My 7-Days Detox Challenge

The idea of detox challenge came about when I read Shuqi’s interview on 女人我最大 magazine. I remember the one line she said in the interview. “女人，得随时做好准备，等遇到彭于晏，才想到来减肥，就来不及了！” Her beliefs in beauty, is to be slim. So she spent a lot of effort and money in 保养. In the interview, she mentioned that she will go through a detox for about a week in every few months. The idea of detox, is really to detox. Getting rid of the unnecessary unhealthy stuff in your diet was the main point. But at the same time, by detoxing, you can actually shed some weights too.

So this was the inspiring point. I also believe that for a woman to really love and be confident of herself, sometimes involve feeling good about her body and appearance. To me, I don’t need to be really really slim. But I desperately want to be fit/lean. Muscle over fats. To achieve this, fat loss is a must. I cannot build muscle without losing the fats, because that is not lean anymore. So I decided to try a 7-days detox challenge.

The principle of detox is to eat really clean. Fresh food (not processed food). White Meat. Best if is organic. If  you google on the food to avoid during detox, you will have a lot of different school of thoughts. Here’s my list of food that I include/exclude during my detox. Choose one that you are comfortable and stick with it, but don’t be so strict till you hate the whole process and give up.

During my detox, I obeyed a few principles that I am comfortable with:

1. No Carbo at all
2. White Meat only
3. No corn, No Dairy, No Yakult
4. Only fresh vegetables and fruits
5. No soup. 3 litres of water daily
6. NO SNACKS. Only baked nuts (better if is unsalted) allowed for snacks
7. Only olive oil and vinegar for dressing
8. No salt, no sugar

So with these principles, I begin to plan on my food menu. It was a tough thing. Because, that means I cannot go cafes, and no dining outside. I was also quite determined that I announced to my lunch kaki colleagues that I will be eating in for the whole week.

Basically my food menu is make up from the following ingredients:

1. Protein: Chicken, Salmon, Cod fish, Canned tuna in mineral water
2. Vegetables: Cucumber, Tomatoes, Broccoli, Capsicum
3. Fruits: Grapes, Blue berries, Banana, Oranges, Avocado
4. Dressing: White wine vinegar, Extra virgin Olive oil, Garlic powder, Pepper
5. Others: Onions, Edamame, Garlic
6. Snacks: Natural Wonders Cashew nuts and almond
7. Beverage: Tea without sugar and water

Most of the time, I had ‘cold’ food. One of the toughest thing that I endured because at times, I wish I have hot and soupy stuff. I posted most of my food diary on my instagram. There are a few dish I really like, but there were some that I hated.

Most Liked:

Chicken with Grapes and Fresh Tomato Salad

Chicken with Edamame, Blue Berries and Onion

Broccoli Mixed Salad

Most Hated:

Cod with Banana and Avocado

Roasted Broccoli with Cucumber and Onion

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Temptations and Challenges during the midst of my detox.

1. I crave for hot and soupy stuff
2. I crave for chips. And my colleagues were eating chips and cookies in front of me. Gosh!
3. I need to wake up 30 mins earlier to prepare my meals.
4. I need to spend a lot of time thinking about my food and ingredients. (Waste time activity)
5. I spend more time shopping in supermarket than ever. (Waste time activity)

Helpful tips to overcome craves and hunger:

1. Drink tea every morning. That’s the only hot stuff I have.
2. ENDURED! I ate nuts when I feel like snacking. Nuts were my saviour of the day to curb my chips crave.
3. Slot in banana during your tea break when you are hungry. Drink water. Helps to keep you full.
4. Feeling empty does not equivalent to hunger. Just filled yourself with water. It really helps.

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At the end of the session, I shed 2 kg which I gained over the binge during the festive season. I feel a little light weight about my body. I don’t have constipation too.

But remember, the whole idea about detox is really about detox. Of course, getting rid of the kilograms is great. But that’s just a bonus point. When you set your priority right, you will be less stress after your whole detox session finish and started to eat normal food. Because when you returned to the normal diet, the weight will be back. It is perfectly normal with the carbo, glucose and sodium intake you are in-taking.

If you really want to lose weight, is an on-going war with yourself and your social life (because the no.2 enemies are your friends and the people surrounding you). But if you prefer YOLO, you can just choose to detox a shorter period of time (for healthy reason).

Detox taught me to look out for a lot of things and be conscious about my diet. Moving on, I will be incorporating some detox meals in my daily diet and with more control on the carbo and diary intake. Will also try to have a 5-days detox week for every month (if possible).

If you are interested to start a detox session, choose a time frame when you have no outings, no gatherings, no distractions. Plan your meals beforehand. Again, do it at your own comfort level.

Fighting!