Disposing of Disposables

I was excited to find an old, wadded up handkerchief in the back of my drawer this morning. You read that correctly.

This week, I’m giving up Aisle 11: no paper towels, no napkins, no disposable Ziplock baggies, picnicware, and…Kleenex. Hence the excitement over the discovery that I own a reusable cloth hankie! I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is NO. I’m not giving up toilet paper. Kudos to the environmentally-conscious folks who compost their, um…leavings. I’m not going that far. I will, however, make a trip to one of the health food stores & check out the options for biodegradable or recycled toilet paper made from corn husks and old cereal boxes (or whatever it is that responsible people put on the roll).

The hankie is great, but I’m already realizing some supplies I’m missing: a terrycloth towel to dry my hands at work, a regular set of flatware for my lunch, and a cloth napkin. Unless I attempt to eat lasagna with my bare hands, I’m going to have to make a trip home over the lunch hour.

Sticky update

Just a quick update, since I’m not currently in the middle of “a week without”:

The cleanse seems to have…worked? I’m still craving healthy stuff instead of fast food. Despite that, lack of preparation has led to a lot of drive-thrus this week, so I went on a cooking blitz tonight to remedy that.

• More of the roasted winter vegetables just came out of my oven
• I made roasted chickpeas for the first time
• Ben’s pick: a quinoa egg bake is cooking now
• Plus, I’ve got the ingredients for a whole wheat veggie lasagna &/or pizza

More stuff that stuck:

I go without makeup &/or my purse pretty frequently. I choose water over pop a lot more. And we’ve been turning off the tablet in the bedroom earlier. Sometimes. Ok, we’re still pretty hooked on electronics.

Right now, I’m trying to decide my next week without. I have two ideas:

• A week without Aisle 11. That is, no paper towels, napkins, disposable plastic baggies, press-n-seal, etc. But I draw the line at toilet paper. I’m not that hardcore yet.
• A week without nagging. I think Ben will love this idea. J

So, what should I give up?

Night Owl for Life!

Electronics were banned from the bedroom for this whole week. If you read the rules of this project, you know that I can’t give up anything that directly affects my fiancé without his consent. Well, he agreed to it.

First off, I have been sleeping well this week. Second, we will not stick with this.

The biggest and only challenge has been bedtime. We’re used to watching a rerun or two before falling asleep. To get around the no-electronics rule, we both still stayed up to watch TV…we just watched in the living room instead and stayed up WAY too late as a result. I self-imposed an 11pm curfew, but ended up doing crossword puzzles in bed…alone. My fiancé had major trouble falling asleep without TV, and slept on the couch a lot. I DID convince him to come to bed early one night, if I let him use his Kindle Fire with headphones (he gave up). Just like the Kindle, things have slowly been migrating back into the bedroom. I ordered that the alarm clock (he insisted on) be hidden under the bed where it’s little light wouldn’t shine. And after 5 days of making a zombie trek across the hallway to hit “snooze” and stumble back to bed, I caved & twice brought my phone back into the bedroom…but only to hit snooze at arm’s reach. (No Facebook, no texting, no Words With Friends).

Because I slept better this week, I woke up refreshed and got to work early each day. Just kidding. That didn’t even happen a little. Despite sleeping a little better, I was still a Crankasaurus Rex, hit snooze several times, skipped breakfast, and got to work around 9am. Not quite the result I was hoping for.

When I gave up pop for a week, I realized my “addiction” wasn’t nearly as severe as I’d suspected. This week has shown me how horrible my bedtime routine really is. While I’m willing to make some gradual changes, I’m not ready to give up this bad habit quite yet – You may have noticed I posted this after 11pm. J

Sleep Tight

I slept well last night! Plus, I followed the advice of research I read & made sure to give myself some sunlight as soon as I woke up. (Thanks for installing the new curtain rods & tie-backs, honey!) HOWEVER, When it comes to bedtime maturity, I am a toddler. I fight sleep kicking & screaming. Sure, we banished electronics from the bedroom. But instead, we stayed up until ONE THIRTY AM playing on our laptops. (and I still haven’t finished all of the internets!) I am an idiot.

