FebCleanse 2015 Status Update

We've made it to the final week of this year's cleanse!  Things are going well.  I haven't quite met all of my exercise/yoga goals each week, but I've gotten close.  My yoga class tonight went MUCH better than the one I went to during week 1.  And instead of the gym last week, I went to Dance Dance Party Party.  I'm planning on going again tomorrow.  Dancing is a way more fun way to work out than anything at the gym.  

We did go Seattle for the weekend between weeks 1 & 2.  I definitely didn't stick to the cleanse, but I wouldn't say that I went overboard. I don't regret anything, especially the ice cream.  

Finally, we had our annual Cleanse Potluck this past weekend. We had a full house of family and friends who all brought delicious cleanse-friendly dishes.  Here's what we made:

Chopped Thai Salad with Sesame Garlic Dressing

Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpea Tacos

Mini Honey Lemon Tarts

2015 FebCleanse Week 1 down!

I made it through the first week. Definitely a little hungry and a little grumpy. But I'm happy to report that I did end up finally making it to the gym for a bit on Friday and to yoga on Wednesday. It had been quite a while for both.  Almost passed out during camel pose at yoga, but made it through.  Next week will be easier.  So far, I've lost a few pounds and feel my energy levels up. 

I started week 2's guidelines (adding back all beans, fish, and gluten free grains) as of Friday night. You can check out my instagram for some pics of what I ate this week.  

We also noticed that we've gotten way better at eating out while on the cleanse compared to our first year.  Yesterday I managed to find something cleanse-worthy at a suburban chain restaurant and then we went to an Indian place that's all vegetarian and also has a lot of vegan & gluten free options.  Plus they don't use refined sugar.  Finally, it was delicious.  

We've already got some pre made meals ready to go for this week in the fridge.  We've got some chickpea saffron stew that has been a goodie for years for us and Matt made a vegetarian version of this pazole.  I think we even still have some soup frozen from last weekend. 

This week, for the first time, I made my own almond milk. That's because all of the store bought kinds usually have processed stuff in them. It was good, but probably not worth the work, even though it wasn't even that much labor. This week I'd like to make my own granola because my fave Milk 'n' Honey brand has wheat and soy in it.  If anyone has a good recipe that doesn't add extra sugar, I'd love it.  

For anyone curious to know if we're going to host a Cleanse Potluck again this year, I think we will do it on Sunday, Feb 22nd. Let me know if you're interested and I'll get you more info.    

Here's The 2015 FebCleanse Plan

Welp, February is here, along with the cleanse and a blizzard. A little snow is not going to impact our cleanse plans. However, my agency was closed today and my car is snowed in, so that meant I got quite a bit of free time at home to think about how hungry I am already. Eesh! It's only day 1, so I'm not concerned.  Here's what's up for 2015:

1.  Social support:

We've got 3 households on board: myself and my husband, my sister, her husband, and my mom are all for sure doing the cleanse. My dad also actually said he'd do it with us and I think it's quite possible that my Aunt will come along.  I've talked to them about doing a soup swap where we each make 6-8 servings of cleanse-worthy soup, pack it in individual freezable serving containers, and trade with each other.  

If you're planning on doing the cleanse this month, let me know! Let's eat together!

2. Basic eating rules:

Simple. Cut out these 6 things from your diet:
gluten, dairy, processed foods, added sugars, alcohol, & caffein.

Folks can really make this cleanse whatever they want, but I'm going to use the 2013 Whole Living Action Plan as my guide, where week 1 starts pretty basic fruits & veg + lentils, and then each week there are additions such as beans, grains, fish, egg, soy, lean meats.  Surely you can check out tons of recipes that I've pinned to my Cleanse Friendly Recipes board.  

3. Exceptions:

I try not to make too many exceptions during the month of February, but I'm planning for two: 1. we're spending a weekend in Seattle for a friend's wedding.  We'll do what we can, but we wont' be able to cook and we won't want to stress over what we're eating.  2. coffee. i'm going to try to keep it to just one cup per day rather than the multiple cups I tend to drink. I'm pretty sure one cup will ward off headaches.  

4. Exercise:

I have seriously been slacking off on exercise and yoga.  My goal is going to be to get to the gym once per week and get to a yoga class once per week. 

And that's it!   

Prepping for FebCleanse2015 with some pics of what we ate in Thailand

So our annual FebCleanse is coming up and surely needed up in here. We've been eating out like crazy since before Thanksgiving. And rarely, if ever, working out during the past few months. Looking back at my posts from the 2014 cleanse, I'm sad to report that I didn't really work the cleanse into my routine like I did in prior years on a quarterly basis.  Sure, we tend to eat more cleanse-like meals, especially when cooking at home, nowadays, but still, I can do better.  I haven't even been doing yoga in the past few months.  My excuses could be that this year we got engaged, had a wedding, and just got back from our honeymoon, plus I had a stupid cold/flu(?) from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and we both got work promotions, thus work a bundle more hours.  So those (mostly) swell things should be excuses for not taking care of ourselves? Probably not. We can handle this and get back on track this February!  

Who's with us again this year??

In the mean time, take a look at all the awesome food we ate in Thailand at this link here. Enjoy!  

-Colleen

One More #FebCleanse Under Our Belt

Well, we did it!  One more month of cleanse-worthy eating.  I feel pretty good about the month.  We cooked and ate a lot of great meals.  (I) Made a few not so great meals, but still edible for the most part.  Managed to eat out a few times.  I generally feel like I had a good deal of energy and feel like I lost a few pounds.

During the last couple of weeks I did get a cold and fell off of my workout and yoga routine.  Hoping to ease back into it, hopefully, now that I'm feeling better and work will be less crazy in March.

Where to go from here? For the past couple years I've been trying to do some variation of the cleanse just about quarterly. This meant a week cleanse reboot or morning/afternoon cleanse meals for a month. This year I'm thinking I'll try to do that every other month.

In the mean time, today we moved forward with our lives by having fun at the not-so-cleanse-friendly Irish Soda Bread Contest at my mom's house.

I'd love to hear how the past couple of weeks have gone for others and what your plans are (if any) for the future.

-colleen

Week 3 is here!

Here we go!  Adding on gluten free grains and eggs this week.  Fun stuff.  I already made these muffins.  I added blueberries and they were great!  I obviously don't understand the science behind baking because there's absolutely no kind of flour in them but they still worked.

The potluck yesterday was great!  Maybe I've been dessert deprived lately, but in my opinion the desserts stole the show.  Jennifer made this tart that was awesome and Rose roasted pineapple and made coconut milk ice cream with granola that was delicious.  I should have taken more pics.  If you brought something, feel free to post your recipes in the comments or a new post!

Physical fitness update: I did go to the gym toward the end of the week and I went to my first, and likely only, park district yoga class.  It felt like little kid yoga so I'm looking at it as a $20 donation to the parks.  Maybe I'll try another park with a different instructor next season. Oh well.

We can eat out while on the cleanse...right?

I'd say one of the hardest parts of the month is not being able to eat out at restaurants. Of course a majority of the time while on the cleanse will have to be home cooked meals but sometimes you just want to get out. In the past, I've written about some of our experiences here.  So far this FebCleanse, I've eaten vegetarian tacos with corn tortillas at Chipotle a couple of times, but that's about it.  Once we add on gluten free grains we can look forward to a gluten free vegan pizza at Father & Sons (although I'm guessing the crust is probably processed).  One time I remember asking for the gluten free menu at Granite City (in Orland) and got salmon and asparagus that was very good.  But that's about all I've got.

Does anyone have good suggestions of places you can go eat but keep on the cleanse??  I'd love to hear them!