Detoxing

You know that feeling you get when your body is telling you something? Like after you’ve been out in the heat and then you go and drink lots of water and your body says, “Thank you, geez…” or when you eat a hamburger that’s a little too greasy and your body says “Seriously? This is terrible. I’m pretty sure I can’t move now.” Well lately, my body has been sending me the message that things aren’t quite right. Jason’s has been doing the same, but in different ways.

I’ve been mentioning over the past few months that I was having strange symptoms and was going to the doctor to try and figure it out. My doctor has diagnosed the condition as lipomatosis, and more specifically it appears to be familial multiple lipomatosis (FML, quite an apt acronym for it, HAHA!). It’s essentially a series of benign fatty deposits that appear all over my body, and it is likely genetic. Most are not painful but sometimes it is. (I do have some pretty good pictures of them but I decided they are gross and I don’t want them immortalized in cyberspace) It’s not serious, it’s not life threatening, and my doctor said there is “nothing you can do about it”. Trust me, if you were having these symptoms you would not be OK with just conceding the fact that there’s “nothing you can do about it”.

The annoying lipomas combined with some bad acid reflux symptoms that have popped up lately, along with my husband’s triglyceride levels doubling in the past year (??!?!) has led me to the decision that we are not doing enough in terms of eating the right way for our bodies. We’re doing better than we were perhaps a year ago this time, when I was literally cooking with a pound of butter a week, but not good enough. SO, friends, we are going on a short food detox to kick off some healthier eating habits.

Don’t worry, we’re NOT planning on taking any crazy pills or only eating raw food or juice for month. No way. We’re also not interested in trying to discover any food allergies, because we have already done that. This is going to be all about renourishing our bodies, getting rid of the toxins we’re holding on to, and flooding ourselves with nutrients to make us stronger. Starting today, here are the basic guidelines we’re following for the next two weeks.

• drink plenty of water (60 oz./day for me, 80 oz./day for hubster)
• avoid alcohol, caffeine, and artificial ingredients
  
• avoid white flour and refined sugar of any kind
• enjoy at least two servings of cruciferous vegetables a day
  
• enjoy lots of fresh fruit
• aim for one serving of non-wheat whole grain every day
• aim for one serving a day of lean animal protein

Those are the basics! I’m excited to get started because I really enjoyed the benefits of the detox we did back in January. There’s nothing too crazy about this and I will still be sharing recipes on the blog as usual. We’re essentially just going to be eating A LOT of fruits and veggies and concentrating on natural foods to help us get into a better swing.

One of the reasons I’m telling you all this is that I know it will help keep me more accountable. The hardest part for us is probably going to be cutting out white flour. I cook a lot with whole wheat flour, but not exclusively at all. We do love our flour tortillas and Trader Joe’s bagels…but they will have to wait for at least a couple weeks. Today is going pretty well so far. I was WAY too busy today to take pictures, but here’s what I ate to give you an idea of what our detox diet looks like:

• first thing in the morning- cup of hot water with lemon juice
• breakfast- oatmeal with cinnamon and a little agave nectar
• second breakfast- smoothie with 1 c. strawberries, 1/2 c. raspberries, and 1 banana
• lunch- spinach salad with shredded carrots, portabello mushroom cap, a boiled egg, cherry tomatoes, and a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar; some multigrain crackers
  
• afternoon snack- roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed napa cabbage

And for dinner, I’m planning on making brown rice pasta with kale pesto, marinara, and roasted chicken–courtesy of this fabulous looking recipe that Ashley posted back when she did a detox of her own.

I’m off to a night class but I can’t wait to tell you more about how the detox is going tomorrow!

Thanks for reading,

Lauren