First day off the cleanse

Well, the day has finally come, I am done the cleanse!

After waking up early and tidying up a bit, I brewed my first cup of coffee in more than 3 weeks. I put a heaping teaspoon of raw sugar in there and a few tablespoons of Rice Dream rice milk.

It was a steaming mug of liquid gold.

Mmmm. I'm waiting until my boy shows up before I indulge in another cup. Dr. Rau's "Maintenance Diet" says I should limit myself to 1 cup of coffee or decaffeinated tea in the morning and then only herbal/decaf after that. I'm giving myself some leeway. I have no intention of following his maintenace diet religiously, but there is some good stuff in there.

Today in the Globe & Mail my horoscope said

Avoid trying to ram your opinions down other people's throats today. Not only wll you not succeed but you will almost certainly turn even your friends against you. You are entitled to your views, of course, but there are many other ways of looking at world.

I think that is both eye-opening and reinforcing to my current state of mind. I've definitely been a bit preachy while I follow this cleanse, because I feel strongly about what we as Canadians eat on a regular basis. I'm going to concentrate on toning down the gospel of Dr. Rau and not try to cut people off of cow's milk, get them hopped up on whole grains and reduce their intake of processed white flour and wheat in general.

My new method will be conversion through gentle coercion. That is, I will invite people to eat whole grain vegan/vegetarian with me and feed them awesome and wholesome food that is far beyond the realm of boiled veg and bread.

Today is the cook-a-thon! I started early so that the Boy and I could eat a lunch of fresh Mexican goodies: spelt (mixed with a bit of whole wheat and white flour) tortillas, Mexican rice, Guac (I have so many avocados!), refried beans (cooked overnight in my crockpot. I accidentally bought Romano instead of Pinto beans and it turns out that they look identical, but are slightly different. They taste fabulous though), and salsa.

I also roasted some veggies and boiled bejeezus out of them for veggie stock. It was a good way to use up veggie scraps (dying red pepper, asparagus ends, fennel trimmings) and have a healthier stock for the soup I'm going to make (probably Pea Soup).

I'm off for now, it's time to work on the tortillas!