I spent about 75% of my life helping myself to fast food, cheesy fries from diners (a Jersey thing), mucho amounts of cereal (for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner), bread, soy milk, fro-yo, and a lot of “sugar-free” meals/snacks (splenda, sucrose, fructose…). Even when I became “healthier,” and eliminated fast food, fried food and red meat from my diet, I still “treated” myself to many of the foods I listed above. Unaware of what proper nutrition meant, I thought that if I eliminated fats, and counted calories… I’d be set.
the story of my life...
I was not. In fact, even though most of the sugar I ingested was “fake,” my diet consisted primarily of “sweet” foods, processed and sodium dense turkey slices, and yeasty and yeast forming products (i.e. bread, crackers, cereals…).
sugar hides in everything. including my America's favorite condiment, ketchup.
Because I lived this way for 75% of my life, I had skin troubles (that was just one of the issues I faced). These days, a common prescription for treating troubled skin is “the pill.” Which is how I ended up spending six years on and off of hormonal supplements (to no avail), in addition to taking products containing tetracycline and the like. It was not until I began a mainly raw foods diet, and started food combining that I started to experience the bliss of all wholesome foods have to offer.
When you begin to eat cleaner, you will experience tremendous results. However, you are also bound to experience negative results as the toxins (from years of a poor diet) make there way out of your body.
This fall, I jumped to a higher level of clean eating when I took the jump from fish-eating “vegetarian” (3-4x a week) to very infrequent fish eating vegetarian (maybe 1x a month). Along with my clean eating upgrade, my body has stepped up to the plate in order to further cleanse itself. Thus, I began to experience cold -like symptoms (a symptom of detoxification).
Now, absorbed in the busy holiday season, and determined to fend off my negative feelings towards the cold, I have found myself working late hours and ingesting more sugar (although in natural forms), salt and wine than normal. This, of course, will not help the detoxification process.
So…
this morning I made 40 oz of green juice with kale, cucumber, ginger, a lot of fennel, celery, romaine. I stayed true and refrained from adding my usual carrots. However, I sure wish I had had some lemons!
I vowed that this week would be a week free of ALL sugar and sweeteners, (fruit, wine, carrots, beets, chocolate, stevia, raw honey, etc.), dairy (sans a dab of organic butter for steaming veggies- I usually incorporate some raw goat’s cheese in my diet), grains and yeast, vinegars, and foods susceptible to mold (sans sunflower seeds).
I love sunflower seeds. This has been my go-to snack in the winter. Normally, I would add celtic sea salt.
I week without anything sweet is going to be a drag so… rather than keep it to myself, I thought it would be more fun to get the support of the blogging community.
Feel free to join me but I do not blame you if you do not…
Anyone have any delicious but simple recipes?
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