)
-water and tea (and Aaron still drinks coffee)
-extra virgin olive oil (to saute or roast vegetables)

So that excludes these foods:
-All dairy
-All breads, pastas, etc.
-All sugar/desserts
-All drinks other than water or tea
-All meats
-All processed foods

After the first week, we do add one serving of lean chicken or fish each day. (Black beans get kind of old as our only source of protein!)

(Side note: Isn't Aaron a great husband for going along with this for three weeks?)

We are currently four days into our 21 days cleanse, and this is what a day of our eating looks like right now:

For breakfast, Aaron and I both drink a smoothie. This particular morning, I threw in a banana, some strawberries, frozen peaches, spinach, ice, and a little water to make it all smooth. Other things I add sometimes are blueberries, pineapple, oranges, or frozen cherries. 

This is what it looks like after it's blended. And seriously...it fills us up and holds us over until lunch.

This is what a typical lunch looks like for us during the cleanse: a salad and some fruit. Today I made a shredded cabbage salad with oranges and toasted sesame seeds with a homemade vinaigrette.

And we had some peaches.

Between lunch and supper, we usually have a snack...either a piece of fruit, or a bowl of raw veggies.

And this is a typical supper: roasted asparagus (drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic), sauteed mushrooms and tomatoes over brown rice, and corn and black beans with cilantro. 

We always have some kind of raw veggies on the side.

Two other things we often have for supper during the cleanse are:
1) lettuce wraps (we use sauteed onions, sauteed peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, corn, black beans, and brown rice for the filling) 
2) veggie stir fry (whatever veggies we have on hand, sauteed with lime juice and ginger, served over brown rice)

And that's it! Aaron usually still drinks coffee and water throughout the day, and I try to drink as much water as possible all day.

A few more notes about it: If we get invited somewhere during the three weeks, or we have plans with someone for a meal, or something like that, we eat normally for those particular meals. We don't want our cleanse to get in the way of fellowship or spending time with people!

And no...I'm not making my kids eat this diet. However, they ARE eating some of what we have for each meal, and then I always make something additional to go with their fruits and veggies. :) I know they need good fats and lots of protein in their diets right now as growing kids.

So...that's our eating life for the next three weeks. I'm absolutely loving it...but also looking forward to 17 days from now. ;)