I bought a juicer off of Amazon.com last week. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it shiny? Doesn't it remind you of something from The Jetsons?

It came on Tuesday--two full days early. I immediately juiced two pounds of carrots, which I loved, and my kids all decided they disliked. Hmmph. More juice for me, I guess.

On Wednesday, I started a cleanse. I am not juice-fasting, although I have been making vegetable juice every day. I am once again going through the 40-day Maker's Diet plan. It is the third time I have done so, but the first time I have followed the plan so strictly. The first time was when we started the diet almost four years ago. I never really did much for the first four weeks of the plan, while you are supposed to cut out all sorts of things that get phased back in later. For one thing, it was too darn hard. It was too expensive and time-consuming to make so many changes at once, so I kind of slowly changed my eating habits and buying habits as we could afford them and I had time to make my own condiments, or learn how to make yogurt, or locate organic produce and kefir-starter or raw milk. Not to mention, I was pregnant, so I could not do the partial-fast day once a week.

The second time was a couple of years ago. I did better, but again, I did not have everything I needed to do it properly--and I think I kept cheating on the first two weeks by eating toast and having pasteurized cream in my coffee. (You're allowed to drink coffee but not tea in the first part. Go figure.) Not to mention, total lack of the exercise part.

But this time, I'm really doing it. I started on Wednesday, and I already feel so much better. (Okay, the emotional side of this is a different story, but that is also unrelated to the cleanse.) I have more energy, my tummy is flatter (Yay! Crunches!), and it feels good to be working towards a definite goal--or several. I WILL do a proper on-my-toes-nose-to-the-ground push-up. I WILL do one hundred skips in a row! I WILL do 100 crunches a day! I WILL get back into my old jeans without grease and a shoe-horn!

My reward when I'm done is to go shopping for a new outfit--one that is in my old size, not the new one that I have refused to allow myself to buy any clothes for. Good-bye slothfulness, spare tires and bad habits. It feels good to be renewing the healthful habits that I know I should be doing all the time.

Who knew a diet could be so refreshing?