Memoirs of a Detox Part 1

They say to be transparent with your audience, show all aspects of yourself good and bad.

I had been feeling like crap, eating like crap, and didn’t give a crap.  I was turning off my own awareness to my body’s needs because of convenience.  Limited time, limited budget–you think there aren’t that many possibilities for food and end up being resigned about it, right?

Until you wake up one day and just don’t have the energy to do anything and your brain feels like it’s full of mashed potatoes, which may actually be true.

Then steps in a friend who wants to make some changes and needs a buddy to help her.  That’s where I come in and decide for myself that I need to make some changes before my health is too far out of reach and I’m still young enough to make a difference.

I was ready…

So Day One:  I was used to eating two eggs every morning like clockwork.  Eggs being a big culprit of food sensitivies they were the first to go.  This also includes wheat, corn, dairy, red meat, processed sugar, oranges, and refined fats.  Initially doesn’t sound very fun, does it?  But I made do and enjoyed a lovely lunch of hummus, vegetables, blueberries, and cashews with my detox buddy.  I didn’t even miss the sugar and was already feeling empowered and enlivened.

Fast forward two weeks and I feel pretty darn great!  No cheating even!  I had a couple days where I felt “detox symptoms.”

For those of you new to detoxification, the body has two phases of the detox process.  The first phase mobilizes toxins out of fat.  (Did you know that most toxins aren’t water soluble and thus store in your fat?)  The second adds some fun chemistry to the toxin that makes it water soluble, which allows us to sweat or pee it out.  If the body doesn’t have enough resources–through nutrition– to make the toxins water soluble, then the toxins recirculate throughout the body and will move back into the fat.  It’s the circulation piece where we are re-exposed to the toxins and feel like crap all over again.  That’s why ample support and nutrition are crucial to the detox process.

I’m still going strong with cookies and breads before me.  I can feel myself losing some weight, whether it’s bloating, fat, or both.  However, I’m choosing not to step on the scale and using the fit of my clothes as the measure.

The biggest thing I’m aware of is how much I had been blocking what I was feeling with food.  Emotions can be scary, so we humans go to great lengths to avoid feeling them.  My way of distraction is with food.  Now without any method of distraction (except for an episode of Modern Family here and there), I’m feeling EVERYTHING!  What a great practice in allowing whatever I’m feeling knowing I can’t find something to stuff it down.

I still have two more weeks to go… Stay tuned on how the rest of it goes.