Detox redux

A few weeks ago I wrote about my first delivery of Detox Delight. I had committed to a 5 day juice fast and I was excited about trying a new, healthy experience. I was hoping to shed some weight, and be one of those cool people who can say, “Oh, yes, I’ve done a detox.” It sounds so enlightened, n’est-ce pas?

Like the American expat I met last month who went into ecstasies about the 43 liquid fast she’d do every year when she lived in the US. I was totally impressed as she went on about the evolution and how your body adapts over time. I asked why she’d stopped her annual tradition.

“Are you kidding? We live in France now, honey. I am not going to deprive myself of French cuisine for 43 days!”

But exactly how enlightened was I? Or rather, how light had become?

First of all, let me say that I cheated. On the evening of the fourth day we had a dinner date that had been planned months earlier. There was no way I could cancel, or re-schedule. But with that one exception, I stuck to the program. I loved the first few days, feeling virtuous and all that, but by day three, my mouth was craving texture, my taste buds crying out for some variety, I wanted to cry each evening as I prepared the family dinner (yes, I still had dinner duty). What saved me was the authorization to eat a piece of dried fruit or a few nuts each day. I’d cherish my little snacks like precious gem stones.

The results? I lost 2.5 kilos, and put 1 back on almost immediately. The rest has stayed off despite a ski holiday that included a daily tea time treat, 6 units of alcohol and 1 fondue dinner. Which kind of gives you an idea of the true results; I am healthier.

Detox has made me super conscious of everything I eat, and inspired me to adjust some of my eating habits;

1/ I’ve been driven to drink. Detox Delight suggests drink 2 litres of water a day, in addition to your “meals”. Well, I am back on solids, but I’m still drinking like a mad women, which seems to have my skin looking healthier than it has in ages, pleasantly plump and hydrated. Last week a neighbor didn’t recognize me at the grocery store. “I thought it was you, but then I thought, non, Sylvia’s way older than that!”

2/ I’ve gone dry. All that drinking has me thinking about what I do drink, so my alcohol consumption has gone way down. On holidays I had the equivalent of a drink per day, but in Paris its now closer to 2 drinks per week. The hardest part was learning how to get around social drinking. At my “cheat” dinner, I had to excuse myself and explain why I wasn’t having an apéro. You’d have thought a green head was growing out of my left shoulder by the expression on their face as I explained the concept of Detox.

3/ Bye bye bread. I’ve nearly cut it out of my diet. Unless its an integral part of my meal, like that fondue I had in the Alps, a pulled pork sandwich from a local wine bar, or perhpas the wrappers around the gyoza I’ll be having for lunch today. I am not eating bread after breakfast and I am avoiding starches all together. Proteins keep me from being hungry, vegetables fill me up, so this seemed like the easiest thing for me to cut back on.

4/ Veg-o-rama! I was a vegetarian for much of my adult life. Then I moved to Paris and became a confirmed carnivore. I even love a good tartare now! But French cuisine is not a big fan of vegetables, considering both beans and potatoes a worthy substitute. While a hearty cassoulet is a scrumptious feast, and is just what the doctor ordered for hearty men working out in the frozen fields from dawn until dusk, it is not exactly on my prescription sheet, so I am re-learning to build my meals around foods that recently had roots.

I am loving all the healthy influences of Detox Delight, but those five days were torture for an undisciplined gal like me. Next time I’d be tempted to choose their option that includes salads, and foods with textures. But I think the best solution for me would be a weekly Detox Delight, allowing me to clean out my system and reminding me to stay on track for the rest of the week, month, year!

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7 thoughts on “Detox redux

  1. Easier (and cheaper) than a detox juice diet is the 5:2 diet out of England. Here’s the BBC documentary that started it all:

    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xu7eyp_bbc-eat-fast-and-live-longer-jedz-posti-sa-a-yi-dlhyie_shortfilms?search_algo=2#.UUJxhVdUVzk

    For weight loss, you “fast” two days a week — by fasting, it means consuming only 500 calories, any way you’d like to, over the course of a day. I eat mine at dinner in one lovely meal. The other five days of the week, you eat normally. For maintenance, for the added health benefits, you fast 1 day a week (6:1 maintenance).

    My husband has lost 14 pounds since January 8, and I have lost 9 — on top of that, my thyroid has been slow (confirmed by a blood test last week) so the idea I lost any weight at all with a slow thyroid is simply amazing. We love it. It’s given us the same sort of new look at food that your detox has given you. And once you get over the fear of “fasting” you realize it’s just not that hard to go one day without eating until dinner. I have black coffee in the morning, and plenty of water and herbal tea all day long.

    Sorry if I got preachy about it — it’s just the excitement of the newly converted 😉

  2. BTW, you don’t fast on consecutive days. we often do Mondays and Wednesdays to get the fast days out of the way for the week. If hubby did not have weekly lunch meetings with on Thursdays, we’d probably do Monday & Thursday. It doesn’t really matter what days you chose, so long as there is at least one day between them.

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