Tag Archives: best vegan cleanse

January 15, 2012 · 7:44 pm

CLEANSE FOOD LOG – Days 6 and 7

There really isn’t much to report food-wise this weekend other than the gorging I did at lunch yesterday which led to feeling crazy full for the next 5 1/2 hours.  I know that the rest of my food log today will pretty much be a repeat of what the rest of the week has looked like, so I am going to take the rest of the day off of blogging and spend it with my kiddos.

I plan on stopping the full-force cleanse after tonight.  I am really glad that I did the cleanse this past week.  I feel clear and clean and have no regrets.  Eating so much produce really does have its benefits.  After the cleanse I will continue eating mostly fruits and veggies for breakfast and lunch and for dinner I will add in some beans and grains.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

SATURDAY

  • 8:15 am – Big bowl of veggie soup.
  • 10:45 am – Chocolate smoothie (sweet potato, zucchini, 2 frozen bananas, cocoa powder, some stevia).  I drank about half and put the rest in the fridge for later.
  • 1:00 pm – Finished the other half of the smoothy.
  • 1:15-2:15 pm – Did an hour of hard cardio on the recumbent bike.
  • 2:30 pm – Had some Shirataki Noodle stir fry embellished with roasted cauliflower, green beans, and baby carrots.  This ended-up being a really big meal.  I am stuffed (ate too much…yuck!).
  • 8:00 pm – Bowl of veggie soup, some toasted nori, and apple slices.  I was so full after lunch that I couldn’t even think about eating until now.
Click HERE to read Jeff’s day 6 food log.

SUNDAY

  • 11:30 am – Bowl of kiwi, banana, pomegranate, apple, and pear.
  • Lunch will probably be a big salad
  • Dinner will be Chinese hot pot at my in-laws.  I will be eating chrysanthemum leaves, a variety of mushrooms, pea shoots, bamboo hearts, and taro root.
  • After dinner I am sure I will nosh on some fruit.

Click HERE to read Jeff’s day 7 food log.

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January 14, 2012 · 4:31 am

CLEANSE FOOD LOG – Day 5

My biggest challenge today was not going out to dinner.  Usually by Friday I am toast and despite the fact that I love to cook, I don’t feel like cooking.  I wanted to go to one of my favorite Peruvian restaurants (They make an awesome veggie plate) and my husband felt like it would be too tempting for him.  I am more than happy to support him in this since I am so proud of how well he is doing.  He had a business restaurant at a steakhouse today and ended-up eating tomato soup and an artichoke (Yay!  He made such great choices.).

FRIDAY

  • 7:15 am – Small bowl of watermelon and pineapple
  • 8:30 am – Had the usual bowl of cut-up Fuji apple, pear, banana, pomegranate, and cinnamon, BUT also added a very ripe persimmon into the mix and it was fantastic.
  • 9:30 -10:30 am – Pilates reformer class.  The instructor kicked our butts!  I can’t tell if that class was super duper extra hard or if I was a little lower on energy.

  • 11:00 am – Checked-out the new farmer’s market in town and sampled some strawberries.  I was really excited to see so many people there.  The parking lot was a battleground (Reminded me of the mall during the holidays!).
  • 12:00 pm – Finished the chocolate banana pudding I made last night.  I was surprised to see how well it held-up in the fridge overnight.
  • 12:30 pm – Salad made with slivered cucumber, slivered red bell pepper, organic pea shoots, seaweed salad, and lite rice wine vinegar.  I also had a few pickles on the side (Odd combo…but tasted good at the time).
  • 2:00 pm –  Handful of grapes from the farmer’s market.
  • 3:15 pm – Another handful of grapes.
  • 3:45 pm – Some roasted nori and Brothers-All-Natural freeze dried Asian Pears
  • 5:30 pm – Just came home and I am STARVING.  Eating grapes while baking some potatoes.
  • 6:20 pm – 1 1/2 baked potatoes (on the smaller side), bruschetta, roasted cauliflower, and a bowl of veggie soup.
  • 9:00 pm – I plan on having a bowl of pomegranate seeds

Have a great weekend!  TGIF.

To read Jeff’s food log for day 5 click HERE.

