10 Day Detox

I usually cringe at the idea of a cleanse. I think that is because professionally people come at me all the time with their ideas of cleanses, then I give my opinion and they do their cleanse anyway!  There are some really interesting challenges, cleanses, diets, fads, restrictive ways to detox, jump-start, or cleanse our bodies.

I have been wanting to do a challenge for a while but haven't wanted to affect my milk too much since Ara is quite into mama's milk. She has, however, the last 2 weeks cut back from 6-8 times per 24 hour period to 3-5. This is significant! I was a little sad for a while then I realized that she is setting the pace, and teaching me to trust the process. I'm not calculating anything with her, weighing her daily, or any of the crazy things I did in managing Owen's nutrition. So when she cut back I thought it would be a great time to do a metabolic detoxification.

Without running the risk of becoming boring I will sum it up.... We accumulate toxins in our body from our environment, food, chemicals, lotions, basically anything! Even if we eat a really clean and healthy diet our livers do a hard job getting rid of all of the things our body doesn't utilize. The plan I followed targeted specific nutrients to assist the liver in metabolizing toxins that may be stuck in the body. I also utilized 1/4 of the recommended meal replacement as it contains a lot of nutrients and components I didn't want my milk to be completely full of.

It was really a wonderful experience. I can say that now that I'm on day 9/10. I experienced a few unpleasant side effects, namely headaches and tiredness, especially for days 2-6. The headaches are supposedly side effects from the body mobilizing the toxins and working things out. I stopped coffee 3 days before and didn't have any side effect there but longing.  The last 3 nights I have had a lot of energy, and felt really pretty amazing!

What I haven't eaten in 10 days:
Refined sugar (other carbs from fruit were fine!)
Dairy
Wheat

Corn
Other Grains (other than rice)
Caffeine--- yes this means my morning cup of cherished beautiful magic potion  coffee.

After the following the plan you add in foods one at a time to see how your body reacts. 

Days 11-13

I added chocolate in the first day

Then Coffee and corn

Then soy and dairy the third day.

I did need to bring my food to a few social events but it all worked out. I realized that I already eat pretty clean but it is challenging to eat so plain & simple if relying on others. 

It's going great! If you're interested in doing a 10 day elimination diet/metabolic detox for a change, or a food allergy or sensitivity, keep me in mind:). 

Lots of cruciferous vegetables, even for breakfast some days! Roasted cauliflower is so yummy, we already eat it often. I would eat it every day if it didn't get little white kernels everywhere! Any ideas to stop that? Oh well it's so good it's always in the cart anyway. 

My favorite breakfast was pears in coconut oil in my iron skilled with lots of cardemom and cinnamon.

Dehydrated pears and tahini...(ate lots of tahini, used the pears to finish it off). 

This is actually a normal meal for me so it wasn't too hard to enjoy. Garbanzos, steamed broccoli, tuna on a salad with red wine vinegar and olive oil. 

Day 9 with the addition of rice I made a rice and bean pizza crust with sunflower seeds. Just threw it into my blender and plopped it on the pan (with lots of olive oil beneath it). Turned out so yummy and went with the boys pizza dough from trader joes. 

I think I'll do this again, maybe in the spring? Really missed chocolate:). And also found myself putting food to mouth of the kids that wasn't on the plan. I thought more about food and my relationship with it. I love food. I enjoy food. I mostly make great choices, and sometimes eat more than what my body actually needs for nutrition and health. Increasing mindfulness is easier to teach than to learn and it was such an eye opening experience.