We survived!  That’s right, Day 10 was celebration day and we could eat anything we want.  I had steak, but the BBQ was frozen so we had to fry it.  It wasn’t quite the same, but good nonetheless.  We had red wine.  Ahh red wine and steak gotta love it.  The lesson learned?  I actually didn’t have that good of a sleep last night.  Too much calories, too much booze.  Similarly I didn’t have the normal energy I’ve had before after eating supper the past 9 nights.

What did I learn?

Pretty simply put, I learned once again that the most important meal of the day starts at breakfast, and the rest of the meals should be small portions and just maintaining enough calories etc. to keep the body moving.  Much like when I race, I eat small portions every hour just to keep the body moving and not bloated.  I should be doing that same strategy in real life…

Day 9: We added legumes, quinoa and much more today.  Of course we are allowed everything from Day 8 as well.

I rediscovered my love of Quinoa

What did I learn?

My biggest learning of the day was that unsalted nuts can taste quite good when your system is rid of sugars and other toxins.  Similarly, I realized how I don’t really crave a lot of the other foods that I haven’t been eating.  For instance, meat.  I don’t really crave it.  That’s an odd thing for an Alberta boy to say, but I’m not craving it as I’m getting my proteins from other sources (beans, rice proteins, etc.).  Tomorrow, we’re done and we can eat what we want.

Day 8: We are finally able to add food to our diet.  We are allowed everything from Day 5, Day 6 and Day 7.  But, we’re also allowed ALL fruits and vegetables now AND rice!  Who would have thought I’d be SO excited for rice!

Our smoothie this morning was so fantastic!

What did I learn?

I learned today how good some fruits and vegetables taste.  It’s amazing why people don’t eat more fruits and veggies, but I suspect it’s because they go bad so quickly.  People would rather shop at Costco once a month and just stock up on as many boxed and canned goods as possible.  If there’s one thing that’ll change in this house after this detox is that we’ll be eating way more fruits and veggies and even less bars, crackers, etc.

Day 7: We are on the exact same schedule as Day 5 and Day 6.  We are allowed four scoops twice a day of the protein supplement.  We are only allowed to eat cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts), raw greens (lettuce, spinach), fresh apples and fresh pears.

Who would have thought I'd ever buy let alone eat Brussels Sprouts?

The meal plan was pretty much identical to yesterday.  We are both craving the other things we see in the fridge.  Visiting the grocery store is not a fun place, especially on sample day!  But we made it.  We have survived the worst, tomorrow we get full access to all fruits and veggies again as well as white rice!  Who would have thought I’d be so excited for fruits, veggies and rice?

What did I learn?

I learned today how lucky we truly are to have the amount of choices for food that we do.  I’ve also learned that I can survive quite well without meat as this is the 7th day in a row so far without meat and I don’t really feel any lack of energy.  I am getting sick of what we’ve been eating for the past 3 days, but I am so excited about a strawberry-banana smoothie in the morning and then rice for both lunch and dinner as well as beets, carrots and who knows what else!  Man are we lucky to have foods like this at our disposal!

Day 6: We are on the exact same schedule as Day 5.  We are allowed four scoops twice a day of the protein supplement.  We are only allowed to eat cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts), raw greens (lettuce, spinach), fresh apples and fresh pears.

I've eaten more cauliflower and broccoli in the last 2 days than I've eaten in months.

The day began with a smoothie again, except that only pears, apples and spinach were in it.  Our smoothies ar getting very green.  We need to ice as well.  Today I was really tired in the morning.  I didn’t enjoy eating the same things as yesterday and the smoothies are getting old.  However, around 1:30pm with no energy I simply had some of the protein powder in a glass of water and forced it down.  I ate an apple and a pear and headed out to meet with some friends.   I actually felt quite good and like I had a fair bit of energy.  I’m feeling quite good this evening after steamed brussels, cauliflower, red cabbage and broccoli for supper.  While my tastebuds are craving some variety, my body seems to be holding up well.

What did I learn?

I learned today that my mind controls my attitude and even though I might not be eating everything I want or crave it’s my choice whether I’m going to br grumpy, cranky or happy.  I chose happy and the day has finished off quite well.  One more day and then we get to start adding to our diet – can’t wait!

Day 5: In addition to eliminating everything from Day 4, we must also eliminate all legumes.  Now we are allowed four scoops twice a day of the protein supplement.  Basically we are only allowed to eat cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts), raw greens (lettuce, spinach), fresh apples and fresh pears.

Apples and Pears - our diet options get slimmer

The day began with a smoothie like the past few days, except that only pears, apples and spinach were in it.  Our smoothies ar getting very green.  We need to ice as well.  Today was a hard day.  Not many options.  Another smoothie for lunch and then steamed brussels, cauliflower, red cabbage and broccoli for supper.  Supper was quite good and tasty, but I had to eat the same again 3 hours later after yoga.

