Day 21-
Today's diet:
On waking: Hot water with a slice of lemon.
Breakfast: Gluten and wheat-free muesli with rice milk and a banana. Green tea.
Morning snack: A homemade vegetable muffin (had to test them).
Lunch: 1 small triangle sandwich, 3 vegetable muffins (2 cups of organic barley flour, 1&1/2 cups of plain bio yoghurt, 2 eggs, 4 teaspoons of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of salt, grated carrots, grated beetroot, sliced leek & baby spinach, all sauteed, 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, cracked black pepper). Green tea.
Afternoon snack: 1 boiled egg and carrot sticks with dip. Peppermint tea.
Dinner: Roast chicken with vegetables (pumpkin, carrots, parsnip, garlic, broccoli, brussel sprouts and corn).
After dinner snack: Lemon and Ginger tea with honey.
At least 2 litres of filtered water throughout the day.
Exercise: 45 minute exercise DVD- Jillian Michaels "Banish Fat & Boost Metabolism".
Sleep: About 6&1/2 hours- woke up at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up at 6am and exercised.
    

Had a bit of an early morning today, had my usual issue of my daughter waking me at 5am and then not being able to get back to sleep. The last time that happened (yesterday) it took me two hours to get back to sleep and I was cranky when I was woken again. So this time I gave up after an hour of trying to get back to sleep and decided it was a great opportunity to get my exercise done for the day, and it was. I got through the entire 7 circuits on Jillian Michaels' 'Banish Fat and Boost Metabolism'. It was pretty good, but lots of jumping and bouncing around, I really must go and buy myself a decent sports bra and a new pair of runners. I think I actually prefer the other DVD of hers that I've tried, 'No more trouble zones'. Lots of mat work...

I had parents' group again today and was at a bit of a loss again as to what to bring. My mother-in-law knows I like to experiment and brought over some barley flour a while ago. I didn't have any idea of how to cook with it so I looked up some recipes online, turns out barley flour is completely interchangeable for plain flour in baking, it makes things slightly more dense and has 3 times the fibre of plain wheat flour. It was a bit difficult to find any recipes without fruit, sugar, milk, butter, etc, but I came across a muffin recipe, and exchanged the milk for plain yoghurt, the  butter for oil and the fruit and sugar for vegetables and parmesan cheese. It could have done with more cheese and some spice, paprika maybe.

So that's the end of the Detox!!!! Yay!!! I made it with, to my way of thinking, minimal cheating and it really wasn't as hard as I thought. I'm going to do my usual weigh-in and charts tomorrow, and though I'm going into the Maintenance Program for another 3 weeks, I will be spending the next 2 days enjoying some of the things I found it really hard to give up. It will be very interesting to note my reactions to different things, I wonder if I will still like certain things I used to, or if my palate really has changed so much that I don't enjoy them anymore. I will be sticking to the Detox rules in general though, I'm not about to go to KFC for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but just for the next 2 days, I will eat meat, chocolate, probably wheat of some kind, drink coffee with milk and sugar and maybe even have a glass of wine....

Day 20-
Today's diet:
On waking: Hot water with a slice of lemon.
Breakfast: Gluten and wheat-free muesli with rice milk and a banana. Green tea.
Morning snack: missed morning tea today.
Lunch: Chicken breast served with carrots, cauliflower and zucchini. Green tea.
Afternoon snack: 1/2 a cup of biodynamic bush honey yoghurt (Jalna). Peppermint tea.
Dinner: (Homemade) pumpkin soup with 1&1/2 slices of gluten and yeast-free bread. Peppermint tea.
After dinner snack: Lemon and Ginger tea with honey.
At least 2 litres of filtered water throughout the day.
Exercise: 1&1/2 hour bushwalk with my husband and daughter.
Sleep: About 7 hours- woke up once, but it took me 2 hours to get back to sleep.

