The cleanse is winding down and I am relishing in the fact that I will be back to normal soon, eating as I wish, but hopefully also what my body needs. But make no qualms, I will definitely eat as I wish, most of the time sometimes. Eating with restrictions is tough. It’s possible, but it is tough. And food is therapy when things get tough.
But as one of my final cleanse posts, I will recount the top ten foods that got me through this cleanse:
1. Discovering corn products are gluten-free was a life-saver (now that is a “duh” but at the beginning of this, “gluten-free” was like words from a foreign language to me). I ate this popcorn a lot. I mean, we bought 3+ bags a week.
2. Mandarins were something quick to grab on my way out the door, but by no means quick to eat. Still, fruit is nature’s candy, so because I couldn’t eat candy, I ate fruit.
3. These snapea crisps were so delicious at first, but they got a bit old towards the end. But it’s something that’s allowed, so there’s that.
4. I sliced cucumbers and celery to snack on. And we ate lots and lots of apples.
5. Raisins were another of my naturally sweet munchies. I mean, look at the sugar content on those suckers! Nature’s candy, indeed.
6. Oh Cheerios. Thank you for saving me from oatmeal. I just couldn’t do oatmeal for one more day. If you ever look at the nutrition facts on cereals, I bet you Cheerios will beat them all in terms of being better for you. Yes, it’s better than Kashi or that other “good for you” crap. A tried and true classic.
7. I juiced a lot. Every day that I worked I left home with a smoothie. I also made smoothies in between meals because I was always hungry at first. Juicing is tough with fresh produce because it goes bad so fast, so I froze a bag of spinach and a bag of kale. Then I bought the frozen berry blend and mixed it together. It’s not a beautiful color, but it was drinkable. And there’s no other way I’m going to get my kale and spinach in, that’s for sure.
8. This is the gluten-free pasta Steve picked up that tasted so much better than the crap I bought. Sure, technically, it might not have been cleanse-approved because it contains mono- and diglycerides, but dear god, we must eat something! This felt almost like an indulgence after eating that plain brown rice pasta.
9. Speaking of brown rice: in it’s original form, it’s not bad. Brown rice was used at almost every dinner. It was the star of our cleanse show, and somehow, Steve still isn’t sick of it.
10. Corn. The savior of the cleanse. I can’t tell you how many times we made tacos with (of course) brown rice and beans and veggies. When in doubt, make tacos. It feels like a real meal, even though it’s missing the best parts of tacos – beef and cheese and sour cream.
I’m ready for beef and cheese and sour cream. And cupcakes and coffee and pasta made from wheat. And bread. And sushi and even beer, which I don’t even really care for that much. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll allow a couple of these things to hang around, too. After all, I have grown quite fond of a few of them after all this time. Or maybe I’ve just forgotten how good the other foods taste.
holly pelesky 
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