And the Results...

So the week didn't go exactly as planned. Here's why.

I think if I had followed the cleanse more strictly with no cheats at all, it may have been a different story. My cheats, as I mentioned previously, were dried fruit and gum. Oh, and soy sauce. (The whole plain veggies and rice thing for dinner makes one want to poke her eyes out with a fork by night #3.) Although these don't sound like terrible additions, I think that the added salt and sweets gave my palate a taste of what it was really missing and made things worse. This was exactly what I was trying to avoid and I seemed to instead, really have sabotaged myself.

Diet wise, I can't say that the week was a roaring success and I'm not just talking about giving in to my sugar cravings the past two nights. I'm disappointed that two of the five days, I felt extreme fatigue during the afternoons, something I had completely avoided when I initially enacted this cleanse a few years ago. I'm a bit confused as to why this hit me just a few of the five days. Was it even food related? Did my cheats get the best of my body? Or had I just not gotten a good night's sleep before? Was I particularly stressed those days? It's hard to tell.

Although I did end up missing sugar, I found giving up bread quite easy. This is probably because I've already been slowly decreasing its existence in my diet throughout the years. And last night as I thought about what I wanted to eat once I was off the cleanse, I was surprised that my brain wasn't dreaming of chocolate croissants. No, more than anything I was craving orange juice, my Kashi cereal, and milk. (And of course, pizza.) I think this is pretty good for a girl who just six days ago managed to get a decent amount of chocolate in with every meal.

But more than anything, I missed the ability to taste different flavors. I love to cook and experiment, especially at the end of the day and having to trade that in every night for a standard meal of rice and veggies about made me crazy. On the flip side, having a strict diet obviously helps you stay on course. During times of stress, it's easy to reach for a bag of Skittles but when you remind yourself that you've had your cup of protein, your cup of rice, and your cup of veggies for lunch and that there is absolutely no need for afternoon snacking, it can get you back on track. You might instead walk to your co-worker's office and chat about what is actually stressing you out.

I also found it mighty handy to actually remove all the sugary snacks from the house. I know that sounds painfully obvious but it wasn't to me. Yet sometimes just opening my pantry and seeing those cookies sends a message to my brain that seconds ago, was not even there. I currently have a bag of goodies stashed in my car trunk. Amazingly, aside from last night, I didn't think about those snacks at all this week. Truly out of sight and out of mind.

However, I'm not sure that it's good to hit the point of really feeling like you are denying yourself. Perhaps the other night if I had given in and eaten a cup of sorbet, I would've actually ingested less calories than all of that stupid dried fruit I munched on. Plus, maybe I would have actually felt satiated. I'm not sure.

Today, with everything fair game, I ended up not having the healthiest of days. (Shocking). What is surprising, however, is that first and foremost, I was craving savory things. I had farm fresh eggs for breakfast and for lunch, I wanted nothing more than fake meat tacos. (??) However, my taste buds could barely handle the salt of them. As for the sweets, I had my remaining Trader Joe's chocolate sorbet (a half cup at only 120 calories, hooray!) and later, a Snickers "egg" from my easter basket. Oh, and a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter. Man, have I missed my peanut butter. Not quite the same as my organic apples but I do feel satisfied.

And now I just got back from the co-op with next week's load of veggies and fruit. I know we all lament about the expense of eating healthy foods but my grocery bill for the past week was ridiculously low. Yes, I bought organic fruit and veggies. However, when the rest of your meals are based on rice, beans, and oatmeal, you can get by on $20 for the week. Not bad. It's amazing how much you can cut from your grocery bill by simply cutting out meat.

So I have to admit that chronicling my experiences this week really did spur me to make the right choices (for the most part). Oh, the power of shame! But seriously, there's a reason all those health gurus tell you to enlist a partner. We might not always be able to tell ourselves that we are worth it but we can certainly encourage one another and maybe somewhere along the way, we'll start to believe it for ourselves.

I can tell you this. Even though I didn't do as well as I had hoped to this week, I have given myself credit for what I did accomplish. And as I was jamming out to my tunes on the treadmill this afternoon, I caught myself smiling. This week, I took steps to make myself both physically and spiritually healthier and today, I could actually feel the results in every ounce of my being. Everything was going to be okay. I was good. And despite it being a cold, rainy day, the whole world seemed pretty okay to me, too. And you know what? Tomorrow looks even better.