Whirlwind week

almond butter (~1 T.) and rice cake.
Other half of sweet potato + 1/2 c. black beans, over steamed broccoli and kale with Asian dressing. YUM!
Massaged kale salad + 1 c. steamed kabocha. The kabocha tossed in with the kale made it *just* tasty enough... I think my kale-to-avo ratio in that salad was off (too much kale) - it was a bit bland.
New discovery: the "energy drink" of cleanses! Really tides you over.
~ 3/4 c. steamed kabocha over cauliflower salad.... I like the cauliflower "rice" - nice and light, you can throw all sorts of stuff in with it - a good basic to have on hand! This particular recipe - the dressing (orange) - was so-so.
With three collard wraps filled with my much-anticipated cashew cheese w/ lemon and dried cherries. Must admit - a little goes a LONG way with this stuff. Very filling, and such a distinct flavor it verged on "too much" after a certain point. One thing that helped to cut its intensity: I layered some of the cauliflower in the wrap with it. Much better!

Big raw salad w/ 1/2 avo, Asian dressing.

This was great: steamed cauliflower, cabbage, parsley, carrots, chickpeas, with watered-down tahini sauce. The tahini recipe is pretty amazing - I have become a HUGE fan of tahini in general - it's definitely a good one to make a huge batch of on Sundays for the week. Perfect for raw OR cooked meals.
Sadly this was probably the most underwhelming meals on the cleanse.... the lemon-avocado broccoli was way too lemon-y (and over-steamed), possibly because I used bottled lemon juice instead of fresh?? In any case, for future reference: avo + broccoli + *splash* of lemon.
And then there was the savory oats....... I was pretty excited to try this recipe, but alas it was just kinda funky. I guess just not my taste. Again, too lemon-y (coupled w/ the broccoli this meal was like a lemon festival... and not in a good way), plus the nooch added a not great flavor. If I were to try savory oats again, I think I'd go with flavors I know I like: Indian spices, tahini, chickpeas, etc. etc.


By this point, my leftovers are getting a little tired.... this was the rest of the over-steamed lemon-avo broccoli (must note to be CAREFUL when steaming! I like it crunchy!! I think the cold water bath post-steam helps a lot), plus whatever else I still had: cabbage, carrots, chickpeas, parsley, 1/2 sweet potato... and Asian dressing. As good as that dressing is, by this point I was getting a little tired of it. At least this lunch was filling.

Brings to mind one of my favorite discoveries from this cleanse: PARSLEY! I nevvvver thought I'd be one to buy fresh parsley regularly. I never even thought I liked it that much! Turns out it's a great addition to a lot of raw dishes. It never failed to brighten up anything I threw it into - including this tired pile of leftovers. I even used it in my green smoothie that I used frozen spinach in (having run out of the fresh), and it was great!
Extra thick smoothie. I'm becoming quite fond of these smoothies.... less bulky than oatmeal, love that I get all the added nutrients from the spinach, and they keep me pretty full and energized for the whole morning!

Day 3

I ended up going to bed pretty hungry.... remember I had dinner at 4:30, and while that keep me full for a considerable amount of time, my stomach couldn't help but start to feel a bit empty by 9ish. I was make lunch + other stuff at that point, so I had a few bites of this and that to quiet the stomach. Plus tea, which really does help.

Definitely dreamt about eating though, which is always a sign that I'm hungry during the night!

Ah well, I was able to make a nice big green smoothie this morning:

5 ice cubes
2 huge bunches of spinach
1 frozen banana
1/2 c. frozen blueberries
1 T. raw almond butter
1 c. almond milk

This smoothie really does have staying power... and much less "bulky" feeling in my tummy than oatmeal. But I do miss the warm heartiness of oatmeal....

Started getting a little hungry around 11, and knowing that I was going to a Total Body strength class at noon I absolutely HAD to eat something. A tiny apple - questionable as to whether this was enough (had I not been cleansing it definitely would NOT have been) - was my one option. Fair enough, I'll take what I can get.

