Himself and I decided to do a body reboot and eat a plant-based diet for 22 days in June. Preparing food that we never ate before, with no expectations, may actually introduce new interesting eating habits. I also needed to improve upon my two signature meals – both really excellent...
The plan, which you do for 22 days consists of no meat, no fish, no eggs, no soy, no gluten, no wheat no coffee no sugar and definitely no alcohol.. and therefore no socializing either! Beyoncé and Jay Z did it a few years back and sure didn’t she look gorgeous in her Gúna* at the Met Fashion Gala, recently in New York - you know the one she wore with more skin than dress. I wont be looking (ever) to wear one of those dresses but, I was sure I could give this diet a go - as becoming a few pounds lighter will never be a bad thing ever! A faint glimpse of Beyoncé and her hubby sitting down to a meal prepared by a private chef did slip into my mind, but i mentally scrubbed it away. I CAN and WILL do this!
A little background first. Himself has pretty much cooked most meals in our home since we started dating. You see this ridiculously talented Frenchman can cook anything, and I can clean anything... or at least that is how it works in our home, I shop the food, he cooks it and I clean up afterwards. This sort of happened as I didn't want advice when cooking! It works! Truthfully though, I will admit to being slightly annoyed once or twice when having guests over, as Himself gets all the praise for the “wonderful meal!” Don’t get me wrong I am praising him as much as my guests are. I mean who ever praises those washing and chopping vegetables and once guests have left, scrubbing out the dirty pans & dishes and endless wine glasses (which can never be put into the dishwasher). You get the picture.
So this is why I insisted on telling Himself: "I am going to cook every meal for the next 22 days. You wont have to clean up afterwards either!” I wanted the Hubby’s birthday celebration, (day four of the diet), to be a celebration of food, that he would remember for years to come! I also realize that this could also create memories of the wrong kind..
Marco Borges's New York Times best selling book arrived in the post and I set about the food shopping as per the shopping plan. I was wondering about the portions as strangely for a diet book, it didn’t say if the recipe was for one person, two or four.. Odd that, but No worries I would figure it out...this is going to be great! I announced it on Facebook and warned friends to please avoid putting up photos of food of any kind. I put it out there. With FB encouragement from my friends such as: “Good for you”; "Easy peasy"; “You’re a much stronger person than me, you can do it!”, and...“Effectively on a no food diet..” I knew I had to follow through as they are going to be following my progress.
I did a Futurization Sophrology exercise. This entails visualizing the diet plan already as a success, and then looking at the steps going from success to the beginning of the diet. Rather than look at the steps to achieve, I worked backwards from having achieved them. I feel very confident going into this and even though there will be obstacles which I will write here I have no doubt of its success!
*Guna = Gaelic for dress