My Detox - Day 12 - The Finish Line!!

Day Twelve – My Thoughts, Reflections and Results

My twelve day journey through Wild Rose’s Herbal D-Tox has finally come to its conclusion. I am happy to report that the experience has been a mostly positive one – something worth repeating in the future. As with all life experiences, there were pros and cons to my cleanse/detox. I always like to save the best for last so we’ll begin with the cons.

The Cons

Everybody Poops... But Seriously Now!?!
I found this formula to be way too laxative! The herbal philosophy I’m being taught in school is one of least interference. We don’t want the herbs to do the work of the body, we want them to support the body’s natural processes. That being said, the use of no less than three stimulating laxatives in Wild Rose’s formulas was overkill. I can understand their desire to ensure that people’s toxins are being properly eliminated from the body, however if a person’s body doesn’t need stimulating laxatives to get the job done, then they shouldn’t be in the formula. They were too strong for both my husband and I. A bulk laxative like flax seeds would have done the job just fine!

Headaches and Breakouts and Fatigue, Oh My!
Although I was fully expecting some of the regular detoxing side effects with this particular kit – I still have to place it firmly in the con category. For me personally, the side effects were relatively mild and didn’t last very long (3 days tops). For someone who is inexperienced with cleansing or is especially toxic, these side effects would be a huge deterrent and moral killer. No one wants to feel like crap and most people won’t put up with those types of reactions even if the end result is a good one. I truly believe that you don’t have to feel like you’re detoxing to know you’re detoxing.


The Pros

Honey!! Do you know where I put that extra weight I lost?
Many people who are interested in doing a detox/cleanse kit want to see results in the form of weight loss. Shedding unwanted pounds is a measurable result that people can appreciate and understand. Sometimes the result of “you’re less toxic” just doesn’t cut it for people. Due to the combination of dietary changes and the herbal formula, Wild Rose’s kit delivers in this category. I lost a total of 6 pounds over the 12 days detox and my husband lost 7 pounds.

As a caveat I will say this – I completely expect some of that weight to come back as a few of the food categories are integrated back into our diet. As long as we do it properly, in moderation and continue to eat the same amounts of food the weight gain should be minimal.

Who Knew Mother Nature Was Such a Good Cook?
By far the best benefit I had during this cleanse was the experience of new foods, cooking and healthy eating. My husband and I (like many people) have often used two common excuses as to why we didn’t eat as healthy as we could – money and time. In twelve short days we discovered that wholesome, nutritious and healthy food doesn’t have to be expensive (it was actually cheaper) and it doesn’t really have to take more time (and the extra time it does take is more than worth it). Although we ate fairly well to begin with, we still consumed some processed foods and junk at times. Many people eat nothing but those food items because they believe that it will be cheaper, but when we cut out everything junk-like and processed we found our grocery bill dropping by almost 40%! We ate better, felt better and it was cheaper. That’s a tune that most people can appreciate!

The eliminatory diet also allows people to integrate food groups back one at a time. This gives the added benefit of discovering what your food sensitivities/allergies might be.

I’m So Buzzzzzed!!!
When I told my husband no caffeine, no energy drinks and no sugar he looked at me like I’d just grown a horn in the middle of my forehead. You’ve got to be kidding right? What do you mean I can’t have my “wake-up juice?” This part of the diet change could be a major obstacle for people, but I tell you folks, it is worth it in the end. One may think that 12 days just isn’t enough time to eliminate the need for these nasty vices, but the results will surprise you. Sure, at the beginning of the cleanse I would have given my right arm for some chocolate or ice cream. But now that I’m finished I don’t even desire sweets, caffeine or junk food. I have more energy now that I ever did consuming caffeine and I’m sleeping better to boot!

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Has the Best Skin of All?
Well certainly not me! But I will tell you this, my acne and my eczema have both improved dramatically. Sure I suffered a few aggravation promoted breakouts in the beginning of the cleanse, but now that it’s over I can see a huge improvement in the appearance of my skin. I’ve had to deal with acne since I was a teenager and this was a most welcome change.


Well there you have it folks! My twelve day detox has come and gone. I’d like to thank everyone who supported me during this cleanse and for all of you who have followed me on my blog and fanpage. I really do appreciate it. If I’ve inspired even one person to cleanse/detox this spring then it was all worth it.



