You Can’t Go Detox Again

After putting my body through the proverbial ringer the last month I decided it was a good time to give it a cleaning. You may remember a couple of months ago I tried a system called Detox. The basic idea is that you take a supplement they provide, then eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, while abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, all over 5 days. The result is that all the garbage your body retains, especially in your liver, oozes out of you. When I did it the first time I didn’t notice much of an effect while I was doing it but by the end I think it worked as I felt better and had more energy. I stuck to the plan by eating a lot of plain salad, whole wheat noodles and green beans. I wasn’t hungry for the most part and my only cheats were about 5 cigarettes during the entire 5 days.

After an 8 week period that included weddings, party buses, birthdays and general debauchery, my body was asking for another time out, and I figured doing Detox a second time round would be just the cure. Here we are on the last day and I’ve stuck to the diet again (up until today when my work had a holiday pizza party but still pretty good). I probably averaged only one smoke a day and I abstained from alcohol all week. So why do I feel like I’m barely hanging on? The first time I did this I was never hungry and rarely felt temptation but this time around it was hard to leave the house for fear of some delicious smell wafting by. It’s not like I’m starving myself, I’ve got dried fruit and nuts to snack on but for whatever reason this has been 10 times more difficult. Take yesterday for example. After taking my customary lunch time walk, I was invited to take part in the leftovers of a neighboring department’s pot luck. I declined, however I spent the next hour coming up with excuses to walk by the room where the food was housed. Even their left over Pizza Hut looked good to me and for the most part I can’t stand the Hut. Then of course there was the pizza lunch my own department had today. It took every once of will power to focus on the salad bar and keep my pizza intake at 1 slice. I almost passed out at the smell when I walked in the place.

The first time I did Detox I was like Michael Keaton in an 80’s comedy about the auto industry. I embraced the methods and for the most part didn’t complain…much. This time the novelty has worn off and I’m like Michael Keaton in another 80’s movie where he quit drinking. I’m not swearing off Detox by any means, for the time being it’s nice to take a week off and care for my body, but it’s becoming more of a chore then a challenge.