If you caught last week’s post, you read about my cleanse–a ten-day experiment in better eating where I’m avoiding all refined sugar, gluten, caffeine, meat, dairy, alcohol…basically any and all processed foods.
How’s it going?
So far, so good. We’re on day six and for the most part, it hasn’t been that much of a struggle to give up this stuff. Occasionally I’ll crave a Coke, and passing by all the food stalls at Adams Morgan Day this past weekend was a bit of a challenge, but I don’t feel all that deprived.
The hardest part has really been finding the time to shop for and prepare “real” food. The first few days were particularly tough, when our bodies were still adjusting to a sugar-, gluten-, and caffeine-free existence. My boyfriend and I were dragging, and normally if we were in such a mood we’d treat ourselves to some take-out or grab a quick bite in the neighborhood. Finding cleanse-approved food at any restaurant has been a challenge, and cooking something that involves lots of chopping and waiting while food simmers is the last thing we want to do after a long day at work.
Enter the slow cooker! Plop ingredients in in the morning, plug it in and you come home to a fully-cooked meal. Tonight it’s cleanse-approved chili over brown rice (also easy to prep thanks to a cheap rice cooker we already owned). We also splurged on an immersion blender with an attachment that makes all that chopping a breeze. Now we just need a larger kitchen to store all the new gadgets!
Over the past six days I’ve discovered some wonderful healthy new dishes (ahhh red lentils cooked in lite coconut milk–makes a delicious daal!), smoothies (go ahead and throw a handful of spinach in the blender! You won’t even taste it), and snacks that I plan to carry over to my daily life post-cleanse. According to the scale I haven’t dropped much weight, but I definitely feel less sluggish, lighter, and we’re sleeping more soundly than we have in months. The really interesting part will be seeing how our bodies react when we start reintroducing the “banned” foods–gradually, in small quantities– and if a negative reaction to them inspires us to maintain a clean diet from here on out. More on that next week…
