ACT Inspiration Days 1 - 4

I have an exciting announcement! Cody and I have been so inspired by the amazing Crazy, Sexy Life website (sorry, I can’t link to it but I’m sure you can find it easily if you look it up!) as well as Happy Vegan Face's awesome blog that we have decided to do a month long cleanse. The Crazy Sexy Life blog had an Adventure Cleanse Tune-up which Happy Vegan Face absolutely rocked out with some stellar results and awesome, detailed coverage. It was her delicious looking meals and delightful blog that gave me and Cody the final push to go ahead with these 30 days of cleansing.

Now, Cody and I eat fairly healthy most of the time; lots of whole grains and beans, tons of veggies and lots of fruit. But we also love to indulge in sugary sweets, deep fried goodness and oh my gosh you wouldn’t even believe the amount of potato chips I can put away. Cody also loves to drink his coffee and I basically inhale mountains of chocolate without a second thought.

But we always thought this wasn’t too much of a problem since our diet mainly consists of such healthy fare. Plus, we both exercise daily and have always been fit and trim, with a decent amount of energy. In fact, we have been called health nuts on more than one occasion.

But, over the past year and a half of living in Bahrain and not having access to the outdoorsy kind of fitness activities we love, like hiking and biking, we have kind of lost our healthy zest for life sparkle. We realized we were allowing sedentary sambusa swilling to take up far more of our time than we should and that our consumption of not so great food was getting to be a bit too much. I want to reenergize the health loving fitness freak that I know I am and take my vitality and love of life to all new levels!

So, we decided to give the Adventure Cleanse Tune-Up a go! The ACT from the website Crazy, Sexy, Life focuses on differing ratios of raw to cooked food (depending on your comfort level), vegan, of course, with no gluten, no refined sugar, no alcohol, and no caffeine.

Well, I have never had a problem that I know of with gluten. I can eat bread and pasta and chips and all that yumminess without a second thought. But Cody notices an almost immediate nose-dive in feeling good after one pb&j too many and my seitan makes his taste buds super happy but his tummy super sad, so I think gluten free will be great for him.

My biggest gripe is sugar. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I prefer the fatty greasy things in life, but when I do have sugar if I have even a pinch too much I crash and I crash hard. I feel miserable for the rest of the day. And if I have too much sugar at night I have a ‘sugar hangover’ the next morning where my feet are leaden and my head is too! So, I am looking forward to being sugar free.

I have ‘gone raw’ several times in the past and never really had a good experience with it because I simply cannot seem to consume enough food in its raw state as I can cooked food. (After all, raw broccoli takes up a lot more space in your stomach than cooked broccoli!) I am very in tune with what my body needs and I am really aware of what food does to me so I know that I am the kind of person that needs a lot of food to fuel my body, and if I don’t eat every 2 or 3 hours I end up feeling woozy, anxious and just plain sick. So, whenever I would ‘go raw’ it was nearly impossible for me to get enough food into my body to make me feel healthy and energized and I would end up feeling miserable. All those bulky vegetables, totally not broken down by cooking, were just too much and whereas I can usually eat an entire bag of spinach (when it is cooked) by myself….when raw, I just can’t cope. Plus, I would always jump in head first and not give myself any transition time which made me always give up completely in the end.

But I have heard such amazing things about raw foods and the rave reviews I have been seeing about this ACT were enough to seal the deal: I have to give it another shot!

So. We are not going to say we are doing the ACT, we are just going to say it is ACT inspired! We are going to eliminate processed foods, refined sugar, caffeine and (nearly all) gluten and focus on eating healthy, whole foods. (Neither of us drinks alcohol so that isn’t an issue.) As for our raw to cooked ratio we are going to start slowly and listen to our bodies, but we will do the best we can and that might mean at the very best 50/50. We will try our hardest and definitely enjoy this with an open mind but ultimately it comes down to the fact that if I have to sauté my veggies to get enough in my belly I will! We will see how it goes and I will be blogging regularly to show you our meals and our feelings about this experience.

