Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox: Adam detoxifies

After a weekend trip to Vancouver I was chatting with Jason, my roomate, and warned him about impending unpredictability due to my intentions of quitting tobacco, and he shared his successful strategy: the Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox program.

Not really intended as a 'quit smoking' scheme, the primary purpose of the Wild Rose program is to "support the body's systems of elimination," thereby removing accumulated toxicities in the liver, colon, kidneys and lymphatic glands.

It involves taking herbal supplements, laxatives, and following a strict but manageable meal plan: no flour products, no sugar, no dairy, no tropical fruits or fruit juices, and no alcohol or other stimulants for 12 days.

And so we shared a bottle of wine that night and nearly finished an entire block of aged cheddar cheese. The next morning we went out and bought the kits, and as I write this we are at day 3 of 12 - so far so good.

I did a little bit of online research and apparently some people get a bit sick on this program, but other than rather frequent visits to the washroom I seem to be doing fine... so far!

It's an interesting challenge as your diet really influences many other parts of your life - your social activities, pasttimes, etc. From refusing offers of lifesavers to catching myself as I'm about to pour milk into my coffee to bringing my own popcorn to the movies...

I'm already trying new foods, and expect to learn a lot by the time these 12 days are up. Stay tuned for more updates as the program unfolds.