2 Down 1 To Go...

It's nearing the end of the second day of the Enlightening Detox. Day 1 was pretty easy. Even sitting watching my colleague devour a McDonalds double cheeseburger and fries while I drank some hot tea. I made it to the gym in the morning as I knew I'd never be able to work out in the afternoon without having had anything to eat other than juice. It was a busy day so I literally had no time to think about food between breakfast and lunch which was nice. We were on the road for work in the afternoon so I was pretty hungry by the time I got home but with the timing of everything I had my 'evening meal', a cup of 'cleansing' tea, read my book, and was asleep in no time.

Today has been a bit different, the novelty has worn off. While I did make it to the gym before work, it has been a bit more of a struggle as I was stuck at my desk all day long. This meant I had plenty of time to think about food and watch the clock until it was time to drink again. I thought about everyone else's lunches, the open bag of chocolates just sitting on someones desk, the jar of huge gobstoppers in the kitchen, all the food in the fridge in the kitchen, the food I was going to eat tomorrow (I kept forgetting there is still another day), the food I was going to eat on Saturday, the food I was going to eat on Sunday, and so I finally had to go and buy some gum to chew on something.

The juices and smoothies have actually been pretty good. They are flavourful and actually fairly filling which is nice when you are starving and only have some juice. I was pleasantly surprised, thought I would be left still hungry but it's actually been OK. It's more of the craving food rather than hunger that's been my problem. That's clearly one of my biggest downfalls, that I eat when I'm not hungry. I just wanted to go buy a big bag of pretzels and pour a glass of wine tonight but I didn't let myself, it's only 3 days, I can do this.

Tomorrow I am on the road from early on so I'll have to get up crazy early to do some juicing and take it all with me for the day. I'm travelling up to the north east of England to a town charmingly called Grimsby, doesn't sound nice to me either. As it's the last day I will just have to keep telling myself that to get through and not crack. Let's just hope that Grimsby doesn't have amazing food, somehow I doubt it...

As for this Enlightening that's supposed to occur, I'm not sure it's happened yet. I'll keep an eye out for it. I'm not sure if it quietly drifts in and I don't even realise it or if it comes screeching in and headbutts me but I don't really feel Enlightened yet, just hungry so I should probably go to bed to avoid the Salted Caramel Popcorn Ice Cream by Heston Blumenthol in my freezer, but who's thinking about that...

3 Day Detox to Enlightenment

Before I continue with my travel blogs I've got a 2012 update. I bought 'The Juice Master' book nearly a year ago and while I've made many of the juices I have yet to accomplish the 'Juice Master's 3-day Super Juice Detox' that he has in there. I've done all the juices on the detox but I cheated with little things like dinner and wine.

I finally have a 3 day period where Fred will be working doubles so I'm on my own. Fred being at home has always been one of my excuses not to do it because I know that if he were sitting there eating some insane dinner and I was sipping on some juice I'd cave. Or he'd just sit there looking at me like I was crazy. So, I have 3 days on my own and I'm gonna do it. I did think about not publishing this and waiting until I had finished but I think by making it public I'll have to go through with it and finish it. A sort of naming and shaming myself but hopefully in the end I won't be shaming myself.

At the moment my fridge and counter are filled with

*3 carrots

*22 apples

*3 lemons

*1 yellow pepper

*1.5 cucumbers

*3 celery sticks

*3 broccoli stems

*lots of beetroot

*2 bits of ginger

*2 avocados

*blackberries

*blueberries

*1 pineapple

*1lb of spinach

There is a Programme or menu in the book for the 3 days which consists of 'on waking', 'breakfast', 'lunch', 'linner', and 'evening 'meal'', and all the names have detox in them. This is supposed to bring me Enlightenment and maybe I can tell you what the hell that means in 3 days time. It also says to turn off the TV while doing this as watching TV burns less calories than doing nothing (?), you tend to think about food more when watching TV, and of course it will help this path to enlightenment. Henceforth, the TV is off until Saturday, hello 'Hunger Games III'. Until further notice, I will check in tomorrow and we'll see if this Enlightenment stuff just equals HUNGER!!!

12 Months, 4 Continents

Before I really get going on writing about 2012 and how I want to make it better than 2011 because 2011 was such a tough year and I want to make a difference in my life, blah blah blah. I just need to stop right there, give myself a little slap in the face as a reminder of all the wonderful and amazing things that happened and of course there were many. But the most striking thing that happened almost without my realising was that I traveled the world wide, literally. I managed to make it to 4 continents in 12 months which unless you're on your gap year or are Richard Smith is not an easy feat.

View 12 months 4 continents in a full screen map

I've always loved to travel, especially to new and exotic places and 2 of these continents were no exception (not to discount NC, NYC, RI, or UK). I managed to hit a massive blizzard in Rhode Island, wound up in an all Asian medical supplies convention in Jakarta, visited Cape Town's biggest township, Khayletisha, and of course ate burgers in each place (@burgerprincess). I need to remind myself what an incredible year 2011 was and hopefully share some of the incredibly exciting adventures I've been on, did someone say swimming with sharks?

To be continued...

