Tag: medical food

The following is discussion of Day 5 of my 10-day detox.  To begin with Day 1, click here.

I’ve been characterizing each day of the detox so far with short little summaries – Day 1 was about caffeine headaches, Day 2 was about worrying about caffeine headaches, etc. Day 5 was hard to characterize, though if I had to then I think “worrying about being hungry” is the optimal choice.  That is distinct from actually being hungry, though there was some of that.  Mostly I spent the day anxiously awaiting the next bite of food because I was so anxious to stave off the starvation that I am anticipating will come.

As we’ve discussed before, Day 5 began the three-day stretch that is the heart of this detox. At this point, articulating what foods are ON the approved list is actually significantly easier than listing the excluded foods.  Basically I’m allowed to have leafy greens, the group of plants that includes broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts, and fruit limited to apple, pear, and unsweetened apple sauce.  Plus some condiments.

Look at that list again.

Yeah.  You can now understand my concern about the hunger.

All of that, of course, is supplemented by four (count ’em!) full shakes – the 2-scoop variety.  So breakfast was a shake, a bowl of applesauce, and the multivitamins.  Snack was a pear.  Lunch was whatever I could get on the company salad bar (wound up running out of time to go over to Whole Foods) – a pathetic little salad – and a shake.  Snack was an apple and a shake.  Dinner was a shake, the multivitamins, and a plate full of roasted Brussels sprouts tossed in a pretty good basic salad dressing. That’s it – no hidden cheeseburgers or anything.  There was a stretch in the late afternoon / early evening where I could best be described as “very hungry”, but overall this wasn’t as bad as I would have expected.  Dinner, especially, was more filling than I feared it would be.

We’re now at the portion of this show where I have legitimate philosophical doubts about what is happening.  Because I’m unconvinced that “detoxing” on a regimen like this really means anything, I don’t value the exclusion of all of the other perfectly good foods from this list.  Seriously – carrots?  Walnuts?  Rice?  Blueberries and bananas?  These are healthy foods.  Even optimal foods.  I don’t understand the point of excluding them, and since that point is almost certainly that there is a detoxification function associated with not eating them then I’m pretty certain I think it is BS.

I am, however, nothing if not stubborn when it comes to sticking with something that I’ve committed to like this.  So I’m going to do my best to stick with the protocol as written and stick this out.  If I get to the point on Sunday afternoon where I just can’t handle it then I’ll eat a bowl of the minestrone I made last week – and if having a little rice, green bean, and tomato means that this thing failed … then we’re going to have to say it was meant to be.

Incidentally, I weighed myself at the beginning of Day 2 – I was all the way up to 285 pounds.  I’ve been weighing myself daily, out of sheer curiosity, and that number has been steadily declining.  This morning I’m calling it an official weigh-in – 280.6 pounds, a loss of 4.4 pounds in less than a week.  While it is debatable whether that is real weight loss, that is progress.  My plan is working, and I’m headed back under 280 pounds.

Momentum, it is a good thing.  Until tomorrow…

Day 6 is available to read here.

The following is discussion of Day 4 of my 10-day detox.  To begin with Day 1, click here.

Finally we get to a day that doesn’t really suck.  If Days 1 and 2 were all about caffeine withdrawal, and Day 3 was all about gastrointestinal integrity, then Day 4 was all about settling in.

Probably the most pressing thing about Day 4 was that the food list constricted, and to the point where it starts to be a bit challenging to rustle up lunch or dinner.  Removed this time were any grains, nuts, and seeds.  So here is the list of things that are off-limits for Day 4: meat, dairy, alcohol, refined sugar, wheat, gluten, all grains (rice, barley, quinoa, oats, etc.), and all nuts and seeds.  If you think about it, that doesn’t leave a whole lot.  Most whole vegetables are fine, and fruits in general, as well as legumes / beans.  After that … well, good luck.

So breakfast was an apple.  Snack #1 was one of shakes (full 2 scoops this time) and another apple.  For lunch I went over to Whole Foods and basically filled a salad bar container with whatever was OK to eat.  Snack #2 was another shake and some carrot sticks with an incredible aji amarillo sauce that a friend at work made and brought to me.  Dinner was leftover vegetable chili over potatoes.  And that was that.  I did have one little cheat and ate a handful of sunflower seeds.  Why?  Because they were there.

This is a problem with me.

