Because of my blurb on headshots yesterday, I bypassed writing about my detox experience. Not to worry though, because today was very similar to yesterday.

Being on the run all day is extremely difficult while staying on track for detoxing. This past week I’ve had the fortune of making it home in time for my 3 major meals, but today and yesterday I was out of the house post breakfast. Now, unless you carry a backpack, giant canvas bag or feel like holding an extra lunch bag, I doubt that packing a lunch is very easy. So I opted to pack many small snacks in an attempt to stave off hunger until I had the chance for a late lunch.

Normally, snacks are a perfectly healthy way to manage hunger in-between meals. Popular options include: Larabars, Vega bars, raw nuts, veggie sticks, and fruit. However, outside of the veg and fruit, the others are healthy only in moderation (aka ONE serving per snack). If I’m trying to snack through lunch, one portion of nuts or a Larabar isn’t enough, and vegetables and fruit are not size friendly enough in large amounts (can you imagine 3 apples? a stalk of broccoli?). And so I’m caught between eating more fatty items to stave off hunger, or packing larger items in an attempt to stay healthy. I suppose buying from a local grocery is also an option, but how many of us always have that kind of money?

So what can we do to make this work? My first tip is to eat slowly. It takes a bit of effort. We are so used to being on the go that stuffing our faces has become automatic. Also, somewhere in our bodies we are wired to snatch up food and consume it quickly; it’s a survival instinct. By eating one almond every 5 minutes we are actively fighting that. Drink lots of water. It helps to expand the fibrous nuts and fills you up quicker. Furthermore, hunger/cravings are often stimulated by dehydration. Drinking water will help curb that.

While we are working on eating slowly, space out snacks over every 1-2 hours (longer hours for the more hearty snacks like a Larabar). Let’s look at what I packed today and how I consumed it:

Snack Schedule

Vega bar – eaten three hours after breakfast at 12pm

10 Almonds – ate one every time I felt hungry over the next 2 hours (I only ate 5, the other 5 I gave to my friend)

Raw coconut lemon macaroon – gnawed slowly at around 1pm

Apple – Ate at 2:30pm

With these snacks I was able to last until 5pm without additional food and without lunch. Now, I would suggest getting some greens in the next meal because usually lunch is the time for a large salad.

Now, to list some small sins and potential problems of mine in this last while…

I had my one alcoholic indulgence yesterday. I said I was allowed a maximum of two drinks once a week, but I was hoping to avoid it. I ate out yesterday and it’s really hard to resist good wine at a nice restaurant. But I’ve only had one glass and won’t have another despite my 2 max. My small justification is that a glass of red is good for you.

Today, I had avocado in my salad and also experimented with drinking coconut milk. Now, I know they say coconut’s high saturated medium-chain fats are actually really good for you and your metabolism, but I’m still feeling nervous about that many fats from those two fruits (or nuts) in my body. I guess tomorrow will determine whether I overdid it or not. I have been taught that in detoxing and/or eating vegan/raw, there is an unlearning that I have to undergo regarding the correlation between food and weight loss. A fattier or heavier food may not make you fat; in fact, it may speed weight loss (especially if that detail about coconut milk being a natural laxative is true). Again, we will see.

Dun dun dun…