Teacher Jamie said...
- Is bacon required? I mean...there is nothing wrong with bacon. Is it just the choice you made for breakfast most days? I guess there is little else to have for breakfast when eggs and grains are out. I would be interested to read more about the specific fruits and vegetables that are not allowed. This cleanse sounds all kinds of healthy :) Good work.
And I started to answer her in the comments, but as my answer got longer and longer I realized that I should just make it my post for today. So here we go!
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Bacon is not required, but I definitely need protein in the mornings (can't make it up that hill without it!), and bacon is the most delicious/convenient option for me at the moment. I will not try to pretend that there's not a bit of, "Well if I can't have chocolate at least I can have all the bacon I want!" going on with that decision...
Once eggs are allowed back in, I expect there will be more of that, not to mention once I can have the full range of fruits again- woo smoothies! The truth is that as much as I love bacon, it's not exactly a quickly-made breakfast, you know? And I do tend to, um, be a bit rushed in the mornings? Because I am bad about getting out of bed when the first alarm goes off? (this is an entirely different Bad Habit which needs breaking... but I can only handle one or two Major Projects at a time...)
I am not allowed to have any high-glycemic fruits, which is a pretty long freaking list (including things like bananas and mangos and pineapples- oh my!) In terms of fruit it's easier to give you the ALLOWED list:
apples
pears
peaches
nectarines
berries
cherries
grapefruit (not that I've taken advantage of that one)
oranges
plums (ooo, or that one- maybe I'll remedy that this weekend...)
Aaaaand that's about it. Grapes maybe, but it's pushing it, so I don't.
In terms of veggies, it's the NOT ALLOWED list that is shorter, because it's limited to "nightshade vegetables" (not all of which are technically vegetables, but whatever):
peppers (including sweet and cayenne)
tomatoes
potatoes
eggplant
mushrooms
So pretty easy to avoid, really. I mean, don't get me wrong- I love everything on that list (except eggplants, with which I have a cordial relationship) but it's not like you're going to find any of those things ACCIDENTALLY IN YOUR FOOD. (Well, except cayenne, maybe, as evidenced by my "oh crap" moment with my curried squash soup a couple of weeks ago...)
And there you have it, folks! A more in-detail breakdown of my non-meat yays-and-nays (meat is all yay). It is very healthy, and I do feel pretty damn good, but I'm also so ready for it to be over. It's getting harder and harder to say "no" to a piece of chocolate. At this point I'm so exhausted with behaving myself that it just seems easier to unwrap that damn piece of candy and put it in my mouth than it does to keep up the emotional effort of being disciplined.
But I can do anything for three weeks. And I will.
(Oh hey, speaking of yay...)
Breakfast: four slices of bacon, handful of blackberries (switchin' it up- woo!)
Lunch: leftover beef-and-onion-and-garlic bidness
Snack: two mandarin oranges, a handful of blackberies
Dinner: medium-rare steak and a generous helping of mashed cauliflower (much better texture this time, as I remembered to leave out the water)
I see. Thanks for elaborating! What about ham? Eatable when cold to enhance the quickness factor...though I'm not a fan of ham. You could also go for non-conventional meats at breakfast time, like cold chicken or turkey. I dunno...sounds like you are powering through. Less than a week left to go! Then can you have chocolate? We tried a food program during the early part of summer and it was pretty intense. Not quite a cleanse, but it got rid of a bunch of fat, processed food and all sugar that didn't occur naturally in fruit. I slimmed down pretty well :) Perhaps I can find the strength and motivation to revisit that healthier form of eating. It's certainly not easy, but the benefits are pretty great. Again, good work :)
ReplyDeleteHam is yes, and as a matter of fact what I had for breakfast this very morning. ^_^ I much prefer ham to poultry... especially if the poultry is not covered in delicious Chick-Fil-A breading! ;) (although not so much anymore, I suppose... ::sigh::)
ReplyDeleteYeah, if I ever need to slim-down in a hurry, I now know the diet to get me there. But for me a piece of chocolate once in a while is worth not being able to count my abs. MORE than worth it. ^_^