OK, these are some of the comments and questions that have been coming up as we get ready to dive in to the detox.
1. You don't have to do a 3 day detox. It's a long time if you have lots of busy stuff to do - detoxing requires you to slow down and take care of yourself. It's great to do 3 days if you can arrange to be mostly at home, without a lot of stress. If your weekend isn't going to be like that, consider a full 24 hour period.
2. A mono diet is generally going to be fruit OR vegetables OR grains/ potatoes, because these things are going to be the healthiest and easiest to digest. Technically, protein could make a mono diet, because the digestive system has an easier time with just 1 thing going in, but 24 hours of eating bacon - although tempting - would probably not make me feel cleaner or cooler. Meats and Diary are hard to digest and aren't ideal for cleansing, and because we are meant to consume a much greater proportion of plants than animal proteins, I think the digestive system might just as easily back up. Seeds and nuts don't digest well either, often because we pour them in without chewing. Just the other day a friend was telling me about the hydro-therapy for colon cleansing, where you can see it all passing by in a glass tube, and seeds is one of the things you see. Raw fruits and vegetables break down quickly and thoroughly in the system.
Most detox books recommend completely raw fruits and vegetables, and here are some of the recommended foods in each category:
Fruits: apples, grapes, pears, papaya, mango, peaches. Avoid acidic citrus fruits and bananas, which form mucus, and avoid dried fruit unless it is only fruit - no sulfur dioxide.
Vegetables: pretty much anything but avoid the nightshades: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and also corn, soy.
Cooked Foods: brown rice, millet, potatoes, buckwheat
3. You don't have to do a complete mono diet. Here are 3 sample plans that will make you feel pretty good even after 24 hours. After that I'll tell you my plans. They are pretty tame.
I'm going to have my coffee tomorrow, and fruit for breakfast, as usual. I'm having a Leaning Pear salad with goat cheese and pears and candied walnuts and grilled chicken for lunch, and then I'm on fruit only until Saturday evening. We are going to a big event at the local community center that night. Dinner, casino, and silent chair auction, to raise money for Arts from the Heart - a charity that creates art programs for kids in our community, since they don't really do that at school anymore. It's a pasta dinner, but I hope to find some kind of tossed green salad, and if not, I'll have fruit in a cooler in the car, and I will always have a big bag of GOJI BERRIES in my purse - they have a very high protein content for fruit - munching on those throughout the day and evening should keep me going.
For the last 24 hours, I may do all fruit, or dinner may be a big tossed salad or grilled local squash and sweet potato. If I have a salad, there will be tomatoes in it.
I am also going to cook my fruit some of the time. I bought a pineapple, a giant peach, a Barlett Pear and a Jicima to go on the grill tomorrow evening, so I can enjoy a cooked, but still cooling meal. Ron will have a piece of grilled fish and some wild rice with his fruit.
I'm going to blend fruit into smoothies, and pour it into popsicle molds too. I eat about 4 popsicles a day right now, and I'm not going to stop doing that - so I'm making sure to have 100% blended and frozen. I'm going to eat any kind of fruit that strikes my fancy, and if I start craving something salty, I'll slice up a big green apple and dip it into this funky lemon flavored salt I bought at a Fancy Salt & Spice Store in Portland last year.
On Monday at noon, I will probably be back at the Leaning Pear for the exact same lunch, or Kate's Place for a burger and a rootbeer float if I'm feeling absolutely wild. I'm pretty sure there will be a mocha frappacino in the afternoon too.
I'm feeling pretty good right now. Haven't had chocolate for 3 days, except that morning mocha. I ate fruit most of the day - added a couple of slices of ham for lunch, and for supper Ron's famous GORP - an avocado, cottage cheese, tomato, onion, jalapeno smash-up dipped in strips of organic whole wheat tortillas. Yum.
Daily popsicle count: only 2. Not bad. I might have to try to pack a few in befo
1. You don't have to do a 3 day detox. It's a long time if you have lots of busy stuff to do - detoxing requires you to slow down and take care of yourself. It's great to do 3 days if you can arrange to be mostly at home, without a lot of stress. If your weekend isn't going to be like that, consider a full 24 hour period.
