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.  

I'm going to be blunt and honest: I've struggled with eating for essentially my entire life. Growing up as a dancer in front of a mirror, I always compared myself to everyone else in the room. It was common practice for our teachers to be strict in all aspects: technique, manners, facial expression, and of course diet. Naturally, any young girl in this situation would start to have doubts about her self-esteem and body image. Insert eating trouble here. Unfortunately, even though I had an incredibly supportive family, I slipped into a pattern known all too well by people with eating disorders. Luckily, since then I have utilized many tools and become more comfortable with food. However, I'm still always on the hunt for something that will make my body feel better and less weighed down by all of the processed crap that's out there. Thus, my new relationship with the Eat To Live diet.

Typically I eat fairly healthy things. I do not eat any refined sugar or white flour and I love fruit and most veggies. However, I'm definitely a salt lover. I love crackers, chips... anything with salt really. I'm also a sucker for Cesar salad, the creamier the better. Now as you all know, those things are fine in moderation. But, on a Sunday when I'm hungover, you better believe I'm stuffing about 85 breakfast sandwiches into my mouth. Eat To Live is great because it forces you to eat only healthy options, mostly focusing on vegetables.

I initially heard about the Eat To Live plan from my friend Jessie (she's essentially my personal health guru- this girl is an amazing cook and has a great wealth of knowledge for the best practices in healthy eating). At first I was totally against it, mostly due to my obsession with french fries. Almost a year after learning about it though, I've finally decided to jump on board.

Here are the sparknotes:

- created by Dr. Joel Furhman 

- eat as many vegetables as you want until you are full

- eat tons of fruits

- no meat, no bread, no cheese (you can technically have these in moderation for the life plan but not in the cleanse, which is what I'm doing)

- no coffee- stick to tea 

- don't snack between meals

Because I know that a lot of you are just as ADHD with long posts as I am, I'm going to include some links below for you to read at your leisure. If you are really serious about doing this, I recommend reading through everything (including at least part of the actual book) so that you are educated on your new eating plan. *DISCLAIMER- I am by no means a licensed dietitian or health expert. You should consult your doctor if you have any doubts about eating and exercise. 

Approved foods list 

Dr. Furhman website

A great blog post about the 6 week plan

Today marks the first day of my cleanse. After such a gross weekend of unhealthy eating, I was thrilled to only be consuming a fruit smoothie for breakfast. I even woke up a little earlier to blend one myself. However, by lunch I was feeling the hunger a little. No problem... I walked over to the cafeteria and made myself a nice salad, following all the rules. But once 3:30pm rolled around, I started to get a little hangry (hungry and angry). I started craving something with carbs in it which is a definite no-no at this stage in the game. Luckily I was able to make it through and distracted myself with a good, cardio-infused, gym session but it wasn't easy.

Every few days I will be blogging about my progress as a way to hold myself accountable. Hopefully I can inspire some of you to adopt a healthier relationship with food by doing this. To those of you who are with me, GOOD LUCK! 

(Please email me any stories about your Eat To Live experience)