1 1/2 Weeks Into Cleanse/Birthday Party Challenge

Cleansing Progress Report

So, how is this cleansing thing going anyway? A week and a half into 'Phase I' and colon cleansing, and three days into diflucan: the first thing that I should say is how grateful I am that I have the freedom, space, time to take things as slowly as I need to, support myself in the best ways possible (thereby building good habits for the future) and to allow myself to heal. This is a real blessing.

Well, mostly I'm feeling great. My physical energy is not that high, but mental energy and clarity are delightful. The past two or three days I have been overdoing things a bit, though - another intense translation vortex and a birthday party to prepare for, and I haven't been good at taking breaks or stretching/relaxing. And yesterday I observed that whilst I was very productive, being productive sent my stress levels up, and by late afternoon I was dropping everything I touched, jumping at small noises, and otherwise malfunctioning. I took note and had an early night.

As for the food, as I mentioned in my post on Barbara Levine's book, it has been very helpful for me to recognize the importance of recognizing a negative thought/feeling and consciously dismissing it, rather than stuffing it to the back of my consciousness. And so, last night I admitted to myself that I have been having some food cravings! For me, this is such an anathema, something I never would have acknowledged before. But it's true: I've missed being able to grab a carrot or an apple. Yesterday, I was baking cake for the party today and the smell of chocolate filling the cabin certainly beguiled my salivary glands. And having acknowledged the presence of these cravings, I can celebrate them as a sign of die-off - and there I was, all ready to push them to the bottom of my psyche, ignored and ready to need the defense of black and white thinking! I did recognized that I'd been eating pretty monotonously for several days - nut mylk with herbal tea and chlorella for breakfast, salads with spirulina for lunch and dinner - and that maybe it's time to vary things a bit again.

Birthday Party Challenge

And with that in mind... Three of us in our little family up here have birthdays in this spell, so we're having a party tonight. The main fare is set to be mooseburgers and tater tots, so in addition to the flourless chocolate cake I'd already promised, the bread pudding I'd already made, and the salad that I'm always slated to fix, my assignment was to make something I could eat.

I decided to make something main-course-like and challenged myself to make a dessert that was compatible with Phase I and that would still taste delicious.

For the main course item, I made cauliflower rice with sprouted lentil curry. I wasn't following anyone's recipe, although some of the features had probably brewed in my head as a result of reading recipes. It looks so beautiful and tasted pretty great to me when I tested it. I'll be happy to post the recipe later: should get back to either work or party prep pretty soon.

As for the dessert, I decided to make a Phase I version of the 'Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie' in Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine. This meant that I didn't follow the recipe all that closely: it just gave me the concept and format, and a rough idea of the relative quantities of each layer. That recipe uses almond butter in place of peanut butter, and I've been craving almonds recently, so I really made the almond flavor a feature, and wouldn't call it 'peanut butter pie' at all. Again, I'll be glad to post what I did later.

And did I mention that this was all without the benefit of a high-speed blender or running water? That should be the subject for another post, methinks.

It's a couple hours till the party, till I know whether anyone else will even touch those creations. But oh, I had so much fun making them this morning!