2. A mono diet is generally going to be fruit OR vegetables OR grains/ potatoes, because these things are going to be the healthiest and easiest to digest. Technically, protein could make a mono diet, because the digestive system has an easier time with just 1 thing going in, but 24 hours of eating bacon - although tempting - would probably not make me feel cleaner or cooler. Meats and Diary are hard to digest and aren't ideal for cleansing, and because we are meant to consume a much greater proportion of plants than animal proteins, I think the digestive system might just as easily back up. Seeds and nuts don't digest well either, often because we pour them in without chewing. Just the other day a friend was telling me about the hydro-therapy for colon cleansing, where you can see it all passing by in a glass tube, and seeds is one of the things you see. Raw fruits and vegetables break down quickly and thoroughly in the system.
Most detox books recommend completely raw fruits and vegetables, and here are some of the recommended foods in each category:
Fruits: apples, grapes, pears, papaya, mango, peaches. Avoid acidic citrus fruits and bananas, which form mucus, and avoid dried fruit unless it is only fruit - no sulfur dioxide.
Vegetables: pretty much anything but avoid the nightshades: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and also corn, soy.
Cooked Foods: brown rice, millet, potatoes, buckwheat
3. You don't have to do a complete mono diet. Here are 3 sample plans that will make you feel pretty good even after 24 hours. After that I'll tell you my plans. They are pretty tame.
- Pure Mono Diet: On day 1, eat nothing but grapes, water with lemon, and herbal tea, and clear fruit juices mixed with water. On day 2, eat nothing but apples, water with lemon, herbal tea and clear fruit juices mixed with water. On day 3, choose 1 of those again, or a third fruit from the list above. You could also do the same food 3 days in a row.
- Simpler Mono Diet: Eat a mix of raw fruits (or vegetables) through each day. You can eat one piece at a time, and wait until you feel hungry before eating another piece, or you can chop them up into salads and eat them together. Choose organic food whenever possible, wash each piece carefully, and chew slowly and thoroughly. Add lots of water with lemon, herbal teas, and diluted fruit juices.
- Mixed Fruits & Vegetables Diet: For breakfast, fruit. For lunch, a big chopped vegetable salad. For dinner, another chopped vegetable salad, and a cup of chopped fruit. No salad dressing - use lemon and dried or fresh herbs. So Sally, this is pretty close to your daily routine - maybe it's your thing.
I'm going to have my coffee tomorrow, and fruit for breakfast, as usual. I'm having a Leaning Pear salad with goat cheese and pears and candied walnuts and grilled chicken for lunch, and then I'm on fruit only until Saturday evening. We are going to a big event at the local community center that night. Dinner, casino, and silent chair auction, to raise money for Arts from the Heart - a charity that creates art programs for kids in our community, since they don't really do that at school anymore. It's a pasta dinner, but I hope to find some kind of tossed green salad, and if not, I'll have fruit in a cooler in the car, and I will always have a big bag of GOJI BERRIES in my purse - they have a very high protein content for fruit - munching on those throughout the day and evening should keep me going.
For the last 24 hours, I may do all fruit, or dinner may be a big tossed salad or grilled local squash and sweet potato. If I have a salad, there will be tomatoes in it.
I am also going to cook my fruit some of the time. I bought a pineapple, a giant peach, a Barlett Pear and a Jicima to go on the grill tomorrow evening, so I can enjoy a cooked, but still cooling meal. Ron will have a piece of grilled fish and some wild rice with his fruit.
I'm going to blend fruit into smoothies, and pour it into popsicle molds too. I eat about 4 popsicles a day right now, and I'm not going to stop doing that - so I'm making sure to have 100% blended and frozen. I'm going to eat any kind of fruit that strikes my fancy, and if I start craving something salty, I'll slice up a big green apple and dip it into this funky lemon flavored salt I bought at a Fancy Salt & Spice Store in Portland last year.
On Monday at noon, I will probably be back at the Leaning Pear for the exact same lunch, or Kate's Place for a burger and a rootbeer float if I'm feeling absolutely wild. I'm pretty sure there will be a mocha frappacino in the afternoon too.
I'm feeling pretty good right now. Haven't had chocolate for 3 days, except that morning mocha. I ate fruit most of the day - added a couple of slices of ham for lunch, and for supper Ron's famous GORP - an avocado, cottage cheese, tomato, onion, jalapeno smash-up dipped in strips of organic whole wheat tortillas. Yum.
Daily popsicle count: only 2. Not bad. I might have to try to pack a few in befo
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