I had a very civil NYE last night with a friend whose husband is also a chef and therefore working. We ate and drank and settled down to watch a movie with our bottle of red. We decided on one of the biggest chick flicks of all time as there wasn't a man in sight, Bridget Jones's Diary. It was in the opening scene that I realised how tragically relatable she is, especially as it was New Years Day of her 32 year, that is exactly where I am right now, this very moment. I figured that rather than her red diary a modern Bridget Jones would be sitting there on her iPad typing away. I'm not quite that modern yet as it's just a laptop I'm writing on but we'll see if 2012 brings an iPad my way (hint hint). Aside from the smoking and lack of a man I felt that each and every word that came out of her mouth was taken from a thought in my mind and I have 366 days so that next year I will no longer be the tragic Bridget Jones-alike. Bring it on 2012!

New Years? More like Groundhog Day!

Am I alone in feeling that sometimes New Years feels more like Groundhog Day? Resolutions, ideas, plans that I had years ago for the upcoming year have been repeated, repeatedly, meaning that I'm not actually doing the things I want to be doing or making the changes I want to be making. In fact I think it would be safe to say that I make said resolutions approximately once a week. I've decided that 2012 has to be different, it must, for my own sanity. It's not been an easy past few years and I don't know that another like it will be received particularly well on all accounts. I also realise that it's all down to me to make this happen. One thing that I have always done is keep my frustration at myself to myself. I haven't made the changes I want to make but this year I'm making it a public thing. I'm taking you all on this journey with me. I'm giving myself a year to work on these resolutions that have been building over the past few years and become the person I want to be. I want to be a happier person. I want to have educated opinions. I want to work harder. I want to be a better friend. I want to be someone that inspires others. I'm rekindling this blog as I love to write and through writing I can take you all on this journey with me and in fact it is already step one in the process as writing more is only one of my resolutions. Now I just need to publish it for all the world to see and therefore hitting on resolution number 2: start a blog based on and around the next year of my life.

Old Lady with the Dog

I understand you've been coming to visit us for years and years and years and maybe even more years. From the looks of it your dog has been visiting with you all these years. Unfortunately I feel like your dog might not be making many more visits. His poor stiff legs point outwards when they should bend and remain under his body and he constantly lets out a bark every few seconds. I'm not sure he can hear so per chance he doesn't know he's doing it. Occasionally he wanders away, dangerously close to our stairs that lead to the cellar but similar to his awareness of his barking, I'm not even sure you're aware of his strays. Once he even made his way into the restaurant where I had to "shoo" him away and again, not sure you noticed.

Often times you come in on a Friday evening, our busiest, and just have a seat at "your table" no matter how many people are sitting there. Tonight, you let your dog sit under the table next to you and bark at the customers. Not everyone is comfortable with this. When you came in during our staff party, despite the notice on the front door that we were closed and the subtle fact there were NO other customers in the pub you and Fido made your selves comfortable. It was akward. We had to ask you to leave.

Every time you come in you order a portion of mini sausages by waving your hands from your table, not even bothering getting up. Some mini sausages you eat, others you feed the dog, and even others you place into a single napkin and into your bag. What happens to these sausages?

I also learned the other day that you drive yourself and mut to the pub. Considering your unawareness I desperately hope you do not drive far to reach us. Around the corner would be best but still unsafe.

Perhaps pubs and mini sausages aren't best for your and your pooch?

Will we see you and "man's best friend" next week? Guess we'll see.

Back to school

Ok, so I haven't exactly enrolled in medical school or anything but I started my once a week, 3 week Intermediate Wine and Spirit Education Trust course. This will hopefully provide me with more knowledge and confidence in being able to speak about and sell the wines we sell at work and of course to be able to carry on conversations with my friends, who are all wine buffs. So like a good girl on her first day of school I laid out my outfit, set several alarms, and went to bed early.

Unfortunately my first few alarms went perfectly into my dream that I was supposed to bring out a big bowl of food every time the buzzer went, clearly showing that works is creeping into every part of my life. When I finally finished getting the food out I opened my eyes to see that my dream had crept 30 minutes into my morning and I HAD to make the 8:15am train from Battersea Park Station. I quickly got ready but only had 15 minutes to make it to my train and with a still throbbing broken toe it isn't easy to walk quickly across the entire park.

I started anyways and was making pretty good time until I ran into two kindly older gentlemen with plastic bags filled with bread. To some people this might have been a, 'Look at those guys, how sweet,' kind of moment but for me it was an, 'Oh crap, they're about to feed the damn birds!' And before I could even finish my thought or add any more expletives an enormous long legged huge wing spanned bird lept over the fence right in front of me. I've since done a bit of research and I have learned that the monster that stood in front of me was a grey heron

and as I swung around to escape it the kindly old men had already opened their bags and I was suddenly surrounded by birds. If you've met me before you might know my complete and utter aversion to the beasts. I lunged at the first bird and he headed back over the low fence towards the river. I thought I'd finally escaped but when I looked behind me I'd suddenly become the PIed Piper of Battersea Park birds. Apparently my friend had gone to the other smaller water fowl and somehow "kindly old men with bag full of bread' translated into 'limping 29 year old female with bag full of bread.' Completely forgetting about my train and even my course I just started running, much to kindly old men's amusement.

Unfortunately even running didn't help the fact that I missed my train, not a good first day of school. As the next train was coming in 30 minutes and I had to be there in 45 I got on the bus, went to the tube, waited 4 trains before I could get on, got lost at London Bridge, and walked into my class 15 minutes late. Fortunately I quickly caught up, got my tasting glasses, and we started with Chardonnay!