In Recovery

I had the food poisoning real bad. From Joan's, I think. Mybe from WHole Foods, but I'm pretty sure it was Joan's.

It's Been A While

Hello there. Well, after my first night of soup (see previous post), I woke up feeling terrible. Really terrible. I had a horrible rash on my face, I felt exhausted, really really exhausted, and just generally broken. I was worried that I had made a horrible mistake and that my insides would be forever ruined. I suffered through the day, picked up Clare Woods at the airport at 9pm, and forced myself to eat a green salad before climbing into bed. I woke up the next day, however, feeling much better. I felt very bloaty for a couple days there, but in general much much better.

I ended up not going to Blue Velvet or AMMO, but I did have an incredibly delicious dinner at Hungry Cat on Sunday. Squash Gratin!

My weight has held steady at 160. I'm still kind of holding my breath.

The Morning After

So, after a day of just fruit juice, I made a really humongous pot of vegetable soup. I had a bowl at around 10pm. It was so strange. It kind of felt like an out of body experience. Like, I knew I was eating and even tasting, but somehow it wasn't registering on a concrete level. Maybe it's just because I don't like vegetable soup. Justin came over and ate some too, and then called me this morning to tell me that every time he eats something I cook he feels sick the next day. So charming.

Afternoon Delight

YUM ORANGE JUICE!

Feeling incredible.

The first day of the rest of my life

I have just enjoyed my first grapefruit juice. While certainly delicious, I can't help but notice that it is still only liquid. And maybe not as filling as the lemonade. We'll see how today goes. Philip Martin told me that he ate the vegetable soup in the evening of day 11, so I think I'm going to try to do that.

I got on the scale this morning and am happy to report that I clocked in at 159 (actually when I shifted a little bit it went up to 160, but whatever). As this was my exact goal, I am feeling pretty satisfied.

The APC sale starts today.

At Last

Finally, I feel euphoria. Like, really, I am ecstatic. I don't know if it is because the cleanse worked, or because the cleanse is finally ending. In any case, I am in a great mood. I just spent 45 minutes browsing at Whole Foods, buying ingredients for my vegetable soup. It is a glorious place.

Ready for delicious

These are the things I can't wait to eat, in no particular order:

bacon
omelettes from Madame Matisse
cobb salad from Alcove
Lebanese food from Carousel
Trader Joe's turkey meatballs
oysters at Hungry Cat
cashews!
Body Fuel smoothies
Emergen-c packets
CHEESE, LOTS OF CHEESE
steak salad from Malo and Alegria
everything from Joan's
lentils from M Cafe
chicken sausages
chunky peanut butter Think Thin bars
brown rice sushi
lamb at Canele and Speranza
salami (and I never really liked salami before)
chopped salad from La Scala

My new thing is going to be picking up dinner from Whole Foods in Glendale. Every time I've gone in there this week I have marveled, MARVELED, at the selection.

The whole time I have been doing this I have craved really bad Chinese food, but as of today that desire seems to have gone away. I mean, an egg roll would be so delicious, but the thought of it is kind of grossing me out.

I can't believe how much time I have spent thinking about food these past 10 days.

I am feeling, btw, A-1 fantastic today.

Sand through the hourglass

I am jumping up and down that today is my last day. My tongue still has the most grody yellow coating, but I just can't do anymore. I have reservations for dinner at AMMO on Friday, Blue Velvet on Saturday, and Hungry Cat on Sunday. And then I have off until Thursday! Will there be some cooking out over the holiday? In my cookbook perusing I found any number of recipes to try out. I think Amra's gonna have to help me out with that, since no one else I know cooks. Although Ricky and Lesley cook -- maybe I can get them to do a little collaborating. Later on today I plan to make a list of all the foods I can't wait to eat. The funniest thing is that the number one food I can't wait to chomp on is cashews. Apparently my favorite food! Who knew?

Mania

I am sitting on my couch surrounded by cookbooks. I might totally lose my mind. I don't get to actually have real food of any kind until Thursday, but at least Wednesday's grapefruit juice will be novel.

