It started on a sunny Thursday at the bar: I went to a happy hour and had a delicious drink and a tasty sausage. The next day my Pa came to town and we had dinner starting at 5pm and ate for some hours. Meat. Wine. More meat. Butter. Sugar. Meat. Sugar. You get it. The next day looked like a lot more of that and the next. Then Sunday night to Franklin’s BBQ for an event. Then finally, no more events or meals planned. But the leftovers! Tons of lamb, leftover BBQ, leftovers at the office. Meat, meat, and more meat. Sugar overload. Drink more coffee.

I’m not big into “cleanses”: I am not a very good hungry person and well, I love food. The idea of a cleanse sounds great. But they’re not for everyone, I’ve learned that and I’m okay with that. But I needed something after this food fiesta. Some structure, some guidelines. And then my colleague told me about the Clean Cleanse. There are things you can buy, powders, guidelines and such but I went with the basic do-it-yourself at home version. I read all of the materials and love the idea. Basically, it’s the Elimination Diet with a smoothie for breakfast and another for dinner with a lunch as big or small as you’d like that sticks to a strict Elimination Diet. It’s not about starving or counting calories. It’s about ridding your body of toxins and starting over. I’m not on a hunt to actually eliminate anything from my diet, but it sure would be nice to give my body a boost and a fresh start.

Since I already know how to eat gluten and dairy free, it hasn’t been the hugest leap for me. I am completely addicted to my breakfast smoothies though. Cherries, almond butter, almond milk, fruit, good stuff. The biggest challenge has been to not snack throughout the day, to make myself get up an extra 5 minutes early to make my smoothie, and to not pick as I go. The first couple of days off caffeine was tough. Going out with friends over the weekend and not drinking was pretty easy, but watching them eat BBQ wasn’t my favorite. My favorite HAS been not overeating or feeling exhausted, not snacking just for the sake of snacking, and quite honestly, it hasn’t been all that tough.

Don’t get me wrong though, I’ve stuck strictly to the Elimination Diet, but if I know I’m going out late or about to be around people eating good food, I’ve made my lunch become dinner so I’m eating a full meal before I go out. The following few recipes (until I choose otherwise!) are all part of the Clean Cleanse and Elimination Diet . That also means they’re all paleo, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, sugar-free, corn free, you get the picture… Just know it doesn’t mean flavor-free.