My detox: Phase II
Right, so on with this detox. First I should say that I did an awful lot of him-ing and haw-ing about weather or not to do it at all. The doctor I work with had done this already a few years in a row and used a product from a high-end nutriceutical company. By that, I mean they make professional-grade supplements. Dr. Drew thinks a lot of this company and I think a lot of her, so I decided to take the leap. She said she really liked doing it. The shakes were good and really filling. Everyone always loses weight and people drop their cholesterol levels and some really feel a lot better afterwards.
Initially, I thought I would just follow their dietary recommendations, but pass on the supplements. I mean, it's kind of expensive and what powder or pill could be more nutritious than food? Especially MY food? But no, after awhile, I realized I had to jump in with two feet and experience it first hand or I wouldn't really be able to advise people with this system.
First let me explain what the plan was. 3 weeks. Week one, you just start with the 'detox diet', begin the 'detox lifestyle' and take about 10 capsules a day containing a bunch of the nutrients needed in phase II detox, as well as milk thistle and other antioxidants to protect the liver from those 'intermediary metabolites'.
Detox diet: Basically, a clean diet. No damaged fats, meat should be pastured... no hormones or antibiotics. But no pork. Eggs as organic or pastured as possible. No sugar, no sweeteners of any type save for stevia. No alcohol. No caffeine. No gluten grains and no dairy (except for cultured butter and natural yogurt, if you tolerate them... which I do). As much of your fruit and veg organic. The diet does caution against too many sweet fruits or potatoes. The goal is to obtain adequate protein, lots of non-starchy veg, then minimal carbohydrates. They call it a 'Paleo Cleanse' but it's not strictly Paleo. I don't think they allow soy, but I decided to include organic tamari because it opened up a lot of foods to me and others. And while the diet discourages a lot of starchy veg, I recommended people keep carbs modest, but that yams and roasted potatoes are good choices.
Detox lifestyle: Minimize plastic storage containers, microwaves, do skin brushing, exercise, filtered water, Epsom salt baths. That sort of thing. Get enough sleep. Get a massage. More things like that.
That was all for the first week. Then the 2nd and 3rd week, you use a meal replacement shake for 2 of your meals and one regular meal. You can eat as much as you like of food though. It's not designed to starve you. I decided to eat a regular dinner, since that's an important family meal for me.
Now, the first thing I tell people when embarking on a diet like this is to 'plan for success'. Plan what you will eat for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner for at least 4 days, shop and prep as much as you can ahead of time. That makes it easy. Unfortunately, I was not only starting a new diet, I was starting to work outside of the home for the first time in YEARS, and I had less time for cooking and shopping than usual.
I started cutting WAY back on the foods I meant to eliminate around March 1st, but we started properly on March 6th. My husband Steve decided to do it too... in solidarity, I guess. So I had to make different things for me to eat, for him to take in his lunch (he usually packs his own, but I could see he needed some support) and of course, something for the kids. This was already doing my head in. I'm a big one for everyone eating the same thing (for the most part). Making 2 different meals was a lot of work. Sometimes we could eat the same thing when it was a familiar food. But I just wasn't prepared to battle food that wasn't going to stick around past 3 weeks.
Here are the things I knew I was going to struggle with. We split a beer most evenings with dinner. I rarely drink more than 1/3 of a beer, but I really like that little bit. I LOVE dark chocolate and have come to rely on it more and more as a snack and mood-altering substance. I don't drink much caffeine at all, but I like to have a cup of rooibos tea with milk in it a few times a day. Just to sit down, relax, and put something warm and milky in my tummy. It's very soothing to me. I love milk. I don't drink tons, but I put it in smoothies, my scramble eggs, quiches, pudding and tea. I also love, love, love cheese. I've got hooked on this lovely brie (Grand Margot, triple cream) and when the kids come home, we often sit down to a bit of fruit, cheese and homemade bread. Oh, and I don't eat tons of bacon, but nearly everything I make has just a little bacon in it for flavor. Like a bay leaf, but bacon. Good bacon. I've eaten a vegan diet before, so I know how to cook great food for it. But I'm not used to it anymore. I get sick whenever I cut out red meat (I've tried many times), and I can maintain a healthy weight, feel good and not overeat by eating a fairly heavy diet. Changing my diet felt really scary. Already I'm feeling defensive about it. We don't go in for a lot of luxuries or entertainment in our family. We're pretty frugal. So meals are all pretty special and we eat very well.
