Saturday, January 5, 2008

Day 4

We're still alive!

And feeling fantastic. Perhaps I'm experiencing some sort of vegetable induced high, but I feel more energetic than I've felt since I was two. My cells are happy. My liver, good god, is happy.

So I've been thinking a lot about willpower. Does it take willpower to suddenly cut out salt, sugar, meat, dairy, alcohol, wheat, and processed foods? Is it willpower that's gotten us to day 4? And is it willpower that will get us (or not get us) through day 21? I originally assumed it was. When I describe my detox to friends, family, and co-workers who are now feeling well assured that I truly may be a bit off-center, they also assume this is some bizarre test of willpower. Probably because they know how I like my wine. And buffalo.

But here on day 4, with a clear head and calming aromatherapy all around me, I will tell you it's not about willpower. It is about consciousness.

As much as I am and have long been a healthy eater, I never realized how few conscious choices I made about what I popped in my mouth. If this were about willpower, it would mean that my food choices until this point have been about free will. They haven't. To me, free will is when I am informed, concious, and aware of my ability to make my own decisions. It is only now, after making decisions about what I will not eat, that I become conscious of all the unconscious eating I have done.

Will we make it 21 days? I hope that we will choose to. But more than that, I hope that we will retain our consciousness about food choices. I have never dieted in my life. I honor, love, and strive to nurture my relationship with food. This is not an exercise in self deprivation.

Food is important. Food gives life, but when abused, food can take life. Food nourishes, food depletes. Food heals, food hurts. Food protects, food makes us vulnerable. Our relationship with food is so much more than feeding and flushing away. What we choose to eat represents how we value our selves, our bodies, our souls. And making those choices...choices about my self, my body, my soul...requires consciousness.

1 comment:

Sades said...

That's similar results to what people get when they do week long fasts. The first two days are hard. The next two are easy and they feel really great, and the last two are a little bit hard. Of course you guys are eating, so it shouldn't be quite like that. I think this is a great thing to try. Although I'm a little skeptical about the affects of the crystal in the pocket. But everything else I imagine will give you positive results.