I'm a Survivor

After this last month, this seemed like the perfect title for this post, even if I do get a few lyrics stuck in my head just hearing those two words. Over the last month Nate and I have been doing a cleanse (a.k.a. crazy diet) and let me tell you, the words "I'm a survivor" are not a joke when you are talking about two people who are "foodies" and who enjoy their meat, dairy, eggs, bread/grains, caffeine, sugar, and all other things sweet or yummy. Not having those items or any forms of processed foods for the last month has been good, but also interesting. 

More on this wild ride in a moment.

A lot of you have asked what have we been up to the last several months and to be honest, several things have been occupying a lot our time (well maybe a little more mine than Nate's) so I felt it was about time to give everyone a quick update. Since late January, we've felt an overwhelming urge to start getting things in order and somewhat finalized for our adoption. (and by finalized I mean, thinking ahead, prepping, researching things for a registry, and of course -working on the nursery) Alongside that, my sister is having her first baby and I've been working on getting things together to host a shower for her and have been doing about a million DIY projects with my mom or in my "spare" time. I absolutely love that sort of thing, so it's been fun, but as anyone knows, very time consuming. (but of course a very-well-worth-it kind of time consuming)

To bring us up to the present, a few months ago Nate and I decided that we would do a healthy cleanse/diet to clean out our systems, replace any bad with good healthy food, and kickstart even better eating habits, (not that we eat bad, but we can all learn a thing or two about food and do better with it) This diet is also to help identify any issues either of us may have with certain foods. 

As one can imagine, we were NOT eager to start this at any given time because we knew it would be about a month of a completely different diet that would be a bit tricky to work around in certain situations. Needless to say we put it off so many times because there was always "something" on the calendar where food would be involved and who wants to go to social events and not eat? (not us!) So, after putting it off for several months we finally bit the bullet, pulled out our calendars, and mapped out when we would start this and when it would end. (Yes, we were strategically mapping out when this needed to end-lol) 

To say this was an "experience" would be putting it lightly....yes, it did get better, but I will not lie when I say that there were a few times in which I didn't think we would make it. [i.e. days 1-5 and especially on day 3 when a friend of mine gave me a gift bag with Lindt and Ghirardelli chocolates :) --evil, pure evil(jk), but little did she know- and yes, we are still friends] 

We were barely a few days in when I sent a text to a friend of mine and asked her how in the world do we get through this thing-- to which she said the magic ingredient was to keep eating sweet potatoes-haha.  This was a very strict and systematic program developed by a physician and let me just say I had NO idea what we were really getting into when I agreed to do this. (and neither did Nate-haha!) Let me give you just a little taste of our experiences since March-- and for those of you who have strict diets and allergies to everything, my heart goes out to each of you in a whole new way.

For half of the time, we could only eat organic fruit and veggies and drink half our body weight in water, while also drinking 2-3 smoothies that consisted of green food powder. (a.k.a. all sorts of crazy veggies, roots, and other green foods that you may or may not have ever heard of) 

Add to that 30 green food-fiber capsules a day. (yes, you read it right-30)  We could drink 2-3 smoothies a day and I only wish I had a picture of what our faces looked like after that first round of pills and a "smoothie". We could re-enact that for you and upload a video on here, but I will spare you the pain of that experience. We quickly learned you had to mix a banana because without it, you might as well have been drinking chalk and fruit. (picture my first one with me holding my nose to drink it--  yes, I will admit I reverted back to five year old behaviors and it was at that moment I thought I would never see this to completion) 

Within 2 days, we got the whole smoothie thing down and learned what actually tasted great and before we knew it, we actually started liking them. (shhh-don't tell anyone) My favorite moment during this process was our "smoothie making adventure" particularly when I would add something that Nate couldn't identify. It was quite comical. I guess it's practice for when we have our little one as I suppose you can't always hide "the good stuff" without them realizing it. Nate definitely noticed his fruity smoothies where I hid kale, butternut squash, flax/chia seeds and other miscellaneous items. (and I swear you couldn't taste any of it, but he was convinced you could)

About mid-way through we both wanted carbs so bad, so I made mashed cauliflower which, with all of the fresh herbs, did surprisingly resemble mashed potatoes minus the butter of course. Nate had a priceless reaction to those when he sat down and said "I know these aren't potatoes because we aren't allowed to have them- so what are these?" We'll leave the rest of that story untold. 

Midway through, we were able to introduce certain meats that were organic and I cannot say how great a piece of chicken tasted that first night! Now that we've finished the cleanse (which is TODAY!!!) we then slowly reintroduce different food groups back into our diet slowly and one at a time. (i.e. dairy, nuts, grains, eggs, etc.) This entire process has certainly stretched my mind into new ways of cooking and definitely had me thinking "out of the box" a lot to come up with similar things we liked. We've definitely found some new foods and recipes that we both like and that hopefully will be integrated into the dinner rotation. Are we going to be vegetarians or vegan after this?  

Nate would resound with a big "absolutely not". While we have great respect for those who can actually do that, we just won't be added in that number and this diet confirmed that for us. (not that we had any doubts about that in the first place- I'm married to a carnivore)

So, what did we learn out of this process and what advice can we pass along to you? Here are a few of our thoughts:

According to Nate, quinoa looks like dried up little bugs and that there isn't a recipe he'd like with it in it. [because of its health benefits and thanks to Pinterest, I'm determined to prove him wrong :) ] 

You really can do anything that you set your mind to--even when you don't think you can.

It actually feels good to accomplish something that honestly, neither of us thought on days 1-5 we were going to make it through. Teamwork is a big motivator.

Kale and other veggies can hide inside of smoothies...really.

Drinking a lot of water isn't half bad and there are so many things you can do to make it better. (check out Pinterest recipes)

A little cinnamon can go a long way when you can't have sweets.

Peeling and freezing your ginger is the way to go- it stays fresh and it's so easy to grate. 

Mind over matter-- just push through- you'll appreciate your effort in the end.

You can live without caffeine- trust us- you can. (though it might not be fun & you might have your cranky pants on for the first 5 days post-caffeine, you will survive)

You will learn to eat things you might never have tried before-- and you just might like them; however, in our case these things will likely never be beets, eggplant, or avocados. 

By the end, you will probably have a long running list of all the things you can't wait to eat again and certain restaurants you have missed. If you never craved pizza before, you likely will. 

Even though we all know it, fresh herbs and spices make a huge difference in cooking

& using healthy oils like grape seed, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil are quite revolutionary. 

Baked sweet potato fries, baked sweet potato fries, baked sweet potato fries (need I say more?)

You will learn how to say no to mac-n-cheese, desserts, and that hamburger on the grill when at cookouts with friends. (but only during the cleanse of course) If everyone is eating a delicious dessert at small group, you will smile, grab an apple or pear and pretend like it's the ultimate dessert. (and maybe, just maybe, you'll grab some of that delicious dessert everyone else was eating and freeze it for later after the cleanse--- that may or may not be a true story)

Will power. Enough said.

Happily, at the end, you'll look back on the process thankful you did it and with a big grin of accomplishment say to yourself, "I'm a survivor-.......now where's a bowl of ice cream for my reward?"