My second challenge is also based on a book: 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker. (Challenge #1 was also based on a book: The 30-Day Vegan Challenge.)
In this book, Ms. Walker shares her struggles of dealing with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that strikes with flare-ups and can be debilitating--symptoms include loss of balance, no muscle control, and severe pain, and recovery from addiction.
Although MS has not affected me or anyone I'm close to personally, this book still struck me (in fact, when I finished, I ordered two copies to send to friends). Ms. Walker's spiritual advisor prescribes her an interesting medication: 29 gifts in 29 days. The effort leads the author to rediscover the joy of helping others, the positive feeling that comes from focusing on more than one's own life, and reminds her of just how fortunate she is.
I think we all need those reminders.
I'll give a more thorough review of the book later, but that's my goal for Challenge #2: 30 gifts in 30 days.
I will follow the book's guidelines, join the 29-Day-Giving-Challenge website, and give a gift (we'll define that further) every day from 1 to 30 January.
While I considered making this my first challenge for December 2011, I thought it would be more beneficial to do it AFTER the Christmas season. In December, many are focused on giving and sharing, but by January, focus usually shifts to paying the bills, recovering from the holidays, and personal goals for the new year. I don't want my focus to shift--I want to become even more focused on giving...and I'm curious to see where that leads me.
Pick up the book, check out the website, follow my journey, and join me in a challenge that shouldn't really be a challenge--give to others.
As I mentioned in last night's post, one of Sarah Taylor's recommendations for becoming vegan was to take a 24-hour "fruit and veggie cleanse" where, for 24 hours, all you eat is fresh organic raw fruits and vegetables. Some flavoring and some cooking is okay, but she wants us to stay as raw as possible.
So, I'm almost done with my 24 hours...and I have to say I'm glad it's almost over. It was much harder than I expected--not so much that I was hungry, but I really had cravings. I said yesterday that I wasn't really sure what the point of the cleanse was; I know at least one benefit I got from it--I realize just how dependent I am on grains, sweets, and "other stuff."
What did I eat? Below is everything I put in my body today (aside from water)--everything (except for the teas, of course) was homemade...
Breakfast: Banana, Green Tea, Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup (with flax seed)
Snack: Apple
Lunch: Sesame Kale & Onions
Snack: Tomato, Celery, & Cucumber Salad (with some olive oil & balsamic vinegar), Peppermint Tea
Dinner: Mixed Greens & Mushroom Salad (with some homemade mustard maple dressing)
Snack: Fruit Salad, Peach Detox Tea
I hope to now be a bit more conscious of just how much "stuff" I eat aside from fruit and veggies. While I know that grains, fats, and other things all need to be present in a healthy diet, I didn't realize quite how much they were a part of my daily intake...
I'm thinking about taking this cleanse one day a week to continually remind myself, but I'm not going to make that commitment quite yet...
Back on Day Three of Vegan in 30 Days (which I am also reading every day of this journey), Sarah Taylor recommended that readers take a 24-hour fruit and vegetable cleanse--basically, for 24 hours, all you eat is fruit and vegetables--no grains, no oils, etc. "Ideally, you will eat only organic raw fruits and veggies in their whole, natural form. If you must, you can make a hot dish, as long as all the ingredients are fresh fruits and veggies."
Granted, as I was reading this suggestion I was already eating my bowl of cereal with almond milk, so I decided Day Three was not the day for me to start my 24 hour cleanse. :) Then, of course, I had to finish my yummy vegan nachos, so tomorrow, Day 7, I will be doing my 24 hour fruit and veg cleanse.
I have a fruit salad already prepared, carrots peeled, a tomato, celery, & cucumber salad prepared and a bowl of my sweet potato and carrot soup to warm me up half way through the day (probably overcooked for her taste, but I'm okay with that).
My only concern is that Ms. Taylor doesn't really say WHY this cleanse is helpful--my guess is that it has to do with giving your body a full 24 hours of only easy-to-digest food to give your body a chance to break down what's inside and, well, cleanse. I also wonder if it has to do with cleansing your palate and showing you that it really is possible to survive without "extra" stuff.
I'll let you know how it goes!
