Detox - here I come!

I haven’t been eating great lately.   I crave sweets most of the time, grab handfuls of chocolate chips throughout the day, I don’t eat enough fruit, and eat way too much almond or peanut butter.  Also, my water intake is probably very low! I just started drinking coffee most days and not drinking more water to compensate for it. I noticed with my complexion getting worse and sometimes the energy is low.  A friend of mine did “The Plan” detox recently and I thought there was no way I could do it, but I am going for it!

As far as exercise, I have continued to do circuits but some of the exercises make my back worse. Running seems to be ok, but I still feel my SI pain.  On the first 3 days of the detox, you don’t exercise. I feel like it comes at a good time, so I’m going to take 3 days off, see how I feel, and see how my back is doing and go from there!

Also, I’m trying to get on board with less days of exercise. Here’s an article that says 4 days is better than 6. It’s interesting and I’m in!! I’ll use that extra time to do other things that I enjoy! Like organizing and cleaning! Scrapbooking!

Here is THE PLAN:

If you go to the website, everything that you would need to get started is there. The contains very detailed information and instructions.  I am doing the quick start plan. I downloaded the shopping list, the meal plans, and the cookbook (for free!)

The point of this detox is to figure out which foods cause problems (inflammation) in your body and to eliminate them from your diet.

The first 3 days are the hardest days (no chocolate! no coffee, no wine. The chocolate will be really hard for me!)  and then from there it gets easier. Every other day, you “test” a food – try it and weigh yourself the next day to see if you’ve gained weight – means it caused inflammation.  Interesting! Some of the “test” foods are cheese, chickpeas, protein (chicken, turkey, lentils, pinto beans, eggs), rye crackers, vegetables, bread.

I downloaded the menu plan, shopping list and cookbook here.

Tomorrow is my first day- my goals are to shed a few pounds, eat healthier and figure out what foods don’t agree with me.

Breakfast
1 c flax granola (flaxseeds, cinnamon and water) with 1/2 c blueberries (Mmm hmmm.  I’ll let you know how that goes).

Lunch
carrot ginger soup (recipe provided) with chia seeds or sunflower seeds, sauteed or steamed broccoli with orange oil and lemon juice
Mixed greens with 1/2 pear and pumpkin seeds

Snack 
1 apple (BA HA HAHAHA)!!

Dinner
Sauteed kale, 3-4 carrots, onion, zucchini, shiitakes, broccoli with spicy coco sauce (recipe)
Grated carrot and raw beet salad with pumpkin seeds

At this point I feel like I am going to want to eat chocolate and a bunch of crap after going through one day.   I am excited though to eat all this stuff at least for one day!

I have yet to get the book – I have to wait for it to be returned to the library and I will have more info for you!

You drink a lot of water, herbal teas and lemon water in the morning. Check out this page in the book for calculating your water requirements:

Basically you take half of your weight. But add 8 ounces for every 20 minutes of cardio or 30 minutes of strength work.

Have you done a detox? what kind? what were the results?