About a week and a half ago, I got a call from my friend Kerry at 11:30 p.m. There was all sorts of noise in the background and she sounded frantic, demanding that I HAD to send her the criteria and instructions for the cleanse BEFORE breakfast the next day. This was a matter of life and death, as she had eaten too much sugar that day and somehow I was the one responsible for fixing that fact in a timely manner. So, I rallied myself and got the task done. Before breakfast as I had been instructed.
So, I texted her today at lunch to ask how the cleanse was going and got this interaction:
Bb: How is cleansing going?
Kp: Cleansing? What?
Bb: Dude you called me at 11:30 p.m., demanding the directions for the cleanse before breakfast, and now your response is "what?"
Kp: In our friendship contract, one of my explicit responsibilities is to keep your life interesting. Just fulfilling my end of the bargain.
Bb: You are ridiculous. I am blogging this.
Kp: I demand royalties.
Bb: Cool. When I get a book deal I will give you a dollar.
Kp: Contract says 15%
Bb: Friendship currency is priceless
High drama with Kp. She is right though, she keeps me entertained. Also, now I get to feel smug because she flunked out of the cleanse, and we, on the other hand were TOTAL CLEANSE CHAMPS. And, as predicted, it totally had its expected effect of sparking a new wave of interesting and better home cooking. Seriously, worth it just for that. Favourites included: homemade hummus, quinoa salad with zuchinni, tofu baked in braggs and sesame oil, delicious soups, and chili-lime pan-toasted almonds.
Monday 31 January 2011
Wednesday 19 January 2011
The Cleanse
I've been doing a 12-day cleanse for the past 7.5 days. "Cleanse" is sort of a pretentious word, but whatever. I've done this one a few times before (once-a-year-ish) with various combinations of friends, and this time it's with Joel, Lori, and Rebecca. Yay. Doing most things is more fun with company, and this is definitely no exception.
Say what you will about cleanses, but this one's not that strict or crazy (no cayenne-lemonade juice fast) and it's not really a weight loss thing either, at least in my experience and opinion. And the best thing is that both times I've done it I have benefitted just because it forced me to cook almost all of my meals at home and put a lot more thought and effort into eating healthfully...with the eventual realization that it's not that hard and *can* be delicious. To state it simply, the rules are: no sugar, no dairy, nothing fermented (like vinegar), and no flour (of any kind).
I made the poor choice of scheduling this one over my sister's birthday, but I did okay and managed to fly under the radar. She was accommodating and made sure the meal was mostly cleanse friendly. The most epic cleanse fail (saying "epic fail" was for you there, Kerry) so far has been soymilk. Last time I did it I drank SO MUCH SOYMILK. Even though it says to have it in moderation. I assumed that the "plain" soymilk was unsweetened, but this just reinforces that you always have to check. It's sweetened with cane sugar. FAIL. I haven't been drinking hardly any this time around, but relished the thought of having an occassional soy latte. So much for that.
The best thing we did so far this time around was have a meal all together on Sunday night and a "soup exchange" at the same time. Eating together and hanging out made it feel less deprived, and going home with three or four different dishes to eat through the week made it so much less of a mental obstacle. I hardly have to think about what I am going to eat for the rest of the week, thanks to Lori and Joel's soup and hummus, and Rebecca's curried chickpeas. We should do this all the time.
Say what you will about cleanses, but this one's not that strict or crazy (no cayenne-lemonade juice fast) and it's not really a weight loss thing either, at least in my experience and opinion. And the best thing is that both times I've done it I have benefitted just because it forced me to cook almost all of my meals at home and put a lot more thought and effort into eating healthfully...with the eventual realization that it's not that hard and *can* be delicious. To state it simply, the rules are: no sugar, no dairy, nothing fermented (like vinegar), and no flour (of any kind).
I made the poor choice of scheduling this one over my sister's birthday, but I did okay and managed to fly under the radar. She was accommodating and made sure the meal was mostly cleanse friendly. The most epic cleanse fail (saying "epic fail" was for you there, Kerry) so far has been soymilk. Last time I did it I drank SO MUCH SOYMILK. Even though it says to have it in moderation. I assumed that the "plain" soymilk was unsweetened, but this just reinforces that you always have to check. It's sweetened with cane sugar. FAIL. I haven't been drinking hardly any this time around, but relished the thought of having an occassional soy latte. So much for that.
