clean

So for the past three days and over the weekend I’ve gone meat (including chicken and seafood) and dairy-free.  I went through three parties/functions with friends and family offering the most delicious looking fried chicken and squid, brownies, birthday cake, sushi, etc. but I did not crack!  I ate what was available for me to eat: plain fried rice, potato wedges, deviled eggs, carrot sticks, plain rye bread, veggie sushi, and fruit.  My regular coffee turned to coffee with sugar, and I didn’t deprive myself of soft drinks, though I had maybe only two glasses the entire weekend.

I have the holidays to blame for this sudden wanting to cleanse.  Y’all are familiar with holiday eating already, and to add to that, the weekend after Christmas we celebrated my mom’s birthday at Denny’s for brunch, Demetre crepes and iced coffees for dessert, and Pizza Hut for brunch the day after.  I was starting to feel all rotten inside.  So here we are with this cleanse.

Last night (end of day three) I was feeling very nauseous.  I had made myself a veggie stew with rice that I had eaten most of the day, with egg salad on pumpernickel toast for lunch. By night time, I had such a headache and thought I was going to need to vomit.  I ended up grabbing what was closest to me: a bag of cheddar and caramel popcorn, and stuffed a handful or two into my mouth.  Downing two Tylenols with a bottle of water, I went to sleep, waking up the next day feeling similar but not as terrible.

In my research, detoxification side effects are common, and exactly what I experienced:  headache, nausea, hunger, fatigue.  I ate some noodle soup for breakfast and started to feel better.  I had my blood taken recently and was told I have low blood pressure and was possibly low on sodium, so the salty soup seemed to have helped.  I’m feeling much better today, day four.  I was only planning to go three days, but in my research read that once the terrible symptoms pass and the body starts to cleanse itself, it will feel amazing and more energetic.  I did have some salmon cream cheese on toast and two plain cupcakes, so I fell off the dairy a bit, but I think I’m going to continue restricting the meat and “heavy” amounts of dairy for the next few days.  I want to experience that clean and amazing feeling.

As for progress, I don’t think you can see much of it in the picture above.  I had a seven-pound weight gain over the holidays, and I managed to lose two over the weekend.  I still have a pregnant-looking gut, which I know I can lose with exercise (feeling so tired and sick, I wasn’t able to go at all this week yet), and I did experience some changes within.  The husband can attest to my extremely nauseating and pungent flatulent powers.  Lucky man.

I’ll keep you posted on how I do the rest of the week.  I am HUNGRY though, so fingers crossed I make it to tomorrow!