28 Day Cleanse: Why am I doing it?

Hello Everyone! This post is a bit more personal, so please keep an open mind as you read :)

Every year I find myself making New Years resolution regarding my body. What I found was that I was focusing too much on a number rather than how I felt. I used to think that what I saw on the scale defined how I should feel. Recently, I decided that was bullshizzle (pardon my french). Yes, I know I am late to the game. But here I am, ready to love my body and love myself.  Honestly, my relationship with food has transformed in this past year. I was a victim of  crash dieting and feeling guilty for wanting to eat that oh so cheesy Domino's pizza or juicy  In-n-Out burger. Restricting everything bad caused me to binge in really unhealthy ways (i.e. I've almost eaten a whole Medium Domino's Pizza to myself!! Eeek!). This concept of binging and restricting was clearly not the way to go. Just this past year I decided to look at food through a new lens: Food is to nourish you.

I discovered a concept that really works for me. It's called the 80/20 Lifestyle. 
What this lifestyle strives for is to have 80 % of your meals be healthy and 20% of your meals to be whatever you want. 

Example below:

• In one week (not including snacks), you have 21 meals.
• This means that 17 of your meals are healthy and 4 of your meals can be as naughty as you want! (within reason, try not to eat a whole Medium Domino's Cheese Pizza in one sitting ;P)

I'm very metric driven, and being able to say "Hey Emily, you can eat super super well for the next 10 meals, but on meal 11 eat that In-n-Out Animal Style Burger with Animals Style Fries. Your soul deserves it!" really helps me stick to realistic goals.

Again, I know I'm late to the game, but it's so refreshing to view food as your friend and not your enemy! For those of you who struggle with this, you know exactly how it feels!

So my point of the 28 Day Cleanse is to introduce myself to this new lifestyle.
It's planned, but not regimented. I really pondered on what really works for me and my body, and I came up with a meal plan! I will be posting every meal and submit status updates through out this cleanse. At the end, I will submit my meal plan and recipes for anyone who is willing and wanting to take on the challenge!

Thanks for reading my personal thoughts, and please follow me on my 28 day journey :)
P.s. I have a super duper awesome boyfriend who wanted to do the cleanse with me as well! The meal plans that I'm posting is for both men and women! You'll see more in detail once I upload the plan.

Cheers!

Don't forget to love yourself today :)