Detox Journey - End of Week 2

Week two proved to be a challenge on this detox diet. I started the week off gaining weight. The first day was about a half a pound and the second day I gained another half pound.  I was so discouraged. I was following the diet and couldn’t figure out what, if anything, I was doing wrong.

I am still unsure but I think I may have figured out in part what was going on. First, and I think most importantly, I wasn’t getting all my water in. At best I was getting in 40 oz a day.  Secondly, I wasn’t getting good nights sleep.  Lack of sleep can actually cause you to not only hang onto weight, but to gain it as well.

Week two had me eating lunch instead of drinking a smoothie. I found myself just eating leftovers from the previous nights supper, as I didn’t want to prep and cook lunch and turn around and prep and cook dinner as well.  I did several times anyway. I don’t think that contributed to the weight gain, but certainly dampened my excitement on top of the weight gain.

All in all, I ended week 2 at 130.4 pounds, a total loss to date of 5 pounds. Losing is better than gaining, so I can’t complain.

Even though my struggle with the whole weight gain/weight loss started my week out on a down note, what happened next certainly raised my spirits and put me back in a determined mode.

A routine visit to my doctor delivered good news. Doc had my blood work done and checked my CRP (C-Reactive protein), which measures the inflammation in your body. (FYI, inflammation is something we want to avoid as it eventually causes all sorts of damage to our bodies in the form of diseases, ulcers, weight gain, etc).  A standard range is 0.0 to 1.0. My results were 0.1.(very good)   To further my excitement, my total cholesterol dropped another 10 points from the last time I had it checked and is well in the normal range now. My triglycerides have always been high and for the first time ever, it too is now well into the standard normal range! So even though I didn’t shed a chunk of weight in week two, I know that eating this way has improved my insides.

Other pluses that I’ve noticed are; I haven’t experienced pain in my knees when I climb stairs, I have more energy and I am not suffering from bloat and gas.  All in all, a big improvement in my general well being is totally worth the stall on the scales this week.

One more week of detox, then I begin introducing back some of those foods to see which ones are the big offenders.

My goal this week is to pay more attention to my water intake and to try to be more consistent with my workouts.  I’m still only doing 15 minutes of *burst training with 20 minute incline hiking on the treadmill on my off days. However, my work out times have been more off than on this past week.

Sticking with me?

One more week to go. Hang tight.

*(High-intensity interval training (HIIT), also called burst training, involves short bursts of high-intensity-style exercise for 30 to 60 seconds followed by one-to-two-minute recovery periods.)