Beth and I have decided to get back on track in 2011 by following a diet I read about called “The Clean Diet.” It is called a “detox” diet in that it is designed to remove various toxins from our body. These include many pesticides, heavy metals, and chemical preservatives found in many processed food. Also, many people have allergies to wheat, soy, or dairy that they do not really know about. This diet aims to give you a clean slate and then allow you to reintroduce these items to see how your body reacts. The diet looks to be fairly strenuous, but I think it will be just the kick-start Beth and I need to get going. The diet consists of 4 weeks: one “elimination” week in which you remove certain foods from your diet but maintain 3 normal meals per day, and 3 weeks of the official diet in which you have a liquid breakfast and dinner and the only solid meal at lunch, you also take various supplements to aid in the cleansing. To give you an idea of what is restricted, I’ll list some of the items that you cannot have: any dairy, any wheat, any soy product, alcohol, coffee, any sugar or sugar substitute, oranges, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, and the list goes on. You can substitute other fruits and vegetables as well as have chicken and fresh fish for protein. I decided that rather than post each week I will keep a journal throughout, below are my comments.
Elimination Diet: This week has taken a little getting used to. It requires a lot more planning to make sure you’re not eating items from the “no-list”. It has been nice though that since I hurt my ankle and can’t exercise much that at least I’m eating better.
Week 1: The cravings for more/different food are still there. Beth and I have been doing good at planning our meals and being prepared for the week. This has definitely helped us not to stray from the diet. A few points of advice for people wanting to do this diet: (1) go for garlic pills instead of eating the clove a-day (that was close to the worst experience ever) (2) prepare yourself for the olive oil each night, it takes some getting used to (3) so far the soups from the book have been pretty bad, we’ve just improvised with veggie smoothies. At least we have been seeing some results. We have been monitoring our weight, body fat percentage and muscle mass weight using a new scale Beth got me for Christmas. So far (10 days after starting the Elimination Diet) I’m down 10 pounds with no loss in muscle mass. We’ll see if this pace continues. By now we’ve gotten pretty used to the portions and the food, the only complaints have been that we’re a little more tired than usual and I’ve actually been cold (which is really strange for me if you know me). Supposedly our energy should be going up during week 2.
Week 2: This week was a bit better. There were a few days when the cravings returned, normally when I had a stressful day. During this, Beth and I have been talking a lot about how we interact with food. In response to the feelings of wanting “comfort” food when having a stressful day brought up an interesting conversation about how turning to food when stressed or a little down is actually a sinful practice that is easy for us to fall into. We have been told that God is the “Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2Co 1:3), thus we should be turning to him alone. This has been a helpful focus of meditation during this week and has allowed for the control of many cravings. Our energy is going up a bit. Not the extraordinary increase that some claim to realize, but nice none the less.
Week 3: Coming to the end of the diet has been nice. It has been a little exhausting at times to stick to the rigors of this diet, however the way I feel is well worth it. The final stats are —
Jeff: -14.8lbs, -4.1% body fat, even in muscle mass
Beth: -3.6lbs, -3.3% body fat, +1lb muscle mass
I am looking forward to eating normal food again, however many of the practices of this diet I would like to continue. The smaller meal portions and restrictions on snacking, I think, are just good principle. It is definitely a diet I would like to do again in the future. Also, they suggest as methods of upkeep a quick 3-day diet, among others, where you follow the elimination diet for 3 days. Beth and I plan on doing this once a month.
Evaluation: Overall, while the diet was strenuous, I do believe that the health benefits are worth the effort. I would suggest the diet to anyone who is looking to renew their body, as well as regain that “healthy” feeling. If anyone is interested, we have the book and you are more than welcome to borrow it. I plan on posting more as Beth and I reintroduce items into our diet, we’ll let you know how that goes.
