I love to travel. My travel bug is a huge part of who I am and always rearing to go on the next adventure. Whether it’s Siem Reap or Atlanta, I just love being in a different city and exploring what is has to offer. But I also like to eat healthy, and that can be hard to do when you are on the go. We spent the last four days in Atlanta visiting family, eating delicious food and drinking wine. We were supposed to be headed home on Sunday, but BB got an ear infection so we pushed our flight home until today. When we get home we will be unpacking and then packing up again in a few short weeks to head to Florida for a beach vacation. So we desperately need to squeeze a little cleanse into the time we are home.
We don’t diet. Our goal isn’t losing weight or burning more calories throughout the day. But we do want to eat healthier, feel energized, and kick start healthier habits. Plus, I just love food too much to do crazy fad diets or limits my intake to liquids. So to cleanse this week we are eating EXTRA clean and avoiding all of these:
- Alcohol (if you want to be super intense, you can avoid coffee too but I just can’t sorry)
- Artificial sweeteners
- Red meat (we will still give BB some red meat, so she gets all her vitamins and minerals)
- Butter
- Dairy (BB gets dairy too)
- Refined, white carbohydrates and sugars (pastries, cookies, crackers, candy, sugary drinks, white pasta/bread, etc.)
- Processed oils (sticking to olive oil, avocado oil, grapeseed oil, etc.)
- Anything at a restaurant – for some people like me, avoiding restaurants all together is almost impossible. In the past, this has been the perfect excuse to “start next week.” If I know I have dinners or lunches planned out, I would just admit defeat and say I can put off eating clean until the next week. But the next week will come and I will have more plans. This week I know I have two meals out for lunch meetings that I just cannot avoid, but thankfully they are at a very healthy restaurant with lots of options that stick to my no no list. So if you have to eat out, try to pick a place with healthier options.
+ we are trying out something new we have never done to give our bodies the extra kick they need to get back to a healthy place.
Until a couple months ago, I had never heard the term “intermittent fasting.” Then I started hearing it everywhere: reading about it on blogs, on Pinterest, and even hearing people talk about it at the gym. So I did some research and it sounds interesting to me. From some basic research (not an expert here) sounds like the claimed benefits are:
Human growth hormone levels increase in the body
Stimulates cellular repair
Genes can even begin to change to protect from certain diseases
Reduces oxidative stress (https://www.google.com/amp/s/
Reduces inflammation
May improve heart health
Insulin levels drop which stimulates fat burning (also lowers your risk of type II diabetes)
Increases the growth of new nerve cells which helps brain function
So what is intermittent fasting? It basically just means fasting for between 8-16 hours at a time. Well, most of us already do this at night for a minimum of 8 hours. But Blake and I are trying to push it to at least 12 hours at a time. For me, fasting before I go to bed is a lot easier than fasting when I wake up in the morning. I am prone to getting lightheaded/fainting, so I try to eat a little something as soon as I wake up. But we are trying to cut off all snacking/eating by 7pm every night to fast from 7pm-7am every morning.
This is pretty easy for our family because we eat like senior citizens. I like a big and filling dinner, but I hate feeling so full late at night. So we almost always eat dinner between 5-530 (both of our jobs are odd hours, so we are able to accommodate such an early dinner). When we both worked in an office until much later, we made lunch our primary large meal and stuck to a much smaller meal when we got home from the office.
Almost every night I need a little snack when BB goes down at 7, then I brush my teeth which usually prevents me from sneaking back into the pantry cabinet.
One major bummer, intermittent fasting includes drinks (besides water) so teas, coffee and wine (gasp) are out during your fasting hours. Obviously, doing this every day of the week just ain’t feasible, but we are trying to do it as frequently as possible.
So here is our (actually doable) extra clean meal plan that packs in nutrients and calories between 7am and 7pm everyday. With the exception of our Friday night dinner, everything is made and prepped by the end of Tuesday, the rest of the week is leftovers! So it is realistic for when life gets hectic.
MONDAY *life intervened and BB came down with a terrible ear infection in atlanta :(, so we pushed our flight until Monday…so we are pushing back the start date until Tuesday
Breakfast
Oatmeal (I will make a big batch of steel cut oatmeal on Monday so we have it ready to eat all week long in the fridge) + blueberries
Lunch
Smoked trout salad or tuna salad (smoked trout, dill, chives, lemon, 1 tbsp organic mayo, capers + gg crackers) or (tuna, dill, onion, celery salt, 1 tbsp organic mayo + gg crackers)
Dinner
Escarole + apple + walnuts + scallions + grilled chicken – marinade is olive oil, garlic and worcestershire sauce (I grill all the chicken for the rest of the week Monday night)
Snack
Grapefruit
TUESDAY
Breakfast
Oatmeal + blueberries
Lunch
Lentil salad (premade lentils from trader joes) + red onion + cherry tomatoes, dressing is 1 tbsp dijon mustard, juice of 1 lemon, 1 tbsp EVOO, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp roughly chopped italian parsley – this salad holds over well so I make enough for the rest of the week
Dinner
Escarole caesar salad (dressing is EVOO + lemon juice + anchovy paste + fresh garlic + salt and pepper) with baked salmon – trying my brother in law’s salmon recipe this week, honey + olive oil + chipotle powder (I make enough salmon for the rest of the week)
Snack
Veggies (carrots + watermelon radish + broccoli)
WEDNESDAY
Breakfast
Oatmeal + blueberries
Lunch
Smoked trout salad or tuna salad + gg crackers
Dinner
Escarole + apple + walnuts + scallions + grilled chicken
Snack
Orange + walnuts
THURSDAY
Breakfast
Oatmeal + blueberries
Lunch
Lentil salad + gg crackers
Dinner
Caesar salad + salmon
Snack
Grapefruit
FRIDAY
Breakfast
Oatmeal + blueberries
Lunch
Your choice of leftovers
Dinner
Open faced fried egg sandwich (whole wheat toast) + avocado + no nitrate turkey bacon + red onion + tomato + garlic powder (anyone else a big fan of breakfast for dinner? since it’s friday night, we will want something extra yummy)
Snack
Orange + walnuts
Grocery list
blueberries
red onion
tomatoes
avocado
broccoli
chives
italian parsley
eggs
oranges
grapefruit
apples
scallions
garlic
escarole (lots of this, I will buy 4 heads!)
lemons
4 salmon portions
4 chicken breasts
smoked trout or tuna
gg crackers
anchovy paste
walnuts (something I always keep in my cabinet, just happen to be out)
red wine vinegar (usually have this too)
lentils (I buy the pre-made packaged lentils from Trader Joe’s, so I will make a special stop for that! they last for a while, so when I go to Trader Joe’s I usually stock up)
ALREADY HAVE
dijon mustard
mayo
honey
olive oil
oatmeal
dill
capers
worcestershire sauce
carrots & watermelon radish