I'm so itchy today. Maybe I got crabs at the beach.

I think I overdid it

with the shopping this weekend. I'm, like, $400 dollars in the hole. Wowza.

I went to the beach today and read every word of Jonathan Gold's 2007 restaurant round-up. I spent the evening last night reading cookbooks and looking up restaurant menus online. I AM READY. Just one more day. God, I am ready. I would just stop today, but then I will always feel like I didn't really finish even though I now think it is kind of retarded.

Does anyone know how to make vegetable soup?

When life hands you a bag of limes

I have just made my first batch of my magic elixir with lime instead of lemon, and it is a whole new world. Seriously. It's a lighter, fresher alternative. Clearly I am desperate for any kind of flavor switch up.

I felt good all day. No real energy lulls, but still not serious boost. I am increasingly feeling like maybe all of the cleansing is some new age clap trap. I'm happy to lose the weight though. As of now, I don't think I would really recommend doing this to anyone. This has been the slowest 8 days. Even though I only have two days left, I feel like I am never getting to the other side. I cannot wait to eat.

I bought that National cd today. And a couple of shirts.

Eight is Almost Enough

I drank the SWF an hour and a half ago and it is being very stubborn. I can't wait around here all day. Otherwise, feeling great. Woke up at 6:30 with horrible cramping but fell back asleep afterward until 10--my longest sleep-in yet on the cleanse.

Went to David Korty's opening last night, and then to my cousin's fantastic first-year grad show at Art Center. Was home by 10 or something and watched the 4400 pilot, starring my former client Joel Gretsch. Not so good.

Today: shopping, maybe some body waxing, definitely some lemonade drinking.

All in a day's work

I have just been reading the master cleanse bulletin board, and these people are crazy. It is like a little cult. There are people who are doing this for 40 days or more. I really don't understand why anyone would do that. I cannot wait til my 10-day sentence is up.

I feel like I am finally getting past my cravings for the superbad foods like french fries and pasta and garlic bread and whatever other foods I never eat anyway. Mari was in the gallery today eating a greek salad, which looked just about perfect to me.

Leaving work now...

And God is 7

I was looking over my blog, described this morning by Ricky as "kind of gross" and found that I have been a little whiny. Geez. I guess you only catch me in the low blood sugar moments. Right now I am high energy, clear headed and kind of skinny. The books say that day 7 is when you suffer a setback from intense detoxing, but maybe I got that out of the way the last couple of days.

What should one do tonight? Go to David Korty's opening? Go to the Haunting in the cemetery? Just go to the gym and call it a night? Ah, the world is my oyster.

I am undecided on this new Tegan and Sara.

6 6 6

I really don't have much to report at the moment. I'm feeling pretty ok today. I have definitely lost some weight, which is good. I am still waiting for my epiphanic moment, either in the form of a mental breakthrough or a bm. So far I've been underwhelmed.

This morning I went to Gelson's to buy lemons. It was $8.00 for 6 lemons! I almost fainted. I'm kind of not even saving that much money by not eating for 10 days. Not drinking, that's another story.

50/50

I really should be optimizing my blog with some photos or some links or something. Not much going on over here. Felt kind of crappy all day, came home, took a nap, went to the gym. Somehow I have totally had enough energy for the gym all week.

I hope something exciting happens tomorrow.

Hump Day

Day 5, halfway there. I was really looking forward to day 5. All the literature says that once you get to Day 5 it is a piece of cake. Well, I will tell you, this is one of the hardest days yet. I am very low blood sugar. Very. I had to have two lemonades in a row. What I really want to do is go home and take a nap.

I woke up at like 6:45 this morning with some serious intestinal cramping. That Smooth Move tea means business. There was no way I was going to get back to sleep, so I just went ahead and did the salt water flush, which took over an hour to kick in today. I finally went back to sleep at 8:30 for an hour or so.

I get to work with Michele today! So fun.

Goodnight

I love Weeds!

Whoa, Crashy

I got home from work (having talked to Sara the whole drive home - WELCOME BACK) and completely crashed. Like a trainwreck. I better be detoxing good, because I feel like crap.

