During

I think I've lost a few pounds. It's kind of hard to tell, because I have a Hello Kitty scale and while it's super cute, it's just not all that accurate. Yesterday morning I pushed it around with my foot to different places on the floor and weighed myself a few times just to make sure. It looks like I'm about four pounds down. This makes me happy. I would get a new scale that actually works well, but I'm not sure it's worth it. The scale belongs to the girl child. She got it for a birthday gift when she was ten or so. I immediately appropriated it and hid it under the bed. We would have none of that. The girl child doesn't really know how much she weighs, and I like that. I know how much I weigh though, and I don't particularly like that. I don't think I really want to have a scale in the house that works.

If you look online, you can find a bunch of blogs by people that are doing the same purification I'm doing. Most of them are way more organized than I am. Some of them actually post every day with pictures of their food. I don't have pictures today. My food just isn't exciting enough to take pictures of, although some of it has been pretty tasty. I've discovered that for the last couple of weeks, a lot of my time at home has been spent foraging for food. It's not like I've become a hunter/gatherer or something. I'm not doing paleo for crying out loud. It's just that I didn't plan ahead very well. I dove right into the purification, and while I have a lot of good, healthy things in the fridge, I didn't plan how they could go together to make meals. I've eaten a bowl of guacamole standing at the kitchen counter more than once. Not the best way to go about this. Next time, I'll be planning it all out ahead of time.

I've discovered that the incentive for staying on the plan for twenty-one days is in direct proportion to the amount of money I spent on the product. The Standard Process Purification Program cost me 200 bucks. Every time I pass that big bag of Cape Cod chips that my kids have left on the kitchen counter, I think, "Really? You're gonna blow $200 for a chip? I think not." And I pass it by. Which is not to say that I didn't cheat a couple of times. On Saturday, I cheated twice. With soup. Yeah, soup. I know what you're thinking. If I was gonna cheat, it would have been with something better than . . . soup. Well, probably, but that's what I wanted. It was cold out. The girl child was shooting a film for her digital video class, and I was the location van driver. And the craft truck caterer. And the set photographer. I deserved some soup. And a credit in the film. I'd better get a credit. Anyway, the only kinds they had were cream of tomato or chicken noodle. I figured the tomato was the lesser of two evils. Then, that evening, the girl child and the husband ordered Chinese food for dinner from a local takeout place. I got vegetable bean curd soup, and I took out the bean curd. What could be wrong with that? I found out about an hour later. Every joint in my body ached. My knee was killing me—I had to put a heating pad on it. And then I got the headache. It was all gone by the next morning, but I learned my lesson. When it comes time to re-introduce foods, I'm going to do it very slowly. There is definitely a connection here that I've been missing.

I'm not sure how much credit I should give to my change in diet and how much is due to my regular acupuncture treatments. I have had six in the last three weeks. I don't really care what's doing it, as long as it's working. And this weekend I'm adding a Feldenkrais class. A friend of mine teaches it locally and has a beginner class starting Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it. Look it up if you haven't heard of it before. It's very cool, and it works. It took some hunting, but I've also found a local place that has tai chi and and aqua tai chi at a time I can actually go. Aqua tai chi? Sounds uh, interesting, but I will give it a shot. Water exercise is good for people with limited movement. And the best part is, all of these classes are drop-ins. Because I have a commitment problem.

But, I think I will commit to this: I plan on doing the purification again. I think every January, to start the year off fresh. I actually feel pretty good. I even stopped taking the subway and started walking to the office from the bus again. OK, part of that has to do with the weather warming up slightly, but my knee doesn't hurt as much and I have more energy. One thing that's important to tell you is that I haven't gone hungry. Not in the least. I find the veg/fruit/shake combination very satisfying, and I don't need to snack. I was allowed meat for the first time yesterday, and it wasn't really all that tempting. Even the smell of bacon in the city in the morning isn't getting to me. I think that my body is telling me something. Not that I plan on becoming a vegetarian—I like a good steak or a burger. But perhaps I'll be cutting down on my intake. With all of these changes in habit, while my fibro symptoms are still there, the inflammation is less. My moods are better. I've been sleeping better. I may even have stopped snoring. I'll have to ask the folks on the bus.