Day 12: I made it!

    Well, I made it! (With only a relatively minimal amount of cheating!) And I have to admit…I actually don’t have the urge to eat a three ciabattas or mow a Hershey. (Psych! Obviously I’d never pass up chocolate…but I’m definitely not craving it, per se.) Here is my list of results, things I’ll keep up, things I’ll stop doing, and ‘key learnings’.

Results

• My fatigue levels didn’t change too drastically, except for about a day (after which I bounced back pretty quickly). I found I was not restricting my calories, so I wasn’t super exhausted all the time or unable to work out.
• Weight loss definitely did not happen for me. I guess I was a relatively slim person to start with, and this diet wasn’t too far off of what I was already eating. If you’re looking to loose weight, try something else. Maybe this would be different if you have a lot to lose and poor eating habits.
• It certainly did reduce my cravings for carbs & sugar. Big win on that front!
• My skin showed the most dramatic change over the course of the detox – perhaps this is because I was eating tons of good fats (salmon, avocado, almond butter, etc.).
• Unlike others’ experiences, I did not have and flu-like symptoms.

Keep

• I used to drink my coffee with flavoured syrups, artificial sweetener, and milk. I’ve actually become accustomed to simple coffee with cinnamon and almond milk, so I’m ditching my old overly-flavourful ways.
• I realized I don’t miss dairy. At all. So I’m continuing to not buy dairy products and use almond or soy products instead. While I won’t cut it out completely (heck, who doesn’t want to indulge in something cheesy once and in while?) I can definitely cut it out from the day to day stuff and reserve it as a treat.
• Sugar and bread was what I thought would be my biggest challenge. The brown rice, gnocchi and oatmeal I’ve been substituting have kept me incredibly satiated and have kept my cravings & sugar cravings at bay. Similar to dairy, I won’t strictly cut this out, but I plan on not buying bread and limiting my intake of sugary (real and artificial) things like jams, dried fruit, sweetener, and honey to special occasions or meals out.
• Using my spice rack daily has become an essential part of meal preparation, and this is something I’ll definitely continue to do. Fresh cilantro in the fridge at all times is also now a mandatory in my apartment!

Stop

• Oddly enough, one of the things I really miss is the fermented foods (which I thought would be no issue). This is mostly because a lot of the healthy stuff I have been eating (rice, salad, etc.) kind of requires something fermented to give it that extra boost. I miss being able to eat most salad dressings, mustard, and soy sauce.
• High fat (good fat) foods like avocado and almond butter have been my savior on this detox. But, now that it’s over, while I will keep enjoying them, I am planning on cutting back my intake since they are just so high in fat (and so addictive!).
• Welcome back to my life, wine! (No additional explanation required.)

Key Learnings

• Pick a time when your social calendar is relatively slow. Cottage weekends and meals out were the toughest things to manage for both temptation and social reasons.
• Brace yourself for having to poop in public. Unless you are a hermit, it will happen.
• Stock your fridge with detox-friendly foods so you always have options and aren’t tempted. Same goes for your office: I always had baby carrots and humus in the fridge and peppermint tea bags in my desk.
• Be realistic with your expectations. If you’re already healthy and slim, don’t expect to lose 10lbs. I’m assuming people writing those reviews either have more to lose or are restricting calories. If I had gone into this measuring my success in pounds, I would have been really disappointed at the end.
• Use the ingredient search function on All Recipes to help you come up with recipe ideas that use the detox-friendly foods you have in your kitchen. You plug in what ingredients have, and it gives you recipes that include them. Super helpful.

I hope this blog was able to give people a little more insight into my journey on the Wild Rose D-Tox. Would love to hear you feedback, reviews, or comments – hopefully it provided others some interesting info or tips. Thanks for following! Happy detoxing! :)

Day 8 – 11: Cottaging and cleansing don’t mix

   Holy Mackerel, I can’t believe I’m already on Day 11 of this cleanse! Wowzers. Not going to lie though, the long weekend was tough. I cheated. I felt guilty. I got back on track. But I hope it didn’t completely derail all the benefits of the detox! Here’s a brief summary and some things I would do differently.

   So, first reco – maybe don’t plan to do this detox around a cottage long weekend. Duh. I did do my due diligence to plan ahead, but it was still really hard. I went shopping the night before I left and packed a bag full of rice cakes, pre-cooked rosemary rice, rice cakes, almond butter, fruit, guacamole, cherries, etc. Luckily, cottages mean BBQs so I was able to rely on eating fish, chicken and beef like all the other ‘normal’ people, but I did cave to some birthday cake and sugary snacks, I just couldn’t resist! And it was like, a legitimate cheat, not just a couple bites of a bagel, unfortunately. (Side note: unlike some reviews I have read, I didn’t have any major adverse effects to eating a bit of junk food.)

   Aside from resisting temptation at a cottage, it is also difficult if you are a guest because you don’t want to be rude by always having to prepare a special meal for yourself or turn down food your host has cooked. This weekend, there were about 30 people up at my friend’s cottage, so I didn’t want to always be the lame ‘detox girl’ constantly requiring special food or off preparing their own meal like a loner. So timing of your detox I think is key – if you know delicious food will be spread out before you or you’ll be at a social gathering of some sort, just postpone it to a time when you have a less full social calendar.

   Another ‘timing’ issue I had was, well, timing it to overlap with ‘that time of the month’. Ummm, hello…not being allowed to eat chocolate while on your period?! Torturous! So I am telling myself my cottage cake cheat was basically needed in order to quell my PMS. Still not an excuse, but hey, at least I didn’t eat like, a full Deep ‘n Delicious or something completely crazy.

   With 1.5 days to go, I am starting to think about the things I’ve done on this cleanse that I’d like to keep up, things I probably won’t keep doing, and overall evaluating what worked and didn’t work for me. Hoping to make my last blog post a good one!

Might look serene...but is a danger zone for detox-ers!

Day 7: Ugh, cheated...

   Oh geez...my first real(ish) cheat. I think my failure was due to not eating breakfast leaving lunch too late which resulted in me being starving! I had several (maybe like, 7-8?) Sour Patch Kids after my salad (left over snacks from a work meeting). I am thinking this shouldn't completely ruin my efforts thus far. Trying to remember that a small slip up doesn't mean I need to completely give up on everything. I find that's often the case when I have something bad to eat - I figure "Today is completely ruined, so I may as well just completely blow it." Definitely the wrong mentality. Another thing I've noticed: I am much more tempted when I am alone with bad food. At home, it's not a problem because I keep it out of the house. But when I'm in the office kitchen alone with left over candy, cookies or muffins...it's realllllly difficult to resist, since it's not even an option at home. However, I am thinking that if I wasn't on this detox, a few Sour Patch Kids as the only sugar I've had in a week would be pretty damn commendable.
    Went for another sluggish run last night. Even though I had taken two days of rest (which is a rarity) I was still super tired on my run. Typically after a day off I have tons of energy and feel really recharged on my run - not so much last night. The fact that it was still about 27 degrees and extremely humid probably contributed to my fatigue.
   As I mentioned yesterday, I am heading to Sauble Beach, probably first thing tomorrow morning. My plan as of now is to pack a bunch of detox-safe snacks so that I don't make my host feel awkward. Although I won't have internet access (I guess I could blog from my phone but...I just don't feel like downloading the app), I will try to write each night and post when I am back in the city. Hope everyone has a fantastic long weekend! Wish me luck!

The culprits....arrrrgggg!