Day One

I've been thinking of doing some sort of a cleanse/detox for a while. I've read a lot about different juice cleanses like Blueprint Cleanse, and Red Carpet Cleanse where you basically drink all your nutrients for a number of days. I've also heard about the crazy lemon juice/cayenne pepper nonsense. I found something that is neither of those, but will hopefully help me get right with food. I'm hoping to reset my sweet tooth, something I haven't been able to do through sheer will power alone. I'm also hoping to ferret out any food allergies I may have. As many of you know, I'm a vegetarian, but I love me some cheese and I love anything that falls into the starch category. By not eating any dairy or wheat products for the duration of the cleanse, and then reintroducing dairy and wheat I may find out that I have an actual allergy. We shall see.

Anyway, today is Day One of The UltraSimple Diet. I don't like that it's called a diet, but I guess technically it is. So whatever. I did a bunch of food prep yesterday after buying a bunch of veggies, tofu, broth, etc that will take me through the cleanse. Not everything I'll eat is pictured. So no worries that it doesn't look like enough.

I was a little apprehensive about the UltraShake that you have for breakfast, - it's basically silken tofu, soy milk, 1/2 non-sweetened berries, ground flax seed, and ice or water to get the consistency you want. The book suggests adding some almond butter and a 1/2 banana. I'd hate to think what it tastes like without those last two suggested ingredients. It was actually pretty good with them. Breakfast will be easy.

Here's my lunch from today:

1/2 cup brown rice, a cup of broth, and a bunch of sweet potato fries. You get to have at least 2 cups of approved veggies. Thanking my lucky stars that sweet potatoes are on the list, because I heart them. I tossed them with some olive oil and some garam masala, black mustard seeds and salt for an Indian flair. Tasty. I felt full after lunch. I had some carrots and hummus for a snack a bit ago and am starting to think about dinner. Clearly I'm not going to go hungry.

There's a lot of thought that's gone into the food I'll be eating. I've been looking at cookbooks and for recipes on line so I'm actually excited about the items I'll be eating instead of just sticking with steamed veggies and brown rice (and tofu at dinner). I think that's an added bonus for me because this is going to get me out of my comfort zone of always eating the same things because they're easy to cook. If you knew how many times a week I cook something with a Mexican twist. Some of you actually do know first hand - RTL! It's a lot. I also end up eating a lot of cheese that way, which may not be my healthiest choice.

I saw the Krispy Kreme flyer in today's paper featuring TRIPLE chocolate filled doughnuts and for a few seconds wanted to scrap the cleanse and go get some. Maybe someday, I'll be able to have just one or a bite of one and not want to eat a whole box of them. That's the goal anyway.

Time for my dinner.