Four day cleanse is a-comin'!

So! I have a few minutes before I have to go to bed (call time is 4:30am tomorrow in Foxboro, which is an hour away. Ick.), and I wanted to share a bit about the cleanse that's going down on Thursday for those of you who are doing it with me. It consists of a very basic but specific menu. We're going to drink A LOT of lemon water. It's very good for your skin, I'm told. Actually, I wasn't told that, I read it in the book. You know what I mean.

BREAKFAST
• Scrambled eggs (1 whole omega-3-enriched egg, plus 3 additional egg whites and 1 teaspoon of dried basil)
• 1 cup of green tea
• 1 cup of water with 1 ounce (2 Tbsp) of lemon juice.

SNACK
• Sliced Granny Smith apple with 1 tsp cinnamon

LUNCH
• As much Spinach (cooked or raw) as you want, and you can dress it with flavored vinegar or balsamic vinegar 
• 4 ounces of salmon or halibut (grilled, baked, or broiled) with 1 teaspoon of oregano
• 8 pecan halves
• 1 cup of water with 1 ounce of lemon juice

SNACK
• Steamed artichoke or 1/2 cup artichoke hearts in water
• 1 cup of green tea

DINNER
• Large romaine lettuce salad with carrots, tomatoes, and bell peppers (dress with 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice to taste)
• Steamed asparagus
• 4 ounces of lean protein (grilled, baked, or broiled with 1 tsp of oregano)
• 1 cup of water with 1 ounce of lemon juice
• 1 cup of blueberries

(Lean protein is basically chicken breast, turkey breast, or 95% lean ground beef. There are lots of other options too. Buy the book,or ask me.)

Sleep, wake, repeat x4.

During the four day cleanse, you are also asked to:

DRINK
• 8 total glasses of water (bonus points if each glass contains an ounce of lemon juice, but the bare minimum is the three glasses of water with lemon juice that you drink during your meals)
• 2 cups of green tea

SLEEP (and HAVE SEX)
• Sleep 7 or 8 hours per night. This is mandatory.
• Try to have sex. If it doesn't happen, no big deal. (Mom, if you're reading this, I love you and I'm sorry.)

PAMPER
• Spend some time babying yourself.
• Cleanse your face twice daily.
• Use a face and body scrub on day 1 and 4.

DE-STRESS
• When you drink a cup of green tea, savor it in quiet, taking some time for yourself.
• Take 15 minutes to do something just for you. It should be something that you normally don't have time for, but that you enjoy doing (like taking a bath, maybe?)

IMPROVE YOUR ENVIRONMENT
 • Try to make one additional improvement to your home or another environment that you often frequent, like your office.

EXERCISE
• Each day of the cleanse, do 45 minutes of any cardio activity you love. This could be walking, swimming, biking, dancing... whatever.
• Stretch 5 minutes in at a.m. and 5 minutes in the p.m.

That's it, basically. The book does a great job of motivating you to start the cleanse, and I definitely recommend that you read it.

What am I excited about? Pecans, apples, green tea. Not so excited about? Fish. I don't eat a lot of fish. Also, this artichoke business is weird to me. I don't usually think of artichoke as a mobile snack food.

Comments? Thoughts? Great fish preparation advice for someone who doesn't really like fish? Lay 'em on me.

Get your shopping done tomorrow, and find those running shoes in the back of your closet now! Let's do this thing!