This is what Detox looks like

Every year after the holidays, I do a 2-week detox. Every year it sucks. This year it seems to suck even more. This year I took my usual detox - no dairy, no meat/chicken, no alcohol, no coffee - to another level and eliminated all things flour. Ugh. I am almost at the end of Week 1. Surviving, with the occasional cold sweat in the middle of the night while dreaming of honey BBQ chicken or Aioli's pork loin or a glass of wine. The work days are hardest especially with no coffee. But it has not been completely bad. I have been having a lot of good stuff.

Breakfast in the last week was quinoa egg scramble - quinoa with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, spinach, scrambled with eggs, salt and black pepper, and then topped with fresh spinach. Pretty nice.

Very delicious. Pretty awesome breakfast I must say

During the day, lots of wheatgrass, lots of water, lots of green tea.

Really nice...

It's not coffee though

Snack of choice - watermelon. This is a daily thing, even when not detoxing. I love watermelon. Like...seriously. I also snacked on cucumbers.

My Independence Square fruit guy always has my melon wrapped and waiting every morning

Tonight, I was REALLY craving burgers, even though I very rarely eat burgers, but the meat craving was real. Not yielding to temptation, I instead made spicy quinoa and lentil burgers. They are MEGA good!! What's in these? Lentils, seasoned with salt, black pepper, stir fried garlic, onions, celery, parsley, pimento, chilli peppers, tomatoes, quinoa, tomato pesto, one egg, olive oil. No breadcrumbs.

Just before they went into the oven. No breadcrumbs in these.
Used a mould to get them in shape.

After all the Christmas food and drink, I felt so ill, and after one week of this suicide mission detox, I feel a whole lot better. One week down, one more to go!

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Turning Water to Wine...with my Imagination

Yummy green tea.

I started the morning with a huge cup of water and 2 cups of green tea and frequent trips to the bathroom.

And so the detox began.

I have been a really bad girl over the holiday season. Excess is not the word. I guess after last year’s miserable holiday season, I was eager to make up for it. Lol. Make up I did. Between all the visits to friends’ and relatives’ homes and thus ultimately, visits to their buffet tables, and all the cooking done at home, not to mention the drinks, I have, in 3 short weeks, done serious damage to my waistline (my hips, my ass, my everything!!!) and my internal machinery. I can actually feel the toxins dancing in my bloodstream.

So I am flushing them all out with gallons of water and pure green tea and fresh fruit and vegetables, with a total avoidance of alcohol, coffee (the absolute horror!!), chicken, ham and pork (no more pig, pleeeeeease!!), and any other flesh, and dairy products. The detox also called for no wheat but that is taking the thing too far. I cannot eat fruit and veggies and live! I need the occasional sandwich! I had a lovely whole wheat pita with a hard-boiled egg white for breakfast and prepared a pumpkin soup for lunch.

By 8.39am, I was chomping on a stick of gum as if my life depended on it. It did. It was not too bad though. Got some fruit tonight and they said no dairy - they said nothing about no soy - so got my low fat soy milk on BOGO!!! Woot woot! It’s meant to be a 5-day detox and cleansing. Not sure if I can go through the weekend doing this but I just need to look in the mirror for motivation! I have also unpacked my gym shoes and will use exercise as a distraction from the carnage of green tea and carrots!

Or, I can also consider the alternative to keep me on the straight and narrow – the traditional post-holiday trauma Trini mothers inflicted on their children after all the sweets and treats of Christmas. Force feeding them laxatives or disguising them in hot chocolate to “flush” out the junk. Just thinking about that makes me want to brew another cup of tea and chomp on a cucumber stick! Ughhh.

Other than that, life is good. I had a lovely weekend, though I was a bit sick. I made no resolutions as I stopped doing that years ago. Instead I just make plans, which include:

• Travel (duh). Will be limited to my hemisphere this year but there are loads of places I still have not been to.
• Write more. And not just on the blog.
• Pick up a class. I tried the adult French class last year and it was a dismal failure. The tutor, while lovely, talked too much…about her life and her husband and kids…and in English!!! Waste of my Saturday morning. No...maybe a music class (always wanted to learn to play the piano) or a dance class or a cooking class.
• Network more.
• Maybe run part of a 5K. lol. Part...planning to run the entire thing would be disingenuous. 

There are other things but I am tired of typing. What are your plans for 2012?

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