Clean Eating Vacation

Mommy needed some Mommytime, so I went to L.A. and ended up drinking green smoothies, eating veggies and doing yoga. Score!

I've been trying to make my diet as clean as possible lately, so I was a little nervous about how I was going to eat on this much-needed mini-vacation.

But there was no way I was going to cancel the trip. Hello? Stevie Wonder was waiting. Plus, hanging out with my buddy out there is always a good time.

On the way to the farmers market at The Grove

I recently read The Beauty Detox Solution and decided to follow the Radiant Beauty phase for 30 days to see whether I should adopt any new approaches to my current clean eating diet. The program calls for green smoothies daily, cutting out dairy, reducing grains, having animal protein at dinnertime only and, most challenging of all, very specific food pairing guidelines. To give you an idea of what the food pairing entails -- no protein and starch together (so no turkey wraps, which is usually a go-to healthy choice when I travel).

Normally, a vacation of any length usually means a little party time -- bring on the indulgences. But not this time. I planned ahead.

My plan was to drag my friend along with me. We'd go to the farmers market to get all the necessities for the smoothies and hit a Bikram yoga studio. Also, I planned to stick to a more vegetarian menu options while dining out.

Did it work? Yup!

When I hit town Saturday, we went straight to a couple of  farmers markets. First stop was the Silverlake Farmers Market where we picked up a few things like celery, parsley and this amazing roasted red pepper hummus. Next stop was the Farmers Market at The Grove where we got the rest of the things we needed -- lettuce, spinach, banana, pear and cilantro.

Lunch was a veggie gyro and I swapped the fries for salad. It was really tasty, too. That evening we met some people for an outdoor movie night, which was right next to the Los Angeles Coliseum. There were eight food trucks there with goodies from ice cream to sweet potato fries to Philly steaks -- but I resisted them all because we came prepared with our cooler of hummus, cucumbers, peppers, crackers and dairy-free chicken salad. We were set.

Our healthy movie snacks

Sunday morning started off with me making green smoothies, which was followed by a hot yoga session. Lunch was a large salad and later that evening we went to the Hollywood Bowl for a Stevie Wonder concert where we brought the cooler with the rest of our veggie and hummus fixings. I did have one little indulgence that night -- we split a small piece of red velvet cake. Oops.

At the Hollywood Bowl for Stevie Wonder concert

Another oops -- I had some chicken salad on wheat crackers one night and the next night that same chicken salad on a whole wheat pita (improper food pairings). So, I wasn't perfect. But all in all, not too bad. Best of all, I had a great weekend. My batteries are recharged and the veggie, green smoothies, yoga infusions did me well. This much cleaner approach to eating is energizing and amazingly I don't feel deprived or miss any of my previous meals.