Long overdue UPDATE!

Today is the second day of the third and final week of this detox.
I just moved out of where I'd been living in PA and I'm back in my hometown in VA now. That is why I haven't exactly been vigilant about updating my blog these last few days. My apologies.
Here's what you need to know:
I cheated yesterday (twice) because I let people take me out for "going away" meals. I ate french fries with ketchup at lunch. I ate a solid meal for dinner (but followed the elimination guidelines and didn’t eat the peppers in my Panang Curry). Shame on me, I know.
Apart from that set-back, I'd been doing some serious thinking about this detox business. I don't feel that it has made many radical positives changes in my life, as I was rather expecting. Remember that swollen tonsil I'd developed shortly after I started the diet? Well, it went away after a couple days of gargling warm saltwater at bedtime and using homeopathic silver daily. Get this: about a week later my other tonsil became swollen and sore! Again, it went away after a few days but I almost never have throat troubles in the course of my regular-dieting life. During the second week of this detox I started experiencing headaches. Every day it seemed like I would have a headache that started out dull and progressively got worse as the day carried on. Not cool.
I’m still breaking out.
I still have hideous under-eye circles, despite best efforts to sleep more.
In short, I could be happier about the outcome of this diet so far.
Here’s me being perfectly honest with myself (and you):
Do I feel very guilty for cheating yesterday? Nope. Not even a little bit, actually.
Why not? I’m not seeing the results I thought I would.
Do I regret trying this detox? No way. I’m very glad I tried it and I would still recommend it to others who are plagued by various ailments, and even those who feel their health is pretty A-okay.
My thinking at this point is that my regular diet was not such a crazy departure from the detox diet and that is why the results have been lacking a bit o’ lustre. Yes, I ate chocolate. But I also ate greens. Yes, I ate french fries. But I also enjoy cooking at home ten times better than eating out (especially fast food). You see where I’m going with this?
What it comes down to, as I see it, is being self-aware. Being conscientious about what your inner and outer environments consist of is hugely important to your overall health. Being able to notice action/reaction like, “Gee, I ate that Hot Pocket for lunch and now all my bodily functions are shutting down” is what dieting and eating for health is all about.
Now that I’ve given you some food for thought (har har) it’s time to go make my dinner drink!

Day 11 -- EATING OUT

Breakfast (and dinner, as it turned out) was the Tropical Smoothie. I didn’t have the passion fruit puree that the recipe calls for so I used the pineapple substitute as the book suggested. Just as soon as that was assembled and consumed I was out the door to visit my friend who lives across the bridge in NJ. That trip is the reason for my foraying back into the dining out world.
As soon as I realized I’d have to pick out a detox-friendly meal from a restaurant menu I thought, “Well, crap”. (I may have just misquoted myself for the sake of keeping this blog truly clean.) My friend was kind enough to let me choose the place, and I tried to pick one where I could order some protein, veggies and grains sans buttery/creamy/cheesy sauces. Bertucci’s was the winner. You’re probably thinking that that was a dumb choice, what with Bertucci’s being known for brick-oven pizzas and pasta dishes. You would be mostly right. But the only other options were The Olive Garden or a diner.
I ordered the Pollo Sanremo without the side of pasta and of course the waiter prompted me to choose a substitute side. Most of the sides were veggies, granted, but all of them were prepared in a butter/cream/cheese sauce. Terrific. Mashed red potatoes were the only other option and potatoes are on the naughty list. Apart from that, I was sure they were prepared with loads of butter and/or cream. I asked the waiter, just out of curiosity, and he assured me they weren’t. “Just red potatoes”, he said and lor’ bless ‘im (as a character from Dickens might say) I didn’t believe that for a second.
The book tells you that you should ask the waiter to take away your wine glass and not bring bread to the table. Wine was no temptation for me at lunch when I’d be driving later, anyway. I couldn’t mention the bread without slighting my friend, so I sat on my hands and tried to breathe through my mouth while I waited for my entree. The dish I ordered consisted of grilled chicken breasts in a lemon and caper sauce with asparagus and black olives. It was delicious, but there was a smattering of parmesan cheese over the asparagus when it arrived on the table. Also I’m pretty sure the lemon sauce had met with a bit o’ butter at some point in its existence. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the meal almost as well as the company.
On an extra happy note, my stomach did not retaliate after that meal. It did, however, feel quite full and I was obliged to take a walk after lunch. (A good idea, in terms of aiding digestion, no matter how much you’ve eaten.)
Would I confidently eat out during the detox again? Absolutely not. Why? I don’t believe in ordering something in a restaurant that I could easily--and much more cheaply--make for myself at home. Those two chicken breasts, dolled up with capers and lemon slices and neighboring a few skinny sticks of greenery and olives, cost me $15. Even if I weren’t on a budget, which I certainly am, I would think that a stupidly high price for such a meal. If I’m going to dine out I want to be able to order something I would find indulgent or elaborate. Nothing you can eat on the detox really fits those categories, as far as I’m concerned.

