The 2013 Food Lover's Cleanse Diary: Day 1
Sara Dickerman didn't just write the Food Lover's Cleanse--she's an active participant. Follow along with her every day as she reboots her diet. (No juice fasts allowed.)
Stocking up for the Food Lover's Cleanse, as many of you know, is a big challenge. "You make it look so easy!" my husband said wryly, staring at the floor of our kitchen on New Year's Day, as I scrambled after two hours of shopping to cram some just-washed kale into a Ziploc bag. There were shopping bags all over the floor, plus a fair amount of said kale (and arugula stems and spinach twist-ties) at our feet. Our back porch is standing in as a second refrigerator right now, chilling extra fruit and the apple cider that went into yesterday's shake, as well as the beers that we're avoiding for a couple of weeks. After all this stocking up and organizing, it's easy to remember why takeout becomes more and more of a habit as the year wears on.
But as soon as I actually started cooking yesterday, I felt pretty excited. The weather's been spectacularly bright and cold here in Seattle, and it's lifted my mood. I'm really craving big fresh flavors like the extra-chubby pomegranate seeds I sprinkled on yesterday's oatmeal, the mineral bite of raw kale offset by some particularly nice canned Oregon albacore at lunch, and the softened citrus appeal of the boiled lemon that went into yesterday's dinner greens (all washed and trimmed thanks to my efforts on Tuesday).
Here are some things I almost but didn't eat yesterday: a random handful of Cheerios, the crust of my children's sandwiches, half a leftover candy cane, three tortellini left behind in my daughter's bowl. Those are all little nibbles I'd have likely scarfed down on an ordinary day, none particularly satisfying or delicious. Today I didn't miss them, nor did I feel particularly hungry in between meals. I did relish my planned 3 p.m. Apple-Blackberry Smoothie, which tided me over to dinner better than my normal grazing.
The only small problem was that I, like some of you no doubt, was unable to find black cod at the store. The fishmonger assured me that all Pacific Northwest fisherman take off the week between Christmas and New Year's, and that I'd have trouble finding any black cod in the city right now. I'm not sure this wasn't BS, but I took him at his word and substituted lingcod. It was less voluptuous than the black cod, but cheaper and very tasty. It was gobbled down by every member of my family, even the kids, who drew the line at the quinoa.