Post Marathon Cleanse Diet - Second Time's the Charm?

Last year I reluctantly tried this cleanse diet after my marathon.  It wasn't my favorite thing ever and I was thrilled when the week was up and I could add things back into my diet like spaghetti and bread.  And butter.  And meat.  Bacon!  And eggs.  Here's a rundown of shopping and the diet, and a sample menu from one day. The only thing that really stuck last year was stopping the yogurt and switching to non-sweetened almond milk with my breakfast muesli.

This year I'd experienced the typical marathon-taper/weight gain conundrum.  Once I ate enough to recover from the race and feel like I could move again, I decided a cleanse diet might be the way to go, just to kick start the eating proper portions and healthy foods.  I have no idea why I wanted to do this again.  I headed off to the farmers market where I bought an impressive amount of fresh veggies.  I came home and cooked all day.  All day.   See this post for a list of recipes.
Below are the rules.  And a link to the trainers that devised this torture. I still remember....

Things that worked better this year

• I had no diet soda at all during the cleanse.  That was definitely not a goal when I started and I was shocked when I realized it at the end of the week.
• I ate more eggs than last year on the cleanse.  Eggs are good and wonderful.
• I cooked food ahead of time so I could always head to the freezer or the fridge and pull something out.
• Cocoa powder is not sweetened (or at least the kind I buy), and there for totally legit for the cleanse.
• I found reliable sources of protein including eggs, sushi and I finally have a good relationship with protein powder.

The cleanse lasted a week and I've totally survived it now.   I've added a few carbs back into my life, and a small amount of diet soda from time to time.  You know I added butter and alcohol and bacon back into my diet right? I'm still following the rules of the cleanse about 60% of the time.   It's shocked me that I just sort of kept it going. The biggest thing was I really liked the egg dishes I'd make for breakfast.  So I kept it up.

After the cleanse, I'd just planned to use the Lose It app and continue trying to slim down a bit.  I started trying to figure out what to eat and it turns out a plate full of vegetables is super low in calories.  Who knew?

Changes I've noticed following the cleanse this time around are having potatoes with my bacon and eggs instead of bread and butter.  That's a huge calorie saver right there.  I cut out diet soda more than I expected, drinking more coffee in the morning for a caffeine fix.  When I have pasta I have half a serving and then a side of veggies.  To be clear, I'm talking about half of the serving size I'd eat before this started.  I can only tolerate all of these changes because I've massively dialed back the exercise.  If I was still doing crazy long runs, I don't think I could live without the carbs.  Still, bring on the weight loss before the holidays please.