What did I learn?

I learned that you can make quite a nice vegetable spread out of broccoli, red cabbage, cauliflower and brussels, but I don’t know how many days I could do it.  Lucky for us we have two more days of this to go, so we’ll see how we’re doing tomorrow.

Day 4: In addition to eliminating everything from Day 3, we must also eliminate all remaining grains, nuts and seeds.  Now we are allowed two scoops twice a day of the protein supplement.  Basically all we’re eating now is vegetables, fruits and legumes only.

Gotta love those fruit and veggies

The day began with a big fruit smoothie like the past few days.  I really am getting efficient at making them.  Lunch was leftovers from last night minus the quinoa.  Supper was actually quite excellent.  So much so that we couldn’t finish our helpings.  We had a salad with a cooked (hot) black bean base, red peppers, yellow peppers, snow peas and avocado on top.  Yummy.  For our main course we had steamed beats and carrots.  Lots of flavour today.  It was quite excellent.

What did I learn?

I learned today my body has had a few too many vegetables.  How do I know?  Well let’s just say the old bowel system was letting me know.  A few more trips to the loo than usual today and I’m glad I can close my door in the office.  Still have relatively good energy and I am really loving the energy I have after supper.  It goes to show how important breakfast is to set the tone for the day and the rest of the day’s meals and snacks should be smaller.

Day 3: In addition to eliminating everything from Day 2, we must also eliminate all gluten grains, but we can continue to eat quinoa, rice, millet and buckwheat.  Again we are allowed one scoop twice a day of the protein supplement.

Our last day of seeds and nuts

The day began with another smoothie like yesterday.  Our lunch consisted entirely of leftovers from the night before.  The only difference between today and yesterday is that we can’t eat a bunch of different grains.  We eliminated bread on Day 1, so essentially we are eating the exact same things as yesterday.  Lots of veggies, fruit, black beans, etc.  For dinner we had more quinoa, a different mix of beans, and again mango.  Add in a bunch of steamed veggies and we were set.  The highlight for me has definitely been the smoothies as that was our treat for the evening.

What did I learn?

I found myself a little less energetic today, perhaps because I woke up early yesterday and didn’t have a ton to do at work.  Still I’m not finding myself hungry or craving anything really, except of course when we turned on a Seinfeld episode and it happened to be the one wear Kramer has the meat slicer…  Ahh meat, I miss you.  I found I really like eating seeds and nuts, though without the little pieces of chocolate in them it really isn’t the same.

Day 2: In addition to eliminating everything from Day 1, we must also eliminate all eggs and dairy products.  We are allowed to start taking an organic protein supplement and we’ve chosen to go with the Vega Protein Shakes.  We’re allowed one scoop twice a day.

Usually our smoothies are much pinker, but once you add the Vanilla Vega to them they turn this pukey green. Still taste good though.

The day began with a fruit smoothie with my first scoop of Vega.  The morning I felt a bit hungry but dampened that again with water.  When the stomach began growling, eating an apple, a pear, and some berries quickly calmed it.  For lunch, we had the same salad as last night and that tempered me for the day until supper.  At supper we still had some left overs from lunch and we cooked up some rice and steamed veggies.  We finished the night with another smoothie.

What did I learn?

I learned today that if I’m craving something to eat, having a bowl of apples, pears and berries quickly calmed my tummy.  Also I realized how much I really like black beans, especially when they’re complemented with something like strawberries or mangos.  Yum!  Eliminating eggs wasn’t that hard, as the protein we’d normally get from them was provided by the shake.  No real loss today.

In an attempt to get back on track with our health we decided to do a 10-day detoxification.  No, we’re not alcoholics checking in to Betty Ford, instead we’re just doing our best to put our health ahead of most other things in our lives.  That means more expensive grocery bills, but probably eating out less to balance that out.  Being healthier means we can do more, we can have more fun, we can live happier.

Day 1: Eliminate all, refined sugars, alcohol, caffeinated drinks, artificial colourings, flavourings, and sweeteners, and all fleshy foods (beef, pork, fish, chicken you name it).  There goes my typical beer and steak evening followed by some chips and dip….

Quinoa, black bean, mango and vegetable salad.

The day began with some eggs (no bacon) on toast, followed by a spinach salad with nuts and dried fruit.  Snacks during the day consisted of fruit and of course lots of water.  I found that each time I got hungry simply having a glass of water cured me.  It’s amazing how our brain thinks hungry when we’re actually just dehydrated.  We finished the night off with a fabulous black bean and quinoa salad, a couple more eggs, and some home made kale chips.

What did I learn today?

Quite simply, I forgot how good some foods taste.  Foods like Quinoa, black beans and kale sure are tasty.  On top of that, I was amazed at how my energy level never skipped a beat after supper.  There was no lull, no feeling of tiredness.  I think I liked that the most.  The next days get tougher though…