just five days

Although the cleanse is 21 days, I have been thinking about it in shorter goals. My sister taught me her method of dealing with running hills: thirds. She picks a landmark a third of the way up, two thirds, then at the top, and just concentrates on making it to one landmark at a time. Breaking up a seemingly undaunting task makes it manageable, and concentrating on a part rather than the whole keeps you from getting overwhelmed.

With the cleanse, I have picked five days as my first landmark. Because in the marathon training book I’m reading it says, If you tend to eat an abundance of junk food, keep in mind that you only need a few days to change your food cravings. If you can replace your cream-filled pastries, white bread, and processed meats with fresh fruits and vegetables, rich whole grains,and lean meats and seafood for just a week or so, your craving for your old diet will disappear. You just have to make it through about 5 days. 

So I keep telling myself, just make it through five days. Will my longing for LeMar’s donuts really disappear? That is unlikely, but I did drive around without any desire to pull into a drive-thru today. I just went to HyVee and loaded up on veggies and came home and made that delicious gluten-free pasta salad I’ve been thinking about.  So at least we’re moving in the right direction. Of course, it helped that LeMar’s was on the opposite side of town.