Detox Symptoms - The Real Story

Several people have commented to me that they would like to go raw, but simply can't deal with the detox symptoms. I find this to be an odd statement but have refrained from any blunt, truthful remarks like, "Would you rather just keep abusing your body than take a little pain?!!" Actually, I do understand. It takes a strong commitment to work through all the detox that a lifetime of abuse can bring.

But a lot of folks have indicated that they think the only kind of detoxification symptoms that one gets on a raw food diet is diarrhea. Perhaps that is the only thing they have experienced and quickly reverted back to a SAD diet to make the misery go away as quickly as they could. Chickens! You should stick with a raw food diet and experience the full palette of irritations that can come as the body throws out the junk we have been stuffing into it all these years!

Having eaten a 100% raw vegan diet now for 4 months, 1 week and 4 days now, I feel somewhat qualified to speak about the many and varied ways the body tries to cleanse itself of the toxins, poisons, and crap that the typical person ingests in a lifetime. While none of these are particularly pleasant, I will say that once a bout of detox has completed in my body, I feel so much better. But I am a little more hesitant to shout "Bring it on! It's all good!" anymore.

On Sunday, Andy Reed told me that a good rule of thumb is that a month of eating raw will equal a year of not eating raw. Given the number of years I have been on the planet and not been eating as well as I could, I figure there are a few years of detox ahead of me yet. Here is a short list of some of the things I have already experienced:

• Acne
• Hives
• Rashes
• Vomiting
• Coughing
• Excessive earwax
• Sneezing
• Runny nose
• Diarrhea
• Headaches
• Joint aches
• Muscle aches
• Fatigue
• Mood swings
• Emotional breakdowns

Each of these symptoms has presented with numerous variations that have frequently left me wondering if something was seriously wrong. But the telltale sign that it is detox is that the condition will come and go in a short period of time.

One morning I woke up early with a sudden, serious cough. It became quite intense and I couldn't stop coughing. As it was coming from deep in my lungs, I began to wonder if I had whooping cough or some form of pneumonia. I used to get pneumonia once or twice a year and remember the horrible feeling of not being able to breathe. After about 2 hours of non-stop coughing, I suddenly choked up 2 large, disgusting, brown balls of yuk from the bottom of my lungs! The episode was over and it has not happened since.

I have never been a smoker so I have no idea what this was or why this stuff was in my lungs. But I have been able to breathe better ever since!

I have now come to regard these kinds of things as just part of a process that will likely continue for the next year or two as my body lets go of a long time build-up of toxins. I should also mention that each and every one of the symptoms listed above could have it's own discussion! Especially the last two...mood swings and emotional breakdowns. Topics for another time.

On Monday I had:

• Breakfast: Muesli with chia, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, walnuts and almonds, raisins, coconut flakes, apple and banana with almond milk.
• Lunch: Power balls.
• Supper: Kale salad with red bell pepper, pine nuts, lemon juice and olive oil.

On Tuesday I had:

• Breakfast: Green smoothie with mango, orange, banana and Swiss chard.
• Lunch: Kale salad with bok choy, sprouts, celery, carrots, avocado, black olives and a dressing of lime juice, Dijon mustard, agave nectar and olive oil.
• Supper: A salad with escarole, bok choy, celery, sprouts, parsley and a dressing of apple cider vinegar and olive oil.

Emotional Detox

One thing that can not be overlooked when discussing detox symptoms is our emotions. For people like me who have "stuffed our feelings" for most of our lives, there can be some very unexpected consequences to eating raw. As our bodies get cleaner, feelings that have been trapped as a result of emotional eating, start to emerge. And, they typically don't ask if this is a convenient time!

I have noticed as time goes on that more and more old feelings over a variety of hurts have been surfacing. Just about every time this happens I can identify a point in the past where rather than feeling some painful event, I suppressed my feelings with food. As I deal with the painful feelings, I find that it is much easier to experience them now than when the event actually occurred. But, I don't seem to be able to control when these feelings pop up or how long the emotional release might take. Several times there has been an almost overwhelming urge to go eat something to put an end to the painful feelings once more. Fortunately I have been able to recognize when this happens and been able to allow the feelings to just come out. But there has been an occasion where I decided that enough was enough and just ate my next meal or a snack to tone down the pain I was feeling.

Today was a good example of this. Possibly because Easter is this weekend, I started thinking about how much I missed my mom. We used to plan and start shopping for our Easter dinner right about now. We had many happy times around this holiday and today it was clear to me that I am not through grieving for her. I found myself in the grocery store, stopped in the middle of an open area, just thinking about her and starting to cry. I quickly checked my feelings until after I was back in my car, but then the tears really started to roll. I drove home and thought about what to do for myself. The feelings came and went throughout the day and I finally just surrendered to them. This afternoon I decided to go visit her grave and gave myself permission to just feel how much I missed her. After a while, I left there, and being tired of feeling so crummy, I went to a restaurant and ate a salad. It was enough to push the emotions back down for a while. I will let them out again another time. But it felt good to let myself just feel my feelings instead of resisting them. This is certainly a much healthier approach than just eating to make all the pain go away.

