Category Archives: Cleanse

and then, there was cake.

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Day 19 over here, friends, and our cleanse has been good and bad and everything inbetween.

As Mary pointed out, we’ve broken our cleanse more than twice. And mostly, it’s because I work in food. Both my real job and my side job (aka GMS) are entirely involved in food, and cakes don’t frost themselves (although if we were in Harry Potter, they might, but that’s another story for another time.) So I’ve been busy whipping up cakes, frosting them, dipping pretzels in chocolate, and making homemade tortilla chips along the way. And every chef knows you can’t serve something to someone without first tasting it.

I still believe I am learning tons – I have mainly been snacking on whole foods, my stomach has calmed down over the past few weeks, and mostly staying away from white flour and white bread products has taught me to be satisfied with less (which is really more, because whole grain products have more nutrition!)

Our cleanse officially ends a week from Monday, but I think I’ve learned to make better choices and continue parts of the cleanse on. Mary, Corelyn, and I made homemade cereal (which is really just a few ingredients away from being granola) the other night, and it’s delicious, so easy, and makes a ton (we split it three ways and so far it’s looking like my 1/3 will feed me for 7 breakfasts!)

I was reading something for work the other day, and it really struck me as exactly what I’ve been trying to get across to my GMS and PL readers for the last few years:

“Cooking today is treated as a hobby,
a luxury for folks, when in fact it’s a basic skill we should all learn how to do.”

– Tracie McMillian, The American Way of Eating

This cleanse is about taking back what our grandparents knew, and our great grandparents. Eating affects your whole life, and it’s what keeps you going. So what shouldn’t it gain at least an hour of your attention each day?

Here’s a little secret: what I do is not special. It is not extraordinary. It is possible for each and every one of you to do what I do, to cook most nights from scratch. You just have to respect your basic needs enough to do it.

If you need me to show you, I’ll be in the kitchen.

Happy Friday, folks!

Day 12: Cheese is wonderful.

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We’re back, winding down Day 12 on the cleanse. I’ve gotta be honest: I have broken it, twice. Once, for chocolate Jen brought back from New Zealand (because you only live once) and once for wine at work Happy Hour.

Other than that, sticking to it hasn’t been so bad, especially now that we’re able to eat cheese again. We’ve visited two new restaurants so far, the Veggie Grill and Tender Greens, both of which were delicious. We’ve also learned how to snack smartly – I have been eating a lot of citrus, fruit, and nuts.

We attempted to make whole grain wheat pizza dough in celebration of cheese being back in our lives, but I think we killed yeast (read: I killed the yeast) so it was more a flatbread. It was still pretty good, but it was definitely not perfect – we’ll have to work on that recipe.

Overall, I think that this cleanse, so far, has lead to drinking more water, more cooking, and really thinking about what you’re putting in your body. Which has been the most important part, I think. When you have to stop and think about everything you eat, you’re doing yourself a favor. I have been eating less because I stop and think, “I don’t want that for a snack.” Well, if you don’t want that, it’s probably not hunger driving you to eat – it’s boredom, or thirst, or lack of sleep, or some other basic need not being met.

I recently read this quote, and it really stuck with me:

“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”

– Ann Wigmore

I think this cleanse is teaching us to eat food. Not just eat things disguised as food, but actual, tangible things that came from this earth with the purpose to nourish us. I love the occasional candy bar, soda, and chip, but chemicals and fake sugar aren’t even food to begin with, and learning that is an important step in learning about eating the way we were meant to eat.

Heading into this weekend, we have two scheduled dinners (both home cooked) that I can’t wait to share with my friends. I hope you have delicious plans, too, friends.

it’s a good thing there is no cheese in my house.

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You guys, I feel like a crazy addict. It’s Day 4 of our cleanse, and really Day 3 of the no-cheese world I am living in (because I had cheese earlier this week by accident) and thoughts of brie are haunting my dreams.  It’s a good thing there is no cheese around, or I am sure I would have dove right into it last night.

Last night, I was making dinner for Jeff and I, coming up with a lackluster protein (beans) for our spaghetti squash with pesto (homemade, sans cheese) and Brussels sprouts. I thought chicken, but we’ve been chicken heavy this week, and Jeff doesn’t like fish, and I hate the idea of tofu. I was making dinner, hungry from an afternoon of clementines and a handful of cashews, when I realized: I can have peanut butter. So I got myself a teaspoon of it, and let me tell you, peanut butter has never tasted so good.

I really wanted to add cheese to the pesto, cheese to the dinner, eat cheese before and after the meal, but I had to stay strong. So instead, we had popcorn for dessert as a treat (popcorn is intrinsically pretty good for you!) I was dreaming of cheese as I enjoyed my peanut butter, hoping that I could make it to Tuesday (Tuesday! So many days from now!) when I can eat cheese again.

Surprisingly, the no processed foods hasn’t been so hard (except you guys, I am so over nuts. I think I need to rethink this strategy and come up with some other snacks than cashews) but the cheese, the cheese! I can’t wait until I can get at that again.

In the meantime, I am stocking up on veggies and protein (just had leftover lemon chicken, potatoes, green beans, carrots, and broccoli!) and am trying to drink more water. This weekend, I plan on getting some oatmeal ready for next week’s breakfasts, making my own hummus to snack on at work, and figuring out some more snacks (maybe even good old peanut butter!) to bring to work so I’m not starving by 5 pm.

Any delicious snack ideas for me, guys?