and a week goes by

After churning out the blogs Claire and I got rather busy with real life. I guess that happens when you have friends in town for the weekend and you are organizing a three day trip, there and back, to Phoenix.

We finally finished up our detox diet last Monday, a week ago. We did have a splurge meal at Sushi Caliente to celebrate. We made it a light/sort of healthy meal though. You can read about it here. Anyways, both of us feel much better and can tell a noticeable difference when we eat "fatty" foods compared to when we stick with the diet's plan. After this weekend of eating out with friends, we both came away wanting to just eat vegetables. It's weird how that works. As of tomorrow we will have both gone 28 days without sodas, and for the most part without caffeine. If you knew either of us before we had a very high Diet Coke (Claire) and Dr. Pepper (Myself) consumption. We have challenged ourselves to stick as closely as possible to the diet, with a few splurges here and there. You can't just give up your favorite frozen yogurt place, MMMMM....Tomunchi. So far we have both lost some weight and I can't believe I am saying it but I would suggest the diet to anyone looking to feel better and have the extra benefit of losing weight. You can still cook great things like my own creation: eggplant stack. We used a chicken sausage from Whole Foods stuffed with spinach and feta. All you do is grill up your eggplant, cook the sausage, slice up some avocado, grill some thin strings of onions and stack it up. I served it along side some steamed broccoli and okra with crumbled feta on top and some candied pecans for a little bit of a sweet kick.


Claire also set out on a mission to re-organize our study closet. After visiting Ikea, twice, we had picked up enough organizational tools that she could get started. She set out on a weekend/week of organizing, sorting, adding new books, removing old magazines, and creating general destruction of our study floor. But in the end she did an amazing job and we now have a fully labeled and accessible closet. I am still of the opinion that Claire would make an amazing personal organizer for people.

After working most of the week Mark and Amanda came in town and we had the chance to relax and hang out. We ate at Kerby Lane, ate at Sprinkles (the arch-rival of Tomunchi) and we played Rock Band over at John and Sara Vershaw's apartment. It was a blast and who knew I could sing so well. Yesterday we had some free time after work and headed out to one of our favorite Austin parks with the dogs, Walnut Creek Park. We hiked around down in the creek bed, which, contrary to the picture below, is completely dry and barren due to the lack of rain this summer. Yet it made for a fun, 2ish mile hike as well as good exercise.


Brooke is coming into town this week and then we head out to phoenix for the weekend so hopefully we can get a few more updates in for you loyal readers about how exciting our suburban lives are.

vegetables = vegetables

The diet: woman’s daily challenge, man’s worst enemy, natures’ cruelest joke. Once upon a time men, women, children, and dogs ate what they wanted, they might have had a little extra meat on their bones, yet they stayed warm in the winter. They didn’t have organic eggs, soy milk, almond milk, all natural, unprocessed, and fat free foods. What they had was meat. Meat, potatoes, bread, and whole milk, and they were happy. Now fast forward 50-100 years and you enter the Patrick household.

Day 1, circa Sept. 9th 2008, there is no meat in sight, no milk, no beverages other than water and herbal tea. There is the option for vegetables with fruit or fruit with, you guessed it, vegetables. Mind you there are no sauces, salts, pre-made seasonings, ketchup, condiments, or moisture to be added to your vegetables either. You can put some tomato paste in with your squash and zucchini in hopes that all of it combined will create enough moisture to make it palatable.

Somehow, before this time of vegetables, my lovely wife convinced me to do a 21 day Detox diet with her. A lot of our friends have been doing different versions of the same diet and all have said they felt better afterward. Well, our eating habits aren’t necessarily poor, but they could be improved. So we thought we would give it a shot. Our main goal is to lose weight and feel better. My motivation is to support Claire, because I am a bad influence when it comes to food, and to get my blood pressure down. Claire’s goals are to lose weight, to cut out/back on caffeine, and feel better in a general health sense.

Just a quick run down on what we could eat day 1-10. We are allowed vegetables, fruits (berries, kiwis, lemons, limes, and granny smith apples only), some FEM supplement, almond milk, and nuts (No peanuts, however). Yeah, that’s it for 10 days. It’s fine the first 1-3 days. Then you get hungry. Then day 5-8 everything starts to taste the same. Day 9 and 10 you just decide you don’t want to eat because everything tastes the same. Keep in mind this is my perspective, not Claire’s. Day 11 precious, precious eggs become available in this torture we call a diet. Chicken, fish, lean and organic meats become available as well as goat & feta cheese. So maybe we can survive 10 more days with a little variety.

So to go along with everything tasting the same you have to come up with some creative cooking. Such as “Mushroom Pizza.” Maybe it looks appetizing and tastes decent, but it still comes out tasting like vegetables with more vegetables. When you eat veggies at a restaurant they are smothered in butter and salt. One tends not to think about this until you are on a unseasoned vegetable diet.

I say all this sarcastically, but really, it has been a good challenge for both of us. Many nights we talked about the foods we long for but so far have both been really good and only eaten what we are allowed. So the next 10 days with a little protein should be easy. As much as I enjoyed Claire cooking her vegetable stir fry,

I look forward to some fish and chicken. We both think we have lost about 7 pounds thus far. Neither of us have had any caffeine, salt, or meat. So maybe there is something to it. I am glad we have done it but can’t wait to go enjoy a cold Dr. Pepper and some enchiladas. 10 days to go. Wish us luck.