7 days, 7 pounds

Well, I lasted a whole week on the detox! And I am down 7 pounds. Wow, wow, wow. I never thought I would last this long, never thought the weight would come off that quickly and never thought that I would actually not be hungry. And I totally never thought that not only would I have the willpower to do it, it wouldn't even need all that much willpower in the first place.

I am following this plan. Kinda, sorta. Loosely. Trust me, I was very skeptical of the detox. A bunch of women at work got into it last summer, and I scoffed and said that they would never keep the weight off. But most of them have, surprisingly. Well, at least a good portion of it. And then a few of them started up again this summer and I got suckered in.

The author expects you to do colonics, and follow this regimen of green drinks and berry drinks, with fresh veggie juice for lunch, and soup for dinner. But I have been doing my own thing, pureeing fruit and fruit juice along with a "greens" powder so I have one mixed, juice, and I make enough of it to have it several times in the day. But it's a filling juice, because it has lots of pulp and spirulina and other good stuff in it. Most mornings I have had a fiber drink in the mornings as one of my juices. And then I've been having soup twice a day but no veggie juice. And no colonics or enemas or any of the many other things she recommends. But it seems to be working. The key is to take in 8oz of something that gives you nutrients, like a juice/greens powder mix or a soup, every 2 hours. Religiously. Not letting yourself go much longer than 2 hours so you don't get starving hungry is crucial. And usually I try to have 8oz juice then 8oz herbal tea then 8oz water, at least in the morning. By mid afternoon I am down to less volume as I might cut out a water drink, or a tea, or whatever. But I am basically drinking all day. No protein, no salt, no dairy, no chewing. There's also a specific plan for breaking the detox, including when to introduce protein and other things.

On the health front, I am finally feeling happy and energetic. I think I got over the crabbiness slump and the headachey period. I can see some rosiness in my cheeks which didn't used to be there and it might be my imagination but I think the dark circles under my eyes are lighter. My fingers and toes no longer ache, but I am still getting a small amount of foot puffiness by the end of the evening. And as for bathroom issues, I am feeling very "light" in that regard. Meaning that although I usually "go" every day, often I still feel kind of blocked up. And sometimes I find that I'm not feeling too "empty" and need to go again 2 hours later because my body didn't do a good job of clearing everything out in one go. Sometimes by the end of the day I feel like my stomach looks like a balloon because I am constipated. Even if I've already pooped twice that day so I am not in fact constipated. So right now I'm only "going" once, and not feeling balloon-like by the end of the day, which is nice.

I think I'm going to stick at it until Monday morning, which will be 10 full days, then I'm going to do 5 days of super healthy food in accordance with the schedule to break the detox (so I can have some protein, and more importantly, can chew some food), then go into another 10 days of detox so I can really try to get 10-15 pounds off before I go back to my sparkpeople plan of eating 1700 ish calories a day.