My 3 Day Refresh

Before we get to the topic at hand today, I feel like you need a good laugh. And do we EVER have one for you today!

Listen and laugh here!

Now. About the detox...

If you've been hanging out here at the blog very long, you know that starting at the end of November  2015, I began following the 21 Day Fix eating and workout plan. (That story told here and here and here and here.)  Though I don't stick to it as rigidly as I did then, I/we have continued to eat a pretty clean diet since then! But you know how winter goes. Cookies. Lattes. All the goodness of the holidays.

I had put on a few more pounds than I liked, and I wanted to try to nip my bad habits before they got any worse. I started the ball rolling by pulling back on the bad habits I could identify, but I still needed another jump start of some kind. So I decided to do the 3 Day Refresh, which is a Beachbody program, too. Some people who do the Refresh lose weight, and some don't, but most say it's helpful in resetting their taste buds. I thought I'd give it a try, and Ryan supported me in it, so we bought the program.

I think I've decided the reason these little detox things aren't cheap is because knowing you paid for it is all that keeps you going during that first day! LOL!! We had invested hard-earned cash, and I was determined not to give up.

I thought I'd tell you my experience with it in case you ever wanted to try it!

The Refresh has a VERY rigid  schedule of eating certain foods at certain times, drinking shakes and fiber drinks (and lots of water), and NO COFFEE.

I'll just go ahead and give you a minute to absorb that.

While you're absorbing, I'll tell you about how I prepped for this adventure.

First, I picked my days. I really feared I would become so ugly in spirit during this, so I chose my first two days as the days Ryan went to his continuing education courses. I knew he would be gone ALL day, and I could do things at my own pace, not offend him with my coffee-deprived self, and most importantly, not worry about cooking for him. (And subsequently not eating what I cooked.)

Then I planned my schedule. I wrote out all three days, with exact times and exact foods. This helped me make my shopping list, too. I tried to use foods we already had, but I had to buy several things just for this.

Day One, Ryan left at 5:30 in the morning and I slept until almost 9:00. That pushed my whole day's schedule back by an hour, because I figured I'd be up by 8, but I just scooted everything back and it was fine. I never really felt hungry this whole day until bedtime. My stomach never growled until then, and I never felt shaky like I sometimes do when I need food. But I definitely craved all kinds of food. (None were on the list of what I actually ate, you understand.) I did not get the raging caffeine headache I expected, but I did have a dull headache all day, and I just missed my coffee so much. I told Ryan that coffee is a comforting part of my day, and it was not there. I felt out of sorts without it. I missed its warmth, its taste, and its presence. Right behind that, I missed meat. I am a meatatarian, and I really really missed it with my meals. And about the fiber drink? I called it the devil in a cup. That stuff is just straight up NASTY and I couldn't finish my glass of it. But that was the only thing I couldn't handle. I mostly sat all day (did get my 10,000 steps in via laps around the house) and had little energy or motivation. And by the end of the day, I was ready to give up. (One note: I did not have the herbal tea I could have had toward bedtime because honestly, it sounded gross. That was the only modification I made to the day's diet, other than not being able to finish the fiber drink.)

Day Two was a Sunday, and Ryan left early again for his second day of classes. I got up about 8:30 because my headache and empty stomach kept waking me up. I desperately wanted to take some Ibuprofen, but I know better than to do that on an empty stomach, so I waited. I texted him to tell him I felt like I had the flu. I was hot and cold, hungry but everything sounded awful, killer headache, and I just wanted to die. After I had the first meal of the day and got some medicine in me and took a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng hot shower, I did regain my will to live. Still couldn't finish the fiber drink, but I think I drank more of it than I did on the first day. The middle part of day two went MUCH better. I was able to be up and around and doing things more than I had on the first day. Much like day one, at the end of the day, the headache came back and I was just so hungry. I couldn't do the last tea again, and I actually cried real tears over missing coffee. This was my last day to have "off," since my final day aligned with my busiest work day of the week.

Day Three ended my detox early. We went to bed Sunday night, and I could NOT go to sleep. (It was like I had suddenly HAD caffeine without being used to it instead of depriving myself of it.) I finally dozed off, and from about 10:30 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. I was awake every five or ten minutes, seeing things (felt like hallucinations) and continuing to combat a raging headache. I finally told myself that the detox was not as important as feeling normal and healthy. (I had carpool duty Monday morning and feared for the safety of all if I didn't get some sleep and stop the weird things from happening in my mind and body.) I had done two days and that was good. Ryan woke up when the rain hit crazy-hard proportions and I told him I was tapping out of the detox. He said he understood and that was okay. So I got up and ate an energy ball (because I needed headache medicine to sleep and knew my stomach was VERY empty) and took some ibuprofen and went to bed. I finally slept for 2 hours, and when I woke up, I had the most amazing cup of coffee, very slowly, one beautiful sip at a time.

My thoughts?

I kind of feel like a failure for quitting early, but I am proud of myself for knowing my body well enough to know it was just done for whatever reason. (I read about many struggles people had throughout their own detoxes, but inability to sleep and having weird hallucination type experiences were not among them.) I do feel like this experience accomplished something good. My cravings did change during that time, and I am indeed reminded of the importance of portion control and choosing healthy foods over, say fun foods. Apparently I am not cut out for detox, so it is unlikely I will ever do a specific program like this again, but maybe I can learn to do my own version of detoxes from the things that trip me up, should I become too dependent on them in the future. Meanwhile, my goal for the weeks to come is to continue eating appropriate portions and to make even better food choices than I had been making. OH! And I did lose one pound during this adventure. So it wasn't a total fail, right? I can see a bit of a difference here. Still not quite where I want to be, but enough of a difference that the weekend worked...even if I quit.