Posts Tagged ‘Detox Week’

I woke up at 4:30 this morning feeling pretty darn hungry. I don’t usually wake up with gnawing hunger like that, but I did. I think I managed to get back to sleep for an hour or so, but it didn’t feel like it.

That was kind-of the theme of yesterday: Being hungry, and missing out on normal experiences. At some point in the day — after As Yet Unbroken‘s scheduled rehearsal was unexpectedly canceled — I was going to join Sara to run around town a bit. She, of course, mentioned getting frozen yogurt, which we typically do once a week, but I had to remind her I couldn’t have any dairy during Detox Week.

We ended up going over to Town Square to do some looking around/incidental shopping (oh, Old Navy, your insane sales will be the death of me), and Sara was hungry, so we stopped at Johnny McGuire’s, a tasty sandwich shop. Of course, I ate nothing. It’s not as much fun going out to eat when you can’t eat. To be fair, I did eat a couple of veggie wraps before we left the house, but, um, for my metabolism, they didn’t go far. By the time we were leaving Town Square (after Sara did, indeed, get some fro-yo), I felt pretty drained, to the point I chose to take an elevator up to my car on the third floor of the parking garage — and I always take the stairs. Even Sara noticed my odd decision. By the time we swung by a Target to pick up a few household items, I was getting cranky.

After eating re-heated veggie stew from the other night, I was no longer hungry, but then I was also pretty sleepy. Given how much sleep I had the night before, I can only imagine the one-two combo of the potatoes and jasmine rice in the stew did me in. Remember when I first re-introduced rice into my diet during December’s Detox Week? Yep, same thing. Not only did I feel run-down, but I couldn’t keep my eyes awake sitting on the couch (of course, it also helped I had no pressing work to do, so maybe that was just relaxation, I dunno). Starch! Curse you!

Anyway, this week’s going to be a lot of running around and preparing for Long Beach Comic Con this weekend, which I’ll talk more about later. Here’s yesterday’s food consumption:

• Breakfast: One Gala apple, one cup Dynamo juice blend
• Morning snack: One Larabar (peanut butter cookie flavor)
• Lunch: Two veggie wraps from Go Raw Cafe (pesto, “almond cheese,” tomato, avocado, sprouts, onions, cucumbers and carrots wrapped in collard greens)
• Dinner: Homemade veggie stew (carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, jasmine rice)
• Late-night snack: Two stalks of celery with organic peanut butter
• Beverages: Water, half a serving of Trader Joe’s Green Protein juice, one serving of coconut water infused with mango and peach

My dogs, annoying as they can be when they’re barking at 2 a.m. or using the kitchen rug as a litter box, are pretty entertaining. One of my favorite things they do to entertain me? When Sara leaves the house while they’re in our backyard and unaware. Then I let them back in, and they make a mad dash around the entire house for about five minutes searching for their mama. They systematically check every room two or three times before figuring out what’s going on. It’s adorable and funny and I take a little too much pleasure in their confusion.

Anyway, not much to report from yesterday. At some point last night, in the midst of drinking my second smoothie of the day, I remarked to Sara that I felt like this Detox Week was going easier than the last one, and it also felt like I was eating a lot more. I seem to recall being much hungrier consistently throughout the first days of this thing back in December. Maybe I’ve just figured out how to diversify my food selections within the constraints of the plan, maybe I’ve just adjusted more to the decreased carbs and the such since last round. I dunno.

Spent most of the day inside the house working. Finished the first draft of an almost 2,000-word article about gay Jews I’ve been working on for months. I’m going to let it “cool” for a day before I go back at it with my editing eye, and then send it off to my editor while holding my breath.

I also managed to write a new song yesterday. Taking a break from writing, I went into the music room and sat down with my guitar. I actually wrote a few different guitar riffs, but only one really came out with a fully developed structure and vocal melody. I quickly recorded it in GarageBand so I can work with it later, and even started adding some drums to it. Not bad so far. We’ll see how it goes.

