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!