One Week Into the 21 Day Detox

I have never owned a scale; I abhor them.  Every year or two when I find myself in a doctor’s office I’ll get on a scale and my weight tends to fluctuate quite a bit. But now I have a Wii fit that not only weighs me but can be mean about it.

Today is day seven of the 21 day detox my wife and I are doing and it is going swimmingly. These detoxes are fascinating on a lot of levels. For one it is nice that the evil genie inside the Wii is telling me I am losing weight. My pants that got somewhat tight over the holiday season, fit right again and I will probably need a belt before the 21 days are up.

Detoxing is a trip. It took till the fourth day for the throbbing headaches to pass. These headaches seem to be more sugar than caffeine related because I was barely drinking coffee when the detox began.

Now that I am a little deeper into it and the headaches are gone it becomes a fascinating psychological study of my habits and tendencies. In general I think about food all the time. But now my senses are heightened and I smell differently. The curry someone in our building is cooking hits my nose and my brain lights up. Passing the coffee shops on every corner is an assault on my desire and pleasure center which is often wantonly indulged and I have to show restraint.

Not eating idly I realize how much I eat idly. Passing the bowl of popcorn we made for the kids after school and not dipping in repeatedly makes gives me realize just how much I might eat if I weren’t on the detox.

There aren’t many non-detox days where I don’t finish some if not all of my children’s leftover food. A couple of bites of scrambled eggs or a spoon or two of cereal; these nibbles and bites add up over time.

Then there is the food I am making for us to eat. This particular 21 day detox allows for lots of fruits and vegetables along with lentils and brown rice. As a result I am making the most amazingly scrumptious salads with simple olive oil and lemon dressings.

The same carrots that I buy every week taste better than usual, and the Persian cucumbers that I have been getting from the Coop seem transcendent.

And yet, I still crave a hamburger and fries. The Green & Black chocolate bars that we usually pound sit half eaten waiting for the detox to end. I manage not to eat them but can’t wait till I can again. Oh the pain.

While doing these cleanses I talk about eating this way all the time, and it usually takes me a few months to ramp back up to meat and potatoes, and beer and wine but I always end up back where I began.

What’s a boy to do?