The real program begins today. Up until now my girlfriend and I have been following the “Elimination diet” portion of the Clean program. They recommend 3-4 days of eating recipes that cater to the foods that aren’t on the exclusion list. This has been a good intro to some of the recipes, concepts and ingredients in use during the clean program. It has also been a good introduction into “hunger”.

Most people feel “hungry” and eat immediately. The book talks about how hunger is more a emotional condition rather than a physiological one. I can’t say I’ve been starved on this recent elimination diet but I have definitely been conscious of the ‘hunger’ feeling. Our plan has been a smoothie for breakfast (at least 12 hours after the previous evening’s dinner), a solid lunch of meat and veggies, and a solid dinner of the same (different recipe from lunch). Now that we are embarking on the ‘clean’ portion of the program we will have 21 days of the same except having a soup for dinner. Apparently having the veggies blended eases the digestion. We’ll see.

I am beginning to get back into my normal workout regime of 5-6 days a week of intense exercise. I will monitor my performance closely and see if I need to increase my protein intake. If so I will have an extra portion of meat at lunchtime.

Yesterdays menu:

Breakfast: Berry Smoothie

Lunch: Roasted lamb with rosemary and asparagus

Dinner: Grilled chicken and vegetables

As I’m writing this I’m finishing off the ‘energy smoothie’. I think I perfected the recipe this time. It wasn’t actually half bad.

I’ll be playing hockey today for an hour instead of my normal lunchtime gym session, but may go to the gym this evening with my girlfriend.

The scale at the gym is still broken – so will be interesting to see what kind of loss I’ve had 4 days in.

Shendy.