Day 18

Breakfast
Omelette
1 egg
onion, garlic, green pepper, cabbage

Lunch
Cauliflower, carrot and celery sticks
Hummus
Soaked almonds
(I was at the BYU Family History Library today)

Dinner
Butternut squash soup (unthawed from the freezer)
to which I added curry paste and grated ginger
Shelled nuts

I got on the scales this morning and was very happy to see that I have lost another 5 pounds. That is 13 pounds in all these past 18 days. That is seriously awesome. I am so glad for this experience if for nothing else, it got me back to eating more vegetables and getting away from the breads and butter (popcorn mostly). I know want to follow a more vegan diet and try to eat 70% of my diet raw foods. I feel so much better when I eat this way.

I am way excited to have a fruit smoothie tomorrow. I went grocery shopping early this morning on the way to BYU and bought soy yogurt, strawberries, bananas, oranges, tangelos, and granola. For now I am going to try and stay away from bread. I want to eat whole grain muffins (which I baked yesterday morning) and tortillas which I want to start making from scratch. I need to experiment and get a good recipe that will work. The only problem is that from everyone I have spoken with you cannot get a good homemade tortilla without using white flour....about 50/50. Once I get started on bread, I get addicted to it and eat too much, so that is why I want to not have any around.

I just could not decide what to make with the chicken I took out of the freezer this morning before I left. I asked Dennis and he said he would rather have tomato soup. I made him tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. I found some butternut squash I had made sometime in the past and decided that was easy.

I DID IT! I finished the whole 18 days and survived to tell about it. I feel better that I have in over a year. Since I don't have any real way of knowing if this was a successful cleanse or not, I just have to have faith that it worked and my body will now start to absorb the nutrients it really needs, especially the calcium.