eat; detox

mama-knows.com

This week, I began my first ever detoxing program. I fell into it by accident as I subscribe to The Raw Divas website and stumbled across their free 7 day detox program and thought 'why the hell not!' Kind of silly really as I didn't think about my sister coming to town and my mum cooking up an Italian storm everyday for her and so temptation was going to be doubled, even tripled some days! But as I write, I am at the end of day 5 and yes, I will confess to having cheated 3 times. But is cheating really that much of a big deal when detoxing or is it our thought about cheating that is the real issue? Detoxing is an amazing experience even if you do find that you have 'cheated' during the program.

The 7 Day Detox by The Raw Divas entailed mono fruit meals, green smoothies and salads. No nuts, avocado, oils or salt were allowed. The lack of oil and salt has almost killed me and my bowels are still saying WTF?! During my first few days, I experienced the headaches everyone talks about when detoxing and also pain in my hips, which was really strange. Late last year, I did have uterus issues and saw this pain in my hips as part of a healing process my body had finally been given the chance to attend to. Detoxing hurts because your body is finally getting a rest from digesting all the food you consume in a day, all day everyday, and so has a chance to work on healing the other parts of your body that need attending to.

But my reason for undertaking the detox was more than just to loose weight, clean out the plumbing or heal a past wound. I wanted to detox mainly to give up smoking. Gasp! I know! The woman who writes about good healthy eating and LOVES it, is a smoker.

Smoking has been something that I have enjoyed for many years. It has been the thing I look forward to as I take breaks from long days of writing, waiting for my train to arrive, smoking with my girlfriends over a few bottles of bubbly or simply smoking with my morning coffee in my P.J's waking up to the day. Yep, that was me!

A few months ago was when I first started talking about the idea of quitting. I am one of those smokers that has NEVER said I needed or wanted to quit. I was a smoker and a proud one at that! My friends in Australia told me they hardly smoked while I was gone but have now bought ciggies with the news I arrived on Australian soil. Smoking became part of my personality, my signifier to the world that I may be all of this, but I'm still a bad arse underneath it all.

So the detox seemed like a good excuse to quit smoking. Days 1 and 2 I did have a ciggie a day, but today, day 5, I have been without a ciggie for 3 days. I have found it alot easier than I had anticipated and I know it is becuase of the detox program. I have replaced the attention I would normally put onto the fact that I was not smoking onto food that I was allowed to eat and so in a sense, I have forgotten I smoke. Sounds kind of strange doesn't it? It's all in the mind.

I have discovered the power of the mind. Yes, we have all heard this 'the power of your mind will amaze you!' But how many of us have actually experienced it? I did this week. I discovered how I can choose to listen or not to listen to whatever thought floated passed me. Apparently we have 3 hundred billion, trillion something thousand thoughts a day, and a high percentage of those thoughts you thought yesterday! So in other words, we are constantly reaffirming our thoughts which turn into our beliefs because we keep thinking the same thoughts everyday!

So with this in mind, every time I feel like a cigarette, I feel that desire and then allow the next thought to move in and distract the thought of wanting a cigarette. It is a thought afterall, which means my addiction to cigarettes is not real but simply a floating thought too. This way of thinking has made not smoking a lot easier for me as I have been able to rationalize what it is that I am feeling and in turn justify why I shouldn't fall for that thought. 

Every negative thought I am having about myself comes under the same sort of process as the thought of wanting a cigarette. It is working for me and I thank detoxing for discovering what I am capable of doing with my mind. This process works really well when you are tempted to give in to a 'craving' thought about food, or if you are bashing yourself up over your weight, your hair, your life or your work.

Having said all that, I accept that I will always be a smoker and always want to smoke. I will never promise myself that I will not smoke again, but I will promise myself that I will consider the thought in any given moment when I do feel like a cigarette and I will wait for the next thought to take over before I act on the desire to smoke.

Give detoxing a go if you are ready to change your thinking and be conscious to the fact that most of your thoughts are simply rehashed from yesterday, and the day before that, and the month before that, and the year before that. What you say to yourself during your detox is the same things you've been telling yourself your whole life. Is it not worth considering a new way of thinking when you are detoxing? Just as you are releasing toxins from your body, so too you are releasing toxins from your thinking. It really is a mind and body overhaul that I would recommend to anyone who wants to change their way of thinking.