28-Day Challenge: Progress Report Mid-Week 1

So here we are on day 4 of the Whole Living 28-Day Challenge detox program and I think my body has finally gotten over the shock of my change in diet.  I really thought I was a pretty healthy eater until I’ve had to watch what I ate the past few days.  I had no idea how much I snacked during the day.  It became a habit to just grab a cookie here or a piece of chocolate there.  I would never grab a piece of fruit.  It’s funny how I get on my kids about eating healthy and I pack my son fruit and a water bottle almost every day for school, yet I wasn’t practicing what I preached.  I hope by sticking to this program for the full 28 days, I will make a more permanent change to what I’m putting in my body.

Now the details of what I’ve been feeling….day 1 was ROUGH.  Starting the day without my coffee was a lot harder than I thought.  And I felt sluggish all day long.  The caffeine withdrawal headache appeared on day 1 as well.  I started coming down with a cold, so part of the tiredness and headache could be from that, but I honestly think it was more from my body adjusting to no caffeine and no sugar.  I did a Body Pump class at the gym for my daily exercise but I haven’t been able to exercise at all since because of my cold.  I’m hoping to start back up tomorrow.

By day 2 and definitely by day 3 I started getting my energy back.  The headache was gone and I didn’t feel as tired throughout the day.  I ate an apple for a snack yesterday and today.  Yay me!  I’ve been eating oatmeal for breakfast with just a touch of brown sugar and some cinnamon.  Lunch has been a salad, though I ate tuna salad the first day which contains mayonnaise.  Oops.  Speaking of…cutting out dairy has almost been as hard as cutting out the morning coffee!  I had NO idea how much dairy I ate throughout the day.  I made turkey meatballs for dinner last tonight and it called for an egg, so I cheated again, but I have to admit, I’m pretty impressed with myself for sticking so closely to the plan.   Our other dinners have been salmon and chicken breast, both served with quinoa and a salad. 

Detoxing the mind hasn’t been as successful for me.  I’m not someone who meditates.  I do wind down with a book every night so I feel I definitely get a chance to de-stress, but I know there’s more I could be doing.  I had a stressful moment yesterday with my 3 year old and I definitely had to breathe and count to 10…and 20, and 30.  But I didn’t do any journaling.

And as a little side note, I have actually dropped a pound a day because of this detox.  However, losing weight is not a goal of mine but I thought it was worth mentioning. 

Anyone else out there trying this 28-day challenge?  How is it going?  We’d love to hear from you!