Ok so, you guys? I am such an idiot sometimes. Like, OH MY GOD HOW DID I MAKE IT THIS FAR IN LIFE dumb. I am so drill sergeant hardcore no deviating EVER super duper strict on this diet and it turns out that, um, I don’t need to be quite such a tightass. I mean, I guess it’s good that I was all of the above the first time I went through it – so if you’re gonna, do as I did THEN, pls – because it gave me the truest sense of just how clean and lean and mean machine I could be.

But. Let’s say it’s late in the first day of your big intenso purification diet thinger, and you think O NOES am I getting that horrible flu that everyone else has gotten? What will I do? I can’t have soup! IT IS NOT ON THE OFFICIAL LIST OF FOODS. So you eat other stuff, none of which is nearly as satisfying as soup would be. Especially soup with sizzling rice in it. Or soup with wontons or soup that resembles pho. But then you’re informed, by a very smart person, that you can in fact have soup. Just no noodles. Or sizzly rice bits. And obviously no sugar or dairy. But soup, and vegetables and protein cooked in soup, which it turns out are all allowable in limited amounts.

SERIOUSLY, HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS

Somehow I transformed the diet into the most ascetic, streamlined three weeks imaginable. And while I am grateful for the ability to have soup, I am also torn: I kind of liked monkifying myself. So: What to do? I will discuss this really fascinating dilemma tomorrow. Probably while also eating soup. Right now, however, I am going to go get some rest, which will do me just as much good (more) as soup would have.

I think mostly the problem I’m having at the moment is the fact that my BRAIN is soup and I’m scattered and it’s all I can do to write this sentence, let alone somehow get it to make sense. So tomorrow’s agenda: the random assorted tidbits that made up today’s menu (and tomorrow’s), the forgotten “joys” of the SP Cleanse supplement, thoughts on artichokes, I should have eaten more Thai food, and the lovely Molly. Maybe more. Maybe not.

I think I fixed the spam problem, so I’ve changed the commenting back to allow anyone to comment, even if you don’t have a Wordpress account. Please try it out and let me know if it works!

A little while back, I happened upon an article in a health magazine raving about the wonders of virgin coconut oil. In an epsiode of inspired curiosity – and, I must admit vanity, for the article claimed that eating coconut oil was just super duper for the skin and hair – I purchased a jar of organic extra virgin cold pressed centrifuge extracted coconut oil (phew) and gave it a whirl by stir-frying some broccoli in it. Shockingly (I know, this is the part you won’t be able to believe), the veggies had a pretty intense coconut flavor. Too intense for me, to be honest, which bummed me out because everything I’d read claimed that extra virgin coconut oil had a very light – if not imperceptible – flavor. Even The New York Times recently included coconut oil in an article about different types of fats one can use in baking if one lives in NYC and one is a commercial baker who will soon not be allowed to use trans fats. Call me crazy, but if I’m making a pastry crust, I don’t want it to have a coconut flavor unless it’s supposed to, so I’m figuring that giving the a-ok on coconut oil in such a recipe means no coconut flavor?

Anyway, if anyone out there has had any experience cooking or baking with extra virgin blar blar etc coconut oil, please let me know. I’d like to use it again but not being a huge coconut fan, I don’t want to eat an entire meal that is extra redolent of the extra virgin oil. Thank you!