My last post was about my nostalgia for food that I had since childhood. The reason why I blogged about the topic was because I made this decision to go on a cleansing diet for 10 days, starting on Sunday. Out of some sort of lamentation, I started to remember all the food that I liked. I have mentally prepared myself for a whole week. After all, it's not an easy thing to go on eating minimal (almost nothing) for such a long period of time. I found it even harder to tell people what I was doing. "Why do you want to do it?""Can you really live on that (drink)?"
It's a fasting type of diet called "Master Cleanse", based on a booklet "The Master Cleanser" by Stanley Burroughsby.
Following the instructions, one can eliminate toxic and wastes stored in the body by fasting for a long period of time. The only energy source comes from a proportioned lemonade, made of fresh lemon juice, grade B maple syrup, water, and a bit of cayenne pepper. There are forums here and there discussing the related issues and practices.
It's not a brand new idea to me. Many years ago, I got hit by cancer and had tried so many organic, healthy diet or products. I was quite young when it happened and my family started getting books, tapes, and information about fighting cancer and raw food diet. My family had tried some extreme diet with me, drinking organic mix vegi-fruit blends, eating all sorts of sprouts,no white sugar, wheat flour, and becoming straight vegan for many months. (Meat was too good to resist after I got better, but I still tried to restrain my consumption if I had choices).
However, ever since I came to the States, my diet has changed a lot. I learn to love a variety of cheese (which you can't find too easily in Taiwan). I learn to drink Coke and soda (which I couldn't even endure for half a can). I learn to eat sweet things, and I start to love hamburger, and chips, etc....=p
I guess it's time to cut off the ties between me and those foods. I want to get a fresh taste on things. My friends who had done the MC told me that they tended to eat more raw food and appreciate the taste more after the cleansing. It's like building a habit. I remember starting to like the taste of whole grains after eating them for couple weeks. So I believe that eating habit can be changed by discipline.
Another reason for doing this is just out of curiosity. I am curious, how long can I handle the temptation of food and carrying out my goal? A lot of religious practices sometimes involve fasting. I wonder what does a hungry body do to you spiritually?
Master Cleanse is really a discipline for me. The lemonade actually tastes quite good, but it's not satisfying. I missed being able to chew on things. During the day I wasn't tempted by food too much. The first day I was able to watch Nick gulping down a Vietnamese sandwich (one of my favorite food) during lunch, and eating chicken nuggets and fries while I'm sitting at the table with him. The second day I went to "Whole Foods" to get lemon and laxative tea supply. The whole market was filled with people and food smell during lunch hours. I walked pass a self-serving food court and I was able to look at the food. But then during the night, when I went to bed, the images of food started to haunt me. I had craving for weirdest things. I had craving for "Claim Jumper" (which I had only been there once), shrimp cracker, Vietnamese pho, corn, dumplings, tofu, kimchi...
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