Sunday, March 6, 2011

Learning the hard way...about detox

So, I wasn't planning to do a detox. I just happen to own a box of detox tea and read "use two tea bags for more of a punch." (That wasn't the exact wording.) I took the bait. It was a weak moment. I'm trying to lose weight for my sister's wedding (and my own well-being) and it seemed like an okay idea.

That was then, this is now.

Ever experience a detox "die-off"? Me neither, until now.

What is a "die-off"? Well, apparently, your liver is overwhelmed by all the bad dead cells that the detox has killed. Some folks say it's a good thing, others say, well, you want to avoid it. After this, I'm in the second camp. Slow is better, I'm thinking. I do not ever want to feel this way because of something self-inflicted.

Wednesday I didn't notice that I felt crappy until I did my first story time. My mouth was dry and I felt like death warmed over. Not that I was going to vomit (I rarely do) but just that I really wanted to lie down for a really lie down. Okay, I left something out. My bowels were an indication.

So after my first story time, I negotiated the rest of the day off, if I did the second story time.

I drove home and crawled into bed. I slept for 3 hours and had lunch at 4 pm.

"Detox die off" became something I regularly Googled for the next couple of days. Yesterday was when I found some help. After my back started hurting Friday (a symptom of die-off is joint pain, and if you Google die off and back pain, you get a bunch of hits) I found some tips that helped.

Drink lots of water. I have not gone the distilled route because I'm not into distilled water.

Take lots of vitamin C. Okay, I'm up with that, but not to the point of diarrhea, which some sites recommend. Um, I feel bad, I don't want to feel worse.

Take baths with Epsom salt. I can do that.

Eat lots of vegetables and no red meat. Okay.

Add to that stuff that you do for a back ache: Thermacare wraps, Tylenol (I am allergic to NSAIDS, which means ibuprofen, aspirin, etc.), sleeping with a pillow between your knees (I'm a side sleeper.)

And lots of sleep.

Today, my back feels a little better (good enough to sit through Les Miserables, after lunch, after driving through city neighborhoods to pick up Lilly, after cleaning SNOW off my car.)

What am I grateful for? Right now?

That I do not live in any of the places that are flooding. As I've been sitting here, writing this, watching CBS Sunday Morning, the TV has beeped and run the emergency ticker tape at the bottom of the screen: FLOOD WARNING.

I'm also grateful that I have a little bit less of the chalk mouth, and that tomorrow I get to see my chiropractor, who will be a little less judgmental of a detox than my regular general practitioner.

Chalk this one up to: lesson learned.

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