I did it! I completed the Restored Inc. 21 day raw food, juice detox program. In an earlier post I shared my reason for starting the detox, a few weeks ago I stepped on the scale and realized I had gained my post pregnancy weight. Needless to say I was not happy and quickly reaffirmed to myself “I have got to do something” many people looked at my before photos or just from speaking to me live and in person kinda scratched their heads with a confused look when I expressed my desire to detox and lose weight. I realize that I don’t really need to lose a whole lot of weight but I have an ideal healthy weight number in my head and my most important reason for detoxing is because I had also recognized that I have developed some pretty bad eating habits. I think we can all agree that over weight people don’t become over weight over night it boils down to the daily eating habits that contribute to obesity and so many more health problems. My goal was to stop all of this before my habits got out of control.

Tammye and I took this photo on the day of my detox consultation.

After the detox.

I must say it was quite the challenge but I am really glad I finished and so grateful for the support from my holistic detox coach Tammye Matthews. I wish I could put into words just how much of a journey the experience was for me but it is really hard to explain. I will do my best and start by saying initially when I started like most people I was in a race and focused greatly on numbers on the scale. I weighed myself almost every day and obsessed over a lb or two increase.

My Before Photo.

During my detox I took the time to educate myself on food, vegetarian and vegan lifestyles and I reevaluated all of my past eating habits. I learned so much from authors Natalia Rose and Afya Ibomu. I also enjoyed viewing documentaries “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”  and “Forks Over Knives” It’s crazy just how lost and completely numb one can be to personal health and how every food choice we make affects our short and long term health. 

My final results were not what I hoped for, but I am okay with slow weight loss, my goal is to continue to eat healthy and push myself to exercise more. After the 21 days I lost almost 10 lbs and a laundry list of physical, mental and spiritual ties to food and overeating.  Many of you have asked about my diet during the detox, I will not share the exact plans out of respect for my detox coach but basically my diet consisted of juicing daily and eating plenty of raw, steamed or dehydrated foods. I did not eat any meat, sugar or processed foods. The hardest thing for me was meeting my daily juice intake goal, I will be honest and say that most days I did not make it but as the weeks went by my body began to settle into my new dietary restrictions and I did just fine.  What I liked most about the detox program is it was rare that I feel famished or starving, for the most part I focused not on the foods that were taken away but the new health foods that I added into my diet.

Juicing and eating healthy is a new lifestyle for me. Queen Afua said it best “self care is health care” I am enjoying taking better care of me and my family. Feel free to continue to follow my journey by receiving updates and photos on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

My final results from the detox.