I completed a two week gluten, wheat, sugar and alcohol cleanse recently, and aside from a couple of celebratory cocktails (it was an emergency that I had to make an exception for), I stuck to the rules and didn’t cheat. I once did a full blown cleanse for 7 days that included all of these items as well as meat, dairy, and caffeine, and I seriously slept for about 16 hours a day. Obviously, I need meat, dairy and caffeine to function.
The most amazing thing to happen from this recent cleanse is that I discovered that I feel AMAZING when I avoid wheat and sugar. I know, not shocking. I should also clarify; I didn’t avoid things like fruit that had natural sugar, because I don’t believe in anything that tells you not to eat fruit or vegetables. In fact, I ended up altering all of my meals to include TONS of fruits and vegetables and other power foods like quinoa in the form of purees or fillers to make up for the wheat and sugar I thought I’d be missing. I can’t believe I haven’t done this before, because I have now changed the way I eat completely so that I do this all the time. And I’ve never felt better or more energetic in my life.
Turns out, most junk is made with wheat or sugar. So I end up choosing things that have a nutritional value and work for my body instead of against it. And then I don’t feel like taking a nap every single time I eat.
One of my new deceptively delicious recipes I came up with is my every morning pre-workout green smoothie. I’m obsessed. It gives me so much energy, I feel like a rockstar in spin class. Plus, it’s super filling, and I’m not starving at any time during the day anymore. Here’s a chart that was generated on self.com when I put in all the ingredients that shows the nutritional content:
It’s slightly inaccurate because I use almond milk instead of cow milk, and mixed berries instead of just blackberries.
I’m sure lots of people have a version of the same thing, but here’s mine:
3/4 C of almond milk
huge bunch of baby spinach
2 scoops of soy protein powder
1 banana
blend
1 carrot
blend
3/4 C of frozen strawberries, frozen mixed berries, frozen peaches, or frozen mangos.
Crush ice, and voila!
variation: greek yogurt when I don’t have a banana.
Another recipe I made the other night was from one of my favorite bloggers, Rebecca from Girl’s Gone Child’s Mom’s recipe for cauliflower soup. I can’t stand eating cauliflower by itself, and although this has a lot of cheese in it, it’s a good stand-in for when you have a hankering for something ridiculously fattening like creamy baked potato soup. Plus, I used a lot more water and broth than milk and cheese, and it still hit the spot.
Mmmm… dill. I need to start cooking more with dill, it’s so amazing.
The finished product- bellissimo!
For the full recipe, check it out here.
Where do you get the soy protein powder and what brand?
I got it at Raley’s in the health food section, and it’s MLO sports nutrition brand.
Even your food photos are gorgeous! Can you please do a cookbook with me one of these days? Seriously.
And, no wonder you get so much energy and great workout umpf from that smoothie, check out how much protein is in there! Awesome! I know I need to start doing this, but smoothies gross me out so much ever since my Jamba Juice days. It would be such a great replacement for my morning chai lattes though…
I know I totally want to do a cookbook. It’s gonna be a slow process I guess. You should try this smoothie though, it’s not that sweet or sugary like jamba juice, it’s more vegetable-y and gritty from the protein. It might not remind you of the old days
I made this today (the soup) and it was fabulous! Planning to make the smoothie before work tomorrow in place of chai… not sure how well I will be able to stick to that but I’m gonna try.