Clean Eating Detox: Day 6

We have conquered 6 whole days of our two-week clean eating challenge. For info on days 0-5, click here or use the "Clean Eats" label to the far right.

I apologize for my lateness, but yesterday was our local Relay for Life event - of which I was a county-wide committee member, a team captain and a member of two teams. I stayed there from 3:00 p.m. Friday to 6:00 a.m. this morning and I'm exhausted.

I apologize if my comments aren't incredibly in-depth or observant, because aside from 1:00 a.m. Zumba, I hardly remember a thing.

Each day of the challenge we receive breakfast, lunch, a daytime snack, dinner and a nighttime snack. Day 6's menu included:

Chia seed pudding with mango and pistachios. Now, let's get this clear, they use the word "pudding" really loosely. Really, really loosely. This is not a pudding, it's some kinda thick, goopy and ugly fruity mess. The flavor's pretty good, but the texture takes some getting used to. I could take or leave this.

An arugula and leftover greenbean salad with Thursday night's salmon and dijon vinaigrette. I loved this salad! You pre-dress the salmon with a tad of the herby, mustard dressing and it is so flavorful and bold. The dressing is wonderful and a pairing of flavors we've yet to use in the challenge. J doesn't like arugula or green beans, but the peppery arugula was toned down by the dressing; but he still didn't enjoy cold green beans. 

For snack we again had carrots and hummus, and this time with half a cucumber. Nothing new there. 

At dinnertime at the Relay track, J brought containers filled with black bean chili with Greek yogurt and zucchini ribbons. This was delicious! It was a filling, hearty chili and the smoky paprika yogurt cut through the tomato base with a tangy creaminess. Everyone at our camp was "oohing" and "aahing" over our dinner and it actually made me forget about the giant hot dogs and funnel cakes. In the summer, J makes a saute of zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms that goes with any dish. These ribbons reminded me of that with their flavorful simplicity. 

To stay awake, I brought along several "clean" snacks, but our scheduled nighttime snack was blackberries with pistachios. Like the blueberry/almond bowl earlier in the week, it was a combination I would have never chosen for myself but greatly enjoyed. 

Day 6 synopsis: The onverwhelming lesson of the day is that this menu does require work for dinners. On nights when you have limited time at home or a crunched schedule, this could be tricky. My all-star husband left Relay for an hour to cook dinner and bring it back. I know when this challenge is over - and so far we are very interested in continuing this lifestyle - we will have to continue to plan ahead very carefully and stay organized. I also wonder how applicable it is being away from home and having to eat out. The Buzzfeed article does include info on what to order but it was a very limited list that we haven't tested yet.

This is symbolic of how I feel, minus the extreme exhaustion.