Detox Day 1 - Update

Hi,

We've just had our Pepper and Cashew pilaf. It was nice but a bit weird, as the brown rice didn't seem cooked, even though we cooked it for over 40 minutes. We've never had brown rice before, is it meant to be quite hard?

Well we ate most of it, but decided to leave some of the rice and had some of the vegetable soup that Faith made for lunch tomorrow, and that was yummy!

We are all prepared for tomorrow, and have a list of things we need from Borough Market.

Oooohhh, Faith just brought some sliced Mango to me, very nice.

This detox lark isn't too bad.
Night, night

Keith

Detox Day 1

Today has been full of shopping, eating, preparing and planning.

It's difficult to stay on top of all the things we need to follow the menu, I guess we're lucky that we can buy them all on our doorstep.

Some of the meals need to be prepared the night before, especially if we're taking it into work for lunch. The meals use alot more ingredients than I'm used to, usually it's one or two items for the meal, as I buy ready-made stuff.

I'm just about keeping ontop of things, and I'm sure it'll get easier.

Here is what we've eaten today:

Breakfast -
Hot water and lemon
Carrot and apple kickstart (jucied apple, carrot and celery) - Not too bad, but Faith doesn't like celery
Sunflower and pumpkin seeds
Linseeds on millet porridge - Really like this, having it for breakfast tomorrow too
Then peppermint tea - very refreshing

Snack -
I had raisins, Faith had 2 apples (we got alittle hungry because we went shopping before lunch)

Lunch -
Homemade hummus - I was suprised how easy this was to make
Mangetout, cucumber sticks, celery sticks, radishes and grapes for dipping
Wanna see a picture?



Green tea

Dinner (Having it soon) -
Pepper and cashew pilaf

So far it's been ok for me, I drink alot less tea than I used to, so I haven't missed that too much, and there are lots of things you can have as snacks it you get hungry, like raisins, YUM!

Faith was feeling abit rough earlier, but I think it's just a bit of a cold.

I've decided that I I'm not going to post details of all the things we buy for the detox, as it's taking too much time...sorry about that. I'll still post details of what we eat and how we feel.

Also, we weighed ourself this morning, so we can see if we do lose any weight.

Current weight:

Keith: 12 stone 8 lbs
Faith: 8 stone 11lbs

We'll keep you updated.

Keith and Faith

T-Minus 1 day

Well it's been a busy day.

After having our washing machine fixed (Thank God, the laundrette is only down the road, but it's still annoying), we headed to the nearest Holland and Barrett, in Camden Town, to buy the suppliments and vitamins that we need.

We bought:

Beta-Carotene Capsules - 15 mg - 100 cap - £7.49
Vitamin C + E - 500 mg - 100 cap - £11.99
Milk Thistle - 175mg - 200 cap - £7.87
Sea Kelp - 100 mg - 250 cap - £2.89
Optimum Oil Blend - 750 mg - 120 cap - £8.99
Spirulina - 500 mg - 200 cap - £14.49
Chinese Chlorella - 500 mg - 120 cap - £8.49

Also from Holland and Barrett we bought some of the things we need for the first days meals:

Whole Tahini 340g - £3.40
Millet Flakes 500g - £1.85
Almond Milk 1 litre - £2.15
Maple Syrup 250ml - £3.25
Linseeds (AKA Flaxseeds) 125g - £0.69
Pumpkin Seeds 125g - £0.95
Sunflower Seeds 250g - £1.69
Brown Rice 500g - £0.73
Cashew Nuts 200g - £1.99

We also bought afew things that fit with the detox, that we knew we liked:

Rice Cakes (No Added Salt) - £1.05
Peppermint Tea 20 bags - £1.19
Green Tea 50 bags - £2.39

Total spent in Holland and Barrett: £81.11

Most of these items will see us through the whole detox though, and it makes us feel as good as I hope, then it is well worth it.

We dropped by Argos to pick up some of the equipment that we needed:

Juice Extractor 422/0752 - £19.99
Kitchen Scales 840/3654 - £8.99
Bathroom Scales 830/9734 - £6.99 So we can see if we do lose any weight.