Not going to get worked up over those, though.  Based on what I’m doing, a handful of sunflower seeds is not going to hurt anything.  I will say, though, that the hardest part of this was the no grains part.  Oatmeal is such a no-brainer for breakfast when you’re trying to be good, and think about how much you use rice when you’re eating like I’ve been eating this week.  Eating without those is legitimately tough.

No headaches on Day 4.  And my belly is still rumbling, and there is still plenty of gas, the gastrointestinal system has basically settled.  This is a good thing.  I also finished the day not starving, so that’s good, too.  Overall, this has not been so bad and I feel pretty good.

Day 5, though, begins the hardest part of this process – the part my guy warned me about. Days 5, 6, and 7 remove the vast majority of the list of available foods and replace “food” with “medical food” in general.  I expect to be prepared to eat my arm by the time it is over. Or yours.

If you see me Friday – Sunday, protect your arms and run.

Seriously.

Day 5 is now available to read here

The following is discussion of Day 3 of my 10-day detox.  To begin with Day 1, click here.

Day 3 sucked, but not as badly as day two.

I will now offer a warning – there is going to be discussion of pooping below.  It won’t be too graphic or anything, but we’re going to talk about what happens in the bathroom.  If I’m going to talk about the detox and its impacts on the body, that has to be fair game.

OK – end of warning.

The sucking, again, didn’t have much to do with not being able to eat.  I’m hungry, of course, but then again I’m always hungry.  This is not one of those starving hungers that crowds out thought of anything other than a cheeseburger, though – merely the standard low-level grumbling normal when you live your life in a constant state of hunger.

Breakfast was oatmeal with raisins and a banana, and an apple.  Snacks were again almonds and apples.  Lunch was leftover vegetarian chili over potatoes, which is awesome.  Dinner was the last of the ratatouille and a bowl of minestrone that I made the night before.  The food was good, and filling, and generally satisfying.  There was the issue of the two 1 scoop shakes again, but I choked those down well enough.  Overall, the food isn’t an issue.

The headaches also subsided.  There was a little rumble just before lunch, but it didn’t last long.  I’m going to have to make a decision after this is all over how and whether I even want to re-introduce caffeine.  I’m not convinced it is bad, and as a runner I also know the, um, restorative, effects of a cup of coffee before a run.  However, anything that can make you feel like that after only one day of not having it deserves a level of thoughtfulness that I’m unaccustomed to providing to my morning beverage.  We’ll see.

(This paragraph is the pooping part.  Skip at will.) Foul things happened in the bathroom, though. I’m going to try to be descriptive but not graphic here … after a lot of gas and rumbling, there was a mid-morning go that was impressive and left me feeling measurably better.  It did not, however, stop the gas – which was pretty constant for the rest of the day.  I wound up spending much more time than I’d like on the toilet in the afternoon, though it is difficult to describe.  This wasn’t diarrhea exactly, but lets just say that it was impossible to trust a fart.  Things settled down through the evening but never felt truly calm.

If we’re scoring, by the way, that’s one day hammered by crushing headaches and nausea, one day worried about being hammered by crushing headaches and nausea, and one day on and off the toilet and worried about shitting my pants.  This is not a good score, and if this is valuable at all I’m going to wind up feeling GREAT next week.

A few odds and ends:

• This is almost certainly the longest I’ve ever gone without meat since I was a baby.  I’ve probably had several caffeine droughts, but not meat.  Interesting.  I miss it a bit, though not as much as I’d have thought.  As I’ve said – I’ll never be a vegetarian, but this does cause me know that I can rethink things on a meal-by-meal basis.
• I’ve intended to get up for the last two days to run and haven’t been able to drag myself out.  I think I’m scared of it, if I’m honest.  I know that it won’t feel great for awhile, and I’m worried that my foot / ankle issue will flare back up and bring the discouragement with it.  This is something I’m going to have to power through, but it is there.
• Day 4 begins the hard part of this process.  Nuts, seeds, grains are all out – just vegetables, fruits, and legumes … and now two full shakes, with 2 scoops of the powder.  Days 5, 6, and 7 are down to basically leafy greens, an apple or two, and 4 shakes a day.  I’m nervous about this, because I’m going to be starving and I also know that starving myself like that isn’t really necessary.  But if I’m going to do this I’m going to do this … and it is only 3 days.  We’ll call it an experiment – not quite “Super Size Me” but in that category.

If you had the under on three days, you lost.  See you tomorrow.

Day 4 is available to read here.