Confessions of a 1st time Detoxer

So, today I woke up and decided it would be a good idea to do a 7 day Detox. Hmmmm...not sure why I thought this, but now that I've started I'm in for the long (ya, 7 loooong days) haul! I'll be posting my experiences each day and would love your encouragement, advice, and personal experiences with these things. It's my first time and I'm a little freaked out already!

Day 1: 9am - I arrive at work and purchase the SeaSource Detox Spa aka 7 bottles of magic spa detox potion for $49 + tax from a colleague who sells Arbonne. Instructions: mix 1 bottle with 32 ounces of water and drink in 1-2 hours (morning recommended) and then follow that with another 32 ounces of water (minimum). Complement detox with healthy eating regimen (no white carbs, no sugar, lots of veggies and fruits, no pop, no alcohol and lots of water).

So...my friend tells me its not that bad and I believe her! Stupid me! It not only smelled like bad medicine, it produced a brown muddy looking water, sick! I painstakingly drank the solution the next two hours at work, almost gagging a few times until i started holding my nose...so ridiculous I know! Then i figured out that if i had gum in my mouth and took it out while drinking and replaced it right after the taste would go away faster. Brilliant.
12pm - Feeling hydrated and already hungry for lunch. How can this be? Well, I already packed a frozen burrito, carrots and hummus for lunch, so I just tried to eat as little of the tortilla as possible.
7pm - Dinner...even after working out, I'm not that hungry...prob because I'm full of liquid. So, I avoid wheat and indulge in spicy flax seed tortilla chips, salsa, hummus and a bowl of mixed veggies. Random. But feeling full.
9pm - I have a hankering for something sweet so I grab a Clif Kids Bar...it may have sugar, but it's organic!

One day down. Six to go!

Day 2: 6a.m. I decided to work out this morning before drinking the detox b/c last night i was only able to walk on the treadmill..my stomach felt so sloshy and weird. After a good work out, I was trying to be good and stick to the strict eating regime so I grabbed the box of Corn Flakes and poured a big bowl, added some organic whole wheat flax cereal to mix it up and vanilla almond milk. Corn Flakes should be ok right? They're bland, fat free, low cal, etc. WRONG...Turns out that these friendly flakes are well...quite flaky! Upon inspecting the ingredients, of which there were 5, 2 of them were SUGAR and HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! You can imagine my horror! Well, not being a wasteful person, I just buckled down and ate the whole bowl regardless...oops.

9am - Pretty similar to yesterday...get in, make the potion and mentally prepare myself for the 2 worst hours of my day. Man...this stuff is really making me dread mornings. Oh well...I found a new method to make this process go faster. Each time i drink the potion, I now make sure to swallow four times. I found that I prefer to drink more volume less often and then follow with the gum, of course!

12:30pm - Had previously planned a lunch date with a friend, so I decided to brown bag a salad in order to try and adhere to my plan. It was good...but left something to be desired.

3:30pm - Still haven't curbed my hunger. This stinks...all handy snack options are processed and super carb/sugar laden, ugh. But wait, a client meeting just ended and there's free food for the taking. Excellent. Scavengering is quite common at ad agencies...we aren't shy. I don't even look at the fabulous cakes and desserts and head straight for the salad...it's tough, but I'm on a mission. This does the trick and I'm back on my game.

6:45pm - What to do about dinner? I realize i picked a good week to do this since I got groceries this past weekend (sometimes I've gone a whole month without visiting the grocery!). Well, since I'm obsessed with hummus, I have whole carrots (taste way different than the baby variety), hummus, supplemented with flax corn tortilla chips and a Trader Joe's chicken and cheese tamale, which is delicious. I know the tamale is a little off base, but I am finding dinner harder to accommodate (when there's not much time or motivation to cook). Any suggestions?


Day 3: 6am came early today. Yesterday I already felt I had more energy and it was easier to get up. Today it was easy to wake up, but tough to get my tush out of bed. Once up, I grabbed a Clif Kids bar and was on my way to the gym.

8:30am - After the working out and getting ready, I was starving and having trouble finding a fitting breakfast food for this detox (no eggs in the house...apparently I love carbs for breakfast!). Then I saw it. Staring at me in my cupboard was my coveted Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter (seriously, this is my favorite food ever). Rereading the label for the millionth time (just for safe measure) I was pleased that this simple, yet delicious food has only 2 ingredients: Peanuts & Salt. Both of which are allowed. Hallelujah! So, I slapped some on 2 pieces of sprouted grain bread and called it a meal. The sheer satisfaction of this meal gave me a brilliant idea; A peanut butter only detox diet. I would sooo rock that detox. If any of you know of one like that let me know! I'm all over it! haha!

9:00am - Back to the most "magical" two hours of my morning...brown juice. I'm still not loving this stuff, but have stopped gagging when it goes down my trachea. Tomorrow I'll take a pic to share!

1:45pm - Lunch with the boss. Brought a salad again today, with tuna, grapes, pineapple and goat cheese. I also used dressing (Newman's Own Light Sun Dried Tomato), which I realized (after the fact) had sugar, but at least it is all natural and has no HFCS!!! Geeze...this is hard!