The rest of the stuff we need for the first day of the detox was picked up from Archway:

Sainsbury Local:

Mangetout 200g - £1.49
Vegetable Stock 10 cubes - £0.84

Co-op:

Chickpeas (no added salt) 2x400g
Red, Green and Yellow pepper

We also pick the following from the fantastic fruit + veg, and organic shops that line Archway's Junction Road:

Ground Nutmeg - £0.69
Fresh Parsley - £0.59

The organic shops are brilliant, and we should be able to get all the things we need from here in the future, YAY!

Right got to go, as we've got some friends coming round tonight, and are seeing out the final night with a Chinese Takeaway! GET IN!

Keith

The Last Supper(s)

We pick up a few more things that we needed on the way home, mainly because I noticed them on the shelf in the Sainsbury's Local:

Paprika
Cinnamon Sticks

Total Price: £2.50

Since we only have 2 days left, we've decided to have some nice meals before we start. So Faith is going to cook Thai Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup (Tom Ka Gai) and Thai Green Curry tonight...aren't I a lucky man!

The recipes Faith's is using are from the following websites:

Recipeland.com - Thai Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup
BBC Food - Thai Green Curry

We picked up most of the ingredients from Borough Market, and the Thai green curry paste from Sainsbury's Local.

I look forward to letting you know how amazing it was.

Tomorrow we are going be really cheeky and have a Chinese takeaway! Our last for while.

YUMMY!

Keith

Borough Market

Luckily, we working near Borough Market in South London, which is a fantastic place to fresh, organic fruit and vegetable, and more obscure things that are on our list, that we'd have trouble finding in the super-market.

So Faith and I have just used our lunchtime to pick up the fruit and veg that we'll need for our first day of the detox (35 hours and counting).

Organisation seems to be the key, so I've taken the daily menu for the book and devised a shopping list based on what is needed day-by-day. This is taken quite a while though, and I've only got the shopping list for the first days food, but it's a start.

Here's what we picked up at Borough Market:

A clump of celery sticks
1 cucumber
1 corgette
1 cauliflower
6 carrots
Bunch of radishes
1 red onion
1 red pepper
4 apples
Bunch of grapes
4 lemons
1 bulb of garlic
Bunch of coriander

Total spent: £12.60

We've still got quite alot to get, including £70 worth of vitamins and supplements, but we are going to Holland and Barrett on the way home tonight, and going shopping for the rest tomorrow morning.

By the way, if you aren't on a detox, check out the poultry shop (Wyndham's i think) opposite Borough Market. They do the most AMAZING spicey chicken wrap for £3.50! Yum!

Keith

Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

I am really looking forward to doing this detox.

I don't have any desire to lose weight and I don't feel that my diet is particularly bad, although I do tend to eat alot of conveince food. Faith has been on a detox diet before, about a year ago, following the diet in Carol Vorderman's Detox For Life and advice from afew other detox books.

Faith managed about 3 weeks, but finished due to situation more than anything else. What makes me excited about this is what Faith has said about the improvements that detoxing makes to your energy levels and alertness.

The first few days are harsh, as your body deals with withdrawal from caffine and other stimulants, the headaches are awful. However this passes after after days...I hope! After this you start to feel more alert and you have more energy.

Watching the TV programme "You Are What You Eat" with Gillian McKeith also seems to say the same thing.

My diet isn't that bad, but like I said, I do eat alot of conveinence food, as I like quick food that doesn't take much preparation. Jam sandwiches provide the best food satisfaction to preparation time ratio, which is why I eat so many!

Food preparation what is going to be most difficult for me with the Detox for me, nearly all of the ingredients are fresh, which means alot of shopping, alot of planning and alot of preparation.

So I started yesterday. Have the vitamins and suppliments shopping list finished...which comes to over 70 quid!!!! (I'll post that in due course) And I'm working on the shopping list for the first week.

Ok, that's enough for a first post, wish us luck, send us any words of encouragement, or stories of your detox.

Signing off,

Keith