Off The Wagon...

Damnit, I fell off the wagon!

I was inspired by my friends Gray and Michelle who were doing a cleanse...something I kept putting off and putting off and putting off. It NEVER seems like the right time to start the cleanse...coming up with excuses like "Well, I only have one night off this week, and I'm going to want to go out to dinner, so I'll start the following week", or "Well, it's Father's Day and we will be doing a brunch, so this week's no good to start"...the point I'm getting at is that it's always something. So I said "Fuck it...let the cleanse begin!". Started out with 2 days of just RAW food, followed by what was supposed to be 3 days of juice and then the final day being RAW. The first two days of RAW weren't so bad, and the first day of juice didn't start off god-awful. See, with me, I could go all day without eating, but come 4pm or 5pm -- something comes over me and I'm ravenous! So I'm juicing, I'm cleansing, all is going according to plan and then 4pm hits and my stomach starts to alert me that it is ready to eat. Not helping this matter is the fact that I'm going to work, at a restaurant, a restaurant filled with yummy smells and delicious food. Making it even worse was that once I got to work, we were DEAD - so all the girls were just sitting around munching on bread and olive oil, french fries and salad with bleu cheese. I sipped my juice and some decaf tea...and I was totally miserable. I kept repeating my Cleanse Mantra "This is a GIFT to your body, be thankful!" BUT, it was not easing the pain or hunger I was experiencing. Came home, went to bed, dreamt about food and then woke up the next morning ready to continue on and kickass on my cleanse. Again, morning and noon is doable. THEN - work. More food, more smells, a little busier than the night before, but not enough to distract me from food. I ate one of Nicole's french fries. DAMNIT CAILIN. Later I dipped an inch sized piece of bread into our amazing White Clam Sauce...Double Damnit! I was so frustrated with myself and so hungry. Why was I so weak!? I repeated my Cleanse Mantra over and over, and repeated Gray's mantra "I'm powerful and amazing" over and over but none of it really seemed to help. On the car ride home I called my mom to see if she'd be awake when I got home...I figured that I could hang with her, chat, be distracted, sip some herbal tea and then go to bed - ready for the final day of juicing. Unfortunately she was retiring to bed, and I didn't trust myself alone in our kitchen filled of amazing food, so I visited all the boys over at Mike's Seafood for a chat. When I pulled into the parking lot MUSSELS MARINARA popped into my head, so I said to hell with it! I sat down at the bar, savored the most delicious Mussels Marinara that I have EVER had and washed them down with an ICE COLD CORONA. So much for cleansing. Woke up this morning, had a cup of tea and then ate Nicole Gorton's deliiicccious Roasted Root Wrap. Maybe I will have Cleanse Round 2 this summer when I'm so busy with working that I won't have time to think about food. But in the meantime, I'm BACK!

Recipe for Nicoles ROASTED ROOT WRAP:

1 large sweet potato
1 large beet
1 medium sized red potato
1 small yellow onion
6 cloves of garlic
olive oil
tahini
whole wheat wraps
arugula {or spinach}
bragg's liquid aminos (or soy sauce)
salt + pepper
rosemary
thyme

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and dice sweet potato and beet. Dice red potato + onion. Throw all diced veggies and 6 cloves of garlic into a pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a good shaking of rosemary + thyme. Cover pan with tin foil. Bake for about 40minutes. Take a whole wheat wrapper and spread about a tablespoon of tahini onto it. Throw on a tiny handful of peppery Arugula. Pick a clove or two of roasted garlic out of the pan and spread it onto the wrap. Scoop a decent amount of your roasted roots into the wrapper and then drizzle with Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Wrap up and enjoyyyyy. This will make enough for 4 people.