Brie’s crazy June diet extravaganza

A few months ago VegNews had a special section on “cleanses”. Now, I really am not the type to go on a cleanse, but, it got me thinking about how I eat and how I want to eat. Not just for weight loss, but for health and ethical/moral reasons as well.

I started off by looking at each of the 5 cleanses in VegNews. They had one editor try each cleanse and report on how it went. Some seemed easier to do than others. One is just a series of changes over 30 days, with each change being followed for all the days after it’s introduction. Day 1 – drink 8 glasses of water. Day 2 – eat a hearty/healthy breakfast (and drink those glasses of water). Etc. Others were more radical, like a completely raw vegan diet.

Oddly enough, the raw vegan diet (The Raw Food Revolution Diet) seemed the most appealing to me. However, I kept putting off reading the book. I finally realized that I don’t want to cleanse, and that a radical change is a sure way to set myself up for failure. I tend to go into the mode of if I’m going fail, might as well fail big. I could just picture myself having one non-raw meal and then deciding to just abandon the whole idea. It seemed like a more approachable plan was needed.

I was also intrigued by the Crazy Sexy Diet. I did actually buy this one, and I plan on reading it soon. Just not in time for my crazy June diet extravaganza. And by diet I mean the noun (the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats), and not the verb (restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight).

By now, you might be wondering, “Just what IS Brie’s crazy June diet extravaganza??!”

Well here’s what it’s not:

• soda
• monster (or any energy drinks)
• highly processed food

And here’s what I want it to be:

• vegan
• “real” food
• a smoothie a day (or at least a real breakfast of some sort)
• more raw food (aiming for 5-10 raw meals per week, not counting smoothies)

I’m trying to be flexible and just say “less of the things on the not list” and “more of things on the want list.”

Now, I just have to pick an official start date and a time period. Originally, it was just going to be the month of June, but I might wait until Sunday or Monday to start. My husband has declined to support me in this endeavor (he will not be joining the extravaganza except for home meals that I’m in charge of, and even those he will probably skip in favor of free dinner at Google). We were going to eat out tonight, but might do that this weekend.  Eating out is not going to be easy during the extravaganza.

I’ll keep you posted on when I start and how it’s going!