Day 1 of the 7-day cleanse

I picked Tuesday as Day 1 because I had leftover food from the weekend to eat on Monday. And I do NOT want to postpone to NEXT Monday. Trust me, I have done this in the past. At the moment, there are three problems – the first one is the voice inside my head. It reminds me of the taste of fries and fried stuff with ketchup. I need some way to tune it out. Secondly, I share an office with a coworker who lunches at the desk, which means I can smell delicious things, but I can’t eat them. I’ve decided to take a walk during his lunch break. Let’s see how that works out. The third and the most difficult problem to face is caffeine. It is NOT allowed on the clean diet. I’m an engineer who has to think and work for 9 hours a day. Without my morning cup of coffee, I’m not sure how much my work is going to be affected. I will find out today and if I cannot avoid, I will go buy some mate tea, which is a caffeine substitute.

Tweaks: I made some minor tweaks to the list of allowed foods – so it is not extreme. I’m allowing bananas and peanut butter, both foods on the “exclude list”. I assumed, in small quantities these foods are ok and I definitely need that sugar from bananas to begin my day.

Breakfast

Bananas, Berries, Chia and Arugula shake – It was disgusting. First mouthful was bearable but half glass down, it was downright terrible. I’m considering switching to baby spinach, which is comparatively tasteless. I added 5 mg of vanilla flavored protein powder, so I skipped the stevia and the smoothie was still sweet.

Snack

I made some energy balls in the morning that consist of 1 cup each of almonds, cashews, raisins, dates and 1 tbsp. of peanut butter. I put all the ingredients (except the peanut butter) in the food processor to get a chunky nut mixture, into which I later incorporated 1 tbsp of peanut butter. It is delicious. But whether it is filling, is to be found.

I have a bag of sunflower seeds at my desk – my second snack. They are the backup for days I forget to make a snack or wake up late.

Lunch

Lunch is a salad with stir fried broccoli, carrots, feta cheese and mykoprotein. They are tossed together with olive oil, salt and oregano.

Dinner

For dinner I was planning a lentil soup, with onions, leeks and carrots.