Day 4

It's dinner time on day 5 and I just don't feel like preparing. So I'm snacking on a carrot and brazil nuts, and I'l probably just leave it at that.

Today for the first time since beginning the cleanse I am feeling something that could be detox - a mild but annoying headache, tiredness, and a general lethargy. It could also be because I haven't drunk as much water today as I have on the previous days of the cleanse. I'm feeling generally quite 'blah'.

I have, however, once again really enjoyed the food on today's menu. The breakfast smoothie (banana, orange and strawberries) was amazing - my husband thought so too. He's enjoying the food on this cleanse as much as I am! One of my favourite friends visited for lunch. I served the raw pate with vegetable sticks and it was great! I also cooked eggs for my friend and my son, and served bread and cheese, and didn't have the slightest desire to have any myself. Later, when we went for a walk and stopped for coffee, I would have loved a hot chocolate but went for a lukewarm tea - it was lovely and as soon as I tasted it I was glad I'd got that instead of cheating with a hot chocolate. Hot chocolate/coffee breaks are one of those habits that I aim to change - if I swap them for sun tea than I'm a healthier happier lass!

Exercise-wise I have been struggling with this 'flat' feeling so I did some stretching and yoga poses, which always make me feel great and so much 'lighter'.

Oooooh I'm so tired. I really really want to lunge into the kitchen right now and eat great mouthfuls of hommus and bread, sultanas and nuts, to cheer myself up and give me that warm, satiated, overstuffed feeling. But I'm just keeping myself at my computer and keeping typing and in a minute I'll have a nice warm shower, and another big glass of water, and soon I'll feel fine again. I'm shutting my mind on thoughts of any of the behaviours that I want to avoid.

Today's happiness exercise is directed exactly at developing behaviours and habits that combat compulsive eating, so I think the way I'm feeling must be typical of day 4, and the exercise has been assigned with that in mind. What a happy thought that is! Help and friendly advice just when I need it :-)

For our journal exercise today we need to list favourite things. I don't generally pick favourites. I love so many things, in different ways and for different reasons, that picking just one seems inaccurate and overly simplistic. Like choosing favourites between my children - impossible! But I did this cleanse to be challenged so why not give the 'favourties' exercise a go? In the understanding, of course, that my choices reflect only how I feel in this moment right now:

My favourite music: Swing jazz.
My favourite books: Beautifully illustrated books about interior design.
My favourite films: Foreign-language ones on tv - the ones that make it onto tv in Australia are all fantastic.
My favourite places: Mountain ranges far removed from human settlement.
My favourite other things: Massages. Keeping going during a hard interval of running or cycling. My children's kisses.