T-minus twelve days.

If someone would like to check my math on the countdown, feel free. Maybe I should have hired a resident mathematician for this experiment.

I got a lot accomplished in my quest for freshness. First of all, I bought a small dorm fridge for my room. It's nothing special, but I think that will help me stay focused on my raw food diet. If I open the fridge and see all these things I'm not supposed to be eating, I would get discouraged. Therefore, my logic is that if I vow to only open my own personal fridge with lots of fresh, beautiful produce, that's all I'll see and all I'll want to eat. I never did very well in Psychology classes, but it's a shot. I think I mentioned before that I'll always know what I have on hand, too, so that's another plus.

I also got a TON of literature last night and this morning that I've been thumbing through. I'll take a picture of the books I've acquired so far later on. It was really amazing to sit in the raw food section of the bookstore (granted, small, but growing). All of the books are so gorgeously designed. Maybe it's the five year old in me that loves vibrant, colorful pictures in books, but the raw food collection was definitely not lacking in pretty photos.

One thing that I'm a little nervous about is detox. I keep hearing that our body stores toxins in fat cells, and I've got more than my fair share of those. The reason I want to start on October 8 is a) that's a Friday. In theory, by the time detox hits that night, I'll be at home and able to isolate myself from high school students, and b) I'll have that Monday off for Fair Day, which gives me another day to get back on my feet. I'm hoping that after four days, detox symptoms will at least start to recede and I won't accidentally take a migraine out on any of my students.

Aside from detox, I'm also concerned about how this new diet is going to jive with my parents. We're living in the same house and they're paying for my food while I finish up my MAT. Since they're out of town this weekend, I sent out what I thought was a well thought out, mature-ish e-mail about what I am doing and why, as well as what would change in my life as a result of my diet change. Based on previous vegan experience, I kind of tend to go apeshit when I don't get respect for my diet choices, and I promise to try really, really hard to avoid that should the worst happen. Seriously, though. Really, REALLY hard.

So that's what's been going on so far. Like I said, I'll add pictures of recent acquisitions later. First, though, I need to make a dent in my pile o' laundry.