Well everyone, Lent is over. We are past the 40 days and 40 nights. I had cleaned out the cupboards, fridge and freezer of processed foods and sugary foods. I had tossed all of my sugary items and hid my the items that were not allowed. Now that it is over I can tell you how I did…eating wise and everything else on this clean(er) eating extravaganza.

First off let me just say that I lost 11.2 pounds and 10.5 inches…HELLO!!! How amazing am I? thank you very much? **A little fist pump-action and crazy dance moves happening 🙂  **  This is the best thing that has happened to me health-wise since I completed my half marathon last year.  It is an amazing feeling to know that something that is so beneficial for you and so hard at the same time has done something to you that makes you so proud and so confident.  Believe me when I say, that I am rarely proud in or confident of myself at any given time, so this is wonderful.

Second let me tell you how I felt on my clean eating journey.  And believe me it was a journey.  So this blog is about how to fit from vegetarian eating to vegan…I had hoped with this cleaner eating and no anything other than homemade goods I would have been able to give up coffee creamer…Nope, didn’t happen.  Everything else clean-but that gosh darn creamer!  The caramel macchiatto flavor just does me in.  There was no option of actually giving up coffee either. Grr-but it didn’t hinder my losses any so that part I don’t feel horrid about, just that it wasn’t clean or vegan.

I made all my lunches for this-trying new recipes and being able to freeze a lot of leftovers, which I love to do.  There was no variation in my breakfasts at all.  The no sugar thing through me for a loop, so I didn’t bake anything.  I had oatmeal 30 of the 40 days.  The other days were apples with peanut butter.  Not anything exciting, but I will share my clean and sugar free oatmeal real soon.  Also, dinners were nothing special.  Just literally 4 cups of boiled or steamed broccoli.  I love it so I can sit and eat it all night long…which is what you do when it is that much.  But it was so nice that it wasn’t a heavy meal before bed.

Now I will me tell you how I felt through the entire thing.  Not great.  I felt great in how I was eating, not necessarily in how my actual health was doing.  I am hypo-glycemic and have super low blood pressure.  No sugar did a number on my system so badly that I constantly had head aches and near the end had the no-sugar shakes and had to quickly eat candy.  Yes, I did have candy in the apartment.  I knew going into this that I may need it, so the little hard candies and the creamer were the only things not tossed at the beginning.  Also, I got so light headed all the time due to the low blood pressure.  I tell you, it is honestly hard to thoughtfully add sugar and salt to your food items when you aren’t actually craving them!  I carry a ziplock baggie of salt to make sure I salt my lunch at work since I don’t cook with it.

As for the glowing skin and tons of energy?  Not so much.  I stopped working out due to the headaches and low blood sugar; but that was totally my fault because I know I was not getting enough protein at all to carry myself farther than the front door for a workout.  The skin? I still had pimples…could have been the creamer and candies or could have been the stress of other things, like life.

This may not sound like the high praise of a clean eating journey for you to start on yourself, but believe me when I tell you that it is so more than worth it.  You may/will go through withdrawals; you may/will hate everyone around you the first week; you may/will want to scarf everything.  When I craved anything crunchy like a chip (I had celery by the stalkful).  I didn’t crave anything sweet (I didn’t even want to have the silly hard candies).  I wasn’t needing boxed mac and cheese (I made my own).  I may not have saved any money by not buying crap food, but with making my own lunches by the freezerful, I was able to save in the long run since I can skip a cook-week and eat leftovers.

It is so worth it.  You will be just as proud of your weight loss, and if you don’t have my health issues, then you will be even more successful.  And with all the magazines and blogs out there you will have so many ideas of things you can make and eat that aren’t processed it becomes fun searching for the next food item.  Enjoy the journey and enjoy the results-they always make you look back and think…Yep, it was worth the trial.