cleanse report

s and i just completed a 7-day "cleanse"/detox. i got the idea from my mom-propaganda-wellness-book (see last post), but we also did some online research and tweaked it a little to meet our needs. the point of the detox, for us, was to give our systems a break from all the heavy food and drink we consumed during our busy and very festive july. for a full seven days, we gave up the following: all animal products (including dairy), sugar (including natural sweeteners like honey), caffeine, alcohol, and gluten. aside from some minor deviations (one night, for example, we used a stir fry sauce that contained honey and last night i HAD to have a flour tortilla), we did it!

was it difficult? for me, HELL YES. i am an eater, dammit. not only that, i'm a die hard red-meat-eater born and raised on BBQ and beer. the hardest part for me was psychological attachment to good food and what naturally follows from good food- good wine, fun times with friends, a full happy stomach. i missed the meat and cheese and sugar but mainly, i missed looking forward to meat and cheese and sugar, if that makes sense. s missed his coffee the most, i think. both of us had headaches off and on for the whole 7 days, but s MISSED his daily cup(s) of coffee.

what did we eat? we actually found that it was pretty easy to find things to eat, even though, for me, it usually wasn't what i WANTED to eat. we ate oatmeal made with soy or rice milk, topped with bananas and raisins and some agave nectar (the only sweetener we were allowed to eat), for breakfast every morning. it was tasty and filling. s usually made herbal tea to go with our oats.

i ate lunch at work - mostly amy's vegan soups from a can. they were pretty blah, but i supplemented my soup with loads of fresh veggies (sometimes with hummus, sometimes as a salad with an oil&vinegar dressing), fresh fruits (we found some exceptionally good plums and ate about three watermelons in the course of the week), and nuts.

we cooked a lot of pretty good dinners, including black beans & brown rice topped with salsa and hot sauce, a rice noodle stir fry with veggies and tofu, a plain old vegetable soup, and a kale & potato soup with veggie kielbasa (ugh). we also did takeout from the food bars at whole foods twice (great selection). we found that gluten-free rice bread is completely unfortunate, but we really liked some tempeh we tried from whole foods. we also guzzled lots of sparkling water glitzed up with lemon.

so it's over now. last night we gleefully set the timer on both the coffeemaker and the bread machine and awoke to the smell of fresh coffee and honey bread. i made sausage (for me) and eggs (for s) and we had a wonderful breakfast. we are both so happy to have our normal eating life back (and our coffee headaches gone). tonight we are celebrating with a restaurant week dinner here.

despite the pain and tears (yes it made me cry), i'm really glad we did it. at points during the past week, i was on a fast-track to a cheeseburger binge, but s gracefully steadied me and kept me on track. (thank you!). doing this detox helped me to focus on exactly how much i needed to re-examine my eating life to make it more healthy. s and i are going to be eating more vegetarian dinners in the future, i think, and i am probably going to stick with our morning oatmeal routine (after today's indulgence). i'm also going to appreciate happy hour today more than anyone else in the bar with me - well, maybe except for s. most of all, i like that we set a goal for ourselves and achieved it. it just feels good.

mmm, now i am going to go eat a yogurt.