I started today much like the day before, with the daybreak smoothie. I drank it slightly faster than the day before, and immediately started getting a dull headache. It was nowhere near as bad as the day before though, but I still took it easy that morning. I enjoyed a quiet day at home, watching tv and doing limited chores around the house.
I had some carrots with strawberry vinaigrette dressing, as well as a banana and some grapes throughout the morning. Around 1, I was finally ready for smoothie number 2. I made the "joyful" one again, and it was even worst tasting than yesterday. I tried it with some lemonade this time, which was apparently a really bad idea, despite seeing the suggestion on Kaeng Raeng's website. I didn't quite finish that one, but I got most of it down. I ate small amounts of fruits and veggies the rest of the day, and wasn't really hungry enough for another smoothie, so I didn't make a third one. I mostly just worked on finishing what was left from lunch.
The dull headache lasted most of the day. I was a little apprehensive because I had to drive to get my daughter from her father, but my fiance came up and drove me down. I'm glad he did because I didn't feel 100% comfortable with driving while feeling weak and in pain. Today was definitely a better day then the day before and I felt like I was starting to come through the detox. I still felt weak, though I imagine that was also partially due to a lack of food. I did notice that I was sleeping better and felt less tired in the morning, which is a big deal to an insomniac like me!
By the end of the day I was definitely craving normal food again. I wasn't craving vegetables like some of the blog writers I had read to prepare for this, but I am not a huge vegetable person to begin with, so this did not surprise me. I was happy to know that I only had one more day and I had even decided to modify the day a bit to get through it easier.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Mirena Detox Day 1
On Sunday, I started the detox program. For my first smoothie, I made "Daybreak" which is a mango, peach and pineapple smoothie. I added almond milk, pineapple juice, half a banana and mango chunks. It was pretty good, and I found myself really optimistic about the drinks.
I should state now that I ordered the soy free version of Kaeng Raeng. Because of all the hormonal issues the Mirena caused me, I was afraid soy might make the estrogen dominance I was experiencing worse. I know on Kaeng Raeng's website, they state that the phytoestrogen in soy doesn't effect human estrogen, but it was a risk I wasn't willing to take. This difference likely effected how the smoothies tasted. I've read many blogs by people who received a free trial and enjoyed the smoothies and I imagine these were the soy based smoothies.
After the first drink, I had some stuff I wanted to do around the house, and since it was the first morning I hadn't woken up with a headache in a few days, I wanted to get right down to it. It took me about 2 hours to finish the first smoothie (it was a lot of liquid), and a couple of hours later, I started developing another headache. It was about this time that I was ready for smoothie number 2. I had the "Joyful" smoothie, which has strawberries, raspberries and pineapple. This one was not as good as the first smoothie. I put strawberries, almond milk and pineapple juice. It didn't take as long to drink this one, but it still wasn't as good as the morning smoothie. At this point, the headache really started kicking in. I spent more time resting than I had planned to. About mid-afternoon, the headache was bordering on unbearable and debilitating, I could barely move.
Now for a paragraph just for the ladies, fellas you can skip this bit of TMI. Before I started this detox, I also went off all birth control because I wanted to flush out everything in an effort to get my hormones more stabilized. As a result, my period started almost immediately and it was the heaviest one I've had in a while. So, on top of the headache, I was dealing with all of the fun of being on my period as well. It was not a fun experience, but based on the symptoms, I felt like the detox was working.
By the third drink, I was feeling really awful. I made the "Into the Blue" which was my least favorite of the three flavors. I didn't even finish it all because I just couldn't deal with it anymore. I ate some fruit and veggies to get through the night and drank plenty of water. I tried to save the "Into the Blue" that was left for the morning, but that didn't quite work out.
All in all, the first day was pretty awful. I felt horrible, and was not sure I would make it through the detox. At one point, in an effort to try to detox through other methods, I took a detox bath with a recipe including sea salts, ginger, baking soda and vinegar. It helped while I was in the bath, but as soon as I got out, the headache returned full force. Regardless of how awful I felt, I truly believe the detox was working. I was looking forward to day 2, hoping some of the symptoms would be eliminated.
I'm curious as to whether the soy based smoothie mix would taste better than the soy free one, but not curious enough to try it any time soon.
