Bleeding Neon

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, it’s Detox Week around here. As explained in ridiculous depth in this post, I’m eschewing bread, pasta, alcohol, soda, animal products and just about anything that isn’t a fruit, vegetable, legume, nut or mineral from now until Christmas Eve. It’s 11:19 p.m. on Monday night, which means I’ve officially survived Day One without getting tired, cranky or killing anyone. YAY ME!

Yum factor = 7/10.

OK, to be fair, as I’ve been a vegetarian for many years now, it’s not a total stretch for me to switch to a hardcore vegan diet. Beyond vegan, actually, because with the exception of a bowl of soup tonight, I did nothing but raw, organic food all day. But my typical daily consumption consists of multiple servings of breads, meat substitutes, processed soy products such as tofu, stuff made with eggs, and when I’m being bad — which has been too much lately — more cheese than either my doctor or my ass wants me to have. So yes, Detox Week is a challenge. But instead of feeling deprived, I feel like a whole world I forgot about has been reintroduced to me.

See, when I was a kid, I loved experimenting in the kitchen. From a really young age, I would make my own salad dressings and sauces, mixing up whatever ingredients I could find in our kitchen. And I LOVED vegetables. Why do you think I was making salad dressings? To put on salads! But I also just enjoyed crisp carrots, celery (maybe with peanut butter), cauliflower, bell peppers, even raw potatoes with a hint of salt. I attribute my strong and healthy teeth and general good health (as well as my relative thinness until recently) to my early dedication to veggies. Sure, I enjoyed tacos and pizzas and Kit-Kat bars just like every other kid in America. But I probably just balanced it better without parental enforcement.

Bitch, I made this!

But the strange thing is that over the years, even as I stopped eating meat products one by one (first beef and pork, then poultry and fish), I didn’t really increase my intake of veggies. I was — as are many vegetarian friends I know — bad vegetarian. I relied heavily on starch and fat, and I hadn’t yet discovered the awesomeness of vegetarian-friendly food cultures such as Mediterranean, Thai and Indian. Eventually, I fixed that, thanks to the influence of others. And after some bouts back and forth, I came out on the other side as a good vegetarian. I learned to make balanced dishes with fresh ingredients at home, developing a shopping regimen that pretty much continues to this day. Pretty much I say, because as mentioned yesterday, my intense work schedule and packed calendar requires me to rely more heavily on prepared meals, frozen foods and eating out more often than either my wallet or stomach care for. You know how it is — it’s so easy to presume that preparing fresh food takes too much time, or is too much of a hassle.

Well, yeah, it takes time. But it’s not a hassle. Around Casa Awesome, I do 95 percent of the cooking anyway. And it’s not just because Sara doesn’t cook (well …). It’s because I enjoy doing it. I like having an excuse to do something more than just put together a sandwich or throw some veggie nuggets into the oven. Even making a simple pasta dish this weekend, I remarked aloud how much I enjoy just being in the kitchen. And tonight I did two new things in the kitchen: I made both a vegetable stew and a vegetable stock — not difficult or groundbreaking items by any means, but for me, it was awesome to create something more than just the sum of its parts. I was absolutely giddy at the smell filling the house as the stew simmered. And I nearly took a photo of the vegetable stock after I poured it through the strainer into its glass container, I was so proud that I made it.

So Day One went well is what I’m trying to say, I guess. I’m quite looking forward to actually eating the stew tomorrow, and experimenting with the stock tomorrow night in some new dish. Because I know some of you asked or were curious, here’s the rundown (approximately) of my consumption today:

• Breakfast: Approx. 1 Fuji apple, 1 banana (both sliced)
• Morning snack: 1 Coconut Creme Larabar (raw/vegan/organic)
• Lunch: Approx. 2 carrots, 1 bell pepper, 2 stalks celery (all sliced) with maybe a teaspoon of Bragg’s Amino Acids
• Afternoon snack: 1 navel orange, sliced
• Throughout day: Approx. 2 handfuls of raw sunflower nut meats
• Dinner: 1 can Amy’s Organic Lentil Vegetable soup (sooooo good!!)
• Beverages: Just water all day, except for about a quarter serving of Kombucha tea and about a half serving of Trader Joe’s Green Protein drink

Thanks again to everyone for your comments and support, and I’ll check back tomorrow with a hopefully less wordy post. Excelsior!

Sorry for the lack of updates. If you’ve been following me on Twitter (and why wouldn’t you be?), you may have caught on that I’ll be revamping this site soon to focus a little less on this poorly-updated blog, working toward more of a portfolio/brochure site. In the meantime, though, here I am. And I’ve brought with me the cover for the first issue of the new anthology series from my lil’ comic book company, Omega Comics Presents:

Set for release in February, Omega Comics Presents features three all-new, original stories from writers and artists scattered around the globe. No, really. THE GLOBE. Including the lead story by yours truly, the first chapter of an epic, action-espionage drama called “OMEGA.” Epic, I say.

“OMEGA” is actually a story that has existed in many different forms over the last 20-plus years. Much like The Utopian, it has its roots in those homemade comics I cooked up when I was a kid. Unlike that webcomic, however, this tale is completely different, bearing resemblance only superficially in characters’ names and abilities.

