I haven’t heard of MyFitFoods, but it sounds like they are providing you a great service. The first 3-5 days of any cleanse are usually very hard (or awful), but then you start to feel great! Giving up diet soda is so important, so good for you. I gave it up about 3 years ago, and now it tastes absolutely terrible to me — so there is hope! If you can get past the first 21 days, you won’t want it anymore. For eating out, you can usually choose iced tea — unsweetened — instead.

If I was to guess I’d say the beer is what triggered your inflammatory response due to the gluten in it. If you are curious about gluten, you might want to read Wheat Belly, a book by Dr. William Davis.

Keep it up, it’s great that you are making all these healthy changes!

The meals vary in price (salmon costs more than quinoa, for example). The “Gimme More Chicken Salad” lunch wrap is $4: less than I’d spend on a Happy Meal in the kid’s drive thru. It is helping me to take the guess-work out of my menu and focus on the exercise routine part of my lifestyle change.

The first four days were difficult: I’m thinking it was the “detox” or cleanse stage. I gave up diet sodas (a requirement), as the diet plan does not include artificial sweeteners or caffeine. For coffee drinkers, the coffee is out too (I only had a cup a day, so not a big deal to 86 that for me). I felt some lightheadedness/dizziness the first few days, starting in the afternoon. Severe headaches from caffeine withdrawal (I had quite a diet Coke habit) have diminished, and after two days I decided to allow myself one or two a day until the headache stage ends. I think I’m there.

Also, a big hurdle for me is omitting alcohol. After being on the meal plan (which includes a “just cranberry” + Bragg’s Vinegar + lemon juice cleansing drink each morning) for about a week, all brain fog and other detox effects have vanished. Also, I’m taking multivitamins, fish oil, and milk thistle supplements. Yesterday, I decided to have a glass of wine last night (and a beer too, for good measure) after folding six hours’ worth of laundry. Interestingly, my face turned BEET red, and in the night I awakened with severe dry-eye and a very puffy face. I have to say, I must have an allergy on some level with either beer or wine. I am shocked at the inflammatory response it triggered. I really wish I had had either wine or beer, not both, so that I could know without further experimentation which caused the reaction. It could be both, but I am going to finish my 21 days before subjecting myself to that again.

The meal plan is stringent at just 1200 calories a day. I haven’t dropped a dramatic amount of weight, despite working out daily, but am certain that it will begin to melt off if I continue at this rate. My body is fighting it. I am using the BodyMedia armband to keep track of calories burned, and the sleep effectiveness is interesting to see.

Thanks for your blog! Wonderful information here.

Thanks for your note. Good for you for making some positive changes to your diet – that’s awesome! In my experience, it’s best to mix most supplement powders with a smoothie — this will mask the taste to let it go down easier. I haven’t experienced any digestive side effects from the Vega products, but if you aren’t already on a high fiber diet, you definitely would be well-served to work your way up. Try putting it in a smoothie with some milk (I don’t do dairy, but you could use dairy milk, coconut milk, almond milk, whatever you prefer), some frozen berries, ice, and, if you’re really game, a handful of spinach.

Also, if you have back and knee pain, there are lots of foods that are anti-inflammatory and can help with this. Coconut oil, ginger root, and turmeric are some examples that come to mind – both most dark green veggies also are anti-inflammatory and help the body repair. You may want to look into those things to help!

Good luck as you continue to make changes. It’s a good kind of slippery slope – once you start making changes, you make more and more and before you know it, you’ll feel great!

Angela

I have to preface this with “I do not do very well on protein or vitamin/mineral suppplement powders.” I have a strong gag reflex, and it has to be rather exceptional for me to be able to tolerate.

The chocolate flavored WFHO, one whole packet, mixed with 8 oz. water in my shaker bottle, almost made me lose the Maca and Chlorella capsules which I had just swallowed. My children could hear me in the next room trying to control the gag. I will have to try again with a different medium to get it down.

To my great surprise, I had a much better result with the berry flavor WFHO!!!! I mixed a little bit at a time to vanilla yogurt, as much as I could tolerate taste-wise, and added my morning granola, and ate it with no problems at all. I wasn’t able to tolerate more than about one and a half teaspoons of the powder (I kept adding, and overdid it toward the end). The flavor changed rather dramatically when I got to about a tablespoon. But as many good things as are in it, I am greatly pleased that I can get some of the benefits. I probably need to begin slowly anyway, as there could be digestive side-effects to a new product like this, right?

I am trying some of your recipes, and in need of re-invigorating my diet habits. I had it down at one time, and busy-ness and knee and back issues have led me off track and into my old weight problems. I have “found” about 30 of the 75 pounds I had lost around 2005/2006 (it took two years to lose) in a slow progression. If I could do it once, I can do it again. It is a little different this time, since I have back and joint pain now which I didn’t have then.

Your dad pointed me to your new e-book (yea!) and your blog. He is very proud, and you have a great talent for this. I will keep reading, and trying recipes. Thanks for sharing! — Angie