Day 5: Mickers AND Day 8: Laurs

Its Saturday morning and we are slowly working our way through the morning salt water ritual. In an effort to take away the emotional pain, Laurs and I started looking at menus of restaurants that we would like to visit once the Cleanse is behind us. So far here is our list:

1. Nopa (Mickey has a gift certificate!)

2. Millennium (Lauren has a gift certificate!) Side note: This is a veggie restaurant and I usually turn my nose up at these, cause veggie tends to mean sacrifice, but this menu looks amazing!

3. Cafe Gratitude Side note: This is not only a veggie restaurant, but goes a step further, in the tradition of Maddy and serves only RAW food (all raw fruits and veggies, nothing cooked above 116 degrees). All the items on this menu have ridiculous titles that follow the form "I am____" i.e. " I am satisfied," "I am peaceful." Last time I went with Lauren, the only thing I had to say was "I am God damn still hungry!" Lauren was "ungrateful" for my comment, and asked that I keep it down, for fear that the freaky waiters (that gawk at you while you eat) would hear my cynicism. She loves that place...

4. Salt House - This little gem is the sibling of Town Hall Restaurant, which I love, love, love. Wait did I tell you how much I love this restaurant? Salt House looks to be just as great as their original creation. We are so getting the Shellfish Plateau, which includes fanny bays, buckley bays, and miyagis (both Laurs and I love us some oysters).

Please let this diet pass quickly. I'm now drooling...

Note from Laurs: Good morning! I'm still here at Mickers' place. We just finished our salt water and are about to launch into the day. Just a quick note to say that we're NOT going to overeat at any of these restaurants, so help me God. We weighed ourselves last night and this morning and we're each down 5 pounds!

Day 7: Laurs AND Day 4: Mickers

Here we are--together! This is Laurs and I'm here with Mickers at his house. He rescued me from a sushi restaurant where I was stopping by to say hi to a friend. The sushi looked DELICIOUS and Mickers pulled up not a second too soon, like a starving knight in shining armor.

At the moment, Mickers is zipping around his apartment cleaning and organizing. Apparently, he has all kinds of energy while on the Cleanse and precisely zero tolerance for clutter. As I type this, he's scrubbing his stove top, recounting his day's adventures. I just learned of his horrific experience walking by Subway and Hot Cookie and the bagel shop. "All I could picture, Laurs, was the pesto bagel with veggie cream cheese, some red onions and a tomato, toasted of course." And he didn't BELIEVE me when I wrote about my superhero sense of smell. Touche. Note: I will NOT be walking anywhere NEAR Hot Cookie. That place has Cleanse-breaker written all over it.

Off we go to snuggle up on the couch and watch Sarah Silverman's Jesus is Magic wiith our mint tea. Later in the evening, we'll spice things up and switch over to the chocolate Senna. Racy.

Day 3: Mickers

Ok, so this day was difficult. I started to have the cravings which I mocked everyone else in our extended family of friends that are currently doing the cleanse for having. It started in the morning, I could taste the scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, onions, and mushrooms mixed in and some chicken apple sausage on the side. The only way to rid my brain of this was to take a big swig of my lemonade and think of work, the gym, anything. Next came the drive past Peet's and thoughts of my soy latte.

Luckily, I was swamped at work and didn't have any more cravings until it came time to go to Legally Blonde with Laurs. Then I called Laurs and told her to come out and meet me at the Falafel place across the street..... Omigod, Fa-la-fel..... Ok, so Laurs gets in the car and starts trying to make plans for the weekend. I can come over on Saturday night and we can order in. Um no Laurs, already have plans on Saturday and neither of us is ordering in. Anyhow, the show was OMIGOD! FUN! ...

Laurs: Day 6

Today was another good day. I woke up feeling OK and even managed to break into a jog on my way to BART when it started pouring. I drank less than 64 ounces of lemonade today (about 58), which is new. For the past 5 days, I've been knocking back at least 70. Glutenous, I know.

At lunch today, I decided it would do me well to take a walk. I originally planned to hit Safeway and buy some cereal for when I'm off the Cleanse but rethought that idea once I envisioned myself cruising by the deli counter and having to wipe away the drool upon feasting my eyes on the sushi section (God, I miss sushi).

So, I went to Boarders instead where I bought 2.....cookbooks! It may sound counterproductive to stare at pictures of yummy recipes when the very thing you're trying to forget about is food, but it's somehow satisfying to read ingredient lists and casserole tips even though you can't eat the results. I guess it's the same concept the porn industry is built on--get as close as you can to the real thing.

At 7:30, Mickers picked me up to go see Legally Blonde, the musical. I had heard it was good, but I didn't expect how much fun it would be! The audience was laughing throughout the show, and your two favorite Cleansers were no exception. Luckily, the theatre was dark so we could safely drink our lemonade.

