quitting crack

Show of hands, who overindulged over the holidays?

ME!!!! (with two hands up) I sure did, don’t we all? ‘Tis the season, right? Holiday parties, family gatherings, drinks with friends. There was one fun, and food-filled festivity after another throughout the month of December. I pretty much ate all the plant-based food I wanted. I started each day with a green smoothie, and ate at least one salad a day, which helped me from going over the chocolate cliff. My main overindulgence’s were wine and chocolate. Lots of it, every evening. This on top of going out to eat a few times a week and also indulging in a daily vanilla soy latte, which I used to reserve only for weekends, left me a little high on sugar.

Cleanse me!

I have decided to do somewhat of a cleanse. I say ‘somewhat’ because my diet has become pretty darn clean – at least 60% raw, gluten free, mostly soy free (except those yummy lattes) and plant based. In talking to various health professionals, and in the reading I have done (see below for the list) I believe if you eat clean your body does a perfectly fine job of removing the gunk. Definitions of clean of course vary depending on your opinion. Clean for me means mostly raw, animal-free, gluten free, sugar free and devoid of a bar code. During the past month though, crack, AKA ‘sugar’ has crept into my diet. Dark chocolate, red wine, champagne, mimosa and vanilla soy lattes have left me with daily crack cravings.

CSD time

I have digested a small library of nutrition books; The Omnivores Dilemma  In Defense of Food, Skinny Bitch, Anti-Cancer, The China Study, Whitewash, The Lean, Clean, The Thrive Diet, Whole Foods to Thrive, The Kind Diet, the Crazy Sexy Diet, Green for Life and Eating Animals, plus documentaries like Food, Inc., Forks over Knives, Crazy Sexy Cancer, and Super Size Me, plus  dozens of plant based and raw cookbooks.

The diet I arrive at today was formed by trial and error over a few years, and the result of hundreds of hours of reading and working closely with a naturopath. My diet is most like the Crazy Sexy Diet (CSD) and the Thrive Diet with the addition of chocolate and wine. What has been working for me is high raw, wheat, soy, corn, animal and dairy free.

What I will nourish myself with

After slipping up and over indulging in too much sugar and booze over the holidays I am going to rid myself of some demons. I am going to follow the Crazy Sexy Diet 21 day cleanse. I tried this one before but gave up on day three to have some wine. This cleanse fits my lifestyle as I don’t have to make any major diet changes, and the food guidelines are pretty loose – no animal products, high raw, minimally unprocessed.

This cleanse incorporates body, mind and spirit and includes daily meditation, exercise, dry brushing, and a daily sinus rinse. I typically follow all of these except the sinus rinse (I only do it when I feel worn out), and the meditation. I have tried structured meditation and I have been inconsistent, instead I aim for daily moments of reflection when I can, and being present more often. This works for me. During this cleanse I will make a greater effort to set aside time for mindful meditation though. I will probably replace my wine and chocolate time with meditation.

The Crazy Sexy Diet also fits me because it allows for a small amount of dark chocolate (70% cocoa content or higher) if you feel you are going to snap. I have some raw chocolate on hand in the event of an emergency, but will avoid the refined sugar-laden stuff.

The cleanse also includes a weekly juice/smoothie day where one day a week you consume only liquid homemade goodness, ending the day with a soup or a small salad, if that is what your body wants.

Inspire

To keep me accountable, and to avoid wine-thirty for the next three weeks I will update the blog with how I am doing on my 21-day journey.

I also hope to inspire you to see how easy eating clean, simple and unprocessed food is, with a full time job, two kids (three if you count my husband), and two dogs.