Day 1: OH, THE CRAVINGS!

I started the day off with a glorious green smoothie.  I know they look a lot like baby poo, but the fact is, they can be tasty and energizing once you get the balance right.  Part of the secret is to include way more greens than you think you want (today's greens are organic spinach), what I call a balancing agent (a fruit with a broad, pleasant taste that will dominate the overall taste of your smoothie.  In today's it's mango, my personal favorite balancing agent) and the spices (which include other fruits with a sharper taste or other ingredients that you need to include because you need them in your diet but want to hide the taste however possible.  Today it's strawberries, flax seed and some super green powder that I'll talk more about another day.)

I pushed a lot of water today, which made me spend a good portion of the day walking back and forth to the bathroom.  The good news is that water is one of those things that makes you feel full without the negative effects of actually being full, and it's a good thing to keep around to "snack" on.  Beats chips.

The morning went well!  I stayed focused, avoided decadent snacky things and drank my water religiously.  However, as the afternoon wore on, my stomach (and brain) wanted FOOD, and it didn't care what kind.  Everywhere I looked, I saw cheeseburgers and pizza and ice cream screaming to be eaten (which were actually my stapler, phone and keyboard.  The brain is a powerful magician.)  I was able to gut through by focusing on work for a while.

I decided to work from home some in the afternoon to avoid being around food constantly (Yes, I work in a health food store.  No, not everything in here is "healthy", at least for me.  Damn those fine-smelling muffins.)  This worked for a while, then it was like I shut down.  I just needed to sleep, and nothing was stopping me.  It was a little earlier than I'd planned (luckily, my odd sleep schedule means I will often work for a few hours in the middle of the night), but it didn't matter.  Sleep cometh.

Six hours later, I awoke to THE CRAVINGS.  That need. It itches and pokes and scratches at you.  See, my brain knew there was some ice cream in the freezer (Cashew milk salted caramel cluster.  Yum.) and it WANTED THAT ICE CREAM.  It was all I could do to fight it off.  I ended up curled on the couch playing ipad games and pretending that I was in prison so I wouldn't get up.  Silly, but it worked.  For now.

There's no moral to this particular story, just survival.  Made it through day one.  God, how I'm dreading day two.