Lovely day today, my husband was home and though we had a bit of running around to do in the morning, we were able to go out for the afternoon. So we took ourselves off for a drive and visited a cozy pub with a roaring fire for lunch. It wasn't as tricky to order out as I thought. I told the lady behind the bar I was on a Detox and she totally understood. Green tea and chicken with vegetables, not so difficult. Although the vegetables the meal came with were carrots, zucchini, potato and cauliflower. I couldn't eat the potatoes or zucchini, but the rest was nice. Covered the chicken in lemon juice and salt, Yum! After that we drove to a nice place to have a walk and had a great time exploring a new track, despite the bad weather. Eventually though, the rain became too heavy and we had to turn back, but it was a really enjoyable way to get some exercise.

Joshi devotes quite a few pages to how to eat out in a healthy way. He runs through the healthiest options in a number of different cuisines, here is a short list:

Chinese: Fresh vegetable and chicken stir-fry, steamed fish and vegetables, duck (without the skin), chicken satay, chicken and sweetcorn soup, plain steamed rice.---AVOID--- soy sauce, glutinous sauces, MSG, anything fried, pancakes and noodles made from wheat.

Thai: Rice paper rolls, chicken satay, warm salads, chicken and vegetable stir-fry, steamed fish, rice noodles---AVOID---anything fried, seafood dishes (mercury), spicy curries (acid-forming), fried rice, pork or beef dishes.

Indian: paneer, sauteed spinach, grilled chicken tikka, tandoori, chicken cooked with herbs, dahls, pilau rice, riata---AVOID---spicy curries (acid-forming), kormas (creamy), nan breads & chapatis (unless made from chickpea or lentil flour and not wheat), popadoms unless grilled, chutney (high in sugar).

Italian: Buffalo mozzerella and salad, risottos, grilled chicken or fish dishes, vegetables---AVOID---pizza, pasta, sauces, bread, salad dressing, parmesan cheese.

Japanese: Edamame, salads with chicken or fish, spinach dishes, yakitori, sushi & sashami, ramen (but ask for rice noodles), miso soups, tofu, plain rice---AVOID---anything fried (tempura), gyoza (dumplings), egg noodles, don buri (crumbed and fried meat), pickles and mayonaise.

French: Soup, fish dishes, chicken dishes, vegetables---AVOID---all sauces, steak, french fries.

Middle Eastern: Mezze plates, hummus, tzatsiki, bab ghanoush, pitta bread, carrot sticks, falafel, chicken kibbeh, grilled chicken---AVOID---couscous, tabbouleh, fried pastries.

American Diner: Soup, salad without dressing, fried chicken or fish without sauce, sandwiches without bread---AVOID---pretty much everything else.

Most of this follows the same rules as the Detox in general, ie, avoid wheat, dairy, oils, vinegar, sugar, spicy food, seafood, red meat and anything processed. The main point that Joshi stresses is that you are the customer, do not be afraid to ask what is in a dish/ how it is prepared/ if they can do a healthier version.

To me though, always ordering chicken or fish and vegetables when you go out kinda takes the fun out of it, but I will certainly try to have a look at some of the dishes on the menu that I may have overlooked in the past. And as Joshi says, once you're into the maintenance program, you can introduce a greater variety of foods again. The occasional treat is no big deal, your body will cope, but you may feel a little bloated/ill afterwards.

Day 19-
Today's diet:
On waking: Hot water with a slice of lemon.
Breakfast: A slice of gluten and yeast-free bread with feta and a poached free-range egg. Green tea.
Morning snack: A banana. Detox tea.
Lunch: (Homemade) pumpkin soup with a slice of gluten and yeast-free toast.
Afternoon snack: Carrot and celery sticks. About 20 almonds & 10 pecan halves.
Dinner: Gluten free pasta with a smoked salmon sauce (salmon, asparagus, grated parsnip, about 2 tablespoons of light cream cheese, garlic, salt, pepper).
After dinner snack: Lemon and Ginger tea with honey.
At least 2 litres of filtered water throughout the day.
Exercise: Vacuuming and other exciting housework type things....
Sleep: About 7 hours- woke up once.

