Clean Food Challenge

Many big things going on – school is almost over, KRRT ½ Marathon next Sunday, 16 weeks until I run a FULL marathon, AND I’m going to join in on a Clean Food Challenge. 

My lovely sister-in-law brought it up yesterday morning after reading Emilie’s blog.  Eating “clean” (i.e. non-processed foods) is supposed to give you more energy – with all this training going on in my life right now and a summer full of fun ahead of us, I need more energy, so why not. 

When do I start?  I’m thinking either Friday or Saturday.  With this being the last week of school, there is a department lunch on Thursday to say good bye to some of the Special Education Staff who will not be working at BJHS next year (myself included) and there will be a End-of-Year Staff Breakfast on Friday.    The plan is to be done with the clean food challenge by next Saturday so I can “carb up” for the KRRT 1/2.  Keeping that in mind, I should definitely start the challenge on Friday then, right? 

So, what exactly is a Clean Food Challenge.  Emilie sums it up very well on her blog.  

I also did some searching and came up with a shopping list.  I love most of these foods, so it shouldn't be too hard.  Right?

Emilie’s Clean Food Challenge Rules are:

-   no dairy

-   no sugar

-   no alcohol

-   no gluten

-   no processed anything

Only eat:

-   fruit

-   veggies

-   whole grains

-   fresh-pressed juices

-   green smoothies (yum!)

-   1 gallon of water per day (128 oz – that is my purple Nalgene bottle filled up 4 times! – hello potty)

Also, Emilie also allows herself to drink 1 cup of coffee a day.   This part is going to hurt, big time.  I can easily down 4 cups a day.  This also means no Starbucks.  Shouldn’t be a problem because school will be over and I won’t be driving by one daily anymore (well, at least until summer school starts!).  I do have to do some research on how to sweeten my coffee – possibly with agave and coconut milk.  

While I do not have a Clean Food book to go by, I do have a Everything Raw Food Recipe Book.  I’m thinking I’ll pull that bad-boy out of the cabinet and take a look to see what I can find. 

To hold myself accountable with this new challenge, I’m going to have to blog about it everyday and share what I eat/drink.  This way I won’t be inclined to cheat! 

Go here to check this book out. 

What I do know for sure is that I won't be eating these for the challenge!  

Goodbye processed foods (well, at least for a week!).