Overall, I would say I'm a pretty mindful and health conscious eater. However, I do enjoy my coffee, cookies, ice cream, pizza, and wine...which isn't too bad in moderation. With the lack of routine between healing from an injury (not working out) and the holidays, I was starting to feel a little "sluggish" come the start of 2014. So I thought it would be a good time to re-set my body and rid it of all those edible synthetic food-like substances. You know... the high fructose corn syrup, yellow #5, xanthan gum, citric acid, propylene glycol alginate, polysorbate 60, phosphoric acid, GMO soybean oil, etc. Ew. Knowledge continuously supports not eating the processed food that contains these ingredients. Culture, whether it be time, convenience, social situations, availability, or stress, makes it so easy to continue consuming food that contain them.
Detox kits, weight-loss shakes, and health clubs are all hot commodities come January every single year. Rather than purchasing some more "man made" herbs or nutritional supplements, I opted to go with a simple all natural fourteen day cleanse which involved eating only raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds,vinegar, and oil. Sounds kind of boring at first...but it was actually an experimental and adventurous two weeks. The caffeine withdraw headaches during day 2 were a little obnoxious, and I only drank 1-2 cups of coffee a day prior to the cleanse. Also, by day twelve, I was honestly starting to feel too calm and physically fatigued. This diet in combination with regular 1-3 hour daily workouts and nightly hot yoga was a little challenging. But overall my sleep, attention, focus, mood, and general feeling of homeostasis feels "just right". Now that the 14 days are over, I still plan to keep these foods as the main source of nutrition, but add more grains and protein. The plan is to continue limiting/eliminating dairy, gluten, and all that general processing junk. So I thought I would share some of my successes and failures over the last two weeks in this post. I blended frozen fruit, greens (spinach, beet or dandelion leaves) to make smoothies every single morning for breakfast. Stayed warm throughout the day with herbal teas. There were several dishes that turned out really good. And there were a few...that didn't quite make the yummy list. The ingredients, which seem so simple, can actually be combined lots of different ways to change things up and create deliciousness!
SUCCESS! orange, pomegranate, fennel, red onion, walnuts, rice vinegar, mint, lemon juice
SUCCESS! watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, mint, lemon
SUCCESS! arugula, blackberry, apple, walnuts, apple-cider vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice
SUCCESS! green leaf lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, mushroom, avocado, carrots, lemon, olive oil, pepper, basil, parsley
SUCCESS! honeydew, avocado, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, scallions, lemon and lime juice
SUCCESS! frozen bananas, ice, cinnamon, coconut, chia seeds
SUCCESS! cilantro, cauliflower (shredded), lime juice, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, avocado, pistachios, iceberg lettuce
SUCCESS! the lettuce wrap
SUCCESS! shredded beats and carrots, halved grapes, scallions, apple-cider vinegar
SUCCESS! spinach, pears, scallions, lemon juice, olive oil, walnuts
SUCCESS! The pesto mix was good. Pistachios, basil, lemon juice, garlic, and red pepper.
SUCCESS! Pesto mixed with zucchini/summer squash, tomatoes, olives, and pine nuts. Tried to use a mandolin to create noddles with the squash; however that was a fail so went with the food processor.
FAIL! Trying to make a weeks work mix of the above recipe. Come day two it was watery and yuck.
FAIL! Soup in the Vitamix. I tried a few varieties of raw soup...and they never seen to work out. If you like foamy, green, brownish, lukewarm liquid meals...go for it.
