Day 7-
Today's diet:
On waking: Hot water with a slice of lemon.
Breakfast: Wheat and yeast free muesli with rice milk and banana.
Morning snack: 5 almonds, 2 cups of green tea.
Lunch: About 6 falafel balls and about 15 cubes of tofu fried with olive oil, salt, garlic and lemon.
Afternoon snack: 15 almonds.
Dinner: Roast chicken with roast parsnip, roast carrots, roast garlic, steamed cauliflower, brussel sprouts & broccoli.
After dinner snack: Lemon & Ginger tea with 1 tsp honey.
At least 2 litres of filtered water throughout the day.
Exercise: Does an hour of vacuuming count?
Sleep: About 7 hours- woke up twice for 1/2 and hour each time.

I did manage to resist all temptations at mother's group today, even the delicious looking sandwiches and cakes and the coffee that smelled fantastic. I was at a loss for what to take as a finger food/lunch item and decided to heat some falafel balls and take some fried cubes of tofu. Interestingly enough, a lot of the toddlers really liked the tofu and there wasn't much of either left at the end of the session, so that was good. AND..wow, I have now spent an entire week on the detox!!

So do I feel any different? Hmmmm...if I'm honest, not really. I feel slightly less bloated (could be imagining things though), but I don't have any more energy yet and, well how do I put this...I don't feel as though my body has been getting rid of any toxins really. I mean I haven't had any nausea, stomach aches, palpitations or anything much except the odd headache. I could guess that this is either because it still isn't working yet, or maybe my body wasn't that toxic to begin with. On the up side my chronic cough seems to have settled down a fair bit, but I am still lethargic, sluggish, sore and overweight, so I will continue with the next two weeks of the Detox hoping to fix that.

There are a number of Detox Supplements that you can take as recommended optional extras to speed things along. They fall into 4 main categories: Amino Acids, Antioxidants, Digestive Aids and Liver & Kidney Nutrients. I really like the fact that Joshi has listed all of the names of the supplements (which should be available in chemists or health food stores), what they do and work best for and which foods you can find them in naturally. I have changed my diet to include a lot of the foods mentioned, namely soy, fish, legumes, eggs, nuts & whole grains. But there are some that I find are particularly good for liver cleansing and I think I might grab some of those for the next week of the Detox. These are the ones I think I'll take:

Choline and Inositol: Good for liver cleansing, kidneys & gall bladder, formation of lecithin, metabolising fat, stress reduction and improved brain function.

Milk Thistle: Protects the liver and kidneys from toxins and pollutants.

Lecithin: Improves the liver's ability to metabolise fats and allows cholesterol to disperse in water so that it can travel around the body to where it is needed or eliminated, particularly good for those with the condition of 'fatty liver'.

All of the above sound like me, so I'll be paying another visit to the health food store to grab these and perhaps a multivitamin. Most of the others I'm happy to get from food and other natural sources.