Experiment.

Hello bloggies!

This semester has been off to a busy start, which is my excuse for my lack of posts. Do you forgive me?

I've been proud of my activity levels since the new year, but my eating habits still leave a lot to be desired. My tracking has been sporadic, and my weigh-ins have reflected that.

It's time for something radical.


When I read about Kerry's experiences with Joshi's Holistic Detox over at Skinny Me Coming Soon (she describes the detox in this post), I remember being very intrigued. Last week, I went back and re-read her entries, and decided to pick the book up. I read the book over the weekend (in between grading about a billion math tests), and decided to give it a try.

Now, I'm not a fan of extreme diets, but I think this detox is mostly sensible. The main things I will be eliminating over a 21-day period (starting this Thursday) are:

• red meat
• dairy (except Greek yogurt or Bio yogurt)
• fruit (except bananas)
• wheat, gluten, and yeast
• alcohol
• coffee and tea (except herbal tea and green tea)
• sugar

The main goal of the detox, to my understanding, is to reduce the acidity of the body and make it more alkaline.

I personally do not think it's absolutely necessary to eliminate all these foods to be healthy or get rid of "toxins." I am trying the detox for the following reasons:

• Eliminate cravings. Over the past few months, my relationship with food has felt like an addiction. I feel compulsions to eat certain foods to excess, and my cravings often feel uncontrollable. If I cut out these foods (mainly sugar and refined carbs), I think my cravings will eventually go away.
• Increase my motivation. I have hardly been cooking at all. I don't feel that old excitement to make a new, healthy dish or plan out my meals. I've been eating out WAY too often and haven't been tracking regularly at all.
  
• Try new foods. If I follow this detox, I won't be able to eat the way I have been lately (which has consisted of a lot of convenience foods and take-out). This will force me to cook and discover new healthy foods and meals that I can incorporate into my everyday life after the detox is over.
• Yes, lose weight. I'm still around 20 lbs higher than my lowest weight. If I stick to healthy eating for the 21 days of the detox, I will likely lose a few pounds. This will hopefully make me feel more like myself, help my clothes fit a little better, and motivate me to continue tracking.
  

I am planning to track my Weight Watchers Points Plus values throughout the detox. It's not going to be a crash diet or anything like that - I will make sure that I'm not eating too much or too little.

In order to keep me on track, I have borrowed a camera from my parents that is much nicer than my own. I will try to photograph as much as my food as possible to share with you all.

I am also receiving lots of support from my boyfriend. He has offered to give up chocolate while I'm on the detox (and he loves his chocolate!). Since I'm going to be blogging as often as possible to tell you how I'm doing, he's challenging himself to blog every day, too. Not only that, it was all his idea! I'm one lucky lady. :)

I don't want to let him down, or let you down. I'm afraid I will go out in a blaze of caffeinated glory around day 2, but I won't let that stop me from trying. Publicly. Because I really just don't want to let myself down anymore.