I should state now that I ordered the soy free version of Kaeng Raeng. Because of all the hormonal issues the Mirena caused me, I was afraid soy might make the estrogen dominance I was experiencing worse. I know on Kaeng Raeng's website, they state that the phytoestrogen in soy doesn't effect human estrogen, but it was a risk I wasn't willing to take. This difference likely effected how the smoothies tasted. I've read many blogs by people who received a free trial and enjoyed the smoothies and I imagine these were the soy based smoothies.
After the first drink, I had some stuff I wanted to do around the house, and since it was the first morning I hadn't woken up with a headache in a few days, I wanted to get right down to it. It took me about 2 hours to finish the first smoothie (it was a lot of liquid), and a couple of hours later, I started developing another headache. It was about this time that I was ready for smoothie number 2. I had the "Joyful" smoothie, which has strawberries, raspberries and pineapple. This one was not as good as the first smoothie. I put strawberries, almond milk and pineapple juice. It didn't take as long to drink this one, but it still wasn't as good as the morning smoothie. At this point, the headache really started kicking in. I spent more time resting than I had planned to. About mid-afternoon, the headache was bordering on unbearable and debilitating, I could barely move.
Now for a paragraph just for the ladies, fellas you can skip this bit of TMI. Before I started this detox, I also went off all birth control because I wanted to flush out everything in an effort to get my hormones more stabilized. As a result, my period started almost immediately and it was the heaviest one I've had in a while. So, on top of the headache, I was dealing with all of the fun of being on my period as well. It was not a fun experience, but based on the symptoms, I felt like the detox was working.
By the third drink, I was feeling really awful. I made the "Into the Blue" which was my least favorite of the three flavors. I didn't even finish it all because I just couldn't deal with it anymore. I ate some fruit and veggies to get through the night and drank plenty of water. I tried to save the "Into the Blue" that was left for the morning, but that didn't quite work out.
All in all, the first day was pretty awful. I felt horrible, and was not sure I would make it through the detox. At one point, in an effort to try to detox through other methods, I took a detox bath with a recipe including sea salts, ginger, baking soda and vinegar. It helped while I was in the bath, but as soon as I got out, the headache returned full force. Regardless of how awful I felt, I truly believe the detox was working. I was looking forward to day 2, hoping some of the symptoms would be eliminated.
I'm curious as to whether the soy based smoothie mix would taste better than the soy free one, but not curious enough to try it any time soon.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Pre-Detox Diet
So, before I started the detox, I looked into whether I needed to do anything before I started. A lot of blogs and such strongly suggested doing an elimination diet before the cleanse. I had my "last meal" on Monday night, a sub from Dominos (yeah, yeah). After that, I stopped eating meat. Then I cut out dairy and bread and soda. On Friday, after cutting out caffeine and bread the day before, I had a bad headache. The headache continued Saturday, but was gone by Sunday morning....until I started the detox.
The hardest thing for me doing the pre-detox diet elimination was finding stuff I could actually eat. I'm not a huge vegetable person, so to suddenly be limited to only raw vegetables, I was at a loss for what to eat other than salad. Friday night, my fiance took pity on me and suggested we go for sushi where I could get vegetarian sushi and thus have a meal already made for me. I probably shouldn't have had the rice, but at that point, I didn't care enough. I knew I would be only eating veggies and fruit on Saturday, the day before the cleanse, and I knew I had cut out a lot of stuff already.
Saturday, my last meal was a salad, though I did "splurge" on some sorbet for dessert, since it was made of just fruit and frozen water.
It's really important to keep up with the water intake during this time because by cutting out all of the foods you normally eat, you're already starting the detox in a way, through withdrawal. And though it was really tempting, I didn't take any medication for the headache because I knew it would just make the detox worse later.
I was very happy when Saturday ended, since I knew I would be able to just drink smoothies the rest of the time, with snacks of fruits and veggies, so I wasn't stressing over what to eat. The smoothies were described as very filling by a a lot of blogs, so I figured I would be better off, meal wise, on Sunday.
