Started the day, which was at noon for me (recovering from jet lag), with a pineapple and apple juice. A surprisingly delightful combination of flavours. Abhorring food wastage, half hour later we finished off the bacon, eggs and hash browns.
After some research for shopping items, we visited the local health food store and supermarket. Between the two we added more vegies and fruits to our basket, along with:
- psyllium husk and LSA mix (linseed, sunflowers and almond meal) both a source of dietary fibre;
- quinoa (alternative to rice or cous cous) for its protein, digestibility and gluten-free characteristics;
- nuts and seeds for their protein, vitamins B & E, calcium, iron, essential fatty-acids;
- dried beans and chickpeas for low-fat protein, vitamins and minerals;
- dried prunes to protect against osteoporosis, has vitamins A & K, it's a carbohydrate and antioxidant and has a low glycemic index (GI) rating;
- ciabatta stick for John and Trini to finish off the ham and cheese.
We all indulged in a vegie juice made up of cucumber, carrot, celery & psyllium husk (for the adults). John and Trini also had their ciabatta with tomato, ham and cheese.
We've had 6 glasses of water, a mix of distilled and Perrier with lime. Not quite the minimum requirement of 8 glasses per day but we are working our way towards it.
It is midnight and I am feeling peckish but it is to be expected as I am taking in less than my stomach size. Ideally the intake will cover various aspects of protein, fibre, iron, calcium, sodium, carbs and natural sugar for my sweet tooth.
Finishing the night off with a cup of Rooibos Tea. A South African herbal, it acts as an antioxidant, lowers blood pressure, cardiovascular protection, inhibits brain aging, prevents DNA damage to name a few. Thanks Marc & Lindz for introducing us to it.
Day 2
The day started with a tall glass of distilled water each and lime slices. Apparently this kickstarts the liver. Fifteen minutes later we indulged in a watermelon, nashi pear & kiwis juice with 1 tsp of psyllium husk for fiber stirred in.
During the day we drank both distilled and carbonated water and had a cup of coffee to ward off headaches.
Late afternoon John made a delicious mix of 2 beetroots, 2 celery, half a fresh ginger, 2 carrots, 1 orange and 1 apple juice. It made a large jug with me having 700ml and John about 150ml. I added 1tsp of LSA for protein. The juice was my main meal, whereas John had his ciabatta roll with cheese, ham, hommus, tomato and pickles (he was good enough to move away from me so I don't drool).
Early evening snack we served ourselves a handful of mixed nuts and seeds.
Continued with the water intake which totalled about 1.5L each (helps starting with the big glass we have as it takes 700ml) and we are finishing off with a cup of Rooibos tea.
The shock to my system is when I prepare a sandwich for Trini and I automatically wanted to have a piece of cheese, slice of ham. My fingers were itching but thankfully I abstained. I also had Trini later shove a creamy Cornetto ice cream in my face telling me to try. Managed to abstain again.
Physical symptoms are light headedness and just the desire to relax but that is also the remnants of my jetlag.
Day 3
As a way of using up leftover stuff we made a mix of tidbits of whatever was left in the fridge for brekky.
Whilst I am nearly over the jetlag, today's greater challenge was surviving a BBQ. Imagine the smell of sausages, burgers and skewers tantalising our nostrils and tastebuds. Thankfully we were saved by the delicious Quinoa salad with raisins, parsley, pinenuts and lemon juice for dressing. We abstained from alcohol and drowned ourselves in mineral water.
The pretty pink chocolate birthday cake was very enticing so we let Trini indulge but managed to abstain yet again. Phew.
By the time we got home, I was hanging out for food and so we cleaned up the veggie crisper some more followed by a handful of nuts and seeds.
Had one cup of coffee and tomorrow I will go for no coffee. We are settling in for the evening with lime mineral water and will finish up with a Rooibos tea.
All in all, I was very impressed with our will to stick to our diet and not give into temptation.
Day 4
I was intending to do a mono diet today, which is basically 1-1.5kg of one type of fruit for the whole day. Papaya being a little more substantial than some of the other suggestions was my fruit of choice. I prepared it for 4 meals, interspersed with water.
Three out of four serves were eaten but when John made another awesome beetroot juice (see Day 2), I couldn't resist it and had to have it. We mixed 1 tablespoon of LSA into the juice instead of 1 teaspoon. Somewhere in the afternoon I also ingested 5 dried prunes and had no coffee (no headaches either so the approach worked very well for me - along with lots of water to keep flushing the body).
