The road to internal cleanliness

Well, Monday marks my first day of a 21 day health odyssey. I started the Standard Process purification and detox diet. I am doing this diet not to lose weight but to really just rid my body of all the junk I've put into it in my 33 years - not to mention two rounds of anesthesia in the past 7 months I've had! I'm in my third day and honestly, I feel pretty damn good.

So, what do I get to eat? Basically, you eat as many veggies as you want - just make sure at least half of the veggies you eat are raw. However many veggies I eat in a day, I am supposed to have half that amount in fruits. I am also cooking lentils and eating brown/wild rice - but in only 1/2 cup servings. Once day 11 hits (July 9) I get to bring chicken breast and oily-fish (fresh salmon, tuna, etc.) into the diet. I'm really looking forward to that day actually. I miss salmon and herring!

I'm not excited about losing my cheese and chocolate for three weeks. Interestingly, I actually haven't really missed coffee though, which is strange (no headaches!). The diet isn't vegan - the supplement powders and fiber pills and "SP Cleanse" pills I'm taking have dairy and protein properties.

Since Monday some of the basic fruits and veggies I've managed to incorporate into my diet include beets, mustard greens, spinach, tuscan melon, avocado, tomatoes, onion, cherries, blueberries, banana, sweet potato, English cucumber, French lentils, green beans, strawberries... not to mention the fruit shakes I have to make twice a day (morning and before bed) to take my round of supplements. Oh, and oil - you can have 5-6 tsp of oil (olive or flax or fish) in a day, so I can put oil and vinegar on these crazy salads. You should see our refrigerator! I processed most of the veggies and fruits on Sunday so our fridge is packed of tupperware filled with earthly goodness.

I'm getting everything at PCC (Puget Consumers Co-op) in Issaquah - all organic. I actually got a membership to PCC back in 1997 - I learned about PCC in the late 1980's when my best friend's dad would take us to the Kirkland PCC to shop when we went to visit her grandma (and we'd stop at REI in Bellevue (where Trader Joe's is now). Anyway, PCC kicks butt - I prefer it over Whole Foods. The latter seems to focus on more processed organics while PCC is definitely skewed to the raw, organic, whole food mindset (they still have a deli and wine area). Nothing really beats that Whole Foods fish counter though - they've got PCC there.

So, I'm really starting to fall into this "Hybrid" lifestyle - getting 44 mpg round-trip to and from work, eating organics, wearing birkenstocks again, de-toxing, learning more about sheep herding... this is what moving out to the country does to someone I guess!

Hippie girl