A Spring Cleanse

For months I have been talking about doing a cleanse, but kept putting it off for one reason or another. I finally decided it was time to commit and chose this week to begin my cleanse. My cleanse is 5 days of: no gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol, or anything processed, with green juice every morning,  followed by 5 more days of no gluten. It's pretty short, I realize, but hey- I am trying to be realistic here.
Really, this is how I should be eating most of the time. Lots of fruits and veggies with some whole grains mixed in. And in reality, I do eat like this plenty of the time... Usually our dinners are very healthy and breakfast on most days is as well. The times when I turn to bread, cereal, or cheese and crackers are times when I am busy, exhausted and starving, and just need something to eat quickly. Which happens more frequently than I would like to admit....
So far, this is only day 3 of my cleanse, and I am feeling good, but I also feel like I have spent so much time preparing food. Making a quinoa salad and beet salad so that I could have easy lunches after coming home from work; prepping veggies for juice in the morning when I leave the house at 6:30 and also have to pack lunches, shower and get kids ready for school; Making veggie sushi rolls for a quick and easy snack; crockpotting beans for dinner; and making muffins so the kids had something they would eat for breakfast (because they want no part in my green juice and sauteed veggies in the morning). This along with all of my other, regular food prep. And this has only gotten us through a couple of days.
So, my point? I am happy to be cleansing and I wish I could eat like this all of the time. But, I feel like I would need to hire a chef, sleep less, or get much better at my time management skills. I think part of it is making it a routine, and, I think I can try and keep that in mind for the future. Maybe cooking healthy food for my lunches once or twice a week can become part of the routine, and keeping veggies already cut up to snack on would be wise as well.
How do you manage to eat healthy when your schedule is busy?

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A Gluten-Free Month

In April, on a whim, I decided to go on a gluten cleanse. Literally, I decided one morning, and then just decided to go with it. I wasn't sure how long I would cleanse for.. a few days? A few weeks? The last few times I went gluten-free, I was dreaming about baked goods and beer, and I never made it more than 2 weeks. But, this time I went a full 4 weeks. And honestly, it wasn't even that hard. I think a lot of it was that it wasn't pre-meditated, there was no anticipation about doing it, and it just sort of happened. And with no goal of how many days I needed to make it, and knowing I could stop at any time, well... I guess that all just made it much easier. No pressure, you know?
I don't think I felt drastically different being off gluten for a month, but I did have more energy than normal and I wasn't getting the late afternoon slump that normally plagues me. My stomach also seemed happier (less rumblings and such).
I found lots of good gluten-free alternatives and started to learn how to work with them. Udi's bread is pretty tasty when toasted (but not so good straight out of the bag). I also baked several rounds of muffins and cookies that were gluten and sugar free, using Bob's red mill gluten-free baking flour and honey instead. They were not as good as gluten-full, processed sugar-full baked goods, but they weren't bad either. My kids were happy with them and I felt a lot less guilty eating whole-food muffins instead of our normal refined ones.
I finally gave in to gluten over the weekend. Todd's mom was is town and we went to a local brewery that has good beer and super delicious hot pretzel sticks. I was done resisting. And I have had another beer since. And it was good. I am no longer on a gluten-cleanse, but I think that I have made a lifestyle change. I don't need gluten every day, and there are many more healthy alternatives that I can be totally happy with. I do feel better when I am not pigging out on gluten. But, that doesn't mean that I shouldn't indulge in pizza and beer every once in a while, or regular old chocolate chip cookies for a special treat.
I am planning on doing another gluten-free month (the kids on board 100% this time) over the summer. I have read some about how gluten (and dairy) can affect kids with sensory issues differently than 'normal' folks and I would like to see how Finn does without any gluten in  his system. During my cleanse, he was still eating gluten, but I cut his intake to about 1/3 of what it normally is. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I feel like he was more in control of himself, less anxious, and better overall. I am anxious to see how he does when we remove gluten altogether.
Do you eat gluten-free? What are your favorite gluten-free recipes? Pin It Now!

Reflections on a Cleanse

As some of you know, I began a cleanse the second week of January- no gluten, processed sugar, meat, alcohol, or coffee. I ended up cutting it down to a 10 day cleanse. Not because I couldn't hang (I was actually doing quite well) but because Phoebe was sleeping terribly and all I could think was that my milk did not have the same calorie or fat content during the cleanse.
Well, ending the cleanse did not seem to help Phoebe's sleep habits. While she hasn't had any nights where she wakes up every 20 minutes since I ended the cleanse, I still have not had more than 2 hours of sleep in a row. Oh well. I think my body is just adjusting to a new level of tired now.
Anyways, I thought I would share with you how my cleanse went and tell you what I would do differently if I were to do one again. First off, if I were to plan a cleanse again, I think I would choose to start with 10 or 14 days. 21 days for my first cleanse was a bit ambitious. I also think that I would choose a different time of the year to do my cleanse... This time around, I was very conscious about not cutting calories (as I am still nursing)..but without any of my normal gluten staples to turn to, I found that I was still hungry, even after eating lots of fruits and veggies. So, I ended up lots of gluten-free cereal, corn chips, and other processed non-gluten foods, which, I guess was good at cleansing the gluten out of my system, but I wasn't exactly the picture of health. I have a big sweet tooth and since I couldn't eat dessert, I ended up eating a large quantity of spicy corn chips on an almost nightly basis in order to curb my craving for sweet.
I feel like a cleanse should also be about eating lots of raw foods.... but since we try and eat locally, eating raw in Portland's winter is pretty limited. I ate lots of apples and pears (as well as citrus) and I ate at least one salad a day, but most of what I ate was cooked. And had cheese on it! The next time I cleanse, I will choose the summertime, when I can focus on eating more exciting salads, lots of fresh fruit, and raw veggies.
Now that I have been back to eating sugar and gluten again, I have been noticing how terrible these things make me feel. Especially gluten. After taking a break from it, I could notice how I did feel once I reintroduced it..... and it makes me very sluggish and also, just gives me a slight bit of nausea, like my body is working really hard to break it down. So, have I been avoiding it? Sadly, I love bread and cookies way too much, but I have definitely cut back my gluten intake quite a bit, and have been making many more gluten-free choices. I should eat what makes me feel great, and obviously, gluten is not one of those things.
As for now, I am enjoying indulging in coffee, alcohol. bread and dessert.... and after a cleanse, thse things really do feel like an indulgence! Pin It Now!

A New Year's Cleanse

Awhile back, I decided that I wanted to do a food cleanse. Not a super-intense cleanse, as I am still breastfeeding, but just enough that it could sort of re-set my body and my eating habits. In general, I don't eat much meat and I eat lots of fruit and veggies. But,.... I also eats lots of white flour and I do tend to have dessert almost every day, even if it is only a square of dark chocolate. I couldn't possibly have given up these things during the holidays, when food is constantly on my mind, but now that a new year has arrived, I am ready to begin.
So, for the next 3 weeks (if I can hang), I will be abstaining from gluten, meat, processed sugar, coffee and alcohol. I am hoping that I will have more energy and just feel better and cleaner. I am also a little hopeful that going gluten-free my help to improve my asthma (and also a little nervous about it doing so, which would mean I would need to give it up permanently). I am a little anxious about what I am going to eat for snacks (I tend not to get filled up by just a piece of fruit), but I think (hope) that after a few days my body will adjust. I am envisioning a lot of salads in my future....
So, wish me luck! Here is to a cleaner me in 2012! Pin It Now!