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January 13, 2012 · 3:08 am

CLEANSE FOOD LOG – Day 4

We are going through an incredible amount of produce right now (makes me happy!), so I need to head-off to the store at some point today to buy more bananas.  On Monday or Tuesday (can’t remember) I bought 3 huge bunches of bananas and we only have 2 individual bananas left!

It is hard to believe that we are already on day 4 of the cleanse.  I am noticing that my skin looks smoother and more moisturized.  I am also taking on more of the natural “tan” look that comes with eating this way (Thank you carrots and peppers!).  I always know that I am getting in enough beta carotene when someone asks me if I just got back from vacation.

If you are following along on the cleanse how have you been feeling???  I’d love to hear from you.

THURSDAY

  • 6:30 am – Tall glass of water
  • 7:30 am – Fruit salad just like I had yesterday morning (banana, pear, apple, pomegranate seeds, cinnamon)
  • 8:00 am – Per my husband’s request I just cooked up an even bigger batch of Shirataki Noodle Stir-Fry…that stuff is seriously good!  Didn’t eat any yet since I wasn’t hungry.
  • 9:00 am – Another banana
  • 10:45 am – Elliptical for 50 minutes
  • 12:00 pm – HUGE salad (pictured above) with romaine, iceberg, seaweed salad, roasted cauliflower, roasted broccoli, grape tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, and lite rice wine vinegar.  The salad was huge as I mentioned, so I was full after eating a little over half of it.
  • 1:45 pm – Finished the rest of the salad and snacked on a little watermelon.
  • 3:00 pm – Made a smoothie of frozen strawberries, fresh pineapple, fresh bananas, apple, and some water for my husband, son, daughter and her friend…took a few sips equaling probably about 1/2 cup.
  • 3:20 pm – Snacked on some more watermelon.
  • 4:15 pm – 5:15 pm – Sipped on 24 ounces cold water with a scoop of NanoGreens
  • 6:00 pm – Dinner was a small baked potato (hubby was begging for one) topped with fresh bruschetta, roasted cauliflower on the side, and a small bowl of Shirataki Noodle Stir-Fry
  • 7:00 pm – Chocolate banana pudding made in the Vitamix.  Made with a sweet potato, fresh banana, 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, and 3 frozen bananas.  I AM SO FULL RIGHT NOW!!!  I am quite sure this will be it for me for the night…can’t imagine eating any more!

Today I struggled a bit with cravings from 3pm until dinner.  When you do a cleanse like this you don’t experience the same kind of FULL that you experience when you eat a plant-based diet that is supplemented with grains, beans, and nuts.  But knowing that makes getting through it easier.

Enjoy the rest of your evening!

To read Jeff’s food log for Day 4 click HERE.

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January 12, 2012 · 3:42 am

CLEANSE FOOD LOG – Day 3

Last night after posting my food log I hit my first wall.  It was a mini wall, but a wall nonetheless.  About an hour after eating my bowl of berries I started craving THESE crunchy lightly salted crackers…I love those things.  But, after repeating the mantra, “This too shall pass” a few times in my head, it did pass and I didn’t give into the craving.

So, let’s get to my food log for day 3.

WEDNESDAY

  • 7:oo am – Large glass of water
  • 8:30 am – Bowl of sliced Fuji apple, sliced pear, a sliced banana, and pomegranate seeds.  I then dusted the bowl of fruit with Saigon cinnamon (pictured above).
  • 9:30 am – 10:30am – Pilates reformer class
  • 10:30 am – a quart bag filled to the brim with baby carrots, sliced red and orange bell peppers, and celery
  • 12:45 pm – Big Disneyland-sized spear of pineapple
  • 1:00 pm – A serving of the stir-fry I made yesterday (click HERE for details)
  • 2:15 pm – Already hungry again, so making a chocolate mint smoothie (water, 1/2 sweet potato, 1/2 of a zucchini, handful of spinach, handful of fresh mint, cocoa powder, vanilla creme stevia, small frozen banana, ice…about half the size of the smoothie I made yesterday).
  • 4:45 pm – Snacked on some nori and had 24 ounces of cold water with one scoop of NanoGreens.
  • 6:15 pm – A bowl of veggie soup (click HERE for details) and two small ears of roasted corn sprinkled with Chile con Limon.
  • 8:30 pm – Planning on having a bowl of raspberries, blueberries, and sliced banana.  If I get hungry afterward I plan on having some herbal tea.

