21 day challenge

So’s Shawn and I are on a long car ride, listening to radio talk shows and this lady (Kathy Freston) is on talking about a doing a 21 day diet or cleanse. We usually don’t like the crazy diet thing, but this caught our interest. Give up 5 things for just 21 days – not so much a diet – but a challenge to your “stick-to-it-ness” and proof that you are not ruled by certain foods. (Later on we found out it was an “Oprah” diet – I was not so happy about that – but we certainly didn’t glop on to this cause it was Oprah’s doing).

It sounded like a good challenge, so for 21 days, we are giving up: Caffeine, Sugar, Alcohol, Gluten and all animal products.

It was a pretty daunting list, but we are 7 days in and this is not bad at all. I dare say, I am feeling a little more energetic in the morning , and the rest of the day goes great with out all the coffee I was drinking (I was a 4 or 5 cup a day person).

This has been a really good thing, I’ve felt really good. I was worried about not enough protein, but we’ve cooked up some dang good Tofu dishes; I make a mean pablano pepper stir fry with black beans that has been a fav; we ate at a vegan restaurant and loved it; at Chipotle we had a veggie burrito (no shell) and that was great; I’m loving my PB on brown rice bread for lunch; and steel cut oats for breakfast has been a real treat!

We never feel starved. But we are happy we did this time of the year, when there are great fruits and Veggies around – that make snack time pretty easy.

We certainly won’t do this forever and frankly, I can’t wait to get a triple shot espresso on day 22! But I think it’s always going to change the way I look at vegan stuff - I will seek it out now and then. And, I’m going to try to avoid gluten products as well – except for cereal, cookies and beer!

Peace, love and brown rice cats!