Juice Cleanse, and a Foot In My Mouth

Tomorrow marks day one of the Blue Print Cleanse.  A thing I said I would NEVER do.  Why would you just drink juice I always wondered?  I like food too much.

Welp.  That's the problem.

Things have gotten out of hand.  I see the delivery guys WAY more than I see the gym.  I have let an occasional treat meal become the norm, and it is showing.  Summer is just around the corner, and my thunder thighs can feel it. I just want to reboot my system, and hopefully do away with the cravings for junk.

I never considered doing a cleanse because like many things, I don't have the faith in myself to believe that I can do it.  Well, I've never been happier to have a stomach bug.  Last Sunday and Monday I was in a bad bad way.  This thing ripped through my family (literally) in a matter of days, and since my turn I have had absolutely no appetite.  So when I walked into work and a couple friends asked if I wanted to do it, I thought no time better than the present, and I signed up.

What may be tougher than the cleanse is the pre-cleanse.  Like it isn't bad enough not eating food for three days I have to eat kale for three days leading up to it?  I'm supposed to be carb free, booze free, and vegan to make the transition into the cleanse easier.  All I want to do it load up on meat and carbs, but BPC warns you that if you do, things will only be that much harder.

So all in all, I have been good with the pre-cleanse.  My only slip ups were Friday night when watching the coverage in Boston, watching police chase a mad man all around my home town, I cracked and ate some Doritos I had hiding way back in a cabinet.  Whatever, I eat my feelings and I am OK with it under those circumstances.  My other slip up was today during letterpress class.  We had limited options for lunch, and we had falafel.  I had it on a plate with salad, no pita, some hummus and babaganush.  Much better than it would've been normally.  Then I came home, sat down to this beauty (ehhh) as the buzzer buzzed.  A different kind of delivery man.  No pizza, no Thai, no curry noodle soup.  BPC is here, nestled in my fridge.  Ready for tomorrow.  Am I?

 

 

Crankin’ it Out

Not everyone appreciates craftiness, but I sure do.  Two friends asked if I wanted to take a letterpress class in Brooklyn.  I didn’t know a thing about letterpress, but they had me at “homemade greeting cards”.

We roll into “The Arm” studio in Williamsburg I am shocked at how many guys were there.  We were outnumbered.  Not just by dudes, but hipsters.  I was looking at all these crazy letterpressed posters on the wall, and I started getting nervous about my potential lack of creativity.  Panic set in.

We had a lesson on how to use the massive beasts of machines (five rollers, giant crank, tacky ink) and off we went.  We were given free reign to make whatever we wanted.  Most teams started making posters of sayings including “You are not your code”.  Hipsters, remember?  We opted for greeting cards with a simple “Love & Thanks”.  Mostly because we wanted to use the ampersand, but also because we wanted something useful. We all looked around at each other’s work, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel judgey looks from those hipsters. 

Before our lunch break, we were poking around at the image stamps available to us, and the three of us pointed and shouted “LOBSTER” all at the same time.  We knew we’d be making something with a lobster, we just weren’t sure what yet. 

After our lunch break we started looking up lobster sayings and boom… party like a lobster.  Done deal.  We set up the press with navy ink for the letters, cranked them all out, and noticed as everyone in the class left their presses and came over to check ours out.  They just couldn’t wait to see when we were going to do the lobsters.  We cleaned the machine, inked it up in red, and off we went.  The results were AMAZING!  Couldn’t be happier.  Look at these little guys!  Everyone was asking for copies.

 

At days end, we left with some awesome cards, the awe of jealous hipster dudes, and some awesome cards.  And the best part, we can go back and use the press anytime we want.  I am already having visions of Christmas cards.  Too soon?