day one

Hi all! Hope your Mondays were fantastic! Wanna know how mine was? Heh... heh...

If you've read this morning's post, you know that today is the first day of my vegan cleanse. Welp, here's how it went...

I woke up around 6:30 this morning, after not falling asleep until about 1am. There's my first problem. But, I had taken a nap yesterday, so I guess it's my own fault. That's okay though, it just means I'll be nice and sleepy for bed tonight! (I cannot wait!)

After my shower, I went straight to the fridge for a glass of water with lemon. I decided to omit the recommended cayenne. A tid bit of information for ya-- I absolutely loathe the taste of water with lemon. I'm not a big lemon fan to begin with... but to water it down is even worse. Bleck. This was definitely difficult to get down. But, I plugged my nose and made it happen.

Next up was the "green juice". I'm not sure why I put it in quotations, because it actually is green, and so was everything that went into it.

Into the juicer went: (makes 2 servings)

2 cucumbers
5 romaine leaves
5 broccoli stems
1 large pear

Okay, so yeah... this stuff is green and smells like broccoli. Yeah it's scary and intimidating. BUT I will go ahead and tell you it is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting to gag at the tiniest taste of this stuff, and out of everything I consumed today, it was one of the easiest.

I drank the juice around 10am, and was surprisingly okay, and not feeling hungry. Around 11:20, I wanted to eat my own hand off. I was immediately struck with a nauseating feeling. I needed something in my stomach, and I needed it quick. But what did I do? I waited. Until noon. There arrives my second problem. While I should have munched on an apple, I decided starving myself would be a better idea. Idiot. Hey, I never said I was the most intelligent girl!

After grazing on a few raw cashews and macadamias, noon finally rolled around and lunch was prepared. First, I had a huge salad filled with romaine, baby spinach, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, orange, yellow, and green peppers, broccoli, avocado, and 2 unpictured strawberries.

 

Third problem. I attempted to use a tahini-lemon dressing, but it just was not working. I took about 4 bites with it to make sure I wasn't a fan... and that was that. I whipped up a quick lemon, olive-oil, and S&P dressing, and drizzled it on. The avocado and strawberries really helped make this eatable.

For the first half of lunch, I smeared some tofu egg-less salad on a spelt tortilla. I paired it with a few vegan, gluten free crackers and a dollop of baba-ganoush. This was, hands down, the best thing I ate all day. Unfortunately, and much to my surprise, I was absolutely stuffed about halfway through the meal and couldn't finish it all.

Lunch kept me full until about 4:30, so I ate a chunk of cantaloupe and honey-due melon, and a few pistachios.

You know what 6pm meant? Dinner time! I had another salad, that was made up of field greens, avocado, walnuts, broccoli, and strawberries. For the dressing I used lemon juice, flax seed oil, and S&P. Once again, the strawberries came to my rescue and made the salad eatable!

 

I paired the salad with a recipe taken from Fitting It All In. It consisted of brown rice, garbanzo beans (chick-peas), onion, spinach, and lima beans. Drizzled on top was liquid aminos and tahini.

This was actually pretty tasty... at first. Problem number four. I felt the more and more I ate it, the less I enjoyed it. I'm not sure what it was about it, but something wasn't right. Ugh.

After dinner, I started to get a roaring headache, and boiled it down to needing some sugar. I turned to a bowl of fruit. In the mix was cantaloupe, honey-dew, and strawberries. Just 2 bites in, my headache was gone. Thank. The. Lord.

 

I love you, fruit! You've always got muh back!

 

Day One Recap:

I wasn't sure what to expect today. I've gone back and fourth between thinking this will be easy, then hard, then easy, then.. well... you get my drift! The morning went smoothly, I hit a bump shortly before lunch but quickly fueled up, which lasted me a while. Dinner was pretty simple to get to, and not too bad, and my headache was promptly cured with fruit.

My Concerns:

I'm already craving cheesey bread. I feel like I need some carbs. Maybe it's just my body detoxing, but I want it! Is this supposed to already be happening? If not, I may be in for a rude awakening!

My Hopes:

I am hoping that I find better dressings for my salads. I obviously am not really feeling the whole lemon/vinaigrette thing. I am more of a ranch/Caesar kind of girl! I also hope that the carb cravings go away, along with my headaches.

If you have any vegan, gluten-free recipes, or any suggestions, please share with me! I am open to anything and need lots of ideas!

See you all tomorrow with day 2 of the cleanse!