water.jpgCleaning. That is an excellent thing to do to your house, bike, car and your inner/outer self. I find an art in the act of cleaning. Just like a ball of unformed clay, what you start with is always beautified and improved with a little effort. It has potential of being like night and day when you are finished.
I recently decided to clean myself out. That involved eliminating certain foods from my diet and consuming some additional calories and minerals via a metagenics powder. That is a certain type of powder that some people don’t approve of but some people love. I personally have no problem with this powder but the people that were joining me did not have a good experience. It was causing some serious pains in the stomach and disturbing the digestive system. That is not a good sign and has happened to other people, that is just time to call it quits.
It was an ideal time to take a break from some of the excessive consumption of certain items. Things such as caffeine, dairy, alcohol, wheat and whatever else you feel would be good to walk away from. There are plenty of foods to continue eating that are not as straining on the system to process. All the greens and produce you want, no need to feel weak and hungry. Obviously you are going to have an initial stress on the body because it is confused and may have a harder time functioning. Keep up with the daily vitamin and drink plenty of water like always, and you should feel fine. This is something that is best done over a weekend and for as long as you would like. Weekends are good because it may be your days off, or do it on the days that you get off.
It felt refreshing and made me test my strength. It makes you think more about your food selections and appreciate them more. I am currently reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It has motivated me to support one of the local farm shares in Pittsburgh. It is 5 or 6 months of locally grown produce that you get once a week and you could pay anywhere between $20-30/week. Not so bad for fresh veggies that last in the refrigerator for a week or more. I believe it was the fact from the book stating that if every American ate locally farmed veggies or meats once a week it would save the country 1.1 million barrels of oil a week. WOW. That pushed me over the edge. It is interesting that daily commuters get so much grief for driving when there are many other excessive uses of oil in our country. Lets just keep riding our bikes. That will make a small difference and keep us happy.