I can't believe I have been doing this detox for nearly 3 weeks and it hasn't even really been that hard. I mean, I am still tempted by certain things, I cooked spaghetti bolognaise for my husband and daughter tonight (who were thrilled to be eating tomato, red meat and cheese for a change) and I almost had a spoonful of the sauce, but I resisted. I have to say that my cravings for sweet things and coffee have really reduced too, I barely think about it anymore, even if I am out at a cafe, so that's progress.

The other funny thing about this whole process is that it feels very much like when I quit smoking 6 and a half years ago. I read a book, something resonated with me and it was enough to make me change my daily habits dramatically. I felt terrible for the first couple of weeks (just like the detox) and wasn't sure I would make it, but I did and felt much better and continue to be happy to this day that I made that decision for my health. Perhaps many of the eating habits of this detox will stay with me after all and I'll be happy in another 5 years that I made the decision to eat better quality food and tried to reduce or avoid foods that were generally likely to cause my body trouble. Joshi even uses much of the same language as the book I read to quit smoking, as if bad food is actually a drug:

"Feeding your craving will only make it worse. Finding alternatives will not only take away the need to cheat but possibly put your body into shock if you do cheat. If you have not eaten refined sugars only for a week and then succumb to a biscuit or slice of cake, you may suffer a headache or feel bloated. You just got your body back onto a healthy, even keel, and used to having a low blood sugar level, and then you suddenly gave it a major hit, sending that level sky-high. Even so, it isn't the end of the world if this happens. Just resume your intention to establish -for yourself- the discipline of eating nutritional foods, and keep reminding yourself that foods with low nutritional value are only feeding the old cravings and not the new, Detoxed you."

These are the foods you are supposed to AVOID or REDUCE:
- Acidic drinks, ie orange juice, apple juice etc
- Alcohol, especially beer & wine
- All fruit/ fruit juices except bananas
- Baked beans, pizza, processed food, fried and spicy foods.
- Low-fat or Reduced fat yoghurts and foods (usually loaded with sugar and chemicals)
- Bread/wheat and gluten products, pasta
- Dairy foods
- Fizzy drinks, tonic water, and carbonated flavoured water.
- Nuts (except pine nuts and seeds) - (missed this completely!!!! Ooops, must stop eating almonds etc.)
- Potatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, capsicums, peppers and avocados.
- Red meat
- Shellfish, prawns, mussels, crab, lobster, shrimp.
- Sugar and chocolates, cakes, biscuits, croissants, muffins.
- Tea/Coffee (except green tea and herbal teas)
- Tomato ketchup, vinegar, mustard, sauces, chutneys.
- Yeast and yeast products (soy sauce, pickles, Vegemite)

These are the foods you are supposed to INCREASE:
- Brown rice
- Buffalo mozzarella (occasionally as a cheese alternative)
- Dark green vegetables (except avocados which are acidic and should be eaten in moderation)
- Eggs (but no more than 3-4 times per week)
- Fish (especially oily fish but not shellfish, tuna or swordfish)
- Freshly made vegetable juices
- Freshly made vegetable soups
- Gluten free oatmeal made with rice milk or water
- Gluten free/ wheat free breads
- Gluten free/ wheat free cereals
- Goat's cheese, ricotta, cottage cheese.
- Honey
- Live yoghurt
- Olive oil
- Pulses/lentils/chick peas
- Salads (excluding tomatoes and peppers) and steamed vegetables
- Soya and Tofu products
- Soya milk, rice milk, goats milk.
- White meat- chicken, turkey.
- NOTE- seasonings like salt and pepper are allowed in moderation.

So, yeah. It's not as though there's nothing you CAN eat....

Day 18-
Today's diet:
On waking: Hot water with a slice of lemon.
Breakfast: Gluten and Wheat free muesli with rice milk, lecithin, psyllium husks and banana. Green tea.
Morning snack: About 20 almonds & 10 pecan halves. Peppermint tea.
Lunch: (Homemade) vegetable soup with barley.
Afternoon snack:  Carrot and celery sticks.
Dinner: (Homemade) falafel with rocket, feta, (homemade) hommus and natural yoghurt.
After dinner snack: Lemon and Ginger tea with honey.
At least 2 litres of filtered water throughout the day.
Exercise: Doing the hokey-pokey at playgroup?? (6 verses warms you up a bit)
Sleep: About 8 hours- woke up once.

