The Action Plan: Day 1

I picked up a Whole Living magazine at the HOU airport last week. The cover said, "Fresh Start!" Later I found out it's a Martha Stewart magazine, so of course I was drawn to it. Inside the magazine was a 21 day action plan, a detox basically. Looked easy enough. I could do 21 days, right?

Well, today is Day 1. So far, I've had a Magno-Tahini Smoothie for breakfast. It wasn't bad. What is tahini you may ask? Cause I asked the same thing. It's basically sesame seed in a liquid butter form. I found some at Whole Foods in the produce section.

But getting to the point of actually having this first smoothie took some work! First, I had to read the entire plan to get a feel for what it was about. You can read view the plan here. Basically it eliminates processed foods, added sugars, dairy, gluten, alcohol, and coffee. I already know my biggest issues are going to be sugar and alcohol. They are my nemeses! But it's still January, the time for resolutions, and I'm still feeling the need to clean up my act, so I'm all in.

First step was to make a shopping list for the week 1. This is what my shopping list looked like. It might vary for you depending on what you already have in the house.

Produce:

• 4 limes
• 4 Asian pears
• 4 cucumbers
• 2 bunches of celery
• 2 avocados
• 2 oranges
• 6 lemons
• 6 green apples
• 3 red onion
• 3 yellow onion
• 2 bags of carrots
• 2 bunches of beets
• 4 sweet potatoes
• 2 bananas
• 2 red bell pepper
• 1 red chili
• 1 cauliflower head
• 1 broccoli bunch
• 1 large tub of baby spinach
• 1 bag of romaine
• 1 bag of shredded red cabbage
• 2 bunches of parsley
• 2 bags mint leaves
• tarragon
• basil
• cilantro
• fresh sliced pineapple
• jar of garlic

Frozen:

• 1 bag of frozen blueberries
• 2 bags of frozen mango
• 1 bag of frozen strawberries

Other:

• tahini
• slivered almonds
• French green lentils
• red lentils
• coconut oil
• honey
• fennel seeds
• caraway seeds
• cumin
• turmeric
• curry power
• coconut milk

Seems like a lot, I know. But there is a cleansing broth that you're supposed to make before starting which uses up a lot of the vegetables. I also bought ingredients to make some of the suggested snacks because I know me, I like snacks.

The coolest part of starting this Action Plan was that I discovered a great place to start buying my produce. It’s called the Homegrown Local Food Cooperative. Their produce supply comes from local farmers so it’s all super fresh. And if you become a member of the cooperative, you can participate in their online ordering deal. Twice a week they accept online orders for produce. You click submit, they gather it all up for you and a couple days later, you pick it up. I just thought it was so brilliant, I signed up for a lifetime membership (it was more cost effective). I’m pretty excited to make that a part of my weekly food shopping.

Once you have all the required food for your first week, you need to make sure you do some of the prep work. First thing is to make the cleansing broth. It takes about an hour and you’ll need a jug or container large enough to hold about 12 cups of water. Second is to prep the use of lentils. There are two recipes in week 1 that use lentils. I’ve never really eaten lentils but I have read in all my Paleo books that they are on the no no list. But then I’ve read several online bloggers and other sources saying can be very good for you, if prepared properly. These two bloggers had very great write ups on lentils:

To Bean Or Not To Bean, That Is The Question (Legumes, Lectins, and Human Health)

Fermenting Lentils

I ended up doing the acidity fermentation on the French lentils that I plan to use in the French lentil salad for lunch today… I’ll let you know how it turns out.