One week in

B and I are one week into our Clean experience. For the first five days, we ate on the "Elimination Diet," which is an eat this/not that list of foods, designed so that we only consume hypoallergenic, basic (as opposed to acidic), non-inflammatory foods. The list is much of what you'd expect--more vegetables, less junk food--but it's stranger, stricter, and even more indulgent that you'd think:

• Stranger: Vegetables and fruits are good, except tomatoes and eggplant (inflammatory), oranges (I think because they're acidic), grapes, strawberries (contaminated) and a few others. Lemons are OK, though, but I don't know why.
• Stricter: no whole grains or oats, which puts my breadmaking and favorite breakfast both into hiatus. No refined sugar makes sense, but no honey either...maybe because of the allergens. We're using agave syrup.
• Indulgent: Almonds are my go-to snack food. They are supposed to be raw, but that's turned out to be OK because raw almonds are sweet and creamy. Also, coconut: B and I have had a few breakfasts now that included an entire can of coconut milk.

For the first few days, I think the difference in how I felt was mental: I knew I was living differently, so I felt differently.

On Monday, we began the formal 21-day cleanse. The cleanse is the same as the elimination diet, but with less food. Two liquid meals (breakfast and dinner) and a solid lunch. Snacks are OK too, but only as needed. 12 hours are supposed to separate dinner and breakfast so that your digestive system can repair itself.

So far, so good: I feel hungry sometimes, but I'm feeling more comfortable with that now, which I recognize is less hunger than it is being "not full." B and I spend a lot more time planning meals than eating them, which is the opposite of the take-out diet we ordinarily have. I lust after my comfort foods, but B is a great strength to me in that regard. I have a surprising amount of energy, given that I'm not drinking coffee. I think I may be sleeping better, but that (and some of the other things) may be in my head more than my body. Whatever the source, I'm starting to feel very good. It's interesting to be this in tune with my body, to treat it as important and not just my vehicle for getting around.

Perhaps the most significant change for me is self-restraint, which is a good lesson during Lent. Because of the strictness of this diet, I can't grab food whenever I want it and I can't have my coffee. Not giving into my impulses is strengthening. The discipline is freeing, and I feel in control of my body and my mind in a way that is usually lacking. In the flow of life, grabbing hold of the reins of life, which so often seems to run ahead of me on its own course, and subjecting it to a more deliberate way, is a difficult thing to do. This project has allowed me to do that for a time.

The Day Before

My fridge is full of vegetables. By "full," of course I don't mean FULL, but there are, by any measure, more vegetables in there than anything else.

My bounteous--and cornucopial!--assortment of vegetables is awaiting tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, when my lovely wife, B, and I will begin our "Clean" program. In the first few days, we'll make our way through kale, mustard greens, cabbage, spinach, turnips, and a bunch of other things (dulse? some sort of seaweed) in an effort to get more acquainted with our food, relieve our bodies of the effects of the junk we usually eat, and, well, make a positive change in our lives.

See, B and I aren't "bad" eaters. We rarely have junk food around the house, and when we do, it's usually home-baked from scratch (which makes cookies somehow healthier, right?). We aren't "healthy" eaters either, though, and that's really a result of the pace of our lives. It's difficult to make healthy choices when Wendy's is the only place open for an 11pm weeknight dinner. All in all, we're doing OK, a solid B, maybe a B+.

What we're not doing is improving. Incremental change is a difficult thing to do when it comes to habits, and what we eat is largely the result of habit. We want to eat healthier, be like those heroic people who love vegetables and eat fruit for dessert, but we can't seem to make any progress. So, we're taking drastic measures.

Clean is a program designed by Dr. Alejandro Junger, who has enjoyed a bunch of face time lately on Martha Stewart and some other shows. Clean is a detox program, and while I know very little about detox programs, I'm guessing this one isn't too different from the others. I'm generally skeptical about this sort of thing, but I'm attracted to this program because it makes some intuitive sense and provides a framework for making changes in my life that I haven't been able to make on my own. More detail forthcoming in future posts.

Beginning this program during Lent is no accident. The spirit and the body are best cared for in tandem, and so Clean makes sense in the context of this season of spiritual renewal. As I hope that the Clean program will enable us to make good, healthful choices for our bodies, I also hope that our meditation this Lent will direct us to good, healthful progress for our souls.

The vegetables, however, are a temporary situation. I hope that by the end of the program, we will have gained an appreciation for vegetables, for new grains, for raw foods, for foods that invigorate rather than comfort or dull. However, I am not permanently renouncing the other foods I love. Clean is a limited-duration experiment, but I hope that some of the experiences I have help me to develop new, healthier habits.

And the beginning of the program could not come at a better time. B was away on business for the past two days, and I ate pizza one night and drunken noodles the next. Not to mention the cookies, stale chocolate-covered raisins, and candied pecans. B dined on martinis last night and followed it up with a Dunkin Doughnuts chaser this morning. Time to change. After we get burgers tonight.