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!

Potluck time!

Do you remember the Best (only) Cleanse Potluck You've Ever Been To? Well we're bringing it back! 

Hope you can come!

Sunday, February 16, 2014
4:00pm-? (Who's got Monday off work??)
at our house (email me if you need the address)

You know the rules:
Bring a dish that does not have any of the following

• gluten
• dairy
• added sugars
• processed foods
• alcohol
• caffein

Feel free to bring a friend!

-colleen

Ohmmm. Done.

I did end up meeting my physical fitness goals for the week, but right at the last minute.  I just got back from yoga and yesterday I finally went to the gym.  I have shoveled my car in and out of parking spots at least 5 times this week, so I'll consider that at least two full extra workouts.  Right?

and my Sunday at 4pm is pretty wide open right now.  Ladies?  Who's down for some Dance Dance Party Party?

and now that my yoga groupon is over, thanks to the wonderful Charlotte for giving me the Chicago Park District yoga scoop, I'm signed up for Tuesday night yoga near my house.  If I go every week, that'll be 6 classes for only $20.  Deal!

How are YOU doing?

We're almost done with the first week!  I feel like I've been so busy with work this week that I haven't even had time to focus on stressing about being on the cleanse.  That being said, I've done pretty good.  I've stuck to it except for a couple of beers at the Lagunitas party and after a day and a half without coffee, the headache came through.  So I've had about 3 cups of coffee total this week so far.  There was even a day that I was supposed to have a meeting at Heartland Cafe, where I figured I'd find a cleanse-worthy salad.  The meeting got cancelled and I was without a lunch.  I ended up going to Chipotle and getting veggie tacos with corn tortillas.  Cleanse success!

I think the best meal we (Matt) made was this veggie stir fry. CleansePro tip:  grate a head of cauliflower and saute it in a pan with a bit of olive oil for about 15 minutes.  It's a great substitute for rice.  We've done it twice now.

I made the slaw and it's good, but I wouldn't put the avocado in until ready to eat next time.  And I made that butternut squash apple soup, but subbed in pumpkin and it just wasn't good.  Didn't even bother taking a pic.  Made this simple veggie soup and it was pretty mediocre.

Looking forward to adding beans back into my diet next week!  Tell me how your week has been!

-colleen

1st Day Success!

Random thoughts that I'd like some feedback on:

1. Anyone else the only one in their house doing the Cleanse? 

Bfast & Lunch & snacks will be fine, but I plan our Dinner menu and Matt won't eat Cleanse friendly. We alternate nights cooking, too, adding a little frustration to my end now as I'll be prepping mostly. I've been planning Week 1 dinner for the past 2 weeks, and did settle on a few Dinners that will be similar to our usual menu items. But there are a few nights where I need to just make mine separately. Tonight's dinner was a surprising success though- we had Curry. I made vegan curry and this as a naan substitute, and Matt made chicken korma, had store-bought naan- whatevs. Mine was better so the extra work on my end paid off. Friday will be pizza night, and i'm excited to try this cauliflower crust with lots of veggies.

2. Cleanse grocery shopping at Super Target is possible.

I was all "i don't want to visit 3 different grocery stores today, so let's do this Target". BAM. Success. $11 for 30oz of raw mixed unsalted nuts? I'll take it. $3.12 for 1 head of cauliflower? Not so much. Brought my coups so I saved like $14 combined with my RedCard %. (sidebar: saw today they put a Piggly Wiggly near me. I will need to stop in, I don't think I've ever been to one.) I really wish the price of cherries would go down. $5.99/lb almost everywhere, and that's just to rich for my blood. 

3. Where does honey fit in?

It's not really added sugar, or sugar at all really. I've thought about incorporating it. Because making this faux strawberry jam, could help create a seriously good pb&j sandwich on this bread. 

4. Don't really like drinking water. 

Honestly I don't drink much throughout the day. I have 1 cup of coffee in the morning, and usually go all day without drinking anything else. Then have water with dinner. (I know this is a horrible habit. I'm just not thirsty though).Thinking about making some of this flavored water.Colleen & Matt let me borrow their juicer, but dang it's expen$ive to juice stuff. What am I going to drink? I did buy almond milk, so I'll do some banana & pb smoothies with that. Straight, blegh.

Here's my plan. Just so you know...

Okey dokey.

So here's what I'm thinking about the cleanse.  It starts Monday (who wants to start a cleanse on the weekend?).  That gives us the weekend to gather our groceries and cook some soups.  I am planning on doing the original Week 1 of the 2012 Whole Living Cleanse.  Nowadays, it doesn't seem all that extreme.  It's fruits & vegetables, nuts, seeds, and plant-based oils.  You have to think about what in those categories will actually fill you up.  Things like avocados, mushrooms, squash, and nuts nuts nuts.  If you try to only do salads and slaws, you're bound to be hungry.  And seriously, it's only one week.  Next week we bring back seafood, beans, lentils, and tofu.  Smooth sailing from there on out.

