It’s been a hellish of a week on DETOX! When I started the regimen, I thought, “Great, I have a three day weekend to start and then I’ll finish really strong during the week. when I get back to my regular routine at school.” Boy was a wrong. Afterthought: How to make the best of a DETOX when working and eating with others who aren’t on the program. Health first, clean refrigerator and cabinets, organize daily meal plan, go shopping, prepare for meals, cook meals, stay committed! Make it work! What I would change.

Health, Mind and Body First – Most programs first, tell you to consult a doctor. Well, my yearly physical was cleared, so that wasn’t an issue. The next thing was clearing out the fridge and making sure I had everything I needed for the week in order to commit to this thing (DETOX). It wasn’t easy because mostly everything in “my drawer” in the fridge is cheese. No cheese for a week, or maybe longer, Oh My! Although most programs tell you to get rid of a lot of things in the cabinets, I didn’t really clean out the cabinets. Since there are three other people in the house that cook other types of foods they like to eat, I couldn’t really do that to them. Being mindful of others in this case is really important. Afterthought: Not everyone needs to do what I need to do when it comes to a lifestyle change, and I shouldn’t expect them to. We don’t all eat the same types of foods, so why would that be necessary and/or right.

Daily Meal Plans – Next, it was about planning meals. Well, since there are three other people in the house, I wasn’t just panning for myself. My daughter is trying plant based (my son already did a while back, but it became unhealthy (in a way) for him – a story for another time). They are very independent when it comes to their meal planning, so that helps a lot. My daughter cooks a lot of her own food. My son usually hops on the our band wagon, and eats what he likes of what we cook. My husband is the same. He will eat whatever I cook. He’ll cook his vegetable, if it’s not the same as mine. He doesn’t like all the vegetables I like (Swiss chard, kale, cauliflower, zucchini, etc.). Green beans are something we both like, so I cook those a lot, even though it can get boring after a while. So meal planning can be a little more difficult on a lifestyle change. How to make it work. Afterthought: I think that a DETOX is great for single people, maybe even couples who are on the same page with their regimen. I don’t think everyone has to be on the same regimen, but it does help. So, meal planning 101 – keep it simple.

DETOX calls for a lot of little meals (Breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, evening snack).

Daily meal plans continued… DETOX regimen. Breakfast (vegetable protein, fruit). Morning Snack (fruit). DETOX regimen. Lunch (vegetables). Midday snack (vegetables). DETOX regimen. Dinner (vegetables, protein). Evening snack (vegetables). Afterthought: You really have to love vegetables! Be creative, but keep it simple. I set up my meal plans so I could at least make a few things ahead of time. Trying to keep it simple, I tried to meal plan the same things my family would eat, just not with starches and dairy. The vegetables were the hardest since they don’t eat the same. These meals were double duty.

Breakfast: using coconut oil to coat the pan, saute spinach with spices (garlic salt, thyme, salt and pepper), wilt and crack an egg on top, spread out the yolk, then flip. using coconut oil to coat the pan, saute peppers, onions, crack and egg over and then flip. I tried to have hard boiled egg, avocado, and tomato one morning, but the avocado I bought wasn’t ripe enough. Hopefully it will be ripe enough by the end of. the week.

Snacks: fruit cups: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries. Pears, apples, kiwi, and bananas. I found that I needed to eat the fruit cups at the beginning of the week (berries don’t last more than three days). Most coffee shops and groceries have pre-made fruit cups.

Lunch: Back to salads. Luckily, I had my vinegar vegetables of carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and peppers pre-made. I try different lettuces (romaine, arugula, spinach, green leaf). Mix it up! I also add a few olives, oil and vinegar with lemon and herbs for dressing.

Dinner: Always a hearty vegetable (Swiss chard, broccoli rabe, baby broccoli, broccoli florets, cauliflower). These were the main veggies. Chicken soup, chicken thighs, chicken wings, filet, salmon, scallops, turkey naked tacos.

Grocery Shopping: When grocery shopping (never go when you are hungry, or when you are shopping for other people who eat bread, pasta, chips, etc.). I think this was the hardest part. Even though I don’t eat a lot of bread, chips, or pasta during the week, it looked enticing. I also found I shopped for more than what I needed for the week. Afterthought: Once I brought everting home I realized I could do two shopping trips during the week – this way things wouldn’t go bad (mainly fruit and vegetables). I find there are some vegetables that don’t last 7 days in the fridge (spinach and some lettuces).

