Day 21 - Finito, Finished, Done, Over, Complete, Concluded

When people say to me: "How do you do so many things?"

I often answer them, without meaning to be cruel: "How do you do so little?"

It seems to me that people have vast potential.

Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks.

Yet most people don't.

They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.

~Philip Adams

Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.

~John Dewey

Detox is over and done with. What a feeling of freedom. A freedom of choice to eat what I wish once again. To celebrate, I made a steaming pot of beef stew and shared it with my neighbors along with a bottle of wine. I also enjoyed a bit of coffee ice cream for dessert. Ok fine, I ate the whole pint but I didn't have breakfast or lunch so I think I was in the clear ok?

General Highs:
My chin rash is just about to disappear into oblivion and my face has never been so clear. The underarms appear to have recovered from constant itching. My hip, which is prone to arthritic tendencies and the culprit of many sleepless nights, has ceased to continually ache. Knock on wood but I haven't had a headache the whole time. I'm off caffeine completely and my pants are looser. My mind is clear and I feel more at ease. I can also get a killer buzz off of just 1 beer or 1 glass of wine - cheap date I am now!

General Lows:
I'm thinking that the chin rash is related to an egg sensitivity. Which is fine, I'm not a huge egg fan it's just that it happens to be an ingredient in a lot things I like. But I can live with that.

What I love about this detox is that it brought me full circle, alighting finally and once again, on the very same spot I was rooted firmly to for years. The same spot that I so willingly abandoned for a time. What I'm talking about is reclaiming my good eating habits. In the past, if I was hungry, I never reached for a piece of cake. Instead, I made my self a half a sandwich with hummus and sprouts or ate a banana. I never ate until I was full and any splurges were made of things like a small handful of carob chips, a soy mocha with no whip, or a dark chocolate bar with nuts and dried fruits.

But over time I left that spot more and more until finally, I never came back and my memories vanished with time. So in living through 21 days of this detox and adhering mostly to it, I found my way back in addition to my memories and knowledge of health being restored. It's interesting how the society of today's food can completely absorb your whole being into oblivious eating habits - being completely unaware of where our food comes from, who grows it, how do they grow it, how does its manufacturing or farming practices affect other humans, animals and habitats, how far it travels to get to the grocery store, and by the time it hits our dinner tables - how much nutrition is actually left in it. Once I became aware of the answers to those questions, I became more wary of the food of society. Lucky for me, I am growing up in a changing world. A world that now brings to the forefront these food questions and issues and allows me to make better food choices. Not just for the health of the environment or the support of locally grown food but also for the health of my mind, body and soul - my soul belly. So in the words of Doug Larson - "Establishing goals is all right if you don't let them deprive you of interesting detours", -I vow right here and right now to not stray too long again, but of course will be absolutely sure to enjoy a treat now and again that is not a part of the better good, but those will be limited and rare.

So yes, I struggled at times with this detox, sometimes being unwilling to budge from my old habits. But all in all, I'm proud of myself for sticking to it. I summoned courage, creativity, support and willpower when I needed it most. And now that I've reached this goal, I have many more visions of my future that I want to reach now. So I will use this blog from here on out to keep you posted and to keep me honest and on track with new goals that I will pursue. Thank you for your support and humor during these 21 days! Here's wishing you a happy soul belly!

Day 20 - Happy Hour

I officially ended my cleanse today - 1 day early.  It's the weekend and I needed to get my grocery list planned for the week.  No, not excuses, I'm just done.  Tomorrow, on Day 21 - the official end date, I will treat you to a 'what have I learned' post but for today is just for fun. 

Highs:
The highs today were all about the food.  We went out to breakfast this morning and I had french toast, decaf coffee and bacon.  The french toast was soooo sweet I almost couldn't eat it but it was so yummo at the same time, that I had no problem cleaning my plate.  Later my husband bought me a stumptown triple americano - all decaf, of course.  About 4pm, I decided it was happy hour.  I mean most bars have happy hour starting at 4pm so I figured I was quite in line.  Plus, like my mom says, 'It's happy hour somewhere!'.  My sister stopped by on her way to dinner so it was the perfect excuse to break out a bottle of wine.  Later, dinner was a Carls Junior Famous Star without the cheese and no, I did not have any fries. 

