I've been struggling lately with eating healthy. I keep making commitments to myself to return to Paleo, and I do. I drop a few pounds, I do okay, but my heart isn't in it and I can't find my balance and next thing you know unhealthy choices start to creep back in. I put on a few pounds, I get frustrated, I make a commitment to myself to return to Paleo, and the cycle begins again.
Perhaps life was giving me a whisper. I was thinking about change, but not doing anything.
Then, because i wasn't doing anything, life spoke louder when my teenage son came home one evening and out of nowhere announced that he wants to do a seven day juice fast.
I get excited when anyone wants to talk food or nutrition with me, so I made him have a long discussion with me about how hard that would be and why and all that stuff. I then pulled out my
Crazy Sexy Diet book and had him look through it, and then I made him watch
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead with me. Again. We discussed how something like this could involve a detox fog that could make him cranky and tired for a few days, and I convinced him that with only a few weeks left at school his best bet was to slowly phase out junk over the course of the next few weeks and then dive into the fast once it was summer. Jack gets out of school a week before Tucker, and Rich will be back on day shifts by then which means that during the weekdays Jack will be home with me or alone which would be ideal as far as not having to watch people eat all day, and with controlling outbursts and crankiness and respecting others.
I started to get sort of inspired myself. I was listening to life talking louder.
I have always said that I don't think one style of eating is best for everyone, that I think people should try everything and find what works. Paleo works, there is no doubt about that, and I am a huge fan of the movement- but with summer on the way I think I am just feeling like I want to lighten up and embrace all the beautiful produce that surrounds me in sunny Southern California, and capture some liquid energy.
In a few weeks, I plan to begin the 21 Day Adventure Cleanse that Kris Carr outlines in her book,
Crazy Sexy Diet. I will basically be Vegan, with tons and tons of home juicing, smoothie making, and salads. I will have no animal products or processed foods, and no added sugar. I'll be drinking water with lemon juice and cayenne pepper upon rising each day, and trying to work as much meditation, yoga, exercise, nature, and general good stuff into my life as possible.
As I counseled my son, I will spend the next few weeks gently preparing. As you can see from my sidebar "What I'm Reading" section, I am doing a ton of surfing Vegan blogs and collecting recipes and inspiration! I can hardly wait to start, but also as I counseled my son, it makes more sense to embark on something like this when my schedule is easier, and giving myself those few weeks means I can not only be far more prepared, but that I will have more time and less structure since I won't be taking kids to school and back, and since my mornings will mostly consist of juice and smoothies and Jack will be doing his juicing simultaneously it makes sense as a supportive mama to time it that way.
I want to stress that at this point I am considering it a three-week challenge. I get frustrated at people who bash Paleo and have never tried it, and I don't want to be a hypocrite. After this, if someone says to me "Well, have you ever tried Veganism?" I can respond with "Yes, yes I have!" and carry on with my Paleo ways. I just think this sounds like a great way to bust out of my routine, rest my gut, and have fun. My husband does not think this sounds like fun. Since we don't prepare our breakfasts and lunches together, the only thing that my choices would affect is dinner. Our compromise there is that I will plan Vegan dinners a week at a time, and share that plan with him before I grocery shop so he can add on meat or whatever as he desires. For example, if I do a big salad one night or a veggie stir-fry, he can request a chicken breast which he will just add to his own plate. He will cook the meat himself, I will cook the rest. I am hoping that cutting the meat for 21 days will make me miss it, or show me that I don't need it. At the end of the three weeks I can assess how I feel and either go back to beloved Paleo or have found some new habits I can meld with the old.
Speaking of new habits, I also purchased a family membership to the YMCA yesterday. Jack had been asking for a teen membership so he could work out with his friends. I went in and bought him one, and while I was there I had picked up some fliers. I came home and read them and started getting inspired, and I ended up calling and asking if it was possible to get credit for the teen membership I had just bought toward a family membership instead. They were agreeable, so I ran it past my husband and got his okay, and headed back in and signed us all up! I have thought before about doing this, but it always seemed like a splurge since we have a fitness center and a pool here in our community - but the reality is that I hate taking my kids to this pool because it's a roll of the dice what you might find when you walk over there. Just last summer I showed up many days to find it closed for some reason or another, one day someone had put lawn chairs in the deep end, I've been there when there unsupervised small children wandering around, teenagers whose language was completely inappropriate, crowds that threatened to violate the capacity sign, and so on and so forth- so having access to both an indoor and outdoor pool, plush a splash pad, all in pristine condition, seems like a fantasy come true. I have similar issues with the fitness center. It's actually usually pretty dead, but half of the machines are generally in some state of disrepair- and the last time I was there, there was randomly a large group of women on all the treadmills for over an hour, playing unwelcome music out loud from a tinny crappy cell phone, and talking noisily while there snot nosed small children (no children are supposed to be allowed at the fitness center) climbed all over the machines and ran around yelling and fighting and getting in the way. At one point I watched a little guy leave his half sucked lollipop stuck to the mat under the exercise bike next to me. Our Y is very well cared for and fairly new and quite large, with plenty of machines and classes and such, and lots of staff supervising everything so that my first world gym and pool problems aren't likely to occur. It's also right next to Jack's school. I always drop Tucker off first, then Jack, so it's very convenient in terms of my exercising after I drop the kids off during the week (at least while school is in session) and there is free child watch so when summer arrives I can take Tuck to the child watch (complete with it's own private play structures, staff, and activities) while I take a break from him and get some movement in, and then I can go gather him up and take him to the pool or splash pad before heading home. We can also enroll him in swim or gymnastics lessons at reduced cost, and we get a reduced rate for summer day camp as well if we so desire. He's been asking about Boy Scouts, and I've been hesitant about it due to the moral conflicts of interest - but the Y has an "Adventure Guides" program and we actually get free enrollment with our family membership. They do scout type activities such as having camp outs, touring farms, and so on. Tucker is excited about it all!
This just might be the longest post I've ever written. I think perhaps not even my mother is still reading at this point, so I will wrap it up. I intend to spend the next few weeks wrapping up my home improvement projects, planning and learning, easing into workouts, getting the kids through the last few weeks of school, and getting organized and hopefully getting started on a bunch of eBay listings, but I will be checking in and I am hoping to use my blog as a daily journal for the 21 day cleanse once I make it to summer!
