So I’m six weeks post-op and still hobbling around. Looks like I might need that knee replacement.
In the meantime, I need a complete overhaul regarding I how I fuel this old battle wax. I am on a collision course for shear disaster and I need to stop dead in my tracks.
So how am I going to get that tune up? I am going to be smarter about what I put in my mouth to survive or should I say thrive? And guess what you get to watch and see how I do.
So here is the plan. I am going on Mark Hyman’s detox diet for a year. But I won’t start until I get back from my trip to the east coast with the boys to visit my brother and sister! Hey you need to know, I am not only going on the Detox Diet, I hired Mark and he is working with me directly! He also has some great people onboard to support me through my journey.
Trisha Howell is an amazing nutritionist at the Cleveland Clinic in the Center for Functional Medicine. She touts Mark Hyman’s detox diet. She laughs and jokes as she informs with a smile, while speaking a mile a minute. She wants me to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day and dinner the smallest. She says its best for your gut if you eat for 12 hours and train your body to not eat for twelve hours. If you are hungry at night she advises you drink water! She says, “Water, water, water!” She wants me to eat breakfast, then snack, then lunch, then snack, then dinner and maybe another snack.
During each eating episode she expects me to consume a protein, a carb and fat. But when she talks about carbs she is talking fruits and vegetables! She’s got rainbow charts to help you eat all the colors of the rainbow. She demands that I keep copious notes about what I eat! And she wants to read them!
She’s into eating cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and brussel sprouts and fermented foods like kimchi and saurkraut, and not into night shades like tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers and eggplant. She highly recommends watercress. She encourages modest portions of nuts, like a portion size of 4-6, not ounces, but nuts! Munching on unsweetened teaspoons of coconut flakes is okay too. Tempeh is a favorite of hers. She reminds me to eat only grass fed ghee or coconut oil or first cold press virgin olive oil. She reminds me to mix up the oils, olive and grape leave, while mixing up the nut milks, almond, soy and cashew. Variety is the spice of life, she says with a twinkle in her eye!
On this diet you are expected to refrain from consuming gluten or dairy. There is no sugar or sugar replacers on this diet either. No caffeine, or alcohol, but tea and bone broth are both encouraged. She specifically encourages bison bone broth! Eating sardines is also admired. Several supplements are recommended as well.
So this is my journey! You may ask what about my sons? They will be on the journey as well. Things won’t be quite as strict as they will eat cafeteria style with classmates at University School and have visits at other peoples’ homes, but at home we will all eat together and the pantry will be stocked accordingly!
So no sugar, flour, or grains. Little salt, no caffeine, no alcohol, no dairy. No carbonated beverages. What’s left? You guessed it, meat, vegetables, fruits and oils. It’s a kind of paleo diet.
Heck even my fruits are designed to be restricted. I can eat berries, cherries, kiwi and pomegranate. All high in antioxidants! Oh and I forgot to mention that apple cider vinegar combined with first cold press oil is recommended as salad dressing.
But if it’s so hard, why do it? So I feel better and don’t go off the deep end with diabetes, cancer stroke and heart disease. It’s an anti-inflammatory diet and benefits all auto-immune disorders. It even helps with leaky gut. I think I’ll try it. What do I have to loose but a bunch of weight and a lot of inflammation that I frankly do without!
In fact I already did! I tried it for 6 weeks and lost 17 pounds in January. I was not hungry and I did not get headaches as I have so many times in the past when dieting. In the past dieting has always been a punishing process. This was not! Refreshing.
Lisa J Lafave, PhD, MBA, ACC
CEO & Founder of Coaching Rocks, LLC
A Single Mom By Choice Raising Surrogacy Twin Boys
Written in My Little Brick in University Heights, Ohio