Ravenous for lunch, I came back to a big salad of massaged kale (with 1/2 avocado, 2 carrots, most of a yellow pepper) and 1 c. steamed kabocha squash.

To be honest, as much as I love kale AND kabocha, something was a tad lacking... or, I guess I could say, something could've been added. I was thinking the whole time "I WISH I had some of that Asian dressing with me...." - it really would've added just enough more flavor.

I think the kale need a bit more avocado, plus maybe a little more salt and some pepper. I'm so wary of salt, I was pretty conservative with it when I made this last night.

The squash thrown in really helped; I always, always love squash.

What this lunch was lacking in terms of nutrition, though, was PROTEIN. I just pumped some serious iron, and that makes me ravenous on my normal diet..... so by 3pm, my stomach felt completely empty again. (or did it?? I'm having trouble discerning this "digestion after a light meal" feeling from "starting to get hungry again" feeling... though I do think in this case I really was starting to need more fuel)

So I ran down to Duane Reade and picked up that magical nature's Gatorade, Coconut Water.


Too bad it was totally frozen, so I only got about half down before having to set it aside and wait it out for the rest to melt.

Day 2

The day actually started with an unpictured 1/2 banana, because I woke up pretty starving at 5:30 and needed something in my stomach before spinning.

On my way back home after spin, I got a little too overwhelmed with the thought of showering/getting ready without eating anything then hoofing down to BeQu for a juice (as was my original plan), so I just went for the homemade green smoothie. Which was perfect: instant spinach energy, instant almond protein, instantly satisfied.

Smoothie:
4 ice cubes
2 handfuls of spinach
1 big tablespoon raw almond butter
1/2 frozen banana
~1/2 c. frozen blueberries
~1 c. almond milk

This being not as hefty as my regular oatmeal + AB/PB breakfast, I was hungry for lunch at 11:30 (actually not stomach growly - just starting to feel my blood sugar dropping).

A nice big, raw salad:


With 1/2 avocado and 1/4 c. Asian dressing. Delicious!

But I did need something more - thankfully I had that rice cake + almond butter I had packed originally for breakfast. This made for a perfect part 2 to my lunch.


Dinner was had around 4:30 (I really was starting to get hungry again, but it was mainly because I had to leave at 5:30 for my mentoring group).

The other 1/2 of the huge sweet potato, 1/2 c. black beans, ~2 c. steamed broccoli + kale, light drizzle of Asian dressing.


I do love this meal. I think it should become one of my go-to's - i.e. I should bake a few potatoes on Sunday to have ready to go for the week (can't wait the 1 1/2 HOURS it takes on a weeknight!!), and throw together the dressing.

These flavors are so good, and yet so simple - a perfectly satisfying meal whose healthfulness doesn't taste like deprivation; it tastes nourishing. As Gena recommended, it's great to have that sweet element (sweet potato) as part of your meal - that way the craving for sweet is satisfied right then and there, instead of requiring a dessert. The key is to almost be very MINDFUL of the fact that Yes, you are enjoying something sweet - very sweet! - during dinner. Just because it's dinner food doesn't mean it's not sweet! That's easy to forget when you're only thinking about what kind of chocolatey goodness is coming once you finish your vegetables.

Day 1: Dinner

Dinner: 5:30ish

1/2 one large sweet potato, sprinkled with cinnamon
1/2 c. black beans
about 2.5 c. steamed broccoli and kale
with maybe a tablespoon of the Asian dressing added over the greens - this really MADE the meal.



I realized that prescribed side to the potato was sauteed greens - implying the use of an oil - and my steamed greens where lacking precisely that. Looking to get the most out of those greens, I wanted to add some kind of fat - thankfully that delicious Asian dressing was leftover in amplitude.

"Dessert" was 1 c. of sliced strawberries - a perfect sweet, tart finish.

It was a nice surprise how filling the sweet potato was. I think I don't bake them like that because of the time involved, but I'd like to. They don't get nearly as sweet and caramelized just steamed. And there's something satisfying and self-contained in a whole (or in this case half) potato - like a sandwich, the portion size is kind of inherent in its form. You are visually concluding your meal as you eat up your potato.....

