For a number of years, every January my husband and I would do a detox diet. Not a crazy cleanse but a simple detox diet cutting out all sugar, caffeine, alcohol, wheat and dairy. We did this for the first two weeks in January as a way to ‘kick start’ the year and often my New Year’s diet and because we had often over indulged through the holidays and felt that it was needed.
My husband, like many men who suddenly change the way they eat would have pretty good results. He would lose quite a few pounds over the two weeks. I do not think this was as hard for my husband and as he (like many men) does not give food nearly as much emotional power as I used to. So it was not really that big of deal for him. He might miss a beer but it was only for a few weeks, right? I, on the other hand would muscle my way through this detox and to be honest, I usually only made it one week. I would just be cursing to myself as I missed my cream in my coffee and missed having some chocolate. I maybe would lose a few pounds but you know what would happen after the given time period? I would just go back to eating some sugar, caffeine, alcohol and wheat. Not in large quantities but these are all in my current diet in a way that makes my eating satisfactory and enjoyable What was the point of depriving myself of something as simple as a little cream in my coffee or a small piece of dark chocolate that I really enjoyed and got satisfaction from for two weeks if I was just going to add it back in?
Now, do not get me wrong, this was a healthy detox as I was loading up on veggies, fruits, water and cutting back or cutting things out that can be hard on our systems. I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with cutting back on sugar, wheat, dairy, caffeine or alcohol. If I feel that I have been consuming too much of any to these, I will often cut back on these to give my body a break. My point is that my mindset and reasoning for feeling that I need to detox has changed.
In January of 2013, I was finally pregnant after 2+ years of struggling to conceive and going through fertility treatments and was not going to do any type of detox. Even though our ‘detox’ was definitely healthy it was lower calories and I was not going to be cutting my calories while pregnant. The following January, I was nursing and you need even more calories while nursing then you do pregnant, so I definitely did not want to cut my calories as producing milk was the most important thing to me at that time but I thought that maybe I could still do it and keep my calories up. However, something was different this year. I was talking to my husband if he thought we should or wanted to do the detox and we both decided no. Not that we did wanted to keep drinking holiday cocktails and eating Christmas cookies on the regular but we both felt that we did not really ‘need’ to do one. We both felt that we did not overindulge too much over the holidays or felt like we needed to ‘repent’ for our sins and do a detox. I am not sure why we felt this way this year or what we did differently, we just felt that we could go on eating moderately like we always did. Again, as mentioned in my last blog, this might not seem like such a big deal to many but to me to be able to go through a holiday season without feeling constant guilt for eating a few Christmas cookies and not to feel like I have to start my new diet on January 1st is freeing and liberating for me.
So last year at the holidays I was just barely pregnant (about 8 weeks) at Christmas. Though I whole heartedly disagree with the thought that you can eat whatever you want because you are pregnant, you do need more calories and often because of hormones, you might not tolerate certain foods very well. Many food that are easy on the stomach tend to be carb heavy comfort foods (or in my case, gummy bears and popcorn 🙂 ) I was quite nauseous so over indulging was not so much of an issue since there were not many foods I wanted to eat but I was still aware of a mindset shift around the holiday season.
This holiday season, I am once again nursing and my hunger levels have leveled out so I am not constantly hungry but I have learned to finally eat mindfully. I was quite proud of myself for attending Christmas parties, enjoying them and not leaving so over stuffed that I was uncomfortable. I use to think that I better enjoy these foods now because come January 1st, I am going to detox to jump start my New Year’s diet. I have for the most part learned to eat moderately on an ongoing basis, eating healthy 80-90% of the time but still leaving room for foods that give me pleasure and satisfaction. I have been very candid on how my eating and exercise mindset has changed since having my kids and that I want my energy to go towards them and not obsessing about food and exercise. Last week I wrote about how my traveling mindset has changed and am happy again that my ‘New Year’ mindset has changed.
I am not discounting any New Year’s resolutions or goals in anyway as I think if you are committing to a healthy change this year, I am super excited for you! I personally set goals for the upcoming year (vs. resolutions) in many areas of my life (finance, fitness, career, etc.) My fitness goals this year include improving my 10K time, becoming more proficient at my Olympic Lifts, executing more balancing poses in my yoga practice and losing my last few pounds of baby weight, though I am not putting any pressure or timeline to do this on myself (like I did with my first baby) until I am done nursing. However, I noticed this year that when making my goal list, my ‘fitness’ goals were not at the top of my list as they have generally been in the past. Though fitness is still a huge priority in my life, it is not the most important priority in my life anymore and with learning to be more mindful in my eating, giving up some of the guilt I associate with food, I do not feel that I need to detox just because it is the first week of January. I am going to enjoy cream in my coffee and wine with my dinner on a regular basis.
XOXO
Sara
