Clean Eating: Week 1

I meant to do a post last week explaining what we were about to do, but that obviously didn't happen, so here we are, one week (or so) in.
I have been wanting to do some sort of cleanse for a couple of years, but between pregnancies and nursing babies, moves, and stays with family, it seemed pretty much impossible. And I wanted something manageable, something that worked for a family, something that would help encourage more of a lifestyle change rather than a juice binge of some sort. I also wanted to break all of our addictions to sugar. The more I read, the more I felt like I couldn't eat anything, and I would pretty much have to wait until I was going through menopause to do any sort of cleanse. So I decided to make up my own version, targeting the areas of concern for our family. I have a couple of children who I think may have mild allergies/intolerances of some sort because of tummy troubles and eczema, so that was a factor as well.

Here are the rules:

No added sugar, in any form including sugar, honey, syrups, etc.  We still eat fruit, but try to eat mostly ones low in sugar.  We do use organic raw cane sugar to brew kombucha (a probiotic rich drink), but the bacteria in it feed on the sugar as it brews, so I made an exception for that.

No gluten, which pairs well with the first, since most things I make with wheat call for some sort of sugar as well.

No grains at all for the first week (and it's looking like it will continue into the second), this was mainly just a cooking challenge to myself...and no one has really seemed to mind.

No legumes, unless they are heavily soaked and sprouted first. A lot of eliminations diets exclude legumes entirely, but I refuse to go that far (that being said, there are only a handful of meals that they will be included in, but that's just the way it worked out).  Sprouting makes a huge difference in the digestibility of legumes, and they are a great source of protein, so I am comfortable serving them.

No (or almost no) processed food. The reason I put "almost no" is because I am still buying pre-made nut butters (just nuts and salt). Everything else is from scratch, mainly because that makes it easier to follow the rules, I never have to wonder what's in it if I made it.

Less dairy. We only drink raw milk, and since making this switch, any issues we had with dairy products have resolved. Nathan was actually able to do a raw milk fast for a few days during the beginning of the week, which I'll write about in a future post. If we didn't have a source of raw milk, I would eliminate milk. Also, we are still eating homemade yogurt. I did let us have a couple slices of cheese with some lunches this week and some chèvre in our quiche, but that's about it. The bulk of our cheese consumption came by way of quesadillas, pasta, and sandwiches, so most of that was eliminated anyway. And we still use butter a bit here and there.

So what can we eat?

As much as we want of meat, eggs, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, raw milk, and yogurt. There are no fat or calorie limitations. It really is very manageable.  Once our sugar cravings subsided (after about 3 days), things got much easier.

In the first 2-3 days, we were all a little grumpy, had headaches, and our tummies weren't feeling 100%.  Kombucha helped a lot with tummy troubles, our essential oils helped a lot for headaches and grumpiness, and we just had to be strong through cravings.  Fresh air helped us all a lot too, so we have started spending our evenings outside on walks or letting the kids play at the park. They spend hours outside anyway, but going somewhere forces Nathan and I outside as well.

If having a family, especially one with small children has kept you from making diet changes, please know that it is totally doable! Although this is short term for us, we plan to continue using it as a basis for our normal eating habits long term.