In Phase 1, which lasted for five days, I ate some fruits and warm water for breakfast, ate the school lunch while trying to focus on eating more fruits and vegetables and less rice and meat, and had the replacement meal for dinner.
This was convenient for me because I did not have to explain to my coworkers about the semi-long story of why I started the detox and how I was going to do it.
My Detox Journey with Traditional Korean Medicine: The Beginning
My Detox Journey with Traditional Korean Medicine: Understanding
The Flavors
The ingredients in my nutritional shake (the replacement meal).
From my past experiences of traditional Korean medicine with bitter and strong flavors, I was afraid that I would have to suffer the same horrible taste for 25 days.
To my surprise, everything in the replacement meal did not taste bad….! But it was also not great. It was mostly bland.
The tea tasted like barley tea, so it was easy to drink hot or cold. The tea was probably the best part of the replacement meal. The shake was more like non-sweet pancake mix dough. It did not taste bad, BUT I quickly became bored of the same taste, and it felt worse when it got colder in the last few gulps. It was much better for me to drink it warm and finish it as quickly as possible.
Phase 1 was bearable because I did not feel much hunger after eating the replacement meal, and I still had something to look forward to for breakfast and lunch. But I wonder how I can stand this taste-bud boredom for days when I replace all 3 meals. Will it help if I can smell the food of someone eating next to me?
Symptoms
Thankfully many of the symptoms on the list did not show up. The first symptoms that I noticed was darker colored urine and a gassy stomach. After I ate my first replacement dinner, I felt pressure in my intestines, but it was not painful, and this feeling continued until the third day.
More Free Time
I realized that by having my dinner replaced, I had more free time in the evenings. I did not have to spend time traveling to eat at restaurants, shopping for groceries, thinking about what to make, cooking the food, eating the food, and cleaning the dishes. This gave me time to catch up on updating blogs, cleaning the room, and spending more time playing my Nintendo switch games.
But this also meant that I was missing out on all the joys related to eating. I needed to be creative with finding distractions and fun ways to pass time without food.
Canak-Knock! Who's There? 