Detox in 7 days

When you simplify your diet for a week, something amazing happens. If you eat only wholesome

foods and give your body a break from refined flour, sugar, and caffeine, your body sheds up to 10 pounds of excess water weight and your energy soars. You improve your digestion, stop feeling bloated and congested, and decrease your risk of disease. Detoxing, as this process is known, can also improve your eating habits. These new habits help you keep the bloat off and lose more weight.

Detox diets are a time-honored practice of limiting yourself to certain foods for a short period of time. Some detox diets are so strict that you only drink juices, but ours involves a more varied diet of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. This practice is healthy and safe for most people, say holistically minded doctors like Elson M. Haas, M.D., director of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin in San Rafael, Calif., and author of The Detox Diet (Celestial Arts, 1996) and The False Fat Diet (Ballantine, 2000). Haas says he's helped more than 10,000 people detox in his 30-year medical practice, and he personally detoxes three times a year.

We asked Haas to create the following seven-day detox plan. It gives you step-by-step instructions on what to do and tells you how to continue to lose weight after the detox is over. Don't follow this plan if you have a chronic disease like cancer or heart disease or are pregnant or nursing. The plan is also not recommended for children or teens.

What to Eat

FOLLOW THIS MEAL PLAN DAILY DURING your detox week. Sit down for each meal and eat slowly, chewing every bite thoroughly. Chewing this way helps you feel full on fewer calories, and taking the time to sit down will keep you from feeling deprived.
To achieve evenly cooked vegetables, add them to the pot according to their approximate steaming times. For example, starchy vegetables like beets, potatoes, and sweet potatoes take about 15 minutes when cut into 1- to 2-inch cubes. Chopped into bite-size pieces, bell peppers, broccoli, leeks, greens like collards, and the stems from chard and collards take about 5 minutes. And spinach, scallions, and the leafy parts of chard take just 1 to 2 minutes.

You can season your vegetables with a teaspoon of the oil and butter mix, olive oil alone, or flaxseed oil, as well as small amounts of raw garlic, salt, garlic salt, vegetable salt, and fresh herbs like basil, mint, or oregano.

For variety, eat raw vegetables like lettuce greens, sliced carrots, and bell peppers, dressed with a teaspoon of olive oil and the juice of half a lemon, at two or three meals this week.

AFTERNOON SNACK: At 3 p.m., reheat 1 to 2 cups of vegetable water left from steaming, season it with a dash of salt, and drink it. Follow with 500 to 1,000 mg of buffered vitamin C.

DINNER: Between 6 and 7 p.m., eat another meal of steamed vegetables. Steam up to 4 cups of raw vegetables, and flavor them with the seasonings suggested for lunch. Save the water from steaming to drink the next morning. The early mealtime gives your body a chance to digest dinner before bedtime so it can concentrate on detoxifying overnight. After dinner, do not eat again until morning. Instead, sip noncaffeinated teas like chamomile (Matricaria recutita) or peppermint (Mentha piperita).

Adopt These Detox Habits
USE A LOOFAH. During your showers or baths this week, gently scrub your skin with a wet loofah, a natural sponge available at drugstores and natural food stores. A loofah aids your detox by stimulating circulation and sloughing off dead cells and other waste that collects on your skin.

TRY A NETI POT. If you feel congested during your detox week, rinse your nose and sinuses with saltwater with the help of a neti pot. This teapotlike device is sold at most natural food stores. Instructions in the box describe how to do it. Use the neti pot up to three times daily.

SIT IN A SAUNA OR STEAM ROOM. If you have access to a sauna or steam room, use it for two 20-minute sessions this week to help your body sweat out waste. If you don't have access to a sauna, stand in a hot, steamy shower for 5 to 10 minutes at least twice this week.

TAKE A BREAK FROM NEWS. To limit toxic thoughts, which can undermine your health, observe a news fast for three to seven days this week. Make an effort to avoid news or other emotionally disturbing information from the Internet, magazines, movies, newspapers, the radio, or television. Use the free time to relax and enjoy self-nurturing activities like listening to music or reading a book.

How to Deal with Symptoms

ALTHOUGH YOU'LL FEEL LESS BLOATED AND more energetic by the end of your detox, it's normal to experience some unpleasant symptoms early in the week--including fatigue, headaches, hunger, irritability, and nausea--as your body sheds waste and withdraws from substances you may be addicted to, like caffeine or sugar. These symptoms are usually worst during the first two days. Here's how to cope.
NAUSEA: Drink peppermint or ginger tea (Zingiber officinale), two stomach soothers. Pour 1 cup of boiling water over 1 tea bag or 1 teaspoon of dried herb. Cover, steep for 10 minutes, strain, and drink up to three cups a day.

How to Lose More Weight

ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF A DETOX DIET IS that it forces you to break your usual routine to try healthier habits. Here's how to build on those good habits, prevent future bloating, and lose more weight.

GO BACK GRADUALLY. Returning immediately to your old diet, as tempting as it may be, can cause you to regain weight. You'll also miss out on the chance to spot foods that cause symptoms like bloating, congestion, or fuzzy thinking, Haas says. Start by adding back one new food each day, beginning with foods that are less likely to cause those reactions, like beans, fish, and grains other than wheat, before you move on to dairy, sugar, and wheat, which are often problematic. After you reintroduce a food, note how you feel 15 to 20 minutes later, three to four hours later, and when you wake up the next day. If a food causes symptoms, consider eliminating it from your diet. Even if it doesn't cause symptoms, you may want to eat less of it because it's likely to contain more calories than fruits and vegetables.

STAY ACQUAINTED WITH VEGGIES. Keep your refrigerator stocked with the vegetables you enjoyed while detoxing, as well as vegetable snacks (like bell pepper strips or grape tomatoes). They have plenty of fiber, few calories, and, unlike processed foods like crackers, won't induce bloating or add pounds.

MAINTAIN PETITE PORTIONS. At every meal, put one-third less food on your plate than usual and chew each bite thoroughly. As you learned from eating your low-calorie detox meals, eating slowly helps you feel satisfied with less.