'The Cleanse' Progress Report

Well, I am on Day #12 of 'The Cleanse'. How am I doing? Well ... progress has been made, but I've definately not perfected the diet.

First off were the innocent mistakes. I didn't realize that corn flour had the glutens I was supposed to stay away from. Then I ate some rice cakes that had milk products in them (I don't know how I missed that - it was in bold letters). And then there is the sugar that is in every salad dressing ... I thought I would let that slide. I just wouldn't add any other sugars to my diet (but I also missed the sucralose listed in the ingredients of some flavored water I bought - I bought that 11 days ago and it's still half full. I stopped drinking it when I realized it had sugar).

Then ... Dale appeared on the doorstep bearing breakfast one morning this week. A biscuit with egg and bacon; and coffee with cream to wash it down. Had it just been the coffee, I would have politely turned it down and sat with my cup of tea as he drank it. But with breakfast in hand as well, I just couldn't let his good deed go to waste. I indulged (and it tasted devine!!).

The positive is that I didn't let that end the 'cleanse' project in mind. I still went directly back to my fruits/vegetables/nuts (and salad dressing with some sugar added).

But ... Kurt's birthday was a few days ago. The birthday tradition in our home has been that the birthday person gets to choose where to go out for supper. Kurt ended up choosing pizza (and we invited Wes, Dale and their girlfriends over). Again ... there is nothing in the pizza menu that is allowed on this cleanse. So ... I bent the rules for one more meal. I did choose to eat the vegetarian pizza (but only 2 pieces - normally I would have had 3). And only one glass of pepsi (normally I would have poured a second glass as we visited after the meal). Oh ... and then there was the cupcake with icing that I had after the meal. Again - I ate one, where normally I would have had a second.

If I can do nothing else but start to change some of my eating habits by sticking out the rest of this 21 days, I'll consider it a success on some level.

Progress, not perfection is the goal.