Until next time,

Correne

My Detox - Day 11

Day Eleven

Hello all! My apologies for the tardy post. I've just got in from a day spent in Waterloo and I am exhausted. I promise my Day 12 post will be much more exciting!! Thanks to everyone who has been following me on this journey and I will update you all on my last day of detox sometime tomorrow.


Good night (almost morning),
Correne

Pine Needle Basket Update

My pine needle basket making journey continues. I've finally finished the base of the basket and now I'm just starting the side. It's taking a lot more time and needles than I originally thought, but I'm loving every minute of it. Here are some updated photos for you to enjoy!

For those who are interested this is the website that I'm using for instructions.

If anyone else has started a basket making project I would LOVE to hear about it. Drop me a line at spiraeaherbs@gmail.com and tell me all about it!

My Detox - Day 10

Day Ten - Detoxing = Social Outcast?

Nothing in this life is entirely good or bad. I have experienced enough benefits from this cleanse/detox already, to know that it was worth whatever discomforts I may have had to endure. Most of the negatives I had expected. Many of the positives – weight loss, more energy, clearer skin, better sleeps – I had hoped for. But as with all things in life, I should have expected the unexpected.

Making drastic changes to your diet and lifestyle – both permanent and temporary – can be a hard adjustment. Cravings, headaches, frustration due to lack of options and of course hunger are just some of the obstacles that you’ll have to overcome. What I didn’t expect was how the other people around me have been affected by this cleanse.

I’ve gotten used to being a pain in the butt when it comes to social occasions. Being a vegetarian seems to be a major impediment for non-vegetarians to overcome – especially if I’ve been invited to dinner. No one ever knows what to cook and it always seems to cause copious amounts of stress. I usually end up with a frozen vegetarian lasagne and perhaps some bread. Now that I’m detoxing, even those options are off the table!

In the last ten days I’ve had no less than three people remark that my husband and I “picked a bad time” to cleanse. In each one of those situations my detoxing status had somehow become a burden to the other people I was with. Either they didn’t know what to feed me or we couldn’t go to such-and-such a place because she can’t drink alcohol right now. Somehow my cleanse had rained on other people’s parades!! Last night was the kicker when one of our friends said, “I can’t wait until you’re done detoxing so we can have fun again!” I will admit, I was insulted by the insinuation that I was somehow “unfun” because I couldn’t eat chips and get drunk. When did our society become so tightly bound to our junk food and alcohol?

So now I’m left feeling rather torn. I like how I feel when I’m cleansing. My mind and my body function better, I’m sleeping well, losing weight and my skin is finally clearing up. But I’ve come to dread social situations. The subject inevitably comes up because people ask you why you’re eating carrot sticks when there is cake and sweets to enjoy. It’s even harder when you would trade all the carrot sticks in the world for one bite of that damn cookie! So what happens if I want to make some of these changes permanent? Do I risk being a social outcast forever, or will people get used to the fact that I don’t eat this or I won’t drink that.

Tomorrow will be a whole other challenge, as I spend my last day of the cleanse at my father-in-law’s retirement party. Although I’m glad to be going, I am dreading the inevitable alcohol-ladened toasts that will be made and the needed explanations of why I’m turning down the cake and appetizers. Well you know what they say – whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

Until then,

Correne

My Detox - Day 9

Day Nine – The Great Cheesecake War

Three more days until my Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox will be complete. Day nine was the hardest day of all for temptations. My husband and I went to my parent’s place to celebrate his and my mother’s birthdays. We brought our own dinner so we wouldn’t be enticed by barbequed burgers (veggie burgers in our case), but the desert proved to be a far more formidable opponent.

Once all the dishes were cleared away my mother plunks down not only one, but four types of cheesecake. Like a beacon in the night that cheesecake was guiding us back to our sugary home! The only saving grace was my brother, who told us that we weren’t really missing much and that it was rather bland. It was a kindness.... even if he was lying. We satisfied our sugar craving with fresh strawberries instead. Needless to say we won the battle against the cheesecake and I couldn’t be prouder.

For today’s recipe I’m going to share one of our favourite ways to make potatoes. This recipe is thanks to my friend Christy who gave it to me years ago.

Roasted Rosemary and Garlic Potatoes

2 lbs of new red potatoes (left whole is small – halved or quartered if large)
8 cloves of garlic – pressed/minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried rosemary

• Pre-heat the oven to 400°F
• Mix the garlic, olive oil and rosemary in a small bowl
• Place the potatoes in a shallow baking dish in a single layer
• Drizzle the oil, garlic and rosemary mixture on the potatoes & toss
• Roast uncovered for 40-50 minutes – turn half way through cooking

We’ve also done these potatoes in a frying pan as a part of a breakfast – usually with scrambled eggs.

