Happy New Years!

2010 is here!!!


Feeling in a rut lately, I realized I needed goals, motivation, and structure. January 4th I started a "40 day cleanse" thankfully ending the day before Valentines. In a group fashion with my yoga class, I wanted to see if I would feel better or rather "cleaner." The four elements are:
1. no alcohol (ehh, okay, but no longer than 40 days!)
2. no meat (crap, thats not nice)
3. no processed food (this is a gray area/word, can mean many things)
4. no coffee (WHAT?!? Decaf banned too?!?! WHAT!?!)

Coffee thing threw me for a loop, is it really BAD for you? My teacher explained it that the actual coffee itself is harsh on your stomach. No decaf because its still coffee, decaf can actually be full of chemicals because of the processes of how they decaffinate it. So I'm relying on tea, loads of it. Black tea has caffiene in it, so I downed that this AM. Seems to be okay so far but I've got 38 days left.

The processed food can be taken in many ways. To the extreme you can say that eating a banana is processing b/c you're peeling it before eating. Well, here are the rules I'm playing by (that are actually less stringent than the class): less than 4 ingredients in the label, only ingredients I can buy (if I can't buy it at a store, no go, like soy letchin...). Obviously this means mainly fresh food, no store bought condiments (though Mark's excellent at making ketchup, mayo, and salad dressing). My exception is to continue making stuff at home with chicken stock. Hey, if we're going to do this, there's no reason to make the food taste like crap. Its homemade chicken stock, so little processing, even though its derived from animal bones, technically its not meat. Ha, I found a loophole.

Anyway, this is my new goal for 40 days that gives structure to a structure-less girl right now. We'll see if I go mad before 40 days or if it even makes me feel better. Right now its making me use self moderation which is good. Bedtime ready to start day 3.
~Holly