Cleanse Update...

Here's a NOT-SO-QUICK update on the cleanse I am doing!!! I am still eating a vegan/vegetarian diet (I say that for clarity sake because I have incorporated eggs back into my diet more than once a week and I have continued to cook with chicken broth) AND I did have a "Cheat Day" for about 24 hours because we had a birthday party (and I made & brought dessert = majorly tempting!) and we went to a wedding in LA and didn't think I could ask the waiter man for a "Vegan Friendly Meal".... so I ate the vegetarian one that had cream sauce and cheese. But can I tell you this, I felt like CRUMB afterwards. I had the worse stomach ache, I felt heavy, bloated, and overly full- and it was enough to convince me that I wanted to hop back on my cleansing diet as soon as I returned home because I feel significantly better eating this way.

Now that I am coming up on the 6th week here, I had been mulling over in my head what I will do when my cleanse is through, and for the most part I think I will stick fairly close to what I am doing now. Here's my game plan, not perfected, but what I am thinking as of now:

I will continue with lots of raw fruits and veggies, I will continue to incorporate eggs, brown rice pastas, lentils, beans, nuts, seeds, fish (twice a week) and chicken once a week (this is for convenience sake more than anything else so I don't feel trapped when eating out or away from home). To ME there is a need for balance and flexibility, I don't want my diet to rule my life but I know it plays a HUGE role in HOW I feel in this life and that is where, for me, the balance lies.

One of the important questions that has been on my mind as I have made this shift in my diet is making sure I am doing it in a healthy manner. I wanted to make sure I get enough protein because you can't just stop eating meat and start considering yourself a vegetarian, it's more than that. And actually, many people have asked me what I do for protein now, so here's a quick blurb on the issue of protein:

Dr. Joel Fuhrman, in his book Eat To Live gives an easy way to figure out how much protein you body needs daily, simply multiple your weight times 0.36 g. So, for a 120 pound woman, 44 grams of protein would be sufficient. For a 150 pound male 54 grams would do, and for a 25 pound child 9 grams would be the requirement. (If you are pregnant or nursing you should up your intake by 25 grams or multiply your weight by 1.1 grams instead). A diet too high in protein can be hard on your kidney and cause other complications such as kidney stones.

Here's a Quick List of Protein Amounts (I chose to include foods that I eat lots of, but there are charts all over the Internet if you are looking for a specific food that's not listed here)...

Grams of Good Protein: (everything is measured in 1 cup unless otherwise noted)

Lentils- 18 g

Adzuki Beans- 17 g

White Beans- 17 g

Split Peas- 16 g

Black Bean- 15 g

Kidney- 13 g

Pinto- 12 g

Kidney- 13 g

Quinoa- 9 g

Peanut Butter (2 TBSP) - 8 g

Almonds (1/4 cup)- 8 g

Sunflower Seeds (1/4 cup) 8 g

Pistachio (1/4 cup)- 6 g

Couscous- 6 g

Oatmeal-6 g

1 Egg- 6 g

Steel Cut Oats (1/4 cup)- 5 g

Cashews (1/4 cup)- 5 g

Brown Rice- 5 g

Spinach- 5 g

Brown Rice Noodles- 4 g

Broccoli- 4 g

Brussel Sprouts- 4 g

Potato- 4 g

Sweet Potato- 3 g

Ezekiel Bread (Cinnamon Raisin)- 3 g

Kale- 2.5

Rutabaga- 2 g

Squash- 2 g

** For reference, a grilled chicken breast has 42 g of protein and aFillet Steak has about 30 g and a Salmon Steak has about 25 g (per 100 grams).

As you can see, it is quite easy to fulfill your protein intake even without the consumption of any meats. Other questions I got asked was do I eat any carbs and do I get enough calories? I do eat carbs such as Quinoa, Brown Rice, Brown Rice Pasta, Couscous, Harvest Grains, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, other roots, spelt or corn tortillas, Ezekiel bread, nuts and seeds, and more that I am not thinking of right now. As far as calories go, I get plenty of them! I am snacking all day on baby carrots, hummus, fruits, veggies, a handful of nuts and I eat 3 good meals each day. I do feel like I have more energy than normal (plenty of energy to work out to answer Christy's question!) and feel lighter and "overall better" consuming these foods than the ones I was eating pre-cleanse. Hope that answers some of the questions I've been asked that maybe were floating around your head too, but keep them coming and share your wisdom with me, this is all a learning process!

*** One last note- regardless of the diet I choose, I always make it a priority to continue my intake of supplements. One of the most important supplements you can take, especially for women, is Vitamin D. See this post for more.