Day 5

February 18, 2011

Morning

So I went to bed last night at 10:30 (aimed for 10:00 but couldn’t make it) and I was so tired and ready to fall asleep…but I couldn’t. I finally got really close and then…the dreaded upstairs neighbor (who, in sound, resembles an elephant), starting doing something and then his/her dog started barking. The barking went on (off and on) for at least an hour and a half. I have nothing against dogs, but I can’t wait for the day that I live in a place where I don’t have to listen to someone else’s dog bark all night just because we share a wall. And this is a big dog with a loud, deep bark. Honestly, my neighbor is much more obnoxious than the dog. Strangely and sadly, the only time the dog is an issue is from about 10:30 to 12:30 each night. Not good! I already have enough trouble sleeping! So, I’m buying some good, comfortable ear plugs this weekend to sleep in.
I still managed to get up at 6:05 (I think my anger finally woke me). I followed my checklist as usual -

-lemon/cayenne water

-morning pages

-10 mins meditation

-neti pot

-dry brusing

-juice – wait…let’s stop here for a minute. Last night at WF, I bought some wheatgrass to juice (2-4 oz twice a day) so I wouldn’t have to use that power. Wheatgrass contains chlorophyll (among other wonderful minerals and aminos), which oxygenates the bloodstream – basically it’s the superfood of superfoods. It takes a LOT of wheatgrass just to make 2 ounces of juice! I’m not even sure I had a full 2 ounces. Preparing myself for the worst, I downed it in two shots, but it wasn’t that bad…it had a bit of a sweet taste. Not that I want to sip on it; I’ll definitely continue to do it in shots. After that, I made my green juice and put it in my new BPA-free 32 oz bottle. I loaded up a smaller, similar bottle with water and headed off to work, feeling much more awake than when the day started. Here’s where it gets weird…I started drinking the juice in the car (which had a much stronger ginger flavor today, although I don’t think I used more than usual), and suddenly started feeling really nauseated and like I needed to burp. This stayed with me for the entire 30 min commute. On both elevators at work (parking lot and building), I realized how horrible it would be to get stuck in an elevator and have to puke! Or worse, to get stuck in one when someone else throws up! Uber yuck! Thankfully, that didn’t happen to me, but the feeling continued through the early morning, so I put the juice in the frig and stuck with water. After a couple of bathroom trips (no puking) and a couple of burps, I finally started to get a little hungry around 10:30 and got back on the juice. I had some Chai Tea around 10:00, which I think helped soothe my tummy. (Today was going to be no caffeine day, but forget that!)

Also, all morning my sinuses were stopped up. I went for two days in a row without meds (which is amazing for me), but no third day. I took my pill in the morning with my tea.

Basically here’s how my morning felt – brain was very foggy and I was sleepy…I thought maybe this was the draining day…

Lunch

I forgot to mention my new “bracelet”. Yesterday morning when I was washing veggies to juice, I pulled a rather large, yellow rubber band off of a bunch of celery and put it on my wrist just to get it out of the way. I completely forgot about it and noticed it later in the morning. In green letters it says, “Organically Grown”. I thought it fitting for this project, so I kept it on to remind me to continue with all aspects of this cleanse and also to remind me to take care of myself. So, after struggling a bit this morning, looking at my bracelet gave me a little perspective on what I’m doing with this whole thing. My brain was still a little fuzzy, which is likely evident in my writing, but I knew that was part of the deal. The first week is supposed to be the hardest and this is really the first day I’ve had any issues.

Lunch – salad and the quinoa recipe from CSD (I really love this recipe. I could eat this meal for lunch pretty much every day.) I know eating the same thing day after day doesn’t sound very interesting or exciting, but for me, it works well on work days. It’s easy to prepare and I always have something healthy to eat. Lunch is usually when I either write or read (unless I actually have to work), so while I enjoy the food, I also enjoy the time to do something I love. The meal becomes secondary. So, repetitive lunches are cool with me. The weekends are a different story! Oh yeah, had two little pieces of dark chocolate with a hint of orange…perfect end to my lunch.

I miss coffee. The guys next to me always get coffee after lunch and it smells so good today. I’ve had a couple of cravings today…haven’t really had that up until now.

Snacks

3:00 – 10 raw nuts (almonds and walnuts)…still sleepy, yet fidgety…I’m not loving today. Still not as bad as a day with a sinus or migraine headache, or overcome with depression, so I guess there’s a bright(ish) side.

4:45 – Just remembered I have green juice left – 16 oz. Amazingly I wasn’t even hungry. I learned a little something about juicing from the manual that came with my machine – if there’s something that you want to taste more of, put it in first. So, I made sure to put most of the pear and cucumber slices in first. If I recall, I put the ginger in at the very beginning and as I said earlier, it has a very strong ginger flavor today, almost spicy…like me! :)

Evening

Did yoga after work. Still very frustrated with how out-of-shape I let myself get.

Dinner - WF's cilantro pesto tofu and a quinoa dish from WF (the one from CSD is much better!), but I'm in a bit of a hurry to meet a friend for a movie, so this will do.

After the movie I was so tired - I came home, got ready for and went to bed immediately. Didn't do meditation...I don't think I could've stayed awake for it.