Nutritional Yoga

For the past 10 days, I have been doing a voluntary herbal detox. My detox of choice is the "Wild Rose Herbal D-tox". I had a few different reasons for doing it...

I usually eat what I want to eat, and just try to be healthy about it. This has worked well for me so far, but I have always wished that I would be more intentional about cooking for myself from scratch and had noticed a building trend towards convenience food in recent months. More granola bars for breakfast, going out for dinner, and that sort of thing. So when my friend Rebecca decided it was time to do "the cleanse", I decided to join her.

Basically, the cleanse entails cutting out all dairy, sugar, flours, tropical or dried fruits, reducing meat intake, and some other stuff. Mostly just eat lots of veggies and brown rice. Also you have to take herbs and tinctures twice a day. I felt like a total hypochondriac popping six pills before breakfast and dinner every day, but have gotten over it, and have improved my pill-swallowing technique in the process. I used to try to drop it into the back of my mouth to minimize yucky tastes, but realized the other day that if you let your tongue deal with the task of moving it to the back of your throat, then it takes care of orienting it properly to your esophagus and all that. Fascinating, the way our bodies work.

So anyways, I went on the cleanse without doing too much pre-planning, but it has been easier than I anticipated. Making cleanse-friendly meals takes a little bit more planning, but ended up being a really good exercise in eating better for me. I have been cooking lots of fish, eating things without dousing them in sauce, and have kicked the habit of eating something for dessert most nights (for now, we will see if that lasts).

I guess it has taught me that a lot of my food choices are out of habit or laziness, and not even because of strong cravings. I've hardly craved anything throughout. I think that knowing it wasn't an option made it a lot easier for me to say no. Especially since I knew there would be an end in sight.

Some favourites of the cleanse:

Basa filets cooked in lemon juice and butter with orange slices and chives
Apple and avocado salad with almonds and lemon-oil dressing
Chicken cooked with herbs de provence
Brown rice stir fried with beef and peppers and an egg. Tastes better than it sounds.
Bean salad (chickpeas, kidney beans, etc., combined with apples, corn, and whatever else)
Almond butter
Soy milk
Cherries (dessert substitute)

I think being able to eat meat has been a real key to my success. I have been eating tons of fish and quite a bit of chicken for dinners. I might have felt pretty hungry otherwise I think. Although they recommend not eating meat for more than 20% of your diet.

All in all, I would recommend the cleanse. I don't feel physically transformed, but I do feel more aware of what I am putting into my body. It's kind of like nutritional yoga. Awareness is hugely important in the process of making better choices, I think. Also, I just said "nutritional yoga". Eww.