I am off to get my kiddos ready for bed.  I am feeling really good and have not been experiencing any big cravings today.

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January 11, 2012 · 3:35 am

CLEANSE FOOD LOG – Day 2

Below you will find my food log for Day 2 of the cleanse…

TUESDAY

  • 7:30 am – Woke-up and read a little in bed (Reading a book to review for you).  Tuesdays my hubby wakes-up with the kids, so this is my time to sleep-in a bit more and do a little work.
  • 8:30 am – Ate a big bowl of watermelon
  • 9:00 am –  Made a stir fry* to keep in the fridge so my husband would have something to quickly grab for lunch

*  Used a bag of frozen asian vegetables, half a bag of frozen sliced shitake mushrooms, 1/2 an inion thinly sliced, 3 bags of Shirataki fettuccini noodles, some tamari, and some Sriracha sauce.  I am guestimating that this will probably be enough for 3 single meals. 

  • 9:45 am – grabbed a handful of grapes and then headed-off to do 40 minutes of cardio on the recumbent bike.
  • 11:25 – grabbed a banana to eat on the way to my hair appt. and also brought along a quart bag FULL of veggies (red and orange peppers, celery, baby carrots, tomatoes).
  • 11:45 am – ate half the bag of veggies
  • 12:30 pm – ate the other half
  • 1:00 pm – STARVING, but still at my appointment.
  • After my appointment I ran to the store to buy more bananas (going through them like crazy in this house) and some fresh basil…can’t wait to eat.
  • 2:00 pm – Bliss!  Eating a Chocolate Banana Freeze (too thick to be called a smoothie, more like soft-serve ice cream).  I made it with about 2/3 cup water, one of the sweet potatoes I prepared yesterday (without the skin…I ate that while making the smoothie), a zucchini, huge handful of spinach, some cocoa powder, a little vanilla creme stevia, 2 small frozen bananas, and a BIG handful of ice.  It made about 24 ounces.
  • 3:45 – 5:00 pm –  Sipped on 24 ounces cold water mixed with one scoop of NanoGreens.
  • 6:30 pm – Bowl of seaweed salad with butter lettuce and lite rice wine vinegar,  as well as bowl of the Shirataki noodle stir-fry I made in the morning.
  • 8:00 pm –  I plan on having a bowl of berries with cinnamon after I put the kids to bed.

Still feeling great!  I didn;t do a very good job of planning when I went to get my hair done and should have brought more food with me, but that Chocolate Banana Freeze did a great job of filling me up when I got home.

Have a great evening!

Click HERE to read Jeff’s food log for day 2

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January 10, 2012 · 5:39 am

CLEANSE FOOD LOG

Today was day one of the fruit and veggie cleanse my husband and I are doing together (click HERE for details).  Here is my journal entry for the day…

Today can be summed-up in one word…PREP!  Today I am getting everything prepped and ready for the week so all I have to do is go into the fridge and grab what I need (I also want to make this as easy as possible for my husband).

MONDAY

  • 7:00 am – 2/3 cup heirloom strawberries (I would have eaten more, but was busy getting the kids fed and ready for school)
  • 9:00 am – 1/2 cup grapes and a banana
  • 9:30-10:30 am – pilates (tough class…awesome!)
  • 11:00 am – 24 ounce carrot/apple juice (mostly carrot with a little apple)
  • 11:30 am – went shopping to stock-up for the week

  • 12:40 pm – While cooking-up a storm* I am eating a salad made with a bed of butter lettuce, 1/2 a cucumber, and a HUGE handful of seaweed salad from Costco (how awesome is it that my Costco carries this now!).  Dressed it up with some lite rice wine vinegar and extra crushed red chili.

