Abstaining for 21 Days: A Diet Detox Food Diary Day 1
Day 1: The Cleanse Begins
It’s 10:06 p.m. Do you know where your day went? I can map mine out pretty easily, relative to what I was supposed to be eating or drinking when—but wasn’t—for this Kickstart diet cleanse. It started out innocently enough. Up early despite the Presidents Day holiday, editing copy and getting ready to wake up my daughter to go to an ice-skating lesson at Wollman Rink in Central Park. I hadn’t looked out a window in the hour-plus I’d been awake, but something about the wet sound of the traffic outside caught my attention. When I saw the weather, I called the rink (it’s outdoors)—no lesson. It was all downhill from there for my cleansing schedule.
Diet Challenge 1: Healthy Meal Plan Schedule
You see, the lesson was supposed to be at 9:00 a.m., as was the first juice. And it was day 1 of my 21-day cleansing diet adventure—I figure if I keep calling it an adventure, I can delude some part of my brain into perceiving this as fun! Once the 9:00 a.m. lesson was history, any pretense of a schedule for my day was too. The photos for 1 story had vanished, someone else hadn’t turned in her revised copy, 2 off-from-school children wanted breakfast—of course, not the same breakfast, which meant chocolate-chip waffles and an egg-white omelet with spinach, tomato, and cheddar coming up. (No one tells you that motherhood is synonymous for short-order cook!)
Now, it’s 10:30, but I haven’t had my 9:00 a.m. juice. More importantly, I hadn’t had my coffee. I think the last time I hit 10:30 a.m. without having had coffee I was 12. Me uncaffeinated—not an experience any of us want to repeat anytime soon, as in NEVER! However, late for my juice, I wanted to behave. The juice was labeled Day 1, 9:00 a.m., and I was getting anxious. So, I drank. The concept here is kind of Alice in Wonderland in reverse. Drink a big bottle and get little. Sipping more accurately describes my encounter with the Berry Chai Smoothie, but I do the same thing with my coffee—and 2 hours later, there was about 1/3 of the bottle left.
Keeping Up with the Daily Meal Plan
As the day progressed, I worked, children ignored my “request” that they do homework, I prepared more meals, put out more fires at work, and surprise surprise, looked up to see it was 2:30, and I hadn’t had the 12:00 Brussels Sprout &Shiitake Mushroom Soup. Cool. Food. Plus I didn’t have to think about what, or what not, to have for lunch. I did, however, have to text Yvette, Kickstart’s founder, to ask about the 3:00 p.m. juice I was now scheduled to drink. Do I wait, since I was supposed to drink it 3 hours after the soup? Do I skip it and have 1 less meal? Yvette responded immediately—“Don’t worry about timing, you need the nutrients.” Too bad. Skipping the green juice seemed like a good solution to me! Guess what? It was delish. No problems at all. A big surprise, since I don’t drink my food—I don’t do juicebars, I’ve never had a shot of wheatgrass, I say no to Melissa’s homemade smoothies. A few hours later and it was time for the spicy lemonade, which was as yummy as I expected. Dinner, Spring Detox Stew with brown rice, lentils, cabbage, and more, was perfect. And then a solid 2 hours late, my final “meal” of the day, the Balance Cacao Brownie, more spicy cake with turmeric and seeds than the brownies I bake, but it was sweet, delicious, and no liquid in sight. A tiny square of heaven.
Final Food Journal Entry for Detox Diet Day 1
Overall, there were a few surprises, and a few things I saw coming a mile away. What I expected? That I would have a headache and that my mother would be nervous about the whole concept of the cleanse. Got 100% on that pop quiz. What I didn’t expect? That I would be able to drink, much less enjoy, the juices. That I would be continuously consuming something to the point where I had more to eat and drink than I had the time to do it in. And that my 6-month-old puppy Sadie would follow me and my drinks around with more eagerness to taste than any other food or drink I’ve had.
Smart puppy.
—Nancy Rotenier
Related Links
• Did You Miss Day 0? Abstaining for 21 Days: A Detox Diet Food Diary
• Get Thin, Fit & Radiant: DIY Diet Food Cleanse
• A Celebrity Stylist Takes on a Diet Cleanse to Fit Her Fashion Must-Haves
Rumor Is Day 2 Is the Worst. Is It? Don’t Miss the Detox Diet Food Diary—Tomorrow at PageDaily.com!
