Juice Cleanse, Day 2: observations

It's around noon on Day 2 of my three-day Urban Remedy juice cleanse, and I'm just drinking Juice 2 of the daily six, the juice called Boost. Which I really hope it will deliver because I am feeling w-e-i-r-d.

And by weird, I mean fuzzy and unable to do jack-shit.

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making choices because we can

pensive, on a juice cleanseIt's another day in our long, long death-watch.

The news this morning was the same as yesterday, that we're counting in hours now. My baby sister has hours left, at most a day.

But since Carla has defied all of the medical wisdom to date, has stubbornly and repeatedly illuminated at every turn the limits of our understanding of the miracle and mystery of the human body, who knows? We could be at this a long, long time.

But really, I doubt it. 

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Day 7: almost there

Smoothie 7? Check!

OK, so as I mentioned elsewhere, this was a tough morning, one on which I nearly caved and made myself a delectable slice of toast.  Which would be completely absurd considering that I'm almost done, have almost completed this 7-day body cleanse de-tox that I embarked on last Saturday with the wonderful Dr. Kate Tenney, ND.  How silly would that be, to bail when the finish line is in sight?  It's really amazing how many rationalizations my little brain came up with, one after another, reasons why it really doesn't matter one way or the other which day it is, etc., etc., and you know you're just going back to the wheat-teat anyway, just get it over with.

Reminded me of this, by Peter Bregman, on why it's hard to keep resolutions.  It's not the motivation.  We generally have that in spades.  It's follow-through.  It's not letting our brains derail us.  Like mine almost did this morning.

I'm not going to lie. With the end so near, the oh-fuck-it voice was the loudest.  But instead of reaching for my beloved Dave's Killer Bread when I opened the freezer, instead it was the frozen mixed berries, of which I had just enough left for this morning's smoothie.  And because, honestly, at this point the taste of the so-called Medical Food is something I'm so over, yes, I threw a banana in there.  And then wondered, while drinking down its deliciousness, whether that was really so different after all than caving in to the bread.

Look, the list of things I've learned from this 7-day experience is long.  I think finally the whole food pH thing has really sunk in to a bone-level with me, something I've been resisting ever since Crazy Loretta (my former eyebrow technician) became its chief apostle about 10 years ago.  [Come to think of it, Crazy Loretta has been on the cusp on a lot of health issues, not just the pH, but she was the first person I ever heard talk about green juice, loaned me books years and years ago on the subject.   Hmmmm, crazy but prescient? Interesting.  But still crazy.]  Also, I have a new and deep appreciation for how sweet actual food can be, like aforementioned banana.  An apple?  Completely candy sweet.  So good.  And of all the things I've been craving -- toast, steak, toast, butter, cream in my  coffee -- note that sugar hasn't come up once.  No chocolate?  That's nuts!  I thought I couldn't live without it and now look at me, doing just fine.

I'm not sure what I will do tomorrow, how I will return to the Land of the Eating.  I do not, DO NOT, want to have become a fussy eater who says No to everything and has to bring her own food everywhere and is on some stringent impossible plan.  But I do want more greens on my plate and I want to stay plugged in to this awareness of how my food feels once I've eaten it.  That's just so precious.  And hard-won.

Oh, and I want some chicken.  Let's be clear about that.

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day 2: i signed up for this

It's Morning #2 of the 7-day cleanse I'm doing, and may I just say I am feeling super-weird. Day 1 was easier than I expected, especially since I had that Board meeting from 8am to 2pm, and some worry in the back of my head that I'd be excusing myself to the toilet every 5 minutes for cleanse-induced reasons. But no, it was completely fine. I didn't feel hungry, really, until around dinner, when the vegetable "soup" I made proved to be entirely unsatisfactory. I think my exact words were, setting down my spoon with finality, "if this is food, I think I'll pass." Yes, clearly this re-set is needed.

So today so far: super-weird. I've had my warm water with lemon and the three cleanse capsules. Now I'm working my way through the smoothie.

Now I know that yesterday's smoothie was delicious because of a mistake I made -- the ground flaxseed I so excitedly purchased on Friday when shopping for provisions also contained dried berries + sugar (yum). I corrected for that yesterday afternoon, and so this morning's sugar-free concoction is not nearly so delectable. I will definitely have to fiddle with the fruit I'm adding, punch it up a bit. Considering I eat my usual breakfast as slowly as possible but still quickly, trying to make it last because it's so good but also greedy to finish, taking 20 minutes to drink half this smoothie gives you some indication of the change in my ways.

In case you're wondering, the "super-weird" I'm feeling is a spacey-ness, a kind of unsettled, not totally comfortable in my skin. It also could be my grieving for toast. I've done the same morning routine for so many years, that it's honestly strange to do anything else. Coffee + toast, and lately toast of the very best bread I've ever found in a supermarket, Dave's Killer Bread, the Seed one, omg so delicious.  I don't like feeling fuzzy, but maybe things will pick up a bit for me this morning when I move on to the next thing on my list: the one cup of coffee I am permitted per day.

So, Day 2, morning: feeling weird. But still totally committed to completing this Cleanse, still totally excited about it, and wondering what I'll do on Day 8.  The first thing that jumps to mind is "eat toast," but that's today.  Let's see how it goes.


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Swinging from extremes

In the span of just one week, I'm going from this glistening tower of chocolatey goodness eaten at one of my three birthdays dinners this past weekend:

To this:

Yes, on Saturday, January 21st, I'm beginning a 7-day detox and body cleanse with the fabulous Dr. Kate Tenney, my friend and also a Naturopathic Doctor with a practice in Tiburon, CA.  

I've never done something like this, although years and years ago I did do a 10-day-long juice fast.  And just over a month ago, I had the experience of fasting before a medical procedure, and even though the fasting was in prep for a colonoscopy, I do have to say that I felt GREAT for days afterward.  Lighter.  More awake.

We're supposed to set an intention for the cleanse, something which is bound to help sustain me when I start to really crave eating something besides vegetables somewhere around Tuesday of next week.  I'm sure I'll come up with more as I get closer to the kick-off of the process Saturday morning.  Right now, it's just about hitting Re-Set in a big way for this year, examining some of my ingrained habits, and shaking things up.  I've been feeling like an overfed sloth since I've been unable to practice, so if nothing else, this will give me a different focus for 7 whole days.

One thing I asked my husband for as I do this, is a recess on snark about how useless such a thing really is, how unhealthy, [fill in the snarky blank]. Naturally, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but this is something I've been wanting to try for a long time, so right now is the time for negative opinions to get stowed in the overhead and taken down only after landing on Saturday, January 28th.  Think of it as an opportunity, I say, for him to eat all of the foods I normally can't share a kitchen with.  Kippered snacks come to mind.  Sardines.

I'll be sipping vegetable soup and eating salad and making smoothies out of kale and other pretty green foods, drinking my cleanse powder shakes and taking my detox capsules, and trying on this experience for one short week.  If nothing else, it'll be just that: a brief experience, a chance to feel my body in a different way, with probably a whole lot more awareness than I give it on a regular basis.  Sounds good to me!

For now, an end to towering chocolate desserts.  Their time will come again, I'm sure, but right now, satisfying myself with the memory and the prospect of a super-healthy and light week to come.

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