After the Holidays

It's been a long time since I posted, but I feel that the last month has really tested the sustainability of my detox.  After I finished my detox, Thanksgiving hit, quickly followed by all the Christmas festivities.  I was really proud of myself and avoided gluten and sugar mostly through Thanksgiving except for Thanksgiving itself, but by Christmas I was almost eating as I did pre-detox.  I anticipated this, and saw it as a test of the changes in my body.  Here is what I have to report.

By the end of December I had gained a couple pounds back, but quickly lost them again after two days of no gluten and sugar and then a return to about 90% gluten and sugar free.  This is exciting.  It means that my body can process toxins better than it could pre-detox.  I also notice that my body is more unhappy with me when I do have gluten and sugar.  I always had some intestinal response to junk food, but now I am a little more sensitive.  This is not a bad thing.  It helps keep me in check and reminds me that these things are hard on my system.  I still drink my shakes in the morning, and they usually help settle my stomach when I did not eat well the day before.

I wish it was easier to have days where I eat not sugar or gluten.  Now that I am not committed to the detox, it's hard for me to say no to sugar for even one day.  It would benefit me to stick more carefully to sugar free and gluten free most days.  It's just so hard to say no when I am tired and stressed, and having a bad day, and that ice cream or cookie seems like such a great pick me up.  There is totally an endorphin response.

My energy has gone down a little since stopping the detox itself.  I don't get as many nutrients and it seems that even dairy and corn slow me down a little.  I will probably do the program again to some degree again in the future because eating that clean clearly has major benefits.  Having the program forces me to stick to it 100%, and hopefully each time I do it, I will stick closer and closer to eating that way.

My habits really have changed.  I eat spaghetti squash instead of pasta.  I make more from scratch.  I skip the bread for certain sandwich meals, and I am eating less sugar than I was pre-detox.  Because it forced me to cut this stuff out of my diet I see how I can easily make adjustments.  Now I just have to keep working on my willpower.