July 21, 2014

4-Week Health Challenge: Day 12

Well it's been 12 days on my...whatever you want to call it...cleanse, healthy kick, clean eating, Naturopath Plan and I'm still alive!

To catch you up, the Plan is basically: no wheat, no dairy, no refined sugars, no eggs, no tomatoes, no mushrooms, not much red meat, no potatoes, no peanuts or peanut butter...BUT lots of veggies and fruit, chicken, fish, cold-pressed olive oil and flax oil, pumpkin seeds, ground flax seeds, brown rice everyday and whatever else I can fit in that abides by those rules. (Plus all my vitamins and minerals and supplements etc.) It's for four weeks, then we slowly add in different foods to see if I feel okay or worse to weed out any further allergies or sensitivities to foods.
*You can read all bout my first day on this crazy plan here.

The first few days I'll admit, were a little rough, but I stuck to it. I had several severe headaches which I'm sure was my body detoxing from not having sugar or regular carbs.
After the third and fourth days I got over the worst of my cravings and at this point didn't want to wreck the good I'd already accomplished. (I was already down a couple of pounds on the scale and that in itself was encouraging!)


Today is the end of Day 12 and I'd like to share with you a few special foods and combinations that have kept me going and not feeling like I'm denying myself of special treats.

My breakfasts usually consist of either a fruit smoothie assisted by my trusty Magic Bullet small blender, or I've also found a great couple of gluten-free cereals that I now enjoy with some almond milk. Shock, I know! Even a few weeks ago, if you would have suggested to me to eat this combination...I would have laughed at you and grimaced with queasiness. However, I've taking quite a liking to it.

 As for snacks, I am a lover of salty things like potato chips or tortilla chips. My mom actually scouted out these Kale & Chia chips for me from Costco. I could eat these every day!! They have just a bit of sea salt on them, making them perfect as a salty snack on their own or even paired with some hummus.  So good!
Another snack I've been enjoying in my lunch is a brown rice cake with almond butter and a drizzle of honey. At first I tried the rice cakes with just almond butter but it's not yet a particularly favourite flavour of mine so adding the small topping of honey, especially this yummy local Blackberry honey, makes it just perfect! I will butter up two cakes and put them together, almond butter and honey sides facing, in a bag so the mess stays inside and twist apart to eat them. 

Last but certainly not least, I love a good cookie! My mom makes delicious cookies and I just had to find some kind of tasty cookie I could take with my when we go to the beach or even in my lunch. After scouring the grocery store aisles (that will be for another blog post in the near future, why some stores are easier than others to shop for natural foods!), I came across this brand, Lucy's Maple Bliss Cookie. And let me tell you, they ARE blissful! They were created by a mom who is also a doctor and she wanted to find a great gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free cookie for her own kids, but could never find anything. So she developed her own brand. They are super good, crunchy with a bit of chewiness in the middle. They make a few other varieties which I am sure I will try before the month is over.

So there you have it. Some healthy treats for snacking on. I'm quite enjoying the results of eating this way and I'm sure after this trial plan is over I'll be adopting a few of the rules to keep my eating habits clean and healthy. This morning I even saw a number on my scale I haven't seen for ...a very long time! Quite exciting!

Have you ever shopped or cooked gluten-free or dairy-free...or even sugar-free? 
I'd love to hear about it!

Do you have any favourite snacks or recipes or blogs you can recommend to me?

Thanks for reading! Please comment below.

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