Day 9 of the 21-Day Cleanse

Well, I'm officially over a week into my cleanse. Overall, it hasn't been all that hard - I already don't eat dairy, meat or coffee. What I knew would be hard from the beginning was eliminating the sugar (Hi, my name is Katie, and I'm a sugar-holic) and the gluten.

How did I beat my sugar cravings? During the first few days of the cleanse, I ate dates and raisins when I would normally eat a chocolatey sugary dessert. Three days in, my cravings really kicked in and I made some hot chocolate (with coconut milk, raw cacao and agave, so it would still be within the cleanse). It was so rich and I felt so full after dinner that I haven't felt the need to do that again! After the three day hump, the dessert thing has been pretty smooth sailing!

Gluten has been hard just because I have to think really hard about what I eat! In case you're wondering, gluten-free essentially means you don't eat any wheat products. I've been avoiding my staple sprouted grain bread, as well as whole wheat tortillas, oatmeal, cous cous, and a number of other processed foods that contain some sneaky wheat (kill two birds with one stone!). I haven't really noticed any difference in how I feel other than some potential detoxing symptoms, so I think after this cleanse I'll go back to eating gluten. I've been eating millet bread which is sweetened with fruit juice concentrate, and to me it seems healthier to eat my sprouted grain bread which doesn't have added sweetener.

The last component that has been really hard was the juice fast that I did on the 7th day. It coincided with a double shift at work, which I think actually turned out to be beneficial because I wasn't sitting at home wishing that I could be eating. I had a surprising amount of energy all day once I finally got enough juice in my system to not be hungry. I think I would even do a juice fast every Sunday brunch that I have to work, because it really helped me stay focused and energized! The downfall to my juice fast was that the next day I was ravished! To top it off, I had a session with my personal trainer. Before I went, I ate some miso soup and a banana smoothie with kale and coconut milk, which was not enough to sustain a workout. I felt really weak and it was hard to do the exercises. I ate straight through the afternoon, and then binged on hummus and almond butter when I got home from work. I feel very back on track today (check out my lunch below!), but now I know for my next cleanse that I need to ease back into solid foods before I get so starving, and I need to take it easy the day after!

Overall, so far so good :) Keep an eye out for my next cleansing post!

Peace, love and green veggies,
Katie