Retox...

Well, my three day juice fast/fest/feast lasted 1.5 days.
 
The good things that came from it:

• A renewed awareness of my severe caffeine addiction.
• Breaking my caffeine addiction.
• Losing 3 lbs of ... junk (I assume).
• Knowing I put in a good, solid effort.

The not so good things that came from it:

• A raging caffeine withdrawal headache.
• Juicer cleanup duty.
• Fielding loved-ones' concerns ("...do you know what you're doing?")

My intention, once I knew I wouldn't make my 3 day goal, was to stick with primarily raw produce (salads) and simple soups (miso, lentel) for the remaining day and a half, but I was woefully unsuccessful today.

Lunch:

• Falafal pita, hummus w/ flatbread.

"Well..." I reasoned to myself, "...at least I've been making vegetarian choices."

And then there was dinner:

• Large salad (lettuce, onion, carrots, red peppers, green grapes)
• Ginger dressing.
• Chicken.  Lots of chicken.  With skin.  Yummy, rotisserie-crispy-almost-tastes-like-bacon skin. 

Now here I sit, trying to sate my dessert tooth with a cup of decaf Earl Gray tea sweetened with raw demerara sugar.  There's no chocolate in the house (thank goodness) but there IS ice cream.  And donuts.  Yup.  And lemon pound cake.  ~shiver with delight~  And my mint/chocolate Clif Bars.

I'm happy to report that I'm still decaffeinated, but other than that, I'm fully retoxed. 
Deliciously, belly-stretchingly retoxed.

I'm making light of this short experience but truthfully, the headache I endured was pretty nasty.  I believe it was from caffeine withdrawal, but also from artificial sweetener which I had been using exclusively in my tea for a couple months.  And I've been drinking diet soda. Not a lot, but enough.  And I don't think I use too much salt, but I haven't really been paying attention so I might be wrong about that. 

I'm making an effort, starting right now, thanks to my 1.5 day juice fast/fest/feast, to return to mindfulness.  To think about what I choose to eat, not only when I choose it but also while I'm eating it.  To think about the time I allow for myself and what I do with it.  Zombie out in front of the tube, or Ohmmm out in my Sanctuary room.  And to appreciate.  To just be... grateful.

A whole month, is it possible?

...Of COURSE it's possible, this is me we're talkin' about.
What brings me back to the keyboard? You'll never guess, not in a million years.  Really, wan'na try?
What's that?  I hit my weight goal?  I wish, but no.
I hit the lottery?  Oh boy, do I ever wish, but no.
I decided that waffles and bananas would never cross these lips again?  HA!  What universe are YOU living in?!!!!
No, what I find so incredibly interesting that I HAVE to share with you is ... THIS:



Eggs, eggs, as far as the eye can see!
 Chicken eggs.  Turkey eggs.  Quail eggs.   Pheasant eggs...

...wait... what..?  An Ostrich egg???

...Is that still only 2 WW points??!

Insane, right?  If that's not worth blogging about, I might as well retire my pen, ~er~ keyboard and pick up knitting.

A whole month, boys and girls.  I wish I had a month's worth of interesting shtuffs to share, but I don't.  So I'll just blab for a little while.  If you get bored, don't hesitate to log off, or Google "Eggs of the North East" or somethin'.

I'm plugging along with Weight Watchers, a slow and steady tortoise.  A happy tortoise: 8 lbs in 8 weeks.  Clothes are starting fit again and I'm hitting that point where I'm reminded of something our former WW leader said; "We lose weight to look good in our clothes.  We exercise to look good without them."  ~sigh~  Time to dust off my sneakers.  Again.  ~groan~

I'm being a little bit of wise-@ss about the exercise because I have been "training" for my backpack adventure, slated for September.  Eight glorious days on the Appalachian Trail.  70'ish miles.  Unplugged and experiencing the world at 2 miles per hour.  I can't wait.  Truly.  I've been strapping on my pack with about 20'ish pounds in it and I hook into the section of The Trail that cuts through the northwest corner of the state.  For a few, short hours I might as well be a thousand miles deep in the wilderness, and not just a mile or two off Rt. 7.

Today is day 1 of a 3 day juice fast.  My BFF and I are doing the one day "together" (we'll be comparing notes tomorrow). I don't know if I'm going to make it the whole three days though.  I'm struggling through a caffeine withdrawal headache, which will be gone by tomorrow morning, but still: ouch.  I'm juicing my own fruits and veggies instead of buying it off the shelves.  A lot of work, a lot of cleanup... hopefully my body will reap a lot of benefit.  I'll keep you posted. 

I have begun repopulating Joe's tank.  Last week I bought 5 zebra danios ("Sale!  5 for $5!"). I had one fall-out, leaving 4.  Well, you can do the math.  Then today I bought 3 more of those plus 5 leopard danios. I jumped on the "spots & stripes" theme the minute it dawned on me.  My next purchase will be some kind of algae-eating something or other.  I'll research my spots/stripes options in that regard.  These little guys are very, very zippy and really fun to watch.

Man, I'm hungry.  I sure would like a veggie burger...

Or maybe a real burger like the one I had on the 4th.  With lots of cheese.  And bacon.  Oh mannnnnnnnn.

So even though I've been WW'ing and losing a slow but steady pound per week, I have not been making the wisest choices nutritionally (note aforementioned bacon cheeeeeeseburger).  I'm hoping this juice fast will launch me back onto the path I always stray from every time a sexy cheeseburger comes my way.

And now just some random food pix:

A breakfast of 1 fried egg w/ leftover roasted sweet potato, asparagus
and rye toast w/ "butter".  Yummmm

Grilled chopper, steamed Brussels and an ear of corn.  Again: yum!

Hello, old friend.  :-)

I can easily (and have been) eating half a watermelon per day.
I love melon season.

More soon.  How soon?  Definitely before another freakin' month screams by, egads.