Here’s Day Four’s menu, as much as I can remember it. I had the hardest time this morning recalling what I ate between lunch and dinner, so I think this is fairly accurate. If not, sue me:

• Breakfast: Strawberry banana smoothie (with almond milk and 1 tsp sugar)
• Morning snack: One Lemon Bar Larabar
• Late morning snack: One spicy “krispy”
• Lunch: Half order (four pieces) of traditional “pizza” from Go Raw Cafe (raw, sprouted, buckwheat crust topped with “almond cheese,” a blend of basil
  pesto and marinara sauce with veggies and “walnut sausage”) – This is better than you can imagine. Nom nom.
• Afternoon snack: Six or seven chunks of honeydew
• Dinner: Homemade veggie stew (potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower)
• Late night snack: Another strawberry-banana smoothie, this time with a teaspoon of peanut butter (nomz!)
• Beverages: Water all day, maybe a few sips of Kombucha tea

Have band practice today, but first I think I’m going to get some housecleaning done. It’s waaaay overdue.

Finally went to Go Raw Cafe yesterday. This is one of those places like Whole Foods where it’s dangerous for me to walk in, because there are so many good and interesting food items for me to buy, and it’s far too easy to spend a lot of money there. Aside from making all-raw, all-vegan dishes (with creative ingredients such as “nut cheese” — better than it sounds!), Go Raw also carries a variety of raw grocery items, including “breads” (made from sprouted seeds and soaked nuts), snacks, cookies, beverages, cooking supplies and other goodies, including a large selection of books on homeopathy, raw cooking and other health topics. Oh, and it has a salad bar, too.

I walked out spending about $40 on two prepared meals, a smoothie and a bag of  spicy “krispys” (basically, raw tortilla chips). I know that sounds like a lot of money, and believe me, it is. That’s the reason I only go to Go Raw on special occasions. A typical lunch for two would cost about $20, and while that’s not actually much more than even going to a sandwich shop (once you factor in sides and drinks), it’s probably more than most people want to, or should, spend on a normal basis. But the quality of the items Go Raw creates is so good (and the process going into making some of these items is so involved) and tasty, it’s worth it.

After getting my hair cleaned up by the always-adorable Kimberli Lopez at Tease Boutique Salon (a long drive for me, but she does such good work), I headed to the opening reception for “Drawn in the Dust,” the comic book art exhibit at UNLV’s Barrick Museum in which I have a few pages hanging. The turnout was surprisingly good. It may have helped that this was a dual reception — another show of art by UNLV faculty and students was opening just on the other side of the wall from our show — but there were definitely a bulk of people over the two hours who came specifically to see our silly little comic drawings. I had a great time seeing new and old faces and comparing notes with other artists about our respective processes. It’s still a little weird for an industry veteran like Deryl Skelton (who’s worked on dozens of titles over the last few decades, including a great 1990s run on Star Trek: The Next Generation for DC) to consider me a peer — and an honor to be his editor on Tales from the Boneyard — but it’s also a nice feeling. I shot some video of the event last night, but I’m not sure how the audio came out, so we’ll see if something actually turns up.

After that, I headed downtown to the El Cortez for Vegas Seven‘s “The Tell.” When I was talking to host Dayvid Figler a few nights ago at another event, he described the ballroom space in the El Cortez to me, explaining that it used to be a buffet, so there were still buffet bars lining one side of the room. He noted there was seating for only about 80 or 90, between the fixed booths and the portable chairs. Well, it turns out about 200 people turned out last night. It was pretty amazing. Two hundred people on a Friday night for a storytelling event. Admittedly, it was free, and it was being heavily promoted by both Seven and the Vegas Valley Book Festival, and among the Vegas culturati, it was one of those “must-attend” events. But still, impressive. And it was great. Seven storytellers from or connected to Las Vegas sharing their experiences with cheating — whether romantically, professionally, academically or otherwise. Many drinks were purchased and consumed (none here of course!), the room was standing-room only, and most everyone seemed to really enjoy the loose, fun atmosphere. This is apparently the first in a series of such events, so look for more installments of “The Tell” in the near future.

I called it a night right after that, however. It was 11:30 p.m. by the time everything wrapped up at the El Cortez, and while my friends were very insistently asking me to go to the after-party at Downtown Cocktail Room, I just wanted to head home and sleep. I had been up since about 6:30 a.m., as I did manage to go for a run in the morning as planned — about 2.6 miles total running and walking — and I didn’t really want to be around a lot of smoke and stuff during my “detox” week. But it did bring me back to my straightedge days, when I’d hang out in bars all night drinking only Sprite and still had a good time (for the most part, when I wasn’t soberly aware of people getting obnoxiously drunk) without defiling my body as much. I was genuinely enjoying myself last night without libations, but I was still pooped nonetheless.

