Abstaining for 21 Days: Detox Diet Food Diary Day 8

food-cleanse-blog-day8 Anger Management (Not!) and the Detox Diet
OK, so remember how I mentioned that the best thing to distract you from hunger while dieting is to be insanely busy? I just discovered another distraction—white hot rage! Oh, that’s right. My charming little tech friends at Verizon seem unable to provide me with reliable service. Tonight? No WiFi. Even with my laptop next to the router. I GIVE UP! I’m so out-of-my-mind aggravated and upset that despite it being 10:12 p.m., I haven’t had my dinner—scheduled for 7:00. But I think we’ve pretty well established that I work on a sliding scale with the appointed times of my Joulebody detox diet meals. Tonight, you can marry insanely busy with furious.

A Healthy Start to My Day and My Diet
The day had started with the usual dose of workday calm before the chaos. In the office having finished my coffee—yes, still drinking—I had my morning juice, which tasted somewhat peppery. Purely observational, not unpleasant. Doled out help, advice, snarky comments to amazing 12-year-olds that I work with—they’re all under 26, I’m decidedly not—as Katrina filed “Oscar jewelry for less,” Lindsay and Daniela knocked out PageDaily Awards for the best drugstore makeup products and a related piece on makeup bags, Lindsay Hahn was working on a broadcast segment with Melissa based on our “gifts that give back” article, and Dania was photoshopping collages for all that had everyone ooh’ing and ah’ing. It was a good morning.

Call with another of my favorite people, Claudia—she’ll whip me into SEO shape yet! She’s very tolerant. Then, calls and calls and calls. Why does my phone ring more when I’m on deadline and don’t have time to breathe, much less chat?! At this point, it’s fair to say I never have time to chat. Luckily, friends are tolerant too—plus, they like my baking. I look up at 2:26 p.m. Huh. Apparently, 2:26 is the new 12:00—lunchtime! Yummy soup with shiitake mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, beans, and more. Staff meeting about production, meeting with Andy—the Lone Wolf—and Lindsay H. re: video slate/production, meeting with Melissa to review. Answer questions, calm anxieties, toss out story ideas, stifle own inner panic—need more hours in a day to even come close to finishing ANYTHING! But the only “free” time left is 2:00–6:00 a.m., and at the moment, that’s reserved for sleeping. But who knows? I did mention something about being flexible a few days ago.

Can You Spell . . . Floundering?
So, it’s 6:something, why is the office buzzing like it’s mid-morning? Dania’s gone goofy. It’s not her usual mimicking of other people’s speech. Instead, she’s cracking everyone up singing some rap twist on a song I am too sleep-deprived to remember, but there was a lot about chains and cold and who knows what. Gotta love a gorgeous girl with no self-consciousness about being silly. I work with the best people! (Fair warning about Dania: Do not go on seemingly innocent field trips to nearby pet stores with her in tow. She’s an enabler!!! I leave the office once in 2 years—ONCE!!!—and I end up with you-know-who. If for that and nothing more, I’ll love her forever. J)

Leave the office, and once home, I realize I’ve missed my appointment with the green juice and I’m close to 2 hours late on lemonade. You can guess which one I ditched. Laptop booted up, puppy and kids fed, study more vocab—clemency, floundering—pack up for school, PJs, read, brush, wash up. Bedtime, ding ding ding! Lights out, the list of to-do’s facing me is like looking at the face of Everest. But I can’t stay back at base camp. Forging ahead, I’m about to start editing when . . . and yes, the Jaws theme song should be playing in the background as you read this . . .

Detox Diet Déjà Vu, All Over Again
Ironic that we’re back where we started—10:12 p.m. Because I’m back where I started with Fios—no WiFi.

Interrupt my leisurely—yeah, right—evening to shoot off a choice email to the previously discussed Paul Sullivan, he of the prerecorded customer service phone call at the height of my Fios crisis. Then, long call with Tara, which lasts until just before 1:00 a.m., during which time—shhhhhhhh, Yvette’s sleeping, no need for her to know, we’ll just keep it between us—I have my dinner. Hello!!! It’s a work of art—sliced yams, chick peas, and round carrot slices arrayed on top like a flower. It may be a small portion, it may not be chocolate, but it still put a big smile on my face.—Nancy Rotenier