This St. Patrick's Day, A Toast to My Irish Grandfather, Francis Stevens Joseph O'Connell

In lieu of hitting up the pub and toasting to my Irish heritage in the more traditional way (although the Catholic Church lifts lenten eating and drinking restrictions for St. Patrick's Day, my cleanse does not), I thought I'd take a minute to write a post dedicated to my Irish grandfather (who sadly died before I was born), Francis Stevens Joseph O'Connell.

The title of my grandfather's obituary states, "Francis O'Connell was a hero during World War II"—and that he was. The leader of an all Irish squad nicknamed, "The Shamrock Platoon", my grandfather served in the 26th infantry division of General Patton's 3rd army. He was stationed in Europe from August 1944 to November 1945 and fought in the infamous Battle of the Bulge, and liberated 2 concentrations camps: Buchenwald and Ohrdruf. He was awarded 2 Purple Hearts, one for when he was struck in the leg by a German sniper (which later caused him to have his leg amputated).

Dubbed "The Wild Irishman", my grandfather amassed quite the reputation. The Boston Traveler (what is now the Boston Herald), sent famed war correspondent Andrew Tully to Europe just to track him down for an interview. My grandfather's famous quote from the article was, "There are two kinds of people in the world: the Irish, and those who wish to hell they were Irish".

He returned home from the war and raised 4 children with my Grammy Helen, but as my mom said last night to me on the phone, "He survived the war, but he lost his spirit on the battlefield".

My grandfather passed away at the age of 52 from complications from emphysema. It's always been sad to me that I was never able to have a relationship with him, but what I do have is his name: I'm Danne Frances Dzenawagis because of him, and that will always keep him close to my heart.

So Grampy Frank, "The Wild Irishman", this one's for you. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Love,
Your Granddaughter Danne

TGFP (Thank God For Prana)

One of the things I've missed the most while being on this cleanse is going out to eat. When you're avoiding dairy, gluten, added sugar, and anything processed, it's definitely not easy finding a restaurant to accommodate your annoying, restrictive dietary needs (and I used to think just being a vegetarian was a pain, ha!).

With Week 3's intro to a whole host of new detox-friendly foods, I thought I'd treat myself by hitting up Prana Restaurant in Newton, which serves mainly raw, vegan, gluten free fare (I just so happened to have a Groupon too, win!).

Tonight, I very happily dined on Walnut Lentil Croquettes and Zucchini Lasagna (and don't think I'm cheating here, it's made with nut cheese and zucchini strips in place of pasta), and Dan (who, for the record, dropped out of the detox about 15 days ago—sorry to throw you under the bus there, bud) enjoyed a big bowl of Kelp Noodle Salad.

It was 100% delicious and amazing and wonderful, but want to know what the best part was? For the first time in 2 and a half weeks I actually didn't have to prepare the meal myself.

YES, WIN, AND YES.

Oh My Grains–Welcome Back

OMG (oh my god, oh my grains, etc.) this is the moment I've been waiting for (besides the moment when this cleanse is over). Today marks the start of Week 3, and this week I get to add gluten-free grains and eggs back in.

YES.

Going without alcohol has been fine, I haven't really missed sugar too much, and no dairy hasn't been bad, but grains? I have thoroughly missed grains, so this morning, you'd better believe that I thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast of Toasted Coconut Muesli.

YES.

What else am I excited about this week? For dinner tonight I get to eat pasta. It's rice pasta, but still pasta nonetheless. Again...

YES.

Welcome to the home stretch, only 7 days left...

My Partner in Detox Crime

The Juiceman II, circa 1992. 20 years later, it still works like a dream...

The Joy of Detoxing-Week 2

Let me just say that Week 2 has been much easier than Week 1. As of Thursday, I introduced protein back into my diet in the form of fish, organic soy, and beans. Omg, feeling full after eating again—amazing. There have been some great recipes this week too, such as:

Scrambled Tofu With Collards and Tumeric
Spicy Black Bean Salad
Grilled Salmon and Bok Choy with Orange-Avocado Salsa
Breakfast Vegetable-Miso Soup with Chickpeas

Now, for those of you who are thinking that this cleanse sounds like a piece of cake (mmm...), let me just remind you that even though I get a few tasty meals here and there, I'm still abstaining from consuming all processed food and drink, dairy, added sugar, gluten, caffeine, and alcohol. Not the end of the world, but still quite the effort.

All in all though it's been going really well. I feel pretty good, my energy levels are decent (the protein has certainly helped), and I've been eating all of the right foods and none of the wrong ones. Well, until today at least...

My very talented brother Sean, a senior in high school, won a Gold Key and a Silver Key in the annual Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards (follow the link to view his work that won). My family came up for the award ceremony this afternoon and suggested picking up a few pizzas from Pizzeria Regina afterwards to celebrate. Oh boy, here we go. Is it even possible to look at the most delicious pizza in the universe and not eat it? Maybe, but after toiling over the decision for the majority of the day, I decided to cut myself a little slack and have a slice. That's right, I cheated, and let me just say—it was awesome.

