Cleansed

I did it. My cleanse is complete. Ok....it's done two days early but that is because I had a bad day at work and it's Friday and since I can't drink I am left only with sugar and darn it, I'm going to have it. 3 weeks with no sugar. Now let me say that I don't know if there is research that says this or if it is an old wives tale, but that mumbo jumbo about if you don't have "it" (insert your vice here) for awhile, it gets easier and you don't want it as much after more time has passed. Bullshit. After three weeks you would assume that I would not think about sugar in my free time and if I saw something sugary sweet or listened to my husband talk about the delicious doughnuts he ate that day I could just listen without a physical reaction. Nonsense. I want sugar just as much as I did when I started this cleanse. However there were a few good things that came out of this experience. I have a much clearer picture of how I mindlessly eat if I let myself. I also have been feeling pretty good, not having lots of gluten and dairy, and I do feel good about the avoiding of any processed foods. Overall, I recommend a cleanse or two a year just as kind of a reset and a time for contemplating eating habits.
And now in approximately twenty minutes, an ultimate veggie hoagie, greek salad, and peanut butter/chocolate granola bar will arrive at my door. Happy sigh......Welcome back.

Circle + Rectangle/Squiggle

My principal has been on this kick about having all of us (staff) find out what kind of personality type-when it comes to work-we have and if we are right or left brained. It is to help us understand that we work with lots of different types of people and maybe this will help us deal with individuals differently or at least understand where they are coming from. Well I love this kind of stuff so of course I had to bring it home to Brian so I could see where he is at. Here are the two websites I used if you are interested it taking the tests yourself....

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~studskl/hd/hemispheric_dominance.html (right/left brain test)

http://www.psychometricshapes.co.uk/index.php (shape personality test)

So it turns out that I am very slightly right brained but it's pretty close to being an equal split. Brian comes out at just a bit more right brained than me. I disagree....he is super right brained I think....but what do I know.

Then the coolest part was the shape test. I came out as a pure circle. Social, friendly, disorganized-stuff like that. Brian came out as rectange/squiggle combo-artsy, individual, honest, creative. As I was reading our profiles, this was the last sentence in his profile...."You are likely to live alone unless you find that perfect "Circle" person who will put up with your eccentric behavior."  Ummmmm yeah. It was one of those things that was just so spot on that it was really weird. I guess this just confirms the results of my Fear Factor compatibilty test as well.

Fear Factor as a Compatibility Test

Brian and I have somehow become sucked into watching Fear Factor on Monday nights. As we were watching last night, it dawned on me that if two people in a relationship watch Fear Factor together, they may find out how compatible (or not) they are. For example, the first "test" was that one person on the team had to be locked in a cage that was slowly lowered underwater while the other person was underwater trying to cut through the ropes that held their partner and then undo the lock. Brian says, "No way. My head would explode." Me, "I'd drown." Would we do it for $50K, nope. Next "test", each team had to eat a tray full of cockroaches or grasshoppers, rat hair tortillas, and drink maggots in blood to make it to the next round. I started feeling sick to my stomach and professed that no amount of money is worth that. My husband, "Me neither, wouldn't even try." The third "test" was one person had to drive a car behind a bus and the other one had to jump from the bus onto the moving car, grab a flag, and then jump back onto the bus 13 times. Both in agreement that we would do it and decided I would drive and he would jump. Something about my short legs.....

So as you can see (through a very scientific process) we are very compatible. Try it and find out. Would you really do that stuff for $50K?

Cleanse

Thanks to my friend Racheal, I am back to the blog. She is what I consider a blogging professional and insanely good at keeping everyone up-to-date on her and her family's move to Hawaii for a year. After chatting with her yesterday, she gave me the idea to talk about my cleanse.

Last year I HAD to do a cleanse/elimination diet as yet another way to try to figure out what was wrong with my stomach. I bought a book called "Clean" which details a very specific elimination diet to help people determine underlying causes of various physical ailments. I won't even go into all the things you can and can't eat for three weeks but if you are really interested you can look up Clean by Dr. Junger. Anyway, it turned out that food sensitivity was not my problem, and despite how frustrating and annoying the cleanse was, there were parts of it I liked.

So after a Christmas of shoving my face full of sugar and caffeine and processed foods, I decided that a cleanse would be a good way to start the year. I was inspired by a 21-day cleanse I found in Whole Living magazine. This cleanse seemed MUCH more reasonable than my previous cleanse with some simple instructions. First of all you have to avoid the following for three weeks: sugar, caffeine, gluten, dairy, alcohol, and processed foods. Well I can't drink alcohol anyway, and my impetus for this whole thing was caffeine and  sugar, so really the only painful part would be the gluten and dairy. During week one you are supposed to eat only fruit, veggies, and nuts (sparingly). Then week two you can add in lean protein like fish, beans, and soy, and then week three you can add in non-gluten grains and eggs. After that you are free to do what you want.

I am starting week two today. Week one really wasn't so bad, however in full disclosure, I have been adding a few tablespoons of greek yogurt to my smoothies in the morning and I have been eating some beans. I was a little nervous about not having any protein for a week, so I added those in. I haven't really missed sugar as much as I thought I would. However, I did have an epiphany the first day I started. I was sitting in a meeting at school, and there was a candy dish on the table. I reached over, grabbed a piece, popped it in my mouth, and then had this sudden realization that I wasn't supposed to do that. MINDLESS I tell you, mindless eating of sugar! That was the icing on the cake (excuse the pun) that really told me I needed to cut out sugar for awhile. That plus the peppermint pillows that are in my desk that I apparently also mindlessly put in my mouth on a regular basis throughout the day.....

I've been using some of the recipes the magazine suggests and some of my own. I made split pea soup and a squash and kale soup this weekend to eat this week, and I think I'll make a spaghetti squash and top it with my canned (homemade) stewed tomatoes. That should cover me for most of the week. I think I may add rice back in a little early cause ratatouille sounds good too. And one side note...I asked my life partner to be a part of this cleanse with me to which he originally said yes. However, week one is done and now it's "I'll start next week..." and in addition to not doing it, as I've been making these cleanse-friendly foods I have had to deal with him saying things like, "I think I'll have some soup with bread and cheese, want some? It won't hurt to have it just once," or "I'm going to order onion rings you can have one." Which again in full disclosure...sigh...I did. But just one. And damn, it was good.