Hi and happy Feel-Good Monday!
This is where we share our favorite tips, tricks, secrets, and ways to "think like a healthy person" so that you can find your own delicious path to healthy living.
"Feel-Good Mondays" are meant to help us get back into that place of feeling energized, nourished, and ready to take inspired action for the week ahead.
If you’ve been following my newsletter this month, you know that I embarked on a 30-day cleanse to kick off my 40th year feeling lighter, brighter, and more balanced. (I am turning 40 in June, but I’m a planner!)
After almost a month of cleansing, I have to say: I’m feeling pretty great. But not great in the whole “OMG! I’m a new person! This is a brand-new life for me!” way. It’s more like,
- I feel so great because I feel in control and balanced again.
- I feel great because I discovered that I don’t need dark chocolate after dinner every night and I can survive motherhood without a glass of wine at the end of the day.
- I feel great because it’s been surprisingly easy to cook more when I plan ahead, and I want to continue to eat this way almost every day.
Here are a few of my takeaways as I go into my final day of cleansing this month:
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It was so much easier than I thought. When I first imagined 30 days without any alcohol, grains, sugars, dairy, or legumes, I imagined there would be some pretty tough moments (after almost two years of being a “new” mom and relying on quick, easy foods). And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t looking forward to having one of my husband’s amazing margaritas when the cleanse officially ends. But honestly, it’s felt so good to feel back in balance with my food choices that I am (honestly!) craving continuing to eat mostly this way going forward.
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My cravings have totally dissipated. I have a salt-tooth: tortilla chips, pretzels, crackers…they are my weakness. But taking a break from those foods for a while (and replacing my salty cravings with roasted seaweed snacks and dry-roasted, sea-salted nuts) have done wonders in taking away their power over me. Yay!
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The hardest thing about the cleanse: Avoiding “scraps”. I had the realization that I was sneaking in less-than-healthy foods under the guise of just having a “bite.” But those bites were really adding up for me! I discovered that it felt hardest to avoid having a couple of spelt pretzels when I was packing them up for our toddler, or to stop myself from stealing bites of his weekend muffin treat, or to avoid eating all the leftovers off of his breakfast/lunch/dinner plate. Cleansing for 30 days has made me much more conscious of where unnecessary stuff has been sneaking in and adding up for me.
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What I‘m most excited to keep going: Pre-packing my daily lunches. Pre-cleanse, I would grab stuff on the outside for my midday meals and snacks. It felt hard enough to prep Rye’s food for the day and run out of the house on time in the morning, let alone imagining packing a lunch for myself every day. But it turns out that a few minutes of prep time every night leads to healthy, delicious meals for myself during the week! I feel so much better eating homemade food and it’s so much more filling and satisfying than most of what I was scrapping together on the outside.
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What I’m most excited to add back in: DARK CHOCOLATE! Man, I’ve missed you. And a glass of wine 😊.
What “spring cleaning” are you looking forward to doing for your body as we go into April?
Cheers to warmer, lighter days ahead!
Love,
