good thing vs fail thing

Made a trip to Whole Foods last night to stock up on prunes and oils, decaf coffee and vanilla almond milk. I stumbled upon the tea aisle and found the GREATEST TEA EVER. Its made by Yogi tea company and its called Egyptian Licorice Mint (exotic, i know). Inside this hot little bag are peppermint, licorice, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, clove and black pepper. I die. It performs miracles, i am sure.

I tried my hand at making my first gluten-free cracker last evening. It was an epic failure. As a professional-trained pastry chef, I am truly appalled at my inability to make this cracker a reality. I will be trying again, mark my word. I am sad about all the lovely, fresh rosemary and thyme that were casualties of this particular war. Pauvre petits. C'est la vie!

To eat is human. To cleanse...divine!

So we're onto the 4th day of the Pre Cleanse, and I'm feeling pretty good. I've learned quite a few things namely that decaf coffee with almond milk takes some getting used to, rice puffs are God's gift to gluten-allergic humans, and that prunes serve as a remarkable dessert when you've been sworn off processed sugar. Who knew? Many more discoveries on the horizon, i'm sure. I'm also on Day 4 of no smoking, which rocks. I've had a horrible head cold that has been weirdly beneficial to the non-smoking adventure. I haven't had much of an urge to do the smoking, and i'm so happy that us ladies are still going strong! A++ for effort for Team Awesomesauce. I'm also proud of inform that my addiction to caffeine is pretty much kicked at this point. I'm up at 6am, and shining without the assistance of any coffee substance. Not sure if this is a lifestyle choice that i'll stick with for the long-term (Amanda and I would greatly miss a lovely Barista-produced cappuccino) but its nice to know that I dont need it as a crutch to get through my day. Peace & Long Life :) - Ashley

Cleanse = 1, Amanda = 0

Pro: I ate only approved foods and beverages all day.

Neutral: I didn't consume much food.

Con: Headache for 6+ hours. Likely due to lack of food and lack of caffeine.

It's all downhill from here...or is it

The first day of this "elimination diet" is already trying. I think a
trip to the grocery store for lots of approved foods is in order.

Steak + chips + PBR + tortellini fest.

Due to the amount of caffeine, alcohol and nicotine all five of us go-getters (or masochists depending on your perspective) consume on a daily basis, we're going to be doing the recommended 5-day cleanse before starting our official 21-day cleanse. Day one of this is tomorrow. We're calling it P1. This means that tonight is our last official day of consuming all of the soon-to-be-forbidden foods that we love so dearly.

Tonight's menu consists of the following.

+ Appetizer: One large bag of Munchos + PBR. Classy.

+ Dinner: Steak. And cheese ravioli with a marinara sauce.

+ Dessert: Pall Malls.

Appalling. Yes. This is EXACTLY why we're doing a cleanse.

The Mission

To make it through the 21-day Clean program...starting Monday.