Geez, give me a schedule to blog, and I’ll just ramble about nothing for a while, huh? Ack.

Anyway, you came here for yesterday’s menu, didn’t you? FINE:

• Pre-run/post-run snack: Coconut creme pie Larabar
• Breakfast: One apple, one cup Dynamo juice blend
• Lunch: Caro-bana smoothie from Go Raw (carob, tahini, banana, dates)
• Supper: Two veggie wraps from Go Raw (pesto, “almond cheese,” tomato, avocado, sprouts, onions, cucumbers and carrots wrapped in collard greens)
• Dinner: Lentil and vegetable soup with three spicy “krispys” (buckwheat, chia seeds, flax seeds, oranges, yams, sunflower seeds, garlic, olive oil, basil, rosemary, Himalayan Crystal Salt, jalapeño)
• Late-night snack: Three slices pineapple
• Beverages: Water all day, plus the above-listed, and a few sips of Kombucha tea

Have to get this article for David magazine done today. For real. Tomorrow I have band practice and other nonsense, and the rest of the week will be insane prep for Long Beach Comic Con, so … yeah. See you kids later.

I’m sure I had this same revelation during my previous Detox Week experience, but I’ll say it again: It occurred to me last night while eating out at Sweet Tomatoes (one of the few restaurants I can actually enjoy during this whole thing) that my normal diet is not really all that different than what I’m doing this week. It’s just that usually, I consume way too many breads, pastas and other super-starchy foods. Lots of Asian-inspired noodle dishes. Sandwiches. Ridiculous amounts of white rice. Not to mention the tofu and soy/texturized vegetable protein-based faux meats. And typically, after I eat these things? I feel drained. I feel too full. And I know that all the gluten is going right to my gut.

Given that, by late afternoon yesterday, my body had already started adjusting to the reduced load. I wasn’t as terribly hungry as I was on Wednesday (though seeing people mention food on Facebook or Twitter kinda killed me), to the point that in the evening when Sara asked if I’d eaten dinner, I thought about it for a second and said “I’m not really that hungry.” Of course, she was, and we actually ended up going to Sweet Tomatoes, which under normal circumstances, this would be the best week of the year for such a thing, because we’re in the midst of customer favorites month at the soup-and-salad buffet, and some of MY favorites are featured right now, including creamy tomato soup and peanut butter cookie bars. But of course, while Sara enjoyed those delights, I had a simple salad loaded with veggies and sunflower seeds and a splash of olive oil and vinegar, a baked potato with onions and chives, and a little serving of minestrone soup broth. It was good nonetheless.

Today, I’m going to Go Raw Cafe, an amazing, raw and vegan restaurant near Green Valley. It’s one of my favorite places ever, but I so rarely go there, so this will be a treat. Then this evening is the opening reception for Drawn in the Dust (that group art show in which I have a few pieces), and following that is “The Tell,” a storytelling event hosted by Vegas Seven, which I already talked about yesterday and I’m gonna shut up now and get to the menu for Day Two:

• Breakfast: One banana, one cup of Dynamo juice blend
• Morning snack: One Pure bar (raw/vegan) – don’t remember the name of the flavor.
• Lunch: Trader Joe’s lentil and vegetable soup
• Afternoon snack: Raw almonds and walnuts; baby carrots with organic hummus
• Pre-dinner snack: One or two pineapple spears
• Dinner: Sweet Tomatoes -  salad loaded with veggies, sunflower seeds and a splash of olive oil and vinegar, baked potato with onions and chives, and a little serving of minestrone soup broth

I might try for a run in a few minutes. I know I said I wasn’t going to do any heavy exercise, but I feel really weird if I don’t at least run every few days or so now. So we’ll see how that goes.

As I detailed in this semi-boring video on Tuesday, I kicked off another week of self-denial and hunger yesterday. As I’m old hat at this by now, it didn’t go too badly at all. I started off the day at about 5:30 a.m. with half a Clif Bar — my final rich-ish food before launching into full detox mode — and a mile-and-a-half run, the last few blocks of which were done under a sudden downpour. It was a beautiful morning, lightning illuminating the sky all around and thunder rolling the whole time, so … good start.