DAY NINE and DAY TEN
I thought I would try doing a video blog (vlog?) for Day Nine but that turned out to be more of a chore than I’d imagined. I will persevere and make it happen, perhaps for tomorrow if I can manage it. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Yesterday was a bit off in the run-down of recipes. As a rule, I would make a juice for breakfast, a solid meal for lunch, and then a soup or smoothie for dinner. I decided not to do that yesterday. I made the Kale, Pineapple and Chia Seed smoothie for breakfast, but only soaked the seeds for about an hour (as apposed to the “few hours” that the book recommends). Come lunch time I pulled out the solid meal recipe I had pre-selected for that day and found I didn’t really want to make it after all. The recipe was for the Vegetable Nori Rolls with Nut “Rice” and included about a dozen different ingredients, all of them meant to be cut into mini-sticks. Realizing I wasn’t up for all that, I opted to make a recipe I already knew and loved. I call it Apples and Cabbage, but I’m sure there are other titles for it. Just because one your old favorite recipes isn't featured in the Clean book doesn’t mean it can’t work within the diet or be adapted to work. Open your mind and be prepared to expand the horizons of your palette.
APPLES AND CABBAGES:
2 T butter
1 medium red onion, cut in half and sliced
1 medium head of red cabbage, cored and sliced
2 green apples, peeled, cored and cut into half-inch chunks
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T brown sugar
Pinch of clove
Half a cup of water
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onions and cook for about five minutes, or until just tender. Then add the rest of the ingredients, stir to combine and cover. Cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the lid and cook for five minutes more, or just until liquid has evaporated. Serve over brown rice. Enjoy!
Granted, the diet doesn’t allow for butter or sugar, but it’s easy enough to substitute olive oil and agave nectar, respectively. I don’t feel it altered the flavor in a bad way. Be sure to peel the apples if they’re not organic. (All of the pesticides get absorbed into the skin of the fruit and you don’t want to ingest that junk.) Also, this recipe serves four; I simply cut all the ingredients in half so I could have leftovers today. To me this recipe is near-perfect because it’s so easy to prepare and has such great flavor that it’s even delicious served cold. Unlike the fussy nori rolls, this dish is more rustic so you don’t have to be very precious about how you cut up the veggies. A simple way to inject more flavor into any dish that’s bedded on rice is to cook the rice in stock. I chose low-sodium chicken stock this time, but vegetable works equally well. Brown rice always smells amazing when you cook it, even in plain water. Adding the stock produces that wonderfully home-y soup smell. If any of you decide to try this recipe, definitely let me know. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.
After that, the quality of my kitchen time degraded some more. Instead of making a separate liquid meal for dinner, I just drank my breakfast leftovers. As it happens, that tasted better as a leftover. I think the pineapple may have been too sharp when it was very fresh that morning. My taste buds were sure glad it mellowed out by the evening. I don’t know about you guys, but fresh pineapple hurts my tongue after a little while. I can never eat more than a few pieces in one sitting. I know that it’s supposed to be very cleansing, though, so I’m toughing it out for this detox.
I will do my best to post a video or something more visually engaging tomorrow. Meanwhile, I hope you all are taking advantage of the respite from the heat these last two days. Go out and soak up a little vitamin D!

