How this whole thing came about:
This idea was first proposed to us by our friend as a great way to re-set for the new year. She had done this detox before through Replenish PDX. I just want to be clear that this was not our brain child or even something I was particularly interested in. In fact, at first I was pretty resistant to the idea.... pretty convinced we wouldn't have the conviction to stick through it for 3 whole weeks...but after reviewing the general philosophy of the detox, proposed menus, and discussing with my friend in great detail, we took the plunge and hopped onto the detox bandwagon!
General Detox Philosophy:
First of all, I should say that there was a guide that we used to help direct our meal plans (see website link above) for each week. In general, however, while the recommended meals could be used we could also use our own as long as they followed the 'rules' of this detox.
The point of our detox was to eat whole foods, whole grains, consume organic foods, eliminate gluten, eliminate dairy ... in general, to put good, natural foods into our bodies. While it was possible to use canned or jarred foods, the point was to stay away from any canned, jarred, or otherwise packaged food that used preservatives, or ingredients in general one was not aware of (and no, just because you are aware of monosodium glutamate and can pronounce it, doesn't mean it was an included ingredient on this plan).
We eliminated as much gluten from our lives as we could. In general, bread was out, but it certainly was possible to have gluten free bread (I made a sweet-ish 'bread' from almond flour). Additionally, the soup I made for lunches during the week included 1/2 cup of barley (total about 10 servings), which I didn't feel it was necessary to eliminate. We also completely replaced white rice with whole grains (think: quinoa, brown rice, or bulgur), I will continue to replace white rice with whole grains, but I still love my sticky jasmine rice!
Dairy: this wasn't a huge change for me, but a much larger change for my husband. First thing I noticed was that the hassle around the milk status in our house went away! The largest size milk carton that is offered here is 1 liter... we usually pick up 2 for my husband and I'll take a little for our coffees in the morning. We're usually at the grocery store buying milk at least twice a week to accommodate my hubby's milk drinking habit, but during the entire detox, we've survived off of only 2 liters for 3 full weeks! Woo hoo! Anyway, we still used milk to top off our non-caffeinated chai (see below for more on eliminating caffeine and a link to the chai recipe I used) and a cup of yogurt in the large pot of soup for lunches. Other than that, there was no other dairy in our diet (including cheese! - I will be reincorporating cheese into my life, love it too much!).
Caffeine: We were able to eliminate caffeine by week 2. Both my husband and I were already down to 1 cup of coffee in the morning for the day just before starting the detox (prior to Christmas vacation I was easily drinking 2 cups of coffee in the morning with an occasional shot of espresso at work from the coffee machine). With achieving 1 cup a day, I didn't feel a huge need to rid myself of coffee for the purpose of this detox. Well, by week 2 I was waking up in the morning with a clear head and decided to be ambitious and eliminate coffee. I replaced coffee with this chai without adding tea bags/leaves (so, really there was no caffeine, just a lot of spice oils and aromas!) and adding a little bit of warmed milk to top it off (much like our coffee). The first 2-3 days were ok, there was a bit of a coffee headache to deal with there, but it was very manageable. By the end of the week, it was gone and it was fabulous! In the end, I'm glad I eliminated coffee, but I enjoy coffee too much to completely eliminate it. I plan to stick to 1 cup a day as we were prior to the detox. The best part of eliminating coffee was how clear and awake I felt in the morning without coffee, sometimes even before my alarm would go off, this was fantastic!
Cooking with whole foods: For me, the big change was eliminating eating out (yeah, didn't think I would say that about Eindhoven!). When looking at the suggested recipes and picking some of my own that met the rules (I replaced a lot of olive oil with coconut oil, although olive oil is perfectly acceptable), I found that my normal approach to cooking was on par with the detox with only a few exceptions (think: replace all that white rice with quinoa or brown rice and no flour tortillas!). The bigger change for us was eating at home, every single day, for all 3 weeks...I have to say, sometimes I was cooking on an empty belly! Meal planning helped a lot here, and this surprisingly (although retrospectively this should not have been surprising!) resulted in a near empty fridge by Saturday morning (our typical shopping day)! I bought meat from the organic butcher as much as possible which had the side effect of resulting (think: expensive!) in many more vegetarian dishes in the week than normal (which also meant we added different vegetables to our standard week purchases such as spinach and kale). Of course, the biggest thing I craved was, in fact, eating out and all of its conveniences (which are limited... in Eindhoven ....but nevertheless missed... ha!).
Results:
I've observed a couple of different things while being on this detox which I've mentioned above also. For me, these are more way-of -life (god, am I starting to sound Dutch?) related observations.
- Meal planning is great and resulted in a nearly empty fridge by Saturday morning almost every week. It's laughable that it took this detox to get this concept through my head. In the last 2 years prior to moving to Eindhoven, I lived only 2 blocks away from a fresh market that ran all year round. While I miss that (and Italy) so much, I have to accept that this is my life now and weekly shopping is how it is. Meal planning is something to embrace, but allow yourself some freedom to be inspired by what's at the market (I find Saturday's and Sunday's perfect for this).
- I woke up with a clear head in the morning. My guess is that the reduction of caffeine has really contributed to this, but I also think the amount of water I'm drinking really helps to flush out my system and rid my body of various toxins I've consumed throughout the day, leaving my body and mind to be clear by the morning (I have no idea if this is scientifically a real thing). Whatever it is, the biggest drawback is the need to pee A LOT, but I think well worth the inconvenience (unless you're stuck in a meeting and can't get out of it!). The water consumption is something I will continue to observe, I've also taken to bringing water with me to work and a small tupperware with lemon juice to last me through the day.
- Meals made from whole foods without gluten (or limited amounts) and dairy (or limited amounts) can be delicious! I was convinced that this lifestyle was too hippie for me, but with the encouragement of this detox to give it a whirl, I've been persuaded otherwise (and happily found out it wasn't a huge change to our life anyway)! Here are some photos (some include links where I've posted previously) of yummy meals we ate during this entire experience! I hope they emphasize that you don't have to go hungry during a detox/cleanse and you can be completely satisfied, not only with the taste of your food but in cooking it too!
Cod with Dill and Lemon (side: Lime lentil salad with cucumber, and cherry tomatoes)
Roast chicken with a cilantro-pistachio pesto
Coconut Quinoa (note: contrary to Yiling's method for making the quinoa, I made it like I make white rice, 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of liquid - for this recipe split by coconut milk and water. Either way works!):
Weekly snacks of nuts and seeds (in the 3rd week, these ended up with small amounts of raisins which was a nice treat):
Garlic-Ginger Pumpkin Seed Sauce/Dressing to accompany my version of winter abundance bowl (which is brown rice cooked with lentils served with steamed sweet potato and broccoli or cauliflower):
Cherry tomatoes for snack (I packed these babies into 5-10 tomatoes per bag for a snack each day):
Baked salmon with a Orange-Red Pepper Cilantro Garnish :
Seed Porridge (blended flax seed, coconut flakes, chia seeds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds topped with berries or bananas):
And nnnnnoooooowwww, I'm rrrrreeeeeallllyyyyy looking forward to this:
Have you done anything to change your diet in the new year? Is your change temporary or permanent? Any recommended whole food meals?
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