10-Day Detox - The Finale

Yay, my last two days of my 10-day detox came and went and in some funny way, I didn’t want to go back to eating “normal” even though I was happy with my diet overall. The last two days were devoted to continuing to slowly introduce more foods back into my diet. For 10 days, I adopted a very simple way of eating, which made the diet easier to follow and gave my system a break from complexity.

Interestingly, I was surprised to discover how my palate had changed over the cleanse, because on day 9, I sprinkled a sea vegetable called dulse on my lunch and the saltiness shocked my tongue. I normally eat dulse quite often and I have never had this reaction. On the night of day 10, I also had a piece of a very ripe banana and it tasted sweet like candy. Wouldn’t it be great if we could turn to these foods for our saltiness and sweet rather than the overly sweet and salty foods on the market today? I found that by using other herbs and spices, I was able to satisfy my taste buds.

If you are trying to lose weight, I would recommend this detox as a primer for establishing healthy eating habits. Not only will it get you accustomed to eating the right foods that will naturally keep you satisfied and help you reach your ideal weight, but by unloading the toxicity from your cells, your fat will more easily give up some of its baggage. You may also feel clearer, calmer, and see improvements in your skin, which are all results I’ve noticed.

In my practice, I offer the 10-day detox, which includes an initial health consultation, the Metagenics® UltraClear® powder, a detox guide that includes the 10-day eating plan, recipes, tips to ensure success, phone or email support throughout the cleanse, and a follow-up meeting to discuss the results. If you’re interested, please contact me.

To your Health and Happiness…

10-Day Detox - Over the Hump

If you’ve been reading my posts this week, then you know that I‘ve been following a 10-day detox that includes an elimination diet as well as a powdered drink to support the actual biochemical processes of the cleanse.

Day 7 is the third day of the most restrictive portion of this cleanse and I have to admit that I was hungry today. This stomach growling hunger began late last night and seemed to overpower any meal that I fed my stomach. The interesting part was that I didn’t necessarily want to eat more nor did I crave anything, so I simply let myself experience the hunger.

You may be thinking, “I’m not sure I could do that!” but relaxation or keeping busy helped to take my mind off of it and often alleviated the feeling too. You may also be wondering about a couple of things at this point. Number one, have I lost any weight? The answer to that is not really. I say this instead of no because the scale says I’ve lost about one pound, but one pound could be fluids or simply less food in my system, so I don’t consider it true weight loss. That being said, I have been consistently at this one-pound-lighter weight for several days, so maybe it’s true weight loss.

Since I didn’t undergo this detox to lose weight, and because my diet before beginning this cleanse was already good, I wasn’t trying or expecting to lose weight. If your diet is normally high in fast or processed foods, then I would predict that you’ll lose more weight than this during the ten days.

Second, and maybe you have not been wondering about this, but I just wanted to mention that my digestion has been remarkably normal and regular. This is good news if you’re worried about whether you can go to work everyday or fit this into your busy schedule. It hasn’t disrupted me going about my days at all.

On day 8, I began adding back in some of the last foods that I had removed and I experienced no hunger at all today. If you’re wondering if I’m craving foods like sugar or pizza or ice cream, the answer is no. The wonderful thing about not eating addictive foods is that you lose the taste and the desire for them.

My main objective going forward is to add back in healthy foods and to continue with a clean diet. I already know how it makes me feel and I want to keep feeling that way…

10-Day Detox - The Height of the Cleanse

I’m now into the most restrictive part of my 10-day cleanse, where for three days, I’ll only be eating a subset of fruits and vegetables and drinking the Metagenics powdered drink.

My body has been primed over the last several days by slowly eliminating foods and food groups so this phase is a natural progression into the cleansing process.

I decided to ease into and through this day by giving my body a rest. No Bikram yoga today, and instead I did some simple stretching to stimulate the lymphatic system. I also wanted to see where my body was at with such a restrictive diet, although, again, I skipped a shake today because it seemed like too much for me. It’s always best to listen to your body and use any eating or cleansing plan as a guideline and this was the main rule that I followed for myself.

Seeing that I felt fine, I went back to yoga the next day. I was astonished at the amount of energy I had in class. Even more interesting was that it was a calm, even energy that I was able to maintain throughout the entire class. My balance and focus were better than normal as well. In the evening, I got hungry after dinner, which didn’t surprise me since the day, in general, was much busier than the previous day. I had a mild headache in the afternoon of these two days as well. I never get headaches, thankfully, and I'm also grateful that the headaches I've experienced this week have been mild.

One more day of limited food choices and then I slowly begin to reintroduce foods back in to my diet. You would be surprised by how quickly this six days can go by…

10-Day Detox - The Beginning

Yesterday, I mentioned that I’m on a 10-day detox to clean the cells in my body of all the environmental compounds that we’re exposed to everyday. There a lot of detox programs to try and I chose a program by Metagenics, which includes an eating plan with guidelines and recipes, and a powdered drink that supports the detoxification process in two ways: it provides the necessary nutrients required by the liver detoxification enzymes to actually work during this time of limited food intake, and its formula helps prevent the toxins that are being stirred up from doing damage before they are removed from the body.

On the first two days of the cleanse, I was required to eliminate several foods from my diet that are likely sources of toxins or that are somewhat difficult to digest. This was not so hard to do considering my diet was already very much like the meal plan for these two days, so these days turned out to be somewhat easy to follow and I felt fine. On day two, I also began taking the powdered drink, which, by the way, mixes easily in water and doesn’t require a blender unless you’re adding fruit or vegetables.

One of the primary reasons I started The Daily Detox was to help people make small changes in their diets and lifestyle that over time would greatly improve the quality of their health. When following a clean lifestyle, this sort of gentle detox doesn’t have to be painful or require you to stay home for several days. It can be easily incorporated into your daily life without too much disruption.

More tomorrow….