Day 11: June 18, 2009

Drum roll please. . . . padapadapadpapadapadapadapadaPAD. . . (that was the drum roll, if you hadn’t figured it out.)

And my official post-lemon juice weight is: 161.5.

Darn it. Just missed losing ten pounds by half a stupid pound.

Okay, so it’s not as dramatic as some. Some people report they have lost 20 lbs or more, but I’m happy with 9.5 and am pretty confident that I’ll continue to lose over the next two days before I start introducing solid foods. To think that I only lost 15.5 lbs. over roughly four months on Nutrisystem (with a cheat here and there due to trips or a holiday) contrasted with losing 9.5 lbs. in 10 days. That’s pretty significant, I’d say.

I’m sure I will gain back some water weight, but my hope is that going straight to a raw food diet for (at least) 30 days will help me continue to lose and feel energized, while keeping the inevitable post-cleanse pounds from creeping back on. A major goal of the cleanse is to get your body to a point where it naturally craves healthier foods—a goal which I am close to hitting. It is such a waste for people to do this cleanse to lose a couple of quick, easy pounds and then go right back to the way they were eating (and drinking) before.

This morning was a blessing if only because I didn’t have to worry about ingesting any salt whatsoever. As I was juicing my oranges, I saw my Celtic Gray sea salt in its Ball Jar sitting there menacingly on the counter, and I felt like taunting it. Bad salt! I know it’s not the salt’s fault, but I still have a gag reflex going on when I think about those stupid SWFs. After reading several blogs about MC experiences, it seems the norm rather than the exception that people really CAN’T gear up for the SWFs every day. So, I feel happy that I was the exception and followed the cleanse as it was intended to the letter. It definitely proved itself successful when followed as it was engineered.

So, after giving myself props for following the cleanse, I should turn around and shame myself for not following the ease-out as it was written. I kinda inserted my common sense into the ease-out, instead of just doing what Burroughs suggested, which DIDN’T make a lot of sense to me. The traditional ease-out regimen instructs two days of orange juice followed by a combo of juice and raw fruits and veggies on the third day. Well, I theorized that just drinking straight orange juice all day would be incredibly bad for my blood sugar and also not good for my hunger, since it would probably have less calories than the “lemonade,” which had 14 tablespoons of maple syrup a day. So, after perusing some blogs about ease-out to get some ideas, I decided to halve my orange juice with water (to dilute some of the natural sugars) and add two tablespoons of maple syrup (to provide extra calories and vitamins/minerals). So, my recipe was 16 ounces of fresh-squeezed Valencia orange juice (about 5 oranges) and 16 ounces of purified water with 2 ounces of maple syrup, and I planned to drink two liters of these, plus unlimited water, throughout the day. That seemed to work pretty well; however, because of some unscheduled activities we did with Kaya and her cousins this afternoon, I wasn’t able to drink my second liter of orange juice until around 6:30 P.M. By that time, I was very depleted of energy and pretty shaky. I definitely waited too long.

I did cheat on the ease-out four times today, and I don’t feel bad about it cause it didn’t do me any harm digestively (which is the main concern with ease-out. . . to prepare your stomach again for food). I got one of my raw food packages in the mail and there were a couple of things I HAD to try. The first were raw cacao nibs. I sampled just a few—maybe seven in all—and was delighted by their bitter, nutty, and deep chocolatey flavor. Then, I opened my Raw Goji Love Truffles. I decided that I really should try one out; after all, I deserved it and they ARE healthy for you. So, I partook. It was definitely not a Godiva truffle, but it was still gratifying and tasted real and not manufactured. Later in the afternoon, we took a family outing (after Kaya spent some quality time in the Barbie “motorized” Mobile with her cousins) to the local health food store and I loaded up on Medjool dates. I read a very enticing NPR article about this type of date that urged me to try one as soon as I was in its presence, which I did. It was just as amazing as the writer described. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15282847) It feels like you’re eating a caramel chew, only, again, natural and not manufactured. I fantasized about eating another one for the next couple of hours and finally succumbed to the inner urge. I think I found a new addiction.

I'm interested in what my weight will be tomorrow morning. I wonder if I’ll continue to lose. Of course, because I “cheated” on the ease-out, my guilty diet-breaking conscience assumes that I’ve probably gained back all the weight I lost. I told this thought to Jere and he said, “You’ve got problems.” I know he’s right.

Well, one more day of ease-out and I get to start the next adventure: the raw food 30 day challenge. Should be fun. I got my seed sprouter and a few varieties of seeds to sprout today. How did I get so weird? It seemed to have happened overnight, but I know I’ve been on the journey to weirdness for some time. I guess I’ve finally arrived.