Soap Avoiding Hippies and the Opposite of Elimination

D and I had a discussion last night about our changing views on food. We decided we were in imminent danger of becoming health nuts. It may already have happened, in fact, however it's hard to tell when at present we're eating healthy by force rather than by choice. Certainly, though, I've been having quiet hopes of taking up dancing if I get enough health and energy back, and certainly of restarting yoga once my back is up to it. At one point last night we were discussing brown rice (as one of the few carbs in our diet it features highly in meal planning). In particular we were noting that neither of us had eaten it much before this diet and that we were both quite enjoying it. "Yeah, it's really got something to it, you know, texture and flavour. Why do we even eat white rice?", I wondered aloud. "Societal norms." D replied, as he picked up his uke and started strumming.

Another societal norm I've been bucking is the use of soap. Ok, stop going "Ew" now, I've been washing myself! I've started using natural ingredients, no preservatives body wash. D hadn't noticed yet and in general isn't as fussy about bath products as I am anyway, unsurprisingly. As Sam Kekovich (who I'm not sure if I like or hate, I've only seen one clip of his work, so don't throw things at me) would say, I've become a "soap avoiding hippy". I've got to say, I'm not going back in a rush, the body wash is certainly much kinder to my winter ravaged skin. And it smells yum too. The one I've been using is Sukin. I've also tried their shampoo and conditioner since my previous (also soap-avoiding) shampoo just ran out, and my conditioner is about to do the same. The shampoo's not that great (not terrible either) and I will be going back to Natural Instincts for the ole shampoo next time, although I like the conditioner.

Actually, rereading that paragraph reminds me of something else, a tangent which I will briefly indulge. My nose has become incredibly sensitive since I've been on this diet. D came home from coffee with a friend a couple of weeks ago. At this stage he wasn't drinking coffee himself, he'd just had an apple juice (100% pure, of course), but his mate had had a coffee. He came home from the cafe and I could smell the coffee on him. It's was bizarre. I mean, yeah it's a cafe, but it's not a bloody CBD espresso-a-minute cafe, it's our relatively sleepy round-the-corner cafe (the lovely Squirrel Cafe, which gets a few bad reviews if you google it, but they are from the early days and I have to say it's pulled it's socks up since then). Then, yesterday (geez I hope my uni colleagues aren't reading this or they'll think I'm weird. er, even weirder than they already think I am), I was sitting in a lecture on OH&S. In between giggling uncontrollably at photos like this (yes, they're from the Waikato), I was wondering who sitting near me had been sitting by a wood fire recently. I would get wafts of wood-smoke smell coming towards me. I was surreptitiously (I hope!) sniffing the air to either side to see if it was one of my immediate neighbours (my colleagues, hence the weirdness). It's my nose's fault! I'm just not used to this newly acute sense and it's making me more curious than usual. Not curious enough to ask outright who'd been by a wood-fire, but almost.

Back from the tangent, and to conclude, I am reminded occasionally of how strange this diet seems to others, even though it's becoming normal-seeming to me. And even though I might be a health nut for the rest of my life as a result. I was reminded yesterday in a meeting about the upcoming camp. I had to enquire again about cooking facilities and then was queried about why camp food wasn't good enough. A blush, some nervous Ummming, and then "Er, I'm on a really strange diet at the moment and need to cook for myself." Cue restrained strange looks, and a possible light-bulb moment in the head of the colleague who had recently observed that I eat a lot of fruit. I was even more forcefully reminded of the fact that most people eat quite differently, and some in a manner that is on the other end of the extreme. People like this the Facebook Food Diary keeper. A short sample of his diet:

Breakfast - Skipped

Lunch - Chicken Snitty Pack (with chips and gravy), and a can of coke.

Dinner - 2 beef patties, 2 eggs, 2 slices of cheese, 4 rashers of bacon and 4 slices of toast, 1.25L Coke.

Wow. Cue strange looks.