The idea of doing a cleanse to flush toxins and give my body a bit of a rest has always been interesting to me. But the idea of only juicing is not my idea of a fun time.
Every time I’ve tried to do nothing but juice, I find myself hangry with little self-control by late afternoon – not to mention the fact that after several green juices, I’m practically repulsed at the thought of drinking another one. Let’s face it, I’m a foodie and I love to eat! So instead, I’ve tried different kinds of cleanses – ones that involve chewing – like the Vegetarian Times 7-ingredient cleanse (posts on that here and here).
I took a cue from that cleanse to come up with my own version of a cleanse last week! Because I’m active and like to work out, I like to feed my muscles. One thing that bugs me about cleanses are their lack of protein, so my cleanse includes high protein vegan sources, like beans and nuts.
Here are the basic guidelines of the Foodie Loves Fitness cleanse:
The cleanse isn’t crazy strict, as I like to get creative and don’t like to follow stringent rules when it comes to diet, even if it is only for a couple of days. The basic gist is to juice for your first two meals, have snacks of fruits, vegetables, and/or nuts, and then a dinner of whatever you’d like, as long as it’s vegan and minimally processed. For instance, you can cook some chickpeas, then combine them with avocado, tomatoes, corn and toasted slivered almonds.
Here are some juice combo ideas that I dig having for breakfast and lunch:
Below are a couple of cleanse day examples, which are actually precisely what I ate when I was doing the cleanse last week.
To me, the point of the cleanse is just to feel nice and refreshed – like pushing the reset button. I had planned on doing the cleanse for 3 days, but it got cut short a day because my hubby wanted to take me wine tasting last Saturday….
…and life is too short to refuse an afternoon of wine sipping & picnicking! 🙂
Thoughts? Have you ever tried a cleanse?
I like your approach to a cleanse! I’m not really a cleanse person but the idea of having healthy juice in combination with other healthy meals and snacks really appeals to me. Your suggestions are great!
Thanks, Britt! Yea, I don’t really think I’m much of a cleanse person either… but then again, I think it appeals to me just because I like a challenge!
I’ve never tried a cleanse because I think I’m too much of a weenie to go through with it, but this looks sort of doable to me. Maybe I’ll try it out! I don’t blame you on cutting it short for wine tasting. That looks amazing!
I hope that you do try it!!
I did a cleanse once and I turned into the evil version of myself. I think I could handle yours though because it isn’t nearly as strict!
I can totally relate to you turning evil…. hangriness is no bueno!!