Sugarless Treats and 'Making Do:' Preliminaries

'Diet' versus 'Cleanse'

As a prelude to my series of posts about no-sugar treats and my quest to develop a raw energy bar with no dried fruit or syrup, I need to talk about the question of ‘diet’ (in the ‘whole lifestyle’ sense that I’ve used it elsewhere here) versus a temporary ‘cleanse.’ In a way, this also connects to the concept of ‘making do:’ what can be pruned out of a diet so that there’s still great nutrition – and pleasure, of course?

We can’t control the future, but we can have clear intentions and directions for our navigation of the morphing of ‘then’ into ‘now.’ I’ve been doing ‘Phase 1’ of ‘Rainbow Greens’ for a month now and my intention is to continue (with small amounts of Phase 1.5 foods, particularly maca) for a couple more months. But then what?

The ‘cleanse’ model says, ‘Great – you did the cleanse, you took the herbs, you got rid of the yeasties, now you can eat whatever you like and you’ll be just fine.’ This is what my husband, bless him, believes and wants for me. He doesn’t want to see me return to the ‘deprivation’ mode in which I spent so much of my life – and this includes the pleasure piece most especially (candy and ice cream are big features in his family).

The ‘diet’ model says, ‘Eating the way you used to eat, you got sick – maybe gradually, but inexorably. You were feeding yeasties instead of yourself. Don’t you feel so much better now? Why would you want to change that?’ Given what I recognize about my body and what it’s been through, this is the model that rings true for me, probably settling in a ‘Phase 1.5-type’ basis.

The Dance

The dance and the trick will be not to allow this to turn into deprivation (as I have done at family gatherings where I haven’t taken care of myself). The emotional tug of feeling deprived is an achesome thing indeed, and it’s one that I repressed so deeply all the years that I was anorexic (and fruitarian for that matter) that I recognize that I needed to real-ize and experience it in the last year. It was always a purely emotional sense, because I've always been able to taste how gross ‘conventional’ sweets are ‘under the surface’ and feeling sick for a whole day after eating ice cream isn’t worth it to me – it wasn’t a physical pleasure I was being deprived of.

And of course, the other trick will be not to end up ‘black and white’ about it. Over and over, this is the dance and the harmony that I seek. I acknowledge that I am connected to all and all to me, but I exercise discrimination about what parts of ‘all’ are filtered through my body.

Key Concepts

Three key concepts for me here, in my exploration of sugarless-treat-creation and intentions about ‘diet.’

1) Be prepared! I make the commitment to take care of myself, to share of my abundance and creativity, to hold a nonjudgmental space for others’ choices, and to make sure there is no need for me to feel deprived.
2) Love, not fear. This does away with the danger of ‘black and white.’ When my system is in balance again, if it feels loving to myself and others to do so, I can partake in small amounts of sweet fruit, or whatever else, in a spirit of love, pleasure and abundance that will ensure that my body takes it the right way. Meanwhile, constantly keep in mind that my choice is ‘highgrading,’ not renunciation.
3) Avoid empty calories. If I can make something sweet and delicious without incurring a whole load of extra calories (especially the deadly sugar-and-fat-calories combination that besets many raw desserts), why would I want to do it differently?

And then I guess that the fourth thing is a willingness to be creative, both in preparing things and in tasting them. This is the true blessing that I have received from all my allergy problems: I’ve noticed that I’m far, far less attached to how something ‘should’ taste than most people are, and far more willing to appreciate unfamiliar flavors.

I choose not to feel sad about all the years I spent learning as much as I could about fruit and fruit trees, and bees and beekeeping. In fact, I’m looking forward to some bee pollen in the next few weeks and am going to try and run some bees up here! I feel gratitude for the continuous exploration.