Yeah, I could have toughed it out, but hey, it was a special occasion, I haven't cheated at all until today (and I'm halfway through), and most importantly, it's Sunday, and Sunday is a legal cheat day during lent (my mom actually called the church one year to verify this). Don't worry though, I haven't abandoned ship. I used my one "Get Out of Detox Free" card and I'm back on track to finish out round 2 of this cleanse. I might even make myself eat the rest of the intolerable beet soup for dinner as a punishment...


WHOOPS...

A Few of the Ups

In case I've sounded a little negative about this cleanse, let me negate the hate by sharing a few delicious and detox-friendly recipes that my dear friend Jess Powers and I tried out yesterday afternoon. We spent an ungodly amount of time julienning vegetables while catching up on each other's lives (she's been away in Uganda building a farm from the ground up, no big deal) and many hours later, these 2 amazing concoctions were born:


Sweet Potato, Apple, and Celery Salad


Pistachio-Stuffed Dates with Coconut

Alright fine, so this detox isn't really that bad...

p.s. Make the pistachio-stuffed dates, they're incredible.

The Ups and Downs of Detoxing

6 Days in...

The Ups
1. I feel good, surprisingly energetic and mentally alert, with the only side effect being a dull hunger ache that comes and goes.
2. I've consumed more produce in the past week than I probably have in the past month—seriously.
3. My cravings for refined carbohydrates, sugar, and dairy are virtually nonexistent (which is absolutely shocking).
4. It's been great having all of my meals planned out in advance and having an excuse to say no to unhealthy cravings that I normally love indulging in (pizza for dinner...again, the frozen dessert section at the supermarket, a glass or 2 of wine after a long workday).

The Downs
1. Drastically limiting your diet totally sucks as far as your social life is concerned. Do I really want to hang out with my friends and watch them eat pizza and drink wine? Nope! Guess I'll just stay in. Going out to dinner is 100% impossible at this point too which is a total bummer (although not for my wallet so I suppose that's a plus).
2. Some of the food is great (those "vegan deviled eggs" were delish), but some of it is absolutely awful (the beet soup was borderline unbearable).
3. I've realized that food accounts for about 75% of the joy in my day (looking forward to a nice breakfast or a hearty, home cooked dinner), and when you cut out enjoying your meals, you cut out some of the best parts of your day. Eating at this point is totally out of necessity, not enjoyment.

Wait, so why am I doing this again (I ask myself this question at least once a day)? There are a lot of mixed messages about detoxes out there, but the majority say that your body doesn't really need any extra help detoxifying, after all, that's the primary function of your liver. However, the plan that I'm following is more focused on cutting out all of the junk in your diet and loading you up with what you should be eating: real food in its purest form.

So, to answer my own question, I'm doing this to reset my diet and make healthier, more nourishing choices when it comes to food. It's been tough but I'm already 1/4th of the way through so I might as well just suck it up and go the distance.

After all, everything, including this detox, is impermanent.


Gotta love a lettuce, kale, parsley, pineapple, mango smoothie! Gag...

"It's like vegan deviled eggs"

Dan Kaplan, on our dinner tonight:

March's Lent: The 21 Day Cleanse

Remember back in January when I was sure that a dietary detox was in order because of my holiday hors d'oeuvres habit? Let me just say that things haven't really improved since then. While my diet could certainly be worse, it could certainly be better too—much, much better. Enter: Whole Living Magazine's 21 Day Cleanse.

Here's the basic gist of it:

What I'm Eating During Week 1: fruits, vegetables, and plant-based fats, including nuts, seeds, and oils
What I'm Adding Back in Week 2: seafood, beans and lentils, and organic soy
What I'm Adding Back in Week 3: gluten-free grains and eggs

What's Totally Off Limits: processed food and beverages, added sugar, dairy, gluten, caffeine, and alcohol.

Yes, it's going to be hard. Yes, it's going to be a lot of work. Yes, it's way more intense than the detoxes that I've done in the past, but it'll be worth it—honestly, it can only go up from here as far as my diet is concerned.

Plus, Dan has volunteered (willingly, I swear!) to embark on this detox journey with me as well, so that makes it a little more bearable. My little Fannefur just started her new diabetic cat food too, so over here at Fun House we'll be spending the next few weeks wallowing in our communal dietary misery. Hip hip hooray.


My detox goods from Russo's yesterday. Again, best supermarket ever. A whole week's worth of detox food for only $79!

60 Days Later...

I might as well just cut to the chase and let you all know that after 60 days and countless hours of work and computer frustrations, www.justdanne.com will not be launching today as promised. I know, I know, I said there were no ifs ands or buts about my deadline, but I'm a busy gal and I just couldn't get it all done in time. What can you do?

Although it's not live and clickable like it should be, I'm at least happy to report that the design is 100% finished (images below to prove that I've actually done something over these past few months), and for me that's a huge (more like monumental) step forward.

Now I'm just finishing up prepping the files for programming so I can ship everything off to the developer (there was a moment when I thought I'd try to program it myself—hahahahaha). If everything goes smoothly, this girl will have herself a real, live website soon. Better late then never, right?


Work page


When a project is clicked


Services page


About page


Contact page

So, what's up for March's Lent? I'll be celebrating my second Fat Tuesday tonight (or should I say, Fat Wednesday) because tomorrow kicks off "The 21 Day Cleanse". Goodbye pasta and Pinot, sigh...