Firebelly Design

January 04, 2010 by Brandon Weiss

A while ago I watched a fantastic TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert about creative genius and the way it used to be perceived compared to how it’s perceived now. Here it is:

I’d actually forgotten about it until I came across a blog post by Seth Godin quoting Diablo Cody on the pressure to outdo herself.

Then I forgot about that too until today when I remembered and figured I should post it before I forget again.

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November 13, 2009 by Dawn Hancock

Today marks day 26 of my 28 day cleanse (and day 5 of the 7 day fast).

In the beginning I didn't want anyone to know what I was doing (just in case it didn't work, although honestly I'm not sure if I knew what  I wanted to happen)... but as time has progressed I feel like I need to tell everyone. It has been quite an amazing experience actually.

I'm doing my cleanse through a class at Cousin's restaurant. If you aren't familiar with them, they are an all raw restaurant similar to Karyn's or Borrowed Earth Cafe, although much of their food has a Turkish twist.

So the past 4 weeks I've seen a friend lose 25 lbs and gain back her self-esteem and all of my girlfriend's health issues disappear (poor circulation leading to freezing hands/feet, yet sweating at the same time–gone!, sinuses that have been blocked her entire life, literally, totally clear + able to smell things she never has before, bloodsugar levels have regulated and she isn't starving and angry every couple hours (even on one meal a day), and her skin is glowing). Personally I have lost weight (not sure exactly how much because I don't weigh myself, but feels like at leaset one full size smaller), my skin is super soft and smooth and most importantly, I haven't had a headache the entire time. As someone who pops Excedrin like they're M & M's that's pretty amazing.

Who would have thought a raw diet could make this much of an impact. Not to mention how much energy I have given that I haven't eaten for the last 5 days and prior to that I was pretty much eating 1 meal spread out over the course of a day. It blows my mind.

I will say it hasn't been easy. Last week was maybe the toughest. All I did was fantacize about eating a pizza. Just a plain cheese pizza. And it wasn't that I was hungry even. I could just taste it in my mouth... even now, with 2 days left it is so hard to smell food cooking. I just had to stop over at my friend Naomi's shop Tipsy Cake to place an order for our holiday party and man was that a killer. Not only all the amazing treats sitting out to taste, but the smell of a cake baking... isn't that how they sell homes! OMG. Will Power!

So I will suggest to anyone out there, do a cleanse at least once or twice a year. It will recharge you in ways you didn't even realize you needed. Plus it's a great opportunity to show yourself that you are capable of doing things most would see as impossible, like not eating for an entire week. I've heard many folks talk about the Master Cleanse which is a 10 day water, lemon, maple syrup and cayanne fast. Not too many people I know have had much success with that. I think a longer more controlled detox where every week you are lessening the amount of food you're eating in preperation for a week long fast seems to have more success stories.

If you're interested in a class type program, both Cousin's and Karyn's are great places to go. If you would like to do it on your own, I'd recommend buying the cleanse kit we used in our class and following their program. It's also incredibly useful to have a good juicer, because you will certainly need it.

2 more days left and I'm still not sure what I am going to do. I feel so good that I don't want to go back to eating garbage again, at least not like I was. I think I'm going to shoot for all of my meals to be 70% raw and as much organic as possible. It's all about eating alkalizing foods after all. Here's to healthy eating!

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