Breakfast: Smoothie made with blueberries, blackberries, avocado, spinach, almond butter and one humble date. This was the first smoothie I wasn’t crazy about. It had too much spinach in it, and lacked creaminess despite the avocado. I also went too heavy on the blackberries so there were all these little seedy bits on there. Too many seeds to enjoy it. Oh well – tomorrow is another smoothie day.

Lunch: Leftover courgette and herb soup with a very small garnish of pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

Dinner: Paprika-fied haddock with carrot, courgette and runner bean “noodles” seasoned with garlic, lemon, parsley and chilli flakes. Avocado on the side. I enjoyed this with one small caveat. I pan-fried the fish, and instead of coating it in regular flour, I used quinoa flour (which I mixed with some salt, pepper and smoked paprika). The quinoa flour didn’t really go crispy like normal flour would have. But my current Airbnb guests who are gluten free gave me a hefty tip. More on this below…

Yesterday saw the arrival of my latest Airbnb guests, an extremely cool couple from Boston (USA represent) who are totally “my people”. Before they came they told me they were gluten-free. It turns out they don’t eat all sorts of things, either because of various “allergies”. I’ve been fascinated by their stories because this is what the Clean program is all about: removing possible triggers for allergies, inflammation and bad stuff that will do damage to the glorious intestinal gut flour that keeps things moving happily and the body feeling its best.

I think they’re interest in food is a lot like mine: we’ve had a time in our life when we drastically changed our diets, and this led us to thinking and learning more about food, and the more you learn, the more interesting food becomes. So the three of us have had a really good time talking food, but from a perspective I’m not generally used to, and it’s been great because they have some super gluten-free tips, particularly when it comes to fish.

To get a nice crispy piece of pan-fried fish, instead of coating it in normal flour, coat it in almond flour! This makes total sense, and I think sesame seeds or other pulverised nut would work well, too. She also suggested baking the fish, and sprinkling spices, herbs and ground nuts (or even sliced almonds) over the top. I’m a sucker for texture, and this is ticking all the right boxes!

I’m hoping to return the tip favour with some of my own trips with quinoa and healthy vegan breakfast salads.

The caveat to all this great conversation meant that I put off having my dinner (non-liquid, another “cheat”) until really late and I was super duper hungry and after my nice light dinner I proceeded to eat a pear, a peach and a nectarine. Right before bed.

Sleeping is prime digesting / detoxing time, and on the Clean program you’re supposed to leave a 12 hour window between dinner and breakfast to give the body 8 hours to digest and 4 hours to “detox”. I may have sabotaged this with my late night fruit binge. And it also means I can’t eat anything today until 11am. Given that it’s only 7:06am right now, this might be a long morning.

Or not! I can’t say I feel horrible and it’s not like I ate cake or ice cream. Or drank beer or wine – that is the true Friday victory!

Related Links:

• Vegetable noodles: embrace the julienne peeler
• Courgette soup: the brilliance of pureed courgette (aka zucchini)
• Clean: this book describes the detox method I’m following
• Clean Program Manual
• Clean Program Recipes
• Clean Program Meal Plan