Cleanse and Renew; The rules of a Detox Diet Simplified.

You must be smart if you want to detox without herbal pills  and store-bought fiber in a sand-dust texture. And for those who thought that a seven-day once-a-day tablet will cure you of all your ailments, renew your digestion, ignite your bowel movements and clear up your skin, all while shedding oh, say, twenty pounds, take a look at my previous blog that reads “Get Real…”.

All kidding aside, if you want to do a detox it’s not that difficult to follow. Here are the guidelines of what to eliminate and how to set up a plan for you to follow.

1. Eliminate all processed foods (anything that comes in a can, box or bag), sugars, alcohol, caffeine wheat and dairy and other animal products (eggs and meat). Also eliminate peanuts and corn. The reason is that the majority of our diet is made up of these items, and as a nation, we have become sensitive to them.

2. Use fruits and vegetables as your meal baseline. For breakfast, have a smoothie made with fruit. Have an apple with almond butter. Have a breakfast salad! For lunch have a raw salad and sprinkle with raw seeds. For dinner make a bowl of vegetables, steamed or cooked like a soup. When you`re hungry eat raw hazelnuts, walnut or brazil nuts, dried fruit and seeds.

3. For beverages, pour hot water over lemon peel or herbal teas. You will get used to it.

4. Don`t underestimate what a detox can do for you. If you give it one day or one week, ou gave your body a break from the toxins it takes in on a regular basis. Congratulations!

5. If you are unsure whether you should be eating something, chances are, you probably shouldn`t but you want to.

This is the short of it, and rather the truth of it. Simple, and probably everything you knew. Don’t ask if you can go out to dinner while detoxing, because it’s just better if you don’t. Eat a salad, and an apple. Simple.

Get Real or Stay Fat! Don’t blame the diet…

It has been a long time since my last post for good reason. I failed miserably on my detox diet. I have fallen off the wagon so many times and for too long to say that I’ve been on a detox diet the month of March, and I am disappointed and embarrassed, and, like anyone who fails, I have many reasons why. But the fact is, I did not stick to a plan I had intended to stick to.

I think I am just like you. Why is it so easy to justify almost any action? This does not go only for dieting and exercise, but falls into every aspect of life. “I couldn’t go because blah blah blah, I have to cancel because blah blah blah I can’t do that because blah blah blah…..”

So let’s get real. I didn’t do it. I can’t go. I am cancelling. I won’t do it. The responsibility is all on me and I am owning it. I DID NOT MAKE IT THROUGH ONE MONTH OF EATING PEPPERS! (Notice once again how I’d love to blame it on the lack of intereting foods; something that I knew about before I started).

Getting real means looking at yourself on paper. Girl started activity. Girl abandoned activity. Girl failed. Disqualified….

…Okay, so I am being hard on myself to prove a point. Quite frankly I got a lot out of my new diet and applied many of the practices that I learned (remember that it wasn’t too far off my regular diet to begin with). But here is the point. So many times I have heard that diets fail people. Not true. People fail people. The” it didn”t work for me” really means I didn’t stick with it. The “I gained weight on that diet” excuse means I cheated so much on the diet I packed on the pounds and the “that’s just so bad for you” diet means I will fall off the minute I commit to it. Sound familiar?

Who chose your diet by the way? You? A diet is a diet. The theory lies on restricting your calories while getting you to burn more throughout the day. The formula is the only way to lose weight, not matter how you do it. Weight watchers allows you to choose your food on this theory. Atkins gets you to restrict specific foods so that you won’t overeat. Bernstein…well,…..that’s a whole new blog… But tell me where, in any diet, are you eating cake, potato chips, candy bars or anything else that makes you gain weight? Like I said, don’t blame the diet.

So what can you do about it? Own your failures as much as your successes. Once you do that, you stop being the victim of your environment, your surroundings and of other people. You have to stand on your own two feet. It’s rather liberating, actually. You stop waiting for something to fail when it’s all in your hands. You stop pretending, and you get real.

Get real! …or stay fat, unsuccessful and in denial. Those are your options. And remember, the diet didn’t fail you, you did. If you know this now, you’re closer to a new success already.

Steps To Getting Real

1. Realize that any failure that you had in your life was 100% because you allowed yourself to fail.

2. Know who you are. take a close look at yourself and decide what you can and cannot achieve. Make a list of things that you want to do. When you decide you want to do it, you are also deciding that you want to succeed and achieve it. Chances are, you’ll notice that most of the time, you can achieve it.

3. Commit to yourself that you will succeed. List how you will stick to a plan to succeed. Pick a time in your life when you are completely prepared to put in the work to achieve your goal.

4. If you fail, you fail. Not a big deal. get back on track as soon as you can and keep going. No sense in abandoning the entire project yet. Consequently, if you get back on track, it’s not quite a failure, right?