An evening walk down the pier just beckoned, so we took this opportunity to put Trini in her new rollerblades and get her outside with them.
We finished the evening with another handful of nuts and seeds.
The only difficulty I had today was the lack of energy. Each time I lifted something a little heavier my heart would start racing as my body was working harder. Tried to go to sleep earlier and then John recommended a new book for me for me to read in bed and well the hours just slipped away.
Day 5
Juice today was watermelon, kiwis and grapes. An unusual combination but we still enjoyed it.
Lunch was my leftover serve of papaya fruit and afternoon snack was a sliced banana, sprinkled with LSA and small drizzle of honey (so yummy my daughter devoured her serve).
Dinner was a tomatoes, celery and carrot juice. Found that the carrots overrode the tomato flavour but then unless the tomato is straight out of the garden you don't get much flavour in them anyway.
Finished off with a half hour rollerblade as a way to ease myself into it, followed by mixed nuts.
Let's just say my glutes worked more than they have in way too many years.
In overall it was a smooth day. Dealt with hunger pangs but just poured more water into me (I can only begin to imagine what the food and water deprived people on our planet must go through everyday). It's amazing how those hunger pangs pass. Probably the unexpected came at midnight when I went to bed and I got one of those headaches across the crown of my head where I thought it would split in two. After contending with it for an hour, I relieved the pain with Panadol. Slept like a baby afterwards.
Day 6
Morning began with pineapple, carrots, celery and apple juice. Not wanting a juice for lunch, I made a pumpkin and cumin soup. An old recipe that I have used many times over the years (extracted from a detox diet cookbook), I altered slightly in order to keep it as natural as possible, meaning no oil or commercial stock. The natural flavour of the pumpkin permeated into the water which was further enhanced with ground cumin, coriander, garlic and ginger. Blend and serve (added a dollop of yoghurt for Trini since she is not detoxing).
Snacked on another banana, LSA & honey mix as yesterday in the afternoon and mixed nuts and seeds at night.
Finishing off with a Rooibos tea but I can feel the same headache coming on.
Whilst video chatting with my sister in Oz, she complimented me on my improved facial complexion. I have noticed it as well in the last couple of days so it was good to have it verified by someone who didn't know till now that I was detoxing.
Day 7
Breakfast - 5 oranges, 1 lemon, 3 carrots and ginger
Lunch - White cabbage, carrots and apple soup (altered to remove commercial stock and oil from recipe)
Dinner - 2 nashi pears, 3 sticks of celery, 1 carrot, 0.5 ginger, stalks of parsley juiced.
Snack - mixed nuts
Water - averaging 2-2.5L per day
Exercise - rollerblading 90 minutes
First week is complete. It went faster than anticipated and have had some pleasant results so far. Largest feat was surviving the BBQ without breaking our resolve. No alcohol, no burgers, no sausages, no pasta salads, no cake.
John has lost half a kilo but we figured that it is too hard to have weight loss for me and weight gain for him as concurrent objectives. For now he keeps me company in my morning and dinner juices and he has a solid meal at lunchtimes.
When this detox is complete we will concentrate on John's desire to gain weight and undertake the relevant research in relation to this exercise.
Without further ado, here are my stats at the end of the first week:
Age - 42
Height - 170cm (5"7')
Weight - 69.3kg (lost 1.9kg)
Natural Waist - 76cm (lost 5cm)
Waist around navel - 84 (lost 2cm)
Hips - 107cm (lost 3cm)
Thighs - 62cm (lost 1cm)
Breast - 95cm (lost 1cm)
Calf Muscle - 39cm (lost 1cm)
I am enjoying the process simply because I find it fascinating how the body knows where to extract the stored fats and burn it. I feel as if I am melting throughout the night and as I wake up in the morning I find another 300-500gms gone.
This detox is certainly not for the faint hearted. Up until now, I never had the will to engage in a weight loss program. Now I just do it because it needs to be done. It is made easier knowing each day is planned and when meal time arrives we just juice the daylights out of the fruit/vegies. We have enough recipe books to help us out with ideas and the trial and error makes it fun as to what is nice and what is just okay. Kind of like experimenting with cooking.
Stay tuned for next week's post and see how we go over the next seven days.
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| Carrot, celery, nashi pears & parsley. |
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| LSA mix is visible at the bottom of the glass. |
