Detox...Phase 2...

Last Thursday I started a detox program that lasts three weeks.  The program in incredibly strict with what kinds of food that could be consumed.  I have to drink this chocolate shake (I am not quite sure what the shake does -- I think it is supposed to rid the body of toxins.  I have to remember to ask at my meeting tonight.) Pretty much I am not allowed to eat anything processed and no caffeine and sugar, dairy, butter, eggs and all that stuff.  Eventually the detox becomes vegan and I can't eat any animal products (which I haven't anyway for a week before the detox).  I have to say I feel no different.  Aside from the fact that I think I might have lost a little bit of weight, I feel no differnent. Although  I have only completed Phase one a day ago and began phase 2 yesterday, I feel the same. 

I would like thoughts on detoxing.  My husband thinks that the body detoxes naturally, and I agree to some extent. I feel like my body was already pretty rid of a lot of toxins since I stopped consuming things like soda, artificial sweetners, meat, and caffeine.  I ran into a woman that is doing the detox with me, and she said it was hard to give up her coffee.  I can see how that would be hard, but I also can't remember what it was like to be addicted to coffee.  My two biggest vices are alcohol (which I tend to drink when I get together with my friends on the weekend) and ciggarettes (which I only smoke when I am drinking alcohol).  I don't know why it was so incredibly easy for me to give up coffee, artificial sweetners, and even meat, but I can't stop drinking on the weekends.  I never considered myself an alcoholic.  In fact, it is not like I drink every single weekend, but I just can't understand why I do it at all really.  Right before I started the detox, it was my birthday and I drank a lot - more than I have in the past month or so (I gave up drinking for the month of January).  I just felt awful the next day.  I need to keep that in my mind when I am drinking.  The feeling of waking up the next day and just feeling so awful.  The not wanting to do anything - working out, laundry, food shopping, reading...etc. 

Don't get me wrong, my friends give me no peer pressure to drink - at 27 that would just be ridiculous.  I actually have one friend who is completely straight edge that made a comment to me last summer.  This comment has stuck with me since.  He said, while I am sitting there drink in one hand, ciggarette dangling from my lips, "You are so incredibly health conscious.  I don't understand how you can sit here and smoke and drink, but eat a black bean burger and salad for dinner and then preach about living a healthy lifestyle."  He was so right! I told him that that summer was going to be a summer of change for me.  That he and I will go through the summer not drinking.  Did I fulfill my promise?  That is a big old nope!  In fact, I think I drank more that summer than I ever have.  I just have to stick to something.  That is my issue.  I started working out last Feb.  I stuck to that until July then I just stopped and didn't pick it back up again until this January.  I just can't seem to stick to anything be it working out, meditation, or drinking in moderation on the weekends and not feeling tempted to smoke.  The night of my birthday I smoked half a pack of ciggarettes and I hadn't had one since December!  I think that until I can get the smoking under control I shouldn't even touch drinking which I know is a trigger for me. 

Bottom line is this:  I want to be healthy - I want to live a long life free of disease and sickness - I have this obession with feeling totally cleansed on the inside and I think that is why I am always striving to find the next best detox diet or what have you.  I have made many strides in my lifestyle.  Hell, I lost 60 pounds about 5 years ago and totally transformed my eating from the Standard American Diet to a healthy vegetarian lifestyle which I know I can keep up for the rest of my life.