Gathering Supplies

To start off my super health conscious vegan cleanse, I went to the most appropriate store to buy health food- Walmart, of course! No, I just went to Walmart because I didn't want to pay insane prices at Whole Foods, if I couldn't follow through on my diet. And you may be surprised to know that I found every item on my list except for nutritional yeast and plain almond milk. Walmart has kale AND ground flax seed. I found out later from old Marzipan, that Bi-Lo has an entire organic/ vegan section and a MUCH better selection of food than Walmart, while still being cheaper than Whole Foods or Earth Fare. 

When deciding what to buy to start out my cleanse, I pulled from a few helpful articles including this one from Whole Foods called: Stock a Healthier Pantry

I also tried to think of foods that I already eat that fall into the restrictions of my cleanse and the Four Pillars of Healthy Eating.  For example, I eat salad every week anyway, so I knew I'd be buying both baby spinach and romaine lettuce. Somewhere I got the idea in my head that romaine is better for you than iceberg. Not sure if that's true. But since I was cutting cheese and all my favorite dressings, I had to come up with some other things to eat on my salads.

Nuts are supposed to be good for you if unsalted,  so I got some chopped walnuts, almonds, and pecans (my favorite nuts) from the baking aisle. I also looked up some salad recipes and remembered that clementines are usually good with a spinach salad, as are strawberries. I'm not a blueberry fan, but those would work too. 

I also bought as many whole wheat and high fiber items as possible. 

Marzipan told me you just have to turn the package around and read what it says on the back. The packaging has to list the ingredients in the order of what's in the food the most. So if it lists 'wheat flour' first, then the product has the most of that in it. It took me a good two hours to shop, because I read the back of every item I considered buying. If it said 'salt, sugar, or oil' in the ingredients, I put it back on the shelf. 

Overall I spent about $130 on a week and a half worth of food. And I think that's pretty good. 

One thing to note is, if you don't think you'll be able to stick to your diet or cleanse, don't buy a whole basket full of fresh vegetables that you're not sure you'll eat. Thats a waste of money. Walmart has a variety pack of veggies in a Market Fresh bag that includes carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. I then just purchased a cucumber, onions, tomatoes, and some fresh herbs. The last 3 are items that you frequently cook with, so those are good to get a lot of. 

*My mom said 'When you're cooking without salt, be sure to add lots and lots of herbs and lots and lots of garlic to make up the difference.*