Detox wrap-up and Since...

Where do I go? Why do I go?

I don't know. Perhaps because no one is paying me to blog - if they were, I'd have it done on deadline...alas.

Still, I did want to write a bit about life post-detox and whatnot. The detox 30-days itself finished up swimmingly. Both Jill and I liked it and still like it! We bought Natalia's other book, her more generalized "Raw Food Detox Diet" - which effectively lays out 5 levels of eating to get oneself to being 100% raw (it took Natalia 10 years to work through the phases). Turns out, the "Detox for Women" book we used for our detox is about her Level 3 in the other book, with a few adjustments to address yeast and bacteria in women. For example, DFW was strict about sugar and grains; whereas the RFDD allows for maple syrup, raw honey, agave, as well as sprouted wheat breads and other goodies like that. It also allows for a wider range of fruits, and adds nuts as a 4th 'food category' alongside startch, flesh, and fruit (raw veggies being the unspoken 5th).

Since our detox ended, we've still had "green lemonade" daily each morning, and, with the exception of out-of-town guests, haven't eaten breakfast since late June. We know, we know...everything tells you breakfast is the most important meal of the day, etc. but honestly - we feel better, skinnier, lighter and more energetic without it. While it took the 30-day detox to shift gears and have that fact become true, it is. We eat raw salad for lunch and sometimes add a piece of spelt toast with avocado, or a sweet potato. Dinner is more or less "normal" food but again, preceeded by a raw salad (really, a 'normal' salad) that properly combines with the cooked food we are about to eat.

To that point, we are still being mindful and careful about food combinding never mixing (save again for the out-of-town guest) the groupings - starch, flesh, fruit and now nuts/dried fruit. We still limit the sugar intake as it seems to trigger cravings for me especially, and Jill is still having 1 coffee a day and I've added a few more back into my week (split shot) because, well, I like it. Red wine remains pretty much our sole alcohol intake, and desserts stay to goat milk ice cream (Laloo's), Coconut Bliss (so good!) 'ice cream', or dark chocolate. All of these permissable "cheats" do seem to serve their intended purpose: Keeping us on track while allowing for a reasonable amount of freedom and ability for general participation in society.

We've had a bevy of houseguests this week, so we are both anxious to get back to a more hardcore detoxing lifestyle as of Monday - we have tomatoes ripening faster than we can eat them (though we give it the college try!) and are excited to just feel that super clean feeling we found so inspiring. But even my trip to PA for my high school reunion went well, I aimed to keep 'detox kosher' until dinner each night, and then graciously ate what was given to me by my various hosts. I didn't miscombine much at all, and asked for some simple adjustments ("no need to cook my corn on the cob, I'd love it alongside my salad!) etc.

I'm still doing lots of yoga and Jill is doing Crossfit. We are both happy with our exercising and are each now down about 12-14 pounds from our start in late June. We feel better, more energetic, less gassy/bloated, never feel a yucky kind of full but do typically feel satiated. Also, we went a couple weeks back and once since for colon hydrotherapy. Not being to sure about it, we thought it could be our 'prize' (some prize, eh?) for detoxing. It's a process and many believe you need to go hardcore to get full benefits, but we can't really afford to do it more than maybe 1-2x/month, and we're kind of interested to see how we feel and if anything changes as a result. Frankly, so far, we've not seen any impact that's felt profound, but it does leave you feeling very light and super-hydrated! So, we'll see how that goes.

Hopefully, some new foods will emerge on my blog soon as I'm working to expand out repertoire now that we're more or less mixing the guiding principles of DFW with the RFDD. :)