Welcome to part two of the three-part series that is my two week cleanse to rid my life of stress. Week one of my two week cleanse came and went. I wish I could sit here and write to you all and say that everything went so perfectly and it's like I'm a whole new person, but I can't. Part of me was well aware that nothing was going to completely change overnight because that's just not how life works. I can't just buy some healthy food and go to bed earlier and watch all the stress completely fade away from my mind, but I was hoping I could--so that was kind of a rude awakening. Emphasis on the rude.
The first step of this cleanse was to gather the ingredients that I needed to achieve success, literally. I made a target run with my lovely and talented friend Sarah and while we joked about only buying Valentine's Day chocolate and wine (I was tempted) but I had to stick to the plan.
Here's what I ended up with:
- Gluten Free Rice Chex Cereal
- Spinach
- Quinoa
- Hummus
- Baby Carrots
- Mushrooms
- Sweet Potatoes
- Apples
- Almond Milk
- Chicken Breast
- Tupperware
- A large mug that says "Mama needs some coffee"(Sarah's idea. I don't refer to myself as 'Mama.' Should I start? Probably not)
I spent that Sunday night in sweatpants while I meal prepped in my kitchen with Scandal playing on my laptop in the background. It was weirdly relaxing to make the same meal over and over again and tuck it away neatly in a little container. Not to mention how satisfying it was to see all the meal stacked up in the fridge, ready to go for the week. I realized that meal prepping in itself was a major stress reliever.
For breakfast I ate a bowl of the Chex cereal with almond milk and a cup of black coffee. My first snack of the day was an apple. Lunch was a spinach salad with baby carrots, mushrooms, and blueberry vinaigrette. My second snack of the day was baby carrots and hummus.
For dinner I prepared chicken breast, quinoa, and baked sweet potato. The only thing I had to cook was the chicken breast by baking it along with the sweet potatoes in the oven for 20 minutes at 450 degrees. The quinoa was microwavable because I'm lazy. The rest was just a matter of putting it together.
The meals lasted me for five days and I stuck to them. It was actually really nice to know I had food already made for me throughout the work week and it took away a lot of stress when I was too busy to go out with friends or to even stop and think about food. The good food I was consuming also made my body feel cleaner and more energized, which is always a plus.
I didn't end up working out everyday aside from walking to class (which is actually a lot of walking). I didn't remember to meditate. I didn't take time to do something I enjoyed everyday. I didn't get enough sleep.
These are things I'm still working on but even taking that first step to meal prep made a huge difference in my week. I think this first week has helped me realize that I've become completely accustomed to treating myself like a machine, and that's not cool. There's s fine line between working hard and over-working yourself and I'm trying to find that happy-medium where I can exist peacefully.
I can make excuses to you and to myself all I want about personal problems that came up, health situations that arose, or lack of time and focus but I'm not going to do that. I didn't stick to the original plan and even though I only followed through with a part of it, it did help. However, I owe it to myself to try harder than that.- Stay tuned for part three to see whether or not I achieve my goals in week two.