Morning Joe

My friend O and I recently started a detox "diet" - which began with 14 days of elimination - drinking a combo of fruit and vegetable juices and whole/mostly raw fruits and vegetables. The following four weeks will include reintroducing foods that have been known to cause allergic reactions or sensitivities in people - gluten, dairy, eggs, yeast, citrus, soy, corn....etc. The goals are to clear out, give the body a lighter load to digest so it can focus on restoration and healing, and to monitor any sensitivities to the trigger foods. It's a 6 week program and we just had our second group meeting to discuss our progress with reintroducing foods.

We all agreed upon one thing - we want to go back to what essentially was a vegan diet! We just want to juice and eat our raw foods!! My skin was the clearest during those first few days and I no longer had "brain fog", which was a regular mid-day occurrence. Despite the deep sleep I had been missing for weeks, I had woken up feeling pretty damn good. I was able to function! Reintroducing trigger foods has contributed to the lethargy I feel and the brain fog has returned.

After reintroducing foods I've learned I don't crave much from my old "diet". During the two weeks of juicing/raw foods, I missed cheese a little (I started reintroducing it yesterday) and pasta (I've discovered gluten-free brown rice pasta and quinoa pasta - YUMMY!). I thought I would miss my coffee but that was the first craving to go! Here's my new cup of joe ~



3 Kale Leaves
2 Celery Stalks
1 Cucumber
1/2 Apple

It was definitely an acquired taste at first but when you get the right balance, it's delicious!

Even though the detox diet has sounded extreme to most people (it is when you compare it to the American diet) it has the groupies wanting more! And we'll all probably go back to eating some of the mainstream "foods" but we'll all be upping the ante with our fresh juices too!

My #2 Juice -
5 carrots
1 beet
1/2 apple
1/4 inch slice of fresh ginger

Another great outcome of this program has been the creativity of our group's experiences in preparing meals. There were foods I didn't know existed (I'm still thinking about that brown rice pasta!) and recipes that are quite scrumptious (gluten free waffles). Check out the cookbook we're using.

3 weeks down, 3 more to go!