In phase 2, breakfast tasted like heaven because I was enjoying some different flavors, fragrances, and texture of food. But lunch and dinner was depressing with the replacement meals. The same thing over and over. No variance in flavor. Eating by myself. I did not realize I would miss the smell of food this much.
My Detox Journey with Traditional Korean Medicine: The Beginning
My Detox Journey with Traditional Korean Medicine: Understanding
My Detox Journey with Traditional Korean Medicine: Phase 1
How can I make my meals less depressing?
If I really wanted something other than the replacement meal, I was allowed to munch on some nuts, tomatoes, or cucumbers, and it helped me relieve some of my sadness. And a few days later, I discovered more ways to make my meals less depressing.
One thing that really helped me relieve my lack of food joys was YouTube cooking and mukbang videos. Before this detox, I watched food videos every now and then, but I never binge watched them. And during this detox, I could not stop myself from watching consecutive food videos that automatically showed up on AutoPlay.
When I watched these videos as I was eating the replacement meal, swallowing my boring food became easier. Watching the food made me feel visually satisfied and I was able to fool myself into forgetting that I didn’t actually eat anything nice. Seems like this is a common thing people could do when they’re on a strict diet. Some people call this the mukbang diet?!
Another way that helped was having someone else eat normal food next to me. Because I was able to see and smell the food and I had someone for company, it was much better than not smelling anything and eating by myself.
With the help of these videos and the presence of other people’s foods, I slowly became less depressed about only eating the Korean traditional medicine. Of course, I still felt sad for missing out on all the good food, but I was more determined to commit to this detox. I did not want to disappoint myself after all this effort.
Other Symptoms?
Thankfully, most of the horrid symptoms from the “possible symptoms list” did not show up for my body. Hunger was also not a big problem. The only new symptom that I noticed was that I had these itches on my shoulder that I ended up scratching. I do get random skin irritations every now and then, so I am not sure if this is the effect of the detox.
From tomorrow, I’ll be replacing all three meals! I am not too worried because I always have the option to replace those meals with a healthy meal depending on the social situation or my physical and mental condition.
Canak-Knock! Who's There? 
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