February Healthy Challenge Recap

Over the past 10 days I have challenged my self to cut out all refined sugars, soy, wheat, gluten, caffeine and alcohol.  Let me tell you I am not sorry for this cleanse finally to be over. I miss tempeh and beer.

Although I am happy for this cleanse to be over I am so glad that I did it. Let me first off tell you that this was a bigger challenge than I thought it was going to be. I was like 10 days without the above, no big deal but then it came time to grocery shop and plan meals and most of my normal favorites seem to include one of the banned items above. However, this cleanse was totally worth the sacrifices. 

Cleanse Successes:

  • I reduced my sugar cravings. Since Edith arrived my sweet tooth has been out of control and the moving and the holidays came around and I became addicted.  The funny thing is before I was pregnant I would rather gorge on salty foods and then I got pregnant and started craving sweets which I kept in check until Edith was born.  My first night of the cleanse was HORRIBLE.  I had the worst migraine, so bad that I couldn’t even drive <– sugar withdrawal. I am happy to say no more cravings. Does this mean no more sugar? No it just means I can go back to my occasional small piece of chocolate or occasional (like every few weeks) dessert.
  • I feel better. My body overall feels much better. I feel lighter and no longer feel bloated.  I also feel more energetic, or at least as energetic as I possibly can with a now crawling baby who doesn’t want to nap.
  • I (may) have lost weight? I don’t have a scale so I didn’t weigh myself before or after but my clothes are fitting better and I feel like I look better. This alone is motivation to keep up with what I have been doing.

Other Thoughts:

I plan on keeping highly processed soy products to a minimum but will be enjoying tamari, shoyu, tempeh and miso.  I am going to continue to limit my gluten and wheat intake because I feel better when I don’t eat too much. I will not be giving it up completely because my brewer/baker husband brews amazing beer and bakes amazing bread. Although I will be enjoying beer and bread I will be limiting both to just enjoy occasionally. Lastly, I am going to switch to decaf and limit my coffee intake to no more than 12 ounces per day.

If you participated in challenge round 1 tell me about your experience.  If you haven’t participated yet you can still sign up! Email me for more details.

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