A better night's sleep last night, probably because of the exercise/manual labour yesterday. Wish I could say I was as productive today, felt like I spent the whole day running around in the car, playgroup, then the library, then a 45 minute drive in each direction to collect a free juicer! Yay!! Love freecycle. The lady who gave it to me said it's not heavy duty but should be fine for vegetables if I cut them up a bit. So, it needs a good clean and then I'll give some vegetable juice a go for the first time tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to it. I have mint, beetroot, ginger and all sorts of other vegies I can make into juice...

Joshi also recommends wheatgrass. "Wheatgrass is known in holistic healing circles for its therapeutic effect in fighting cancer, on blood purification, liver detoxification and colon cleansing." But it is really powerful, so you have to start with a small amount of it in water and then build up gradually to 6 ounces of wheatgrass juice a day without water. Joshi also says it also needs to be mixed thoroughly with your saliva and drunk slowly, 1 hour before meals. He gives instructions for growing wheatgrass and I might see if I can buy some seeds and give it a try.


It's lucky I like cooking, the food preparation on this detox has been pretty full-on. You do have to plan in advance, especially if you're spending the day out and about, because it is very difficult to find a meal/snack on the go that suits. So I'm up early cutting up carrot and celery sticks and heating soup. I have been taking thermos flasks of tea and soup with me everywhere. But it's winter and it was kind of nice to have a hot cup of soup to drink while my daughter was playing in the park today.

I cooked, or prepared, a lot of homemade food today, hommus, a batch of roast pumpkin soup (1/2 a large pumpkin, chopped and roasted until soft and just starting to brown, 2 litres of homemade chicken stock, 1 litre of water, one leek and one onion, fried until golden, 5 cloves of garlic roasted with the pumpkin, about a tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary, salt and pepper- boil all ingredients for about half an hour and then it all goes in a blender until smooth and creamy) and falafel balls, though this was a powder that came out of packet & you just add water, make balls and fry them.

I'm going to try to visit my Grandfather and his partner tomorrow. Usually when I visit them we have loads of tea & coffee, biscuits and cake. I'll be interested to see what he says when I tell him about the Detox, probably "That's nice love." ...

Day 17-
Today's diet:
On waking: Hot water with a slice of lime (ran out of lemons).
Breakfast: Gluten and wheat-free muesli with lecithin, psyllium husks and rice milk. Green tea.
Morning snack: Almonds and pecans. Peppermint tea.
Lunch: Homemade Pad Thai with chicken. Peppermint tea.
Afternoon snack: Miso soup with tofu.
Dinner: Vegetable stir-fry with carrots, broccoli, beans, cauliflower, garlic, spring onion and ginger. Tofu cooked with lemon, salt, garlic, olive oil and chilli.
After dinner snack: Lemon and Ginger tea with honey.
At least 2 litres of filtered water throughout the day.
Exercise: 30 minute brisk walk and 1 and a half hours of heavy digging/shoveling.
Sleep: About 9 hours- woke up 4 times.

Not too bad a day, great because I got to have a bit of a sleep-in and go for a walk this morning. I also managed to widen the trench I'm digging for a retaining wall and it always feels good to make progress on your projects.

But then, my husband is having quite a bad day and the stress & frustration he feels is hard to see. I guess we could both really use some of that stress-busting meditation tonight...

Back to strictly Detox food today and I'm actually glad, I feel better about myself! I was concerned about the lack of dairy in the Detox when I started the program, as I have always been sure that dairy products are the best source of calcium and without them, you are in danger of weakening your bones and contracting diseases such as osteoporosis. But Joshi has a different point of view on this topic and suggests that an overly acidic diet and over-consumption of protein may actually be one of the causes of osteoporosis:

"Since the 1970's our milk intake has steadily decreased and this has been blamed, in turn, for the equivalent decrease in our calcium levels- a decrease which means that one in three women now suffer from osteoporosis. However, according to recent research, the bone loss and deteriorating bone tissue that occur in osteoporosis are not due to calcium deficiency but to the fact that our bodies are excreting too much of the calcium they already have."

