What's it like to Be on a Detox Diet?

As I write this, it's day seven of our detox diet, and I'm minutes away from having my first meat and dairy in a week.

Though I'm glad to be done with the dietary restrictions on some of my favorite foods, I have to say, the cravings got better in the last few days of the week. That's not to say that a cheeseburger ever stopped sounding really, really good to me, but for most of the week, we were actually experiencing what you might call symptoms of withdrawal with cravings accompanied by shakiness, weakness, and just a general feeling of "bleah" (yes, I know, I'm using some rather scientific terminology). All of this in spite of the fact that we were paying very careful attention to making sure that we had balanced nutrition.

Here's the really interesting thing, though, and how we know this diet worked: we both lost weight. Now, you might think that would just be due to cutting out as many fattening foods as we did, but I really did make a big effort to fill our meals with as many calories as humanly possible. I had to, due to the fact that my partner has ridiculous metabolism and very little body fat. Therefore, I made sure to serve us regular, big meals with plenty of rice, lots of gaucamole (avacadoes are very high in fat) and nuts and not to skimp on the heart-healthy oils when I was cooking.

Yet we lost weight, somewhere in the area of 7-10 pounds each. Here's the kicker - we both lost it from the same area on our bodies, too, experiencing a flattening of the little round paunch we each carried on our tummies. And like I said in part 2 of this series, during most of the week we had unusually chemical-smelling bodily byproducts, so all of these seems to indicate that the detox worked. A lot.

I had heard before starting this that the average person carries about 15 pounds that it made up of nothing but toxins that the body can't get rid of. We weren't doing this diet for weight loss, and I didn't believe this number it until I saw the results for myself.

It certainly tells you a lot about the state of food in this country. I have long suspected that the US obesity epidemic is not due to overeating, but due to how much we fill ourselves with food that is so laden with chemicals, preservatives, non-food additives, and altered ingredients, that our systems simply don't know what to do with them.

This experience has inspired me. If we can change Sesame Street in order to teach children that cookies are a "sometimes" food, perhaps adults, too, can start to think of all things processed in the same way. Though my mother always tells me I'm only allowed to have ten crusades per day, I'm going to add this one to the list.

But in the meantime, I'm going to have a burger.