Post Cleanse Thoughts-Retoxing, Decompressing.

So, it's been almost two weeks since we wrapped up our 30 day challenge to ourselves. In the past week, I feel like it's been personally a bit of a rollercoaster getting my system back onto 'normal' (hah!) food. Here's a check-in of the most noteworthy.

a) appetite. My appetite has been all over the place. A constant though has been a much higher sweet tooth and 'fat' tooth than usual. I almost never had a sweet tooth any more; turning vegan almost completely killed it years ago. When I was much younger I could eat an entire tray of fudge without blinking (also without gaining weight, thanks metabolism of yesteryear...*sob*) but somewhere along my adult life, I could take or leave sweets. With the exception of high quality chocolate around "that" time of the month. I feel like my body has gotten used to higher levels of sugar and would like more of that now pleasenowpleasenow. Now. Please. I have found myself fighting the urge to eat when I wasn't hungry, because my body had almost a mind of it's own. Pretty unnerving, I've been working on getting it under some kind of control by stocking the fridge with raw veggies and home made dips and fruit for snacking, but it's hard. I've been treating myself somewhat with personal 'cheat' foods, such as wheaty bread (ok, it's light rye but still. Terrible) and peanut butter and rice. Total cheat foods.

This morning I woke up and all I wanted was a day full of raw fruits and veggies. I've mostly succeeded, although I caved to temptation and had a Tofurkey dog with my two giant bowls of salad for dinner. (Tofurkey is a rare special treat for me, definitely not a dietary staple.) I'm about to have a pint of fresh juice, and I'm having a full body craving for it.

b) digestion. Don't even talk to me about what's been going on down there. My poor intestines just got used to all fruit and raw veggies all the time...and now this. Ok, I suppose making a lentil curry and home made baked beans in the same weekend was a tactical error, I will be the first to admit. It seemed like such a good idea...

c)skin tone. I've been breaking out like a mofo in some really odd places- either side of my neck, just below my jaw and in a couple places on my cheeks (ok, one on each cheek). To be fair, one of my co-workers has also been having this problem and we both think that it's where our scarves are rubbing our necks all the damned time; we also both wear our scarves wrapped over our faces and our hats pulled down low. The cheek-breakout and the one zit on my forehead are both on the rub-lines of my face scarf and hat, respectively. Seems odd, since I wash them regularly but, still. There it is.

d) mood I've been wondering if my period was going to come early, as I've had all the hallmarks of PMS (including bloating and breakouts, see above). Generally speaking I've been flustered, short tempered and feeling slightly unable to cope with the general day-to-days of life which usually only happens as a PMS symptom.

I feel like I've had some time to let go a little bit and treat myself, but it's time to get back to my routine of super healthy food. I think I'd like to settle at an optimum level of 80% raw. There are some cooked foods and hot foods like tea that contribute significantly to my quality of life that I'm not going to set aside, but I definitely like how my body operates with a huge increase of raw fruits and vegetables on a daily basis.

Amazing Grass review: day 05

I'm out of the Amazing Meal smoothie supplements and I've been up and out of the house sans smoothie the last few days- BUT Never Fear. I've had Green Superfood Energy Bars to keep me kicking!

that's some super food, there.

I've previously tried the Chocolate flavour in the line; it's sold at the convenience store by my work which is shocking and awesome and they're a great grab-and-go hefty snack that keeps me going for a while at work.

They all seem to have a very similar base of Amazing Grass grasses blended with a great mix of nuts and dates and magic pixie dust. Or something. Here's the *actual* ingredients if you're going to be fussy.

stop looking at me like that.















Now, because of the high nut content, I find that 8-9 grams of fat is a little high if you're going for a low/curtailed fats diet, at least all in one go. But, again, it's the fats in the nuts and seeds that allow for this bar to stick-to-your-ribs for quite a while and keep you going; so, not a snack for sittin' around the house, more of a snack while hiking around or on your feet at work sorta-thing. I also get a bit of a kick on how long the ingredients list looks because of all the times to work organic is used. Makes my toes curl a bit in glee to the honest. I love that it's Real Food in convenient bar form.

Today, however, I had the Berry energy bar! So good! No chocolate coating (so 8 rather than 9 grams of fat) and you could really taste actual berries in the bar, along side the base of chewy dates and large chunks of nuts and seeds. Here's the stats for this bad berry boy. NOTE- cranberries is the *second ingredient*. In something berry flavoured. Crazy, right? Like I said, real food. Neat.

At work, we're divided into two equal camps- generally speaking, if you like dates, you'll like these bars. If you don't, based on the survey of the 4 of us at work, you won't enjoy the texture or taste of these bars either.

I think you're crazymad if you don't like dates, but then again I think olives taste like pure poison, so who am I to say, right?