Alcohol & detoxing
Feb. 23rd, 2004 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julietFinal booze tally for last week: somewhere around 35 units (based on: 15.5 from Monday-Thurs, cheers ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
boyofbadgers, 2 pints nice beer Friday night = c. 5u, around 5 decent-size vodkas Friday night = c 7u (I don't pour 'em that large), 1 bottle Old Brewery Sat night = c.2.5u, 3 glasses wine Sat night = c. 4.5u). Gosh.
What with that, & reading the Vegan Society magazine this morning at work, which has a thing about detoxing, I am thinking that a few weeks of mild detoxing might be a plan. I've been feeling mentally not at my best recently, & whilst I am fully aware of the causes of that, being in physically better condition might help with dealing with them. Also at least I get to feel all virtuous & stuff :-) Though I do not plan to do this in a dramatic sort of way - more a minimising of the bad stuff & maximising of the good stuff.
Veg Soc list to avoid:
Things to have lots of:
Can anyone recommend a decent herbal tea? Camomile is OK, but not great in the morning cos of the sleepiness.catsgomiaow, didn't you try detoxing a while back?
I need a FOOD icon, I do.
[0] I am also thinking that if I avoid booze altogether for a couple of weeks, I will get out of the habit of drinking in pubs etc, & thus may drink a bit less when I start drinking again. Maybe.
boyofbadgers, 2 pints nice beer Friday night = c. 5u, around 5 decent-size vodkas Friday night = c 7u (I don't pour 'em that large), 1 bottle Old Brewery Sat night = c.2.5u, 3 glasses wine Sat night = c. 4.5u). Gosh. What with that, & reading the Vegan Society magazine this morning at work, which has a thing about detoxing, I am thinking that a few weeks of mild detoxing might be a plan. I've been feeling mentally not at my best recently, & whilst I am fully aware of the causes of that, being in physically better condition might help with dealing with them. Also at least I get to feel all virtuous & stuff :-) Though I do not plan to do this in a dramatic sort of way - more a minimising of the bad stuff & maximising of the good stuff.
Veg Soc list to avoid:
- Coffee/tea/alcohol/fizzy drinks - can do that, & intend to cut these entirely for a couple of weeks. Fruit juice instead of Pepsi in pubs.[0]
- Additives/preservatives/pesticides - well, our veg is organic, & I don't really eat prepared foods.
- Tap water - bugger off, nothing wrong with London tap water.
- Meat/dairy/eggs/animal fats - vegan!
- Processed foods - see above, don't really eat any. Avoid the crisps, I guess.
- Fried foods - erm. Olive oil doesn't count, surely? Sod that, good oils are good for you.
- Wheat - hahahahaha [falls over laughing]. Everyone *knows* what happens to me when I don't get regular carbs, & pasta is a standard source. I will, however, try having rye bread for lunch, & porridge for breakfast, instead of regular bread, for a bit.
- Sugar - oh well, no caffeine = no chocolate anyway, I suppose. Bah.
- Salt - ignoring this as well. You need a certain amount of salt; I don't eat much prepared food; so I'm not going to worry. Avoid the hula hoops, though, I guess.
- Excess potatoes & bananas (more than twice a week) - bah! Mind you, actually if I have fewer pub lunches (i.e. chips), this isn't that bad on the potato front - we don't eat them *that* often. Bananas, now... hrm. I suppose apples & satsumas & such are a tolerable replacement.
- Peanuts - urgh, ick.
- Environmental toxins such as cleaning products - Pete just *isn't* going to buy this ;-) (though we do use Ecover anyway)
Things to have lots of:
- Hot water with lemon & ginger first thing [urgh]; 6-8 glasses water [do that already]; herbal/fruit teas [see below]; fresh juice, mostly vegetables [piss off, I shall stick with my orange juice].
- Fruit & veg! - yay.
- Herbs! - again yay.
- Beans - tofu etc, also sprouts. I shall try sprouting things, seeds are quite cheap.
- Molasses & blue-green algae - ye-es. This is the sort of thing you acquire at health food shops for obscene amounts of money, isn't it? If I had obscene amounts of money I would buy a Treo 600, not sodding algae. Rye bread is expensive enough.
- Seeds & nuts - well, not nuts. Hate nuts. Seeds are nice. I shall roast some mixed seeds again, mmm.
- Grains (brown rice, millet, whole rye bread, oat bran) - dunno about millet, but brown rice & rye bread doable.
Can anyone recommend a decent herbal tea? Camomile is OK, but not great in the morning cos of the sleepiness.
catsgomiaow, didn't you try detoxing a while back?I need a FOOD icon, I do.