Preparing the meals. Breakfast was prepared before work. The morning regimen I found to be the most difficult at first, but it kept getting easier during the week. Harder on the weekend, since I like to sleep in and catch up on my sleep from the week. I wake up around 5:30, 5:45, and sometimes 6:00 before work since I only drive 10 minutes to work. I have to preset my clock for the same time every day if I wanted this to work. One day I fell back asleep and woke up way beyond my regular time, but I still had enough time to follow the same regimen. Lunch I would make the night before. I bought these great containers from the store that measure two cups and also carry salads nicely. I have a lot of other containers in the house, but wanted to use containers that will always fit my lunch box, at the same time measure the food I was intaking. Dinners were easy as long as I took the meat and/or or fish out of the freezer the day before and thawed it. Salmon with guacamole, chicken soup with carrots, celery and onions, sausage with broccoli robe, filet with baby broccoli, saute chicken over salad.

Staying committed: Remember when I talked about the willpower. Well, I did really well this week. However, it wasn’t until Thursday that all things started to turn corners. In my job as a teacher, I found it really hard to stay on the regimen at school, especially since I would need to take a series of vegetable tablets thirty minutes to a forty-five minutes before each big meal. At work, setting my alarm helped, but I could’t always get away if I were in the middle of teaching a class, Even drinking water fell short by the end of the week. At times, I became so busy, I forgot to drink water during the day. I still have two more days. I will come back to let you know how much I lost.

Obstacles and Temptations! – Monday was a holiday. Like I said, I started on a Sunday. I wish I had started on Saturday. It’s one of those things – MINDSET – you have to be ready. Saturday was hard because I was doing a lot of errands, I hadn’t gone grocery shopping, I knew I had a long weekend, so I postponed it for one day. I think that makes all the difference some times. Now, I had to get through the week and include Saturday in the 7-Day DETOX. Tuesday, back and school and one of the Instructional Assistance comes into the room with a box of donuts. They sure did look enticing, however I didn’t go for them. I keep to my regimen. The hardest part was sitting down to have a snack at 9:45 (that’s when the kiddo’s have their snack). However, trying to get read for Math shortened my snack break (half snack eaten). Then, remembering to set my alarm for 11:00 so I could take my 2 tablets thirty to forty-five minutes before my lunch. Well, the alarm went off, and I couldn’t get to the tablets and water, so I took them a little later. Then that prolonged the time to eat my lunch and I had to rush to eat my lunch before the next class. Oh BOY! This is getting harder. Wednesday/Thursday was a little easier. I think because I learned from what I couldn’t do on Tuesday. Everything went well this day until I got home that night. A friend gave me an eggplant. I love eggplant, but only two ways. Baba ghanoush style and eggplant Parmesan. Well, the DETOX calls for no cheese and/or tahini, but I didn’t want something to go bad that was perfectly good, and given to me. So I put it to the test. I used panic bread crumbs, almond milk, and an egg to coat. I used parmesan cheese to layer. I shared it with my husband and three other co-workers. It was really good – I did try to scrape most of the batter off when I ate it, but figured the amount I was eating wasn’t going to alter too much for the week. That was Thursday lunch. I ended up taking my daughter out for her birthday and had a sirloin with spinach for dinner.

Friday was the hardest. No will power. After a very long week at school (although stress levels weren’t that high, I felt the need for carbs). This is where it gets tough. My body feels like it needs more than just vegetables and fruit. So, how do you go from eating all the healthy stuff all week and come to craving other things. Is it really mind over matter? It is about MINDSET? Do we need to add an element of survival to our regimen? Should we have a coach who can help us and talk us through the tough times? It was hard. A free meal from parents who took the time and spent the money to make us happy on Friday made it hard to resist. I was tired from dinner out the night before, and didn’t pre-make my salad. I slept later on Friday morning; later than I normally do, so did’t have time to make it in the morning. I still made my egg with spinach though. For lunch we had catered sandwiches with chips and pasta salad. Well, I only ate the vegetables in the past salad, but had to have the chicken salad and chips. Was this going to derail the entire process of DETOX?

Saturday/Sunday: I am back on tomorrow and Sunday, so I’ll see by Monday what my weight is and continue the regimen next week. The best part of this though, is I don’t have to carry on the same morning regimen the first seven days involved.

Let me know your thoughts about DETOX?