This isn’t for weight loss though it can be a great side effect. The 21 day plan is for detoxification. Ridding your body of pollutants, preservatives, and helping your cells to work better. It’s also a great jumpstart for a healthy eating plan. Having said that, I weighed myself at the beginning which everyone should do and then I weighed myself this morning just for some extra encouragement and that’s what I got. I’ve lost 15 pounds!
The 21-day Detox – My personal journey.
Time for true confessions. I’m great at talking and writing about
optimal health but sometimes I’m terrible at following my own advice. The last five years have been an emotional rollercoaster and my bad eating habits have re-surfaced. Binging, eating whatever I want with no regard for calories when I’m angry or sad. Basically, covering up the tangled mess of feelings with the legal drug . . . food.
Emotional eating is difficult to control until you expose the emotions that are driving it. Sometimes life comes at you so hard that it takes a while to untangle how you are feeling and express those feelings appropriately. I’ve also found that establishing healthy boundaries also works for me. Quick aside, see the book by Dr. Henry Cloud entitled Boundaries if you have the same challenges.
So, having sorted through the knots and set up some healthy boundaries I’m now ready to tackle the eating issues. Breaking out of the cycle of emotional eating is tough unless you have a path to run on. My path this time is a 21-day Detox plan suggested by my Chiropractor. In theory, it supports healthy liver and kidney function, aiding in the breakdown of the toxins that we all pick up from our food and our environment. I researched the detoxification process on several websites including the Better Living Institute and decided to follow their guidelines.
The beginning has been tough yet satisfying. Buying fruit, vegetables, (as much organic as the budget will allow), soy milk and brown rice was deeply satisfying. I have arranged the apples, pears, kiwi, mangos, pineapple, bananas, avocados and the squash in baskets on the kitchen counter along with a jar of brown rice and daily supplements. I feel like my kitchen is healthy for the first time in a long time and I am excited about combining these ingredients into healthy shakes and meals. What can I say, shopping for healthy ingredients felt good!
The next step was to get rid of the unhealthy food from the kitchen and my line of sight in the refrigerator. The detox requires no dairy for 21 days and we have little children in the house so i bought lo-fat Mozzarella cheese for them, and lo-fat milk. It also requires no animal protein for 11 days and then lean organically raised pork, chicken or fish for the last 10 days. However, the little ones need their protein so I bought all non-preservative, organically raised protein sources for them. Their snacks these days are animal crackers, goldfish, fresh veggies and fruit. So, all the family is eating a healthier diet.
Days one through 3 were tough physically because I felt low on energy and if I didn’t continue to drink lots of water I developed a headache. I slipped on day 4 and finished some homemade chocolate ice cream that was in the basement freezer. Big mistake. I am allergic to concentrated chocolate but I’ve been able to eat a few chocolate flavored foods like plain chocolate ice cream. However, this was homemade, no fillers and real cocoa powder. I had the mother of all migraines for two days. It was a great wake up call. The detox is showing me what foods cause a negative reaction. I now know that chocolate in any form is just not worth the pain.
This post has rambled on long enough. More to come over the next 15 days. All thoughtful comments are welcome. I will post the best ones.
Choosing what I like
I had a great revelation today while choosing what to drink at the local Panera. I like sweetened ice tea and from now on I’m going to choose it over unsweetened. Now this may not seem earthshaking to you, but when you have made choices based on healthy considerations instead of what you enjoy all of your adult life, it’s big.
And that is what I have done. Chosen unsweetened ice tea because I thought it was healthier and it always tasted terrible, but I soldiered on thinking I was doing my body a favor. Actually, I was just drinking something I hated and developing feelings of resentment that later turned into an eating binge. Really, how much sugar is in a glass of tea? and is it really going to kill me. I don’t think so. From now on I’m going to eat in moderation the foods that I like and that make my body feel good.
No more pressure from my overly developed food conscience. Life is too short. It’s time to enjoy it!
Holistic Health or Turn off the TV
Back in the day, holistic health referred to the whole person, an undivided approach to wellness. I had a professor in nursing school who taught the theory that all illness is caused by emotional reactions. For instance, since cold germs are always present, we “catch a cold” when our immunity is weakened by grief or stress. I agree with her, that human beings are made up of physical, emotional, and spiritual selves and they cannot be divided for the purpose of treating disease.
This theory was brought home to me this winter. I have joined an exercise class made up of women who are older than I am. The main topic of conversation is ailments, MRI’s, physical therapy, acupuncture and the latest health report on the news networks. The prevailing attitude is negative about life in general. Granted, getting older is not for the faint of heart, but this stage of life is no more difficult than any other stage, it’s just different.
Now I ask you, if we are a whole person and wellness comes from being well in every aspect of that person, why do we treat the physical and neglect the emotional and spiritual parts? These women spend a lot of money on the latest treatments for their physical ailments, yet they ignore the stress caused by watching the nightly news or the anger that has not been addressed in decades, or the grief and hurts that have not been resolved or the basically negative worldview.
Western medicine seems to diagnose and treat the physical ailment without considering what emotions, or spiritual beliefs lead up to it. Stress, we are finally acknowledging is a contributing factor but is there a concerted effort to treat that as well? I think if we payed attention to the mental state, emotional history, and all the body systems that contribute to disease we would have more keys to treatment and prevention.
If the women in my class delved into their emotional state, worked to change their mental outlook and turned off the TV, I believe their physical health would improve. The atmosphere in our class would be more upbeat and optimistic. Am I the only one who thinks like this? Weigh in, let’s continue the conversation.