However, my skin is so smooth!

Keeping On

I am feeling a little uninspired today. I'm not hungry, but I do feel a little low energy -- I think I felt better yesterday. I mean, I kind of feel like I do on any normal day. I just can't believe I have another 6 days, followed a day of just juice, and then a day of juice and vegetable soup. I hate vegetable soup, btw. It always tastes kind of rotty. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I wonder what time Sara is getting home.

You know, last night I didn't watch any tv. Or a dvd or anything. I had all this energy and just wanted to read. I just got the first season of Weeds in the mail today.

Why Be Lamron?

I feel absolutely normal this morning. Well, maybe a little bloated from the salt water flush, but otherwise totally normal. How boring.

Mama Mia

I want to eat Italian food so bad. Garlic bread, spaghetti and meatballs, antipasto salad. Big fat chianti. That is what I want so bad. Heads of roasted garlic. Oh god. I am going to make myself cry.

Otherwise, still feeling good. Erica called and is worried I might have something called C. Dificile, which is apparently a terrible intestinal malady evidenced by mucus in your, well, you get the picture. Lets hope I don't have that.

I Got Nothing To Do

I had written a whole post which somehow blogger deleted. Anyway...

I definitely turned the corner today. My energy and attitudes were really high all day. I didn't even really notice when Karyn and her mom ate lunch in the office, and I went to a cake party for Julie Roberts' birthday. Hallelujah.

The hardest part of all this is that there is nothing on tv tonight, I have already read all the internets, I don't have to go the store or cook dinner, and I don't have to drink two bottles of wine. Really, what am I supposed to do? The void is just so intimidating.

I'm about to go to the gym, but I'm waiting for my last lemonade to kick in -- I got my usual after work fade for which I would normally just eat a handful of almonds or cashews. I do think that maybe cutting down the maple syrup gives you a little less energy, but all that sugar was freaking me out.

Sara comes home tomorrow. Yay!

So Far, So Good

I've been awake since, like 7:30am, and I have to say I am feeling pretty great. Head a little fuzzy, but no hunger pangs, no rage. Minya tells me that I can cut the maple syrup back to one tablespoon, which helps with the weight loss, and hopefully the sugar crash between servings.

My skin is maybe looking a little brighter, which is nice. I feel just vaguely vaguely thinner. I've decided not to weigh myself again until after the 10 days.

I got a new cell phone today! My old one stopped working (kind of--well, not really, but close enough to qualify for a new phone under the expiring in one week warranty). They even sent me a better color! Everything is coming up roses!

Back to Work

I woke up bright and early, intestinal cramping pulling me out of sleep. Stringy mucus, FTR. I'm feeling pretty good, not tired, not hungry. I been up 2 hours now and haven't had a lemonade yet. I wish I had a few more days off--I probably should have waited til August break to do this, but somehow it felt like an emergency.

I finished Dante's Cove season 2 last night, and I think it officially the worst tv show I've ever seen. What a mess.

I Get So Emotional, Baby

I got so melancholy at the gym! Is my body depressed cause it's starving? Am I detoxing something that is having this chemical effect? I wish I could be asleep for the remainder of the ten days of this cleanse.

I got nothing to watch tonight. I am really enjoying my new boyfriend (and Jake's ex) Austin Nichols on John from Cincinnati. I was not crazy about last night's Entourage.

I wonder if, when it's dinner time, I'm supposed to have, like, two glasses of lemonade?

Off to the gym

Day 2 has been MUCH harder than day one. Although I am less hungry, I am way madder that I don't get to eat. Not sure how that works out. I drove up to Ventura for some shopping but was too unfocused to really buy anything, accept for an army jacket with too short arms. By the time I got to the Camarillo outlets I was really a mess and left with just 2 pairs of gym shorts from adidas, one of which I am currently wearing, as I am about to attempt to exercise. Hopefully it will help me work out some of this rage I have been feeling all day. If I had had to be at work today I think I would have cracked and just eaten something. Please god let tomorrow be easier.

New Stage

I am officially grumpy about the not eating. I'm going outlet shopping.

