Cravings

Being on any sort of restricted-eating detox diet is always an eye opening experience.

This time around I knew I wouldn't have the stamina for the Master Cleanser (that is strictly a Summer ritual, when it's too hot to eat anything anyway) and opted for something that an old co-worker of mine (also a dancer) recommended: The Cabbage Soup "Diet." (I use the term "diet" very, very loosely.)

The staple of this 7 day regime is a very low calorie homemade cabbage soup, accompanied by an odd assortment of foods on each day, which sounds totally tolerable and you'd think it would be easy... but it's definitely not.

I always learn (or perhaps "re-learn" would be more appropriate) a lot during these ventures. In this case--other than the fact that cabbage gives you awful gas, which I do my best to release in unoccupied areas of the room when in mixed company, but would like to apologize to anyone who's had to spend time with me for the past few days--I am learning a lot about my cravings.

I've always known that I crave salt and carbs far more than I crave sugar, and this became exceedingly apparent yesterday, when I was allowed a baked potato for dinner. Let me tell you, I fantasized about it all day, and when the time came... damn... that potato was better than sex.

Granted, it's been an awful long time since I had sex with something that didn't require batteries, so my memory is a bit hazy...

But I'm still going with the potato.

Pathetic, isn't it?

Then again, tomorrow I am allowed to have bananas and skim milk. Now, bananas are one of my favourite fruits and I can always get on board with them, but milk? Especially skim milk? Blech! I have never been a milk drinker, don't think I ever will be a milk drinker.

But at this particular moment? I am looking forward to tomorrow like nobody's business. I WANT that milk. CRAVE it.

WTF?

So not only does keeping myself to a strict list of foods cause me to crave the things I always crave (pasta, chips and salsa, cheese), it also causes me to crave things I normally wouldn't want... like milk. Or seafood.

So what gives?

This leads me to think that some, but not all, of the time, my cravings have little to do with my actual physical desires, but more to do with the fact that I "can't" have something.

Granted, there are a ton of tortilla chips and a giant jar of salsa in my kitchen at this moment. The only thing stopping me from running in there and stuffing my face, is, well, me. Me and my entirely internal commitment to what is generally thought to be a ridiculous and unscientific "diet" for a span of seven days.

But if I can keep myself from stuffing my face right now, at this instant, who's to say I can't also exercise the same amount of self control when I'm not trying to detox?


Who am I kidding? I probably can't. But still, it's nice to have evidence to the contrary.