Today I ate:
Breakfast: Green smoothie with pineapple, banana, collards and kale.
Lunch: Lettuce wraps with cucumber, carrot, avocado, and romaine lettuce.
Supper: Green salad with pecans, tomatoes, variety of lettuces, avocado, lemon juice and olive oil.
Snack: A few power balls.

Did not Body Flex today. Need to get that routine running again.

A New Challenge

Spring is in full bloom here in Ohio and it has brought my usual fits of coughing, sneezing, and nose blowing. I have been feeling so much better eating raw, that I had completely forgotten about the annual nuisance of seasonal allergies. In past years I stuck it out with with over-the-counter medications until I finally made a trip to the doctor for prescription drugs. Usually by that time I had a sinus infection to go with it. It would be a round of antibiotics, possibly a decongestant, and a daily infusion of some antihistamine until the next frost in October or so.

I also seem to be caught up in the most recent wave of detoxification right now, so I really don't know if this is serious with the allergies or not. Nonetheless, I am going to refrain from taking any drugs and just see where things go. I am hoping my body will recover on its own and that I no longer have to rely on drugs to get me through the warmer months.

A big part of the process of getting through all the many and varied symptoms that detox brings, is being able to relax and just let my body be the way it is. I make a conscious decision to stop resisting whatever is going on and accept that this is the way it is right now. Inevitably this process seems to lessen the symptoms and allows me to continue to function. I just keep telling myself that like the weather, it will change again in a day or two, and it does. As this process continues, I see that on the days that I feel good, I feel really good. I see this as evidence that my overall health is improving.

On Friday I had:

Breakfast: Juice of parsley, carrot, celery, and spinach.

Lunch: A small salad with lemon juice, olive oil and herbs, and the leftover zucchini spaghetti.

Supper: Citrus Avocado Salad with Romain lettuce, pink grapefruit, an orange, and a dressing of lemon juice, Dijon mustard, agave nectar, and olive oil.

Snack: Some power ball goo.

On Saturday I had:

Breakfast: Green smoothie with mango, banana, orange and Swiss chard.

Lunch: Raw vegetables (celery, carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers) with guacamole.

Supper: Mixed chopped vegetables (tomato, corn, shallots, yellow bell pepper, celery, carrots) with lemon juice and olive oil.

Snack: A couple of power balls.

Body Flexed on Saturday only.

Day 49 - Seven weeks

Yesterday was a difficult day. I had to take my daughter to the hospital for tests. She is having serious digestive problems. I know a raw food diet would help her but she doesn't listen to me. She is a believer in the medical sciences, and thinks she will find her answers there. Sometimes a mother has to let the child learn on her own. It isn't easy watching someone you love make so many mistakes.

I managed my food pretty well during the day.
Breakfast: Green smoothie with mango, banana, orange and spinach.
Lunch: The rest of the smoothie.
Snack: 3 power balls.
Supper: My second attempt at a raw pizza. A raw cheese sauce, a raw tomato sauce spread onto 2 portobella mushroom caps with shallots, yellow and orange peppers and a few olives. Lets face it. It is NOT anything close to pizza and I need to try making a crust with a dehydrator.

Today was Day 49....seven weeks. And it has been a really rocky day. I slept 14 hours last night and woke up feeling pretty badly. Later I had severe diarrhea and was vomiting. My initial take is that this is a real detox reaction. My family wanted me to go to the hospital or urgent care, but I knew they would just give me drugs, and then it's more to detox. I am trying to stay hydrated but it is difficult when it just runs straight through you.

My intake for the day:
A handful of cashews and the juice of 2 oranges this evening.
All the water I can keep down.

Hope tomorrow is a better day.

Recovery

I am definitely feeling the aftereffects of the weekend. Fred has warned us that we might have physical symptoms from the work he does. No question about it...this is a detox! I am feeling tired, nauseous, headachy, emotional,....I think I have run the gamut of indicators today. Aniel Love likens it to recovering from surgery. That is a good description of how it has felt today.

I need to be up early and ready to go tomorrow morning, so I will keep this short tonight.

Here's what I ate:
Breakfast: The rest of yesterday's green smoothie.
Lunch: Citrus Avocado Salad with red leaf lettuce, pink grapefruit, an orange, a Mandarin orange, avocado and a dressing of lemon juice, agave nectar, sea salt and olive oil.
Snack: The rest of last night's salad.
Supper: Zucchini spaghetti with a tomato sauce.

Detox Symptoms

I woke up this morning feeling really run down. My muscles and joints were aching and I was tired from not being able to sleep from all the pain. I thought my massage therapist might have out done herself yesterday! I finally decided that perhaps I was suffering from a whole lot of detoxification going on throughout my body. So I made the decision to drink a lot of water and fluids today and that seemed to turn things around fairly quickly. By this afternoon I was in high gear with no pain at all.

Here's what I had today:
Breakfast: Ruby Red Ambrosia: a full quart of a juicy elixir of carrots, celery, apple, lemon, ginger root, cucumber and beet.
Lunch: Power balls
Supper: Salad with zucchini, jicama, sprouts, tomatoes, shallots, and olives with a little lemon juice.