My diet for the rest of the day, which will look familiar to anyone who followed me during Detox Week 2009, looked something like this:

• Breakfast: One apple, one cup Dynamo juice blend (basically liquid vitamins)
• Morning snack: One apple pie flavor Larabar (raw/vegan snack bar)
• Lunch: Raw carrots and celery with Bragg Liquid Aminos
• Afternoon snack: Celery and peanut butter (organic, no oil or sugar), some raw almonds and walnuts
• Dinner: Whipped up a veggie stew (potatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower — I forgot celery?!). So good, even Sara ate it!
• Beverages: Just water except for what’s mentioned above, plus a few swigs of Trader Joe’s Green Protein juice.

My energy level was pretty good all day, as expected. No sleepy feeling post-lunch like I normally experience following a sandwich or something. I actually got about 1200 words written last night for this article that’s been plaguing me for months (and is actually due next week), which is more than I’ve been able to do up ’til now. Not sure if that had more to do with desperation of a looming deadline or increased awareness from my nutritional changes, but I’m hoping today I can keep up the pace and finish the rest of the story.

Hey kids! Remember Detox Week 2009, when I eschewed all bread, animal products, and processed food in a crazy attempt to feel better?

It’s BAAAAAACK.

Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 20, and continuing for seven days (so, through the night of Tuesday, Oct. 26), I’ll be limiting my food and beverage consumption to fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and mostly water, augmented by a bit o’ juice (mostly raw and organic when possible). But, hey, I’ll let this guy tell you all about it:

That’s pretty much it. Feel free to read through all the fun Detox Week 2009 posts from last time to see how it went, and then prepare for another week of nonsense. Excelsior!

Things have been … interesting since the end of Detox Week 2009 on Christmas Eve. Though I did quickly ruin my streak with liquor and baked goods that night (hello! It was CHRISTMAS EVE.), I actually maintained a fairly low-key consumption rate, and discovered I did, indeed, lose about five pounds over the course of the 10-day experiment.

Unfortunately, since then, things have been a bit hectic, between the holidays, a three-day getaway to Santa Barbara, and deadlines on so many projects, my head is spinning. I was also waylaid by an unexpected stomach flu of some sort upon return to Las Vegas on Sunday, which had me puking up most of two days’ worth of food all night and rendering any further eating less than desirable for the following day.

Now that I’m relatively back to normal, I’ve noticed a few things about my body that I assume to be a result of Detox Week, and hopefully not just because my stomach was doing acrobatics earlier this week. For one, my appetite is greatly decreased. I don’t seem to get annoyingly hungry all the time like I used to. While it’s good for one’s metabolism to eat something small every few hours, it seems like my body has adapted to going longer stretches without much sustenance, for better or worse.

And when I do eat, it seems that I now have an upper limit. It used to be I’d finish whatever I was eating and still be hungry. Now I get halfway through a sandwich and just give up. (Note: I have not tested this with Capriotti’s yet.) Again, I’m not sure if this is a result of the changes I self-created or my stomach’s rebuttal after being sick, but it’s something notable.

I also lost most of my craving for carbonated beverages. Not that I am or have ever been much of a cola drinker (though I had a nasty energy drink addiction years ago that led me to giving up caffeine altogether), but I do typically enjoy a Sprite Zero or Diet Hansen’s about once a day. Or at least, I did until Detox Week, during which time I drank only water and the occasional juice. Since then, I’ve stuck to mostly water. There aren’t tremendous health benefits since I was drinking clear, calorie-free, caffeine-free, sugar-free sodas anyway, but again, it’s just interesting that I’m kind of “eh” about it.

Of course, I’ve been under a lot of pressure lately, and did have that mini-flu-or-whatever, so all this could be circumstantial and within a month’s time, I’ll be back to having a bottomless pit for a digestive system.

But if not, I’m not sure what to do with all this. I feel … off. I have to admit: Something about my diet, my body, everything feels not quite right. I don’t know how to explain it. Not sure if it’s because I haven’t been able to get back to my regular workout regimen yet due to all the above-listed factors. Not sure if it’s the season, the weather, the stress load … I don’t know.

Oh, but one thing I do know: Don’t make oatmeal in the microwave. YUCK.