Clean Program, Week 1 Recap

Week 1 is over!  14 more days to go!  This past week, I began each day with a smoothie and some supplements.  Monday and Tuesday I had a blueberry, coconut milk, avocado, cinnamon smoothie.  Wednesday and Thursday was blueberry, almond milk, cocoa, and a little bit of agave.  The recipes for these smoothies are in the Clean book.  I added a full serving of hemp protein powder and about a teaspoon of ground flax seed and chia seeds to each smoothie and took my daily vegan multivitamin, omega 3, calcium, enzyme and probiotic supplements. I really enjoyed these smoothies!  Friday and Saturday were more of a coconut milk, pineapple vibe that was ultimately just OK.  Breakfast used to be sugary black coffee, so this is a vast improvement to say the least.  I feel full and ready to face the day with these babies.  No more sugar/caffeine crashes.  That said, I sure do miss my coffee.  When the cleanse is all said and done, I'll probably continue with the smoothies for breakfast, but I'm definitely bringing the occasional cup of java back into my life.

Lunch on the Clean Program should be whole foods and can be cooked.  Early in the week, I started with a quinoa, lentil, spinach dish.  I sauteed onion and garlic, added about a teaspoon of oregano, and I cooked the quinoa in veggie broth.  I sauteed the spinach with garlic and olive oil, and I seasoned the lentils that I placed on top with salt and pepper. 

On Wednesday, I had a salad with mixed greens, avocado, and nori with a generous sprinkling of nutritional yeast and a healthy dash of cayenne pepper.  This recipe is from Thrive.  I used the Vegan With a Vengeance recipe for a balsamic/tahini dressing.  Yum!  After my salad I sliced up some cucumber and ate it with more of the dressing.  It's so good! On Thursday and Friday, I had the same salad but added a bunch of chickpeas. 

This weekend's lunch was brown rice veggie sushi with no soy sauce.  I didn't make this (I wish!), I bought it at a store.

For dinner this week, I mostly had butternut squash soup.  

This weekend, I made the white bean and roasted garlic soup from VWAV, but I made a slight change.  I added a bunch of spinach to make it green.  So good!

Since I have such a sweet tooth and I'm a dessert fanatic, I usually have an apple, lemon, ginger juice after dinner.  I've been adding greens and cucumber to my apple, lemon, ginger base to make them healthier.

Some other healthy habits I picked up this week include drinking water with lemon (and a lot of it!), and leaving at least a 12 hour gap between my last meal in the evening and my first meal in the morning.

Have I seen any improvements during week 1?  Well, I'm super allergic to dust.  For whatever reason, I decided to do a massive clean out of my house (clean body, clean house, I guess?), exposing myself to some dust.  Usually, I get a runny nose, itchy eyes, and I break out in hives immediately.  This week, the reaction was slower and less intense.  That said, I did get hives this week.  Not sure if it's reasonable to expect anything major after only one week. 

The other thing is I've been going to an hour and a half hot yoga class, and I'm usually really sore and tired the next day.  This week, my recovery was really fast.  This could be because I've been sleeping more, maybe my muscles are getting used to the routine, but the faster recovery was great.  Unfortunately, the roads around here and the boardwalk are still covered in snow and ice, so no running for me.

Though the transition from my usual diet to the Clean diet wasn't super dramatic, I did have a tough time on Day 5.  I was stressed from work, and I was hungry.  I was sick of the same soup and salad I kept making out of convenience, and I started thinking this whole detox idea was stupid.  I then reminded myself that there really was no reason to let myself get hungry while doing this.  I specifically liked this detox because you can eat real food on it.  So, I went shopping the next day, had sushi and snacked on Clean-approved food before and after lunch.  Now I'm totally fine.

Goal for next week: I want to make kale chips to snack on, and I'm looking for a good recipe.  Have you ever tried kale chips?