The best thing we did so far this time around was have a meal all together on Sunday night and a "soup exchange" at the same time. Eating together and hanging out made it feel less deprived, and going home with three or four different dishes to eat through the week made it so much less of a mental obstacle. I hardly have to think about what I am going to eat for the rest of the week, thanks to Lori and Joel's soup and hummus, and Rebecca's curried chickpeas. We should do this all the time.
Friday 7 January 2011
Belated Resolution
My resolution for 2011 is not only belated, but also sort of unoriginal, since I posted about it in November. But, if you know me you know that I like to keep my resolutions manageable and realistic. Although sometimes/often even then I don't end up fully accomplishing them. Ones that come to mind where I had only partial success include: drinking more water, wearing out my yoga mat (took two years instead of one, but I just now realized that I did actually wear it out and had to buy a new one. GO ME.), and reading all of the unread books on my shelf. That last one is probably my most impressive failure, because in 2010 I managed to re-read more than 32 books that I own and have read more than once already instead of tackling my stack of unreads. But, you know, I read mostly for fun, so I don't want to beat myself up about it too much.
On to the unoriginal resolution....
Use stuff up. That's the umbrella that my resolution for this year is falling under. And in general, I am trying to develop it into a life habit. But I don't only want to use stuff up, I want to use the things that I already have as they are meant to be used, and make sure that I stop to consider the necessity of a new item before I purchase it.
So, in light of that goal, I gathered up all of my accumulated post-it notes from my desk at home, chose a few stacks of the ones I liked the best, and brought all the remaining ones to the office to use at my desk. I am waaaaay more likely to use them here.
Other successes including beginning to use up my collection of cotton balls and qtips, old make up, and hair products. Also shoes. But that's a hard one and I am working myself up to that. Oooh, and food/dry goods.
I have also decided, as an amendment to last year's resolution on books, to seriously evaluate my desire to read the unread books that I have. If I don't want to read them and have owned them forever, AND don't think that it will be worth it in the end to force myself to do it as an enrichment exercise, then darn well I am going to march them over to the wee book in and exchange them 2 for 1 for books that I WILL read. I'm thinking The Flying Troutmans, The Book of Negroes, and I'm not sure what else yet.
The additional motivation here is to ease the great merging of belongings that will be happening between Joel and I when we get married. We have a garage sale in the works for this spring, so I am saving some of my best castoffs in a box in my storage area so that our sale doesn't stink.
So, there you have it. My resolution. Maybe next year I will pledge something a little more exciting, but for now I'm good with the practicality of this one.
On to the unoriginal resolution....
Use stuff up. That's the umbrella that my resolution for this year is falling under. And in general, I am trying to develop it into a life habit. But I don't only want to use stuff up, I want to use the things that I already have as they are meant to be used, and make sure that I stop to consider the necessity of a new item before I purchase it.
So, in light of that goal, I gathered up all of my accumulated post-it notes from my desk at home, chose a few stacks of the ones I liked the best, and brought all the remaining ones to the office to use at my desk. I am waaaaay more likely to use them here.
Other successes including beginning to use up my collection of cotton balls and qtips, old make up, and hair products. Also shoes. But that's a hard one and I am working myself up to that. Oooh, and food/dry goods.
I have also decided, as an amendment to last year's resolution on books, to seriously evaluate my desire to read the unread books that I have. If I don't want to read them and have owned them forever, AND don't think that it will be worth it in the end to force myself to do it as an enrichment exercise, then darn well I am going to march them over to the wee book in and exchange them 2 for 1 for books that I WILL read. I'm thinking The Flying Troutmans, The Book of Negroes, and I'm not sure what else yet.
The additional motivation here is to ease the great merging of belongings that will be happening between Joel and I when we get married. We have a garage sale in the works for this spring, so I am saving some of my best castoffs in a box in my storage area so that our sale doesn't stink.
So, there you have it. My resolution. Maybe next year I will pledge something a little more exciting, but for now I'm good with the practicality of this one.
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