So after coming back from a holiday and eating not so terribly, I decided to get back on track with my fitness goals by doing a Fit girl detox. As many of you might not know, I suffer from Hashimoto’s disease – an auto immune hypothyroid condition where my body attacks my thyroid gland, preventing it from functioning normally and slowing down my metabolism. The short of it: It takes a longer time for me to lose weight than most people.
This means that I need to stay away from processed food, gluten and soy products as well as some cruciferous vegetables like kale, broccoli and the like in order to help me lose weight. The day I got to know that thanks to Joe’s Diet vs Disease, I was really upset. I no longer can partake actively in delicious cake or even eat bread as often!
Which really sucks, because I’m a big yes person to everything food related. For a food blogger especially, this is hard news to take.
Why do a Fit Girl Detox?
So why a fit girl detox, you ask?
I find that a detox usually helps me get back on track with my fitness goals. In the beginning, I used to do the juice fast/fresh fruits and vegetables only thing- and it’s proven effective, but very easy to put on the weight back afterwards. Also, I’ve often had blackouts and am unbelievably cranky.
I’ve been hearing a lot about Fit Girl’s Guides through Insta and the like, but wanted to try it for myself. I downloaded four of their guides which involve: a cookbook, 7-day detox, a 28 jumpstart fitness guide and the Fitkini guide. The whole thing costs about AED 270 with their discount code.
Fit Girls are a huge worldwide community of women who use social media to track their fitness and share stories. Which is totally my ballgame. It focuses on a change in lifestyle, diet and creating a body positive attitude which I really like. (YAY GIRL POWER!) You can follow their Instagram here to get an idea of what I’m talking about.
On the 27th of this month, they’re having a worldwide #28DayJumpstart challenge which I intend to join. You can use their Jumpstart guide whenever; however it’s just more fun when you know you have the company to motivate and inspire you.
Now, what I tried was their 7 Day Detox. By far, it was one of the easiest I’ve ever done. What you see below will NOT be a diet, just a review and what I did to make it gluten free. I can’t put in all of the details as it is the proprietary info of Fit Girl.
Here goes!
DAY 1 & 2
Breakfast
What I had for breakfast was a green smoothie. Now green smoothies usually involve baby spinach along with a fruit or two. Since I wanted to cut down on dairy, I opted for almond milk for the extra protein with Greek yoghurt. As a sweetener, you can use honey or agave.
Lunch
Ok, I think this was one of my favourite meals ever! It’s called an ‘Undressed Sushi’. This dish has the most DIVINE ginger-soy dressing. As I’m supposed to avoid soy products, I reduced the quantity of soy and removed salt from the recipe. For Day 1, I stuck to the original recipe, but for day 2, I substituted shrimp for tuna and it tasted just as good! Take a look down here!
Yuuuuum.
Snack
I skipped the AM snack as quite honestly I don’t feel that hungry in the mornings. I did indulge in the evening snack though, without the prescribed almond butter. (I know what you’re thinking. Chocolate? On a detox?? Turns out 80% and up dark chocolate has minimal sugar and is A-OK.)
Dinner
This was the challenge for me gluten-wise, mainly because it involved spaghetti. So I did the vegan hipster thing and made the whole thing out of zoodles. Gluten-free win!
DAYS 3 & 4
Breakfast
Another green smoothie. What I like about these is that they keep you quite full until lunch.
AM snack
Ok, these apple banana oat cookies that I made were divine! I had to source gluten-free oats for this from a site called Down to Earth Organic. For orders above AED 100, they deliver for free to your doorstep. It’s cash on delivery. One thing I gotta say: if you want to commit to being gluten-free in Dubai, be prepared to spend a lot of money or make it yourselves. Sad but true, folks.
Lunch
Instead of rice paper wraps, I just added lettuce to this steak paper wrap rendition and made lettuce wraps. Because I was just getting sick of all that rice!
PM Snack
CHOCOLATE+BERRIES=HAPPINESS.
Dinner
Ok, this was not my most favourite of the dinners with the detox, mainly because I don’t like chickpeas very much. I think the next time I do it, I’ll make a hummous. The recipe also involves kale, which is a cruciferous veggie I can’t have. I ended up substituting kale for spinach. I swear I’ve never eaten so much spinach in a week!!
At the end of the 3rd day, the no gluten thing was getting to me. But I powered through!
DAYS 5, 6 & 7
Breakfast
At this point, I was getting a little sick of green smoothies, but this one called ‘Green is the New Orange’ ended up as my favourite of the lot.
Lunch
This Burrito Bowl was really delicious! It goes best with grilled chicken. Mmm.
PM Snack
Because I’m a chocolate addict, I made chocolate chia cups with Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder and no other means of sugar. Delicious! Chia is reallyy expensive, but a worthwhile investment.
Dinner
I made this stir fry gluten-free by substituting pasta for rice. Another day I used buckwheat pasta. Unfortunately, I later found out that the buckwheat pasta had semolina ( a no-no for Hashimoto’s disease sufferers). 🙁 Boo. I’m still on the lookout for alternatives like quinoa pasta or something. Any ideas? Let me know in the comments below. On the last day as I was out, I ordered from a place that does stir-fry and customised my meal accordingly sans cabbage. (Another no-no for Hashimoto’s sufferers).
Dessert
This dessert involved a fit version of gelato that was delicious! I made a vegan gelato with organic peanut butter which was very tasty.
And now I’m on the other side, feeling pretty awesome and great! All week, I had the energy to exercise for 2 hours every alternate day. During this diet, I occasionally sipped on green tea. This is allowed. Here are the 3 pros and cons of my detox:
PROS:
1) Easy to make recipes in advance.
2) No ‘just juice’ or just fruits and veggies.
3) Easy to make gluten-free.
CONS:
1) A lot of meal prep involved. (No pain, no gain though guys)
2) If you eat everything, the diet is 1,400 calories which I think is a lot if you want to lose weight. I eliminated desserts on all days except one and skipped most AM snacks to cut calories and my sugar intake.
3) I didn’t enjoy the breakfast skillet. Besides this, as a person who likes variety and her food fresh, eating the same things 3 days in a row were a pain. (Even though I switched things up!)
THE VERDICT:
I haven’t checked my weight as yet, but I do feel pretty energetic without all the gluten weighing me down. I approve 😀
DISCLAIMER: Please note that this is NOT a strictly gluten-free detox. I’ve tried to eliminate gluten the best as I could. Please seek advice from a doctor before you embark on this diet.
Hey Anisha you can try gluten free Corn pasta, tastes just as good.
Sorry, Aneesha*
Oooh that’s an interesting option! I’ll keep a look out for it, haven’t seen it around here in Dubai.