21 Day Detox

I've been preparing for a marathon.  My goal is not to cover any mileage with my legs or feet, but to detoxify and restore health by diet.  Encouraged by a team of instructors and clients at the doyoga4you studio who have successfully done the detox before, I committed to attend the kick-off meeting.  I've also made a commitment to journal about it here on my blog every few days.

Janell Yule of Chanhassen Fitness Revolution is the developer of the program and presented the case for how a detoxifying diet plan can work to assist our overly taxed systems from the Standard American Diet. (SAD)  Typically, I choose fresh organic foods when possible.  And I've never been grossly overweight.  But after my 60th birthday last year I noticed a substantial shift of extra flesh around my waist.  My clothing didn't feel comfortable.  I wasn't gaining pounds, but I was loosing muscle mass.  

Over the past week I've been grooming myself for the challenge.  With Janell's list of diet do's and diet don'ts I was armed to face a field trip to Whole Foods.  This was not an inexpensive field trip.   But it did include staples like coconut oil and almond butter that should last three weeks.  I purged most of the offending sugary and gluten laden items out of my pantry.  I started to wean myself from the 2 or 3 cups of Richard's kick ass morning coffee with cream to one cup.  Saturday night I licked the last smidgen of cream cheese frosting from the packaging of my carrot cake birthday cake.  

A typical breakfast on the detox plan might look like this: 

Protein is the showcase of any meal, surrounded by vegetables and fruit.  Considering that last night's leftover cooked vegetables can be an appropriate breakfast food was a lightbulb moment!  I learned that one egg is truly not enough protein per meal for an average sized woman, so I also drank a large glass of almond milk.  A few strips of crisp, uncured bacon would have been perfect on this plate.

The meat and potatoes of this plan are what may be referred to as the paleo diet.  It's based on what our caveman ancestors may have eaten which includes grass fed meats, seafood, eggs, fruits and vegetable, nuts and seeds and healthful unrefined oils.  in addition, this plan also eliminates many of the foods that are most offending to autoimmune disease.   What I was forced to consider was my relationship to sugar, caffeine and alcohol.  Janell's program explains the science behind the cycle cravings with my morning cup of coffee and english muffin and jam.  And how I could expect that after detoxifying my system of these sugar highs and lows I could hope to see improvements in energy and focus.  

I'll be sharing my thoughts, recipes and reflections on my detox diet over the next 3 weeks!