Sitting comfortably through the show was a milestone for me. Last Cleanse, Mickers and I went to see A Chorus Line (we're both HUGE fans) and I made the social faux pas of hitting the bathroom during Cassie's "The Music and the Mirror" number. We were with a friend of mine from work who had brought his partner (they're both NYC theatre vets). The two of them shook their heads at me in disappointment as I hopped out of my seat. Ok, I get it, it's an "artistically significant" performance but give a sister a break--I had consumed 64 ounces of lemonade that day and I had to pee.

The next day in the office, the word had spread through the gay rumor mill that "Lauren left the theatre during, get this: The Music in the Mirror!" I couldn't so much as walk past the reception desk without getting a tisk tisk. Well, I'm pleased to say that this time I missed neither "Omigod, You Guys" nor "Is He Gay or European?"

Day 2: Mickers

So today went fairly well. Got through the day without any major cravings. The only thing that caught me off guard was when I ran into someone in my office eating a salad. A salad with a lucious yellow pepper and nuts with a vinagrette dressing. Oh my god, I'm such a nut. Anyhow, powered through today. Went and got a deep tissue massage. Oh my god, i love deep tissue massages. then made the dumb mistake of going to meet my friends for dinner at Cote Sud. While sipped on nothing but bottled water, they had a fiest. Carl started with a belini stuffed with salmon and drizzled with a creamy sauce and topped with sour cream and caviar. Gabby had a tomato claufuti, looked amazing and fortunately, I didn't see what her boyfriend Jed ordered. For the main course, Carl had... ok I have to stop. I finally had to leave in the middle of their main course because I could feel my stomach growling. I ran across the street to Cala and picked up some more lemons. Unfortunately, they did not have meyer lemons, so I settled for the only ones they had. Came home and settled in with my Mint Tea and continued my spring cleaning. The one bonus of the cleanse is that I get these amazing spurts of energy all day long. Ok, i'm finally winding down and getting tired. Until tomorrow...

Day 5: Laurs

I'd like to dedicate this post to The Meyer Lemon. It's soft, it's juicier than other lemons and it's the prettiest yellow by far (see above). It also makes my life easier since I don't have to squeeze as many lemons when I use the Meyer variety. Hooray!

Day 5 began with Mickers waking me up at 6:45 am to confirm the salt to water ratio. It was lucky he called since it turned out I needed more time than usual after drinking my own salt water before, ahem, feeling ready to leave the house. As noted in our sidebar Cleanse Tips, we find that it's easier to drink the salt water WARM. Yes, this sounds gross, but somehow cold salt water is even grosser. (Tip came courtesy of fellow Cleanser, Ms. Tamara T).

I'm feeling much better today with a lot more energy. I also noticed that an interesting Cleanse side effect has reared its head--a superhero sense of smell. This is something that a lot of Cleansers have reported experiencing and it also happened to me on my first Cleanse. On one hand, it's a bit difficult since you can smell food that much easier (I'm dreading Valencia St tonight!). On the other hand, it's sort of fun to smell your shampoo and your laundry detergent on a whole new level. In fact, I smelled that Brazil Nut soap BEFORE I even entered the shower this morning--no joke. My theory for why this happens is that our body notices when we give it less calories and does it's best to help us find food. Kind of like how pregnant women get better vision to ward off potential predators. Just a theory...

DaY 1: Mickers

So I thought I was totally committed, but I forgot how hard the first day can be. I had to constantly rethink my day and all the emotional comfort that I place on food and drink. The frustration begun when I started my morning routine. On my way into the office, I usually stop into Peet's coffee for my small soy latte. Oh the pain of realizing I was not going to have the first satisfying sip of my latte, signaling the start of a beautiful day for my brain. I quickly jumped into my cleanse mode, realizing I would have to carefully select all activities for the next 10 days in order to stay true to the cleanse. I thought I had this down and would easily go through all 10 days without any problem, but was sadly mistaken.

I had to go to a conference around lunchtime and was handed a cup of jelly beans while I was chatting on the phone. I totally spaced and went into autopilot. Before, I knew it I had popped 3 jelly belly's into my mouth. Oh well! i stayed true to the cleanse the rest of the day. Even though my business partner did everything in his power to sway me. I even got an invite to a 10 course gourmet chinese dinner at one of the oldest chinese restaurants in the city for a special event this Friday and I resisted.

Feeling great tonight, came home cleaned the apartment and started tackling my pile of personal paperwork that I let sit for the last month. Once again, I feel more energy on the cleanse than what I usually feel in my normal routine. Time to watch Boston Legal. Until tomorrow...