Biking in December
Living in the Mid- Atlantic region means temperatures are in the 30’s and 40’s in December. Everyone I talk to puts their bikes in the shed and looks for indoor exercise venues. My advice, don’t be so quick to table biking outdoors. There are always days when the temperature moderates and warm biking gear works well. I even found a pair of heavy weight biking pants at WalMart. Old school lined leather gloves with tapered fingers are great for changing gears and keeping hands warm. If you are prepared you can still bike until Christmas.
Treating the Holiday Food Hangover
You know how the movies always treat a hangover with some weird concoction that is based on raw eggs and worchestershire? Well food hangovers during the holidays beg for treatment as well. After the Thanksgiving all-you-can stuff buffet which ended with trying every dessert on the table you feel horrible the next day. Your stomach is crampy and your eyes are puffy. Food hangovers can be every bit as painful as alcohol hangovers.
So, I’ve developed a quick reboot that settles down my system and prepares my body for the next holiday onslaught. Hopefully, it will also dampen the temptation to overeat rich food again.
Invest in a basic juicer. Anything that will handle raw fruit and vegetables with the peels. Then follow the recipes the next day after a night at the buffet.
> First major tip, drink lots of water with fresh lemon throughout the day.
> Breakfast with Pear Nog which was published a few years ago on this blog. Search for it under Healthy Recipes. It’s a combination of greek nonfat plain yogurt, two ripe pears, plain soy or almond milk and a scoop of plant protein powder. I like to flavor it with vanilla and cinnamon.
>For midday I like to eat a clear soup with chicken broth, tofu, carrots, and snow peas. Our local Chinese eatery makes a great soup like this without msg.
> When I’m hungry again I combine peeled limes and oranges with a handful of fresh cranberries, carrots and apples in the juicer. Experiment with the combinations and quantities. I like to drink at least 2 cups worth.
> Then, dinner is a spinach salad with lots of fresh vegetables and if I’m really hungry some steamed pasta or brown rice. More juice works before bedtime and add some fresh mint leaves if you have them available.
I’ve found that this formula restores my sense of wellbeing and I feel so good that I don’t always want to eat every rich concoction that I see. So try it and give me some feedback on how it worked for you.
New Ingredient for Cranberry Relish
Thanksgiving 2014 was a fun, thankful day full of family and great food. The Cranberry Relish was extraordinary this year because I added Thai Ginger to it. What is Thai Ginger you ask? It is fresh ginger found in the Asian fresh food section of Wegmans and it is bigger than the knobs of regular fresh ginger with striations around the outside. Usually I add some fresh ginger to the Cranberry Relish and this particular ingredient looked so interesting that I tried it out for Thanksgiving Day on my family. It could have gone either way but they loved it. The new ginger gives it a mild bite that the regular ginger doesn’t have. So here is the recipe. If your families’ palette isn’t as adventurous as mine, try it yourself before showing up on Christmas Day with a big bowl of it.
Holiday Cranberries with Thai Ginger
12 oz. fresh cranberries
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 large knob of Thai Ginger (size of your thumb) peeled
1 large apple, cored and quartered, with peel.
Wash and pick over cranberries, removing the soft ones. Place in a food processor. Coarsely chop ginger and apple and add to processor along with sugar. Pulse until relish consistency.
Allow to sit in refrigerator for at least an hour, then serve.
Domain has changed.
Some housekeeping is in order. I have changed the URL address for this blog. It is now “healthchatt.org” yes with 2 t’s. The old one expired and due to a change of email address I didn’t know until it was too late to retrieve without an exorbitant fee. So healthchatt it is.
Sorry for the inconvenience. I truly appreciate all of you who are following this blog.
I will be posting more in the future. Right now I’m working on some business development and raising 2 grandchildren. Not a lot of time for blogging.
Pick Your Own Etiquette
This is fruit picking season in the Mid Atlantic states and there are many opportunities to harvest your own if you are willing to stand in the hot sun and pick it yourself. The fruit is sun-ripened and the taste of it is incomparable to what is found in the store. However, to make your fruit picking experience enjoyable for everyone concerned there are a few rules of etiquette to follow out in the sun-baked fields.
First, listen to the owners directions. There is a pattern that they wish you to follow so that everyone has an equal opportunity to pick ripe delicious fruit. Don’t go headlong willy-nilly through the bushes looking for the biggest fruit and refusing to pick all the ripe fruit on the plant, bush or tree.
Secondly, don’t bring small children who cannot follow directions. They eat their weight in fruit and trample the plants, especially strawberries.
Thirdly, bring your own buckets with sturdy handles for picking and a large pan to receive the picked fruit from a full bucket. Then you can go back to picking with an empty bucket.
- And finally, Keep in mind the price of the fruit per pound and decide ahead of time how much you want to pick. I’ve seen lots of people act like a kid in a candy store and pick way more fruit than they planned. Only to get to the checkout with not enough cash. There are no credit card machines out in the fields.
Remember, you are a privileged guest on the owners land and this is how they make their living. Observe proper etiquette treating the fruit orchards as if they were your own and the farmers will continue to invite all of us back to pick our own fruit next year.
How We Sent Four Children to College on One Income
My husband and I did something really smart 30 years ago when our children were little. We were offered an opportunity to set up a side project which created an additional income stream. We have been forever grateful to the people who not only introduced us to the concept but stuck around to help us implement it. With the additional income I was able to make a choice about working outside the home or raising children full time and I chose to stay at home. We have also been able to send all four children to the school of their choice with the help of scholarships however, none of them got a free ride so we were able to make up the difference.
I am throwing it out to all of you, my readers, because I know that there are many of you that worry about where it’s all going to come from, especially if your children want to go to college.
Healthchat 
You must be logged in to post a comment.