The hardest thing for me doing the pre-detox diet elimination was finding stuff I could actually eat. I'm not a huge vegetable person, so to suddenly be limited to only raw vegetables, I was at a loss for what to eat other than salad. Friday night, my fiance took pity on me and suggested we go for sushi where I could get vegetarian sushi and thus have a meal already made for me. I probably shouldn't have had the rice, but at that point, I didn't care enough. I knew I would be only eating veggies and fruit on Saturday, the day before the cleanse, and I knew I had cut out a lot of stuff already.
Saturday, my last meal was a salad, though I did "splurge" on some sorbet for dessert, since it was made of just fruit and frozen water.
It's really important to keep up with the water intake during this time because by cutting out all of the foods you normally eat, you're already starting the detox in a way, through withdrawal. And though it was really tempting, I didn't take any medication for the headache because I knew it would just make the detox worse later.
I was very happy when Saturday ended, since I knew I would be able to just drink smoothies the rest of the time, with snacks of fruits and veggies, so I wasn't stressing over what to eat. The smoothies were described as very filling by a a lot of blogs, so I figured I would be better off, meal wise, on Sunday.
Mirena Detox
A lot has happened since my last post, but I'm not going to focus on that right now since a lot of the problems I've been having all seem to come back to the same culprit: the Mirena IUD.
I had this horrible contraption placed in November of 2012, on election day actually. For a year, I had significant weight gain that made no sense as my eating habits had not changed. I was tired all the time, and my efforts to quit caffeine were thwarted as a result. I also had periods of severe pain and PMS even though I stopped having a period. It was awful. I finally looked up my symptoms in comparison with the Mirena and found a plethora of blogs and comments about women who were experiencing symptoms just like mine (or worse).
I gave the Mirena one last shot when I did the couch to 5K, but even that wouldn't allow me to lose weight. At best, it just stopped me from gaining. So, I decided to get it out in December. That's when I experienced the "Mirena Crash." I was in physical pain for days, and emotionally a wreck for much longer. I hoped by going back on the pill, I would be able to avoid it, but that didn't happen. I started reading blogs and comments by women who had also experienced the Mirena crash, and I started researching ways to deal with it. In the end, I decided to do a detox and go off birth control for at least a month to let my hormones stabilize.
I chose the Kaeng Raeng detox, 3 day beginner. I decided to do it over a 3 day weekend and this past weekend was MLK's birthday weekend. I started on Sunday since the kit didn't arrive until Saturday and I'm in day 3 today. I'm going to write separate entries for each day of the cleanse, as well as the pre and post cleanse diet and experience. I feel like it's done me a lot of good, and I'm hoping this will help regulate my hormones from the havoc Mirena wreaked on my body, as well as aid me in the beginning of a weight loss program.
I didn't see any blogs from anyone who tried this cleanse as a result of the Mirena, so I'm hoping this will help fellow Mirena sufferers with their issues.
I had this horrible contraption placed in November of 2012, on election day actually. For a year, I had significant weight gain that made no sense as my eating habits had not changed. I was tired all the time, and my efforts to quit caffeine were thwarted as a result. I also had periods of severe pain and PMS even though I stopped having a period. It was awful. I finally looked up my symptoms in comparison with the Mirena and found a plethora of blogs and comments about women who were experiencing symptoms just like mine (or worse).
I gave the Mirena one last shot when I did the couch to 5K, but even that wouldn't allow me to lose weight. At best, it just stopped me from gaining. So, I decided to get it out in December. That's when I experienced the "Mirena Crash." I was in physical pain for days, and emotionally a wreck for much longer. I hoped by going back on the pill, I would be able to avoid it, but that didn't happen. I started reading blogs and comments by women who had also experienced the Mirena crash, and I started researching ways to deal with it. In the end, I decided to do a detox and go off birth control for at least a month to let my hormones stabilize.
I chose the Kaeng Raeng detox, 3 day beginner. I decided to do it over a 3 day weekend and this past weekend was MLK's birthday weekend. I started on Sunday since the kit didn't arrive until Saturday and I'm in day 3 today. I'm going to write separate entries for each day of the cleanse, as well as the pre and post cleanse diet and experience. I feel like it's done me a lot of good, and I'm hoping this will help regulate my hormones from the havoc Mirena wreaked on my body, as well as aid me in the beginning of a weight loss program.
I didn't see any blogs from anyone who tried this cleanse as a result of the Mirena, so I'm hoping this will help fellow Mirena sufferers with their issues.
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