dairy of a detox: getting into the swing of things

day 6

the past few days have been tough. although i’m sleeping really well i’ve been feeling sluggish and almost constantly had a headache. this isn’t surprising as my body is responding to the changes in what i eat. having felt sorry for myself all day, after supper (smoked mackerel with roasted vegetables and brown rice) i allowed myself a treat. green & black’s dark chocolate is vegan so, although it contains a small amount of caffeine, i allowed myself a few squares. the perfect bedtime pick-me-up and not too naughty.

day 8

i’m still getting occasional headaches but generally am feeling good. my energy levels are definitely higher, although i’m not quite bouncing out of bed yet (which is perhaps not surprising given my alarm goes off around 6am).

lunch today was a fabulous brown rice salad. the rice was made more interesting by the fact that all the water boiled away (oops!) so i was left with a crispy crust on the bottom of the pan. this tasted great which is actually not surprising as this is an intended cooking method for persian rice:

chelow : rice is carefully prepared through soaking and parboiling, at which point the water is drained and the rice is steamed. this method results in an exceptionally fluffy rice with the grains separated, and not sticky, and also results in a golden rice crust at the bottom of the pot called tah-digh (literally "bottom of the pot"), which is exceptionally popular with iranian children. )

i added chopped red pepper, spring onions, feta, mint and parsley and dressed it with lemon juice and olive oil.

supper was mackerel fishcakes with a green bean, beetroot and rocket salad. tonight i had my first real craving for a glass of wine.