Sunday, May 6, 2012

Prepping for a Cleanse

 
One of the most important steps to take before beginning a cleanse is preparing your fruits and veggies. Before I went to the store today, I first cleaned out my fridge to make room for all of the produce I would be stocking it with. If you keep a lot of unclean foods on hand, it is a good idea to toss or donate anything that will be too tempting for you. Then I went to the grocery store and picked out all of my fruits and veggies for the week. I brought them home, took off any stickers, washed them all, trimmed them up and laid them out on drying mats. I peeled the outer leaf off of my cabbage and cut it into quarters, chopped my broccoli and cauliflower up, peeled and trimmed several carrots, took apart and trimmed my celery, and rinsed and de-stemmed my radishes and beets. Now they will all be ready to go when I want to use them! Greens do not hold up as well once washed and do better when rinsed prior to using. I put those in plastic bags with paper towel wrapped around them to absorb any excess water. Not only does this save a ton of time during the week, especially when hunger strikes and your first instinct is to grab something quick and easy, but it also gets you mentally prepared and starts you off on the right foot. It is exciting to look into your fridge and see an array of organized, ready to go veggies at your disposal!

 Another important aspect is to have your meals picked out and your recipes close at hand. I write out a general plan of meals I want to consume during the week, but each night I make a more specific plan outlining what I will have for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks the next day. That way, I don't have to think about it, I just go in the kitchen and follow my recipes.


Tomorrow I will start a 4 day Elimination Diet before the actually cleanse which I will start on Friday. It will consist of more solid meals than the actual cleanse and really just serves the purpose of cutting out the foods you will be avoiding to gently prepare your body. I will start my day with a smoothie and possibly a light breakfast or a snack a couple hours later. Then lunch and dinner with possibly a snack in between. The point of this cleanse is not to starve yourself so there is room for snacks, just have a plan for those too so that you are not tempted to grab something processed or packaged. I usually plan to make enough at dinner to have leftovers for lunch the next day.


Day 1 of Elimination Diet:
Breakfast: Smoothie.  Here is a link to Smoothie Recipes from the Clean Program to give you some ideas.
Lunch: Leftover Spring Rice Pasta
Dinner: Big Green Salad, one of the recipes from the book. I will post the recipe tomorrow.
Snacks: Cinnamon Sunflower Truffles These are divine! Plus they make a great snack for kids too...mine devours them! I have been making these for awhile now from one of my favorite blogs, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen, which is another fabulous site that has a plethora of recipes suitable for cleansing. Any additional snacks will just be a handful of carrots or a piece of fruit.

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