Thoughts on a Cleanse

Instead of posting my usual WIAW (after taking pictures of what I ate) I decided I’d rather talk about the “cleanse” I decided to do after returning from 2 weeks in Houston.

Since I knew I’d be sluggish after lots of eating out, I figured 3 days of clean eating would be an excellent way to reset myself and get back on the healthy eating train. I saw this cleanse in Whole Living Magazine (one of my most fav magazines ever!) and thought it would be good. The calorie counts were reasonable and I didn’t need to buy a ton of food as breakfast, lunch and dinner were the same for all 3 days. Excellent!

Breakfast

Smoothie made with:

1 grapefruit

1 apple

2 cups strawberries

1 cup water (I used coconut milk instead, and coconut water would also be delicious)

ginger

Calories: 150ish (makes 2-3 servings of 1 3/4 cups)

I really, really liked this smoothie. I used frozen strawberries instead of fresh and the flavour was awesome. My only complaint is the lack of protein. I think some non-fat greek yogurt or a scoop of protein powder would really boost the smoothie.

Lunch

Beet Slaw Salad

3/4 of 1 beet

1 stalk celery

1/3 cucumber

arugula

1/2 avocado

1tpsp sunflower seeds

olive oil and lemon dressing

Calories: 400ish

I hated this salad. It was far too much roughage and not enough flavour and staying power. Like the smoothie, it was way too low in protein for me. I’d prefer it with a cooked beet and maybe some tuna or chicken. As it was, it was not enjoyable. I even refused to eat it one day and went without lunch because I was grumpy. Not a good plan.

Dinner

Carrot Dill Soup

14 carrots

1 1/2 onions

1lb green beans

20 c water

turmeric

spinach

dill

Caloroies: 175ish (makes 6 servings)

This soup was edible but bland. I understand it should be brothy and cleansing, but there just wasn’t enough flavour with only turmeric as a spice. Again, this was super low in protein and fat (the olive oil from sauteing the onion added some fat) and didn’t really keep me full other than I had nearly 3 cups of water per serving in the bowl. This also meant we ate from a mixing bowl instead of normal bowls as our cereal/soup bowls only hold 1 cup of liquid.

Dessert

Banana Soft-serve:

Blend 2 frozen bananas in food processor until smooth. Top with 1 tbsp of all natural PB.

Calories: 200ish (depending on the size of the bananas. 1 banana = 1 serving).

I looked forward to this all day. I can’t believe how a frozen banana can resemble ice cream, but this will definitely be my “go to” dessert during the summer. Yummers.

Conclusion

I think I could have prepared a more balanced day of meals that kept me sated and provided the same number of calories. The lunch left me cranky all day and really didn’t satiate me at all.  I love salad lunches, but they need to be balance with a good number of veggies and protein, not just roughage. Dinner would be just as healthy with a chicken breast, sweet potato and asparagus or kale and probably would have provided more nutrients than that the soup above.

It was an interesting experience to try and I think I’d like to focus more on not eating processed foods or dairy, but there certainly needs to be some room for grains and protein and not solely vegetables.