*I have a GINORMOUS pot of veggie soup going on the stove**, I am steaming sweet potatoes (click HERE to see how I prepare them…scroll down under the ingredient list and you will see a note about how I cook them), and I have broccoli and cauliflower roasting in the oven (click HERE to see how I roast them) while at the same time prepping corn to be lightly steamed and then roasted.  Note – the veggies should be prepared without oil and then roasted).

**Made the soup with 2 cups each (carrot, celery, onion), a 24 oz. jar of tomato basil pasta sauce (fill it up again with water and add that to the soup as well),  32 ounces low-sodium veggie broth, 8 oz. bag Harvest Sensations kale, 10 oz. sliced crimini mushrooms, and dried basil (I went to the garden to get fresh and it is all gone).  I did not add any salt because I don’t plan on using any and it really doesn’t need it.

  • 1:30 pm – 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
  • 2:oo pm – 1 cup grapes
  • 3:00 pm – snacked on some roasted cauliflower and broccoli while putting it away
  • 3:30 pm – snacked on some watermelon while prepping it for snacks
  • 4:40 pm – Asian Pear Crisps (by Brothers All Natural)
  • 6:00 pm – bowl of vegetable soup, ear of corn, roasted broccoli and cauliflower
  • 8:45 pm – bowl of blueberries, raspberries, and a sliced banana

So how do I feel?  AWESOME!  Today was one of those non-stop days and I really do feel great (even after only sleeping 5 hours last night).  I know it sounds cliché, but I feel very clean inside right now and not hungry at all…I definitely did not go hungry today.

~

I ran into my friend Jeff (The Plant Eater) at the Doug Lisle event on Sunday and after mentioning the cleanse to him, he decided to do it along with us.  Click HERE to read about Jeff’s first day of the cleanse.

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January 8, 2012 · 2:30 pm

CLEAN EATING RESET

I am willing to bet that nearly all of us overindulged over the past few months.  While I managed to make it through the holidays without gorging on sweets (like I did last year READ POST), I did eat food that was a bit more rich than usual and just plain ate MORE than usual.

I am convinced that one of the reasons I was able to have more self-control this year was because I completed a cleanse during the first two weeks of December before the holidays hit high gear.

A few months back my friend Sirica and I went to the Healthy Lifestyle Expo together and when she arrived she told me about a cleanse she did while her husband was out of town.  It was so pure in that she just ate fruits and vegetables.  I was drawn to the simplicity of this cleanse aka “reset and repair” as I like to refer to them.

So often I hear of cleanses that involve tons of supplements and very little food (trust me, I have done those too) and while I do think there is a time and a place for those types of cleanses (under a doctor’s care and for a specific reason), they make me really cranky and hungry.

So I took what I learned about the cleanse from Sirica and ran with it.  I set-out to do the cleanse for 7-14 days (not sure how long I wanted to do it) and ended-up completing 12 days.  Here were my parameters:

  • Consume ONLY fruits and vegetables (aim for at least 50% raw…I think I was closer to 70% raw).
  • Have the bulk of your intake be from water-based fruits and veggies, but be sure to include sweet potatoes and squash.
  • Drink water, tea, fresh vegetable juice, or fruit and veggie powder drinks (I drank NanoGreens once a day).
  • EAT AS MUCH AS YOU WANT…DO NOT GO HUNGRY!!!!!!
While I think it probably goes without saying based upon the outline above, I thought I would add some further clarification:
  • NO oil
  • NO grains
  • NO legumes
  • NO nuts
  • NO animal products
  • NO sugar
  • NO artificial sweeteners
  • NO processed foods

Like I said, I completed 12 days of this cleanse and came out of it 7 pounds lighter (all of which stayed off during the holidays) and most importantly I felt great and never once was I hungry!  I really, really, really (did I emphasize that enough), don’t like to be hungry, so this was perfect for me.

OK, this may be TMI, but prior to the cleanse I was not as “regular” with my bowel movements as I would have liked to be.  During the cleanse that all changed.  I feel like it RESET my digestive system and everything is as it should be now.

I want to allow my body to heal from the excess I experienced last month, so I will be doing this cleanse again starting tomorrow and my husband offered to do the cleanse with me too…yay!

Would it be helpful for you / would you be interested in me posting my food log next week as I go through the cleanse?  

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