Days 10, 11, & wrapping up the 12th

It must be something about drawing to the close of the detox that is causing me to obsess about food. Or maybe it's the fact that I haven't done any real cooking in my kitchen in almost 2 weeks that's driving me crazy. Sure, I've been experimenting with my evening soup, but there's only so much you can do with it. It's not the same as my normal process of scribbling down notes and flavor points I want to try together, hashing together a recipe, etc. Even though I won't be doing any real cooking for a few more days, I've already been making my list of what I'm going to make as soon as I can eat.

My father decided to wrap up the detox a bit early. The original idea was to do the detox 21 days and then start the "ramp up" portion, where you slowly add the food groups back into your diet over the course of a week. Since he's on sabbatical, he will be doing quite a bit of traveling towards the end of the month, which will make it hard to maintain his regimen. So we've decided to start our ramp up on the 15th day, which if done correctly, should take us up to the full 21 days. (To be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to make it the full week - I've been craving some serious solid food)

I've been feeling really good. Although the routine is a tad monotonous at times, it really does help to break up my days, especially if I'm working. I also feel really good and haven't had any headaches or irritability that normally comes from detoxing.

For those who were curious about the weight loss, my father is up to 18 pounds lost, which he was very excited about. Good for him! I am up to(or should I say down) 13 pounds, which is actually pretty cool. I'm be satisfied if I dropped another 3 or 5, but I'm good with where I'm at.

All in all, I think the detox has been very successful. Although I can't be technical about the amount of toxins I have left in my body or those that I lost, I can say that I feel pretty darn amazing. I have energy, I'm sleeping very well at night, and overall feel pretty spiff. I could definitely see doing this routine once every 6 months or so (although perhaps not for the full 21 days) just to give my body a break.

BTW, this detox was based on the book "21 Pounds in 21 Days." It's gotten some mixed reviews, but i thought it was a fairly good detox diet. I do agree with some of the criticisms in that most of the book is testimonials and not solid information and buying the kit is more expensive than just buying what you need at your natural food store. But overall, I was very satisfied with it and plan on doing it again in the future.

I'll be back later this week with reports of the Ramp Up.

Days 8 & 9 - the Revision

I'm happy to say I'm still feeling quite fantastic on this whole little detox thing. Although I've still got the same cravings, I'm feeling quite lovely.

And - we're starting our "ramp up" on Wednesday, which is where you finish out the detox by adding certain foods every day so you don't throw your body into shock by going straight back to regular foods. I believe fresh vegetables in their natural state (aka. salad) are on the docket for Wednesday, although I'm still trying to remind myself that fresh vegetables does not equal nachos, which I've had a very intense craving for lately.

A funny story - I was at Walmart a few weeks ago, before the detox, and was just buying some vegetables. I didn't have a large order, only about 6 or 7 bags of different produce, which I placed on the belt. There was a little 7 or 8 year old boy in front of me with his mother who was eyeing my purchases for awhile before he leaned into his mother and whispered, "Why does she have all of those vegetables??" His mother, turned and looked at my order, looked at me, and then turned back to her son and with a dead-serious voice said, "Because that's what weird people eat." I almost started giggling because it was so odd, but at the same time sad that buying vegetables anymore constitutes "weird behavior."

And now it's time to go start warming up "dinner."