The End of the Fast

I suck at daily blogging. That’s okay.

Let go of perfectionism…let go of perfectionism…let go of perfectionism…

I made it almost through DAY SEVEN...sort of. I did a little browsing about the Master Cleanse just before going to bed including some information on the man who first developed and promoted it, Stanley Burroughs, who is widely considered a quack. That’s all fine and good, but I also believe the true health benefits of fasting most typically come from a water fast, if at all, because really the body is still processing something on any other type of fast.

Still, the perfectionist in me wanted to finish, just because I said I would. However, when I started to prepare my Master Cleanse concoction in the morning, I realized I had downed an entire liter of maple syrup in less than a week. Now I don’t eat much processed food, so pancakes are rare, but if I do eat a bite of someone else’s pancake, I usually go for the part without the syrup. The fact that I had consumed that much sugar suddenly grossed me out. So, I switched to a juice fast right then and combined my lemons with some oranges and spinach and had a huge, tasty smoothie.

When it came time to make the kids' lunch, I decided I’d just eat. So I did. I didn’t phase back in. I didn’t do anything special. I was totally fine. This might be because the food we make at home is vegan and we generally don't eat a lot of processed foods.

I will say this about the Master Cleanse if you are into crash diets (I’m not)…you drop a ton of weight very quickly. Even my skinny jeans were roomy.

Since I didn’t blog for a few days, I didn’t do my gratitude journal entries, so I’m going to make a longer list of 15. Here goes:

1. I’m grateful that my children are so forgiving when I’ve had a bad mommy moment.
2. I’m grateful that the brain surgeon gets the whole weekend off next weekend so he can come to CHN's 2008 Family Expo with us.
3. I’m grateful that my step mom is walking in the Avon 3-day, that nobody I love has cancer and that my mom is in remission.
4. I’m grateful that I have such a huge, loving family.
5. I’m grateful that I have caring, brilliant, strong-minded-yet-gentle-spirited women that I can call friends.
6. I’m grateful that I have work that is intellectually stimulating, constantly evolving, interesting and flexible and – most importantly – that I can mostly work from home and be with my babies.
7. I’m grateful that my great big minivan holds our whole family, tons of crap and yet still gets pretty great gas mileage.
8. I’m grateful that I, the brain surgeon and our children are healthy.
9. I’m grateful for our doggie.
10. I’m grateful that I live in a walking neighborhood.
11. I’m grateful that the psychobitch I become when I’m PMSing is not my true self, and that she’s only around for about three days a month.
12. I’m grateful that I no longer have to walk the dog (through the gate, down the stairs) with my newborn in a sling and my toddler on one hip while holding my 4-year-old’s hand, a dog leash and some poop bags.
13. I’m grateful that my friend told me about Jon and Kate Plus 8, which ends any pity party I might be trying to host for myself during an intense parenting day. (Trust me...if you think you've got a tough parenting gig, check those two out!)
14. I’m glad that I can’t remember the last time my children were sick.
15. I’m glad that my husband is the most involved father I know.

That was easy.

I swear, I’ve only been doing this for a few days and my outlook is brighter. It pays to have gratitude.

On another note, I love this blog post on an unschooled kid (as in no school or lessons EVER), who decided to go to public high school for his freshman year.

I know I already said it, but I’m so excited to go to the CHN Conference, and I’m super excited to go to the “Unradical Unschooling” and the “Will the Real Unschooler Please Stand Up” sessions. Really, there are so many sessions I'm excited about that I cannot even attend them all. Plus, we're meeting up with our favorite homeschooling family and bringing the grandparents.

Finally, after my fast ended, the brain surgeon wanted to have a little party, since he finally was able to come home after about 4 nonstop days in two hospitals, so he brought us each a delightful cupcake from the world famous Sprinkles Cupcakes. Mine was cherry. For the record, Sprinkles cupcakes come in a wonderful variety of flavors that are not vegan, are not raw and certainly are not part of the Master Cleanse, but they are fabulous. And that's coming from someone who doesn't particularly like cake or cupcakes. Now that’s cheating. Mmmmmm…Then the brain surgeon’s pager went off again and he left. Boo hoo.

Toodles!