So back to my March detox. Yes, I’m still going. Chances are, I will stick to this type of dieting for a long time. It feels good and aside from chocolate I’m not really missing much..oh ya, but I put my coffee back into my morning routine.  Besides, I like peppers.

You won’t be proud of me now, ma! I failed; miserably.

Yup. Indeed. And apparently it comes to no surprise to those around me. I had a coffee, two days in a row. I like drinking something a little more substantial than hot water in the morning and so it just took an article on MSN toting th benefits of coffee that had me percolating away.

I’m not proud of it, but the whole idea was to find what best suits my needs right? Well…..

So here’s the thing: do I abort the entire mission or do I go on to do as good as I can?

I suppose there’s nothing more to say here….

Okay, okay! I willl be back in action tomorrow, but seriously, whose ridiculous idea was this? It also means that comparable to these last couple of beautiful days of having SOOO MUCH ENERGY,  I will be sleep-walking tomorrow…. but I’ll have a great asian inspired cole slaw to share tomorrow. I am making for my son’s second birthday party.. guess who will be eating the slaw, not the burgers?

Crash and Burn: When Tempations Show up at Your Door.

Literally.

I had no choice (ha), that latte albeit decaf smelled up our kitchen, brother with hot chocolates and lattes in tow for everyone. It had my name on it. And I went for it. And then I went for the almond cookies. All three of them. And then we went out to lunch. It was somewhere around the middle of it all when I was ready to throw in the towel for good and truthfully the next morning I was still uncertain. I did resist the chilled bottle of wine in my fridge.  I could go for another latte but I am drinking my hot water with lemon. Oh the confusion! Needless to say energy-wise this won’t be a good day but rather a typical Monday.

When you derail from your diet, I say get it out of your system and start again as soon as you can. For me, that was 2:00 p.m. the next day. And always remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. You have to have a good motive to stay on track. My motive is to find that oh-so-needed energy for the day, every day.

That was four days ago. Today, on a Thursday night, I think through this whole process I’m deciding what I “need” in my diet and what I can live without. I “need” that feeling of a coffee in the morning, I don’t need the caffeine, so I have come up with an unsweetened soy vanilla steamer, and I can live with that. I also “need’ that chocolate treat at the end of the day. To date I have completely cut out wheat, alcohol, dairy and caffeine minus the day of the latte, and meat. The sugar is the toughest for me, as I love to have a some dark chocolate as my treat when my son goes to bed. I would be lying if I said that I haven’t had any. Actually, I would be lying if I said that more days have gone by this week without a little chocolate than with…oooooops……

In summary: vegetable intake is at an all-time high, yay. Most toxins are out of my diet, yay..and I feel pretty balanced with both energy and emotion…yay, yay!!

Fave foods: butternut squash soup, onion gravy with red rice, and oatmeal with banana, cinnamon and 1 tsp. peanut butter or 1 tbsp. raisins. Tastes like a warm cookie.

Don’t leave anyone on the Couch: this is the All-in-the-Family Workout!

With March break around the corner and the threat of mediocre weather ahead, we’ve got the rainy day stuck-in-the-house solutions for the family to stay active. Working out can be a family affair; it can also be that late-night activity you do while watching TV.

I don’t need to tell you the importance of young kids getting active and keeping that habit for a lifetime and what better role model than parents and older siblings? With obesity rates rising and fast food chains making more money than ever  the battle towards a healthy lifestyle continues to be an uphill one.

Here are a few ideas for your at-home working with the kids:

1. Make it fun, fun, fun! Who’s going to do anything resembling work during a holiday?

2. Make it ”child’s play”? When is the last time you’ve tried a wheel-barrow race? Think you’d win one in your current condition? Take the challenge right now and you may be surprised to find how difficult it is with a beer-belly hanging off your waist. What about leap-frog? same thing. Add these exercises together: push-ups, wheel-barrow, stepping up on a chair(held by someone else to make it sturdy), leap-frog, and add some jump rope or hula hooping and you’ve got a workout.

3. Keep your heart rate up with activities like suicides or wind sprints (running short distances and touching the floor), jumping jacks, jump squats and jump lunges.

4. Keep activities to body-weight bearing with children under the age of 13 as it may stunt growth due to pre-mature bone fusion. While their structure is still growing and developing, it is easiest to keep out of harm’s way by doing activities that move the body or by adding little weight (up to 5 pounds for most exercises) so that children’s growth proceeds normally.

5. Hire a trainer for 1 hour to come to your home. In that time a professional fitness trainer can watch that proper form is kept throughout the exercises and they can create an interesting and fun workout unique to your family’s interests. Visit our website www.fit2touch.com for more.

Making Detox and Cleansing Meals into Family Affairs

Naturally, your kids are not on the detox with you. I can probably bet your spouse isn’t going along with it either. There are ways to make those “bare bones” meals that you’re currently eating into meals that the whole family can eat.

