B and I are participating in a week long cleanse of sorts next week. Well that's not quite right. For me it's basically going to be "body, let's see exactly how many gross vegetables you can stand." Basically we're going to be eating something like an 85% vegetarian (and mostly vegan) diet. Kids if you just knew how strange that sentence sounds in reference to me. A few weeks ago we both decided to stop eating so much bad crap and start eating significantly better. Which is to say, start actually paying attention to what we're eating instead of just "what do I feel like cooking or buying or snacking on in this moment." So in this time we've significantly cut down sweet things, Cokes, red meat, heavy sauces for pastas, etc and eaten a lot more lean protein, soy based foods and a ton more fruits and vegetables and made water and fruit juices our primary beverages. So yay us.

Part of the addiction to sugar and carbs and sweet things that so many us find ourselves in is that we're so used to it and they're so much more easily accessible than other things. I mean it's easier to have a bowl of fruit loops in the morning than it is to make a fruit smoothie with soy milk, fresh and frozen fruit and ice. Now is it a real burden to throw soy milk, fruit and ice into a blender and then pour it into a glass? No, but at 7:00 in the morning the easiest path to a full belly is the one most of us are going to take even if the path is only nominally easier. So having no fruit loops in the house goes a long way toward better eating habits but so does actually having good fruits and vegetables. Last week I bought more fruits and vegetables at the grocery than I think I have in the past 6 months combined. This makes it sound like B and I just eat a horrible diet but truthfully I think it's on the good side of the average American diet. Meaning that we had our share of burgers and fries but lots of our default meals were relatively healthy concoctions of rice or pasta with veggies, we only eat boneless & skinless chicken breasts, and skim milk is the only dairy milk we buy. Does this mean that our diet was actually good and healthy? No, it's just means that if you look at what the average American household eats we weren't doing so bad. Except that we were.

Another part of the addiction to bad foods is the fact that frequency breeds familiarity and love. Meaning the more often you have a sweet, delicious ice cold Coke the better the next one tastes. Or to put it another way, you remember how much you love fried globs of dough more passionately if you had them yesterday than if you had them three weeks ago. So the week of the mostly vegan diet is to put some space between us and some of the things that we currently love/are addicted to/whatever. Also it'll be a shock to the system (mine anyways B has always eaten many more fruits and vegetables than I) and I suspect that's good to do from time to time.

Truthfully I don't expect this little project to be much fun. I anticipate on Wednesday I'm going to really want a hamburger and a Coke. I'll probably have a headache and be really cranky too. However, I'm committed to seeing it through for two reasons. One, I've been emotionally building up to changing my lifestyle significantly for a while. It sounds silly that one should have to build up but if one is me then one does. My eating and activity habits need a huge shakeup to make me able to do some of the things I want to do in my life, including being one of those crazy photographers running to and fro all the time. I think this week long cleanse is a really good next step in my lifestyle changing process. Two, I need a project that challenges me and that I can have success in since I'm feeling pretty shitty about myself and my failures in light of my current employment/making a living situation. So I'm seeing this thing to whether I want to or not because I need to doing something hard and have success at just to remind myself that I'm not a complete and total failure. Wish me luck.

I've been scouring the internet for vegan recipes and you know what? Most vegan organizations really don't care about your health. OK that sounds harsh but most of them are about using fake meat and include lots of frying. They also use something called "nutritional yeast" which freaks me out more than a little. I was all ready for elaborate vegetable dishes with tofu and spices but found lots of fried gluten recipes instead. To be fair there are healthy vegan recipes out there but for the most part it looks like vegan organizations think that making people not miss meat is the way to go instead of helping them fall more in love with fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables.

A huge help to me in this area then has been Vegan Lunch Box. It's a Mom's constant documentary of the vegan food she packs in her little son's lunch box. Since I have the tastes and food issues of a five year old this works perfectly for me. Seriously. When she talks about his issues with salads and tomatoes, I'm so with him.

Another great inspiration has been Ariel's annotated Mr. Bento lunches. I hate tomato soup so she and I have to part ways there but her fruit combinations, gratins, oat recipes, etc have all been helpful.

Any good vegetarian/vegan recipes you'd like to share or good vegan food porn sites I should look at? Share the veggie wealth here people (I'm looking at you Dru).

Watch this spot next week for a planed day by day photo diary of the nambiness that I'm eating.