day one.

Here I am. Day one of my 30 day super clean eating challenge. I am challenging myself to 30 days eating super clean. High Raw vegan and High carbohydrate low fat diet and this is definitely as much about self discipline as it is clean eating. Self discipline is something I envy in people. People who can commit to an exercise class and actually show up, on time  and even stay for perhaps a whole term! My heroes. Almost as soon as I make a plan of any kind, even a date with a Jared Leto lookalike, it seems I am formulating a way I can safely get out of it again!!! anyway... enough about my commitment issues. More about the food!

 I have decided to blog my 30 days as it will hold me accountable on those days where my emotions get the better on me and before I know it I am climbing on chairs stacked upon benches to reach the forbidden chocolate high upon the highest shelf. My blog is for those days, the days I feel like giving up on myself.

OK! Day one. I had expectations of waking up on day one all enthused that I was starting my challenge today, jumping out of bed excitedly running to the lounge room and getting into my exercise routine. FAIL. The cats. Oh my dearest darling bloody cats kept me from sleeping very much at all last night and the alarm at 6am was not met with any sort of enthusiasm, other than that I had in hitting the snooze button as quickly as I could! 

Day one began with lots of water as I was too disorganised to manage breakfast before I got to work. I took  with me about 12 ripe bananas a couple of cucumbers, 3 persimmons (if you haven't tried these already, DO they are freakin' amazing!!) and a couple of oranges.  I've been looking into and reading a lot about the 80/10/10 diet and feel that I do actually resonate with what they are taking about. It makes sense to me. However I am finding my own way with it, as I am certainly not ready to commit to a diet I barely even know enough about. Also I have strong belief that everyone's body is different and the "Best" diet is not as simple as a one size fits all.

This 80/10/10 diet encourages people to eat A LOT of fruit. To give you enough calories for what your daily required intake is. This can be calculated and again the fruit can be weighed and measured to ensure you are meeting this requirement. I have decided to take a different approach and to feel my way through the food. I have found that listening to my body is what works best. It doesn't necessarily  mean that I cave into every craving as soon as I feel one come on. Its more for me about understanding these cravings, what do they mean. Often I find they are linked to emotions and by understanding and addressing the emotions, my craving will start to fade. On other days I completely cave and find myself sitting on the kitchen floor with half a cupcake hanging from my mouth. Thankfully days like this seem to be further and further apart these days.

My plan is to eat mostly fruit during the day until a light, high carb, low fat dinner. This can be cooked or raw. The point is to be a close to the foods natural state as possible. I will be avoiding just about all processed foods, except for say some brown rice. Salt is a big no, no. I'm testing this one out. I LOVE salty foods. Tonight was a real challenge to not add salt to my pumpkin soup. I home made the stock myself. Avoiding the preservatives and added sugar/salt and whatever else in the store bought stocks. I added lots of veggies and ate LOTS of it to fill me up, am a little bit concerned that I will be running to the toilet all night with al the liquid I have consumed today!

So I nibbled my way through approximately 8-10 bananas, 3 persimmons, one orange, 2 cucumbers and a handful of spinach and 2 litres of water. And  1 bowl, actually no... it was 2 BIG bowls of home made pumpkin soup. I feel good. I am resisting the temptation to eat anything sweet after my dinner. As fruit after a heavy or cooked meal can make the digestive system go a bit crazy, due to the different speeds in which foods break down and digest in the body.

I'll share my pumpkin soup recipe another day, as I feel this first blog really has gone one for quite enough time already. 

Love Claire XX