21 Days and Beyond

Ok, I admit that I've been rubbish at updating the blog, however, we have been really good at sticking to our detox.

We didn't always follow the menu in the book, but we cooked receipes that we liked and had nuts, seeds and fruit for snacks.

After 21 days, we were feeling very positive, we've both got alot more energy than we had, (especially in the morning for me!). Also, we've both been told that our skin is looking really good and that we both look healthy. I've lost about 7 lbs, which I'm pleased with, even though I wasn't trying to lose weight.

So, with all these positive things to come out of the detox, we decided that we would continue to eat healthy after the detox, eating much the same as during the detox, but adding things like fish, white meat, and diary and wheat for me (Faith is going to stay off diary and wheat, as we have discovered that she is intollerant to it).

However before we can start this heathy new life, we have Faith's mum Margaret coming to visit. We've been looking forward to this for a while, we've got a whole host of exciting things planned for her to do. And as I'm writing this, she's been here a week and Faith's Dad and niece have travelled down to pick her up.

I that time we have been to Camden Market, Borough Market, Bramah's Tea Musuem, Imperial War Museum, Highgate Cemetery, Harrod's, Covent Garden, Canary Wharf and Lee Hurst's Backyard Comedy Club

With all this running around we decided that it was going to be too difficult to keep up with the detox diet as it takes too much time and preparation. Therefore, after having managing 3 weeks out of 4, we decided to finish the detox there and continue the helathy eating after everyone has left.

I hope to post some pics of our travels soon.

Keith

Natural History Museum

On Sunday we treated ourselves by visiting the Natural History Museum

The weekend was tough, as it's usually the time that you chill out and have a takeaway, or whatever is easy. So keeping to the strict detox diet is more harder at weekend.

Here's some pics we took in the museum:

Glyptodon - Like a pre-historic Armadillo

The Museum's Main Hall - Very impresive!
The Great Seycoya - A damn big tree!

We had a really nice time, and since it's FREE, we are hoping to go again soon.

Keith and Faith

Detox Day 6 - 9 Menu

It's been a while since I posted. Mostly because I've been feeling quite drained the last few days, but I'm feeling more full of energy today.

I'm trying to help Faith in the kitchen more today, we are cooking the red kidney bean hotpot together and we are preparing the food for tomorrow together too. It's not that I haven't been involved in the food preparation at all, but it has mostly been Faith cooking the food, although I always offer my services.

Here's what we've eaten in day's 6-9:

Day 6 -

Breakfast -
Millet porridge with almond milk and maple syrup

Lunch -
Faith: Banana and unsalted nuts
Keith: Apples and raisins

Snack -
Ricecakes topped with nut butter
Pineapple

Dinner -
Pepper and cashew pilaf and roast potatoes
Stawberry and raspberry smoothie

Day 7 -

Breakfast -
Hot water and lemon, peppermint tea
Apple
Ricecakes topped with nut butter

Snack -
Mango and kiwi fruit

Lunch -
Ricecakes topped with nut butter

Dinner -
Red lentil dahl with sunflower seeds
Fresh fruit: kiwi fruit and oranges

Day 8 -

Breakfast -
Hot lemon and lemon
Half a melon
Millet porridge with maple syrup

Lunch -
Ricecakes with nut butter
Keith: Apple
Faith: Nectarine

Dinner -
Red lentil dahl
Roast potatoes

Day 9 (Today) -

Breakfast -
Hot water and lemon
Ricecakes topped with nut butter

Lunch -
Baked Potatoe

Snack -
Keith: Carot, apple and kiwi fruit
Faith: Banana, kiwi fruit, nuts and raisins

Dinner -
Red kidney bean hotpot on baked potatoe


Well that is what we have been eating over the last few days. We have both been feeling alot better today, I'm hoping that this will continue.

That's all for now, I'm going to let my dinner go down.

Keith

Detox Day 5

Didn't get round to posting yesterday, here's what we've eaten over the past 2 days:

Day 4:

Breakfast -
Fresh fruit medley (apple, melon, grapes, kiwi)

Lunch -
Rice cakes with nut butter

Dinner -
Rice with grilled vegetables
Mixed seeds
Stawberries and oranges

Day 5:

Breakfast -
Strawberry and Raspberry smoothie (very nice)

Lunch -
Rye crispbreads with a little honey or nut butter (yum)

Dinner -
Roast potatoes and vegetables

Feeling alot better today, despite finding difficult to get out of bed this morning. I ususally spend the first hour of work walking around in a daze, but I was very alert this morning. So I'm hoping things will be getting easier from here on in. I'm starting to like alot of the food too.

Right, having an early night tonight, so see you later!

Keith

Detox Day 3

Hi there,

The spiced rice with pumpkinseeds, last night, wasn't that nice, same problem with the rice, didn't seem to be cooked.

However, the melon with stawberries and mint was lovely, we'll be having that again.

Menu for today:

Breakfast -
Fresh fruit - Pineapple, oranges and mango (Nice, I especially like pineapple)
Mixed seeds

Snack -
Faith - Banana and apples
Keith - Oranges

Lunch -
Avacado and walnut salad (This wasn't that nice, and we certainly weren't looking forward to it, dressing was alright though)
Oranges

Snack -
Keith - Raisins
Both - Mixed seeds

Dinner (About to have) -
Red Kidney Bean Hotpot (Sounds nice, I'll let you know)

We've been shopping again today, but now we have all the food we need until Day 6.

Still feeling quite tired, had trouble getting out of bed this morning, although I haven't had a headache anything like yesterday's.

We both seem to find that our headaches start at the time we would have had our first cup of tea. Faith has a cup of time first thing in the morning, and her headache started then. My first cup of tea is usually about 10:30, and thats when my headache kicked in.

Been on a bit of a downer today, and been thinking about all the lovely food that I'm missing out on, fry-ups, chips, spicy chicken wraps...never mind, I'm looking forward to them at the end of the 28-days.

Feeling more positive now, but I hope the energy and alertness that I've been told about starts soon!!!

Keith

Detox Day 2

Well today wasn't easy, but I'll start with what we've eaten:

Breakfast -
Millet porridge with almond milk (still quite nice)
Raisins (YUM, Faith doesn't like them though)

Snack -
Faith: Organic Pineapple, 2 Nectarines, 2 Apples
Keith: Rye bread with tahini

Lunch -
Vegetable soup (Faith cooked this the night before and we heated it up in the microwave at work)

Dinner (We are having this in half an hour) -
Spiced rice with pumpkinseeds
Melon with stawberries and mint

As I said, today was tough. I felt really, REALLY tired and started to get a headache during the morning.

I think Faith had it worse, but she'll probably tell you about that.

We left work early, bought the extra fruit and veg that we needed, and when I got back I had a little sleep, and took a couple of paracetemols to ease the headache. I was in two minds about whether I should take any medication for my headache, as I was detoxing, and this didn't seem to fit with the ethos of the detox. In the end I decided to, as it would allow me to help Faith with preparation and planning.

Well, we are about to eat our dinner, I might post later about what the dinner is like.

Keith

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