Solution: In addition to the bedroom ban, I’m self-imposing an 11pm screen curfew for the remainder of the week. Books, crossword puzzles, and snuggling are all still allowed J

Ben, last night in bed: So is the lamp allowed?

Me: Yes, that’s electric, not electronic.

Ben: Define electronics. You mean screens? Solid-state devices? Things with transistors? You should specify that on your blog.

Me: (laughing) I don’t think the two people who read my blog will care if it has a transistor.

Ben: I read your blog! Nate reads your blog! He knows the difference. He’s a smart cookie.

Me: Goodnight.

Update: Despite the Girl Scout Cookies and unhealthy habits which have snuck back into my dietary repertoire, the healthy habits from the past three “weeks without” seem to have stuck! I made vegetarian chili in the crock pot, baked this quinoa breakfast casserole, and roasted another tray of balsamic vegetables. Yum!

Good night

They say it creates artificial stress. They say it suppresses melatonin. They also say it interferes with your circadian rhythm. And I’m guilty of doing it every night. This week, I’m going without electronics in the bedroom.

I watch TV. I check Facebook. I play games on my phone until I can’t keep my eyes open. This week, I’m following the advice I’ve heard a thousand times & turning OFF the electronics in the bedroom. We’ve already removed the touch-screen computer, which is usually playing Futurama or Star Trek at bedtime. The glowing red alarm clock has been unplugged. Phones and laptops have been banned from the bedroom. Tonight, I’m going to town with some black electric tape and covering up everything which can’t be removed (like the carbon monoxide detector). My alarm will be set in the next room, so I'll have to wake up to turn it off.

I’m hoping I’ll sleep better this week and be less cranky in the morning. Goodnight!

Discreps

When I used to work as a director for the TV station, we’d have a very brief meeting after the evening newscast. We’d go over everything that didn’t go as planned (breaking news, technical difficulties) and figure out where mistakes/discrepancies happened so we could prevent them in the future. The crew called this meeting “discreps”. Here are my discreps from the 3-week challenge:

- Wedding food tasting

Technically, I knew about this in advance. I had a few bites of meat, a little cheese, and I’m sure a few other bits of “outlawed” foods, but this was contained to the afternoon of the first day, and it was for my wedding!

- Peanuts

Whoops! Since I could basically only eat fruits, veggies, nuts, & seeds during Week #1, I assumed peanuts were legal. Then I remembered they were actually a legume & common allergen. I ate them 3 times in the course of the challenge.

- Pickles

Really? My tried & true standby diet food? Even YOU have added sugar? No excuse here. I read the label. It said “less than 2% high fructose corn syrup”. I was tempted. I rationalized it and ate some.

- Olive oil spray

I got sick of all of the oil in the recipes, so I tried this and realized even the can labeled “Olive Oil” contains propellant & lechithin.

- Bottled lemon juice/lime juice

I learned that “Real Lemon” is a half truth. The bottle actually contains lemon juice from concentrate, sodium benzoate, sodium metabisulfite, and sodium sulfite. But because nearly every recipe called for lemon juice – I gave in and allowed myself the cheat. A couple teaspoons here & there can’t hurt – right?

- Craisins

It is flippin’ impossible to find unsweetened dried cranberries. Impossible, I tell you! Even at the health food store, the best I could do was “cranberries infused with pineapple juice”. I did what I could, but I ended up eating about 2 tbs of Craisins, which contain sweetner. Blurg.

- Coconut/Oat Flour

You heard me – coconut flour & oat flour! What? You don’t have these in your cabinet? I got –­­­really curious after perusing recipes on vegan blogs. I found a vegan, gluten-free, no-sugar added cookie recipe! It used these two types of flour, plus some sunflower seed butter and a few eyedroppers full of stevia. All of these were WHOLE ingredients (only “coconut” and “oats” were listed on the flours’ ingredients), so the only processing was the milling. I ruled it legal and shared the cookies. Yum!

­­­­­What I’ve learned:

- Although I couldn’t do follow all of these restrictions long-term, I think I could totally go vegan OR gluten-free. In fact, we’re going to attempt to prepare a vegan/whole foods dinner weekly. Who wants kohlrabi??

