So after a lovely long weekend of feasting, I have decided to undertake a personal clean(ish) food challenge for a period of about 2 weeks from tomorrow 12 August to the night of 24 August, till the 2nd anniversary party of Mosaic Dance on that Saturday, where I will be performing.

This is an attempt to call out those kind-of-there-but-not-quite-yet abs of mine, to look my best for this event! I will post up a picture of the results.

And so here are the parameters I have set for myself during this period. Wanted to go completely clean but it is really tough for me to find the time to prepare meals (will try to do some though!), so I am going ‘clean(ish)’.

Allowed

1. All fresh fruits and vegetables (roots too, eg. sweet potatoes, beetroot, lotus root etc)
2. Plain low/non fat/greek yoghurt and milk, minimally processed cheese (only occasionally, because I have some in the fridge that I need to finish soon lol)
3. Plain oatmeal / naturally or minimally sweetened granola (low quantities of these)
4. Natural unsweetened brown or multigrain rice/bread/crispbread/noodles and glass noodles (low quantities of these)
5. Whole meats, fish and seafood (ie. unprocessed and in its original state, so this does not include fishballs, fishcakes, dumplings, meatballs, nuggets etc), as well as eggs
6. Tofu, legumes, beans as well as non-flavoured nuts, seeds and dried fruits with no added sugar
7. Minimal quantities of black pepper, sea salt, balsamic vinegar, 100% natural maple syrup/honey
8. Minimally seasoned food – ie. no MSG Chinese boiled soups, fish soup, steamed chicken, boiled vegetables minus the sauce etc
9. 100% natural almond/peanut/whatevernut butter
10. Unsweetened coffees and teas (don’t think I can do without caffeine unfortunately…)

Not Allowed

1. Soft drinks, including flavoured teas and canned/packet juice with added sugar/fructose/sucrose etc (however I will accept those which are 100% natural, no sugar or preservatives etc added)
2. Ice cream (this is gonna be a tough one…), cake, cookies or any kind of wheat and sugar based pastry/snack/dessert/tidbits
3. Deep fried or overly oily food
4. Processed “white” carbs – ie. white rice, all white and yellow noodles, white bread
5. Packaged potato chips (but will allow myself just a little brown rice/multigrain chips or perhaps make my own 100% natural potato/sweet potato chips?)
6. “Mystery meats” – ie. processed stuff like nuggets, sausages etc
7. Alcohol (possibly except minimal amounts of cooked alcohol eg. sake / Chinese wine in soups)

And I guess also just try to cut down on oil, sugar, salt and starch in general.

Okay, that’s about it. Wish me luck, I think it is going to be VERY hard for this self-professed lover of food!

Anyone gonna join me? 😉