It was also seriously fun to grocery shop today.  I planned our week's menu to perfection but I still stayed within some pretty good guidelines.  This week's dinners will be made-from-scratch crock pot creations full of vegetables and organic meats.  Lunches will be smoothies mixed with juices, bananas, maca and protein powders.  Breakfast will still be decaf coffee with soy and a bowl of blueberries.  So I didn't go crazy and that's what I'm trying to say.  I've learned that at least. 

My armpits haven't itched for a few days and my face rash is getting better.  You can barely see it although it is still there.  Which I take that to mean that I still need to be very aware of my food choices for a while coming.

Lows:
It's April and it's still rainy and cold.  Which really pisses me off.  I love winters here even though they are long and gray.  But when April comes and we still haven't seen the sun for more than a half hour every week, I start to get antsy.  This is the time of year that I do soul gardening - weeding, pruning, planting, mulching.  But I guess that will have to wait until spring gets strong enough to bust through winter.  So what I'm sayin here is, being stuck in the house has me stir crazy and makes me want to go to the fridge every 20 minutes. 

All in all though, I can get over myself and will go enjoy the Blazer game that is just now starting.  See ya tomorrow for the detox finale.

Day 19 - A Cause for Celebratin'

Well my friends, this cleanse is comin to a close.  Two more days and I start a new journey.  A journey of new found awareness, fresh health, and a more positive outlook.  So to celebrate my slow emergence back into the world of delicious, gourmet food choices, I decided to do a little celebratin. 

The weather has been just shitty.  It really has.  Cold, non stop rain, wind and dark stormy evenings.  Just the thing for an evening home with holy rolin' appetizers, a bottle of red happiness and three movies.  I was starved when I went out to pick up these Friday nite goodies.  But I still was able to leave the market with a bag full of carefully thought out food choices.  When I got home, I prepared the most amazing dish of appertifs.  I sliced up brie and gouda cheeses along with thinly sliced pastrami, wheat-free potatoe pitas, hummus, olives, crackers, apples and strawberries.  Along the sides of the dish I decorated with tiny lemon poppy seed muffins.  I served all this and a bottle of red zinfandel to my husband and I.  We ate in an almost shared silence except for the 'mmmmms'  and the 'ooooohs' and the sipping of good wine.  I stopped before I was full and corked the bottle of wine. 

After our friend Bob stopped by for a bit, I'm now gettin ready to settle in for a movie.  I don't think I had any lows today.  So, yeah, I strayed a little on the cleanse, but the way I see it, I have to ease my way back in to the life of food and this was a good test that I believe I passed. 

I plan to taste test a couple of things tomorrow too.  And I'm hoping that my fresh palate stays with me so that I never again try to fulfill my soul belly with anything unworthy again.

Day 18 - Trashed

Oh man, I was just trashed today.  I got to bed late and of course woke up rushing around again - story of my life!  At work I was so dang tired.  Every part of me wanted to run downstairs and get a big ole caffeinated cup of coffee.  But I with-held.... until 3pm when I treated myself to a green tea latte with soy.  I had to have some sort of jump start.  I was frickin falling asleep.  I have never been able to do well with less than 8-10 hours of sleep.  Lame ass I am, I know.  So I guess that was my lows for the day.  Which is good because that's a high too.  I resisted temptation to jolt myself awake with coffee.  Big step.  Really really big step for me and my love of a steamin hot cup of joe. 

I also resisted temptation once again later that evening.  When I returned home from work I was greeted with an invitation to join my aunt-n-law and cousin-n-law for dinner... at a pizza parlour.  A joint where they serve old time pizza and you sit next to a giant stuffed grizzly bear named fuzzy wuzzy and a basket ball game is on next to the circus  mirror that distorts you into a thousand little pieces.  What I"m sayin is I love that place.  They have a salad bar but who wants to go out for pizza and then not have any?  And what is pizza without beer?  I mean seriously folks.  So that was enough for me to politely decline and stay home and cook up some tofu, spinach and garlic - wahoo.  But I can say tonite that I'm once again proud of my will power, of which I had none when I started this cleanse. 

Unfortunately, I have no will power to stay awake any longer so peace out my friends.