10 Day Cleanse

This is the story of my journey of a 10 day cleanse. From the beginning to the end I share my thoughts, photographs of the food, recipes, and of course the struggles.

-Kristin

So now I’m doing a 10 day cleanse ran by the nutritionist at my Anytime Fitness gym Michelle Bailen. The cleanse focuses on seasonal fruits, vegetables, gluten-free whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds. No caffeine, alcohol, sugar, processed foods, and for me no meat or dairy (I want to go all out). And here begins my journey:

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Day 1.

I made it! I would like to say I got through it without any major bumps in the road, but that just wouldn’t be believable.

Here’s a few things I realized / tips:

• First thing I feel is surprisingly full. I probably only ate around 1000 calories, but I normally never feel full, even when I eat 1500+ calories. So that is a great way to start off!
• Drink tons of water. Every time my caffeine withdrawal headache started to form I chugged water, which really seemed to work. In total I probably had about 135 fluid oz of water. Maybe this is why I felt full? :’)

Breakfast

For breakfast I had the cleanses’ version of oatmeal, with honey and a banana… it was sweet and had a great texture.

Ingredients:

• Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free Rice & Shine Hot Cereal (only ingredient is organic brown rice grits)
• 1 tsp. raw tupelo honey
• 1/2 large banana sliced

Lunch

Blueberry Blast Smoothie

by Stephanie Touries (with minor changes by me)
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 2 bananas cut into chunks
• 2 tbsp. of Mara Natha All Natural Raw Almond Butter
• 1 tbsp. of raw tupelo honey

Directions:
Place ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Dinner

Ingredients:

• 1/2 organic zucchini cut in quarter-rounds
• truRoots Organic Germinated Brown Rice (gluten free)
• San-J Organic Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce (reduced sodium)
• 1 tsp. Olave Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• dash of sea salt
• dash of sesame seeds

Directions:

Cook brown rice as directed on package (I split the ingredients in half since the serving portion on the box in for 4 servings). Add as much soy sauce to brown rice at the end as desired.

Heat 1 tsp. of oil in small saucepan over medium heat. Add sliced zucchini. Cook for 2 minutes. Add soy sauce, sea salt, sesame seeds. Cook for 1-2 mintues more.

Not So Perfect

Now not everything went smooth during my day. Not sure if it was the whole lack of caffeine or the day was just not on my side, but everything seemed to be a little ‘off.’ Bootcamp went fine in the morning, then I went home to make a great sautéed vegetable dish for lunch with zucchini, onions, and green beens and somehow opened the wrong side of the pepper and poured almost 1/2 cup onto my pan. Let’s just say there was nothing I could do to save the dish. Here’s some of the photos (maybe photographing while cooking was my problem :’) )

Although I might have been a lot clumsier than usual, and I made a lot of mistakes during my softball game later during the evening, I made it through Day 1.

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Day 2.

The cravings for a burger, cake, eggs & bacon, and just bread really hit me today. I was never actually hungry, but I craved all the processed foods. I kept thinking I was going to forget I was on the cleanse and go for some chips and salsa, but I didn’t! Day two definitely went a lot smoother!

• Breakfast – same oatmeal, honey, and banana recipe as day 1.
• Lunch – leftover “Blueberry Blast Smoothie” from Day 1.
• Snacks – raw unsalted cashews… which are surprisingly delish!

Dinner

Quinoa Salad

by IIN
Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp. balsalmic vinegar

 

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a big bowl. Mix well and chill before serving (can also be served hot).

I also sautéed/steamed up some french green beans with a tsp. of extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup of water for steaming, and a dash of sea salt and pepper.

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Day 3.

Why Did I Choose to do a Cleanse?

During my journey of becoming healthy this past year and a half I have been successful. I’ve changed my food diet to consist of lean proteins, more whole grains, and cooking from scratch. I think of myself as an intermediate cook now, when 3 years ago I didn’t know how to cook spaghetti. However with losing almost 70 pounds I realized some of the bad habits with food I had picked up (non-fat shredded cheese, 97% fat-free hot dogs, 97% fat free waffles). Most of which are very unnatural foods, but it was what I thought my body needed to loose the weight. Now that I’m at my maintaining weight and addicted to caffeine (2 sugar-free red bulls a day, plus a few diet sodas) I knew it was time to rethink this part of my life and diet.

Lunch

 

Day 4-6.

These past few days have been the hardest. Cinco de Mayo, cravings, nausea, all the most processed yummy foods (birthday cake, potato salad, burgers, this amazing wontons my friends make) being within hands reach. I even have my first dinner off the cleanse planned: Papa John’s Pizza (Hog Wild with sweet sticks) with a 6-pack of Michelob Ultra & the Avengers. I know not good, but you have to reward yourself and have something to look forward too.

I definitely almost gave up today. I knew I wasn’t eating enough, and after saying “no thank you” to all the amazing food at my friends Birthday & Graduation party I had almost no resisting in me left, but through the support of Michelle, the cleanse leader, I made it through the day and am looking forward to having some lean organic meat tomorrow (recommended by her for my nausea which has been causing me not to be able to finish most meals).

If you are going through your own cleanse and are starting to get off track talk to some that can give you a pep talk, go for a walk (sometimes we just need fresh air), or watch a movie to get your mind off of food.

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Day 7-10.

These were definitely the hardest days. Organic and whole raw foods had finally depleted what money I had aside for food, and I felt drained. I had cooked so many meals from scratch, multiple times a day, that I really just wanted quick foods that made itself. I was also only getting 500-900 calories in my system a day I knew things had to change. I wasn’t trying to starve myself, but through listening to my body I found myself never hungry.

So I finally changed things.

One day I added 2 organic, cage free eggs into my diet (just scrambled with extra virgin olive oil). The next day I added a piece of organic chicken to get the protein in me and help me get through my double header softball games later that night.

This wasn’t a failure!!

Dairy and lean meat was actually allowed in the cleanse… as long as it was a limited quantity.

Finally having money I went back to MOM’s (Organic Market) to try some new foods, mostly snacks, to help me get through my days… and get more energy in my system. And here are some of my favorite organic, all natural, gluten free, and no refined sugar snacks:

What can go wrong with raisins?

This was surprisingly AMAZING!! I had the Alive & Radiant Foods Kale Krunch Organic Southwest Ranch. Even my boyfriend was pleasantly surprised as he bit into it thinking it was going to attack him at any moment.

These are a sweet exotic treat indeed. A totally new flavor, and reminded me of Twizzlers in their chewy texture.

Organic raw cashews… or any nut really is the perfect snack!

Navitas Naturals Cacao Goji Superfood was my favorite. If you miss your chocolate (with some berries added) and want to try something so good, that you can’t believe it’s healthy it’s these!

And the end is finally here. The things I got most from this 10 day cleanse are:

• Listen to your body… it actually tells you a LOT of things
• I found some amazing new foods to start incorporating into my life
• Organic is expensive, but worth it if you can afford it
• I’m no longer caffeine dependent, and the first time I did have a diet mountain dew after the cleanse I instantly got a headache, faster heart rate, and chest pains… not good!
• You need support for a cleanse, unless you are the type of person that strives on doing things by yourself