Our recent move to Saudi Arabia has made this whole process even more amazing because we finally have the ability to do all the things we love so much!

Like walking the dogs! On actual grass! Something we haven't been able to do in the 1.5 years since we left the States and moved back to the Middle East. They are so happy which makes me so happy! We haven't even explored a tenth of the extensive hiking trails on this compound, so much left to do!





BIKING! One of our all time favorite things to do, and something else we couldn't do at all in Bahrain. So happy!





Riding and walking with Ender, so much to explore.





And fetch! Hours and hours of fetch with my fetch crazy dingo Polly. Uh-oh...I think she heard me typing the word 'fetch', she just dropped a tennis ball in my lap....



And Vinyasa yoga 3 times a week! We are definitely hooked. Ohhhmmmm.....

And now for some of the yummy meals we have enjoyed over the past few days:





We usually start the day with vibrant green juices which are so refreshing and energizing, a really great way to wake up. I usually make the green juices with chard, carrots, celery, cucumber, apple and a bit of mint. The red juice had all of that plus a red bell pepper thrown in. Super yum! I like to make a huge batch of the juice so I can sip and sip all day long.



Pancakes! A decadent breakfast made from 1 cup of ground flaxseed and 2 small bananas, all mashed together with a Tbsp of molasses and a pinch of cinnamon and ginger. I don't have a dehydrator so I put them in the oven on warm for a few minutes just to gently heat them through. Then I topped them with berries and they were devoured instantly! We were both surprised at how good this was.





Midmorning snacks! Now, we are all feeling the summer heat but man oh man, the Saudi Summer sun can be a real scorcher. It is 120 F with nearly 99% humidity...and we won't get a break till October. Ughghg. In order to cool off we have taken to munching on frozen berries (slightly thawed, of course) and lots of watermelon. You also see some spicy cashews and pistachios in the background.



The perfect pre-yoga snack. Buttery, rich avocado slices topped with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and plenty of hot sauce. Fills you right up and keeps you going through hours of sun salutations and frog poses!



Such a great soup. Corn and Lemongrass (cooked) but once I pulled it from the heat I tossed in a ton of raw veggies like broccoli, squash, bell peppers and garlic. It was so good topped with spicy hot sauce.



What a spread! A salad filled with tons of cabbage, bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant plus a bowl of quinoa and black beans. Not raw but healthy and delicious!



Best meal ever! The salad was almost totally raw except for some cooked chickpeas, with lettuce, bell peppers, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, and bean sprouts. But the real star of the show was the Summer Stuffed Mushrooms. I call them 'summer stuffed' because the filling is bright and cheerful, like they are stuffed with summer itself! These were a real winner and I bet if you made them for your next party or barbecue you would be shocked at how quickly the plate was emptied! The buttery, meaty taste of the mushrooms are perfectly balanced by the bright tang of the lemony, cilantro filling creating a real treat!



Summer Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients
12 white mushrooms, stems removed
2/3 cup ground raw cashews
2/3 cup ground raw pinenuts
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
juice of 2 small lemons
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt

Combine all of the ingredients (except the mushrooms, obviously) and mix completely. Spoon little bits of the mixture into the hollowed out cavity of the mushrooms were the stem used to be. Once they are all filled up lightly drizzle all of them with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt, then bake in the oven at 350F for about 15 minutes, then broil them until the tops are all golden. Enjoy!

The past four days have been great for us, we are enjoying the cleanse and I definitely like thinking outside of the box. I didn't realize how much I relied on package, processed foods like tofu or pasta, and it has been interesting to think of alternatives. I only wish we could get organic fruits and veggies here, that would be great, but we work with what we have. We are edging slowly slowly towards eating more raw foods, but we are listening to our bodies and going at our own pace to make sure we make a change that we can live with, instead of one that eventually sends us scurrying back to our old fried and fatty habits. We both feel light and refreshed and are enjoying the process. More updates coming soon!