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Why???
You may well ask.
No-one can deny the pick-me-up you get from a cup of tea or coffee, but I dont like to be dependent upon artificial stimulation for daily function (OK coffee is a natural product but you know what I mean). Im not a heavy drinker but Id normally have a cup of something when I get to work, one in the afternoon and maybe one in the evening after dinner. 2/3 of these are normally tea; throw in a bit of chocolate here and there and were probably talking around 200-250mg of caffeine a day. While this isnt excessive, its on the high side (300mg is considered about the healthy maximum), and day in day out it creates something of a pattern; so once in a while I give myself a break. This normally happens when I undertake ... <drum roll> The Dreaded Detox Diet!
I was introduced to this particular program several years ago. The list of Foods You Must Not Eat starts with: sugar, salt, animal meats, dairy, caffeine. Im no junk food junkie but its fair to say Id consume those each day - and with some enjoyment too. By comparison, the allowed foods include a host of vegetables, sprouts, legumes, seeds and a few questionable things Id never heard of (may I have some tamari please?). Throw in the customary cleansing tablets and I was set.
First morning - warm water with a bit of lemon juice to start the day. Yum. :P Shortly followed by a glass of everyones favourite breakfast beverage, V8 Vegetable Juice (now I know what happens to the stuff you rinse out of a used tomato sauce bottle :). Then into the organic muesli with soy milk. Mid morning its fresh fruit, no problems there. Lunch is salad sandwiches bursting with avocado, alfalfa, bean sprouts and soursobs (apparently theyre called snowpeas but they dont look like snow or peas to me), all good but after five days of the same... More fruit mid afternoon (wheres my coffee...) and various combinations of vegetables and brown rice for dinner or one of the recipes they supply. The best one I found was Gardeners Pie - about every vegie under the sun goes into it, and at the end they have the cheek to suggest serve with a side salad or vegetables. Ill remember that. You cant eat for 2 hours before going to bed (there goes supper) but you are allowed popcorn! If its cooked with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and sprinkled only with sea salt. I suddenly found I really liked popcorn.
The first couple of days I always feel pretty average. Most of this is probably caffeine withdrawal but headaches and general lethargy set in, driving me to a couple of early nights. Beyond that things started to improve; by day 5 I was feeling pretty well normal again and not feeling so anti the salad sprout sandwiches and vegies and brown rice for dinner.
Today is the day after the week before and I feel pretty good - fresh, alert, sharp, and all with no caffeine (in fact I feel more alert than when I was drinking tea and coffee). No dragging days waiting for the next coffee break. Its hard to know whether its the diet itself or the fact its side-effects send me to bed early several times but theres no denying the feeling.
The goal now is to try to keep up a good portion of these healthy habits and minimise the caffeine intake otherwise its really a waste of time. Having said that, Im sure looking forward to my Saturday morning coffee! ;D
P.S. The diet in question is at this link if youre interested to know more (since we dont have any health food sponsors I reckon this should be safe but mods feel free to strip it out if you dont like it). I dont have any connection with this mob other than having used their product.
You may well ask.
No-one can deny the pick-me-up you get from a cup of tea or coffee, but I dont like to be dependent upon artificial stimulation for daily function (OK coffee is a natural product but you know what I mean). Im not a heavy drinker but Id normally have a cup of something when I get to work, one in the afternoon and maybe one in the evening after dinner. 2/3 of these are normally tea; throw in a bit of chocolate here and there and were probably talking around 200-250mg of caffeine a day. While this isnt excessive, its on the high side (300mg is considered about the healthy maximum), and day in day out it creates something of a pattern; so once in a while I give myself a break. This normally happens when I undertake ... <drum roll> The Dreaded Detox Diet!
I was introduced to this particular program several years ago. The list of Foods You Must Not Eat starts with: sugar, salt, animal meats, dairy, caffeine. Im no junk food junkie but its fair to say Id consume those each day - and with some enjoyment too. By comparison, the allowed foods include a host of vegetables, sprouts, legumes, seeds and a few questionable things Id never heard of (may I have some tamari please?). Throw in the customary cleansing tablets and I was set.
First morning - warm water with a bit of lemon juice to start the day. Yum. :P Shortly followed by a glass of everyones favourite breakfast beverage, V8 Vegetable Juice (now I know what happens to the stuff you rinse out of a used tomato sauce bottle :
). Then into the organic muesli with soy milk. Mid morning its fresh fruit, no problems there. Lunch is salad sandwiches bursting with avocado, alfalfa, bean sprouts and soursobs (apparently theyre called snowpeas but they dont look like snow or peas to me), all good but after five days of the same... More fruit mid afternoon (wheres my coffee...) and various combinations of vegetables and brown rice for dinner or one of the recipes they supply. The best one I found was Gardeners Pie - about every vegie under the sun goes into it, and at the end they have the cheek to suggest serve with a side salad or vegetables. Ill remember that. You cant eat for 2 hours before going to bed (there goes supper) but you are allowed popcorn! If its cooked with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and sprinkled only with sea salt. I suddenly found I really liked popcorn.The first couple of days I always feel pretty average. Most of this is probably caffeine withdrawal but headaches and general lethargy set in, driving me to a couple of early nights. Beyond that things started to improve; by day 5 I was feeling pretty well normal again and not feeling so anti the salad sprout sandwiches and vegies and brown rice for dinner.
Today is the day after the week before and I feel pretty good - fresh, alert, sharp, and all with no caffeine (in fact I feel more alert than when I was drinking tea and coffee). No dragging days waiting for the next coffee break. Its hard to know whether its the diet itself or the fact its side-effects send me to bed early several times but theres no denying the feeling.
The goal now is to try to keep up a good portion of these healthy habits and minimise the caffeine intake otherwise its really a waste of time. Having said that, Im sure looking forward to my Saturday morning coffee! ;D
P.S. The diet in question is at this link if youre interested to know more (since we dont have any health food sponsors I reckon this should be safe but mods feel free to strip it out if you dont like it). I dont have any connection with this mob other than having used their product.
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