The Cleanse

Joe and I don't mess around when it comes to vacations. We live it up--eating, drinking, and adventure have no limits when we're on the road. After the Bahamas, Greenville (a food-lover's paradise), and a NYE wedding, we were both fat and bloated. Running (for me and Joe) and strength training (for Joe) wouldn't cut it alone to get back to feeling good. We needed to make some kind of dramatic dietary change. Truth be told, we've needed to change the way we've been eating for months; things started to really fall apart for me after Las Vegas in November, but the pieces were crumbling little by little long before that.

Our jump-start is a cleanse. It's not one of those ridiculous, lose-weight-then-gain-it-all-back-immediately-by-fasting-and-drinking-maple-syrup-and-cayenne-pepper cleanses. Instead it's a lot of blending in the Blendtec of dark, leafy greens and a variety of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables.

Generally I think cleanses are for people unwilling to make real changes to their routines and diets and so they are happy with a quick fix that won't have lasting effects. This cleanse piquied my interest for two key reasons, though:

1.) We get to use our Blendtec more.

2.) It's gradual.

We got the Blendtec back in August and were immediately hooked on preparing smoothies and meals with it. The chicken tortilla soup that we made on the first day was freakin' phenomenal and the high power of the Blendtec got me to really like green smoothies since it liquifies all of the leafy bits and funny textures. Unfortunately we fell out of the habit of making smoothies in October-ish and the Blendtec just sat all pretty on our counter for a while, untouched. For the cleanse we are required to drink six blended drinks each day until we are finished. The Blendtec is going to get a lot of love.

The cleanse is planned in a way that avoids shocking the body. We techinically began the cleanse two days ago with the five-day pre-cleanse meal plan. Each day we have eliminated a few foods from our diet. Here's the long and short:

Day 1: Last day to eat red meat; no wheat, gluten, aritificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, and processed foods

Day 2: Last day to eat poultry and fish

Day 3: Last day to have eggs and dairy; no meat, caffeinated beverages, or soy

Days 4 & 5: Soups, greens, vegetables, beans, legumes, grains, starches, fruits, and nuts

Day 6 (plus however many days you want): Prescribed blended drinks

Then repeat days 1 through 5 backwards.

We're on the third day right now and we've been pretty well-behaved for days one and two. We sort of broke the rules on day one. On the night prior I made corn chicken chowder in which I used canned corn and I'm pretty sure anything in a can like that is processed in some way. We ate the leftovers for lunch on day one, but other than that we were good. Well, then last night we went all out on our last day to have poultry and we had wings. At least they were naked.

The biggest challenge for Joe will be drinking no soda. He's like a moth to a flame when there's Diet Pepsi or Coke Zero in the fridge. The biggest challenge for me will probably be eating no bread. I never thought about how much bread I eat until now. I could really go for some crackers or toast.

Have you ever done a cleanse of any sort? What was it and how'd you feel about the results?