Adventure Sneaker

So, I’ve been doing something that I never thought I would do… I headed to detox.  Diet detox, that is.  Starting yesterday, I entered a world of un-processed, non-toxic, gluten, dairy, sugar, peanut, caffeine, and booze-free eating (and drinking).  Allegedly this is going to make me feel like a million bucks.  And I just got a new Vitamix… so I’m putting it to VERY good use with this.  Review of that to come.  Seriously, I’m in love with my blender.

I had toyed with the idea of trying a detox for quite a while.  The food and drink we take in on a daily basis is loaded with all sorts of less-than-good stuff… sugar (and all of its processed counterparts… high fructose corn syrup anyone?), weird stabilizers and chemicals to improve the taste/texture/shelf life of our foot, processed white flour/grains, etc, etc.  Reading food labels is really eye-opening…  Things that are labeled as “natural” or that we think are healthy, are often filled with things that are anything but.  

So, I decided to devote two weeks to eliminating all of this stuff from my diet.  I was going to post my first blog entry about this yesterday, on day one, but I was in too much of a caffeine-withdrawal haze to attempt that.  Luckily, the headache is gone and I’m on my way to super healthy fabulousness!

The detox I am doing is through Designs for Health, along with many other Pursuit Athletic Performance athletes and friends.  The thing that swayed me to give it a try was the assurance that I could eat whenever I was hungry… my snacks just had to be from the “approved list”.  As long as I can eat, I’m in.  Yes, this does involve lots of smoothie/shake drinking, but I can have real food.  Very important to my mental and physical well-being.  I can not survive on liquids.   I should say, I’ve been “practicing” a lot of the diet aspects for the past 1-2 weeks to get ready, eliminating things really hasn’t been all that bad.  It has made for a very healthy diet!

If you’re interested in more details about the “good” and “bad” foods on the detox, click the link above… in a quick snapshot, the no-no, bad food list consists of…..

•  Sugar
• Artificial sweeteners (gross anyway, not a problem)
• Gluten (thought this would be much more of a challenge than it has been so far)
• Dairy (my stomach is happy about this one)
• Alcohol (dear IPA… I miss you.  please don’t leave me, I’ll be back soon. xoxo)
• Caffeine (miss. my. coffee.)
• Soy protein
• Anything processed or packaged
• Fried foods
• Peanuts/peanut butter

mmmm… breakfast.

So, what am I eating and drinking these days?  My breakfast consists of two amino detox capsules, two plant enzyme digestive capsules, and a smoothie made of a scoop of pea protein powder (tastes pretty good), a scoop of paleo-cleanse powder (lots of vitamins, minerals, and a weird fake berry taste…. my only complaint about this process.).  To the powders I add some almond or coconut milk, chia seeds, and some fresh/frozen fruit.  Not too bad!  Because I add so much fruit to mine, I end up with a giant smoothie that fills a big mason jar, and takes me forever to drink!  

I can snack on anything that is not on the “bad girl” list throughout the day.  Apples/celery/rice cakes with almond butter (homemade using my vitamix!), eggs, veggies, chicken, avocado, etc…  Not bad at all.

Broiled scallops, veggies, and red quinoa.  Yummy!

Lunch is my big meal of the day.  I’ve been trying to change my eating habits so that I’m taking in the majority of my calories at breakfast/lunch, and this detox plan is definitely helping me to do that.  Typical lunch is some protein (chicken, broiled fish, bison, scallops) with veggies (salad or sauteed/broiled in some olive oil), and some rice or quinoa.  Very healthy (and delicious) stuff.  Today I made some bison chili after my run in the snow.  Yum!


 Dinner is another smoothie, same as breakfast except I usually add some veggies to the mix (spinach, bell pepper, avocado, whatever is laying around).  The trick is to blend everything up, taste, and then add fruit until it tastes good (or palatable.  or not terrible.  whichever.)  This is the place where the vitamix comes in suuuuuuuper handy.  That thing can blend anything up and make it at least of smoothie-texture.  Adding a little cinnamon or splash of vanilla extract can help some.  To do this you really have to like very “healthy” tasting things.  

Vitamix all loaded up and ready to go… greeen stuff is spinach/kale.. mmmmm.

This seriously looks even more gross in person.

So, I’m two days in and haven’t killed anyone or raided the work vending machine for every snickers in the place.  We’ll see how this goes!  There will definitely be some challenges along the way (I’m headed in for a night shift caffeine-free…. oy.)  So far, so good.  My run today felt great.   I’ll be updating you all along the way and share how this has affected my energy levels, running, and overall well-being.  Until then…. Cheers!  Who wants a sip of my dinner???  Anyone…. no?  ok then.