A big thank you to everyone who is following me on my detox and a super huge thanks goes out to brother, who kept us away from cheesecake sin!

Until tomorrow,

Correne

My Detox - Day 8

Day Eight

Good morning everyone! I can’t believe that Day 8 has come and gone already. This detox is going by so fast! I’m happy to report that my energy levels are back to where they should be. My husband and I went out for four hours yesterday hiking and harvesting herbs. I never thought we’d be able to last the day, but we survived.

The other detoxification side effects have all but gone. No more headaches, my skin has cleared up (including my eczema) and most of my cravings are under control.

Yesterday I shared my recipe for my breakfast smoothie. Today I will share one of the salads I often make for lunch.

Chickpea Salad

14 oz can garbanzo beans/chickpeas (or the equivalent in soaked/cooked beans)
4 carrots
1 bunch scallions (green onions)
1 medium cucumber
1 red bell pepper, sliced
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
3 tbsp lemon juice

• Thinly slice the carrots. Cut the scallions into small pieces. Thickly slice the cucumber and then cut the slices into quarters. Thinly slice the red bell pepper.

• Mix the vegetables and chickpeas in a large bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle with lemon juice. Serve immediately or chill in the fridge.

There are plenty of vegetables in this salad which are high in anti-oxidants and tons of other nutrients. The garbanzo beans are also an excellent source of vitamins and minerals as well as protein.

Thanks for reading and I’ll be back tomorrow!

Correne

My Detox - Day 7

Day Seven

Hi everyone! Instead of doing the same old entry about my side effects and symptoms (which have mostly remained the same at this point), I’m going to do the next few posts on some of the foods I’ve been eating.

In Day One’s post I mentioned that I’m on a fairly strict alkaline diet. That means no flour or bread products, no dairy, no gluten, no caffeine, no sugar (of any kind) and no processed foods. For many people in North America that list of no-no’s would eliminate half, if not all of their diet. So you must be wondering – “What do you eat then?!?”

When I first starting cleansing years ago the diet that accompanied most cleanse kits was a huge challenge for me. I found myself eating nothing but salad and feeling unsatisfied. I often got sick with a cold or flu while I was detoxing and I was constantly hungry. As years went on I invested more time in learning about different foods and how to cook them. I also got my hands a couple of vegan cook books that were huge lifesavers.

• How It All Vegan – Sarah Kramer & Tanya Barnard
• Garden of Vegan – Sarah Kramer & Tanya Barnard

So I guess what I’m saying is that I know it’s hard. When you first look at an alkaline food list you see more of what you can’t eat than what you can. If you stick with it and if you really care about detoxing and cleansing, you WILL get through it. To give you a bit of help I will post a few of the recipes I’ve made over the last few days.

My staple in any cleanse is my morning smoothie. It gives me tons of energy, it tastes great and it provides me with some essential nutritional requirements.

1 ½ cups of frozen berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)
1 tbsp flax oil
1 tbsp greens powder
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Unsweetened milk alternative (soy, almond, rice etc.) – add to until desired consistency is achieved
* I use Almond Breeze’s Unsweetened Vanilla (yummy)

Stick it all in a blender, whirl it up and viola, you’ve got breakfast!

For this cleanse I decided to go with Trophic’s Pure Essential Green Concentrate for my greens. I went with this one because it was in my budget and it was one of the few greens powders that didn’t have herbs in it.

The flax oil provides a healthy amount of good fat and the cinnamon not only tastes great, but it helps to keep my blood sugar stable until the next meal.

So there you have it folks! Day seven has come and gone and I feel fantastic! Thanks for reading and get out and enjoy the sunshine.

Until tomorrow,
Correne

My Detox - Day 6

Day Six

Hi all! I'd like to wish you all a most wonderful Earth Day!

I would have got to post this last night but unfortunately I sliced my thumb while making dinner last night. It made typing difficult... well frankly it’s still difficult this morning, but much more manageable now that the bleeding has finally stopped!

So my detox is officially half over – well at least the Wild Rose portion of it. It seems that the emotional side effects have completely taken over the physical ones. I’m not too sure which camp I liked better. Every time I have an emotional crisis (which is far too often for my liking), I have to take a step back and realise that it is most likely cleanse related. With Day five it had all to do with depression and sadness, but Day six’s theme was frustration and anger (which is directly related to liver cleansing). Luckily I was able to recognize and control my feelings (mostly) before I bite someone’s head off!