DAY EIGHT
As today is just another leftovers day, I want to talk about some topics aside from food. Dr. Junger includes in his book a list of things you must do while on the detox, like getting lots of sleep, and drinking plenty of water and exercising regularly. To each of those items I say, “duh”; all of those things fall under the category of I Know I Should Do, But I Don’t Anyway AND there’s a good excuse, too! Am I right or am I right? I’m not trying to make anybody feel like a lazy ignoramus because they’re guilty of underperforming one (or all three) of those tasks on the “must-do” list. That said, it is good to be mindful of habits we know are less than desirable and take strides to amend those ways.
I, for one, probably do not get enough sleep. Up until my college years, sleep was never an issue. I could sleep for 12 hours without stirring even once! Now that I’m older sleep can be a struggle. I either can’t fall asleep because my mind is wide awake, or I can’t stay asleep if I do fall asleep straight away. And as soon as the sun peeks through my curtains? Fuggedaboutit. I’m awake. Furthermore, I don’t think a single night passes anymore where I don’t get up at least once to go to the bathroom. What used to trouble me about my sleeping patterns was my lack of dreams. That is, I knew I was having dreams, but could never remember them. (A point of bother for me because my dreams were a source of amusement for the rest of my day.) Then someone told me that taking ten deep breaths before you nod off would help you recall your dreams. It sounded kind of silly, but I tried it. The meditative quality of the breaths may not have aided me in my dream quest, but it certainly helped me sleep better.
Let’s say you’ve got the sleep, drink, and exercise thing down. What then? Well, the good doctor also has a list of optional tasks you could undertake while detoxing. As I mentioned before, a weekly massage is one of those tasks. I haven’t had one massage in my lifetime, let alone last week, so I don’t see that happening any time soon. (If you have the means, of course you should try that out and get back to me. Maybe I can glean some vicarious benefit.) He also says you should make an infrared sauna part of your daily experience package. I partook of a friend’s private steam room once, so I think I get the gist. Thanks to the soaring temperatures lately, sweating profusely every day is not something you have to go out of your way to achieve. Simply sit in your car for three minutes with the windows shut and the AC off and you’ll be there! The best thing to do at that point is to take a cold shower. Really. Dr. Junger recommends the hot/cold contrast and I have read elsewhere that keeping the skin cool is good for your immune system.
What are some unhealthy habits you’d like to nix? Are there small treatments that you indulge in to make yourself feel better? Tell me about it in a comment below.

DAY SEVEN
I’ve made it one full week without any corner-cutting or back-sliding. Go me!
The Energy Smoothie I had for breakfast today was like drinking a Christmas cookie. (Perhaps I intuitively picked out the one recipe which closest resembles the most celebratory time of year? Hmm. . . ) The combination of the spice from the cardamom and the nuttiness from the almond butter really made a great base for the drink. I definitely have to say, however, that the peaches stole the show. They didn’t make the smoothie overtly fruity, but they did lighten up the overall palette and made it something truly tasty.
Lunch was a glorified tuna salad. (Proper title: Watercress Salad with Shaved Fennel and Seared Tuna) The recipe gives you the option of using canned tuna in water instead of a tuna steak, but that means you don’t get to do any fun searing. If you’re very hungry or cramped for time, however, the canned tuna is a blessing. I didn’t add as much fennel as was called for because I’d just had the apple and fennel juice the night before, and fennel is such a strong flavor it’s easy to tire of quickly. As it was I ended up with a tummy ache.
Before you go blaming the canned tuna, let me give you some backstory. I ate my breakfast at 8:30 this morning. I didn’t have any snacks between then and noon when I went swimming because I was preoccupied and not paying attention to my body. (That is something you should try to avoid. Trust me, your body will thank you for the consideration.) By the time I hit the water I was already hungry, but I willfully ignored that. What was I going to do? Hit up the vending machine down the hall? Don’t think so. A dozen laps later I was starting to feel my energy flagging and a cramp forming. I did a bit of lazy, cool-down swimming and decided I needed food. After all was chopped and mixed, I didn’t tuck into my lunch until about an hour later. In my desire for energy and no more hunger pains, I may have over-eaten. Apologies to you and me for being a little pig.
End-of-week-recap: I’ve lost one pound. I don’t feel any more mentally clear (although I flatter myself that that is not a usual problem for me). More energy? Nope. But I fully blame the heat for that. You know one major perk that has come out of this week? My stomach is starting to settle down. Hurrah! Check out the pics below to see the changes this week has wrought.

