summer [mostly] clean guidelines & schedule update

after checking my schedule and realizing that next week includes a holiday, i’ve decided to postpone my mini-cleanse (i think i’d said it was going to be this week?) and start on friday, july 6th.  i’ve gotten a few interested participants, but there’s still time to join (and, of course, you’re under no obligation to do the same days i choose.  you could do yours next month if it suited your schedule better!)  personally, i’m doing it now because tomatoes and corn aren’t yet flooding the farmer’s market, so i’ll be able to resist that temptation slightly easier.  i’m starting on a friday because i don’t work fridays, so that gives me a few, less hectic days to get into the “clean groove” before i’m back to work.  if you’re thinking about doing a mini-cleanse, consider which day of the week will have the most flexibility to cook your larger meal at lunch and go from there.

if you want to play along, i’ve created a menu in google docs and i will e-mail you the link if you leave a comment on my blog.  you should be able to get recipes for any of the foods that are hyperlinked in blue by clicking on the words.  feel free to scramble the order of the days and mix and match the meals, as long as breakfast and dinner are both drinkable and you include a solid lunch and optional snack(s).  i’ve also included some bonus lunch menu ideas at the bottom of the doc in case one of the options i put for lunch on my sample menu doesn’t appeal to you or if you want to go longer than a week.

“clean” rules i found helpful/useful the last time:

–be sure to leave a 12 hour gap between the last food that goes into your mouth at night and the first sip of your morning smoothie.

–if you’re hard-core, you’ll give up caffeine and alcohol.  i don’t really ever drink either one, so this isn’t much of an issue for me.

–although there are mixed ways to interpret the guidelines, i personally adhere to the idea that you shouldn’t ever really feel starvingly hungry while on this cleanse.  true, there were times that i wanted to snack after supper, but usually, if i thought about it, i often realized i wasn’t actually hungry, just accustomed to a snack during that time.  if you’re hungry mid-morning or mid-afternoon, have a snack, just make sure it’s “clean.”  if you find that you’re always hungry, make your smoothies bigger or add some protein to them (nuts, nut butters, nut milks) and make sure that your lunches are hearty enough.

–if you really want to understand the rhyme and reason to the cleanse, be sure to read the book (clean by alejandro junger).  if you want to feel very self-satisfied, read the end of overeating by david kessler during or just after the cleanse.

i’m still planning to put together a mini-reward package to send anyone who makes it through the whole week (honor system, here, folks!), and i’d love to hear your experiences with the cleanse.  plus, if i know other people are “watching” me, it helps me to stay on track.  :)