"The reasons for this loss of calcium are thought to be the over consumption of protein and a generally acidic diet. Foods such as meat, eggs -and dairy- make excessive demands on our kidneys as they try to eliminate their waste products (urea). During this process, calcium is leached from the body- the calcium that is needed for healthy teeth, bones and body tissue. In other words, rather than protecting against weak and brittle bones and diseases such as osteoporosis, milk could turn out to be their cause."

Joshi goes on to say that consuming too much milk could actually be bad for you and that this may be why American women have such a high incidence of osteoporosis despite being amongst the biggest consumers of calcium in the world. He compares this to Chinese women who get almost all of their calcium from fish and vegetables instead of dairy, rarely developing osteoporosis.

I had never considered this and I am also interested in some of the other issues Joshi has with (cow's) milk. He says that most people who are not of northern-European origin have trouble digesting lactose. It needs to be broken down by the enzyme lactase that lives in our bowels and if we absorb more lactose than we can digest, the surplus travels to the large intestine where is ferments. This can cause indigestion, bloating, cramps, nausea, tiredness and diarrhoea. Apparently more people are developing lactose intolerance as our bodies give up trying to make enough of the enzyme that breaks it down.

I am not sure that I will cut out milk completely, but if I do, I will need to consider iron and calcium supplements, as I don't like goat's milk and soy milk can mess with the hormonal balance within women. So rice milk it is.

 

Day 16-
Today's diet:
On waking: Hot water with a slice of lemon.
Breakfast: 1 poached free-range egg on a slice of gluten and yeast-free toast with avocado and salt and pepper. Green tea.
LIVER FLUSH- 300mls of grapefruit on lemon juice, 200mls filtered water, juice of 1 clove of garlic and a small piece of ginger and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Morning snack: Almonds, pecans and sunflower seeds. Carrot sticks. Lots of peppermint tea.
Lunch: 4 small triangles of sandwich (at least the fillings were healthy: chicken and tzatziki, egg and lettuce), 3 small sausage rolls, a small square of frittata, 2 crisps, 2 bites of home-made rocky road and 2 bites of chocolate birthday cake. Peppermint tea.
Afternoon snack:  Not necessary.
Dinner: Grilled salmon with brussel sprouts, cauliflower and carrots.
After dinner snack: Lemon and Ginger tea with honey.
At least 2 litres of filtered water throughout the day.
Exercise: 30 minute brisk walk
Sleep: About 7 1/2 hours- woke up once.

Well, as you can tell, I fell off the wagon in a big way today. A 2nd birthday party where I had been asked not to bring a thing was the cause. I guess it's easier to be healthy when you can bring your own food, but when you go to other people's houses and they cook for you, it is rather difficult. Still I could have limited the damage more than I did, but it was all so delicious and all home-made so at least it was free of preservatives and other nasties. There were two surprising results of today's eating though, the first is that it really didn't take much of that kind of food to fill me completely. There were a couple of hours and that was all I ate over that duration and I felt full. My husband didn't restrain himself at all and felt decidedly ill. After all, this is the first tangible sugar we've had in ages.



The other, more positive, effect was to make me realise that I don't really miss this food as much as I thought I did. I feel a bit funny about this. Does this mean that from now on anything unhealthy will make me bloated and ill? Does this mean that I won't enjoy coffee or chocolate or red meat or wine ever again??? Doesn't bear thinking of. I'm sure I would lead a much healthier life, but I would still like to enjoy those things, just far less often than I have in the past.

We will see, I have planned Day 22 to be my 'Day of Decadence' between the Detox and the Maintenance Program and plan to have a coffee, a chocolate and probably some kind of red meat with dinner.