I started shopping around the entire graphic novel pitch to indie publishers last year, but after I launched Pop! Goes the Icon, my workload became suddenly heavier, and it didn’t make much sense to send projects off to other companies when I was in the midst of starting my own. So “OMEGA” is rolling out in short chapters with each quarterly issue of OCP, with the goal of wrapping up the rest of the story in full, graphic novel form.

Maybe.

Anyway, there’s some really great work in this first issue by folks such as Alex De-Gruchy, Robert Durham and John Dimes, stuff that will make my puny scribblings look amateur. And even more amazing comics in the second issue! But, um, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I need you to first pre-order the first issue of OCP. It’s only $3.50, and it’ll come right to your doorstep. And the aforementioned creators get paid based on sales, so it would be really nice if not only could I afford to pay for the printing, but that I can actually pay these fine people for their hard work.

The comic will also be available in stores, though just which ones I don’t know. That’s because our comics are distributed by Haven Distributors, which specializes in fulfilling indie comic orders. So if you would like to see OCP carried at your local shop (or if you’re a retailer yourself), please be sure to let Haven know.

I’ve been wavering on the naming of this event for a few weeks. First it was RawWeek, then WholeFoods week, and now … well, we’re going with Detox Week, because even though it sounds like I’m going cold turkey from heroin addiction or something, saying “raw” or “vegan” or whatever is limiting and/or inaccurate.

What the hell am I talking about?

A few weeks ago, someone I follow on Twitter — gawd, don’t ask me who — mentioned he’d lost 20 pounds in two weeks (or a month? I don’t recall) eating only fruits and vegetables. This isn’t a revelation or anything, but it got me thinking about how I’ve let my eating and exercise habits slide due to stress, overworking and things like holidays and vacations. As most people should know, I’ve been a vegetarian for most of my adult life. I did veer into fish consumption for about 18 months, but whether or not I’ll return to that remains to be seen. A little more than a year ago, I visited a doctor to look into some abdominal pain I was having and it was discovered I had really high, bad cholesterol, as well as high triglycerides and a fatty liver. Remember, I’d been vegetarian for at least 7 years at this point.

So I had to cut out anything high in cholesterol or fat. In my case, that was mostly cheese and egg products. And I had to get back to the gym. I’ve been an on-and-off-again gym member, going through alternating periods of high attendance and non-attendance. When I was working multiple jobs and going to school, it wasn’t so much of a problem, as I was on my feet and running around a lot. But most of my work now is sedentary, and apparently the combo of eating French toast three days a week plus not going to the gym in almost a year had done me in. My doctor put me on cholesterol-reducing meds, the aforementioned no-cholesterol, low-fat diet, and an increased exercise regimen. All of which — aside from the pills, which I’ve never had to take for anything in my life — was fine by me, especially since the other discovery at the first doctor’s visit was that my weight was approaching 190 pounds — about 30 more than my highest average.

I re-upped my gym membership, started going there three days a week, began to actually read the labels of the food I was buying, and slowly but surely, the pain dissipated (no one ever did pin down what was casuing it, even after MRIs and ultrasounds — likely, it was something muscular) and the weight started coming off. After three months, my cholesterol came down from a total of 235 to 115, and after another three months, my doctor took me off the pills.

Then I got busy. Or lazy. Or cocky. I started eating the occasional grilled cheese sandwich or egg omelet as a “treat.” Or because I was drinking and needed “absorption food” (alcohol consumption is a topic for a whole other blog post). Three-days-a-week at the gym went down to two, and then one, and then as life spiraled out of control, a visit once in two weeks was an accomplishment. I haven’t weighed myself or been to the doctor since, but I’m pretty sure things aren’t looking too good. Even that slight twinge of pain comes back every so often.

So, inspired by Twitter Guy Who Lost 20 Pounds Eating Only Fruits and Vegetables, I decided I’d take 10 days to make a drastic kick-start for my body’s health happen by following a similar regimen. Wedged between a weekend full of debaucherous parties and events and Christmas Ever, Detox Week 2009 will commence the morning of Monday, Dec. 14 and run through the evening of Thursday, Dec. 24. Yes, that’s more than a week. But “Detox 10 Days 2009″ sounds stupid. I at first contemplated going fully raw, but given my workload and lack of proper tools or time, I wouldn’t be able to do that fully effectively. Then I thought, oh, just vegan, but that could include things like bread and pasta, and I wanted to stay away from that stuff. So I’m creating a custom eating regimen for myself that holds mostly true to a whole foods diet, leaning more heavily on the raw side. The basic guidelines (and these are just guidelines — the most important thing is to listen to my body):

• No processed foods
• No dairy, no bread, no pasta
• No soda or alcohol
• Obviously, no meat or animal products — including eggs and foods made with eggs
• Only eating combinations of vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes, organic and raw whenever possible

I went shopping for the first few days tonight at Sunflower Market, stocking up on a bunch of fruits and veggies, raw nuts/seeds, fermented drinks (a staple of whole foods diets), raw snacks, juices and for special occasions, a few vegetable-lentil soups. Almost everything I bought was organic, and surprisingly, did not cost more than my normal grocery list of processed meat substitutes, frozen meals and salty snacks.

I’m very excited to rediscover the joy of just eating what comes naturally and experimenting with different combinations of foods. I’m sure the first few days will be difficult, especially as I’m used to eating a lot of breads and cereals. But I think the end result will be worth it. So stay tuned as I attempt to document my progress during Detox Week 2009, and if anyone has any constructive feedback, I welcome it, though I won’t promise to actually pay attention to it.