Let's Totally Go Shop-ping!

Those are four words you'll rarely hear come out of my mouth.

Unless I'm referring to a flea market, Target or.... the grocery store.

I'd say a cleanse isn't really be a cleanse without a healthy trip to your local produce section.

Which is what a large chunk of my afternoon was dedicated to. 

Something that caught my attention while going through the necessary "out with the old, in with the new" pantry sorting was how very little "bad stuff" I had to toss. In fact, there wasn't one thing in my kitchen I'd be ashamed to show Ms. Carr- well, maybe that bag of grated cheddar and the mini twix bar from Halloween I keep in the freezer for catastrophic emergencies.

Generally pleased to find there wasn't too much going to waste, I got to thinking about all the glorious new things I'd get to try in the coming weeks.

The food component of the cleanse asks that you:

1. Cut caffeine (mostly) It's acceptable in the form of green tea, yerba mate and small doses of dark chocolate

2. Cut gluten This one's especially tough for me, seeing as I adore all things bread and don't really think I have a gluten intolerance/allergy, but I'll roll with it and see if I notice any glaring differences within my belly

3. Watch out for whites and other processed starches No white bread, white flour, white rice, white potatoes, white pasta

4. Cut out all refined sugars and artificial sweetners Looks like I gotta find a new chewing gum.

5. Eliminate animal foods or reduce to no more than twice per week Mmmk, this is the one I've got the biggest issue with. Because:

 a) I'm not really feeling a 100% vegan lifestyle just yet (though trying a vegan month is on my 2011 resolution list)

 b) I can't live without goat cheese!!! 

 c) I want to keep eggs as a source of protein in my life, considering I have big plans to get pretty shredded in the near future. 

courtesy of

Okay, not that shredded-gross. I'll save the workout deets for another day...

We'll just call the abridged version of this vegan stipulation in the cleanse: "watch and log your animal food intake to see where unnecessary consumption can be cut out and replaced with plant protein sources."

The program advises a liquid diet until noon, including this cleansing tonic to drink first thing in the am. (I'll spare you the gory details- if you want to know what happens, try it yourself just after rising)

warm filtered water + a little cayenne pepper + juice of half a lemon

Activate system-flushing.... NOW!

Seeing as I had a cardio workout planned for the morning, I made as heaping a breakfast as possible while sticking to the liquid plan:

1.5 frozen banana

1 scoop Sun Warrior natural protein

1 packet stevia

.5 cup of almond milk

.5 cup of frozen mango chunks

2 handfuls of spinach

I was [surprisingly] able to get through 35 intense minutes on the elliptical with that smoothie alone. (The true test will be doing justice to a 50 minute spin class)

I got home and squeezed a little green juice

1 bunch of kale

1 medium cucumber

1 medium green apple

1 lemon with rind removed

Lunch was the last of the veggies in my fridge before trekking to Trader Joe's

a sh*t ton of spinach

1 heaping handful of shredded carrots

1 cup of steamed green beans

.5 a goat cheese medallion

.5 can of cannellini beans

+ balsamic vinaigrette

With my body fueled properly, I got to perusing the book for shopping tips and went along my merry way.

Now I'm home with a fridge full of old classics,

along with some new treats to try

All in all, cleanse day #1 was pretty painless. I'm happy to report that most of my standard eating habits already fall within the realm of protocol for this endeavor- green juice, smoothies, gigante salads. The hardest part will be staving off those refined sugar cravings and watching my dairy/egg intake.

Something I didn't mention in this post, but plan on discussing in the coming days is the spiritual component of the cleanse. In a nutshell: it's a lot to do with meditation and positive thinking.

Two things with which I'm VERY down.

Alright, I'm off to hit the hay.

Catcha tomorrow with some tasty new treats!