Menu Plan Monday

Good Morning!!

I hope you all had a fantastic holiday weekend.  I wonder how many of you will be serving leftover turkey at least once this week?  Since we went away for the holiday, we will NOT be eating turkey this week.  In fact, Scott and I decided last week that in order to keep our weigh loss goals from getting too far off track with all the Thanksgiving dining we anticipated that we were going to spend this week doing a raw food cleanse.   If you are wondering what that means, I'll do my best to explain - 

Starting on Monday morning, we will be trying to limit our food intake to smaller portions and limiting ourselves as much as possible to raw foods.  Our staples for the week will be fresh fruits and veggies (no dips allowed), nuts and water.   There are a few exceptions, like hummus and limited amounts of canned or frozen veggies.  Last time we did this was quite a few weeks ago and we both lost over 4 pounds in 5 days.  But more importantly, we both felt healthier at the end of the week and were able to break some bad eating habits like drinking soda every day more easily.  Lately we've both fallen back into some of our bad habits and feels like we need to get back on track in order to stay on pace to meet our healthy weight targets in a reasonable time frame.

I won't be planning any full family meals this week, but we will try to all sit down together to eat our varied suppers.  Since the kids are not participating in the cleanse they will be enjoying kid favorites like grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken noodle soup, hot dogs and chicken nuggets, along with some sides of fresh fruits and veggies. 

Here is a sample of what Scott and I will be eating:

Breakfast:  

1/4 cup natural almonds (not roasted or salted)

1/2 cup fruit

Lunch:

raw veggies (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers)

hummus (my favorite is garlic)

avocado

Dinner / Supper:

salad with fresh spinach or spring mix greens

homemade or light vinaigrette dressing, just enough to taste 

My biggest challenge this week will be living without Dr. Pepper.  Scott's biggest challenge will be living without Raisin Bran.  What would your biggest challenge be if you did a food cleanse like this?  Have any of you ever done something like this?  I'd love to hear your experiences.  Thanks in advance for sharing.