On (and off) the wagon

It's all about the food here this week. After consuming grand quantities of oily meaty food and wine in Spain, and generally just overdoing it in the past month or so, I made the decision to start a two-week detox regime on Monday morning.

So: caffeine, booze, spices, dairy, flour, wheat, red meat except lamb, white rice, sugar and have I mentioned the booze? are all off the menu. This leaves tasty foods like rice milk, soy milk, rice crackers, soy yogurt, brown rice (are you seeing a pattern emerge here?), lots of fruit and vegetables, white meat, fish, dried fruits, pulses and a whole lotta water. Sample daily menu: rice milk and fruit for breakfast, home made carrot & coriander soup and rice cakes for lunch, small fruity/nutty snacks, and pan fried chicken and a massive pile of green veg for dinner. Plus about three litres of H2O.

The net effect so far (at least until half an hour ago when I caved and had a slice of a colleague's birthday cake) has been a loss of poundage, a surge of energy, and, less desirably, a frequent need to pee. I'm not sure how long I'll last on the full regime, but I'm definitely feeling the benefits of a less carb-heavy diet. I wasn't that unhealthy to begin with, but I'd given up resisting any and every foodie temptation that came my way.

Cutting out the booze also means no hangovers, which means no need to spend one's entire day in the foetal position on the sofa with one hand on the remote and the other alternating between a giant bag of tomato ketchup Lay's and our entire stash of chocolate mini eggs. Now, what to do with those regained hours...?