Update June 2010 on How This Blog Became Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free and Mostly Vegan – I had originally named this series the Detox Diet Diaries, but my experience with these changes in my diet, while incredibly positive, has made me decide I really do not like the concept of a detox diet. It is ironic in that the diet my naturopath put me on was incredibly helpful, and a year later, it has become clear I have non-Celiac gluten intolerance, as well as a strong dairy intolerance. I continue to avoid all dairy and gluten, as well as other problematic foods such as corn, but have grown to really dislike the concept of “detox” – the term promotes the concept of a quick fix, which is just nonsensical. I firmly believe that the vast improvements in my health are based on the long-term changes I made, and want my posts on the experience to convey this.
Background: The Detox Diet Diaries recounts my story of doing a detox diet for health reasons and to isolate food allergies which may have been a contributing factor to some of my health problems. This diet involves real food. I am not on the Master Cleanse, or Gwyneth Paltrow’s latest cleanse, or Oprah’s cleanse, nor are my posts on my diet a way to support their actions. As I explained in my background post, I am doing this under the care of a naturopathic doctor.
By the beginning of week 2, I was really amazed at what a difference I was already feeling in my energy levels. I have been a heavy sleeper for the last 15 years {I have maybe had 20 sleepless nights in 15 years} but by week 2 of the detox diet, I was sleeping incredibly heavily and waking up very well rested and alert. Considering just a few weeks earlier, I had been sleeping 9 hours a night and waking up with no energy, despite uninterrupted sleep, I was extremely thankful that my sleep quality seemed to be increasing. By the end of week 2, I was sleeping closer to 8.5 hours a night and feeling as though I had slept 10 or 11.
I continued to eat many of the same foods from week 1 as I was not yet bored of them. I think Week 2 is when asparagus and zucchini hit the farmers market in full force, so I probably added more of those that week. I really focused on buying what looked good at the market, because I knew that was in season.
The food part of the diet, while labor intensive and frustrating for that reason, was not what was the hardest on me – the schedule was. Staying on schedule continued to feel like a full time job. In fact, I think part of the reason I did not have too many bad cravings the first couple of weeks is that I was so consumed with the eating schedule. As someone who used to routinely eat lunch at 2pm because things at work were busy, staying on the schedule was challenging.
The other thing that was giving me trouble was swallowing certain of the supplements I was on. I discovered I have trouble swallowing large pills {and the multivitamin the doctor initially put me in is big} – my doctor was very helpful in terms of suggesting liquid alternatives to certain supplements she has me on.
That’s the good news.
The bad news was that anything liquid would naturally be less portable than its pill counterpart.
It was and continues to be very usual for me to not be home for a large part of my day. I often work late and eat dinner at work – Week 2 of the detox diet I worked late 4 nights. So for the liquid supplements I was now toting with me, I first tried Gladware mini containers – they are half a cup in size and most of my liquid supplements are doses of a couple of tablespoons, so I figured, perfect. Wrong, those little suckers leaked (it doesn’t help that mine are kind of old too come to think of it – oddly, things like salsa don’t seem to leak though).
By the end of Week 2 I decided a trip to the Container Store was in order. The Container Store has an uncanny ability to fix problems in my life. And sure enough, in their Travel Section, I found 2 oz screwtop containers made by Nalgene – they do not leak, ever (see picture, above, left).
While I was at the Container Store I also picked up a few bento box-type containers –
Those were for weekend meals. I had already become resigned to the fact that weekday meal packing would involve many plastic containers {I like the twist and lock ones from Ziploc} – considering the average workday required 2 meals and 2-3 snacks, there was no way a cute little bento container was going to be enough. But for weekends I wanted something more compact, so totally loved the ones above.
When I was not at work, I had eaten all my meals at home for Weeks 1 and 2 – in fact, I had consciously cleared my schedule so that I could be home for meals on weekends. That was, obviously, not sustainable for more than a couple of weekends. I knew that in order to continue sticking to the detox diet, and not letting it take over my whole life, I had to find ways to eat outside of the house {especially since I was going to be at an all day yoga retreat at the end of week 3} that did not involve carrying a full sack of food all day {it’s one thing to bring that amount of food to work, another to lug it around all day}. Since I had a system down for work days and at-home days after the first two weeks, the next step was integrating the detox diet into other aspects of my life – i.e. days where I am out and about. Those were also the days I was most likely to grab Starbucks or something else on-the-go, which are obviously bigger challenges to a detox diet than eating at home or work. So my focus for week 3 was making the detox diet logistics more livable in terms of being out and about. I will address that on Saturday.
Disclaimer: I am just a regular person posting about my experience doing a detox diet for health reasons and, ultimately, to isolate food allergies that may be the underlying cause of said health problems. I am not a medical professional or nutritionist. Please do not use information from these posts to do your own detox diet. Rather, seek advice from a doctor, naturopath or nutritionist to determine what the correct course of action for your health is.
General Disclosures & Disclaimers