Here are some soup recipes I'm hoping to make this weekend:

Butternut Squash Soup (but I've already got pureed pumpkin in my freezer so I'm using that instead of B-nut Squash.

or maybe this one instead.  I remember it being good.

Vegetable Soup (Thanks, Jennifer, for posting this one on your board!)

All of these seem like they'd be fine to freeze so they'll be good grab and go lunches.

Here are some of the dinner recipes I'm thinking we'll make:

Avocado Arugula Salad.  This is my favorite salad, so if I see arugula at the store, I'm doin it.

Spaghetti Squash with peanut sauce. We've made this one twice now and it was really delicious.  I think both times we subbed brussel sprouts instead of broccoli because that's what we had.

and this salad also looks pretty tasty, so I'll try to make that too.

Ok, what else?  Breakfast, I'll make smoothies.  Ooh, coffee! Am I going to stop drinking coffee?  Well...the first year I did and I was fine.  But then last year, I stopped for a couple of days and then got headaches and said forget that.  So I drank about a half cup or so of black coffee on most days.  This year too, I'm pretty addicted to the stuff, so I'm going to try again, but it's not worth it for me to give it up completely if my head is pounding.  I don't feel like it's all that bad for me.  What about alcohol?  I think that'll be fine.  Although we're supposed to go to the Lagunitas opening on the 4th, so I may make an exception for that.  Maybe a glass of wine on a weekend here or there.

Exercise goals.  I'm back on yoga (a groupon).  But I only have one more class for that. And my yoga goal is to go at least once per week.  oh yeah, I'm also cheap so it pains me to pay $16+ for a single class.  So I need to do some shopping around to figure out what I'll do next week.  And then I want to get to the gym at least once per week.  Finally, I want to DDPP at least twice during the month.  Ladies, who's in?

So, as you can see, after the first cleanse, I've been a bit more flexible with the rules for myself.  You have to do what works for you and not fret or stress.  This thing is all about making you feel good.

Leave a comment or post on what your cleanse plan is going to be!

First Things First

Ok people, two things to prepare yourself for if you're gonna do the cleanse:

1.  You're going to have to cook.  A Lot.  There's no two ways around it.  As much as I love eating out at many of our wonderful restaurants, it's really difficult to go somewhere and pass up all of the good stuff you'd rather eat.  You can likely find something to order in a pinch, but you're probably not going to be happy about it.  Especially if you're eating with non-cleansing folks.  However, when you stay at home and cook up a nice cleanse-worthy meal, you'll feel really proud of yourself and you'll probably think it's super delicious.  Because it is.

2.  Snacks.  Your meals are not going to be real heavy, so you're gonna need to do some snacking so you don't feel hungry.  My favorite go-to snacking option is chickpeas!  These roasted spiced chickpeas in particular.  Super easy and I could eat an entire can in one sitting.

There are just some little nuggets for today.  Enjoy!

FebCleanse2014 coming soon!

Whoa!  Year THREE of FebCleanse is happening!  Who'd have thought that we'd be interested in this still?  I surely didn't.  But yes, we're planning on doing the cleanse again during the whole month of February.  So keep an eye out here for recipes, stories, and hopefully some support.  Let me know if you're going to be cleansing too because we can eat meals together.  

For those who might be new to this.  Here are the basic rules...  

Don't eat/drink:
1.  Gluten
2.  Dairy
3.  Alcohol
4.  Caffein
5.  Added sugars
6.  Processed foods

Easy peasy right?  Trust me, it's gotten easier over the years.  We've definitely changed the way we eat since we started doing this in 2012.  If you need some help getting started, I've been saving lots of recipes here:
http://www.pinterest.com/colleennorton/cleanse-friendly-recipes/

Save the date for this year's Cleanse Potluck at my house on Sunday, February 16th!  

I just want some BBQ

Yesterday was friday again.  Of course, I wanted BBQ.  We endured and cooked this veggie bi bim bop instead.  It was super tasty and we decided that it's the closest thing to BBQ that we've eaten on the cleanse.  

Other good recipe to note from this week:  
Chickpea & saffron stew  I really liked this and will definitely make it again.  

Have you wondered what kind of noodles are gluten free?  Here's a good link for you. 

And I'm looking forward to bringing this soup back from last year's week 4!  

Less than one week to go people!  March 1 here I come!    