XO

OK, Something's Wrong

I just stepped on the scale, which registered at 170. How can you gain 3 pounds not eating for a day? I'm guessing it might having something to do with back-to-back days of french fries just before starting the cleanse, but I am telling you I am feeling depressed about it.

I slept really well last night. Woke up with stomach cramps, but they're pretty manageable. Just drank the quart of salt water. So disgusting.

It's a little June-gloomy so far today in LA. Not quite sure what to do with myself.

Cashed

For some reason the only food I've craved all day is cashews. My head is feeling a little fuzzy, but I am strangely not hungry or tired at the moment. All told, I had 7 glasses of lemonade today. I thought I would drink more.

A Day at the Beach

I've now been awake for 12 hours and have had nothing to eat but the lemonade. I have had hunger pangs here and there, but drinking the concoction really does stave it off. I've had pretty good energy, although I crashed about an hour ago into a very deep nap. I feel like I could have slept the night through. Now I'm having my dinner time drink. So far today I've had about 5 glasses. I should probably be drinking more plain water.

I spent the day at the beach, laying around, so I'm not sure yet how the cleanse will affect my more active habits.

My neighbor from across the street who's on Grey's Anatomy (he plays the gay bartender who is trying to adopt a baby -- I think the character's name is Joe) is having a party tonight. They seem to be playing charades, very loudly. They also seem to all be actors.

Trader Joe's has been selling peonies for the past couple weeks at $6.99 a bunch.

Elimination Round One

I have had my first glass of "lemonade" and I have to tell you it is delicious. I used a lemon from Karin Apollonia's backyard tree and the juicer that Melanie gave me for Christmas 4 years ago that has never not one time been used before. Thanks girls!

I have also had my first round of visits to the ladies room. No drama there, though, thank god. I think I'll forego the graphics until something really interesting comes out.

Meanwhile, Mary Lou has just been here dropping off my laundry and told me that she has just broken up with her husband? boyfriend? of 15 years.

SWF

I've just drunk my first quart of salt water. No fireworks yet.

GUILTY

I feel a bit naughty. It's 2:30am, and I'm having a cup of Smooth Move tea. To chase my club sandwich and fries. What can I say? Tomorrow, I go big. Meanwhile I am watching Dante's Cove. That's the real shame.

Aural Cleansing

Just fyi, I will be listening to Sufjan Stevens and Innocence Mission frequently during my cleanse. Also to Suzanne Vega's new record, which I am not kidding is really good. Screw you, haters. Check out this amazing clip of Sufjan covering Innocence Mission's "Lakes of Canada:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffHmMr8JQVE

20 hours 'til D Day

So, I'm starting the master cleanse in the morning tomorrow and I'm really looking for a psychadelic, religious, transformative experience. I wanna feel seriously cleaned out. I think my brain needs a reboot more than my intestines do, so hopefully those two go hand in hand.

I had kind of a last meal last night -- bacon cheeseburger and sweet potato fries at Bowery, which was very delicious. I was kind of obsessed with the young, date-y hollywood crowd. All the girls were halter-topped or backless. Several tables of just single ladies, lots of guys in their weekend shirts. I felt a little like I was in Boston. Anyway,since I'm going to see Rebel Without a Cause tonight in the cemetery (hence a picnic dinner[probably from Joan's, from where I've also just ordered lunch]), I used last night as my indulgent last supper. It was also my last boozy night, consisting of 2 martinis, half a bottle of wine and, yuck, a Bud Light.

My weight today is 167 (which is so fucking annoying, as I worked out 6 goddamn times this week and did not lose a pound). I'm not really doing the cleanse to lose weight, but I'm looking forward to that by-product. My goal weight is 160 (actually, 159). Should be doable, right?

Since I am going to have so much free time, what with the not going to the market twice a day, and the not cooking any meals, and the not having any hangovers, I figured I would blog in gory detail about my adventure. I promise to be candid. Say a little prayer for me. But really say a prayer for Tommy Ferguson, who passed away on Thursday after a tough struggle with cancer. Tommy was just an awesome guy.