Getting off the sugar train

A few months ago a friend told me about the Clean Program. It is a 21 day cleanse created by a cardiologist, eating approved foods and supplements to rid toxins from the body.

I have wanted to do a cleanse for awhile now, but was never satisfied with the approach. Until this one. I didn't want to starve myself, I like food too much. And although this program does sell supplements to buy, you don't have to. I read Dr. Junger's book, Clean, which this program is based upon, and bought the recommended supplements at my local health food store.

The book, website and blog all have approved recipes created by a wonderful chef which is so helpful. But this is where my fear kicks in. There are numerous ingredients 1) I have never heard of, therefore 2) have no idea where to find them in my grocery store and 3) some of the ingredients I have heard of I don't necessarily like. Beets are one that come to mind.

But as much as the cleanse is physical, it will also be a mental cleaning. I don't feel healthy with my current diet (pizza for dinner last night, toasted salt bagel with cream cheese and a coke for lunch, insert eye roll here) so the point of this cleanse is to be open to new ideas, new foods, re-try foods I have tasted in the past that I may not have liked. I desperately want to change my cravings and palette, so I will face my beet hurdle and I am sure other food hurdles to come.

I imagined myself wandering around the grocery store, asking an employee to be my personal shopper hoping they would know what these elusive (to me) products were and where they would be located.

Thankfully another friend told me about Wegman's online shopping list. After I planned my weekly menu, I entered my items into the website and not only did Wegman's website show me a picture of the product, it also told me what aisle to find it in!

I spent 80 percent of my time this morning in the produce aisles. I learned that a daikon is a Japanese white radish, that there are many variations of kale and cabbages (of which I needed three, regular, red and napa), that Tahini is a sesame based paste, that chick pea miso has to be ordered online and so much more. 90 percent of my grocery bill was produce, green produce, and it felt good spending money on things that are nourishing and wholesome.

There is so much natural color in my refrigerator and fruit bowls. I am armed with all that I need for week one of Clean. I know the cravings for sugar and dairy will be strong, but I am keeping my eyes on the prize. I want to feel better and this will help me achieve that goal. Whether I find that I have food allergies when I re-introduce foods, or I curb my cravings, or I just start eating clean foods more often, it will be worth the 21 days of Clean.

Clean's motto: Address Root Causes of Poor Health Cleanse the Right Way
(I have linked to the actual manual that describes the cleanse instead of the website where the products are sold.
http://cleanprogram.com/files/clean-program-manual.pdf