The detox diaries

Read about Julie's motivation -- and what she's getting herself into in part one of 21 days to health: the detox diet explained.

Week 1
Not a good start. A quick scan of my crammed cupboards reveals that, as of today, I have nothing to eat but Joshi-approved green tea and an egg. The diet insists on breakfast, but it's got to be gluten-, wheat-, dairy-, sugar-, caffeine- and yeast-free, ruling out regular bread, coffee, black tea, milk, cereal and fruit. Wheat and dairy encourage the presence of mucus in the gut, while sugar and yeast make you bloated and lethargic. I boil an egg (a maximum of four per week) and head for the health food shop.

There, I find a Joshi-endorsed nirvana. I load my cart with yeast-free spelt grain bread, soy milk, canola oil margarine, pumpkin seed butter to replace peanut butter, plain bio-yogurt (contains healthy bacteria to aid digestion), tofu and gluten-free granola (turns alkaline in the body). I can have one or two teaspoons of honey daily and small amounts of goat's or sheep's milk cheese, too.

A quick rummage in the freezer section reveals wheatgrass juice. One ounce has 30 enzymes, 70 per cent crude chlorophyll and is the nutritional equivalent of 2.2 pounds of fresh vegetables. I try it -- yup, it tastes like grass all right -- but Ann Wigmore, in her groundbreaking The Wheatgrass Book (Avery, 2002, $14.99), says the chlorophyll can protect us from carcinogens like no other food or medicine can.

I'm convinced. At the supermarket, I grab mountains of green, leafy vegetables, plus massive bags of carrots, celery and beets for my new juicer. Everything should be from a farmer's market or organic -- if vegetables are picked unripened, says Joshi, they retain little nutritive value. I steer away from mushrooms and the nightshade family of vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumber, potatoes and eggplant), which form acid once metabolized. I add a few lemons, too; Joshi recommends starting the day with a kidney flush of warm water and a slice of lemon. Although acid, the benefits of a lemon's astringency outweigh the acid effect.

Worst moments
To be fair, he did warn me I'd feel awful for a few days. I wish I had put money on it. My three-day headache due to caffeine withdrawal and the release of liver toxins lasts only slightly longer than the bone-deep fatigue. I'm cranky -- substituting chicory for coffee is just wrong -- and, according to my seven-year-old, I smell funny. I can believe it. Toxins exit through the bowel and the skin. I try Joshi's fast-track weekly liver detox cocktail for breakfast in the vague hope I'll feel better. I juice 300 millilitres of grapefruit and lemon juice, 200 millilitres of water, the juices of two garlic cloves and a small piece of fresh ginger, then add 25 millilitres of extra-virgin olive oil to make sure it's absorbed by the liver. I cringe but sip it as instructed until the last ounce, when everything in me rebels. I recall Joshi's calm, sensible voice: "You won't feel tired after awhile. You'll have less artificial food and sugar, so your blood sugar will drop slightly, but your body is detoxing, then it will catch up."

Best moments
On Day 4, I wake up without a headache, and I feel a bit kittenish. Is it working? To my delight, my digestive system is no longer sluggish. Joshi had suggested a multipurpose enzyme to aid digestion, along with the herbal laxative senna, a good multivitamin and calcium. Better yet, my sad worship of Tim Hortons and sour cream doughnuts has come to an end.