massmusings

Today is my final update on my Eat To Live cleanse. I'll be honest, I definitely didn't follow it as strictly as I could have. But you know what? I'm totally okay with that because I haven't felt this good about what I put into my body in a really long time. 

First things first, I could never be a vegetarian, I just love meat way too much. That being said, I haven't missed eating meat as much as I thought I would. It's only been about three weeks and the only type of animal that I can remember eating (besides milk and eggs) is one fish at a restaurant. Other than that I've been getting super creative with my salads and eating about a bag of spinach a day (I'm not even kidding you, I really go through about one large bag per day). To supplement the veggies and to just switch it up a little bit, I have been blending my own fruit smoothies every day as well. In order to keep full, I allowed myself to finish the entire blender throughout the day- each blender holds about 3 full glasses. 

Unfortunately during the cleanse I caught the flu. I was leveled on my couch for four days and wasn't really eating much of anything. This was probably my biggest struggle while cleansing because I was eating a lot of toast (BRAT diet always makes me feel better when I'm sick). I thought that this would send me completely off track but it actually didn't. I was able to hop right back on the fruit and veggie train about three days into the flu and everything fell back into place with ease. 

I think my biggest take-away from doing this cleanse is that my body was starved of nutrients. I found that even though I was not necessarily eating unhealthily, I was relying too much on processed foods like power bars, and neglecting fresh, clean and natural foods. Going forward my goal is to continue eating as many fruits and vegetables as I want, drinking at least two Nalgenes of water a day, and to slowly add back in meat and cheese. I'm also going to try hard to find other creative ways to get protein into my diet and other creative ways to cook following Eat To Live as closely as I can. 

Hopefully my experience with Eat To Live has helped some of you re-evaluate the food that you are consuming. If you take anything away from my cleanse I hope that you realize it is not about limiting what you eat or restricting calories. It is about feeling healthy, listening to what your body needs, and feeding it accordingly. Add some exercise to the equation and you're on your way to feeling your best and feeling confident and that is what really matters.  

So this weekend I went to visit my beautiful friends in Baltimore. I'm obsessed with that city, in fact I almost moved there after college. It was so great to spend time with friends that I hadn't seen in a while but it was absolutely detrimental to my cleanse. I actually managed to eat salads and follow the plan for every meal except breakfasts which I told myself was okay (No way was I missing those bagel places down there!). So I had a cheat weekend, really not a big deal, except now I feel like crap. Literally my stomach has been so upset and still has that feeling you get when you eat too much sweetened stuff or are dehydrated. Very uncomfortable and I can't wait until a few days from now when I finally feel better again. *** I should note that I've been drinking about 2 nalgenes of water a day. 

That's pretty much it for now... I have some big things coming up on the blog (think outfit posts, 195 Webster and more) but for now I leave you with this: Ombre. 

Instead of doing a SSS, today I am going to give you an update on my Eat To Live cleanse. It's been 5 days since I started and so far I feel really great! I've been taking the one serving a day of whole grains very seriously as that's usually one of my biggest pitfalls. I've been eating 1 or 2 pieces of whole grain toast with fruit for a meal (typically breakfast) only if I have to. When I had time in the mornings this week I made an all fruit smoothie but due to a two-day work meeting I was limited to my breakfast selections and had to sub in the toast. Besides that though, I've been sticking to it and I actually do feel a lot better. I've lost a 3 solid pounds, I have significantly less bloating and I don't feel that "food coma" feeling after eating a hefty meal. Even though this it is possible to keep this up for 6 weeks, I think I'm only going to do 3 weeks and then slowly start adding animal products back in... I miss meat way too much. 

Keep checking back for more updates on my Eat To Live cleanse. Until then, I leave you with this amazing video to take you into Friday: 

P.S. Let this song take you into the weekend! It's UNREAL.