Cleanse Day 1

I feel like I have been on steady diet of bread, eggs, and cheese for the last while, even before Easter. So I have decided this week to do a "cleanse". I've made up my own rules, hence the quotation marks. No dairy, no sugar other than a little dark chocolate, eat whole grains, little meat, and no coffee. Today is day 2. Somebody shoot me.

Why am I doing this if I am miserable? Because I feel unhealthy, but mostly because now that I have started I want to see if I can really go a whole week following these rules. I am guilty of being hypocritical- on hand I can't understand why people say, can't stop eating chips when they are on a diet or quit smoking, but on the other hand I have never actually finished a diet of my own. Yikes. So caffeine headache be damned, I'm going to finish out the week. I'm hoping I'll see a payoff- better skin, shiny hair, more energy. Or at the very least have better poops (sorry, had to go there). Something at least.

In preparation, I read through The Food Lover's Cleanse from Bon Appetit and The Vegan Experience on Serious Eats. I figure if these people who work in the food industry can do it, so can I for a week. I will post if not every day, every couple of days at least.

Monday Day 1

Breakfast: Oatmeal with dried cranberries, cinnamon and almond milk
Rooibos tea with lemon

Snack: Smoothie with 1/2 banana, 1/2 kiwi, 1/4 avocado, kale, almond milk, handful bran cereal (next time I will add berries- it wasn't sweet enough)

Lunch: Rice paper rolls filled with carrot, cucumber, red pepper dipped in Thai sweet chili sauce

Snack: Chai tea with honey, Roasted Madras Chickpeas, 2 crackers (not whole grain, sadly) with tuna salad (tuna, pumpkin puree, mayo)

Dinner: Whole wheat pasta with Braised Broccoli and Tomato Sauce, 1 slice (white!) bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Snack: dark chocolate and 1/4 whole wheat bagel with jam

So I was basically starving all day yesterday despite eating all that food above. I think I have a problem with deprivation and my brain is trying to trick me into eating some cheese. Also I had a headache all day probably due to lack of caffeine. This gets easier, right? The pasta for dinner was okay, but next time (haha there will be no next time) I would use my Roasted Vegetable Sauce.