I did it to see if we could.
Chip did it because I said he had to. :snort:
In the interest of full disclosure, the following was our menu (links if available--note they were adapted to be clean if it was necessary):
Saturday
- blueberry blackberry pineapple smoothie
- curried chicken, asparagus, brown rice
- butternut squash pear soup
Sunday
- raspberry peach mango smoothie
- quinoa with brussels sprouts
- black bean soup
For snacks we had various allowed fruits, nuts and veggies.
I have no idea how Carissa made it 3 weeks. It's a lot of work to plan meals that allow some things but say other things are inadmissible. Every time I thought a recipe was a go, I realized too many ingredients would need to be altered. Or I wouldn't enjoy the alterations. Or it would be difficult to find things without driving all over (thank goodness for Gooseberries, though!).
Also, we were hungry a lot.
The thing that bothers me about this (and even Chip brought it up) is it's somewhat elitist. You have to find all kinds of unique ingredients and some of them are expensive. I think I'd rather focus on eating things that are in season and more fruits and veggies. Maybe I just don't get the full purpose, as I haven't read the book. I mean, yes, I get the 'cleanse' part as far as bodily functions, but overall? I'd almost like to explore other cleanses to compare. Almost.
Also, we were hungry a lot.
The thing that bothers me about this (and even Chip brought it up) is it's somewhat elitist. You have to find all kinds of unique ingredients and some of them are expensive. I think I'd rather focus on eating things that are in season and more fruits and veggies. Maybe I just don't get the full purpose, as I haven't read the book. I mean, yes, I get the 'cleanse' part as far as bodily functions, but overall? I'd almost like to explore other cleanses to compare. Almost.
4 comments:
good for you for trying! yes, digging up the recipes was definitely the hard part. and finding the weirder ingredients. but honestly, the first weekend was the hardest for us (mostly due to the caffeine withdrawal for j and the burned fingers for g). i'm not saying it's the end-all be-all of cleanses, but i will say that by the end of three weeks i do feel like i learned some stuff ("hey look! i do shovel food in my mouth when stressed!" "i want a snack. but am i really hungry? actually, nope! i'll do without." "i like smoothies for breakfast!") that's actually stuck with me. And i'm still amazed that I've kept those 10 or so pounds off. I'm toying with the idea of doing a one-week repeat sometime this summer just to see what summer recipes are like, but don't hold me to it. i mean, which week am i going to skip--strawberry week or tomato week? :)
Thanks! It did show us that we can easily move 'clean' foods into our diet with little repercussions, though I didn't like feeling hungry all the time. Wheat does fill you up!
I think if you time it right, there might be a big enough gap between the two this year... though the current cold snap has set things back to almost normal! ;)
Accidentally at the same time, I got both the "Flat Belly Diet" book and stumbled upon the blog "thehealthyhomeeconomist.com". I don't adovcate some of the foods on the Flat Belly Diet, but one main thing they talked about that does make sense was to include a mono-unsaturated fat (MUFA) with every meal because it's those fats that help you lose both the internal fat (around your organs) and the surface belly fat AND they help you stay full. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't say.
The Healthy Home Economist talks about Traditional Eating. I've been interested in and dabbling in this for a while, but just in the past month or so I've learned more (from the blog) and have gotten more serious. Basically, it's all about eating whole, unprocessed foods and preparing foods in traditional ways that allow your body to best use the foods (e.g. soaking grains overnight).
I've never tried a cleanse for various reasons, but at the very least I've been trying to buy only whole foods, frozen foods, and if I do buy something "processed", I get the one with the most natural ingredients listed. Even things like sour cream have crap in them - Daisy is the only brand that doesn't. I also make my own yogurt. So anyway, I'm trying to make changes as I can and as we can afford.
Now, if only I could figure out how to fit raw milk into the budget!
Thanks, Heather! When my book club read In Defense of Food a couple years ago, I truly enjoyed that train of thought: 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.'
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