Spring Cleaning {internally}

I've been quite the stranger to blogging recently. Let's just go ahead and say life got in the way of all my extra time. I'm currently balancing 3 "mini" jobs, in addition to class 4 days a week. Needless to say, I stay busy every day from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep!

After all of the schedule craziness, I was more than excited about heading to Daytona for spring break. We flew down to Florida last Monday and stayed until Friday. The weather was a bit chillier than any of us had anticipated, but it was still wonderful to get away for a week and relax.

We climbed 203 stairs to the top of the second tallest Lighthouse. I'm terrified of heights but I was encouraged every step of the way. I will admit.. I didn't look over the edge!

With relaxing comes eating, and with eating comes laziness, and with laziness.. well you get the point.
I've mentioned before that I did a strict month of eating Paleo. That month transformed my metabolism, my attitude, and my body. After a month of eating so well, led to a few weeks of eating well with a "little bit of this, little bite of that" of things that aren't so great (treats, sugars, etc) and I started getting extremely sluggish. My body was yelling WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? I decided to have one last "free for all" week of eating at the beach during spring break, after all, what's a vacation without dessert every day?

I want to go back to strict paleo, but needed a little jump start to get me there. After a week of eating anything and everything, I decided to go on a paleo sugar detox.

I am doing a 3 week detox that goes back to strict paleo in the third week. The objective is to cleanse the body of all sugar, and to gradually start adding elements back in to reset my body and stabilize hormones. Have I mentioned that when I was eating poorly I had minimal to no energy. This cleanse should rid my body of any cravings and clean out my system to start eating strict paleo again. I've got to get ready for a wedding  in 5 months!

The rules for each week are slightly different. Week one is supposed to be the worst.

Following are the rules specifically laid out for each week…

Week 1 

No Sugar (including fruit), No Dairy, No grain, no legumes! No sugar includes artificial sweeteners, stevia, honey, agave.  NO Fruit.

Vegetables

Artichoke Beet greens Bell peppers Brussel sprouts Carrots Celery Cucumber Eggplant Green onions Mushrooms

Onions Parsnip Radish Seaweed Tomatillos Turnip greens Asparagus Beets Broccoli Cabbage

Cauliflower Collards Endive Lettuce Mustard Greens Parsley Spinach Tomato Turnips

Proteins

All fish Shellfish Any Game Meat Eggs

Lean Pork Lean beef Lean Poultry No Processed lunchmeat or bacon week 1

Fats

(with cutting out sugar and fruit will need fat as energy) Still don’t overdo !!!

Olive oil Coconut oil Avocado oil Almond oil Walnut oil Flaxseed oil Almonds Cashews

Pecans Pine nuts Pumpkin seeds Sunflower seeds Macadamia nuts Pistachios Sesame Seeds Walnuts

I am on day 3 of week one. I'll admit that I've missed my normal coffee and stevia every morning, but I've actually felt pretty good just eating protein, vegetables, and fats. Cutting out fruit for a week hasn't been as tough as I thought it would be, but I am still not even half way through the week. I've had a few minor headaches due to lack of sugar and caffeine, but nothing too unbearable.

On the brighter side, I've felt so much more energized and don't feel so weighed down by all the junk I was eating. Going strict again has led to new recipe discoveries, like my new personal favorite, kale chips (thanks Katie!) I'm also going to be trying some paleo pizzas later this week.

Check back in for another week 1 update! I'll also be blogging about weeks 2 and 3. Anyone care to join me?!

Happy cleansing!