First day of fast and Im starving!

My last meal for ten days

My last meal was yesterday: it was a sunday lunch of roast chicken with roast parsnips, roast potatoes, roast leeks, buttered sprouts,steamed cabbage with gravy and stuffing followed by vanilla ice cream with fresh pineapple chunks. So I shouldnt be feeling hungry right now, or should I ?

Rawia, my unofficial sponsor, popped round after our lunch to drop off some organic cayenne pepper, and to discuss enemas - no, I wont be doing any enemas!! Even the name suggests its the enemy!

Rawia clearly didnt think that it would be too helpful for me to be writing a blog on the fast. Apparently when a number of nutrition students recently carried out a detox, the only one who actually managed to put on weight was the one who kept talking about what food she was missing! Oops!


I've been cooking!

Rawia would be even more shocked if she saw what I did at lunchtime today! I took the leftover raw vegetables : some onions, cabbage, celery and apple and made up a vegetable soup. Its a habit for me to prepare something at lunch time and I couldnt bear the food to go to waste. Actually thats a poor excuse because Id been meaning to drop it off at my Mums, but decided instead to start cooking. Of course I have no intention of eating any of the soup! I'm just breathing in its fumes , and then it will go into the freezer ready for day 13 of the fast. Honest!


Burning those calories!

Now I still have lots of office work to be getting on with but I really need to get some fresh air and a distraction from eating something.. I also need to get some more lemons and some organic maple syrup (Ive been using organic Agave Nectar so far , which Im sure is fine) but Im wondering if I have the strength for a bike ride ...

then I remember that Sunday lunch, and the fact that Ive probably eaten cabbage soup for lunch , albeit through my nostrils, and I realise that I do indeed have calories to burn!

Oh and whilst Im out on my bike , Ill make sure I find someone with weighing scales. I wouldnt want to lose too much weight before Ive had a chance to weigh my starting position ...haha!

Marie-Claire

PS my mouth is watering ...do you think thats a good or a bad sign?

The day before the fast

Welcome to my personal blog, that Ill be writing whilst I undertake a ten day fast!
Im hoping that writing it all down will keep me sane!!
- maybe it will help you decide whether you want to do it too, or not, as the case may be!!

The fast has been around since 1941 and is known as the Stanley Burroughs Master Cleanse.
The only thing I am allowed to consume in ten days is a concoction made up of lemon juice , cayenne pepper and organic maple syrup ...which I havent yet got in the cupboard!! Yikes! Need to go shopping later or Ill be knocking on my friend Rawia' s door in a panic ...and that would not be a great start to the ten days!

Rawia was my inspiration. I heard her talk about doing the fast twice a year at the time of the equinox. (I think we may be a little early this year due to her New Zealand trip in two weeks but at least we re starting on a new moon. Its supposed to help...)

Why am I doing the fast?

-for a challenge and a sense of achievement
-to break my habit of eating
-to conquer unhelpful self talk (I can justify eating anything if I want to!)
-for a chance to feel slimmer
-to take pride in my body
-to realise that food is not the highlight of a day
-to eat to live rather than to live to eat (I may have got it the wrong way round for years!)
-to find out what emotions Im covering up with my emotional eating

"I don't believe in diets!"

I think I eat very healthily , but my body says otherwise. I don't need weighing scales to tell me that I am at least two stone overweight and my tummy is definitely too large. Apart from that , I feel OK in myself...I think.
Mind you, I think feeling better about my body would help improve my self esteem considerably .

In the past I have had great success with Carol Vordemans 28 day detox. The first time I did it was years ago and to be honest , I wasnt sure that I could go 28 days without alcohol(!). Amazingly I took it one day at a time and I did it . I also lost one stone and a quarter in weight , whilst eating as much as I liked - of the good stuff obviously!!

Trouble is, my diet is now mostly full of the good stuff, but Im still overweight. I cant do the detox again because that's more or less my regular diet.Currently I eat homemade granola with frehly juiced apple for breakfast. For lunch I often have a large green salad with spinach, mung beans, olives etc , and for supper Ill have a similiar salad or some roasted vegetables. Im not a vegetarian but my body seems to enjoy moist salads.
Of course I dont believe in diets at all. Neither of my sisters have ever dieted. They both eat a healthy balanced diet and have always had beautiful figures! But I do believe that I need to kick start my system!
I LOVE eating and preparing interesting dishes, especially salads. I enjoy eating popcorn at the cinema. I will indulge at a dinner party ...

Finding the "me" thats hiding behind food

Mind you I remember stuffing my face with popcorn on a cinema date ...what a way to keep a fella away!! and I do wonder whether my weight is far more about providing some form of emotional protection
Thats why these ten days could get very interesting , as I find the "me" under the eating .....

Anyway, enough for now Ive gotta go and find some organic maple syrup and some weighing scales so I can let you know my official starting point (if I dare...)

Oh, and my "last supper" today is going to be a "roast dinner" , but before that Ill be off now to enjoy my homemede granola....and poached eggs on wilted spinach for lunch!!

Marie-Claire