DAY SIX
It’s kind of incredible that the first week of this detox is almost over. Before I’d begun, I looked toward it with merely a sense of curiosity about this small adventure. As I started in earnest I immediately wondered if I could really manage to go through three whole weeks. A few days in and I realized I wasn’t about the starve, which was my main concern, so this beast was surely one I could slay.
Temptation to eat the wrong foods is strong, though. That will be the tricky thing to mind for the remainder of the diet. It’s tough when people close to you are noshing goodies you wish you could also be enjoying *coughOfficeChocolatecough*. Especially difficult to handle is getting accosted by the heavenly aromas emanating from the grocery bakery while you slip leafy greens into your buggy. I’ve found that the best thing to do in either situation is to simply walk away, thinking of each step as bringing you that much closer to the new, healthful you. If you can’t seem to see through those particular rose-colored glasses, try seeing yourself as literally having that black forest cake clinging to your outer thigh. That ought to snap you out of it.
In addition to avoiding temptation, it’s important to try putting a positive face on any aspect of the program you dislike. For example, someone recently asked me how large my breakfast drinks are and found the response to be less than desirable. I had reckoned eight ounces, as an average, and the argument came back that that amount was hardly sufficient to get the day going. I found myself defending the paltry serving, saying the amount was equivalent to your average cup of tea or coffee before it got jacked up on steroids. (I felt like my rebuttal was fairly strong considering the absurdly high number of people who consider a cup of a joe a proper breakfast.) Not only was my statement true, but it further proved to me that I am not being gipped by this process.
Here are some things I like about the liquid meals. For starters, anything you can put in a cup or bottle becomes instantly portable, which is damned convenient. If you always seem to be crunched for time in the AM, like me, you will be delighted that you don’t have to skip breakfast because you don’t have time to cook it up (or because it won’t fit in your car’s cup holder). Another great aspect of the drinks is their refreshing quality. With the stifling heat we’ve been experiencing lately, it’s wonderful to begin and end the day with something cold from the fridge. Most importantly, I have not tried one recipe yet that I didn’t enjoy. Friends have accused me of food snobbery in the past, so I don’t dole out that compliment lightly.
I truly look forward to tomorrow’s breakfast Energy Smoothie with Almond Butter and Cardamom. Can you say the same for your breakfast? Do you even eat breakfast? Leave a comment!

DAY FIVE
Breakfast. I cheated. But only technically. This is what happened: I was making my breakfast smoothie--Blueberry, Carob and Almond Milk--and the silly ole blueberries kept leaping out of the colander and into my mouth. See? It’s not even my fault that I didn’t strictly have liquids only first thing in the AM. Despite the actions of those few rogue berries, something tells me I will manage to carry on with the detox just swimmingly. . .
Lunch. The Lentil Salad I made for lunch was very flavorful and delicious despite the (unintentional) omission of cucumbers and scallions. I may have previously mentioned portion size in passing, but now I really have to make a point of it. Maybe I’m just a light-weight when it comes to tucking in, but I am beginning to feel overwhelmed by how much food some of these recipes make. For instance with the Lentil Salad I would argue it comes out to be closer to three portions, at least. I noticed this with the Salmon, Broccoli Rabe and Quinoa recipe. From now on, where it says make one cup of quinoa/lentils/whatever I’ll only make half a cup. Who wants to be noshing the same grains for days on end, right?
Dinner. I decided to do a quick, light juice for dinner. We’ll see how sorely I rue that decision come bedtime when I’m running on fumes. Although, I’d rather end the day with an empty tank than try to go through a day with one. Not like you’re going to be partaking of a track and field competition in your sleep, is it?
Speaking of sleep, last night was sadly no better than the one before it. Perhaps I am being unfair to blame the detox for my unrest, as I am currently entering a very stressful time in my life. Looming ahead is a big move and a correspondingly large job change. I like to think that would be enough to disturb anyone’s sleep and that I’m not just being a Nervous Nellie, as my mom would say.