The Results: My Soul Food Kitchari Cleanse

During the summer, I wrote a post about wanting to break the spell of the way I was eating with a 3-day kitchari cleanse. And I mentioned that I was concerned about some of the spices and wanted to choose a version of the Ayurvedic kitchari that would feel more familiar.

So I created a sort of soul food kitchari, using a Hoppin' John recipe that has black-eyed peas and rice and spices that I decided to substitute for the ones in the original recipe I found.

And I promised to share the results with you guys here. My hope was to enjoy it well enough to stay with it for at least the 3 days. I also hoped I'd lose a few pounds and push the reset button on my eating habits.

My heart is fully committed to intuitive eating, but my body is now partly owned by a medicine whose side effects often lead to weight gain, as has been the case for me. I wanted to push the reset the button, and then, try intuitive eating again, and hopefully, begin eating what would best support my health and weight right now.

For a variety of reasons, I didn't start the cleanse until last week.

And I didn't have all the ingredients I wanted. I was hoping to mix it up a little by adding both field peas and green peas to the regular regular Hoppin' John recipe I chose. I also intended to add celery, and grab some sweet potatoes to eat as a side in case I needed more.

One of the articles I read suggested drinking tea and having oatmeal for breakfast. Sounded good to me, but my preferred morning cup of gingerbread deliciousness has milk in it, which didn't seem appropriate for the cleanse, so I decided to subtitute an apple chai and drink it without the milk.

So, for a lot of reasons, I felt a little apprehensive as it came time to begin.

But I decided to go for it, anyway, that first day, and make changes as I went, if I felt the need to do so.

The Apple Chai of it All

I missed my gingerbread tea. And usually, even if I am drinking a chai tea, I add milk. Plus, I decided not to add as much sugar to the tea as I normally would.

So I was off to an unenthusiastic start. But a hopeful one.

Now, usually when I drink my morning tea, I stop everything and grab my Kindle. No work allowed. But on this first day, due to my decided lack of enthusiasm about the particular tea I was drinking, I started writing the blog post you're reading right now.

I figured I'd create the template and get it started and just add to it as I went along.

Here's the adapted recipe for vegetarian Hoppin' John that was scenting my slow cooker as I sipped my tea...

Vegetarian Slow Cooker Hoppin' John

My Results: Derailed Like a Runaway Train

Butter, to taste.

I don't know if its understood that the rice in kitchari will be buttered, or if we're supposed to forego it. But I did not.

In fact, I buttered the whole thing, and it tasted so much better that way than it normally does on New Year's Day, each year, when I make it for good luck. I'm not sure I'd have made it through even one bowl without the butter.

And because of it, day one went very well. My meals felt warming, and comforting.

But then, day two happened.

Within a few days time, two people in my family ended up in the hospital! And though everyone was okay in the end, there were a lot of vending machine purchases and some kind-of-happy meals from beneath the golden arches.

And it all happened during the time I was supposed to be doing the cleanse. Let's just say I did not get back to it when those days were over.

In fact, if you are reading this sentence, that most likely means that I did not ever get back to the cleanse, and I decided to let this blog post stand as is. A story about the cleanse that wasn't.

Will I ever try again? Hopefully. But only time will tell.

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine