A New Year, A Not So New Me

Well here it is a brand new year and once again I am on a self- imposed cleanse.   It seems that every year I try to ring in the new year by purging the previous year’s toxins.  Now there are many different ways to approach a cleanse.  You can go full speed with a Master cleanse where all you consume is a mixture of water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup that you drink multiple times a day for various lengths of time, lasting as long as ten days.  There are a myriad of packaged cleanses that consist of herbs and supplements that come with instructions so you can either be really successful or really lazy depending on your level of interest.  You can also take on a more non-traditional approach and design your own cleanse based on what your body or what you think your body needs.  I am currently not succeeding with the last item on my list.

Now when I set about to cleanse this month I really had some lofty goals.  I thought I could cut out everything deemed bad for me, and embrace it as my cause, my raison d’être.  Alas, my will power is just not as strong as I had hoped and I have caved to my cravings more times than I care to mention. My intention was to cut out all processed sugar, dairy, gluten, alcohol, and basically anything delicious.  I have succumbed to all of these things. 

To be fair, I have cut down significantly on all of the aforementioned items and so I now view my cleanse as more of a process.  It is more of a  gradual cleanse and one that I will be really successful with come closer to the end of the month or perhaps the end of February.  You see I want to be in the optimum health in theory but in reality my food cravings always seem to get the better of me.  Why just the other night I was at a party and there was a chocolate fountain, a chocolate fountain people!!!  Who can say no to that?  I was dipping strawberries in left and right and of course the more you eat the more you want it.  Just like a true addict I was in deep with this sugar and I loved it! 

So you see, while I love the idea of cleansing, it is just so darn hard when the things you are eliminating are right there to tempt you.  I think that now while it is so bleak out in the dead of winter, a little sweetness in the form of chocolate, wine or even great rustic bread, is just what this gal needs.  And of course there is always tomorrow to make better choices, right?