Friday, 17 August 2007 (9:02am)

So I have officially made it to Day 10. I could stop tomorrow but I’m going to go atleast one more day until M- is finished also. We are going shopping for ingredients for the soup this afternoon (see below.) I am a little worried that my tongue is still white. I wonder if I need to detox for longer. Well, I have a feeling I will do this again sometime- probably after all the delicious food & eggnog during the holidays! So whatever did not detox this time will have to wait until next time. I think 10 (or 11) days is a good enough time for a first run at this. :) Plus, I want the energy to run again! (And- so vain- for my hair to be thick and shiny again.)

Here is the breakdown for breaking the fast.

And the schedule for this week of eating for M- and I:

Sunday (1) – fresh orange juice
Monday (2) – orange juice & soup (w/rye wafers)
Tuesday (3) – orange juice, soup, vegetables, salads or fruit
Wednesday- raw food restaurant bonobos
Thursday- ?
Friday- cuban
Saturday & Sunday- kielbasa
Monday and beyond- mostly raw (for me, atleast)

Thursday, 16 August 2007 (9:30am)

I woke up energized today and excited for the day. The funny thing is, its so cloudy outside. The weather typically affects my mood and when it is cloudy, I usually never want to get out of bed. I felt so good.

My nose is still sniffly but my tongue looks like its clearing up more. I am getting so excited about healthy foods. I have so many ideas of which kinds of salads I want to make and recipes I want to try! My mom is getting into the raw foods, as well, which makes me so happy. It will be so much easier to share recipes if we are doing the same thing.

I think I will either running or climbing today. I would have gone running yesterday if I had not worn myself out by cleaning the entire house. THEN I decided to organize all my drawers, shelves & closet. I got halfway through the overhead storage before I decided to call it quits. I’m glad though, because when I woke up today everything was in order again. I saw two of my roommates and got to catch up with them. One of them asked what I was making. I just said, lemonade. I didn’t want to get into all the details at 8 o’clock in the morning.

Breaking the Fast

For those who have characteristically lived the unnatural way of meat, milk, refined and devitalized food, it may be best to change over as follows, gradually adopting the raw fruit, nut, and vegetable diet:

FIRST DAY:
All Day: Several 8 oz. glasses of fresh orange juice (as desired.) Drink slowly!

SECOND DAY:
All Day/ Morning: Several 8 oz. glasses of orange juice—with extra water, if needed.

Afternoon: vegetable soup (no canned soup) as follows:

RECIPE FOR VEGETABLE SOUP
Use several kinds of vegetables, perhaps one or two kinds of legumes, potatoes, celery, carrots, green
vegetable tops, onion, etc. Dehydrated vegetables or vegetable soup powders may be added for extra
flavor. Okra or okra powder, chili, curry, cayenne (red pepper), tomatoes, green peppers, and zucchini
squash may be included to good advantage. Brown rice may be used, but no meat or meat stock. Other
spices may be added (delicately) for flavor. Use salt delicately as a limited amount of salt is necessary.
* Learn to enjoy the natural flavor of the vegetables. The less cooking the better.

Evening: Soup- using the broth mostly, although some of the vegetables may be eaten. Rye wafers (eaten sparingly) with the soup, but no bread or crackers.

THIRD DAY
Morning: orange juice
Afternoon: soup
Evening: Whatever is desired in the form of vegetables, salads, or fruit. *No meat, fish, or eggs; no bread, pastries, tea, coffee, or milk!

FOURTH DAY
Normal eating may be resumed.

* Best health will be retained if the morning meal consists of the lemonade or fruit juice: and, of course, if a strictly fruit, vegetable, seed and berry diet is followed.

*If, after eating is resumed, distress or gas occurs, it is suggested that the lemonade diet be continued for several more days until the system is ready for food.

Thursday, 16 August 2007 (2:06am)

“coming off the detox can be very dangerous. You could go into anyphylactic shock if you eat something that has toxins in it. That means your body reacts to the toxin or food that you might have an allergy to. Your air passages become inflamed and you have difficulty breathing. People can get very sick of they don’t follow directions very carefully. PLEASE be very careful what you have as a first meal. My book suggests a whole week of gradually getting back to eating, and no more toxic foods at all. I can photocopy the pages for you if you like and send it to you.”
- excerpt from an email my mom wrote to me last night

I’ll have to look into that. The book by Burroughs does describe what to eat for atleast the first few days, not sure about after that though. I will be careful though.

The tea woke me up again tonight. That makes this the second time (I think) that this has happened. My nose had so much stuff in it that I had to blow it several times. My back is hurting a lot, too. And I just checked my tongue- the white is darker and fuzzier in the center but receding on the edges.

Going to try to go back to sleep now… Over and out.

Wednesday, 15 August 2007 (8:26am)

I had a dream last night that I had a bite of pizza crust and did not chew it but sucked on it like it was a candy or something. I wonder what chewing will feel like after this is over.

