Meal Replacement Smoothie

Yesterday I was getting ready to run out the door to the gym when I realized I hadn't eaten anything. So I quickly threw together a smoothie and I'm glad I did...spinning class is not something to do on an empty stomach! 

Here's the recipe from Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet book:

1/2 cup cooked oatmeal
1/4 tbs. agave nectar
1 scoop protein powder
2 tbs. almond butter
cinnamon
almond milk
I also threw in some ice cubes to make it colder. Nobody likes a lukewarm smoothie.

The oatmeal made it very thick, but it definitely made me feel full quickly.  On days when I'm not good at planning ahead, smoothies are my friend.

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Eating Frequently

I get to eat 6 times a day?! This is reason enough to start eating clean. But I've found out that it's not as easy as it seems.  I'm used to eating three meals a day and mindlessly snacking in between.  Eating clean requires me to actually think about my snacks/meals and plan accordingly. It's not very easy to grab a clean snack when I'm out running errands and am starving.  I definitely don't feel like hauling my baby into the grocery store just to search for a clean snack in the produce section.  I'd much rather swing through the drive thru, grab some chicken nuggets, and call it a day. The eating clean guru, Tosca Reno, suggests packing a small cooler with clean snacks and meals to get you through the day.  (She even has a cooler meal plan in her book. ) I don't need to pack all of my meals because I am home during the day.  But I do think I need to start keeping a few ready-to-go snacks in the fridge to grab on my way out the door if I'm going to be gone for awhile.

Anyhoo...eating a small, clean meal every 2-3 hours was my focus today. (I also tried to keep guzzling my water.) Here's what it looked like for me:

7:15- oats with flaxseed, wheat germ, & almond milk/coffee with almond milk & Stevia/water
10:30-plain organic yogurt with chia seeds and nuts/water
1:15-leftover chicken lettuce wraps/natural salt & vinegar chips/water
5:00-banana with peanut butter
7:15-baked salmon/baked green beans/water
9:00-2 kiwis/water

These meals are definitely not perfect...I could use some work on getting protein & carbs in every meal...but I'll save that for another day.  

Writing down the time I ate and a quick note of what I was eating helped me to remember to eat frequently.  It also reminded me of the notes I used to keep when my son was just born...how many ounces he ate...when he ate it...when's his next feeding...  

Okay, so far I've got my breakfast, water intake, and frequent eating back on track...what will tomorrow bring?

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Grocery Shopping

I am feeling much better today as I sit down to write this post.  I spent awhile this afternoon reading through the Tosca Reno book, Eat Clean Diet Recharged and finished feeling like this was a lot more doable.  There was no big detox and no major changes that must be done now! I like that I was given an option to ease into clean eating, which is much more my style. She even had great meal plans and grocery lists to get me started. I took the list and headed to the store...again.

 I did not do all out shopping since my husband is still in shock from the Whole Foods grocery bill from last week.  I just grabbed a few things that I wanted to have on hand to cook with during the week.  Sadly the natural part of the regular grocery store was tiny. There were not many choices and of course the prices were much higher.  It was amazing how many items I walked by and never even thought to pick up after having just finished reading up on eating clean.  In fact, I passed by several complete aisles I knew had nothing for me.  It actually felt nice and made shopping a little easier in a way.  My choices were limited, but I felt better about what I was spending my money on.

With all of this on my mind, one thing in particular caught my attention.  I passed by a family of 3 whose cart was toppling over with food.  I glanced inside and saw several cases of pop (okay, "soda" if you're not a midwesterner like me), potato chips, tv dinners, and they were currently discussing which frozen pizzas to buy.  I couldn't help but notice that all three of them were very overweight, including the young boy.  Now I don't know these people and I'm not trying to pass judgement.  But it did make me realize that I don't ever want to lead my own family down that path and now is the best time to make these good changes since my family is so young. My son is just now starting to eat table food and I want to make sure it's everything he deserves.

So here's what I came away from the store with today:

• Stevia sweetener
• bananas
• Agave nectar
• garbanzo beans
• frozen fruit
• herbal tea
• almond milk
• oats
• low fat cottage cheese
• Ezekial bread
• quinoa
• brown rice flour

Tonight I made a large batch of oatmeal and put it into single serve dishes for my husband's and my breakfast this week.  I put the frozen fruit in the fridge so we can add it to the oatmeal.

I would say today was much more successful than our previous two days of "detox". I'm looking forward to making these healthy changes, one step at a time.

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Detox Derailed

I woke up today to my husband asking where the thermometer was because he thought he was sick.  He had just thrown up (TMI?) after having his morning lemon/ginger water. Our day didn't get much better from there.  We were both starving and tired and just felt....ugh. We even crawled back in bed to join our son in an afternoon nap.  Before dinner I finally broke and told him that I think we need to end the detox, or at least add something to it.  You should have seen the smile on that man's face.  Apparently he had been waiting all day for me to come to my senses.  After eating some baked chicken and a glass of juice, our day took a turn for the better.  We still had our Potassium Balance soup and Chia Pudding for dessert.  (I also may or may not have eaten a few M&Ms out of the bowl at my parents' house.)

So I can't really say the detox was successful for us.  To be honest, by day 2 it had us feeling pretty awful and food, or the lack of,  was all I could think about. That's no way to live...at least not in this house! HOWEVER, this is not to say I'm giving up on eating clean.  In fact, I checked out two books from the library today that I'm hoping will motivate me to keep at it.  From our experience, I don't think the detox was the best way to start eating clean.  In fact, it deterred us if anything.  But after looking through the books and reading through some blogs of successful clean eaters, I'm ready to give it a shot.  It's not going to be perfect.  I'm sure a few more stray M&Ms are going to find their way to my mouth, but if I can at least change some bad habits and add in a lot more fresh, healthy foods, then I'm all for it.


Here are the books I'm taking a look at:

How about you?  Has anyone else tried a detox?  Was it worth it?

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