- People who tell you green smoothies are delicious are lying liars. Lettuce and parsley do not a breakfast make. Even with pineapple added.

- The health food & specialty food stores in this town are awesome! I will definitely be doing more of my shopping at Open Harvest or Red Clover or Akin’s or Trader Joe’s!

- Roasting vegetables is super easy & Ben loves them! It’s so easy to throw some frozen cauliflower or sweet potato wedges or kale on a cookie sheet with some olive oil & whatever seasoning you want. This’ll be a habit that sticks.­­

- The garbage disposal in my sink doesn’t like to eat vegetables as much as I do. When fed too many, it spits them into the sink and dishwasher in rebellion. Yuck.

- Weird food alternatives & are not just for hippies and people with food allergies. Coconut flour, ­­almond milk, and stevia drops are all in my kitchen. I baked with sunflower seed butter. I drank coconut water and beet juice (Not mixed together. Gross.) I grilled bok choy & learned to love prunes as dessert.

- Failures –although sometimes inedible– are often funny. My no-egg-no-baking-soda falafel turned into an oily sesame soup…and the salvaged part wasn’t much better.

- You knew this already, but the interwebs rule. When I got tired of the challenge recipes, I was actually able to find vegan-whole-food-gluten-free-no-sugar-added recipes. I’ll never understand the people who rotate through only 7-10 go-to recipes. I love me some vegan blogs.

- I learned that I should get my thyroid checked out! After 3 weeks of cutting out calories & possible culprits, I’ve lost ZERO weight. I also just found out about some family history of thyroid problems. And since January is National Thyroid Awareness Month, why not? If it’s not to blame, at least now I know it’s not the chocolate, either J

- And finally – I learned that I have a phenomenal support system. Fo’ reals. Ben put up with my whining, my caffeine headaches, helped me prep meals, and dried when I washed. My future father-in-law saved the day when my vegetable peelings clogged the sink and dishwasher. My friend & lunch buddy Audrey actually jumped on board and started doing the cleanse w­­ith me! My other co-workers lent their juicer or gave me healthy snacks. My family offered to eat cleanse-friendly meals with me for Sunday night dinners. And Facebook friends, blog readers, fellow cleansers & and even Martha watchers J have been great cheerleaders & resources. Not to be melodramatic – after all, this was just a 3 week detox diet – but my friends & family pretty much rule. It made this a fun experiment.­­

So…what am I giving up next?

Home Stretch

Less than 2 days to go! I’d like to say that by now this feels like a normal diet which I could continue. That is not the case. The cravings have hit hard. My fiancé gets weirded out because I’ve started staring at him as he eats. It’s not my fault! He eats things like delicious chicken fingers and wheat dinner rolls and cheeseburgers! They smell soooo good.

Meanwhile, I’ve been forgoing many of the Week 3 recipes and experimenting instead. I cooked slabs of tofu in a little oil with homemade taco seasoning. OK, but not the same as tacos – especially with no tortillas. My fiancé promptly ate all of the tofu, but left the accompanying shredded veggies untouched. *sigh* Last night, I found this recipe for blueberry oatmeal & put it in the crockpot. It was awful, but not because of the recipe. It was awful because I didn’t FOLLOW the recipe. Not only did I not have all of the ingredients, but I didn’t have enough of the ingredients I had on hand….which led to some odd substitutions. And instead of baking it in a dry heat, I used my crockpot, for way too long. Long story short, I wound up with a purple tasteless goo. I choked down a bowl for breakfast and regretfully washed the rest down the sink. Blech.

I still wasn’t feelin’ the recipes today, so I dug through my cupboards & found a curry mix from the natural foods store. Unbelievably, the ingredients didn’t include any chemicals, sugar, dairy, or wheat! It’s supposed to be used with chicken, but I dumped it into the crock pot with a bag of frozen cauliflower. Fingers are crossed.

I’ll have fish, quinoa, & a salad at my parents’ for family dinner night. If I can pack some healthy stuff tomorrow at work, I’m home free! Runza, here I come! J