4:00pm - It's Birthday Bash day at work and thus we always have free snacks and beer/wine/pop. I decided to brave the party and opt for carrots, cherry tomatos and sugar snap peas and chips and salsa and hummus - a great mini dinner/snack. I didn't even let myself look at the chocolate cake with tons of gooey yummy icing...i think i'll have to go to the local bakery and get an icing shot when this is done!

7:00pm - Leader meeting at church where they are serving dinner, PASTA, of course! So, I refrained from breaking bread with my peers and opted for half a bag of Starbucks Almonds and Peach Detox Tea.

9:30pm - Home sweet home. I'm not feeling super satiated from the almonds, so i have a bowl of organic flax granola and almond milk (there i go with the carbs again!). This does the trick.

All in all, I'm pretty proud of myself. Learning a lot about food, discipline and my undying love for Diet Coke! Weird that this is the thing i miss most...i only have 1 a day and I don't even get caffeine headaches now. But I just want my ritual back!!!

Day 4:
9am - So here I am. Chugging down the brown potion in my office. This picture masks my disgust. I didn't make it to the gym today - blaming it on knee pain (not fatigue). I started the day with a bowl of the same flax seed granola and almond milk that i had for dinner last night. Guess I'm a creature of habit?!? Leah gave me an excellent idea to help with things that are "hard to swallow"...Use a straw. It helps the untasty liquid bypass your sensitive taste buds and launches the liquid to the back of your throat! Why didn't I think of that? I use straws all the time to keep my pearly whites, well, white!

11:30am - Feeling a little hungry. So, I grab the half bag of Starbucks Almonds and it does the trick. I love those lil guys!

3:00pm - I haven't been hungry for hours and feeling pretty alert. I realize that i haven't had the mid-afternoon crashes that used to plague my work days. Hmmmm...could be linked to no pop and carbs that can spike your energy and then put you in a food coma! I decide to eat my salad (lettuce, goat cheese, grapes, pineapple, dressing). A repeat of yesterday minus the tuna, but still good.

5:00pm - Made plans to hit up a neighborhood bar (Sedgwick's) for dinner and March Madness...already wondering what I'll eat there ;-)

7:30pm - Arrive at the bar ready to scour the menu for something healthy. Immediately upon finding my friends I'm faced with a tough choice...popcorn. Not the pop in a bag kind either. The straight up salty/buttery goodness kind. And...i succumb. It was so yummy and i was starved. I hadn't had any caffeine all day, so i decided to order some iced tea. When it arrived, I instantly noticed it was INSTANT! Gross. I really despise instant tea and am usually a snob at restaurants and make them take it back and bring me a DC instead. But seeing as this wasn't an option for me, I begrudgingly drank the koolaid. Also, as if I haven't already had enough chips and salsa the past 3 days, I ordered an app of the famed duo. Amy contributed to the Mexican fiesta by ordering guac. I was a happy camper. For my entree I was actually good and ordered a bowl of the chicken chili with black beans, chicken and vegetables. It was good, but I'm guessing pretty fibrous b/c my stomach started not to feel too hot shortly after. Oh...for the love of Detox!

Day 5: The spin bike is my detox nemesis!!! Ok everyone, get ready for a good laugh. So, I wake up early (8:45 on a Saturday) and decide to get my butt back to the gym since I missed yesterday. I checked the gym schedule and there was a 10:15 spin class that I was excited for b/c I hadn't been since January, eek. I grab a Clif Bar and water bottle and head to the gym. The class starts and it's my favorite teacher, what luck! She's a really tough instructor so I was 30 minutes into it and working hard. Sweat rolling down my cheeks, shortness of breath, all the wonderful things of a hard workout and then...my stomach started grumbling and rumbling. Not a low murmur I could ignore. It then started hurting and I knew I needed a bathroom break asap. But I didn't want to stop the workout, ahh...tough decision - stay and take it easy or break for a pit stop and return in superb form? I chose the latter. Also, I must be honest and say there was some embarrassment involved...I even grabbed my water bottle so that people would think i was just filling up my bottle, haha...i can hope it worked! The break was a wise decision. I did make a comeback and was able to finish the race. Victory was mine!

12pm - Drink the magic potion through a straw as I get ready. The straw is by far the best method I've found.

1pm - About to head out and hang with a friend and decide to have a snack. Can you guess? Chips and salsa and hummus. Lunch of champions.

5pm - Still hangin with Linds and we are a little hungry so we head over to the corner convenience store and pick up some munchies - Aloha Trail Mix. A lovely combo of dried fruit, nuts, and raisins. I meticulously pick out the nuts and banana chips (realizing banana chips have sugar). Nothing to ward of the cold weather blues like this Hawaiian treat. I avoid the raisins like the plague. Why? Stems back to when I was a girl and thought they were bugs...just can't stomach them. About to head to a crock pot party. That should be interesting!

