Last week I thought of going on a “detox” diet (a short term diet focused on removing toxins from your body) out of a suggestion from a friend and a book given by him. I had no clue what it meant to be on a detox diet but the thought sounded quite simple – eating fruits and veggies all day for seven days with lots of water. I figured it couldn’t be that hard given that I am not a meat eater anyway.
Later that week my friend and I decided to go on the detox for seven straight days followed by a one-day starvation day. We ate the best of meals the week before, to ensure we don’t miss good food too much the following week - all this to recover from a really bad stomach that my friend suffered earlier that month.
I had no clue what I was jumping into till I actually did. As one of my life principles go, to not pursue things half-heartedly, I knew if I decided to do it I would follow through it till the end without compromise.
The weekend before the starvation week, I read the book that had details on how to follow the diet. The idea started to scare me a little. The thought of no fries for lunch, no coffee, no bread, rice or milk, no butter, cheese or chocolate, no gelato (and the list goes on) – or in short the idea of no comfort food started to freak me out a little. Moreover the idea of no coffee sounded like something that wouldn’t fit into my routine given that I used to be a coffee addict till a while ago. Though I had considerably cut down my coffee intake, it hadn’t gone down to zero. The medley of all these thoughts started to overwhelm me a little. Nevertheless, I thought I’d try anyway!
The first two days were a nightmare. Really!
I wonder if a non-vegetarian person would ever understand why is it so difficult for a vegetarian to eat only veggies all day to fill in your hunger pangs! How hard can it be for a vegetarian to eat vegetables?! You meat-eaters please your taste buds by eating meat and so eating only veggies might turn out to be a novelty at such times. We vegetarians please our taste buds with some sugar or vegetarian processed food or food which is full of carbohydrates. That’s what keeps us going! You might ask who forces you to be a vegetarian – but no! Look at it as if it is almost a compulsion for us to not eat meat- for whatever reasons, religious or something that your mind doesn’t allow!
So the first two days, I was down with severe headaches and restlessness topped with some irritation. A perfect mix to screw up one’s day! Less productivity at work and horrid temptations seeing the donuts outside my office! 48 hours straight headaches even while I was asleep, I was almost tempted to say “screw this diet!”
But I resisted! And the third day was a breeze. My headaches were gone and I survived.
Though, what came out of the whole thing was the realization that we tend do get so dependent on stuff that we don’t really need. Things that we think we can’t survive without, we perfectly do with a little bit of aggression in the beginning but flawlessly comfortable later on. It is such a reviving experience! And now I can say that I will never need coffee moving on. I can also dare to say I can live without anything by myself.
Our body and mind are way too flexible and we don’t even realize it. They work WITH you in whatever you decide. So if you do decide to love your body and mind, they’ll cooperate completely with a little push back initially, as we all do when we come across any kind of change!
How such experiences mold our thoughts and teach us lessons that we don’t otherwise learn is just so fascinating. And then finally as every lesson applies to life itself so did this. What we really think we’re addicted or habituated to is a myth and the makeup of the mind.
Throw away your addictions! Whatever they are – food, work, smoking, alcohol or a person! You will eventually live happily without anything and anybody! Resist and live the pain and trouble, push back on your invitations and enticements, acknowledge the aches and harassments that come with it and while doing all this have faith in your stunts and you’ll zip it through the air!
And if you’re one of those who don’t really learn lessons without actually living them – then Go Detox!! ;-)
