Changes . . .For the Better

For years and years I have been trying to figure out how to be happy. How to be the person that I am and want to be. For years and years I have failed to do that. I would quit smoking and drinking and eating poorly only to start again. Mostly because I was quitting out of either spite for someone I was with, or to distance myself from them. I have never actually moved towards health for myself. I have never actually done it because I wanted to or because it was right for me. I did it just because I thought I was supposed to and alack and alas it never worked.

This time is different. It's different all around. For the first time I am actually doing all these things for myself. I quit smoking and drinking for myself. I have the most amazing supportive man in the universe by my side. I finally have a drive in life. I want to help others be healthy naturally. I want to teach yoga. I am going back to school to get my Diploma in Holistic Health and I am also going to get certified to teach yoga.

First off, however, I need to push the giant reset button on my body. After drinking and smoking for so long and eating crap for the last few months, I am full of nasty evil toxins. So to get rid off all that and give my body/mind/spirit a clean slate, I am going to do the Master Cleanse for at least the recommended 10 days. I am starting this tomorrow. Well technically it starts tonight.

So knowing full well that I would not be eating anything for at least the next 10 days, I decided that I would eat "last meals" today. S and I went to the diner and I had Irish Benedict - Poached eggs and hollandaise on top of corned beef hash and english muffins with a side of hash browns and 2 cups of coffee with sugar and cream. Ugh - I was Ms. Bloatus Fatimus. Luckily I only ate about 1.5 of the benedicts and just about a quarter of the potatoes.

We then went to visit S's grandmother in the rehab facility she is in after injuring her leg. She was doing well. Apparantly we were too close to a really fancy grocery store though and S couldn't resist going there to get some things. So I may have slipped a box of Cheddar Scallion Cheese Sticks into the cart to eat on the ride home. I might have also snuck in a couple of Vermont Maple Honey Caramel chocolates for us as well. S got fixens for a tasty 'last supper' of sorts for us. He isn't doing this cleanse with me, but he is going to a diet of non-processed foods heavy in fruits and veggies, which is what I will be doing after I break fast. We also got a bunch of lemons for my cleanse.

It occurs to me that I ought to take a second to explain what this cleanse is all about. It was developed by Stanley Burroughs about 50 years ago as a way to conquer disease and help people get back to health. It consists of drinking a laxative tea each night, drinking what's called a salt water flush (2 tsp. of sea salt in 32 oz. of H2O to be the same specific gravity as the blood) every morning, and drinking 6-12 servings of lemonade throughout the day. Each serving of lemonade is made up of 2 Tbs. fresh-squeezed lemon juice, 2Tbs. grade B maple syrup, 1/10 tsp. cayenne pepper, and 8 oz. of water. To learn more you can google Master Cleanse or go to http://www.therawfoodsite.com/.

Back to the bad food . . . so we polished off the entire box of cheese sticks! OMG - YUM. S decided to make stir fried ginger steak with smoked gouda mashed potatoes and steamed greens. There was so much yummy food. He used a little over half the block of smoked gouda for the potatoes and we devoured the remaining cheese while he cooked. And then we ate. It was soooooo good. But I felt disgustingly fat afterwards. This cleanse cannot come at a better time.

I spent some time making up my lemonade for tomorrow. I made up a whole batch for work to make my life easier. So that's done. Now to drink my Smooth Move tea, relax with S, and go to bed. More tomorrow!