As of Saturday, my husband and I have started a process of natural detoxing. How? Not through nasty drinks (ok, the first taste is startling, then it gets yummy!) but through juicing and eating more. We are not completely cutting out everything unhealthy or as we're coming to call it, "fake food" yet. Clay and I want to change what our bodies crave by becoming kinda vegetarian.
We went veggie and fruit shopping crazy on Saturday. I finally broke down and went for mostly organic: not paying attention to the labels but searching for the look and feel of veggies and fruits as I've seen them in the "wild" from my own garden (a few years back). We have bought a juicer. (for $50 at Wal-Mart) We are adding more veggies and fruits (in that order of importance) into our daily diet: slowly. We are not removing meat really at all, just cutting back because
it's expensive. We mostly eat chicken with the occasional beef or fish.
Clay watched a documentary last week on Netflix called "Hungry for Change" and (as he does when he's super excited about something) he kept talking about it. I became curious. On Thursday night, eating our Papa John's pizza, we sat down and watched it together. Nothing they said was new to me. I had read and heard all they said before but they had an excellent way of putting everything together so I was not trying to glean information from 20 different articles. They were not selling a product. And that's why I listened. Then it occurred to me. I've never met a fat vegetarian. So, I thought, Ok. let's give this a shot. Not as a crash diet, or a way to lose weight (even though I really hope it helps) but I mean, seriously, what do we have to lose?
As you may remember, we are on a budget so, I did cringe, thinking we would pay so much more
for healthy food than all the processed stuff we were accustomed to.
But, then I thought, hurm... If I am truly satisfied and not eating as
much, then I'm actually saving money, right? Our grocery bill actually convinced me that we will save money in the end. Again, we did not go crazy and buy anything that said "organic." We took our time, read labels, looked carefully at our produce and I think made wise choices.
Day two of nutrient rich food and I feel excellent! My emotions are a mess still but at least my stomach
isn't in knots like it has been for the past two weeks: Even my head
hasn't hurt as much.
Our goal is to juice at least one meal and add in more fruits and veggies throughout the day. We are trying to come up with new ways to prepare veggies apart from juicing. (I had my first experience with kale this morning and it was yummy.) Any other helpful hints?
Yeah, there are some interesting points raised in the video. We have already been eating healthier, mostly in portion size and not eating out as often, for a while now with the premise of losing weight. I have been able to lose 10lbs from this along with what I think have been pretty lack-luster workouts already. But the ideas raised, such as your body remaining hungry because of lack of nutrients in spite of the calories you are consuming, and the effect of fat-soluble additives, interested me. And I noticed some very specific symptoms of the typical American diet match a lot of Mercy's issues as well.
ReplyDeleteI have experienced higher energy, better mood, less indigestion / acid reflux, and generally just felt brighter and less disgusting (this makes sense to me based on how I feel, hope it does to you as well) so I'm sure taking another step with adding more fruits and vegetables (common sense) and cutting out unnecessary chemicals and highly concentrated additives where available would only make this more pronounced.
Basically, I want to see how we react to eating a higher quality diet.
Yes, my issues have been poopey: chronic migraines, horrible stomach gas, fatigue, lack of energy.
ReplyDeleteI was also getting frustrated that I have been working super hard with working out. And seeing in the video how my body has to work harder to get rid of all the toxins and indigestible non-food I've been eating, it made sense that I am constantly yo-yoing.
Highly recommend watching the documentary. "Hungry for Change."