CLEAN 28, Day 3: Best Smoothie EVER & Overanalyzing My Lunch

This is Post #4 in my Quarter Life Crisis series.
To start from the beginning, click here.

Sometimes you get into a cleanse rut and you keep making the same thing over and over and over again. That’s the story with me and this Mango, Spinach (or Kale) and Avocado smoothie. Except, this is the best green smoothie EVER. And I can happily drink this every day and not get sick of it. So, does that mean I’m still in a rut? Naw, I don’t think so.
When I told myself, “Stop drinking green juices for breakfast and make yourself a smoothie woman!”, this is the smoothie I turned to. Can you blame me? It’s just my go-to even when I’m off the cleanse. I did write in the beginning of the year that I’m going to up my smoothie game a little bit and explore different recipes. But goodness, I just want to have this one.

Can we say First World Cleanse Problems? I promise that by the end of these 21 days, I will branch out a little bit and not default to this smoothie every morning. Now that I’ve put it out there, hopefully I can keep my word.

Overanalzing My Lunch & The 80/20 Rule

By the time lunchtime rolled around, I started to get a little bit bored of my food. Salad, same roasted balsamic mushrooms from days before, some asparagus with blended basil (basically pesto w/o cheese) and some other veggies.

If the point of the cleanse is for me to grow a bit disinterested in food, this lunch basically helps put me there. This really got me thinking more about eating for the sake of enjoying your food vs eating for the sake of getting full.

As someone who always obsesses about the best (but not always the healthiest) food, it’s hard for me to separate the emotion and connection I have with my meals. Food brings me happiness, so a good lunch is always a good afternoon pick-me-up. It isn’t just what I eat to survive. This is definitely a part of the problem in terms of figuring out moderation.

In my post What Does a 80/20 Diet Really Look Like?, I did some math to figure out how many meals out of the week needs to be “healthy” for me to upkeep that 80/20 rule. Basically, I figured that if you eat 3 meals a day, 17 meals should be clean/healthy and 4 can be “treat meals” during the week.

Prior to this cleanse, I estimate I eat healthy-ish 2-3 nights a week. Lunch is always a toss up, but my best guess only 1 healthy lunch during the weekday. In terms of breakfast, I usually eat a healthy breakfast during the week (if I end up eating breakfast). So, if we really try to do the math here, I’m eating 9 healthy meals with 12 “treat meals”, putting me at a rate of 40/60.

That’s a lot to digest, literally. Perhaps I will come to a new revelation through the next few weeks that will bridge the gap and just help me eat and enjoy healthier foods. Here’s to hoping!

Next Post In This Series
CLEAN 28, Day 4-5: Getting Sick or Toxins Escaping?