{"id":6292,"date":"2015-04-02T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newvinegrowing.wordpress.com\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2019-06-07T13:38:09","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T17:38:09","slug":"resetting-my-eating-habits-with-a-cleanse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/resetting-my-eating-habits-with-a-cleanse\/","title":{"rendered":"Resetting my eating habits with a cleanse"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve had\u00a0an indulgent run these last few months. Mardi Gras season in New Orleans ended in late February, then blurred into March, when John and I both celebrate our birthdays with week-long festivals of enjoying what we love.
\nIt’s time to hit reset.
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\"veggie<\/a>
After a stretch of eating and drinking too indulgently, my diet is much heavier on fruits and veggies at the moment. This photo by twistedstringknits used under a Creative Commons license.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nLast year after we came home from Mardi Gras, when we appropriately ate and drank too much, we recalibrated with a three-week cleanse<\/a>. We abstained from sugar, refined flour, gluten, meat, dairy and alcohol, instead eating\u00a0lots of fresh fruits and veggies, with gluten-free grains like quinoa and legumes, following a meal plan with portion-controlled recipes.
\nThe restriction that concerned me most was giving up caffeine. I’d been drinking a cup or two of coffee a day for years, and much to my surprise, I did fine without it<\/a>.
\nA year later, our lifestyle shows some permanent changes, even though we’ve returned to a less austere lifestyle. Most mornings we\u00a0have a green smoothie<\/a> for breakfast, a big switch for a girl who always loved cereal, oatmeal and toast. When we make coffee at home, it’s one quarter caffeinated, three quarters decaf. Some of the cleanse recipes have earned a spot in our regular rotation, from a baked sweet potato topped with tangy kale slaw to pesto made with basil, nuts and kalamata olives.
\nIn New York, the word “diet” seems out of vogue, while everyone is doing a cleanse<\/a>. Some people might like the notion that it clears built-up toxins from their bodies. I don’t know about that, but I do like the idea of rebooting my diet.
\nHere’s what I liked about our three monastic weeks last year:<\/p>\n