Also, I think yesterday was a detox day for me. I had sniffles and was blowing my nose for most of the day and also today has started, as well. My skin is still bad but I’m sure it’ll clear up soon. Haven’t had pimples like this since high school! Oh, and one more thing- I looked into the mirror today and lo and behold… I have a waist! I used to think my body was naturally formed to be straight at my waist but it actually curves in now. Wow!

Tuesday, 14 August 2007 (1:01pm)

Today has been so nice so far. I drank the salt in the morning and it suddenly did not bother me. I went from almost puking on Day 1 to drinking it as if it was a regular glass of water, sans salt. My opinion is that it’s all in the presentation. I drank it out of a purple tumbler with a bright orange twisty straw. It made it all the more delicious!

So after the salt, I had my 20 oz. Fanta bottle filled with lemon drink. I had that over the next hour and then got to work. I have been in front of my computer, getting so much done that I almost forgot to get more lemons! I ran out just a little while ago and made sure to not just get them for today but tomorrow, as well. The strangest thing happened to me in the supermarket. First of all, keep in mind that I am famished by now. I finished the lemon drink early in the morning and just drank water since then. So I walked into the market and saw all the food and I thought of things I would usually buy. However, instead of thinking of how good they would taste, I just wondered if they would stop my stomach from feeling hungry.

In conclusion, the little supermarket excursion taught me that the feelings I thought were hunger in the beginning were really just cravings, which are just another of the many wonderful detox symptoms. M- told me this morning he might continue past Day 10 for real. <sigh> I no longer crave the food but I do want my hair to be full and shiny again. Also, I miss the experience of food- the chewing actually. Not much else. Weird how much changes from day to day.

Monday, 13 August 2007 (10:32pm)

Today has to have been the most difficult day so far. I forgot to replace my lemons until after i was already wanting more lemon juice so I went to three different super-markets looking for lemon; one had green ones, the other they were too small, last one- just right. Since I was hungry, it was particularly awful seeing all the food everywhere. I considered quitting the lemon diet SO MANY times today but somehow I made it through.

Its weird because I woke up so energetic, billed some clients, did some design work. I was bouncing all over the place and then I was just hungry and I guess the bad energy followed in the footsteps of my mood because nothing seemed to go right today.

I saw M- later on and talked to him about it. It made me feel so much better. He suggested we eat out first “real” meal together- so far, we’re planning on a Cuban restaurant. That means I have to do the lemons for atleast one more day (if not more, if he decides to continue.) I don’t mind though. It would be worth it to share a meal and be able to experience it together. :)

Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

Monday, 13 August 2007 (7:47am)

Things I am going to eat/drink when the lemon diet is over (aka everything I have had a craving for since I started this):

• coffee!! (esp. the mayan from Brooklyn Label in GP)
• pad si eew
• tomatoes
• arros con leche
• spicy fries
• posole
• vegetable lo mein
• kielbasa
• pizza
• egg & bacon on roll
• glazed Krispy Kreme doughnut
• sangria
• apple mint juice
• mangos w/paprika
• grapefruit

Monday, 13 August 2007 (7:34am)

Wow, my tongue is so dirty looking. It feels weird, too. You can even see the center part where my piercing used to be. I hope it doesn’t get any worse. I will have to stop documenting it in photographs, if that is the case.

My back hurt again and my leg felt funny. M- said it is the detox. My face and his are both breaking out. Also, probably the detox. I am so excited about it almost being over.

Temptation- Part Deux

Yesterday was another day filled with the smell of kielbasa and other delicious things. It was sooooo hard not to want to eat. M- and I were at his brother’s house up near Croton on Hudson with his family. They kept on offering food and beer. We told them about the lemon diet and tried to explain. Sometimes I think it is better just to do your own thing and let other people do theirs. I ended up having 7 lemon drinks instead if 6 that I usually have. We were invited back again in two weeks when we can actually eat kielbasa and bbq’d bacon. Hm… I wonder how it will taste after all of this.

Sunday, 12 August 2007 (9:32am)

Going to a BBQ on the Lemon Diet

Last night M- and I went up to Norwalk to visit some of his friends. The entire party revolved around food. There was a large table set in the center, covered in fruits, chips, bread, toppings for the barbecued kielbasa and chicken. The scent was thick in the closed in porch. We were offered beer & wine and different kinds of food over and over. At first, I said we had eaten earlier that day. After awhile, however, M- just told them about the diet we were on. Some were interested. The typical reaction was,” You are going to die!” I explained it to the people who wanted to listen and tried not to let the others (or the smell of kielbasa) get to me. It was hard. We went out to the car to have some lemon drink that was made beforehand. M- and I ended up leaving early. We talked for awhile but it was very strange- almost like we were left out of the festivities because we could not eat or drink with everyone else.

General Observations

Last night my back hurt so badly. I woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible pain in my lower back. It was about six in the morning. I decided to use the bathroom. This is the first time I had woken up in the middle of the night for that. I talked to M- about it and he said it is the tea.