Transitioning

Thursday, May 26, after 18 days of mostly juice, I ate dinner with Sandra and our friend, Jan Kross, at Cafe Trio. Sandae got a coupon for a free meal in honor of her birthday & the coupon was going to expire at the end of the month. She loves Cafe Trio. What else was there to do? Relationships require give and take. It was time for me to give.

I struggled with the menu. I think I am going to find that most restaurants can accommodate a vegetarian. But it is going to be considerably harder to find restaurant food for someone who wishes to be gluten-free and to eat only foods from the earth - in other words, no cheese, no milk. 

This may not be my diet mode forever. But right now I need to make some radical changes just to turn my health around.

At the restaurant, I blew up my diet in some respects.

Here's what I ate: I got a house salad with dressing when everyone else was having salad. I had tomato soup and hummus for my entree.

The good: no meat, no excessive calories, pretty easy to digest. The bad: gluten in the bread I ate while waiting to order (no one made me do it) and in the pita that came with the hummus; milk in the soup.

What did I notice most after the first meal? I felt SO full it was uncomfortable. I could hardly go to sleep because my guts were rumbling around. I woke up with a rumbly stomach. I had not had a stomach rumble in days and days. My insides had been pretty happy with the period of rest.

FAQ: No. I was not hungry all the time during my juice fast. I was rarely uncomfortable. And I got used to being a little hungry some of the time. I don't think it is wise to walk around full 24 hours a day.