7pm - The crock pot cook off turned out to be a detox obstacle course. And to make matters worse, I was selected as a judge for the cooking contest. It was really fun, but I had to be quite selective of my tastings. Here's a list of the contest entrees: pot roast with new potatoes and carrots, ribs, seafood paella, wings, and Irish corned beef. Choosing to skip the potatoes and bread I thought this was a breeze. Until...I heard that the ribs were cooked in a liter of coke (the thing I've done the best at avoiding, ahhhh, I had already ate two)...oh well. At least the coke was poured out before the BBQ was added, but that's pretty much just brown liquid sugar. For dessert I avoided the homemade sugar cookies with icing (one of my faves) that had strawberries on top. Choosing to eat the plain strawberries that were left over. Not too bad.

Day 6: 11am - I'm finding that this Detox thing is actually getting easier by the day. I've stopped thinking about it 24/7 and am not minding the diet restrictions as much. However, it's admittedly harder to drink enough water on the weekends. I decide to make cereal, but realize, there's not even half a bowl left, so I just finish it off and am still hungry. What to eat? An egg sandwich sounds pretty eggceptional, so I fry 1 whole egg and 1 egg white, slap it between two pieces of sprouted grain toast and call it a meal.

12pm - Time to drink the brown potion. It's actually getting more tolerable and I'm shocked. But don't get me wrong, I'll be sooo excited when Tuesday rolls around and i can replace one brown liquid for another more palatable one!

3pm - Over at Nichole's and it's snowing so we decide to order in. I'm currently obsessed with the Chicken Salad Salad from Fresh Choice with the fat free tomato basil dressing, so I decided on that. After this Nic had a cookie she had made, which of course, made me want something sweet. Fortunately, I had a choc chip Clif bar in my bag and that did the trick.

8pm - Dinner at home. Not too exciting. Pretty much the usual flax chips, carrots and hummus plus a veggie burger sans bun. It was tasty and filling.

After 6 long days, I'm feeling pretty good. Having more energy throughout the day lately and feeling lighter - not sure that the scale agrees. However, I'll be glad to be rid of the grumbling stomach and frequent bathroom breaks! I think that after this is over, I'll try to continue to avoid white processed starches and sugar, and definitely drink more water!

ONE MORE DAY!

Day 7: I'm a wee bit sad as I write this final detox update. It's been quite a wild ride. For starters, I woke up at 5am this morning and haaaad to go to the bathroom something awful. I mean seriously...how rude of my body to wake me from my precious slumber. I am not a morning person, nor do i enjoy being woken up early....but I am glad i woke up, what a hot mess that would have been, haha!

8am - Getting ready for work and decide that my egg sandwich from yesterday was so darn good that I should make it again. And I do. Mmmmm. Mmmm. Good. Sometimes I just get on an egg kick. And then, I won't have them again for months. Weird.

9am - Back in the office and wanting a Diet Coke, of course. There's just something about the office that makes me crave it like oxygen. I hope tomorrow it tastes as good as I've built it up. Instead of the DC, I grab my last lonely bottle of brown juice and fill up my water bottle for one last go around. Surprisingly, it's not tasting so bad today. I think I'm getting used to the yuckyness and still using a straw helps. (I secretly wonder if I continued this stuff if i'd eventually like it?)

12pm - Drinking more water and am hungry for a snack. Craving almonds from Starbucks. So, I head down and realize that it is clearly my lucky day! This fabulous Stbx has my fave Fruit and Nut Medley with yogurt chips! Yessss! Why is this a huge deal? Well, let me tell you. About a month ago, I realized that Starbucks was phasing out this combo for another that just has fruit and nuts and no yogurt, ugh...the nerve. I was super sad that my fave snack was being taken right from underneath me. I don't like the new variety b/c there's too many dried cranberries. I only like the nuts, dried blueberries and yogurt. Thus, today is extra special b/c the lady sees my excitement and tells me they have a whole basket of this variety. I jump on the opportunity and buy a few packs to store safely at my desk for future snack times!

3pm - Late lunch again. Today I brought in an Indian meal from Trader Joes. They are super delicious, portable and filling. Please note, if you have high blood pressure, this is NOT the meal for you...lots of sodium. Today I have the Punjab Eggplant variety, which is comprised of eggplant, tomatoes, onions, sunflower oil, pumpkin garlic, salt coriander, chilies, cumin, ginger, turmeric, and cloves. You are supposed to eat it with rice or nan, but I sub in a slice of sprouted grain bread.

8pm - After a post work workout, I'm famished and feeling too lazy to cook. So, I return to my good pal Trader Joe to save the day. A chicken & cheese tamale, spicy flax chips, hummus and a bowl of steamed veggies does the trick. What would I do without you Joe?

9pm - I decide to go out with a bang and finish off the evening with a cup o' peppermint detox tea, compliments of my friend Emily who introduced me to the detox! I cheat and add a little sweetener (not sugar) to make it more palatable and enjoy doing something good for myself.

Overall, this detox was a success. It helped me regain some much needed self-discipline, taught me to read labels in a whole new way (ingredients) and that my dependence on sugar and white starch is only a reality if I let it be. So, tomorrow's a new day, but I'm gonna do my best to retain a lot of the principals of this detox (except the no diet coke). I'll have to let you know how it goes! Thanks for staying tuned!!!

7 Day Detox...Done & Done!