Clean Food Challenge - The Final Day

Well, it looks like the challenge is officially over.  I'm so glad I made it through, and I definitely plan to be more mindful of what I eat in the future. I will not, however, be extending the challenge. As I said in my introductory post, I really believe in the 80/20 rule.  So, as I move forward, I will try to make sure that the food that I eat 80 percent of the time is healthy and whole, but I'm not going to eliminate entire food groups.  I will probably do another challenge in the future, when I feel like I need a "restart."  In the meantime, I will eat whatever sounds or looks good at the moment.  With that said, I'm going to try really hard not to just stuff myself with all of the forbidden foods that have been calling my name over the past week.  That would totally defeat the purpose of the challenge.  I'm going to try...really, I am.

My food for the last day of the challenge was pretty standard.:

Breakfast:  Overnight oats with blueberries and almond milk, coffee

Lunch :  Large salad with black beans, black olives, avocado and a cumin lime vinaigrette

Dinner:  Stuffed portabella mushroom and tons of fresh strawberries.  We went strawberry picking this evening, and we all stuffed ourselves while we picked and for the rest of the evening.

Snacks:  Goodie earth balls, raisins, strawberries, nectarine, cashews and a rice cake

I finally experienced the clean sweat that everyone was blogging about.  I went for a great run in the morning, and my sweat definitely felt less sticky.  When I let it dry, it didn't have that dry, salty feel to it.  It makes me wonder if it is all of the chemicals in processed food that causes it. Or, could the clean sweat be due to the gallon of water I'm drinking each day?  Does that change the composition of sweat? Hmmm...maybe I should do more research on this...

So, now it's time to move forward.  Since I have so many fresh strawberries, tonight's menu will include homemade strawberry shortcake with real biscuits and real whipped cream.  I think that's a great way to end a clean food challenge, don't you?  I'm also planning to have a glass of wine.  Oh, and this weekend my mother-in-law and her husband will be visiting from Florida, and I'm already looking forward to s'mores in our backyard fire pit.  So, yeah, I think I'm ready to move past the clean food challenge, but I'm doing so with a renewed outlook on healthy eating and increased mindfulness about what I'm putting in my mouth.  From now on, I'm going to eat foods that I truly enjoy and refrain from eating the random junk that I don't actually care about.  As far as I'm concerned, that means the challenge was successful.

Now that the challenge is over, I need to spend my time and energy figuring out this whole blogging thing.  It's time to add some pictures and write some posts about something other than food.