Detox Recap

photo via nibs

After all my whining over cheese, I thought it only fair to do a little recap of my two week detox to let you know how it actually went down.

My initial goal for going into this craziness was to "recalibrate" my diet a bit -- I've been indulging, well... a lot this summer, in fact so much so that I'd abandoned the concept of "special occasion" eating (dessert and/or wine had become the norm instead of the exception...) I thought going spartan for a couple of weeks would help me cleanse my body a bit and get me back on track before the bacchanal otherwise known as the holidays.

So for 14 days, I didn't consume any alcohol, dairy, sugar, caffeine, red meat, processed foods, flour, gluten and soy... for the most part. I did indulge in a small (4 ounces or so) cup of coffee every morning, as I didn't want to contend with a raging headache, but I was almost "perfect", staying full on brown rice, veggies and fruit, raw nuts, beans, organic chicken and pork, fish and oatmeal. I also consumed quite possibly the grossest drink on earth every morning -- 8 ounces of unsweetened cranberry juice with a big scoop of green "super food". Friends, I can't tell you how awful this was. It took every. single. ounce. of my resolve to get it down without gagging, but I suspect it contributed to the major upside of this experiment -- my super human energy.

Now honestly I'm not sure that some of my newfound energy wasn't psychological, but during the 14 days spent detoxing, I woke up about an hour earlier every morning (without an alarm clock) and didn't fall into my typical mid-afternoon slump. I also generally felt better, and yes (in case you're wondering), I also lost a couple of pounds.

So all in all, it was worth the monotony of of my meals and the absence of cheese. I think I'm going to try and do it a few times a year...maybe ;-)