Feeding My Soul
I’m rounding out the last few days of the Peak Harmonic 21 Day Cleanse. It’s funny when I began this journey I had certain expectations. I expected that I would have the accountability of a group to change my horrible holiday eating habits. I thought I might lose a couple of pounds. I even knew there would be some emotional hurdle that I would have to overcome in order to change bad habits. But, even with all the expectations and conversations with Rebekah and Khohala (of Peak Harmonic) leading up to this program, I could have never actually understood the transformation that was ahead of me.
I’m one that is always up for a challenge… some might even use the label “competitive” (HI EGO!) So in my head I knew I was going to check all the boxes of this cleanse off and make sure I did it “right”. Ironically as I left our kickoff meeting on my way to Whole Foods to get my Week 1 shopping list, I unintentionally felt myself veer right instead of left. I found myself sitting on the beach rather than at a grocery store. It was on the beach that I began to wonder what the next 21 days was actually going to be.
While my reasons for landing my butt on the beach were a mixture of emotions, there was certainly a layer of how am I going to survive 21 days without ‘X’ and ‘Y’ and ‘Z’?! I’m sure if each of us looked deeply we all have those food items that we would have a hard time giving up if someone told us, we could not eat them. At some point in history, we as Americans began to connect our eating habits to our emotional wellbeing. If we were to dig even deeper into the relationship with those beloved food items we may find that it isn’t necessarily based on the fact that they are the best foods we’ve ever eaten. More than likely we have some type of emotional tie to these particular foods. For example Khohala shared with us how during his cleanse he always craves Thai food. He eventually dug back and was able to recall into his youth when his uncle would take him out to Thai to celebrate a success. So while he does enjoy Thai food the craving or that feeling of loss is actually on an emotional level rather than deprivation. But it’s in these feelings of “something has been taken away from me” that we start to face our emotional obstacles.
My 21 Days has not been short of obstacles. This process truly has allowed me to find better balance within my overall life. I began to realize many of my bad habits were coming from a place of discomfort and the lack of organization. Ironically these habits and feelings spilled over into so many parts of my life; being uncomfortable and equally unorganized were a reoccurring theme. I was in a vicious cycle of not “having time” to prepare meals and continuously I would turn to comfort foods to make up for these feelings. It’s funny that when I took a step back and took just a few hours to plan out a couple of days how easy it actually made this whole cleansing process. Once I got organized I never once was hungry because I always have some fresh wholesome food to suffice my urges that would normally lead me to just go pick something up. And as you guessed it, this organization on the eating level spilled over to cleansing and organization on a personal level. Creating the comfort and stability that I was actually craving.
One of my most important “ahh has” has been falling back in love with the food creation process. I truly enjoy cooking. I love taking random ingredients and turning them into something savory. Peak Harmonics recipes and shopping list has opened my world to so many wonderful new foods I had never tried. But it also created a fun new challenge for me. Take simple ingredients from the list and turn it into a delicious new dish.
Whether you’re considering going through Round 2 of the cleanse or not, I thought I’d share with you my favorite concoction that I made from the Week 2 shopping ingredients.
I’ll call it my Soul Feeding Lemon Ginger Buckwheat Pasta.
Lemon Ginger Buckwheat Pasta
Ingredients:
1 package of Buckwheat Pasta (found at Whole Foods in the Asian Section)
1 package of Broccolini chopped to be just the florets
12oz Cremini Mushrooms
2 cloves of Elephant Garlic, crushed and chopped
½ cup of Olive Oil
1/3 cup Fresh Lemon Juice
1 tbspn Pure Maple Syrup
1 ½ tspn Fresh Grated Ginger
Pinch of Real Salt
¼ cup of Water
Instructions:
Start by making the “sauce”. Place garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, maple syrup, ginger, and real salt into a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth.
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Chop stems off of mushrooms. Place them head down on a baking tray. Pour a very a thin layer of water onto the bottom of your baking sheet to add some moisture to the mushrooms as they bake. Drizzle just lightly with some of the sauce to infuse the flavor. Place in oven for 20-30mins or until mushrooms are soft to a fork.
Meanwhile bring a pot of water to a boil. Add Buckwheat pasta into boiling water. I went ahead and added my broccolini florets into the boiling water. I’m sure there is a conventional reason as to why you don’t boil noodles with veggies, but I’m one for saving time and dishes. Feel free to steam or boil your broccolini as you see fit.
Once the pasta is al dente and the broccolini is soft to the fork, drain the water from the pan. Drizzle lightly with olive oil to prevent sticking. Remove the mushrooms from the oven once they’ve cooked. I sliced mine, but you may also keep them whole. Add them to the pasta and broccolini pot.
Give a quick pulse in the blender to your sauce to ensure it hasn’t separated. Drizzle sauce to your liking over the ingredients. Stir thoroughly and enjoy a fresh Asian inspired pasta dish.
If you have any interest in joining the Peak Harmonic cleanse, check out our Events tab. Round 2 kickoff is Feb 5th.
