The thing about alcohol

I walked into our conferences and special events department yesterday to ask how many participants would be at tomorrow's conference and I couldn't find my regular go-to person. I went to ask this other girl I knew. She was in her cubicle speaking with another co-worker I barely know. Her first question was "are you still drinking juice?". I think the last time I saw her was around day 30. I told her that I am in fact, still drinking juice but that my juice-feast was over, having completed the entire 92 days. She was dumbfounded. The other girl, had no idea what we were talking about. My friend proceeded to tell her how I "lived on juice" for 92 days with no solid food.

"Well I couldn't do that! I wouldn't last a day! Is beer allowed on this diet?"

I thought to myself; what part of DETOX do you not understand exactly? That's like someone saying to me "I'm going to rehab for my cocaine addiction" and saying "Oh... so are you allowed heroin at this rehab centre?"

Sigh. Nonetheless, I patiently and lovingly explained that the idea was to cleanse the body and consequently, only juice (of the non-alcoholic variety) is allowed.

"Could you imagine 3 months without beer? I wouldn't last a week!"

Now, I have had a love-hate relationship with alcohol. When I was younger, my dad was an alcoholic and that was pretty rough. When I turned 8, he went to AA and never drank a sip of alcohol from that point onwards. Not even a rum-filled chocolate. Not one drop.

I'm incredibly proud of my father. Each year, on February 13th, the day he quit drinking, we celebrate this day and buy him a cake and congratulate him.

During my teen years, most of my friends would drink. I mean... we were 14-15 years old and while this didn't seem like an issue to anyone.... it was to me. I was vehemently opposed to drinking (as per the experience above!). I wanted no part of it. I was convinced that a sip of that stuff could turn me into an violent alcoholic. I distinctly remember, on my prom night, as everyone was leaving for the "after-party" to go drink (I was 15) my parents offering to drive me to the after party and buy me alcohol. In front of all of my friends, I yelled at my parents "NO!" that I didn't want to go and I never wanted to drink. The other parents thought this was amusing because they were trying to convince their children NOT to go to the after-party.

Later, while in college... I relaxed my values a bit and had my first sip of alcohol at 17. I realized at that point that one could drink without having a drinking problem. I became fond of martinis and would drink once in a while. I would usually drink once or twice a month; but I would drink to the point of getting really drunk. This went on for some time until I became a flight attendant; drinking was part of the lifestyle. You landed at the destination, you had a nap and you joined the captain and crew for 'happy hour' in the hotel bar. If you had a longer layover; you'd go out drinking. You'd buy bottles of wine and drink in each other's hotel rooms. Drink drink drink.

The psoriasis worsened during this time. A year or so into my flight attendant career, I discovered the Pagano diet. In true Ben fashion, I dove into it 100%. As my massage therapist likes to say, "when you decide you're going to do something, you do it!". Part of the pagano diet involved quitting smoking and quitting drinking. This also meant I could only eat certain foods in certain places. Seeing as flight attendants were very fond of pubs (and I would usually follow and have french fries or whatever else I could find on the menu that "happened" to be vegan) this meant I bought my healthy food at Marks & Spencer (they had the best edamame salad!) and ate in my hotel room. I stopped "going out" and I stopped going to happy hour. I became more solitary. I realized just how shallow the people I worked with truly were. Without the vale of drunkeness to sink me to their level... I started to see things more clearly; the gossip, the 'cliques'. I was no longer in the 'in-crowd'.

I seldom used to drink before juice feasting. Once every three months, I would perhaps have a glass of Valpolicella or Masi... or even a Cabernet Sauvignon on occasion. Before the Pagano diet; I used to LOVE my cosmopolitans. Loved vodka. Never liked beer (the smell brought back bad memories from childhood).

Since juice feasting, I can honestly say I have no cravings for alcohol. It seems alien to me, why someone would want to do that kind of damage to their bodies. I'm not saying I will never drink again.... I may have a a glass of red wine in the future... but I think the once-every-three-months thing will become a once-a-year thing. I definitely will not be drinking to the point of drunkenness ever again.

I notice some raw-foodists tend to count certain wines as raw food. Is it one of those things that we turn a blind eye to like nama shoyu, maple syrup, etc? I mean, surely the alcohol would negate any benefits that wine has been proven to have? I'm curious of everyone's opinion on this.

Do you believe wine has a place in a raw food diet?



Today, in Ben's tummy:

1L water+lemon
1/2 watermelon
1 Intestinal movement cap
2 probiotics
1 leaky gut formula
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1.5L Sarma's cilantro shake - I missed this smoothie SO MUCH... I used to hate the taste... now I'm addicted! I made mine with a fresh vanilla bean instead of v-extract
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flax crackers
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Salad: Arugula/pear/currants/pumpkin seeds + sweet grapefruit dressing
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Fruit salad - Pineapple, Strawberry, blackberry, goji berries, dried figs
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flax crackers
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Zucchini pasta + pesto (mmm leftovers!)
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1.5L Grapefruit/Orange/Acai
Enzymes


That's all I have to report for today I'm afraid. I was happy to read from everyone's comments that a lot of you had heard of Louise Hay. I'm just overwhelmed by her teachings right now. It's so marvelous. I have loaded her audio-books into my ipod and I play them on my way to work, I play them while I work and I play them when I get home. I play them while I sleep. I play them when I get up in the morning. If nothing else, at least it's flooding my subconscious with positive messages. I definitely feel lighter and more loving and compassionate lately. :)

Lots of love,

- Ben