Clean Program Starts in TWO DAYS!

I haven't blogged about the Clean plan in a while, but let me tell you that I am NOT quitting, but i had a few days this past week that were sooooo not on the Elimination Diet plan! First of all, my hubby and I went to a wine tasting party. I thought I could carry my glass around and look like I was drinking but not ACTUALLY drink. Oh, no, no, no! We were instructed to sit down and given a tutorial and description of each wine, asked to taste it,and then share with the group! Can't fake that, now can we?! I'm going to ask for forgiveness and regroup before my August 1st start date. I need to refocus and analyze why I am doing this again, and my grandmother's recent turn for the worse has completely helped me understand my objective. I do not want cancer someday. I want to be healthy for my girls and husband. I want to be the healthiest 29 year old you will ever meet! Clean is a small step to a much larger goal, but I'm sure I can do it! August 1st is just around the corner! You have enough time to start with me...here is what you will need for Day One:

Breakfast: Blue Berry Shake
1 cup of Almond Milk
1 cup of frozen blue berries
1 tsp of vanilla flavoring
2 tbs of aguave nectar (you can find it in the baking aisle at United...Walmart doesn't have it!)
Blend all ingredients into blender until smooth. Add ice if you like your smoothies a bit more icy.

Lunch: Seared Ahi-Tuna steaks (or a white fish fillet of your choosing)
2 tbs of Italian seasoning
1 tbs of Garlic Powder
1 tbs of Olive Oil
pinch of Sea Salt, or Kosher Salt

Drizzle fish will olive oil, coat both sides with mixture of Italian seasoning and garlic powder. Lay on foil lined pan that is also drizzled with olive oil. Sprinkle sea salt on the tops of your fillets. Cook at 350 for 20 minutes or less if you like it less done. I also like to squeeze fresh lemon juice on each fillet before serving. Serve on a bed of lettuce and dice up an avocado and throw in a few baby carrots. I drizzle with organic balsamic Italian dressing and toss. VERY YUMMY!

The dinner shakes are in the book, and I can post breakfast and lunch because I came up with those recipes. Dinner shakes involve more veggies and avocados, but you can google a "Clean Program Dinner Shake". Some of the recipes I've tried for dinner are gross. The book says you can repeat your breakfast shake and garner the same effects, so that's what I've been doing. You can also snack on fruits and veggies throughout the day if you feel famished, but NO DIP! I drizzle my bag of mixed veggies with a bit of the balsamic dressing I have, and that helps them taste a little more appealing to me! So now that you have a days worth of recipes, what is stopping you from joining me August 1st???

The Colon Chronicals: Day One of Elimination Diet

Day one of anything new is difficult, especially when it requires me to forgo my coffee. So to distract myself from my coffee pot, I woke up and ran thirty minutes, did my chest flys and squats, and decided to attempt one of my yoga DVDs. I figured if I spent the morning doing excercise, I could make it to lunch time coffee-free. Yoga and I don't mesh well because my self-diagnosed ADD doesn't allow me to sit and stretch for long periods of time, and I've yet to finish any of the three yoga DVDs in the trilogy I paid almost eighty bucks for a few months ago. What can I say? I bore easily, but anyway, I attempted it and finished nearly twenty minutes of it before calling it a day. How do some of those chicks do it for hours on end? I get so light-headed (probably because I forget to breath) and BORED OUT OF MY GOURD, but yoga is supposed to help the "cleansing" process, so I decided to give it another try.
Any-who, back to the diet; the elimination diet portion of "Clean" wasn't entirely bad, because I didn't "entirely" stick to the elimination list. Donnie took me to lunch at McCallister's and I had every intention of ordering JUST A SALAD, but the potato soup was calling my name and who am I to ignore a bowl of soup? I figure that it is liquid and has a vegetable in it, so I won't beat myself up too badly for having a small cup with my garden salad, sans the ranch dressing and croutons. I won't cheat tomorrow...there...I've justified my screw up and I am moving on! Well, wait, I also had sushi tonight, which I JUST NOW read that raw fish isn't allowed, so I guess I'm two for two on screwing up the meals. Breakfast wasn't screwed up because I skipped it. Let's just forfeit Monday and start anew tomorrow. So basically, the only thing I did correctly was not drink coffee. Yea, me!

I did make a trip to the grocery store and bought the stuff to have "Seared Tuna on Hearts of Romaine" for lunch tomorrow, and "Very Berry Smoothie" stuff for breakfast. Hopefully, with a fridge full of produce and pantry full of brown rice and....well, I really can't eat much out of the pantry... I can dominate Tuesday. Another part of this process I forgot to mention is the downing of olive oil each night before you go to bed. Two tablespoons! Lord knows I can't handle a shot of anything after attempting that feat tonight. Have you ever gagged on oil? It's disgusting. The olive oil is supposed to aide in digestion, but I'm not sure what good it will do if I puke the mess up each night. I'm not looking forward to attempting that again in the near future. I also bought the recommended supplements: probiotic pills (with 15 billion organisms per dose), Garlic tablets, Oregano Oil Tablets, and my usual vitamin supplement. I think I need to get into the supplement business because the combined total for each little bottle could have bought me a nice top or a few books. I'm hoping it will be worth the dough, but if they are not effective, I have a well-seasoned stomach! Stay tuned for the results for the rest of the week...apparently I need to give myself a little pep talk before tomorrow's foray into the world of cleansing!