several of you have asked me whether i thought the cleanse was “worth it” and when i tried to answer those questions in the midst of the cleanse or even immediately afterwards, i found myself focusing mostly on how difficult it was to figure out how to cook all those new foods and adjust to making my big meals at lunch instead of supper, and just how very much i missed cheese. yes, i’d lost about 9 pounds, but surely that was just because i was eating two liquid meals a day. and yes, i was feeling more (ahem) “regular,” but surely that was just because i was eating so many vegetables. but here’s the thing: it’s been three weeks. my eating is more or less back to “normal” and yet…i haven’t gained back the weight (despite a trip to texas) and my digestion is still functioning much better than it used to before the cleanse. i have held on to a few habits from the cleanse–smoothies for breakfast often, remembering to bring along a snack of fruit and nuts so i don’t just grab junk at work, and occasionally taking a probiotic when i remember, and realizing that if i eat two heavy meals in one day, i’m not going to feel very good (thus, i ate several salad meals when we were in texas), so… yes, i think perhaps the cleanse was “worth it.”
one unexpected side effect–i still struggle to figure out what to cook for dinner. everything seems like it will just take so long to cook and take so much more planning than a smoothie plus, i thought i’d be eager to eat all of our old favorites that we’d been craving throughout the cleanse, but many of those just don’t sound good to me right now. except for eating out. oh my. that’s not a good habit to get into (eating out every night) but it sure has been tempting.
