April 15, 2011: The cooking!

If you are considering doing a cleanse such as this one, you have to spend time getting ready so that you can hit your work schedule running.

I recommend setting time aside on the weekend to read, plan and shop.  I have been making my breakfasts in the morning and eating them on my way to work.  I make dinner and drink it when I get home.  Then I cook the next day's lunch and bring it cold in tupperware to work the next day.

It really helped me to photocopy the recipes so that I could keep them flat while trying to cook from them.  Also, I went through and numbered them.  1-7 are smoothies, 8-14 are soups (etc.)   Then I made a calendar like the one from the book.  I have the three large meals and a snack in the morning and afternoon.  I planned to alternate smoothies, soups and drinks for the breakfasts and dinners, and I write in "smoothie" for Mon and Thursday morning and Friday night.  Then I alternated the lunches between chicken, fish and vegetable recipes and wrote what type of food in on the calendar..  I was careful to make sure I wouldn't have a  juice for dinner and then again for breakfast because it wouldn't be filling enough.  I can maybe do that next week after my stomach has shrunk a bit. 

Then I chose meals from the parameters that I had set.  I chose recipes that both sounded good and allowed me to repeat ingredients so that I wouldn't be buying too many ingredients to keep them fresh.

Once I chose my meals, I made a specific shopping list.  Hit an international market for the majority of fresh fruits and veggies, and save organic fancy stores like Trader Joes for the organic meat and anything obscure you couldn't find at the international market.

All told, it's more extensive than regular shopping, and I just cut some ingredients out if they are expensive.

For two and a half weeks of groceries, I'm in around $175, but I expect that it won't be as expensive to maintain once I get jars and bottles of items that can be used over a longer period of time, like oils and supplements for example.  I shopped for two.

I opted for Stevia ($3 for a box of packets) and use it anytime a recipe calls for agave syrup.

I hope these tips will inspire!  I am feeling better everyday.   I still miss some of my favorites such as crackers and cheese, but I'm not hungry so I am able to put it out of my mid relatively quickly.

Today I accidentally left my shake and cod-veggie meal at home.  I'm doing the best I can to eat well at work until I get home, then I will have the solid meal for an early dinner and maybe a half batch for later dinner.  Then I will have to wait until later tomorrow morning to eat in order to preserve the 12 hour digestion/de-tox window overnight.

Happy weekend!