Crazy Sexy Cleanse - Launch

I first heard about the Sexy Crazy Diet while reading a Danielle Laporte post about resetting your body after exhaustion. I had been through an exhausting time myself and just wanted to feel that I was doing something for my health, besides stuffing myself with organic chocolate, fruits and cereals. Usually, any combination of trite words such as "sexy", "crazy" and "diet" is enough for me to steer clear. But I did click. And what I found was a great source of inspiration. Here was a woman who had been battling cancer for eight years and still managed to look like a girl from a health supplement ad in Shape Magazine. I was intrigued, so I read on.

As a recovering Oh Yeah (Over Eater Anonymous), I have always been attracted to diets that forbid: the gluten-free diet, the Zone diet, the Miami Beach diet, the Master Cleanse diet, you name it. But here was someone who was telling me to start a diet not by eliminating something, but by adding something: one juice a day. That's it. Not to stop eating sugar or flour, or grains or dairy, just a simple green juice. On the diets I have tested, I have always succeed to lose weight (though in different scale and manner), but I would always gain it back, leading to more stress that led to more Oh Yeahness. And here was a sustainable thing I could do to help my health.

I have to admit that I was not particularly attracted to this idea at first. I have nothing against greens, but the idea of putting greenish, earthy brew of cucumber, kale, spinach and lettuce in my mouth at 6am did not seem enjoyable or even practical for someone hoping to feel nourished and satiated till lunch time. So I took it as a supplement. So I started to add it. Little by little, day after day. Apples help A LOT and my juicer started to taste good. I felt an instant boost of happiness thinking that I was actually putting so much goodness into myself. To make a long story short, I have been doing this juice thing for a few weeks, and it got me thinking about alkaline and acidity and what hurts my body and what nourishes it. I have come to the conclusion that I was ready for a challenge.

So in the next 10 days, I will :
- drink a cucumber and apple juice every morning
- take my cleanse pills
- get at least 8 hours of sleep

... and record the effects on my body on here. Let's see if this works.

Lesson learned

Only recently have I realized the power of communication (or lack thereof) in the working world. I have working as a freelancer for years. I have worked for all sorts of clients, from the very nice and realistic to the very harsh my-work-should-be-your-priority-because-I-am-paying kind of clients. In all fairness, I can say that I have never had a really bad experience with clients. A little frustration on my part, yes, a lack of understanding from their part, certainly, but never have I experienced the level of autism I am currently experiencing at work. Funny that I say "at work" as I am a freelancer, I know, but the guy has been trying to get me to his office as often as possible to get some work done. This does not mean that work does not get done. It means that this guy thinks working in front of him will mean I am more productive. Worse of all, he is the master of ASAP.

ASAP is a fake concept. As soon as possible makes you think that it is up to you to determine when this is possible. It sounds like the person in front of you is fine with whenever you have a slot for the requested task. What matters in ASAP is not the possible (they assume you can or will be able) but the "as soon as". It is a now clad in non-pressure. A by-product of the passive aggressive culture we live in? I understand that the world does not revolve around me so I cannot say now, but how about now? It brings emergency expectations without the mean pressure. It takes the bad feeling out of the requester: he's not asking for the impossible, since it is whenever it is possible! I have failed because of that. I have seen projects designed as ASAP and I have treated them quickly but not as priorities, at my own pace, but oh Loood, what was I thinking? Accepting ASAP as a deadline is like signing up for a class right before registration is over... You know you are heading for a disaster, yet you don't want to risk to feel bad because you have completely missed the class.

So tonight, I will pledge in front of the one of you all (hi Mom!): I will never accept ASAP as an answer ever again.

Gratitude

I have been reading so much about gratitude and its power in good and bad times, I have decided to try and integrate a gratitude practice at the end of the day. After turning off the lights, I try to think of at least one thing that has happened through the day and for which I am grateful. After the unoriginal thank you for having good health, live in an apartment I like and have a loving relationship with a great man, I thought I would have a hard time coming up with new things. But it has been quite the opposite. I come up with them pretty easily. They bring me peace that no matter how little I have achieved in that day, I have at least made one thing worth mentioning to myself. It's only been a few days, but it already makes me look at my day differently. I now leave my house in the morning thinking about how the day will bring something special for which I will be grateful tonight.