I’ve outlined a few suggestions in creating a vegetarian/vegan recipe into a family one and vice versa. Last night I took a recipe for sweet potato veggie shepherds pie and transformed it into a meal that three people with completely different diet goals ate together (and I got the thumbs up from hubby and baby too).  

Quick tips for meal transformations:

1. The easiest way to hearten up a meal is by adding meat (minced in casseroles or baked pieces beside vegetarian dishes) and/or cheese.

2. Instead of wheat flour, substitute for soya or chickpea flour. If recipes call for “rolled in flour”, use oats and/or flaxseed, ground.

3. If you’re starting with a meat/cheese filled meal, substitute meat for chickpeas or lentils, and add as many vegetables as you want.

4.  Experiment. When it comes to vegetables, it is mainly preferential. And although some pair better with others, you can’t really go wrong in the health department.

5. To spice up a bland vegetable dish, naturally, add spices. Use a combination od dried cumin, turmeric, marjoram, thyme, bay leaf and fresh basil, dill, parsley, or coriander. And always start the dish by sautéing onion and garlic.

Detox update:

I was wanting coffee, chocolate and wine last night, and grumpy, I went to sleep very early. However, I did wake up at 5:30 a.m. (on a Sunday??) meditated for half hour and then got on my treadmill. I am also 3 lbs. down already….and feeling more balanced than ever. My motivation is mildly waning at times, and at others I am hoping to continue this type of diet forever. We’ll see….

Day two and three and Dr. Gillian McKeith, the detox Guru.

It is now officially a roller coaster. For however many “ups” there are, equally there are the “downs”.

Here’s how it is going: I felt fine yesterday, and mostly, calmer as I was hoping. However, the “calmer” side of me was read by my close family as if I was in a bad mood (no) or off of my normal self (not that I was aware of). Day two was the day that I had lunch with my mother-in-law, at Brar Sweets, a vegetarian indian restaurant which made it easy for me to stay on track. Little one in tow, it was also easy for me to not overeat, just as I had planned. Aside from recommending the restaurant it most definitely added a great escape from the idea that I’m on a crazy extreme diet. For snacks: whole peppers and cucumbers. Yum.

I have been also searching for a template to follow. I find that I am eating so similar to previous (aside from the elimination of said “toxins”) that I’m craving new foods for my palette. So I am turning to Dr. Gillian McKeith and her book “You are what you eat”, a staple in my library. In it she has a 7 day starter detox to follow in which I will start tomorrow (after a few days of getting my feet wet). Also Brar sweets did give me the idea that perhaps a curry may fill me up more and by adding more curried veggies to my meal, I’ll have a better chance in feeling full and more importantly satisfied.

The downside is that I’m still searching for this energy surge. Too early to find, I suppose.

Typical diet so far:

Breakfast: Hot water with lemon, bowl of fruit

snack: oatmeal or Quinoa with cinnamon, banana and 1 tsp. almond butter

lunch: sardines, tuna with veggies. small handful of pumpkin seeds

snack: whole peppers or cucumber

dinner: curried vegetables over lightly steamed veggies

snack: orange

I never thought that I’d “snack” on a whole pepper. It reminds me of the crazy days I once saw my girlfriend biting into an onion like it was an apple….

In short, even day two did not seem as bad as I would have expected after day one. Day three, I started to feel “brighter”….

Day 1: Desires and Disasters. The beginning of a Detox leads to lusting and disgusting…

I want coffee. And I want to sleep. I keep telling myself that I want the energy much more but truthfully I think that this blog was the only reason I got through day one…I better not say that too early, I do have a couple of hours left.

The desire for coffee did not wane for one second. In fact, a mere two hours before going to bed, I’d have one right now. I am believing that a stop to a health store findning a caffiene free chicory root or dandelion alternative may have to be done. I’ve had those before, and in fact, they’re not bad at all….. maybe I’ll wait and get through a few more days though. There is something to be said about will power.

This is what my day looked like:

a.m. juice beets, carrots, celery, parsley, apple. Here’s the disgusting thing: I forgot that smell that hits your nose before the juice hits your lips smells like the juice has been sifted through the contents of your composting bag. The other disgusting thing? So does my gas.

a.m. snack: rice cake with almond butter and banana

more a.m. snacking (yup, the disastrous ravenous coffee deprived appetite): sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds

lunch: lentil stew

snack: strawberries

dinner: bean salad with sesame oil

For tomorrow:

I am hoping that I will be a little more….calm. I’ll plan a little more, eat a little more raw veggies and less seeds, and, if I don’t get to the health store, well then, I’ll go to bed early.

a.m.:  juice from juicer, oatmeal or rice cake with apple or banana

lunch: caulifower with sesame seeds, onion and garlic

dinner: raw salad

snacks: fruit, walnuts, seeds

That’s the short of it for now seeing as I’m half asleep already. But for tomorrow, I’m just hoping for more energy… and less “disgusting”.