Day 5: Think before we eat

Just finished lunch! Spring Mix, 4 oz. chicken, 1/4 of a large sweet potato and some roasted carrots. YUM! Really, I swear!

So, it is day 5 of my cleanse and I  have been able to maintain eating clean (nothing processed) because of the preparation that I did on Sunday. My refrigerator was stacked full of containers filled with all of the ingredients needed for a balanced diet.

Let me be totally honest and say that this is very HARD. It is NOT easy in any way to eat clean every 2/3 hours. You have to be totally prepared and seriously plan out your food each day. Without this preparation, there is no way that I would have been able to maintain this level of strictness. I have certainly been craving wheat products. You know you are cleansing when a wheat pita pocket is calling your name! While this has been difficult, what in life that is worth anything isn't!

I have been eating mostly the same things each day. While many would see this as boring (as I would normally would too) I am viewing this cleanse in a different way. When I am eating, I am thinking about how the food is nourishing my body, not just about enjoying the food. This is making me eat much more mindfully and really appreciate what these whole foods are doing for me.

Here is what I have been eating most days.

Breakfast: 3/4 egg whites, or 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg, scrambled. 1/2 cup cooked oats (that I made Sunday) with 1/4 c. blueberries.

Snack: 2 brown rice cakes with almond butter. Banana or Strawberries.

Lunch: Spring Mix, 4 oz. chicken (baked from Sunday), asparagus or carrots, tomatoes, Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Trader Joes Organic Red Wine Vinegar and Olive Oil Dressing (about 2 Tbl.), 1/4 c. brown rice or 1/4 sweet potato.

Snack: 10 almonds, 1/2 grapefruit or pear

Dinner: Same salad as lunch or 4 oz. fish, steamed spinach or kale, 1/4 tomato (cause I LOVE them).

The food that I prepared Sunday is almost gone, since I wouldn't want to be eating old food anyway. What is left and it totally fine for a few more days are the oats, hard-boiled eggs, lettuce and assorted fruit. I will plan to make some more chicken for the weekend and probably have fish most nights.
With the weekend fast approaching, I am sure I will have some major challenges and will share how I will overcome them!

One way I am going to combat any threats on the horizon is to make plans that don't revolve around food and drinking; yes, hanging out with pregnant friends works great (for the drinking that is)! I am also going to make sure I have plenty of snacks ready to go to have over the weekend.

I had a realization during this past week as well, thanks to Bob Harper of the Biggest Loser. He said during the latest episode that most people over eat/drink to avoid feeling emotions. This was a really enlightening to me. When I began craving unhealthy or just things not in my cleanse, I would ask myself; What are you feeling? It was amazing because almost every time I wanted to say "forget this cleanse" I was feeling unhappy, bored, lonely, etc. I then decided to just sit with that emotion and a while. It was HARD, but as it has been said, "This too shall pass."

Let's take a moment to think before we eat.