Today is the fourth day of my detox. I think I have to recap and say that on day two it was really good. I felt alive, bubbly, full of energy, and the juices were great. I had amazing juices from the Juice Master book and it was fantastic. I had a wonderful day with my son – it was brilliant. I can’t remember what we did, but we did lots of things anyway. And on the third day I found that really difficult: that was quite hard, especially towards the evening, when I cooked a lovely meal for my son – a nice chicken stew – and I love stews and winterish food. So that was hard. We had a really nice day, and I have to say that I haven’t felt this alive in ages – I feel so alive and so light, so full of energy. It’s fantastic. I really love this experience very much. I just really find it amazing that I feel great – I feel alive and full of energy.

Today was really nice as well, but we had to go out to the market to get some fruit at some point in the day, and that made it a bit difficult because I could see the restaurants and jerked chicken and lots of different things – Chinese, all these different outlets that sell food, you know, and for me it’s a big thing. And I miss chewing food and swallowing it, the physical contact of my organs with food and just digesting it and, yeah, everything about orally consuming it. The consumption thing was something, and I just thought it was amazing, because today I only had a huge cup of juice and I had my brewer’s yeast powder mix with warm water and I spent the whole day on that. I didn’t really have anything else – I had water, herb tea, ginger tea: I’m addicted to it anyway.

But the funny thing, the thing I found most amazing, was that I only had my next batch of juice at about seven or eight pm, 8.30 even, and I was OK. You just feel more alert, the less food in your body; but for some reason I feel really nourished, so I was able to do all my tasks, which normally I remember feeling really tired when I eat, sometimes, and really sleepy sometimes. I haven’t been sleeping very differently, and I feel more energised and have more patience to deal with my son and myself, so that’s really good. The only thing I notice is that, now my son is two and a half and it’s really difficult to have time for yourself during the day. I mean, I’m always doing things with him, but the things I really need to do, like plan my time, require concentration. Because I’m potty training him, I don’t have a lot of time to focus on the major things I’d really like to do. But I want to try to do those things tomorrow.

So far it’s been really good. I think I have about seven days ahead of me to complete. Tomorrow’s going to be my fifth day and I think it’s going to be a really challenging one because I’m going to the funeral of one of my really good friends. John Donaldson, wherever you are just know that I love you and I care for you and I’m going to your funeral to say bye bye. I think they’re going to do some kind of a funeral reception thing and it’s going to be at this restaurant that I really like called Na Pura, and I’m not going to eat anything and I’m going to try to just be strong. I’m probably going to try to be there for a bit, but I just really think in my mind I want to get out of there as quickly as possible and not to have anything, just come home. And that’s it: I hope I can survive that and come home. I cancelled some arrangements for dinner tomorrow. I think day six is going to make me feel relief. Day seven is going to make me feel grateful. Day eight is going to make me feel anxious because I want day nine to come, and day ten’s going to make me want day eleven to come, and when day eleven comes…

 

  

Odete

You can call me Odete. I’m a 33-year-old black African female human. I am part of the CatchAfiya Network. I became interested in tools for coping with mental distress. Last year in 2010 I first started working at the BME Women Recovery Research Project which was lead by Jayasree Kalahil for the Mental Health Foundation. During the research project I was working as a researcher interviewer. I was at the lowest point in my depression, so doing that kind of work really inspired me. While working and listening to the stories of the women being interviewed, I felt as if was getting educated about what resources were available which aided their recovery. I hope this blog can inspire us to build a safer environment. I want to create my blogs as a tool of exchange and discussion where everyone is free to contribute on tips about how to use them in mental health recovery and share their experiences in a safe space.

Add a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *