Day 1

We decided, after our weekend of food-filled gluttony, that we should probably go ahead and start the cleanse Monday (original date was Tuesday). If we waited one more day, we might have gone into cardiac arrest.

Fortunately, we were both off from work today, which probably made this day much more fun than it would have been, had we braved it alone at our respective workplaces. We began our day with a glass of purified water, added lemon juice & a dash of cayenne pepper (to get our circulation moving), and skipped coffee. It was actually ok! Who would have ever thought I would say that on day 1?

We dropped Z off at school, then came home and each had a mug of green tea, no sweeteners or weird things added to it. Just straight green tea. If I'm going to be honest, it wasn't my favorite, but this is only the beginning of eating/drinking things I'm not used to & I have to learn to go with the flow. (Speaking of flow, the water + green tea had us both peeing like racehorses by 10:00am.) After finishing our tea, we dressed out and went on an hour-long morning walk.

Next was our morning green drink. We had "green machine" smoothies (courtesy of Naked drinks), which consisted of apple, banana, kiwi, mango, pineapple, spirulina, chlorella, broccoli, blue green algae, spinach, garlic, barley grass, wheat grass, ginger, and parsley. I know it sounds terrifying, but the fruit makes it sweet and they are delicious. I have been drinking these for a few years now, off and on, and Z has always lovingly referred to them as my "booger juice shakes". That'll give you an idea of how they look in your glass, but I promise, they are scrumptious. After our smoothies, we each had a small bowl of organic flax granola with almond milk. Definitely filled us up, and kept us going until lunch.

After running a few errands, we came back and had lunch. Today, our lunch was splitting a can of Amy's Kitchen black bean chili alongside big salads with gluten-free dressing. Our salads had green leaf lettuce, organic spinach, organic raw carrots, organic tomatoes, organic raw broccoli, flax seeds, celery, and broccoli sprouts. Holy moley! We were stuffed afterward! This cleanse definitely is not about starving yourself, it's exactly the opposite. You can eat your weight in veggies and that's ok. I can dig it.

After lunch, we had a few hours before picking up Z from school. Since we are supposed to do meditation, I made my first attempt. Yeeeeeeah ... I suck at meditation, apparently. I kept trying to do what I've been told and focus on breathing, etc, but all I kept doing was falling asleep. Oops! Guess my body was trying to tell me something about how much more rest I need, but I never did succeed at meditating. I will keep trying, though, and hopefully things will fall into place soon enough.

After picking up Z, we had our mid-afternoon snack - I chose a vegan blueberry yogurt cup, and Aaron opted for the vegan coconut yogurt. (Both were surprisingly yummy.) We hung out with Z, relaxed, and watched some tv, then it was time for dinner. I opted for a slightly smaller version of our lunchtime salad, as well as a vegetable medley (red potatoes, onions, tomatoes, northern beans, and basil) we lightly sauteed, and a vegan Boca "burger". Aaron went with salad, the vegetable medley, and Amy's soup. Z had what he's always known to be chicken nuggets (actually Morningstar Chik'n nuggets) and salad. He even became curious about the flax seeds, and asked if he could try some. Once he figured out they don't taste like anything, he dumped a good pile into his own salad and munched away. Just goes to show you how powerful leading by example can be.

We were once again stuffed after dinner, and relaxed together as a family the rest of the evening until bedtime. Since part of the cleanse is to make sure you get adequate sleep, we were all in bed early. I did spend about 20 minutes preparing Aaron & I's food for our lunches at work today, which is all part of the program - gotta think ahead. Only complaint so far? Aaron and I both got headaches, almost simultaneously, around 7:30pm. All in all, I'd say it was an incredibly successful first day.

I promise I won't continue to give a blow-by-blow of everything we ate for every meal, just trying to give some examples of what we found at the store that were tasty and healthful. Everything except the vegetable medley were found at our normal HEB, thankfully, because I think we'd be broke if we tried to shop only at Whole Foods or Central Market. Even getting everything at HEB added up quickly, and took us off guard at how much more our grocery bill was, but that's ok. Once the sticker shock wore off, we remembered it's all for a great cause.

Looking forward to Day 2!

Love, peace, & veggies.