For the past two weeks I have been in the process of doing Megan Rand,
Ginger Newtrition’s Spring Detox. It was not a detox where you don’t eat, or only drink water, or juice, or starve. On the contrary my friends! It was full of flavor and food. This was a detox where you cut the junk, but added full flavor, vitamin rich foods. The detox directions said to cut out gluten, soy, dairy, nuts, caffeine, most of which I already have cut out of my daily diet, so I wasn’t that far off to start with. For the two weeks, I basically took out what was needed for me to be full AIP. The main things I cut out for the two weeks were dairy, nuts, eggs and although I lowered my caffeine intake by A TON, I never got to absolute 0 (I have ordered some
Delicious Obsessions herbal coffee which I plan to experiment with). However. After the first week of no dairy and nuts, I unfortunately noticed a huge difference. I say unfortunately because I love those two, especially nuts. I have been adding almonds and a sprinkle of cheese to my lunch at work forever. It’s been such a staple that it was really hard to cut out, at least mentally. I really struggled with it for the first week, but after feeling positive effects, it became a bit easier. I also dropped a few pounds of bloating/water weight, so I am now back to where I was previously, which also helped. I added in sunflower seeds and coconut chips for the crunch effect which was yummy too. I think I am going to keep the nuts out for a while and see how that goes. I’ll reintroduce them at some point, but not quite yet.
One of the biggest benefits I noticed was the introduction of tons of lemons. In the morning I added in a ‘detox lemonade’ which consisted of fresh squeezed lemon, apple cider vinegar, and a bit of honey. The first day I drank it, I was shocked at how awake I felt. It helped just as much as coffee did! I loved it and will gladly keep it in my daily routine. I have also been cooking with lemon much more. I made lemon shrimp and lemon chicken.
For the chicken I just preheated the oven to 400 degrees. Put 4 chicken breasts in a baking dish and squeeze one lemon over the top. I also put oregano, thyme and S&P. Easy Peasy.