Best (only) Cleanse Potluck You've Been To

Thanks to all of you friends and family for coming out to our first cleanse potluck!   Lots of amazing food was eaten (the pic above was taken pretty early on.  By the end of the night, you couldn't even see the table!).  Plus it was great to have everyone over!  Last year, I feel like February came and went and we barely socialized, so this was great.  It was also a nice push forward into the last 10 days of this cleanse!  

Below are some of the links to the recipes that Matt and I made:

Tofu spring rolls

Bok Choy

Chickpeas (I'm now addicted to these)

Banana "ice cream" with almond butter

Mango pops

Strawberry "ice cream"

Matt made the romesco sauce for the spaghetti squash so I don't have that one, but any romesco sauce recipe should be usable.  We just cut the squash in half, scoop out the insides, plop a 1/4 cup of water inside, put the two sides back together and then microwave it for 10-15 mins.  

Feel free to comment with your recipes or create your own post!  I know everyone was eager to get and share the recipes!  

V-Day and Still Cleansing

So this year was NOT a repeat of last year's V-day.  I will not even mention the name of the raw food restaurant that we went to and had THE WORST MEAL OF MY LIFE.  Looking back on it, I don't think that statement is an exaggeration.  But that was last year.  It was an experience that we tried once and don't need to try ever again.  Same as hemp seeds.  Gross.  That being said, we're not even trying to go out (especially since Matt had soccer tonight) and we're going to just make some salmon.  Today I also danced and did an fairly intense yoga class.  

Anyway, have I mentioned that this week's energy level is way up (compared to last week)?  I have been drinking a cup of coffee each day.  Plus, last week my allergist suggested I take Vitamin D and Calcium supplements, so I started that.  I'm sure the grains and beans probably helped too.   

This week's recipes: 
We've been eating this garlic bean soup for lunch.  I like it but it could probably use even more garlic.  

Made the baked salmon with coconut broth last night.  It was very good. I'd make that again.  

Matt also made us the broccoli &  chickpea salad.  It's a good lunch option.  

That's really about it!  Hope it's going well for the rest of you!  

Don't forget about the potluck on Sunday at 4pm at my house!  If you need my addy, just call or email me!

March 1

I'm going here.

Weekend is here...ug

So normally I'm a pretty happy camper for Friday's arrival.  While on the cleanse, though, it's just a bit less fun. For some reason on Fridays, I really crave food that is not good for me but tastes oh so good. Like BBQ.   Ok, it's usually always BBQ.  That being said, I'm not really looking forward to whatever slaw or salad I whip up tonight.

Next year I may only cleanse M-F for the month of February.  Just sayin'.

Ok, so how did this week look?  Well, I pretty much stuck with the recipe plan that I posted last weekend.  Lentil stew and butternut squash soups were good and filling lunches.  That stir fry with the cauliflower "rice" was actually great.  I was probably most skeptical about that one, but we said we'd do the cauliflower that way again.  It did feel a little more like couscous than rice, but it was a great substitute.  And then the kale mushroom dish was excellent.  Didn't use portabellos, still great.  Smoothies for breakfast have been fine.  Here's the one pic I took of the stir fry:

I only had one cup of coffee all week on Thursday even though I said I'd allow myself to drink coffee.  I was fully expecting to have headaches, but I didn't.  I've been extremely tired though.  I'm not sure if that'd due to the cleansing, or lack of coffee, or just being plain exhausted from working a lot.  Could be a mix of all of those things.  I did make it to yoga once this week and I plan to play basketball on Sunday morning.  I also spent two hours yesterday learning this dance for a flash mob that I'll be participating in on Valentines Day downtown.

It's definitely been helpful to have others also on the cleanse this week.  I haven't talked to everyone, but have been able to commiserate with Yesenia, my supervisor, who is on the cleanse while at work. Also talked with my mom over the phone and she too was feeling tired.

Ok, here's to hoping I get through this weekend!  

It has begun! Not so bad...

Alright, on day two.  I think my suspicion that this is not going to be so bad is true. I know, I know, it's only day 2, but still, I haven't felt like my stomach is eating itself from hunger.  I may be eating larger portions than one might think on a cleanse.  My smoothies have been hefty & my butternut squash soup has paired with either cherries or mixed nuts.  Last night my dinner was the lentil stew (not even going to take a pic cause I overcooked the lentils.  It still tastes good though.)  Tonight we're going to  make the mushrooms and kale dish.  And I actually haven't had coffee because I haven't had a headache.  I had some tea at yoga.  I have no idea what kind it was but I don't imagine they'd have caffeinated tea at a yoga studio.

Also, the Cleanse Potluck is going to happen on Sunday, February 17 at 4pm at my house.  Everyone is welcome, even if not on any part or version of the cleanse, but all of the dishes must cleanse qualify.

Again, if you want to blog, just let me know and I'll add you!