Detox Update: Day 8 - The Final Day

Day 8 - Monday, January 11, 2009:

Monday ended up being my final day. I've had very mixed emotions about it, and I've really tried not to beat myself up over not completing the full 21 days. I mean, 8 days it still quite a feat in itself. And I was able to maintain a loss of 10 pounds, which is also quite amazing. (I actually lost 13.8, but gained a few back once I phased food back into my diet. But I'm proud/satisfied with maintaining a 10 pound loss.) I feel much better and slimmer and I'm still glad that I went as far as I did.

Here's what happened at the end - what made me decide to end it. Have you ever gotten really burnt out on a type of food? Say it was something that you LOVED, and you loved it so much that you ate it ALL the time. And you ate it over and over and over to the point that you finally started developing an aversion to it and no longer liked it all that much. Well, I have always loved vegetables. Even as a kid, if my mom was ever cooking dinner and was in the process of chopping veggies, I would sneak in the kitchen and grab some strips of green peppers to munch on. I did this more often than I would sneak chocolate chips or cookie dough while she was baking. My oldest daughter is the same way. If I'm fixing dinner and I ask her if she'd rather have broccoli or asperagus with dinner, she will always say "Let's have BOTH!"

But we all know that there is such a thing as "too much of a good thing." The detox involved ingesting the following each day: green drinks, high density berry drinks, herbal tea, water, fresh vegetable juice, and "cleansing soup," which I have coined PVM for Puree Vegetable Mush. The green drinks and berry drinks aren't bad at all. They are both berry flavored and taste pretty decent. But after having 2 of each every day, they slowly start to lose their excitement. The fresh veg juice is also quite tasty. If you like V8 or carrot juice or any other type of veg juice, you would probably enjoy the juice. The PVM, however, is completely and utterly disgusting.

I explained to my husband that it was the texture that I was struggling with. The texture of the veggie mush is what made me gag and even vomit the "cleansing soup." He laughed at this and couldn't understand what was so bad about it, esp if I like veggies as much as I do. I mean, I eat veggies all day, every day. Ever since he has known me, he has known me to snack on raw veggies throughout the day, eat salads with both lunch and dinner, and have at least one cooked veggie with dinner every night. For someone that loves veggies as much as I do, he could not understand what was so challenging about this soup. So I explained it to him like this - what's your favorite food? For my husband, it's a philly cheesesteak. For you, it may be pizza. Or sushi. Or a giant Chipotle burrito. But just imagine your favorite food. Now put that food into a blender with a cup of water and blend it until it is a thick, mushy substance. Do you think you would still enjoy it? Do you think you would be able to consume it without getting sick?? Because that is exactly what I was having to do with the PVM.

By Day 8, I had only ingested vegetable-based drinks and soups for 8 days straight, with nothing else in between. I was beginning to develop a very STRONG aversion to vegetables. And with veggies being such a huge part of my diet, I just couldn't imagine not being able to eat them anymore. But by Day 8, the smell, sight, and even THOUGHT of veggies was beginning to make my stomach churn. It was to the point that I felt I needed to quit right then, or face the possibility of no longer being able to consume veggies anymore for a very, VERY long time.

So Monday night (last Monday night), it all came to a head. I ended my detox and I did not correctly follow the "phasing off the detox" process. I was so excited to eat solid food, that I went straight to the store and bought just about every vegetable in sight. I then went home and made the world's largest salad with somewhere around 15 different types of veggies. And I made my homemade dressing that I love so much (all organic: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Bragg's liquid aminos -tastes like soy sauce-) and I WENT TO TOWN. I ate the hell out of that salad like I hadn't eat in weeks. And I guess in a sense, I hadn't. I had dressing all over my face and I was so into that salad, that my husband found it quite comical. But I was in heaven.

I consumed that entire salad in a 48 hour time span. The salad I made took up an entire GIANT tupperware bowl and was made up of probably 5 - 7 pounds of veggies. And during those first few days, I made the huge mistake of indulging a bit too much - I had some refined sugar in the form of candy and girl scout cookies. But that's all out of my system now. I'm focused on eating healthy again and I'm maintaining a low-sodium diet consisting mostly of fresh fruits, veggies, lean protein, and light on the starchy carbs, which are all whole grain.

I'm hoping to drop an additional 10 - 15 pounds over the next few months. I may even do another 2-day detox in another month or so, if I think I can handle it by then. In the end, I'm glad I did the detox. I'm disappointed that I didn't stick it out longer, but I'm also proud that I made it as far as I did. You definitely have to be in the right mind set to do something like this. It's a lot harder than it appears.

On that note, please stop by my bestie Melissa's blog and give her some bloggie love - she's kicking this detox's ass and is on DAY 18 of her detox today!!! Words do not explain how impressed and proud I am of her right now! So feel free to pop over and give her some encouragement!

Well, there you have it - my detox journey has come to a finish. And a huge THANK YOU to everyone for your continued support through such a challenging journey - I appreciate your kind words of encouragement more than you know! But even tho my detox journey has come to an end, my new training journey is just beginning! I'll have an update on that posted before long. Oh yes, I'm back! :)