Plan for tomorrow AM:
5:30 get up
water + lemon
1/2 banana
go to spinning
7:30 home, shower & get ready
8ish leave, pick up a BeQu juice on the way
9ish arrive at work
rice cake w/ almond butter
(eat lunch either around 11:30/noon at edison, or 1 at free arts.... we'll see how hungry I get!!)

Day 1: Breakfast and Lunch

9 am - warm water with juice of 1/2 a lemon

Breakfast @ 9:20 am - planned green juice had to be postponed due to a.) my starving stomach and b.) my wanting to get to the gym asap. so what I had instead was a little booster snack:


1 collard green leaf
1/2 banana
~ 2 T. chopped walnuts
generous cinnamon sprinkled over

It was a satisfying enough to fuel me for the workout but not fill me up completely. After the gym I was getting hungry again and so got myself a small (4 oz?) green juice:

"the Popeye" - broccoli, kale, parsley, (romaine?), plus lemon



Perfect! Very energizing. At this point I haven't had any caffeine!!

Getting home from grocery shopping I still wanted to do some ab work so was going to postpone lunch, but was getting a little hungry again. As I set the cashews in water for later prep, I had about 4. Sturdy little guys - really helped!

Lunchtime (1 pm): I made Gena's "famous" Asian dressing - used slightly less olive oil than the 1 cup called for (it seemed a little much? don't think it suffered any.), tried it, decided I wanted more ZIP to it so added another splash of lime juice and some powdered ginger, plus a little more agave.

Made a HUGE salad - mixed greens bag (a whole bag) plus some shredded cabbage and chopped carrots and sliced celery. Used the prescribed 1/4 c. of dressing, tossed, ate a few bite fulls - while the dressing is very flavorful, I felt like it needed just a bit more (maybe because I had SO much lettuce).



Then had a Larabar (Cashew Cookie). Gena advised that Larabars should be treated as "supplements" to the meal - NOT a dessert. At 200 cal. it's a lot for a dessert; eat only half if going that route. Paired with a salad, however, a whole bar can round out the meal.

This is a helpful way to think about those Laras - I had been lazily categorizing them as "OK for dessert" - while not often eating them after a really huge meal (usually at lunchtime after a big salad + hummus + salsa; that seems appropriate still), I sometimes would - in addition to an apple. I think all that just contributes to bloat and discomfort - it's just so much - due to eating well after the stomach is full up. I think a good way to handle the Lara/apple situation is to have one OR the other WITH a meal - i.e. not for dessert. At least during this cleanse!

After lunch I am enjoying the feeling of lightness - that I got just enough nutrients to refuel my body, but nothing excess. I'm so used to feeling that "excess" feeling because of how much bulk I usually eat. It's all vegetable bulk - which isn't bad - but it causes quite a bit of discomfort after meals. I'm hoping this cleanse really helps me be wiser about portions - embracing this feeling of lightness - the beauty in not eating till I'm really full!

Have to say, though, I'm already anticipating my dinner - which promises warmth and heartiness (baked sweet potato, beans, steamed greens) - things I'm kind of yearning for after a big, crisp, light salad! But I'm not hungry. Like I said - it's the "lightness" in my stomach that I'm feeling, I think, not the grumblings of hunger. And I do like this feeling. I've lazily concluded that that lightness is still a bit of hunger in the past, and would've just reached for another snack. Only an hour after eating lunch! Clearly not thinking about it as I should. That's not even logical.

Sipping some ginger tea helps, though. It's like it quiets my stomach, reminds it that it just ate and really doesn't need to again for a while. I think tea will be my new best friend.

If I truly start to feel hungry, I'll maybe grab some nuts. At 4 pm I'll throw the potatoes in the oven (or maybe 1 potato - they're huge - to split over the two days. trying to vigilant about these things now!), planning to eat dinner around 5:30 or 6.