The 10-Day Detox Diet

According to Dr. Mark Hyman who developed the 10-day detox diet, all you need is 10 days to supercharge your body's metabolism to sustain superb health, increased energy, vitality, and eliminate pain, improve your sex life, improve sleep, heck, improve.  Period.  According to Dr. Hyman, the process of detoxifying your body during those 10 days will not only make sure squeaky clean of additives, gluten, processing chemicals, etc., it will also help you shed weight rapidly. Even if that initial rapid weight loss is water, that does not negate the benefits of weight loss for its own sake.

There is much to applaud about his approach. Without a doubt, shedding 4 pounds overnight (I've done it - and I'm not much overweight to begin with) feels tremendous the next day.  You get up out of bed feeling light as air, flexible and "awake." Yoga feels better, more graceful, easier to do.  Even braving the early morning chill is easier.

But there is a rub ...

Even 10 days, in my stressful life, is too long to detox.  After all, detoxifying means not consuming some of my favorites, some of my "go to" items.  Coffee?  With my migraines, there ain't no way I'm giving up caffeine in the morning.  My reason for going to sleep at night is the anticipated smell of strong brew wafting into my pajamas in the morning.  Then there is gluten.  You know, the kind that's found in bread and bagels and cookies and almost everything known to man.  I had gone 15 years (not a typo) without any baked goods at all and survived, then I reprised bread, and life is simply not the same.  Am I addicted? Maybe so.

The detox diet proposed is a "mere" 10 days of no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no caffeine, no gluten - which extends not only to white flour, but also to rye, oats, and barley, so those flours are off the table also - no dairy, no alcohol (not a problem for me - migraines).  Because of my migraines, I also must avoid potatoes, nuts, cheese, yogurt, balsamic vinegar, onions, and garlic.

IS LIFE WORTH LIVING???

Oh, I forgot - perfume is off the list, too! For migraines.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm the original Mediterranean Diet woman.  I write THE blog on Mediterranean food (http://food-mediterranean.blogspot.com).  But I'm also one of the busiest human beings I know.  And busy as I am, with sandwich-generation obligations, president of my TM club, writer, full-time job, and some other jobs, stress is getting the best of me.  Add to that almost daily migraines and any form of a detox diet seems overwhelming.  I managed to go one day.  One day! Perfect score.  Felt proud and happy and light.  Then it hit - a migraine in spades.  It was all I could do to stay on my feet, never mind stick to a plan that was still 90% open.