I thought I could really go for the full 25 days that I had to do the Ejuva cleanse. I went with the ups and downs, energy level vacillating, observing hunger and moving past it, feeling good about myself for breaking habits and attachments. But last night I realized I was done. I was starting to hallucinate about junk food, and I knew that was a bad sign. I figured I should end it before I do something crazy like devour a bag of tortilla chips.
Last night my determination and will power were genuinely put to the test. I never miss a Girls' Night Out, so even though I'm down to one raw meal a day, I accompanied some girlfriends to a swanky Santa Fe restaurant just for the conversation.
I ordered my green tea, which the kind bartender (we sat at the bar) served up in a beautiful Japanese carved teapot. My friends were already imbibing some very summery cocktails full of fresh berries, which looked very refreshing but I was fine with it. However, when the appetizers arrived on a long, slender steel platter, with all different kinds of sesame seeds as condiments, I started to feel like I was missing out a bit. Only a bit.
One of the saving graces while on this cleanse is the cafe at Body of Santa Fe. Besides being only a few blocks from my house, they serve up the only raw, vegan fancy food in town. They have a decent raw section of the restaurant menu, and now that I'm on day 15 of this Ejuva cleanse, I've tried almost everything there. It's been such a gift to have a raw cafe nearby where I can enjoy someone else's raw food culinary skills.
My girlfriend just passed this recipe my way, and it is definitely worth sharing! If you've been following my account of the cleanse I'm doing (day 12 hurray!), you'll know that I've had a hard time finding things that are still appetizing on this raw, vegan diet. These Gough-Nuts are tasty and were fun to make. My almost-three-year-old helped push the buttons on the food processor and enjoyed the end result. They're cute enough to bring to a party! Maybe I'll bring them to this raw luncheon I'm invited to.
According to the recently released report by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Americans spent $33.9 billion on CAM (complementary and alternative medicine), roughly 1/3 of what was spent on prescription drugs. In addition, the report states that 38% of American adults used some form of CAM for health and wellness, including acupuncture and herbal supplements.
I'm happy to say that I'm feeling quite good! Maybe I've moved through a phase, because even with my two year old waking up vomiting at 4:30 a.m., my energy level was a lot better today.
I'm in Phase 2 of the Ejuva cleanse now, which means that I'm taking the herbs twice a day instead of once. The program recommends reducing meals during this week to twice a day, but since I'm kindof just eating as I get hungry, I'm continuing with this minimal intake diet. I'm not very hungry at all, probably because my choices aren't especially appetizing. Don't get me wrong, I love fruit and veggies. I'm just having some weird visceral reaction that makes anything raw, other than grapes, look kindof nauseating.