Days 18 -20 & Week 3 Results: Why is food so important?

I weighed in this morning for an official weight result for week 3 and I am down 4lbs from last Monday. This brings my total weight loss to 13lbs. I saw a friend yesterday who I had not seen since before I started the cleanse and the first thing she said to me was "did you lose weight?" It was definitely encouraging to have someone notice.

I really love food and in the past couple of weeks I have been trying to redefine my relationship with it. One thing that I have noticed is that I'm not as obsessed with food. I used to find myself thinking about it constantly. I would have these frenzied thoughts about when I was going to eat especially if I didn't have any food prepared to take with me somewhere. If for example I didn't bring lunch when I was off to work or didn't have time to make breakfast, I would be in a state of panic about the route I would take and what food places would be along the way. Ironically no matter where I ended up stopping I would always make a poor food choice. By poor I mean high fat and high carb like a sausage egg and cheese on a croissant from Dunkin Donuts or a turkey club with mayonnaise from a local eatery.

Since the cleanse I have more restrictions, less choices but even less anxiety about food. I really enjoy the structure. Its helping me remain focused on why I love food. I am a visual and textural person. I am also an artist so when it comes to food the ingredients are my palette and my meal is a balanced aesthetically pleasing composition.

Yesterday was the first time I ate breakfast in a while and I was inspired to make hash from a recipe I found in my new cookbook Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso. I had breakfast sausage meat in my freezer from pasture raised pork so I mixed that with grated sweet potatoes, onions, apples, coconut oil and cinnamon. I topped it with 3 egg whites. This was also what I had for dinner tonight. I cannot describe to you how beautiful, fragrant, and satisfying this meal was. I know the sausage meat was a bit of splurge but well worth the indulgence.

I know I have only been on this cleanse 20 days but when I think back to how I used to eat B.C. (before cleanse) I imagine myself as an addict just looking for some kind of tasty fix...literally. I still want to experience those slow, satisfying swallows of  gastronomic pleasure. I feel the need to add a disclaimer right about now as this post appears to be entering a "fifty shades of grey" ode to food. I guess what I'm trying to say is that post cleanse I still want to enjoy food but not enjoy food. It's about finding the balance between food being important, sustaining, and pleasing. I think I've said enough.