[Updated 4/13/16, in the middle of the night]
It is near tax-day, so time for a cleanse.
The importance of prepping for your week cannot be overstated when you are trying to navigate a new clean eating regimen, detox or cleanse. The old saying goes that “those who fail to prepare only prepare to fail” and I can personally vouch for that moniker as truth. It is a simple statement to say but a nice mantra to take to heart.
We are starting a new cleanse on 4/25 and I am already preparing for our grocery trip. I am making lists, thinking of recipes, considering containment devices, all to plan on success in this cleanse. Cleansing and resetting your diet is a simple way to get back on track and usually forces you to question why you got off track in the first place. Typically, I know that it is time to cleanse again when I start getting some random pains in my joints and have some more exciting and noteworthy stomach rumblings. These are signs that I have started to put things back in my diet that I know I shouldn’t and have subtracted things from my diet that I should have kept. My ankle started to hurt the other day and it made me realize that I needed to take care of some things. Plus, added stress from all of our lives is usually lessened when you are eating better. That is reason enough, eh?
First: Make a list of goals that you are trying to accomplish by resetting your diet and yourself. My goals include a return to complete clean eating and a metabolism jumpstart. I am looking forward to feeling amazing all the time again. I understand that it’s annoying to my friends when I feel like this, but the best way to cope with me is to come along.
Second: Make a list of stuff that you intend to have for your meals. Nothing set in stone, unless that is your style, but at least a few ideas to help you plan your week. Some of the “Phase I” recipes on our site can help you plan or come up with ideas.
Third: Look at your list of foods that you might make and plan your grocery list off that list. For example, if you might make Sweet Potato Chili, you might want to get all the ingredients that you need for that.
Fourth: Make a list of snacks that you will want during the week. The snacks are what carry you through and are probably more important than your entrees. I eat a lot of carrots, celery and mini peppers when I am on a cleanse, so those are on my list. Incidentally, I cook with these as well, so keep that in mind. You want to make sure that you get enough to eat and to cook with or else you will find yourself in a world of hurt on Thursday and forcing yourself to eat eggplant and radish stew for two days. (I will make a delectable recipe for you if you need it).
Now, go to the store and get everything and come home. I will wait.
Okay, you have a mountain of veggies and now it is time to prep it all. Set your DVR to record your shows, because this is more important and needs to get done. I find that when I prep snacking veggies that I put everything in 2-3 bite sections. For instance, cutting celery and carrots into 4 inch pieces works best for me because I can grab one and eat it in about 11 seconds. If you want smaller pieces, do it, do you…YOLO. You want to cut enough to put into 6 1-cup servings or so per day, so keep that in mind. Look at the statements below for help:
8 – 4 inch stalks of celery is about 1 serving
8 – 4 inch pieces of carrot is about 1 serving
8 – Small radishes is about 1 serving
8 – Half-dollar size broccoli florets is about 1 serving
8 – Half-dollar size cauliflower florets is about 1 serving
8 – Mini sweet peppers is about 1 serving
1 – Red, green, or bell pepper cut into strips is about 1 serving
1 – Medium apple, orange, mango, etc is about 1 serving
30 – Blueberries is about 1 serving
10 – Strawberries is about 1 serving
1 – 1/4 cantaloupe, pineapple, small honeydew is about 1 serving.
You get the idea. You will want to prep the following for the week: 28 bags/containers of snack veggies, 7-14 bags/containers of snack fruit. This should make things easier. This is also per person. It will look like a lot, and truth be told, it is a lot, but you should be striving to eat it all in the week. Think about all the benefits to supercharging your immune system with all of these nutrient rich foods. And remember, it is only 7 days, and when you get a couple of days into it, you start to feel so awesome that it gets a ton easier. Remember to take your B-Vitamins and Multivitamin and you will be golden. The Activated-B supplement is your best friend: have a headache, take some B, feel a little tired, take some B, sky not blue enough, take some B, kids too loud, take some B. Whatever. It is depleted by stress over the course of your day, so take more if you need it. If there is too much, you pee it out. Easy.
If you have any questions, email or message us or your coach. Don’t have a coach, email or message us and we can get you hooked up. Want to be a coach, email or message us and we can get you really hooked up.
The Healthy Us 