Eating Clean Up

It's January and everyone has cleaning up their act, physically, on their minds.  The ads are full of fitness tips and programs.  There are quite a few detox and vegan kick start programs written about on the blogs and webpages I browse.  I recently saw Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and thought maybe I could add more green to our smoothies and even more green smoothies to our daily meals.  Sounds like a good idea to me.  I could use a little clean-up.  Not so much a cleanse, but an 'eating habit clean-up'.  I've been getting a little sloppy in my eating habits, tasting items I know I don't want to eat.  Having my son downstairs with cheese and bread in his refrigerator doesn't help when the urge arises.   I watched this movie last Saturday morning, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, and I had already had beans cooking, cookies made, flax crackers drying, cashew cheese resting, and the meals for the week generally under way.  I decided I could start with adding more green, vegetables, to our morning smoothie, drink a very large whole green juice for lunch, and eat a sensible size vegan dinner.  Then next week, pare it down to green juice smoothies all day and if I really want to munch on something, I'll stick as close to raw as I can.  I'll try it for ten days.

I did pretty good last week, losing the five pounds I had put on during the holiday months.  I also feel like I have much more energy.  Last night after work, I cleaned the refrigerator from top to bottom.  Of course, a refrigerator that holds pretty much just fruits, vegetables, and nuts isn't too hard to clean. 

Today I did very well with the green smoothies.  I'm having fun with it, mixing up different fruit and vegetable combinations. A couple weren't very green in color, I made a beet based juice this afternoon with celery, sweet lime, garlic, apple, garlic, and cilantro.  It was very red and very good too. I also tried a raw caramel smoothie I saw on Vegie Head's website for a breakfast smoothie last week. Amazing!  Just fruits and nuts and I felt like we were having ice cream for breakfast.

Not 100% convinced I won't stray and look for something in the kitchen to munch, I think I need a little bit of something prepared on hand.  I made a simple pot of black beans and a Quinoa and Rice salad with a citrus-pumpkin dressing.  My son does live here too and I don't want to send him to the fast food option because there isn't anything prepared and easy to grab and eat.  I feel like I'll sabotage the effort if I don't have anything available.  For that sweet craving, I also have a batch of trail mix cookies in the dehydrator.  They have no added sugar, the banana and plums take care of the sweetness, and since they consist of nuts and seeds, they're a good protein blast.  I think one would satisfy any 'sweet' craving I might have. I am usually satisfied with one or two of these cookies.  They are more like a granola bar than a cookie.  We'll see how it goes. I am going to do this for ten days, maybe longer if I like it.  Hopefully it will all help me get on track.  I certainly like how I feel so far.