Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Master Cleanse: MASTERED!

It's funny when you don't eat during the day, how certain activities grow in fascination to replace the habit of cooking. Case in point: cat watching. Oh, Satchmo... curled up with the collected works of Lewis Carroll... so peaceful. I spent a lot of time reading over those ten days (a LOT), drawing, walking around late at night with legs that felt oddly leaden but powered by this strange eternal sense of energy. I even went to a party on the weekend stone-cold sobre, swizzled my lemonade and had a blast. Near the end there was a definite natural high going on, and I could see how people could continue for 14, 20, 40 days....

Not that I was going to. I'd have to take out real estate to manage all the recycling!

P (hereby referred to as "Pomme") came off the fast one day before me, so we went to work together making a pottage of soup with about half a garden in it, it was the most nourishing amazing thing I'd ever seen... (turnip, celery, carrot, zucchini, sweet potato, leek, onion, cabbage, mushrooms, broccoli, tomato, green beans, wakame, brown rice and barley). It was so tempting, in fact... that 3 AM of day 11.... I crept out of bed.............. and had a bowl of it!

I know you're supposed to wait and spend a whole day drinking orange juice to break the fast.... but I am not patient! And my trusty guts of steel worked like a charm! It was delicious, and sat perfectly. (I'm not recommending this to anyone, though - I almost ate it in the spirit of science, to see if I doubled over in crippling cramps or something equally bad, and that might still happen if your stomach is sensitive)

This is my first real meal! On day 2 of breaking the fast, I woke up to the most enticing smell ever, and Pomme had made the most perfect and delicious (and spicy!) dhal, which we had for dinner with brown rice, steamed veggies, salad, and this very cool sesame coleslaw I made weeks ago that magically started fermenting all on it's own. I'll have to see if I can recreate that...

And then, after dinner, because we are daredevils after all.... we made a raw pie, and (oh dear) ate the whole thing between us! Okay, I had most of it. ;)

It had a walnut/almond/cinnamon crust, and the filling was a blend of banana, cashews, mango, blueberries and maple syrup, and it was pretty amazing. Raw pies are especially fun to make because they involve using the blender a lot! And they're easier on the post-fasting tummy, too.

So that's pretty much it! There's loads of other things I could talk about the fast, but it's already kind of fading in my memory... it really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be at all. I was positive I'd give up somewhere around Day 3. I did spend Day 3 reading every dissenting opinion on the cleanse that I could find, and almost thought of stopping. But I didn't, and I'm so glad, because the real treasure I got from it was I SUCCESSFULLY QUIT SMOKING, I'm free! There was no craving, no coughing, no weight gain, no insomnia, no irritability... it's basically the most perfect way to quit, ever. I hope anyone who wants to quit tries this method, I can't recommend it highly enough! And little things like pickles and curry taste like absolute heaven afterwards. :P~~~~~

(next post: my veganversary and I finally get to try tempeh!)

15 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Hooray for no more smoking!! That's excellent!! And I love your first meal after the cleanse - yum!!

Alicia said...

Congratulations on your mastering of the master cleanse! And on quitting smoking! best thing you could've done

Jenni (aka Vegyogini) said...

CONGRATULATIONS on quitting smoking! I'm so happy for you. :) Happy veganiversary, too, whenever it is/was!

Heather said...

Dude, I pretty much wanna be your best friend and make/eat raw pies all day long.

Oh, and your cat reminds me of my old one. I wanna go snuggle with it. Can I kidnap it? ;]

Katy said...

Yay for no more smoking! Congrats on finishing the cleanse!

Theresa said...

Woohoo for getting through the cleanse successfully and also quitting smoking! Your post-fast meals look absolutely amazing! To hear that you did it well gives me hope and inspiration to try it out myself... it would be a good way to cut down the grocery bills for a week, I think.

aTxVegn said...

Congratulations on a successful cleanse! I can see how you couldn't wait to eat the soup and eat half a pie.

Meghan said...

oh, how i love soup.
that one looks good.
congrats on your cleanse!

Anonymous said...

congratulations on the smoking!!!! that raw pie looks frickin' amazing. i'm sure it was worth the wait!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on making it through the cleanse, but more over, congrats on kicking your smoking habit! That's a big deal, and I'm really happy to hear that it was no sweat for you. :)

Anonymous said...

The soup looks so good. I think I will try a variation of it!

Lizzy said...

well CONGRATS liz, well done! how awesome that you managed to quit smoking along the way =D
i'm thinking about doing a cleanse, too. one question now, what did you use the maple syrup for? and did you only drink mint tea, water and lemon/lime juice?

the soup looks so comforting, i want a bowl of that goodness!!! please?
and while you're at it, i'll take a plate of that first dinner and a slice of pie, too ;)

Little Miss Sunshine said...

CONGRATS on your cleanse - I don't think I can ever last that long, hahaha!! Well done Liz!

OMG, your meal looks scrumptious (as always)and the raw pie ... ZOMG, can I please have a teeny slice :)

Oh wow, that's really great that you managed to quit smoking!! Yay!!!

Rural Vegan said...

That's the best news ever that you quit smoking! Good for you, stick to it! I quit, oh geez - 7 or 8 years ago? Best thing a person can do for their health. Yay!

Erin said...

Congrats on making it through, and quitting smoking! You have more will than I.