On the plus side for today, I managed to go for a lovely 30 minute brisk walk in the morning and do my liver flush when I came back. I completely forgot to do the breathing that went with it and rather than lying down for 2 hours afterwards, I got to sit in the car for an hour and a half as we drove to the birthday party. I also received compliments from the people at the party about the way I looked and was told I was 'glowing'. So that was nice, I'm happy to have some positive reinforcement. There was a lot of curiosity about the Detox, so I told anyone who asked whatever they wanted to know and a few interesting facts came up. One of the guys there actually gets gout, so I was able to share what Joshi had written about that as I found it surprising.

There are two reasons why we are avoiding fruit and veg from the deadly nightshade family (potatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers(chillis) and capsicum). The first is that they are all related to the poison-ivy family, so are potentially poisonous to the body and specific food intolerances to these sorts of foods can build up over years. The other reason is that they are very acidic and particularly tomatoes will cause your body to absorb calcium from your bones to neutralise this acidity, making you vulnerable to osteoporosis. Also the chemicals and nutrients they contain encourage a build-up of uric acid, which is what causes gouty pain. Joshi also states that "An excess of spicy foods, red meat and red wine also has the same effect." My husband isn't keen on this information, he puts chilli on everything.



The information regarding osteoporosis is also very interesting, and Joshi discusses other causes of this disease later in the book, I'll write about that tomorrow.

Day 15-
Today's diet:
On waking: Hot water with a slice of lemon.
Breakfast: Gluten and Wheat free muesli with rice milk, lecithin, psyllium husks and banana. Green tea.
Morning snack: About 20 almonds.
Lunch: 2 brown rice, avocado and chicken Nori (sushi) rolls.
Afternoon snack:  Miso soup.
Dinner: (Homemade) Pad Thai with chicken. Lemon and Ginger tea.
After dinner snack: Lemon and Ginger tea with honey.
At least 2 litres of filtered water throughout the day.
Exercise: 2 hours of shopping...ummm...
Sleep: About 7 1/2 hours- woke up twice.

Feeling good and going well despite a couple of slight cheats. So, after 2 weeks on the Detox how is my progress?

- My cough has lessened even more. In fact (sorry to be graphic here) there is definitely less mucus floating around in my airways in general.
- I now weigh 104kg, so I've lost 5kgs in total so far.
- My tongue still looks vaguely purple and has dints down the sides, so no change there.
- I still crave coffee, chocolate and red meat. Not concerned about bread of any kind.
- On the progress chart where you can mark your improvement in areas such as bloating, headaches, exercise, insomnia, mental clarity, skin problems and a number of other things: My mood has definitely improved and I feel like I'm sleeping better. No longer getting headaches, exercise levels have only slightly improved, I am less bloated and have lost weight.

I have also noticed some changes in my palate, I ate the nori rolls today and they tasted sweet! I've never noticed before, but of course there is mirin seasoning in the rice, which is slightly sweet. Shows what having no sugar for two weeks will do for you.

Again, Week 3 of the Detox Plan is the same as Week 2, except Joshi wants you to try to exercise at the beginning of the day, after hot water with lemon and before breakfast. Apparently exercising at this time boots your metabolism for the day ahead and burns more calories.

He also wants you to begin meditating as it relieves stress & illness, lowers blood pressure, boosts immune system and calms the mind. I have done the odd bit of meditation before, different ways and types. Mainly the type where you relax different parts of your body from your toes to your head and face and try to think nothing, or at least not get involved in the thoughts that run through your mind. The other type of meditation I'm reading about at the moment is called 'creative visualization'- put simply- manifesting the changes you want to see in the world by visualizing them as already being in existence. It's more complex than that though, and very interesting.

This is what Joshi asks you to do before you go to bed each night for the 3rd week:
- Sit comfortably, cross legged if possible with your hands resting gently on your thighs.
- Close your eyes and start to relax your body from head to toe.
- Start to breathe gently and slowly.
- Try to think about inhaling energy and exhaling stress.
- If your thoughts wander try to harness them to your breathing, focusing anew on each inhalation and each exhalation and evenly releasing tension through your breath.
- When you feel completely relaxed, open your eyes and stay still. Then after a few minutes make your way to bed for a good night's sleep.

There are more complex meditations in a later chapter, and it seems they have to do with creative visualization, so I might do the simple meditation each night for this week and then work on the visualizations.