The Cleanse: Day 1

My Cleanse came in the mail yesterday. After pouring through the material and staring suspiciously at the bottles of herbal supplements and the large jar of powder, I decided I would begin this morning.

I'm undertaking the Purification Cleanse, which is the more radical approach but something that my digestive system clearly needs after my brief foray into a low-carb, higher protein diet. This means that for 10 days I will only be eating vegetables, fruits, smoothies made with the mystery powder, and lots and lots of water. On Day 11, I will introduce some low-fat proteins like chicken breast and fish. Lots of fish. The entire Cleanse is 21 days and guess what?

You will get to live every moment of it with me right here.

So there are a few things suggested in The Cleanse that I won't likely be doing: (1) eating only organic vegetables and fruits. It's a nice idea but the amount of organic veggies and fruits available at my nearest grocery stores are limited and the prices are high so I'll be mixing it up (2) eating only organic, free-range, grain fed, hormone free chicken. I would have to take out another mortgage on our house to do that. I once bought organic chicken breast for Emily when she was a baby and it was $18. I'm not joking. I haven't bought it since. (3) Drinking 8 glasses of spring water a day. I don't buy water. Okay, I do buy water because the City of Ottawa bills me for it every two months. If you can afford or have the time to have that much spring water in the house then lucky for you, but it just doesn't work for me.

The whole idea of The Cleanse is to flush out all the toxins in my body by taking a number of supplements and drinking the smoothies with the powder. While doing that, I'm supposed to try to limit severely any new toxins going in and thus the organic foods and spring water. I like the idea but I just can't do the totally organic thing. I have to work in our budget. So, I'll do my best.

I had my first shake this morning before breakfast. I added strawberries and bananas and blueberries, which sounds very good but tasted like crap. I figure after a couple of days I'll get used to the taste. Beyond that it is salads and fruit and veggies very frequently because I'm hungry a lot. So far though, so good.

Of course, those cookies in the kitchen are rather tempting as is the bread I baked last night and pretty much any other food that isn't a vegetable.

This will be a very interesting exercise in self-control. I could stand to exercise my self-control. It doesn't get a work out too often.