I'm already hating this detox and I've barely started. But here we go.
Week 1: Detox diet
Week 2: 2 shakes plus a detox diet dinner
Week 3: 2 shakes plus a detox diet dinner
See the next post for a play-by-play of how I did with it.
Initially, I thought I would just follow their dietary recommendations, but pass on the supplements. I mean, it's kind of expensive and what powder or pill could be more nutritious than food? Especially MY food? But no, after awhile, I realized I had to jump in with two feet and experience it first hand or I wouldn't really be able to advise people with this system.
First let me explain what the plan was. 3 weeks. Week one, you just start with the 'detox diet', begin the 'detox lifestyle' and take about 10 capsules a day containing a bunch of the nutrients needed in phase II detox, as well as milk thistle and other antioxidants to protect the liver from those 'intermediary metabolites'.
Detox diet: Basically, a clean diet. No damaged fats, meat should be pastured... no hormones or antibiotics. But no pork. Eggs as organic or pastured as possible. No sugar, no sweeteners of any type save for stevia. No alcohol. No caffeine. No gluten grains and no dairy (except for cultured butter and natural yogurt, if you tolerate them... which I do). As much of your fruit and veg organic. The diet does caution against too many sweet fruits or potatoes. The goal is to obtain adequate protein, lots of non-starchy veg, then minimal carbohydrates. They call it a 'Paleo Cleanse' but it's not strictly Paleo. I don't think they allow soy, but I decided to include organic tamari because it opened up a lot of foods to me and others. And while the diet discourages a lot of starchy veg, I recommended people keep carbs modest, but that yams and roasted potatoes are good choices.
Detox lifestyle: Minimize plastic storage containers, microwaves, do skin brushing, exercise, filtered water, Epsom salt baths. That sort of thing. Get enough sleep. Get a massage. More things like that.
That was all for the first week. Then the 2nd and 3rd week, you use a meal replacement shake for 2 of your meals and one regular meal. You can eat as much as you like of food though. It's not designed to starve you. I decided to eat a regular dinner, since that's an important family meal for me.
Now, the first thing I tell people when embarking on a diet like this is to 'plan for success'. Plan what you will eat for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner for at least 4 days, shop and prep as much as you can ahead of time. That makes it easy. Unfortunately, I was not only starting a new diet, I was starting to work outside of the home for the first time in YEARS, and I had less time for cooking and shopping than usual.
I started cutting WAY back on the foods I meant to eliminate around March 1st, but we started properly on March 6th. My husband Steve decided to do it too... in solidarity, I guess. So I had to make different things for me to eat, for him to take in his lunch (he usually packs his own, but I could see he needed some support) and of course, something for the kids. This was already doing my head in. I'm a big one for everyone eating the same thing (for the most part). Making 2 different meals was a lot of work. Sometimes we could eat the same thing when it was a familiar food. But I just wasn't prepared to battle food that wasn't going to stick around past 3 weeks.
Here are the things I knew I was going to struggle with. We split a beer most evenings with dinner. I rarely drink more than 1/3 of a beer, but I really like that little bit. I LOVE dark chocolate and have come to rely on it more and more as a snack and mood-altering substance. I don't drink much caffeine at all, but I like to have a cup of rooibos tea with milk in it a few times a day. Just to sit down, relax, and put something warm and milky in my tummy. It's very soothing to me. I love milk. I don't drink tons, but I put it in smoothies, my scramble eggs, quiches, pudding and tea. I also love, love, love cheese. I've got hooked on this lovely brie (Grand Margot, triple cream) and when the kids come home, we often sit down to a bit of fruit, cheese and homemade bread. Oh, and I don't eat tons of bacon, but nearly everything I make has just a little bacon in it for flavor. Like a bay leaf, but bacon. Good bacon. I've eaten a vegan diet before, so I know how to cook great food for it. But I'm not used to it anymore. I get sick whenever I cut out red meat (I've tried many times), and I can maintain a healthy weight, feel good and not overeat by eating a fairly heavy diet. Changing my diet felt really scary. Already I'm feeling defensive about it. We don't go in for a lot of luxuries or entertainment in our family. We're pretty frugal. So meals are all pretty special and we eat very well.
I'm already hating this detox and I've barely started. But here we go.
Week 1: Detox diet
Week 2: 2 shakes plus a detox diet dinner
Week 3: 2 shakes plus a detox diet dinner
See the next post for a play-by-play of how I did with it.
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