There are seven days between my work being done in Toronto and my work beginning at the New York Film Festival. And I figured - considering the damage I did to my body during the festival - I'd buy one of those detox kits and ready myself for another trip down vodka and pizza lane.

The detox kits have a bunch of herbal pills you take each day, and a plan as to what you can and cannot eat. Cans: lean meats, fruits, vegetables, legumes.. Can'ts: pretty much everything else. That includes all sugars, dairy, alcohol, cereals, breads...

You'd think that for seven days this wouldn't be so hard. Alcohol is one thing. The only hard part about that was feeling self-conscious ordering soda with lemons at bars and watching the bartender have this "he's a recovering alcoholic" look on her face. But the food. I've never realized how much I love carbs and sugar. I'm on day three now, and when I went to get a green tea at Starbucks this morning (which was hard enough in itself, especially with the potency of Starbucks' coffee scent) the smell of those cookies was killing me.

Anyway, I have a few days left and have so far kept to the plan. I feel remarkably weak but keep imagining what it will feel like to be "cleansed" of whatever it is this thing cleanses me of. I'm pretty certain that I'll feel nothing but hungry by day seven, but it'll make me feel less guilty bingeing my way through NYFF.