Day 1

What is the QW 21 day cleanse?

NO CAFFEINE

NO ALCOHOL

NO GLUTEN

NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS

NO SUGAR

for 21 days. And to get you through it, there is a meditation for each day. wow. that should help. No free days, no happy pills to take, no drinking yourself into oblivion. Maybe I should take up smoking, it seems to be the only vice not listed.

I did give myself a little test this past week before starting. I have not had a cup of coffee or a caffeinated soda in a week. I tested out the other points too. Only got semi drunk one day last week. Only had a couple items containing gluten. I think I can handle 4 of the points without losing my mind…completely. It’s the NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS that is going to get me. I am a cheese lover (cheddar, blue, goat, mozzarella, feta, harvati…), a yogurt lover (blueberry, strawberry, smoothie, greek, fruit on bottom, cream top…), an egg lover (scrambled, boiled, fried, dropped in chinese soup…), a butter lover (salted, unsalted, melted, cultured….) and we haven’t even gotten to the meat. PETA has not invited me to join anytime recently. I know this will be my biggest challenge, my dairy products have always been there for me, through low carb days, through weight watchers, through picky eater kids days, it’s never let me down. And I have never put it down. My strategy the first few days is to go cold turkey. No substitutes. I have deep suspicions about those vegan imitators and how they will taste. I think it’s better if I just quit it all together. Maybe I will try a rice cheese in a week or so. But, that’s a big maybe.

Moving on to another of the NO’s. Gluten. What the heck is that? you ask. To put it simply, it’s what makes bread light and fluffy and gooey and yummy. To put it complicatedly, it is a mixture of 2 proteins that are present in some grains, especially wheat, that is responsible for the elastic texture of dough. This means, no bread, no cinnabons, no pizza (no loss there, it couldn’t have cheese or pepperoni anyway), no pasta, no cookies, no crackers, no pretzels…..sounds just awful, right? well, turns out I already was doing this in our house with my 7-year-old son. We have been eating completely gluten-free as a family since the new year, he has eaten this way for a couple months and us kinda-sorta for that time. It’s very similar to a low carb diet, except you can eat potatoes! potato chips, mashed, french fried, baked….yum. And rice, corn and some other grains that do not contain gluten. There are people who cannot tolerate the stuff, they have celiac disease. Some people are allergic to it and it has recently been found that being on a gluten-free diet has helped children with ADD/ADHD and Autism. This means there are many gluten-free products readily available in most stores. I know a little more about gluten than a regular, normal person should. I will stop myself here before I get carried away. I will talk more about it later, I’m sure. I just wanted to clarify that having already experimented with this nutrition choice, this NO will not be as hard for me as giving up my ham and cheese omelets.

Now to the nitty-gritty…

What in the world did I eat today??

Breakfast: hot tea (I was bad and skipped the food part)

Lunch: I enjoyed a very nice meal out with my hubby at The Flying Biscuit Cafe. (LOVE IT!) I had fried green tomatoes (breaded with corn meal) topped with cashew-jalapeno relish minus the goat cheese it usually comes with and a bowl of tomato basil soup and hot tea.

Snack: Rice cake with almond butter and jelly (simply fruit, no sugar!)

Dinner: Tacos. Corn shells filled with refried beans, black beans, lettuce, tomatoes and salsa. I missed my cheese and sour cream dearly. But it was delicious despite the omissions.

Midnight snack: Frozen Fruit (to fight my sweet craving)

My children will not touch a black bean with a ten foot pole, so I made meat tacos for them, with cheese and sour cream. Torture! Actually, its the first day, so it wasn’t too bad, yet. Lastly, I’m sure my husband is happy he left for a business trip knowing I had 2 different kinds of beans for dinner.