Treat Day

Today I decided to celebrate as it's been 12 weeks since I ate sugar/refined foods.  I didn't forbid these foods, telling myself I could have this if I wanted it, as long as it was within Dr. Fuhrman's guidelines (less than 5% of total calories, he says 10% but I don't think he's talking about the really bad stuff).  But I was curious to see if I could go completely without it to test out the idea that it takes 12 weeks to break an addiction.   So am I addicted to these foods still?  Not physically, and the desire for them is definitely down.  I think not making them forbidden makes them less desirable too.  And the knowledge that I will feel like crap afterwards seals it pretty well.  All I really miss is being like everyone else, not feeling like a weirdo and enjoying the same food as everyone else.  But that applies to all food our society eats, not anything in particular.  It's not the food I desire, it's the community.   What I miss is mostly fictional, made up in my mind since I can come up with a counter-argument to all of these things (since when do I mind being seen as a weirdo?  I can still be in community while eating my own food)--and this is what led me to wonder if it's mostly an addiction and just rationalizing wanting these foods.  I think there might be something to it because my desire is less after 12 weeks.    well enough rambling about that.

I didn't really want to celebrate by eating the sugar/refined foods.  so I celebrated with some of my favorites.  Here were the ingredients:

That's essene (aka manna) bread, banana, raw pecan/cashew butter, frozen sweet cherries.

First we have my version of peanut butter and jelly; that is, essence bread topped with the nut butter, and frozen sweet cherries (thawed in microwave along):

Then we have ice cream and cake:

i.e., manna bread topped with ice cream (cherries, banana, and a generous serving of nut butter--very good!).

and one of my all time favorites:

plain old banana and nut butter.   Yum!   okay, that was enough treats for a while.  It was good but I'm looking forward to eating some carrots and salads again tomorrow.  oh, I guess that's a good thing!

Update to my Previous Post

I got some interesting comments to my last post so I just wanted to respond to them.  Lani had a different view of the Weekend Immersion, so please read her comment if you are interested.  Wendy pointed out a great post from her blog about the chemicals in food designed to make them as stimulating as possible.  I highly recommend reading this and watching the attached video.

Then I also wanted to update you on my roasted veggie experiment.  It turned out great!  For marinate I used juice from 1/2 orange, 1 Tbsp of black fig vinegar, and a squeeze of no-salt mustard--maybe 1-2 Tbsps?  I used onions, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, sweet potato.  About 1/4 lb each.  Tonight I will use more as I needed more food today.  maybe I'll use 1/3 lb each.  I think I'll cook it for 40 minutes with the foil, and 20 minutes without.  Yesterday I did 30 minutes and 15.  Actually that did turn out pretty good.  Maybe I will do 35 and 15.  I don't want them soggy.  or 30 and 20.  It might take me a few days to get it right.  My seasonings were fresh rosemary and sage.    It was really good!