• Hunger – My appetite has completely adjusted to the new amounts of food I’m taking in. Less than six days of minor discomfort is not bad at all. I’ll have to remember this when people tell me they can’t lose weight because they don’t like going hungry. It doesn’t take long for the good ole body to adjust folks!
• Food cravings – Still having sugar cravings, but again I think that might be emotional cravings more than physical.
• Headache – Woke up with a headache, but that may have been due to the stress of my final exam and the fact that I dreamt about herbs all night!
• Muscle pain/tension – Things seem back to normal!
• Energy level – I was a little tired by the end of the day – but I’m attributing that more to stress than anything else.
• Emotional side effects – See above.
• Other detoxing side effects – No more breakouts on my face, but my eczema is crazy itchy!

Thanks again for reading my detoxing adventures. In my next post I will address the most common question I get when I do a cleanse like this: “What do you eat??”

Happy Earth Day!

Correne

My Detox - Day 5

Day Five




It’s so strange how life can suddenly flip flop. Yesterday was such a good day. I felt fantastic, had lots of energy... well today is an entirely different story. Thus far I haven’t really been affected emotionally on this cleanse (except for the sewing incident of course). I found it a little surprising since I’m such an emotional person normally. Today that all changed.



I woke up this morning feeling rather melancholy and depressed. I had a strange tightness in my chest that I couldn’t really explain. Every time I took a deep breath I would feel a tension/pulling feeling in and around my heart. For most of the day I sort of just wandered around the house. I had things to do but I just couldn’t get myself to do them... I was in quite the funk. This was problematic of course since I have a final exam tomorrow. I forced myself to study, but I would just end up reading the same sentence over and over again. Although I really do hope for brighter horizons tomorrow, in a way I’m glad I experienced this. Obviously I’ve got emotional baggage that needed to be tossed! Then again... don’t we all?

• Hunger – My hunger level was down significantly. I didn’t really feel like eating and when I did I didn’t have much of an appetite.

• Food cravings – The sugar monster is back in full force. Perhaps it had to do with my mood – I often crave sweets when I’m feeling sad or depressed.

• Headache – None to speak of.

• Muscle pain/tension – My entire body (especially my legs) felt tighter and more tense than usual.

• Energy level – Although I wasn’t tired exactly, I had no motivation to much of anything today.

• Emotional side effects – See above.

• Other detoxing side effects – No more breakouts on my face, but my eczema is crazy itchy!

Sorry for the downer post. Tomorrow is a brand new day and once 11:30 a.m. rolls around my exam will be done and in the past! That’s something to look forward to.



Until tomorrow,



Correne

My Detox - Day 4

Day Four

What do you do when life gives you lemon juice, avocados, tomatoes and onions? You make guacamole!

I’ve been experimenting with very simple recipes during this cleanse. Meals with lots of ingredients are more complex for the body to breakdown and digest. Right now all the systems of my body are working overtime to try and eliminate stored toxins. If I give my body a complex meal to digest, it’s only going to take energy away from detoxification actions.

All in all, today has been a good day. I actually got to work out! I jumped on the stationary bike for 35 minutes (I might have actually been able to do longer, but my assets were KILLING me) and I felt fantastic afterwards. I didn’t need a nap at all today, which is also great news. I was very productive – laundry, cooking, cleaning etc. – but I still found it hard to concentrate on school work and studying.

Some new symptoms revealed themselves today and some old ones seem to be gone for good:

• Hunger – I find myself hungry more often throughout the day, but it’s taking much smaller amounts of food to satisfy me.
• Food cravings – I thought about having something sweet once today and again if was after dinner. I am a desert person through and through.
• Headache – Zip, zilch, nada!
• Muscle pain/tension – Minor neck and shoulder pain – nothing to write home about.
• Energy level – Almost back to normal. I was able to keep busy, workout and study (sort of) all without the need of a nap.
• Emotional side effects – Felt fantastic today!
• Other detoxing side effects – The skin side effects have finally reared their ugly heads. My eczema (on a few of my fingers) has flared up and I’ve broken out slightly on my face. I’m fairly acne prone anyway, so I’m not surprised by this. I knew it was coming! Urination and laxative side effects remain the same.

A big thank you to all of you who are supporting me during this cleanse! It is hugely appreciated.

In good health,

Correne