Can I?

There are a million and one things I could say to preface this but let's just say it's what I gotta do.

I've always wanted this blog to be a happy food loving place. Somewhere I could post my findings, record my favorite recipes & kitchen successes & failures & a little of my daily life too. (though a little less of the latter).

Let's be honest, I'm all about the foodies! Could it be a byproduct of needing to keep a family of 6 active kids & one DH with a voracious appetite fed? Maybe. Could it be that I have an inclination to be indulgant? I've never been one to skimp on the goodness if a recipe says slather with butter, I'm it's ALL about the butter!! If it says, "will go great with Naan bread" I'm gonna go build a clay tandoor in my backyard. Whatever the reasons, I'm glad I love to be in the kitchen & I'm not ashamed of it.

There is another facet of my foodie life that I need to stop & ponder for a moment. Face the facts with me for a moment if you will: I've been pregnant & or nursing since I was 17. There has been the occasional 1 month break between stopping nursing & getting pregant but that's about 11 years.

What this means is that for 9 months I'm eating what I want (or get outta the way for an angry preggo), and then the next year & 1/2 I'm nursing I'm eating what I want & defying every law of gravity & everything they told you in Health class about metabolism. I was a Snacking Superhero. My super-power being, I could eat non-stop ALL DAY LONG! (I know some of you nursing mom's know what I'm talking about too....you closet snackers, you!!) choosing the heighest in carbs & protien foods & sadly at times not the healthiest food choices either, and all that would happen was that the weight would come off. (repeat this process 6 times & we end up here!!)

I've realized now that I am neither nursing nor preggo that I have a sad & somewhat addicted lifestyle of eating almost soley for pleasure rather than for nutritional value. And it doesn't stop at the food, I don't think so. I'm not too trusty with the drink either...alcohol & caffine are both old buddies of mine. And though I've found that my body has balanced itself out to a pretty normal weight, my eating habits are a bit of a concern to me. I have to face that my eating rules go a little something like this: "EAT IT ALL......NOW.....BEFORE THE KIDS WAKE UP......YIPPIE!!" or equally sad, "DRINK IT NOW........BECAUSE THE KIDS ARE ASLEEP...YIPPIE!!". Yeah, I know, not the coolest.

So, not surprisingly the thought of doing some kind of "detox" has been more & more appealing to me over the last few months.

Now, hopefully without offending, I must be clear and say that I've never been one to think much of diets or dieting. Also since I've always easily lost weight I've never been interested in weight loss either. Don't get me wrong, I'm always shocked with the self control some people have. But I've just never found it within myself. Besides, looking in the fridge over & over again is just too much fun of a habit to give up. (hmmm) But the thought of toxins building up in my body after years & years of virtual carefree grazing is just too horrible a thought to ignore. The thought of having a clean digestive tract just seems sooo wonderful. Doesn't it? Come to think about it, it's something I love about sqeaky clean newborns, their breath is clean because their whole body is free of any food & polutants. Sigh!!

So I'm a little mortified to be saying it but I'm going to be doing the what's come to be known as the "Master cleanse" or "lemonade diet". For anyone who doesn't know that's basically consisting of only drinking a mixture of lemon, cayanne pepper, maple syrup & water throughout the day for 10 days. Along with doing what's called a salt water flush daily(consisting of drinking a liter of salt water in one shot & you can imagine the rest....eh-hum).

I'm not sure if I wanna be posting my experience but hopefully it'll be a good one. I'm really not in anyway trying to advertise or condone fasting, dieting or detoxing. I know it's just right for me right now for a few reasons: 1) I'm not nursing, 2) It's not "birthday season" 3) My TMJ syndrome has flaired up so badly that it's painful to eat anyway.

I'm planning on starting sometime around the 25 or 26th of May. I'm imagining it's not going to be the easiest as if you know me at all....I'm a real wuss when it comes to self control. And since I'll still have to be shopping & cooking I'll be facing a lot of yummy looking opposition.

So...that's it. We'll see how it goes & if I'm capable of posting anything related to food w/o munching on my screen. Catch you later!!!