[0] I am also thinking that if I avoid booze altogether for a couple of weeks, I will get out of the habit of drinking in pubs etc, & thus may drink a bit less when I start drinking again. Maybe.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 02:15 pm (UTC)I'm going to follow that Vegan magazine thing for a while too i think... i'm sure i must have topped 30 units last week (20 of them babycham ugh)
Excellent herbal teas are: Peppermint (pretty good for waking you up in the a.m.), Dr Stewart's Elderflower & Lemon (mmm i love elderflower, but you have to let it infuse for about 5 mins), and there's a lovely one from holland & barrett which has fennel and rosehips in it - i'll look it up for you next time i go as i've forgotten which one it is!
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 02:30 pm (UTC)Not sure about fennel & rosehips. Might give peppermint & the lemon/elderflower one a go. Also ISTR there is a herbal tea you can get that involves blackberries; shall investigate. The trouble is, I want to buy only one or two bags of various things to investigate before buying an entire box, & I'm not sure you can. Bah.
Alfafa: right, shall get the organic people to deliver some. Hey, you can sprout lentils, too, can't you? Mmmm lentils.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 02:15 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 02:48 pm (UTC)HELP
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 03:58 pm (UTC)You just soak the beans (about 6 hrs for alfalfa, 12 hours for other beans), drain and then leave in a sunny-ish place in a JAR. you then have to rinse and drain them thoroughly twice a day until SPROUTS appear (usu. a couple of days) and then EAT them! (you can keep them in the fridge for a bit once they've sprouted)! Yum! :)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 02:20 pm (UTC)I want a TEAPOT, as I sense THAT is the urgent and key part in preventing all 'erbal teas from tasting like sox.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 02:26 pm (UTC)However, it broke very tidily into 2 pieces, so I am going to have a bash at fixing it with proper china glue. Must go to hardware shop....
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 02:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 02:38 pm (UTC)But then, so is Lemon and Ginger. :-)
And if you're feeling adventurous, try Yogi Men's Tea. It's got all sorts of spicy goodness in!
no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 05:11 pm (UTC)Hundreds! Ones I particularly like:
Then there are lots of weird combination-of-flavours ones which I like, and can never remember the names of because they're called things like "Yogic Calming Tea" or "Aura-Enhancing Tea". Most of the ones I like are produced by (I think) Yogi Tea.
If you like I can post you a selection of sample teabags!
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 05:17 pm (UTC)Oh wow. That would be *amazingly* ace of you, if you really would? Cor.
Gosh, I am feeling virtuous *already* & I haven't really started yet ;-) (on the other hand I am feeling somewhat less virtuous as I have spent significantly more time today reading about, e.g., sprouting things, & discovering New Stuff on the organic delivery website, than I have, e.g., doing Work. Oops.)
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 05:39 pm (UTC)Oh, yeah, I did remember the name correctly for Yogi Tea. Unfortunately the "send for free samples" on the website only works in the USA, damn. Ones I particularly like from them are "Breathe Deep" and "Egyptian Liquorice" tea.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 08:28 pm (UTC)no alcohol
no caffeine
no chocolate
no ice cream
no cheese
no cigarettes
no milkshakes (to avoid the obvious ice cream alternative)
the last two aren't a big deal at all because i hardly ever consume them anyway, and i reckon the others will be easy after i am over the two days of caffeine headaches.
i reckon it will be easy.
hibiscus/rosehip is by far the best of those teas recommended.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 11:53 pm (UTC)As for avoiding wheat, but keeping your carbs intake up, its something I have to do pretty much all of the time :) I normally eat lots and lots of rice instead... which is also good under most detox diets. Not so good for eating during the day without access to a kitchen or microwave. That said, TryFree do a range of snack pots - one of which is a rice/lentil mix - which are not only wheat/gluten free, but vegan as well. Just add hot water and leave for 5 minutes.
Also be careful of rye bread - quite a lot isn't pure rye, but has wheat mixed in as well. I normally go for a "pure rye" or the Rossisky and Borodinsky breads from The Village Bakery (http://www.village-bakery.com/)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-01 10:39 am (UTC)Yes, I figured you'd know about the carbs :-) I do in fact have kitchen/microwave access during the daytime here, which is handy. I did like that snack pot thingy, I may keep an eye out for them (trouble is, I am *broke* atm, so possibly I should just cook my own damn rice & lentils...).
Managed to acquire pure rye bread this morning from the bakery. It weighs about 9 million tons. I shall see how it goes with tomorrow's sandwiches...
no subject
Date: 2004-03-01 11:20 am (UTC)Pure rye bread is lovely, but as you say it is on the dense side and really tests bread knifes and teeth! However it does fill you up nicely which is good. For sandwiches I'd slice it quite thinly.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-24 06:17 pm (UTC)Might I recommend peppermint-and-liquorice tea