my body is a temple...

...and therefore I need to worship it. I need to eliminate those pesky refined sugars, simple carbs and processed foods. I need to embrace cauliflower, organic chicken and become a granola girl. I need to sell my stock in Burger King, denounce alcohol and join the movement, which of course means I have to detox.

1de·tox
Pronunciation: (')dE-'täks
Function: noun
often attributive : detoxification from an intoxicating or addictive substance

Well lets be honest, there are a number of substances that I can choose to detox from…and I’ve decided to detox all of them out of my system. I head over to my favourite health food store (yes favourite is a strong word when it comes to health food stores). Anyhoo, to find the answers to all my unanswered questions - I head over to Carrot Common (http://www.carrotcommon.com/history.html) on the Danforth b/c of course there is nothing in the 905 area. I ask the woman what she would recommend - she hands me a 12-day detox kit. 12 days???? I ask for something in the 3 day range and she masks her impatience quite well and tells me that 12 days is better then 3 b/c it’s not a shock to the system and easier to make it a habit vs. just a detox etc etc – I’m sold…hey I’m just a lamb in a wolf’s shop what do I know - I pay the $34.99 for the Wild Rose Detox Kit and off I go.

The next dilemma is when do I start. If I start the detox immediately – the last day of the detox will be one day b/f my birthday. But it seems a little silly to detox for 12 days and immediately partake in beverages (wooohooo I’m 25% closer to being a granola girl). So I decide to start on January 30th, besides this gives me a few weeks to plan and get mentally prepared for the event and yes it is going to be an event.

So I study the information in the kit for days and ponder what I am going to buy, cook, and eat. I research info on the web; e.g., the kit says I can eat all the millet I want. Well let’s be honest, I’m Indian – I don’t know what millet is, what to do with it or where to find it. In any case – the whole detox thing doesn’t sound so bad - it seems like I can eat quite few things b/c what I didn’t want was the food list to be restricted to lettuce soup. Anyways - I sort out a menu for the first three days and off I go to places I’ve never been before…I’m stocked up on veggies, domestic fruit (no international fruit), fish, millet, tofu etc. I’m now 50% closer to being a granola girl. Aside from the “right” food - I have three different types of herbal supplements to take: cleansherb (who knows what exactly this is), herbal laxative (I think we get it), bile stimulant capsule, and CL herbal extract that I put in water. I have to do take all of this before breakfast and before dinner. Still seems easy enough.

So the day comes and I’m ready – the first two days go well, and then I hit a snag on day 3….I hate my lunch, I HATE THE FOOD. Boooooooooooooooooo I want my Thai food, the pita pit, ohh a banana. I mean what am I doing taking something to stimulate my bile flow. Plus – I’m still waiting for the light to go off…something to tell me that I’m 10% detoxed, I’m 20% detox, today is day 5 and I should be 42% detoxed but I feel no different. Excuse me? Someone, anyone…what exactly is the point?

Isn’t life short enough, and do I really want to be prolonging my life by eating well and living to 94? I’m into reincarnation - I have another life waiting for me out there so I don’t need to/want to live until im 94.

All these 5 days have reinforced is that I am not interested in being a granola girl, w/ good cholesterol, stable blood pressure, healthy BMI or is it waist circumference (last year my MD went by BMI, but this year he went w/ waist circumference…I guess it’s the new trend…you know – what yoga was 12 years ago)….I’ve started this detox thing – so I’ll finish it…February 10th is the last day of this detox and for that I will be grateful.

So take that granola people – my body is my temple and I’ll pray to whatever gods I want, preferably the high glycemic, chocolate loving, alcohol swigging variety of gods – b/c I can.

My body is my temple…not a temple…MY temple.